Beatrice was always singing and dancing around the kitchen. She liked to imitate Betty Hutton. I was eight_years old and I was walking through the kitchen when all of a sudden a big ole foot landed on top of my head. She was as surprised as I was.
Mother would have a song or poem for every occasion, idea, or word spoken. She was amazing. She taught us to sing. Cleo and I spent many, many, many hours at the sink washing and drying dishes. Cleo liked classical music. There was a program on the radio with that kind of music. I would get so mad at her for having to listen to it. She was always singing. If she sang a song I liked, I would sing with her. If I didn’t like it or if I was mad at her, I would sing off-key just to aggravate her. I discovered that I could make my singing off-key sound pretty, and I tried harder to make it sound good. That was how we began singing in harmony. Cleo sang soprano. I sang alto and when Naomi got older, she sang alto and I sang tenor. We sounded pretty good together. The Johnnie Boys were a country music group that played for our 4-H dances. They also had a radio show every morning on KWOS. We sang with them at one of our 4-H dances, and they invited us to sing with them on the radio. Mother and Daddy took us to Jeff City to the KWOS studios. It was fun.
When we were living at home we were always singing. Even the boys sang. In the evening after supper and the dishes were done, we would play games and song songs or tell stories. Vernon was the one I remember telling stories, Felix would tell stories when he was home, and when he left it was Mahlons turn to tell stories. The stories were usually about their coon hunting days in Labradore, Newfoundland. There was a trusty dog(who’s name I don’t remember)… When Beatrice went to confirmation classes at honey Creek for 2 years. she learned a lot of nice church music and she learned to sing harmony. The first song she taught me to sing in 2 part harmony was Silent Night and the second was Holy Ghost With Light Devine. Then there was the radio and all the beautiful songs we learn from there.
The first song I learned to sing harmony (alto) with was “Long, Long Ago”. We learned/sang it at school, and I tried the harmony at home washing dishes after supper with Cleo and Lolly. They said I did a good job and from there on I loved singing alto with everything. It would have been a very trying existence without our singing to take our minds off tasks we did not enjoy doing. I remember how we sang when we hoed corn and did garden work.
I remember singing in the tobacco field. like when we went down the rows topping the tobacco or suckering it. How did Lloyd get out of singing with us? or did he and I just don’t remember.
That’s a good question. Okay Lloyd Sr., why didn’t you ever sing with us?
Because it would get in the way of his hitting you in the head with a hammer?
He was only about 2 or 3 when he did that. Later on, he could have been singing with us. He was probably busy thinking about how he would build Mom a new house someday.
I don’t recall when Lloyd started doing regular choirs aroung home. I do remember when he was building houses for mother. The next thing I remember about him was when Father got the tractor. The weeds in the bull pen were very high. Father had Lloyd run in front of him when He was mowing, and pick up the big rocks that needed to be mover out of the way.I was so afraid that kid was going to get his legs mowed off. It was awful. Mother said that wouldn’t happen. but I think she was worried to.The song, You are my sunshine was a song we sang probably more then any other. I wonder when it was written. I wonder if it was one of the popular new songs ooooof the day or if it was one of those songs our older brothers and sisters learned when they went to school at Osage city when we lived at Schuberts. They learn a lot of nice song that we sang all our lives.
I ment chores. sorry people
I love this conversation. Grandma Margie always sings harmony on You Are My Sunshine. What were some of your other favorite songs to harmonize to? I have some music therapy patients who love to do that also.
Song was first recorded in 1939.
Lloyd says you sang in harmony and you were good and he couldn’t sing in harmony.
I think it was Governor of Louisana, Jimmy Davis who wrote You are my Sunshine. He wrote it for his campaign he was running. It seemed to me that Lloyd was with Daddy from the time he got well from his foot accident. He was always running out to the barn yard to open gates for Daddy, and what ever else. I remember Cleo having a fit and crying because she was afraid Lloyd was going to get his legs cut off in the mower. He couldn’t have been very old. He was 9 years old when we got the tractor. so I’ll bet it was being pulled by the horses. When Mahlon left for the service. Lloyd took his place throwing down silage, and hay, and giving the cows grain ever morning and night. I was about 12 when he left for the service. so that would have made Lloyd 7 years old. That little boy worked so hard, and I never ever heard him complain about it. A fine little man he was, and is.