When I was just a young girl growing up in Rome, GA, I loved music. Just any kind of music and I think I get it from my dad. He was a lover of music and he sang all the time. He never forgot the words to the songs and I still remember some of them. He loved the big band era, but he loved modern music like what I consider OLD. Like "The Tennessee Waltz", "Mr. Sandman", "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", or "Till I Waltz Again With You." My favorite was "Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy." And he liked dancing. We had a cabinet in our living room that looked like small drawers but when you pulled on the handles, the doors came open and it was a radio. This radio was beautiful. It sat upon legs so high that my brother and I could crawl under and listen to the music. Of course we listened to other shows besides the music , Hopefully you will remember "The Lone Ranger", "Only the Shadow Knows", "Gunsmoke", and "The Eddie Arnold show". That song at the beginning of the Eddie Arnold show will stick in my mind forever. Just after the news everyday at 12 noon, "Woo, woo, woo duped de doo; woo woo woo dee da do dee, daa da woo, woo, woo duped de doo, singing the cattle song." This may not be exactly how it went or was spelled but I still remember. Little did I know that he was a county singer. But I listened every day until I started to school. Around Christmas time, a program came on with Mrs. Santa Claus. We were so excited that we would sit by the radio and listen for the letters to be read, hoping that one would be ours. My brother, Larry, and I would get so excited when she read our letters that dad would make us be still. He would say, "Calm down or you wont be able to hear." Then she would tell a story about Christmas. I especially liked the one about the shoemaker and the wooden shoes. It's funny how things stick in my mind about different subjects of my growing up years. I wanted to write them down for my children lest I forget.
Along with this particular radio was a record player. If you raised the top, there was a turn table for records. It would play old 78's and 33 1/3's. When you think about playing records in this day and age it is really funny. Most kids now days don't know what a record is much less how to use one. Everything is Cd's and mp3 players. How technology has advanced in the past ten years. But back to the record player, a song came out called "Moon glow." It was the theme from the movie "Picnic." Now I loved to dance and one day while I was dancing, my dad came in from work and said," Let me show you how to dance." I thought," yea, right, you cant show me anything." But to my surprise, he could dance and very well. He had taken ball room dance lessons because a movie star was coming to town for a benefit dance and my mom wanted to go. This was Denice Darcel, a famous French actress, and everyone wanted to see her. Well dad could do the fox trot, the waltz, the 2 step and the jitter bug. When I danced with my dad, it was a sight to behold. It was like Mutt and Jeff standing beside each other. But I can still remember the steps to this day, but my memories of dad dancing will go with me to my grave. I can still see us in my mind and him telling me about a tap step called the flat ball chain and the sugar, sugar. After this, I decided that I wanted to take dancing lessons. I started a class with Clara Ellison of tap, ballet, and acrobat. This was so much fun, but I couldn't keep up with dancing and piano lessons so I had to let one go. I continued playing the piano until I was about 12 and my teacher married my uncle. Then she up and moved to Florida. I kept all this embedded in my mind until I was grown and I began showing my children these same steps. I hope they have wonderful memories of me when they are older like I do about my dad.
My brother, Kenneth, still has this radio cabinet in his home. The radio has long been replaced with wine bottles and is used as a wine cabinet in his kitchen. It has been refinished but it is still a beautiful piece of furniture
CHATTANOOGA SHOESHINE BOY
Have you ever passed the corner of fourth and grand
where a little ball of rhythm runs a shoe shine stand
People gather 'round and they clap their hands
He's a great big bundle of joy.
He pops a boogie-woogie rag, the Chattanooga Shoeshine boy.
Its a wonder that the rag don't tear
the way he makes it pop
You ought to see him fan the air
with his hoppity, hippity, hippity, hippity, hop hop hop.
He charges you a nichol just to shine one shoe
he makes the oldest kind of leather look like new.
You feel as thought you want to dance when he gets through
He's a great big bundle of joy.
He pops a boogie-woogie rag, the Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy.
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