THOUGHTS ON CHILDHOOD IMAGINARY FRIENDS & COUNTRY MUSIC STARS
By OLIVENE GODFREY
As a child did you have an imaginary playmate? I did and her name was Georgia. The only reason I can figure out why at four years- old I chose that name is that since I lived in Chattanooga the only other state name I knew beside Tennessee was Georgia. Son Barry had an imaginary playmate for a couple of years whose name was "Dobbie". Why? None of us know, including Barry.
Besides having an imaginary playmate I also had an old wooden board which I had drawn a face on and named "Mary". My daddy, not aware of how much Mary meant to his oldest daughter used Mary to start a fire one cold morning. When I discovered how Mary was destroyed I was inconsolable for a while there. Daddy, very tender-hearted anyway, was also crushed that he'd burned Mary when he realized the situation. But, in time, I was happy again.
My late husband, Ralph, built a hot rod back in the 1970s, and we would take the car to an annual car show at Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Smokies for several years. There was special entertainment at an auditorium and the first year we attended a show a young, good looking man sat on a stool on the stage and played a guitar and sang like an angel. Afterward, we just knew that young man would one day be a star. We found out later that he had performed at the car show for several years. When he finished singing he smiled and said, "If I make it big this year, I won't be back next year."He did make it big, indeed, that year and his name was Larry Gatlin.
Still on the subject of musicians, I remember Patsy Cline's first T.V. appearance on the old Arthur Godfrey show in 1957 when she won Godfrey's talent scouts competition which led to a Decca record contract. At the time of her tragic death in an airplane crash in 1963 she was an acknowledged member of country music royalty. And, to me, she was the best girl singer of all time. When I listen to her records now I marvel at the perfection of her voice.
I agree with these words written by John Updike, award winning author of more than 50 books, whose excellent article appeared in the November-December 2008 issue of AARP magazine,"Prose should have a flow, the forward momentum of a certain energized weight; it should feel like a voice tumbling into your ear".
See you next time.
By OLIVENE GODFREY
As a child did you have an imaginary playmate? I did and her name was Georgia. The only reason I can figure out why at four years- old I chose that name is that since I lived in Chattanooga the only other state name I knew beside Tennessee was Georgia. Son Barry had an imaginary playmate for a couple of years whose name was "Dobbie". Why? None of us know, including Barry.
Besides having an imaginary playmate I also had an old wooden board which I had drawn a face on and named "Mary". My daddy, not aware of how much Mary meant to his oldest daughter used Mary to start a fire one cold morning. When I discovered how Mary was destroyed I was inconsolable for a while there. Daddy, very tender-hearted anyway, was also crushed that he'd burned Mary when he realized the situation. But, in time, I was happy again.
My late husband, Ralph, built a hot rod back in the 1970s, and we would take the car to an annual car show at Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Smokies for several years. There was special entertainment at an auditorium and the first year we attended a show a young, good looking man sat on a stool on the stage and played a guitar and sang like an angel. Afterward, we just knew that young man would one day be a star. We found out later that he had performed at the car show for several years. When he finished singing he smiled and said, "If I make it big this year, I won't be back next year."He did make it big, indeed, that year and his name was Larry Gatlin.
Still on the subject of musicians, I remember Patsy Cline's first T.V. appearance on the old Arthur Godfrey show in 1957 when she won Godfrey's talent scouts competition which led to a Decca record contract. At the time of her tragic death in an airplane crash in 1963 she was an acknowledged member of country music royalty. And, to me, she was the best girl singer of all time. When I listen to her records now I marvel at the perfection of her voice.
I agree with these words written by John Updike, award winning author of more than 50 books, whose excellent article appeared in the November-December 2008 issue of AARP magazine,"Prose should have a flow, the forward momentum of a certain energized weight; it should feel like a voice tumbling into your ear".
See you next time.
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