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Happy To Welcome You To The Hallelujah Chorus

I will exalt you my God, the King, I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you and exalt your name forever and ever. Psalm 145:1-2

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Chronicles of Amazing Mema! #6

Amazing Mema has always been an avid lover of music - all kinds of music. She was always singing and dancing around. She has told me many times that when she was a young girl her uncles would give her a nickel to sing and dance for them and she was always happy to oblige. On June 14, 1994 she wrote this in her journal -

"There are optimistic feelings in great music, melodies that lend full bodied sound of hope and enjoyment. They seem to give an irresistible feeling of inspiration to positive thoughts, defiant hope and a warm sense of well-being. The world can't be too bad with such richness and talent in it. The most incredible thing to me is all music comes from one scale, DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI-DO. Our family likes to sing together."

On Thanksgiving Day in 1996 she wrote these words -

"Many exciting events have come our way and the family in our house have enjoyed every kind of music. Singing as a family has been a large tradition for us all. In the 70's Harold bought me a huge piano that I never learned to play, just couldn't seem to learn the rudiments of it all. I only sing by ear and one of my cousins, a music professor at Murray State, told me once that is the best kind. So, now I own a harmonica that was my Mom's, a dulcimer that was made by one of my friends and an old guitar I bought from a lady in Marshall County. This guitar was played by her from early childhood and she is now 85 years old.
It takes me back to my early years when Jimmy Rodgers was a big recording artist. I was 8 years old in 1927 when I first heard his recordings on the radio. He went to Washington DC and played with the Carter family. His records exploded the city. He was a yodler and made 13 of those kinds of records. People everywhere knew his music and he only knew three cords, just like me.
I remember in 1933 he collapsed during a recording session and at age 35 the "TB Blues" took him away. My old guitar is a LYRA and I'm sure it dates back to the days of Jimmy Rodgers, which I do remember well because we played his records on our phonograph in the 20's and 30's. What wonderful memories."

Since Mom lived many years on Elizabeth St in Paducah and they were only a few blocks away from the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, they were able to see and hear the old paddle wheelers that were constantly coming and going within easy walking distance of their home. On March 13, 1990 she wrote -

"In Paducah, Ky at the foot of Broadway our family always rushed to see the showboats and sat on the bank of the Ohio river to listen to the steam caliope. The rivers were an exciting place to be in the 1920's. We could hear the Keyboard Whistler from our home and couldn't wait to get down to Broadway to see the big boat and listen to the music machine."

Now at age 91+, she is still singing sometimes, but not so much in the last year or two. She was always an entertainer, the life of every party, and I see that same trait in her granddaughters and great-granddaughters. Music is still an integral part of our family thanks to my Dad, who all the kids only knew as 'Frosty', and Amazing Mema. They created a family heritage that will be duplicated for many generations to come.

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