It’s been raining all day in Jefferson City, MO. I’m going to have to take the rubber floor mats out of the Land Rover because they’re stopping the water from draining. Not airtight… not watertight.
Barb and a friend are in Destin this week where it is sunny and warm.
Friend and former coworker O. Kay Henderson was on the Meet the Press panel this morning. Kay is the news director of Radio Iowa, a state radio network I helped create back in the late 80s. Kay’s first job out of college was reporting for the network. A few years later I had the good sense and good fortune to promote her to News Director. Nobody knows more about Iowa politics than Kay.
Hattie rides up front. That’s non-negotiable. So Riley has to ride in the back and she doesn’t like it. And she’s only there because she is leashed to the spare tire and cannot climb up front.
Jefferson City is still recovering from last May’s tornado. This weekend some of George Tergin’s friends are helping him demolish what was left of his business. A sad chore that marks a new beginning.
While visiting Paul Bandelier this week, he showed me the original home his ancestors built when they came to the U.S. from Switzerland (circa 1867).
The top photo is the front of the structure, the bottom the rear. Paul explained it was built as two log cabins with the entryway between. I’ve asked Paul for more information and will update post.
In one of the episodes of Ken Burns’ series on the history of country music, they trace the shift from country to pop music. I believe it was in the early 50’s. My father, John Mays, would have been at KBOA for several years by then and he had a better feel (and preference) for pop than country so he played that music while other announcers played different types. Rudy Pylant (Mr. Rudy) was known for Old Camp Meetin’ Time which was country gospel and “old time” music. Jimmy Haggett was — during this period — known as the country DJ.
The photo below was the result of a “popularity” contest in which listeners voted with 3-cent postcards.
This must have been an incredibly exciting time to be in radio, even at a small market station like KBOA. Nashville station WSM (home of the Grand Ole Opry) was featured prominently in the Burns documentary Haggett worked there at some point after leaving KBOA.
I was 13 years old in 1961. Eighth grade? Kennett was a real-life Mayberry in the 50’s and 60’s. A great place to grow up.
Richard was a poet, performance artist, sculptor, philosopher, film maker, handy-man and life-long friend.
“Picture a very swift torrent, a river rushing down between rocky walls. There is a long, shallow bar of sand and gravel that runs right down the middle of the river. It is under water. You are born and you have to stand on that narrow, submerged bar, where everyone stands. The ones born before you, the ones older than you, are upriver from you. The younger one stand braced on the bar downriver. And the whole long bar is slowly moving down that river of time, washing away at the upstream end and building up downstream.
Your time, the time of all your contemporaries, schoolmates, your loves and your adversaries, is that part of the shifting bar on which you stand. And it is crowded at first. You can see the way it thins out, upstream from you. The old ones are washed away and their bodies go swiftly buy, like logs in the current. Downstream where the younger ones stand thick, you can see them flounder, lose footing, wash away. Always there is more room where you stand, but always the swift water grows deeper, and you feel the shift of the sand and the gravel under your feet as the river wears it away. Someone looking for a safer place to stand can nudge you off balance, and you are gone. Someone who has stood beside you for a long time gives a forlorn cry and you reach to catch their hand, but the fingertips slide away and they are gone. There are the sounds in the rocky gorge, the roar of the water, the shifting, gritty sound of the sand and the gravel underfoot, the forlorn cries of despair as the nearby ones, and the ones upstream, are taken by the current. Some old ones who stand on a good place, well braced, understanding currents and balance, last a long time. Far downstream from you are the thin, startled cries of the ones who never got planted, never got set, never quite understood the message of the torrent.”
–From John D. MacDonald’s Pale Gray for Guilt
UPDATE 6/16/19: Said goodbye to RP yesterday. His remains were cremated and placed in a .50 caliber ammo box (complete with small Confederate battle flag sticker) along with assorted mementos (a two dollar bill; some Risk pieces; etc). The ammo box was placed in the back of a new Cadillac hearse and transported to Piggott, AR for burial (a compromise with Rebecca). At the conclusion of the graveside service the minister reached down and blessed the ammo box. The End.
