Music and Memories

Watched the first episode of the Ken Burns documentary Country Music last evening. It surely brought back some memories. In my youth, they kept our little country store open on Saturday nights until the last customer left, sometimes near one o’clock in the morning. Having spent the day in Pine Bluff, folks would stop on the way home to stock up on groceries for the week. They bought on credit mostly, waiting until payday or the day that Social Security or what they called back then “Old-aged Pension Checks” back then came.

Anyhow, crowds would gather and folks would visit on the front porch of the store while my parents filled orders. The kids would play and The Grand Ole Opry would blast from a little Philco radio. We’d vow to stay up until the store closed but sleep always won. I can’t count the number of times I fell asleep with Uncle Pen on the radio, performed by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.

One night, while we were still outside playing, a disagreement occurred between two women over some man, wouldn’t you figure? Before anyone knew it, a straight razor gashed an arm open and the Sheriff had to be summoned. I didn’t see the incident, but I caught a glimpse of the result when the Sheriff opened the door of the pickup truck where the woman sat. She was overweight, and the gash didn’t get through the fat, it seemed. But is sure made a mess.

Two or three of us kids stood around, awestruck, until they chased us away. I don’t think they did anything but send the perpetrator home and the victim to the hospital. The law didn’t get too involved in “cuttin’ scrapes” in those days when the participants weren’t white.

If the future episodes of Country Music are as good as the first, we are in for a treat, and I’m in for a lot more memories.