PLEASE SHARE , See if this story can go VIRAL Yea a TRUE POSITIVE story This true story is told through the eyes of a 13 or 14 year old June Carter around 1942 or 43. (Check my Facebook cover photo Doc and Carl the Virginia Boys with MM and the Carter Sisters) The Carter Sisters were entertaining people in gymnasiums/halls and radio shows all over the south and were doing a radio show in Richmond Va. with the Virginia boys. I wish race relations were like this today I really do. Good people are friendly. I do believe in a greater power some call God June starts the story; Oh there goes a little trailer like ours! Mother Maybelle exclaimed. I peeped up my head from where I had it nestled on my sister Helens shoulder. She was scrounged in by a banjo near Carl McConnell and Anita in the back seat of Mommas 1941 Cadillac. Momma was sitting up front with daddy and Uncle Doc Addington, Mother Maybelles brother, was driving fast in the outskirts of St .Petersburg Va. It was late, raining hard and we were making the best time we could after playing somewhere in the Tidewater area of Virginia-two shows, I remember. After all,The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle had a very early morning radio show on WRNL ,in Richmond VA. I had to be there early to meet Dr, Douglas Freeman, editor of The Richmond News Leader and The Times Dispatch. ,he came up to the station to do his editorial by radio. I was to answer the telephone for one hour after our radio show. Dr. Freeman was my very special friend and kept me up on current affairs since we were in wars in the Pacific and Europe. My modern problems got a lot of answers from my friend Dr. Freeman, but I had to go to John Hopkins High School just like everyone else my age. Wonder what hed think about a little, silver handmade trailer with a long tongue and hook flying just to the right of our car. It passed us, went in the ditch, over several broken-down boxwood hedges, and, Oh no it cant but it did go right through a hog wire fence. right up the yard to four propped-up planks that were supposed to serve as steps on the front porch of someones house. At that time that someone just happened to be sitting on the front porch. The tongue literally ate up those steps and landed almost through the front door of what appeared to be a shotgun shack. Its stopped, I hollered. We all jumped out in the rain to see why a trailer just like ours was flying past us at this time in the middle of the night. Mother Maybelle and Uncle Doc were out and up the broken steps to see if the land and house owner was hurt by the flying silver bullet. It appeared to look a lot like our new trailer, which was hooked on behind our car and loaded with guitars,bass fiddles, Autoharps, more guitars, little white boots, black velvet skirts and vests, and lacy white blouses, for little Helen, June and Anita. What are you doing up this time of the night? my mom asked the land and house owner. Is anybody hurt? What is it anyway? The old black man ripped back his chair and moved closer to shake mommas hand. About fifty more people young, old and children were sitting or lying around the shanty. they came out to see what all the ruckus was. Im Mother Maybelle Carter. Mother said. Whered that thing come from? the old black man wanted to know I really dont know Momma said. It passed us up on the right side of our car and ran right through your fence. I thought someone might have been hurt since its in your front door now. Have a piece of my homemade Lady Baltimore, some pretty young lady said to Momma, pulling her inside the house. Have a drink, another old black man said to Daddy, Uncle Doc and Carl, offering them something that looked like clear liquid in a fruit jar. Have some fried chicken, said another lady emerging from the house. What are you doing with them young girls out this time of the night? she asked my mother. Its 1:30 in the morning. They played 2 shows about 40 miles below Petersburg. Daddy said. The rain ran off my nose down my neck. The wind blew a damp southern breeze. Helen Anita and I waded through the people to get nearer to the Lady Baltimore cake. Carl McConnell, banjo player and singing part of Doc and Carl of early radio days, was waving his hands and standing behind our black Cadillac in a mighty empty space where our new trailer should of been. Whats in that thing? the old man asked. The tongue dropped down and the back gate fell off the shiny wrecked glob that everyone was trying to figure out. Oh No, it cant be our trailer! Momma cried, but it was and we knew for sure as my sister Helens accordion hit the ground and managed a squeak on its own without the benefit of the pulling and pushing of her left arm and hand. The accordion spilled out in front of the whole neighborhood, in the outskirts of Petersburg, as we stood bug-eyed and drenched to the bone. Oh were so sorry we ruined your fence, Momma said, and weve broken your steps and torn out your boxwood hedges. Thats our brand new trailer that we got today to pull behind our car to house and haul our guitars, gear, and gloop to our show dates. Were so sorry. The trailer hitch broke, the trailer flew off, went on our right and took out the ditch. Weve caused you so much trouble. Thats no trouble at all, the old man said. Weve got trouble, real trouble in the house. Our Mommas dead. Somewhere back in the kitchen, we could hear the crying of the family and friends. Daddy tried to pay the old man. I hid behind Helen and Anita hid behind me. (lol) As they pulled the wreckage of our trailer and precious instruments out of the disaster area, Uncle Doc and Carl wanted to know if they could do anything. They would not take our money.We sat on the porch. Some cried some drank,some moaned a wail reminiscent of unremembered days of ancestors in Africa. We didnt know what to do. We had run our brand new trailer into the front door of a wake for their mother. We got closer to the big table in the kitchen. Helen Anita, and I had some Brunswick stew with homemade bread. Daddy had fried chicken. We had chocolate pie and apple cake. I saved a piece of Lady Baltimore cake, and some baked beans and potato salad. The old man, surrounded by family, friends, and loved ones of the grand old lady that lay in state in the parlor surrounded by flowers, walked up to mu mother and said: God Bless you, lady,for coming here tonight. God has His way of doing things. Forget about the wreck, but if you really are Mother Maybelle Carter ,will you sing Will the Circle Be Unbroken? The light bulb hung from a small frayed wire in the ceiling, Uncle Doc took his guitar, and Carl, his banjo; Daddy huddled us girls close; Mother stood near the shining face of that old black man and fifty of his loved ones.Momma cradled her Autoharp to her heart,turned on that special twinkle in her pale blue eyes,and over the corpse of the grand old lady whose spirit was on its way to the Kingdom, sang: ... I was standing by my window on one cold and cloudy day when I saw the hearse come rolling, for to carry my mother away......
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 15:29:30 +0000
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