My father was a self-taught mandolin player. He was one of
the best string instrument players in our town. He could not
read music, but if he heard a tune a few times, he could play
it. When he was younger, he was a member of a small country music
band. They would play at local dances and on a few occasions would
play for the local radio station. He often told us how he had
auditioned and earned a position in a band that featured Patsy Cline
as their lead singer. He told the family that after he was hired he never
went back. Dad was a very religious man. He stated that there was a lot of
drinking and cursing the day of his audition and he did not want to be
around that type of environment.
Occasionally, Dad would get out his mandolin and
play for the family. We three children: Trisha, Monte and I, George Jr., would often sing along.
Songs such as the Tennessee Waltz, Harbor Lights and around Christmas time,
the well-known rendition of Silver Bells. "Silver Bells, Silver Bells, its
Christmas time in the city" would ring throughout the house. One of Dad's favorite
hymns was "The Old Rugged Cross". We learned the words to the hymn when we were very
young, and would sing it with Dad when he would play and sing. Another song that was
often shared in our house was a song that accompanied the Walt Disney series: Davey
Crockett. Dad only had to hear the song twice before he learned it well enough to
play it. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" was a favorite song for
the family. He knew we enjoyed the song and the program and would often get out the
mandolin after the program was over. I could never get over how he could play the songs
so well after only hearing them a few times. I loved to sing, but I never learned how
to play the mandolin. This is something I regret to this day.
Dad loved to play the mandolin for his family he knew we enjoyed singing, and hearing
him play. He was like that. If he could give pleasure to others, he would, especially his
family. He was always there, sacrificing his time and efforts to see that his family had
enough in their life. I had to mature into a man and have children of my own before I
realized how much he had sacrificed.
I joined the United States Air Force in January of 1962. Whenever I would come home
on leave, I would ask Dad to play the mandolin. Nobody played the mandolin like my
father. He could touch your soul with the tones that came out of that old mandolin.
He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his pride in his ability to
play so well for his family.
When Dad was younger, he worked for his father on the farm. His father was a farmer
and sharecropped a farm for the man who owned the property. In 1950, our family moved
from the farm. Dad had gained employment at the local limestone quarry. When the quarry
closed in August of 1957, he had to seek other employment. He worked for Owens Yacht Company
in Dundalk, Maryland and for Todd Steel in Point of Rocks, Maryland. While working at
Todd Steel, he was involved in an accident. His job was to roll angle iron onto a
conveyor so that the welders farther up the production line would have it to
complete their job. On this particular day Dad got the third index finger of
his left hand mashed between two pieces of steel. The doctor who operated on
the finger could not save it, and Dad ended up having the tip of the finger
amputated. He didn't lose enough of the finger where it would stop him picking
up anything, but it did impact his ability to play the mandolin.
After the accident, Dad was reluctant to play the mandolin. He felt that he
could not play as well as he had before the accident. When I came home on
leave and asked him to play he would make excuses for why he couldn't play.
Eventually, we would wear him down and he would say "Okay, but remember,
I can't hold down on the strings the way I used to" or "Since the accident
to this finger I can't play as good". For the family it didn't make any difference
that Dad couldn't play as well. We were just glad that he would play. When he
played the old mandolin it would carry us back to a cheerful, happier time in
our lives. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier", would again be
heard in the little town of Bakerton, West Virginia.
In August of 1993 my father was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.
He chose not to receive chemotherapy treatments so that he could live out
the rest of his life in dignity. About a week before his death, we asked
Dad if he would play the mandolin for us. He made excuses but said "okay".
He knew it would probably be the last time he would play for us. He tuned
up the old mandolin and played a few notes. When I looked around, there was
not a dry eye in the family. We saw before us a quiet humble man with an inner
strength that comes from knowing God, and living with him in one's life.
Dad would never play the mandolin for us again. We felt at the time that
he wouldn't have enough strength to play, and that makes the memory of that
day even stronger. Dad was doing something he had done all his life, giving.
As sick as he was, he was still pleasing others. Dad sure could play that Mandolin!