1943 Mom screamed for two days.
But, hey it was worth it.
I arrived!
Strange, I don't seem to remember this day at all?
This event happened in Coleman Hospital in the fair city of Travelers Rest SC. The scream was heard across three counties.
Chuck was here. It was January 26 1943 during the big war WII.
Vera was living with Mrs Adams, Jerry Adams mother, what was her name? Jerry and his sister went to Taylors High School with Chuck. We lived in the rockhouse on Piedmont Park Road, the Wampo place now with the pond and way too many canadian geese. Gary Wampo and his mother live there now Gary goes to Mountain Creek Baptist Church.
1944 - 1 Year old. I was just as cute as a bug.
1945 - 2 Years old. I saw Beauford coming down the dirt drive way fence on the left weeds in the fields both sides of the road he was using a cane. Back from the war. Missing lower part of his left leg. This was at the Parham place next to Mountain Creek Baptist Church. The place is still there I think. it was a renter house way down the hill from the road close to the tree line. This the house where in I first saw a scorpion. It was as big as a bore hog and had a worse disposition. I was caught eating raw fat-back meat by Ma.
1946 - 3 Years old. I remember the Mailman delivering a set of Britannica Juniors to our house up on some street at Marietta. I went with Ma down to the road, had to jump the ditch to get to the mail/truck/car and i being a manly-man took way too many of the books and fell into the ditch. a good days work.
Over the yeas i made good use of the books as mountains for a wind up bulldozer i got at Christmas. i would let that sucker climb the mountain of knowledge.
That house at Marietta. I remember large trees in the yard. Many roots to play among, building roads from the hollows between the roots which were filled with sand. Seems we may have had a red-bone hound dog. The house is still there. i should try to capture it off google...
1947 - 4 Years old.
1948, 5 year old , three years after the war, Dad may have been going to Bouleva watch making school. It was located down close to the old train depot, at least i think that was where it was. Things get misty over time. I remember a large red brick building, similar to Greenville high school where it was located. Big open room a lot of veterans learning the trade. Having dad explain how an analog device they had could tell you whether a watch was running slow and how to adjust the escape mechanism to fix it. Did you know you could put 50,000 of the screws that were in a ladies Bouleva watch's balance wheel in a thimble? They were tiny. Dad gave me a challenge when I was in high school, to remove a broken balance wheel from a ladies Bouleva watch, the end of the shaft was bent over or broken off. I was to remove the wheel from the shaft, make a new shaft from scratch, remount the wheel on the shaft, and reinstall the it back into the watch. I did it. Watch ran OK!
1949 Started grade school at ??? on White Horse Road, went there a short time, brick building, dusty school yard, swings, class room, black board learning to spell "tion" words, teacher sasid to pronounce as "tion" as "shun" then I spelled words with "shun" for years. The brain is a dangerous thing.
My Dad worked at Dunean Mill and later at Union Bleachery. We lived on Piedmont Highway next to Dewey Turbeville's gas station down by the creek across from Martha Lue Irvings Dad's place, Irving's Used Cars. We would go to the baseball games at Henry Field and at Meadowbrook Park. I especially remember having chili hotdogs and Tom's Big Orange drinks. Tommy LaSorda was with the Greenville Spinners in 1949 so I may have seen him play. He did make a play for and married a Greenville girl, Joan Miller.
1950
1961 First job out of High School. They sent me to a Steel-Drafting school in Greensboro NC for three or four months before I actually started to work. I landed this juicy position because I was linked into a Mechanical Drafting Teacher at Wade Hampton High School, who had mentioned the position in the months prior to my graduation in May. My father died that July and I became head of the household and needed gainful employment. I did not even have my drivers license yet.I remembered that my old friend Bobby Johnson's' father worked at Greenville Steel (as treasure). I contacted Billy Woods, friend of Bobby Johnson, who gave me Mr. Johnson's' phone number and I interviewed with the Chief Draftsman Charles Garrett and was hired.
The Vaugh-Tate Trio
Ah, the old Garage Band. The Vaughn -Tate Trio.
I bought my first guitar from Donald Coleman for 50 cents.
My cousin. Crawford, taught me three cords, and I thought I could play anything.
A guy, Jack Goodson, Who was higher up in the Miss Greer Pageant at Greer SC, worked with me. He had heard me talking about my musical abilities. I had been reprimanded a coupala times at work for whistling my back ground R and B version of the Muzak they were playing. I did not really notice I was doing it. They said it was distracting to the other workers. Any way, Jack asked if I would like to bring my group to Greer to the auditorium where the Miss Greer pageant leading to Miss South Carolina Pageant was having the local pageant. They need a group to fill in while the girls were changing clothes. So I approached my cousin about this and he flipped out at the opportunity. He had written a song "Muddy River" and he wanted the world to know of his talent. I told Jack that we were his saviors.
Me along with Crawford's father, Harry, formed the "Vaughn Tate Trio".
We practiced three songs so many times we could play them backwards.
The night of the pageant, we arrived, set up, went on, played our three songs, and to our astonishment got a standing ovation! The Emcee had us play another song as and encore. It unreal. The world was our oyster!
Ah, but that was the only stand of the Vaughn Tate Trio, I went on to Clemson, Crawford ran another rock ground aground. Harry went back to carpentry, and the whole thing faded away.
I would some times sit in The Cobra Club and listen to Crawford and his new group play and dodging beer bottles and bullets While waiting for my Clemson room-mate to return from his hot dates.
Crawford's group opened for the Monkeys at Greenville Auditorium, he had pictures, and a few 45's that they cut, but, it too all faded away.
Harry died, Crawford married a religious girl who showed him the way to Christ. This put a stop to the consumption of cheap red wine, foe-lee-ole.
He has a variety of medical problems now but can still play a mean Electric Blues Piano.
Maybe next time...
I ride to and fro to my part-time job and in secret play Suzuki PIPE HUMMING Harmonicas in C and A, to the throbbing sound of Omar Ken Dykes' "Jimmy Reed Highway."
Maybe next time...
Items to cover, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, WOT. Reid School, Welcome, martha Lou, Kwenneth, Donnie, creek, walk, albino, tv, howdydoodie, shrimp, possum, egg!, arrow, dunean, baseball, el quane nu sane, lasordia, places lived, pictures, sisters, button=rat, stringdoors, ring, buick, broke key, lost whistle ring,
