NO MATTER YOUR MUSICAL TASTE….I’VE GOT IT FOR YOU!
MADLAD | Childhood Tales

This page of “childhood tales” is a lot of family time with me and my sister Cornelia, my neighborhood friends and adventures I remember as a child. 

STORY #1-“HO, HO, HO, HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS….WHERE’S MY BIKE??”
Here is a Christmas story. The holidays were closing in a few months before Christmas 1959, third grade, Mrs. Meade’s class at Payne school. I’m 8 years old, and I want a three speed English racer bike for Christmas! Dad kinda said yes, before he found out how much it cost. It was $49.99 at Guggenheimers Department store downtown, a couple of hundred dollars now! I told all my friends that I was getting this bike…ok…yea…sure you are…right?? Ok it was October 1959, where can you hide a bike from a kid that knew every square inch of my Pierce St. home? My Dad had a best friend, Harry Royal, also a teacher in Campbell County. His boys were starting College, and the ideal place to stash a bike for a while. Dad thought that he had gotten away with it! Well….fate came in, heres what happened…. A few days before Christmas, The Royals got called away and out of town for an emergency. Mr. Royal thought about our gifts, and called Dad, he had completely forgot about it! He told Dad that he would be back the day after Christmas, can you stall your kids? “OH NO!”…..Dad woke me up, and told me the bad news…..Santa got the Pierce St. addresses  mixed up…..My bike was at 707 Pierce, instead of 1502! All the kids had their skates, scooters, wagons, and I heard… “Hey Goins….where is this bike you supposed to get….haha….no bike…..!!” Happy ending, I got my bike a day late and was the envy of the neighborhood, only one problem!? The bike was so big I couldn’t reach the petals, even though the seat was all the way down! I had to ride on the luggage rack, with a pillow, and hoped that I wouldn’t have to brake suddenly! I resembled a kid on a big black “big wheel!” All were pointing…..gee I looked funny going down the street, but I was happy! 

STORY #2-HEY…..”SANTA CAN’T GET IN!”
Ok! We got our first hi-fi! I wanted us to get something special to play our records on….something loud and we can party to! My little Webcor record player had no bass, and sounded like a transistor radio….come on Dad? Claude had a hi-fi, Ronnie, Dot, and a lot more all had them! The Reids across the street had one! They played the grooves off of Maybe by the Chantells! Right across the street at Dr. Johnsons house in the basement, he bought a console stereo for Arthur Ashe and his other Tennis stars to dance to! The Farrows up the street had one….you could hear it all the way to our house when Ms. Anna would be playing “Cry Baby” by Garnett Mimms, over and over! I found out later while helping Ms. Pinn move to Westminister-Canterbury that she had a Magnavox console, the Mercedes of hi-fi systems at the time! I wanted to see if it still worked….it did…when it came on with a big blast that scared everyone….the volume control was turned all the way up! I almost bought it from her, but I didn’t have any more room in my collection for it! Anyway…..Dad finally gave in! My parents always stuck with one brand their whole lives! It was Chevrolet, RCA, Kenmore, Maxwell-house, and Sears-Silvertone! To the Pittman Plaza and we picked out a beautiful console with an AM/FM stereo and a record changer! We couldn’t wait to get it delivered! Ok…where to put it, in the living room? Well it ended up in the corner…..no….bad place…. We didn’t use the fireplace for heat, and it had a raised place a few inches off the floor for a hearth. If it was to get out, it would sound great sitting there, and it did! I could hear my “Shotgun” lp by Jr. Walker all the way over to the store across the street! Christmas rolled around, and it was the 24th of December….my new radio, and my sisters Barbie dolls were on the way! Everyone went to sleep to wait for the big day in the morning! I suddenly remembered …..”OH NO”…..I woke my sister up…emergency! What’s wrong?? Hey….Santa can’t get in….the hi-fi is in the way! We got to move it without disturbing Mom and Dad! I got on one end and sister got on the other end and we shoved and pushed, and couldn’t budge it! Ok….lets both get on one end and try to move it to the floor. After a few shoves, and yanks, we got one end and both legs on the floor, and the other two leggs stayed on the hearth. Mission accomplished, back to bed….Santa could now get in! I would have loved to see Dad’s face when he saw that hi-fi sitting halfway out in the floor Christmas morning!! I still have our console in my garage, and it still works! Oh yea….the Barbie dolls and my new radio got down the chimney intact!

STORY #3 “YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU!”
I am in the 7th grade, 1963…Mr. Stroud’s class at Robert S. Payne School. I recently took an interest in electronics using batteries and light bulbs, also radios and communications. I went to the Payne school library in the science section and discovered a book, soon to be my favorite “Using Electronics” by Harry Zarchy. This book demonstrated how to do wiring, soldering, put together simple to complicated small radios. At the beginning of the book you did simple wiring, soldering guns to make and patch joints. It showed you step by step how to build crystal sets, one transistor sets, one tube sets….I was really interested in transistor radio broadcasters, where you can talk over a radio a few feet away! It wasn’t too strong a signal, and only went to the next room or just outside the door! This was the beginning of my radio station interest. I hooked it to my little record player, and broadcast throughout the house! My only listeners were Mom and Dad in the next room! I checked out the book over and over for months! I had a library card that had a string of checkouts for “Using Electronics” every week! Soon, the 7th grade was over, and I would be going to a new 8th grade school…Dunbar! This was a completely new ball game with 6 different classes, 6 different teachers, and a home room that you go to at the beginning and the end of the day….wow! I was used to staying in one room, one teacher….hey why couldn’t the teachers move around, and the students stay in one room….hello…..oh well…..I guess not?? The main thing that broke my heart was the fact that the Dunbar library DIDN”T HAVE A COPY OF “USING ELECTRONICS!” “OH NO”….I said Oh no a lot…. I didn’t want to leave that book behind at Payne school! We didn’t have Barnes and Noble or Amazon then, but we had J.P. Bell downtown! Mom took me downtown where we met a very friendly lady who said that she would see if they would order it for us. A few days later, she told us the bad news…..the book was out of print! Oh I was disappointed! A few days later, the lady called us back, and said that she found one copy somewhere in Pennsylvania, and would see if she can get it!! She found it, to my relief, and I had my very own copy of the book! Over the years, and graduating to higher electronic skills, I don’t know what happened to the book, lost in the years of radio for me! A few years back, I just happened to search on eBay “Using Electronics, ” and got a hit! Someone in California had the book up for bidding that started at $9.00. I bidded on it, with a high protected bid, and I won it….the only one who bid! Ironically it was near the same price we paid for it at J. P. Bell! Here it is in the picture, on the top of the stack, one of my greatest treasures, that really started me on my electronics journey!

(CLICK HERE) to read “Using Electronics!” 

 

STORY #4 “LETS WATCH TV AND GO TO THE MOVIES!”
One black and white TV, three channels….wow…..what more could you ask for? Dad and Mom, Sis and me…one tv set….ok? Dad liked mostly westerns! Gunsmoke, Have Gun will Travel, Highway Patrol, the Rifleman, Wagon Train! Hands off the tv when they are on, so I watched too…. Mom never missed Alfred Hitchcock, Twilight Zone, Edge of Night, Jackie Gleason, Red Skeleton, Lawrence Welk, I Love Lucy, Ed Sullivan! Sis and I liked Saturday morning cartoons, Loony tunes, Rocky, Super-car, and my favorite Ruff & Ready! If Cartoon Network was available back then I wouldn’t have left home! I wanted every toy they advertised…Silly Putty, Duncan yoyo’s and spinning tops, Varoom-bike motors…ect! My favorites #1, 7PM Sunday….Lassie! I almost died during the three part shows, waiting till next week to see if Lassie finds her way home or land the hot air balloon they were in! I was hooked on Star-Trek, and the Outer Limits! The pilot first episode of the Outer Limits was about a radio station! Dennis the Menace, Voyage to the bottom of the Sea, Saturday wrestling live from tv 7 studios, My Favorite Martian, Batman, Sargent Preston, Fury, Sea Hunt, Sky-King, Peter Gunn, Uncle Looney, Cactus Joe, Heidi & Regie, ok….here it comes…Captain Kangaroo too! We later got a second tv set, and I got the idea to take the portable tv to the den so I could watch two shows at once! Dad and Mom had me in church every Sunday, which at Jackson Street church, it was like going to Dunbar six days a week! A lot of the staff of Dunbar were members there! Everyday life was hard enough growing up, but believe it or not, one cartoon kept me on the right track? I never missed….Davey & Goliath! They helped me with adventures in right and wrong, race and friends relationships, do unto others….ect. Lets go to the movies! Dad would take me to the movies most Saturdays! We mostly went to the Harrison on 5th St. We would first listen to a few Fats Domino or Platters music till the movie started around 3PM. We saw Rodan, The Blob, Monolith Monsters, Deadly Mantis, and Giant Claw! I spent a lot of time down under the seat, but I was ok after I first saw the monster….haha! I have a large dvd/vhs collection of a lot of the shows that remind me of my childhood! I have the series Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, Highway Patrol, Outer Limits, Star-Trek, Back to the Future, and many more I watch and remember the good old days! By the way…..all radio dj’s should have the series WKRP in Cincinnati! I can’t leave out Star-wars….here’s a small shot of my collection….

STORY #5 “TO SAVE OR NOT! THE DIME KITTY”
I know that everyone is trying to save money any way they can! When I was small, every cent I got went across the street at my Pierce St. home to Simmons Grocery! Find a penny, that was two mint julips in my book…. Mom brought home from the bank a “Dime Kitty!” This was a unique way for kids to learn how to save money. Each dime would put another section of a kitty cat until $3.00 created a complete cat! I got one, and my sister got one, and we were told to see who could fill up one first! Always trying to keep ahead of my sister, it came down to save money and win, or a tootsie pop or two? With the kitty, you couldn’t get the dime out once you put it in without damaging it. Notice the rips in the cardboard beside the kitty slots? Somebody who had this one below, I got it on eBay, changed their mind and tried to remove the dime!….I found that out when my sweet tooth won out over my need to save! I looked at my sisters dime kitty, and her card was almost finished! Needless to say, she won, and now I am paying for my sweet tooth with my type two diabetes! Just think….I used to walk around the house with a box of Captain Crunch under my arm!!


STORY #6 “RICHMOND, VA. RADIO!” IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY…..!
Richmond had one of those “Soul” stations! Chicago had WVON, D.C. had WOOK & WOL, Richmond had WANT, I brought Dad’s Silvertone radio to Richmond so I could listen to some good music while I visited my Aunt’s house. DJ’s Ben Miles, Mr. C, and Tom Mitchell played all the R&B hits of the day! One time I looked out my Aunt’s window, and what did I see? The WANT gold Caddy was parked right outside! It had “WANT 990AM” in the back window! It seems that Mr. C. was dating the woman in the other side of the duplex! I didn’t want to leave that radio station in Richmond….I wanted to take it with me! When it was time to go, I tuned the station in perfectly….turned it up loud….didn’t cut it off, unplugged it, and carefully put in in the back seat of the car. I smiled all the way home! I got home, plugged it in….waited for it to warm up……….
NOTHING BUT STATIC!!
I was so mad I almost cried!! That is when I found out that radio doesn’t work that way! I recently found on eBay an exact copy of my Dad’s radio, and it works! Here’s a shot below…..v Notice the dial is sitting on 990am where WANT would have been…. If I had tuned it in now, I wouldn’t get WANT, even if I was in Richmond! Instead I would get WREJ, rejoice radio a Black Gospel station!

STORY #7 “NEVER TAKE YOUR FAVORITE RADIO TO THE BASKETBALL COURT!”
Let’s get up a game up at Payne school on the basketball court! We picked a team, and all we needed was some music! I brought my Elgin radio turned it to a Rock station, and started the game. I put the radio near the sideline so it can be heard, but just out of reach of the players…..or so I thought? The game was going along good….Elmer passed the ball to Ronnie, then to Bip…Sterling hit the ball…out of bounds! A quick save to Paul, Elmer missed, someone tripped…..suddenly, there were six guys lying on top of…wait for it, wait, my……my…..my……radio!!!! I heard no music anymore….as each guy got up….the last guy up uncovered the sad facts! I said “Oh No” again! My radio was crushed and flattened! Just like Linus and his blanket I had that radio everywhere I went, except to school! (first, second picture below) All the guys knew that I was devastated! I got a paper bag and gathered up what was left…..maybe I could fix it….looking at it…..then again?? I kept it all these years maybe one day I could fix it!? (third picture below) Almost fifty years later, I’m on eBay and guess what? Someone has my radio for sale! I got the radio, but the seller said it didn’t work…..it didn’t! A few months later I saw another one…..didn’t work……another one…..didn’t work…..there must be a defect in them over the years?? Then I saw this one on eBay it worked…..BUT…..the entire faceplate was missing and there was nothing in the front but the little red dial pointer….wow! I bidded on it and had a brilliant idea! Using the faceplate I kept over the years, I carefully transplanted it to the radio! The operation was a success!! After all these trys, I finally had my radio back!! Now I had six different sets, one of which worked, one with shortwave, one with a different color panel! My Dad bought me a five-band shortwave radio shortly after the basketball incident, and I was happy, now years later I AM REALLY HAPPY! (forth picture below)



STORY #8 “HEY, I DIDN’T KNOW ANY BETTER…OK!”
It was nearly four years, and I was getting over my English racer bike! It was a three speed, and I never went fast enough to change to a higher gear. The headlight didn’t work anymore, and besides, the light got brighter the faster you went with the generator on, and was out every time you stopped. For Christmas 1962 I got a Sears(Dad loved Sears) J.C. Higgins 26″ bike….red and white. It was really plain looking. I wanted some kind of accessory? My money was short, so I invented a few bike items from hardly nothing. I took an empty toilet tissue roll and made me an exhaust pipe….really! I closed it off on both ends with scotch tape, and taped it to the rear frame on my bike. I put a small opening on the top so I could pour Mom’s baby power in it. Every time I hit a bump my pipes would smoke! I wrapped foil around them so they would shine. All the kids would remember the clothes pin and a playing card positioned so they would make noise on the spokes of the wheel. Mine was different….I had a string on one side so I could pull it while riding. On the other side, I had a rubber band to pull back the card when you let go of the string. While riding, it would sound like you were shifting gears with the card back and forth in the spokes. I think the Marx company stole my idea when they came out with the ‘vroom bike motor? I thought that a flag blowing in the wind would look real good! I went to G.C. Murphys and got a pretty flag to put on the rear of my bike! It was pretty….black and white stars in an X pattern. There were stars up and down the X pattern that I figured would look slick on my bike! I took it to the cashier to pay for it. She looked at me…looked at the flag….looked at me…..looked at the flag and said “little boy, are you sure you want to buy this?” She said “you don’t want to buy this flag” but I was insistent….I want that flag! She said “ok” and sold it to me! Here I am going down the street with the flag blowing in the wind! Everyone was pointing…looking….checking me out, and I was eating up all this attention! Everyone was pointing everywhere I went! One of my Dad’s friends said, “you won’t believe what that boy of yours is doing now!” One of my teachers saw me and stopped me….”Why do you have that flag on your bike?” I said that “It’s pretty, and everyone points to it!” She gave me a quick History lesson right there about black & white, and what the flag meant!! I quietly took the flag off my bike, put it in my desk drawer, and never took it out again! Hey…..I didn’t know…ok?? Could you imagine the conversation around the dinner table at the Murphy’s cashiers house….It would start…”Honey, you are not going to believe this! Guess who came in the store today, and guess what he bought??”


STORY #9 “SHEP!”
We rode bikes on the weekend everywhere! Ronald, Elmer, Reggie, Ronnie, a few more would all get together and ride with us all over town! We rode to Boonsboro, Fort Hill Village, Horseshoe Bend(Concord Turnpike), and all the way to the airport! We would ride on the unbuilt expressway from Candlers Mt. Rd, before it connected to Kemper St. We would go through Fort Ave, then ride the expressway back home! We went with heads down speeding past where C.B Fleet is now…moving it! Suddenly up ahead, there was a section where the road was unfinished, and there was a large gap there! Each of us did an Evel Knieval across the space which wasn’t there last week! We rode the expressway all the time, till they opened it up to traffic! We got chased by dogs, stopped by a gang of people for riding in their area, and stopped by the police. We got ambushed by rocks while riding on Mayflower Dr, near where the DMV is today! Luckily, some fast pedaling, ducking and dodging, no one got hit! We would go down “thrill hill”(Monroe St. 4th to Hollins St.)! Hollins Mill Rd, Fillmore St, down 19th St. hill, (they were connected by a steep hill)! Dog’s…dogs, yes we were chased by dogs! Elmer got bit once on his leg, we think it was a certain collie? Lets hit 19th St. hill….ok….19th street went to Taylor, and then back home! Here we go! We all took off down 15th, turn down Fillmore…..heads down….speeding a pack of ten bikes… suddenly we heard a big bark a ways down Fillmore St…the most feared dog in the neighborhood….. Here comes “Shep” a full grown collie looking dog the size of Lassie! Yes I said “OH NO” again! The pack passed before Shep got out, and he was chasing us on the bike! I was always slow, so I was about a block behind, Shep didn’t see me…. The bike pack sped down the street, Shep gave up and slowed down. I hit Shep dead in the butt! There was a bundle of bike, dog, street all bundled together! I hardly remembered a thing, only that I was hurting! My bike with twisted handlebars and a bent wheel was over there. I was lying on the ground over there, and Shep was whimpering loudly over there! I was yelling, Shep was yelling, when the big White lady ran down the front steps….”Oh my God….Oh my God….Shep, my baby” She picked Shep up in her arms and ran into the house! She didn’t pay any attention to me, I guess when the pack got to Taylor St, head count, we’re missing one…where’s Goins? June Bug backtracked and found me still on Fillmore St, and helped me and my broken bike back home!

STORY #10 “HE HAS A WHAT IN HIS WHERE??”
I’ll bet you are going to read this story!? Well…here goes! I had this fascination with auto dashboards when I was small! The standard round speedometer, some were slide-rule looking that go from left to right. The Edsel’s speedometer showed the speed on a wheel with turning digits. There were gas, oil temperature, dials. A friend of my Dad’s had an Oldsmobile who’s speedometer dial changed color! It was green till the speed was 35, then it changes to yellow….at 75, it changed to red! I asked Dad to let us ride in the car to watch the dial change color. We got to 35, it changed to yellow….this was so cool! I asked could I see it turn red…..he said no! My Uncle had a Imperial, with dials that were clear with a brown halo. Dad also had a friend that didn’t ever have too much gas in his car, so the low gas light stayed on. I wanted him to put a small amount of gas in the car to cut off the gas light so I could watch it come on! Ok…here’s another. Dad’s car odometer said 9999.5 when he got in from work one day. I wanted to watch it change to 10000.0. It would do it on his way to work, so I asked him to ride around town till it changed so I could watch it! Yea….they say I was strange right? I’m in the second grade, playing car!
Ok….here is the story…. I cut out a dashboard from cardboard, gas gauges, speedometer, temperature, and more! I was keeling down in front of the TV set watching Perry Mason with Mom, on my knees. I had her sewing needles holding the hands on the dials I had made. I would make a sound of a car as I moved the speedometer dial faster and faster. I put the gas gauge on E and made sounds like the car ran out of gas. I got thirsty, and went to the kitchen for a drink of water….then it happened!! I went to kneel down to continue my imaginary car driving when I mis-calculated the dials as I kneeled down. I felt a pinch, then a snap, and the gas gauge was hanging on the end of my knee by the sewing needle. When I went to move it, it broke!! I said …..you know “oh no!” Mom, I had an accident….the needle is in my knee!! Dad said “Sit down and don’t move, it might work it’s way somewhere else in your leg!” Dad called Dr. Wesley who told him to bring him right over! Dad picked me up in his arms put me in the car, and rushed me to his office. Dr. Wesley pushed and prodded with a pair of tweezers, trying to find the end of the needle in order to pull it out to no avail!! He gave us the bad news…..I would have to go to the hospital and get an x ray to see exactly where it was. The x-ray showed it in my leg, but the end had slid down a very small distance under my skin. The Dr. at the hospital numbed my knee and made a small cut…..I was told he got it on the first try, I was too busy yelling and screaming! This was a Saturday, and my knee with a big band-aid on it made it to school on Monday! Ok at the Dr’s house….”guess what honey, this boy came in today with a needle in his leg!! By the way, my entire collection of homemade car gauges was sitting in the garbage can when I got home….I didn’t complain! Could you imagine me with todays gauges, navigation, miles till empty, GPS….man I would have died and gone to heaven!

 
STORY #11 MY FAVORITE ELECTRONICS TEACHERS!
Mr. Stroud was one of my favorite teachers, seventh grade! He was into electronics, not so much radio, but basic electricity! He introduced me to fellow teacher at Payne School Mr. Alfred Jones! Mr. Jones taught the sixth grade, but he was into radio, amplifiers, and circuits. Ironically, I ran into Mr. Jones again in the ninth grade at our new Dunbar Jr. High School teaching electric Shop! Sometimes he would let me teach the class stuff that he didn’t know! Mr. Jones helped me bulid my transmitter for my radio station, and thought that it would be his fault if I got in trouble with it! Mr. Jones, and Mr. George Evans, my woodshop teacher, did come by my house! I told Mr. Evans thank you for teaching me how to measure evenly, and it helped me to succesfully install my medicine cabinet in my bathroom. Mr. Jones taught me wiring so I got the lights right in the cabinet! They were both glad to see something they had taught somebody worked for them! Mr. Stroud was supposed to be coming to my house and see my radio collection in the late nineties! We hemied and hawed back and forth for months, and never could get together! I was busy, he wasn’t, he was busy I wasn’t…. I was very sad when he passed away, and he never saw my collection! This is why I say, visit our seniors while they are still with us, and find the time! Mr. Stroud is below on the left! There are more details about Mr. Stroud and the other gentleman on my “hunton y” page on this site!
STORY #12 “HEY….YAU’LL GOT A CAB IN?”
In remembrance of the passing of Phillip Mack (Mr. Allied Cab), I thought of another true story from my childhood! Mom and Dad installed a new wall phone in our Pierce St. home when I was 6-7 years old. I had no idea that the number the phone company gave us would be leading to big problems! Our new number, my parents made me memorize it was 2-7309. The number system changed a few months later to another I had to memorize, 845-7309….Victor 5-7309! This would happen, and usually really late at night. The phone would ring….Dad would answer….”Hello?” “Yau’ll got a cab in??” Dad told them they had the wrong number. No harm done right? A few nights later, usually on the weekend and late….”Yau’ll got a cab in??” No you have the wrong number? This would happen often, maybe three times a week, but it interrupted their sleep teaching school with a 45 minute drive both ways wasn’t no fun after a while! It seems that Allied Cab’s number was 845-7039, close to ours, 845-7309!! Allied couldn’t change their number…..it was painted on every cab(and still is)! We couldn’t change ours, it was on all of Dad’s documents, papers, Jackson St. Church paperwork….so we were stuck! Mistakes went on all the time, sometimes often, sometimes none for weeks. I remember one interesting wrong number….. Mom answered the phone late one night. “Got a Cab in??” Mom said no, you have the wrong number! A few seconds later, the same guy called again…..”Got a Cab in?? Mom said no you got the wrong number…again! Nice as my Mom was, she wanted to help, so she said “You dialed 845-7309, you need to dial 845-7039 for Allied Cab….ok? The guy said “Not ok….lady I just used my last two dimes calling you! Listen lady….There is nothing open to make change for another call…..I need you to call Allied Cab for me and send it to Kemper St, train station! Please lady….please!! What do you think my Mom did at 1:00 in the morning??? Well….she called Allied, explained the situation to them, and a Cab was sent out to the guy at Kemper St. Station!
STORY #13 “YAU’LL GOT A CAB IN? PART II, THE RIGHT WRONG NUMBER!”
As if Allied cab riders were calling often, it seems that our number was close to another number! Not as often as Allied, we would get a call from a patient of Dr. Whitehouse! Dr. Whitehouse is a famous Physician and Surgeon at Lynchburg General. In the phonebook was listed his emergency number at his residence! One night, late, Mom got a call….”Hello” “May I speak to Dr. Whitehouse?” “Lady you’ve got the wrong number” “No, it can’t be, I have to talk to Dr. Whitehouse!” “Lady, you dialed my number by mistake….let me help you, My number is 845-7309, Dr. Whitehead’s number is 845-3709!” “Lady…..I am sick and can barely see! Can you please call him and tell him to call Mrs.—–, he has my number! Please lady…..I might have to go to the hospital!” Guess what Mom did?? Wow, our phone….. we told all our friends to call early because we might not answer the phone late at night! Where was “caller ID?” There is one thing in all of this that I have always wondered about? Did anyone ever call Dr. Whitehouse looking for a Cab??????
STORY #14 “BILLY AND THE BULLY!”
Robert S. Payne Elementary School in 1961, and I am sure that there were others that had the same problems as the schools of today. Getting bullied…. My son Jarred was bullied at Heritage Elementary, and an accident stopped it in its tracks. Some kid was knocking his books out of his hands and running off, other things too! One evening we had to rush straight from his Karate class to a PTO meeting , and he didn’t have time to go home and change clothes, so we arrived with his Karate uniform on, complete with Black belt! Jarred had no problem at school from then on!!
Anyway, we had 30 cent delicious lunches at school, with a few kids bringing theirs. One day we saw Billy talking to this upper classman, and then give him something? We had a little group at the time, the same ones that played together with us after school. Billy told us that the guy got his lunch money under threat of getting beat up! Wow…no way! He was almost in tears… We all got together and hustled up between us 30 cents for him to get lunch! Next day….same thing…. We found out that this had been going on for a little while! It got so bad that the bully didn’t have to say anything, just hold his hand out! Enough is enough….sombody had to tell the teacher or something, but everyone was scared! Yes….I told the teacher, and I thought that was all I had to do! She asked me could I identify the bully, I said yes. She asked who else had been giving this guy money? A few more classmates said yes! The teacher lined up all the victims and me….I was to identify him! (Here is comes) “OH NO!” We went up to the older kids rooms upstairs and the teacher said someone has been taking money from the kids on the schoolyard…..Goins…..who is it?? I went up to him, bold wasn’t I, and said “this guy!” He denied it over and over, but the other kids with me spoke up and said, “Yes that’s him!” I never knew what happened to the guy, we all just went back to class. We weren’t bothered again, I do know that Billy was glad, and grateful to me for stepping up…besides….I was running out of spare change! Thinking about it… this reminds me of a Halloween incident that happened to us. We would go around to get candy in a large group, maybe 5-8 kids. We had each collected a large amount of candy, and were headed home when the unthinkable happened! Two guys sneaked up on us and tried to snatch our bags of candy! It was a fight to the finish, we held on to our bags for dear life, but Ron lost his! During the scuffle, the mask that one of them wore came up a little bit, just enough for a brief identification… I think it was the same bully! I have never said anything to the guys, but when he said “Come on lets go!!” it was the same voice! If you want to know who the bully was, ask next time you see me and I’ll tell you. I don’t want to print it here, besides he has passed away!
STORY #15 “THE LONG WALK ACROSS TOWN!”
It was getting ready to be another great summer, and a break from school! Dad would register me at the Hunton Y for day camp. Hunton Y had arts and craft, pony rides, wrestling, archery, tumbling, factory tours, baseball, and the POOL! On pool days, we would line up and walk two by two to the Jefferson Park Pool! The line wound include Mr. Edley in front, and Mr. Walker in back. Our volunteers included Melvin, Bip, Sterling and a lot more to keep us orderly and in line! First we would cross busy 12th St, and walk up Taylor St. We would then make a left and turn up 11th St. Then we would turn right on Floyd St, and continue over Park Ave. We would turn on 7th. and down to Pierce. Back then, Pierce intersected 5th St at the bridge where Harris Tire Co. is now. After crossing over the bridge, we turned right on Chambers St. We then went up the hill to 2nd. St. Coming up the hill I think I remember the Turner family would be on their porch to push us on like we were in a parade! I think that they had a fire at their house in the 70’s, I wonder what happened to them? Coming up the hill now, you see a vacant lot where they used to live. We would then turn on York St, then a straight shot to the Pool! The Jefferson Pool, you first had to go through the door for a head count. Next was the coldest shower in the world….to kill germs….ok? You would then follow a winding ramp to the pool! after a refreshing few hours, we would dry off, leave your towels in the laundry room, and follow the same route back to the Y! I remember one summer the pool was not included in the agenda for day camp to everyones disappointment. It seems that a group tried to integrate the Miller park pool, so the city closed them all! I remember my Dad saying that not only did they close the pool, but they filled it in never to be used again! Here we go….”OH NO!” No more Pool! I cried! All us campers were really sad till the Y came up with an idea! They got permission to swim at the Lodge of the Fisherman, now Church of the Covenant in Boonsboro. They provided city busses to take us there….I remember singing the song “On top of spaghetti, I saw my poor meatball” something like that to and from the Y! We also toured the Bakery on Park Ave. I remember loaves of bread coming down the conveyor belt! We toured the shoe factory where the Boys & Girls Club is now! It was fun, and well worth the walk! Below is a shot of the Jefferson Park Pool!
STORY #16 “YOU HAVE A _______ IN YOUR ________! 
I was always a “What if?” person! Sometimes it was good like…”What if we had a Soul station in Lynchburg?” Sometimes it was bad, like this time! Ok….heres what happened…It was near Christmas, and time to put up the decorations! They weren’t as extravagant as they are now. With the LED technology, you can create beautiful, large displays! Most of us had lights that stayed on steady all the time, or you could put a blinker in the line for off,on,off,on, and that was it! Every year Dad would do down to the A&P downtown on 12th St, and buy a Christmas Tree. This set you back $3.00, and I always got to pick it out! The tree went in the living room in front of the picture window. The lights went along the eves on the front porch and went to the porch light that had an outlet. You could then control the lights by turning on the switch in the house. Last but not least, the reef was placed on the front door! We did the same thing every year, with the same lights, stored in the closet upstairs. This year was different….Dad bought a blinker, a small device that you plugged the lights into, then you plugged it in the outlet. You hit the switch….waited a few minutes…. lights off,on,off,on! Wow, cool! It was still daylight, and I couldn’t wait till it got dark to cut on the lights! My sister and parents were in another part of the house and that left me alone with the lights! What if?…….. What if I plugged the TV into the blinker?? I wanted to see what happened….tv-off, tv-on, tv-off, tv-on….cool! well…as fate would have it right at that moment, there was a knock at the door? The guys! Lets go play on the basketball court at Payne School! I’m on my way! After a few hours playing ball….I thought nothing of seeing the Harry Haga tv repair truck at my house when I got home! I don’t remember too much after the repair man said “Lady you have a blinker in your TV set!!” Here it comes…”OH NO!” I forgot to take the blinker out of the cord!” Dad and I did that dance….round and round…holding one of my hands….belt whailing in the other….round and round we went! The repair bill came out of my allowance….!! I found out that the blinker could have burned out our RCA tv set if it had stayed in the circuit a little longer!
STORY #17 “MY YOUNG TAKE ON CHILDHOOD CIVIL RIGHTS!
There was a lot I knew about the Civil Rights Movement, and issues in my childhood that I didn’t know about! My little world ran about the Pierce St. area, and about a few blocks around my house! I often heard my Dad say things like….. “Wow, look at that Negro driving that tractor-trailer truck!” What did that mean? Didn’t this happen a lot? Apparently not… Mom would come in from shopping downtown…. “Wow, they have a Colored girl on the cash register at Leggetts!” Dad would say, “I hope she doesn’t steal anything, because it will be a million years before they hire another one!” This brought another strange look from me? I was 10 when Martin Luther King came to Lynchburg, and spoke at E.C. Glass in 1961, and I don’t remember anyone saying anything about it? Mom would take me to Woolworths downtown shopping and we would have to enjoy our root beers standing in the isle? There were benches that were empty there, but she said we couldn’t go and sit down? Why….I thought? It didn’t bother me, my root beer tasted just as good standing up! Dad would take me to the Warner Theater when there was a monster picture I wanted to see that was not at the Harrison Theater. I would be upset because we had to sit in the balcony! I wanted to see Godzilla, Rodan, and Frankenstein up close and personal! I do know that a Civil Rights incident caused me to get a good spanking? Ok….We were all going to Washington, DC to spend a few days with my cousins. Kemper St. train station was a typical building at the time. It had 4 bathrooms and 2 water fountains. This was a hot summer day, the temperature was in the 90’s. Dad’s took me to the bathroom and I noticed that there were signs said White men, Colored men, White women, Colored women…..ok….. I did notice that the door to the White restrooms were neat and on the hinges, and the others were hanging….you had to lift the door as you opened it! The Flush lever was broken, and was straight out the side of the tank! I didn’t care, I had to go! We all then sat down to wait on the train in the waiting room, which was a little late. After a while, I told Dad that I was thirsty and was going to the water fountain…..he said ok!? After a bit, Dad was the one that said…..”OH NO!” He looked up and saw the water fountain. The one that had the sign Colored was just a white bowl  with an off-on handle you had to keep pushing down to get water. You almost had to touch your lips to the bowl because the pressure was so weak! The other one, which said White,  was a silver and black fountain with a motor in it like a refrigerator! I want you to guess which one I was drinking from!! At the time we were the only one in the waiting room….. Dad grabbed me and before I knew it, I had a belt hitting my short pants! I know now that visions of Emmitt Till, passed through his mind! Dad would tan my hide so bad that the kids up the street would start crying! I really needed an explanation, this time I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong! Between lashes, Dad said “You are drinking out of the wrong fountain…you know better!!” But I didn’t….I said “But Dad, But Dad, that water over there was nice and cold!!”
STORY #18 “MA AND PA’ AND ALL THE YOUNG-UNS TOO!
Everyone….before you read this, it is rated “dirty!” I started not to write it, but it is so “us!” There was a new soft drink on the market that was a instant hit! “Mountain Dew!” All of us couldn’t get enough of the little green bottle! Ok….lets sing….”Now eveybody loves that Mountain Dew…..Ma and Pa and all the young-uns too!” I forgot what’s next! I was the grunt and the go-for, being the youngest on the projectionist club at Dunbar High School. I always ended up going to Dinks grocery store across the street and pick up a six pack of Mt. Dew for the guys! Ok…..heres the story. This happened a lot. My gang would be gathered right up the street enjoying a good old Mt. Dew just purchased from Simmons Grocery. Before you knew it….out of the bushes jumped Pete(not his real name), and grabbed one of us and wrestled the Mt. Dew from one of us! Pete would run down the street drinking the Mt. Dew with the victim crying and chasing behind him! By the time he got it back, most of the drink would be gone! By the way, don’t sit the bottle down…that was an easy swipe! We protected our precious soda as best we could, but you better believe it would soon happen again…and we were getting sick and tired of it!! This had to stop, so we got this idea…. We got an empty Mt. Dew bottle and each of us did a number 1 (P) in the bottle till it was full. (P) was the same color as Mt. Dew….ok you knew that!? We even put it in the refrigerator to get it cold….I put it way in the back or else I would get another “OH NO!” Anyway the next day came, and we went to the store and got our Dews! We had hid the (P) bottle down the street and picked it up like nothing was wrong. After a while, somebody said…”Here he comes…..get ready… We made sure that he grabbed the “right” bottle! Pete grabbed the cold (P) bottle and started running down the street….wait for it….wait for it……he turned it up………..I think he got a few good swallows in before he realized what had happened! Pete was spitting, cursing, fell down running! All of us were rolling around on the ground laughing!! Pete wanted to whip us good, but he was too busy getting sick…… Nobody saw Pete for a while….I wonder why??
STORY #19 “GLAD I WENT TO THE BATHROOM WHEN I DID!

I tell this story often about how I ended up in Lynchburg, and what might have happened had I done a simple thing differently! In the book “Inspiration Street” by Darrell Laurant, I was interviewed by him and I told him this story. It was so fascinating that he included it in his book! Here is the complete version of my story from the beginning! My Mom and Dad met at Virginia Union in Richmond during classes in the early ’40’s, graduating, getting their teaching degrees,  and getting married in 1946. Dad was from Abingdon, Va.(near Bristol), and Mom was from Richmond, within walking distance of Va. Union. They then began a search for teaching jobs with an agreement that they would settle near the middle of the state so that each of them would be an equal distance from home. It would have to be somewhere from Roanoke to Lynchburg….and it ended up to be Campbell County at a school called Kingston, 15 miles south of Lynchburg….120 miles from Richmond, and 190 miles from Abingdon, Va….close enough.

My parents rented a house near Chapel Grove church, and a short ways from Kingston school. Mom taught 1-4th grade, Dad taught 5-7th, and was the principal! In 1951. Ok…here I am…ta-da, I was born. Ms. Spencer, was my babysitter next door to where we lived…..in the meantime Dad was looking for a house! Mom didn’t like the country, Dad neither. He looked a lot in Lynchburg. I told Ed, Big6, that I was almost their neighbor on Taylor St. Dad bidded on a house at 1718 Taylor St, but he lost the bid! The house burned down in the mid 90’s, and is now a vacant lot. Dad kept looking for houses, and here is where it gets interesting? Lets jump ahead a little…Dad spent his last days at the Oak’s(now the Elm’s), on Murrell Rd, an assisted living home. After my morning shift on the radio, everyday I would visit him there in 1995. We would watch Perry Mason, and have lunch. Dad would out of the blue, say something that didn’t make any since? Dad said “Son, if you had to go to the bathroom 5 minutes earlier, we wouldn’t have got our house on Pierce St!” I didn’t pay attention at first, but Dad said it a few times later….I then decided to investigate it? I asked him what did he mean by that right then, forgetfulness would set in, and that is all I got? I kept at it and got this story… Those who know my Dad, knew that he was really light skinned….he could really do this “passing” thing like sit in the bottom section(all White) of the Paramount theater and watch a movie with no hassle! Lynchburg realtors would only show houses in certain areas to certain people according to….you guessed it….race! There were certain invisible barriers around the city dividing Black and White neighborhoods! The barrior went places like up 15th St, one side, down Fillmore St, down 16th St, and so on. Historical Pierce St. was Black from 12th to 15th, stopping there on the side of Dr. Johnsons home (the tennis court). Doc’s home was 1422 Pierce. You cross 15th St. on Pierce, and you were in another territory! There were a lot of these “territories” in Lynchburg, including a well-to-do one from Johnson Rd, to Tollys Ln. off Fort Ave to Carver St. A lot of prominent teachers and Dr’s built houses there! I remember us invited to the newly built home of the Moultries(1958)! We took a tour of the beautiful very large home on Johnson Rd. I recently drove by their home, damn, John and Drucilla would turn over in their graves if they saw the condition of their house now! They, at the time, were surrounded by the White section “territory!” Anyway, Dad saw the ideal house at 1502 Pierce St, one problem, wrong territory! The house had a fenced in yard, place to park your car off the street, etc. Someone told Dad that the couple fought all the time, and it was up for sale! Dad was determined to get that house after losing the bid recently on Taylor St. He said the plan was to meet with the realtor (passing), and he had the cash to get the house for $4500 dollars! The plan was, he was to park up the street(Church St, if I remember)? Mom, who was dark skinned was to wait with me in the car! Dad got out, and went down the street, about a block to the real estate office. We had a four door ’54 Chevy at the time, and I had to go to the bathroom. Before Mom could stop me I opened the back door and ran down the street and into the office…thus the words….”Dad, where is the bathroom?” All hell broke loose, but Dad had already paid the money, and was walking out the door with the deed!! The Realter said “there must be some kind of mistake, wait, you can’t, wait (I guess he must have sounded like the guy on the Reginald Yancy tv spot!) but, but, uh, uh, uh!! The guy followed Dad and me out the door, as he dragged me up the street and into the car! I was told that the realtor turned red as a beet! I’ll bet he said “Oh no” (guess who said “oh no” this time?) “I just sold the wrong house to a ni–r!!” Now you can see where the title to this childhood tale came from! We soon moved in to 1502 Pierce St, one house in the White territory, to the dismay of the neighborhood! Dr. Johnson watched us as history was made, and almost 5 year old MadLad and family moved in! Ms. Proffitt lived next door down 15th St, and yelled out the window “Hey, yawl got the wrong house?” Dad politely said “No mam!” “Yawl must have the wrong house ’cause ain’t no ni–rs in this block!” She called the police. Dad showed the deed to them, and they were on their way. Ms. Proffitt had 3 teenaged boys who worked on old cars in the backyard. Every now and then a rock or something would fly by your head, and hit the ground close, from the back yard! Thank God that their aim was terrible! Dad would wake up in the middle of the night to see if anything was done to the car….nothing! Ms. Bell lived across the street at 1501 Pierce. She came over to the fence and spoke to Dad. After a while I remember Dad saying “We ain’t moving nowhere!!” She had offered Dad twice the amount of the house to move!! I had a fenced in yard to play in, but my parents wouldn’t let me play there alone! Dad put in a new furnace, heat, air conditioning, paint job and gravel driveway! My Sister and I had our own rooms! My only concern was that I had to leave Ms. Spencer, and go to Bethune Nursery School. I knew that when I saw that long hill on Campbell Ave, to Dewitt St, I would start crying….I was getting ready to get left! Mom taught me at Kingston in the 1st grade, but I had to go to the second grade at Robert S. Payne school, where I met all my present day friends! As the rocks and the sneers continued from the area, I remember this interesting tid-bit? A few months after we moved in, Mom got a letter, read it and threw it into the trashcan! My Aunt was visiting at the time from D.C, and noticed her sister getting mad! Mom said “Nothing, don’t worry about it!” My Aunt went in the trash and got out the letter…it said:
New resident! We noticed that you have recently moved here to our beautiful city of Lynchburg! Since you are new here, we would like to invite you to our next church service this Sunday! We would love for you to possibly make Thomas Road Baptist church your church home! We hope to see you this Sunday….signed….

Rev. Jerry Falwell!!!
My Aunt said “Come on Sis, lets go Sunday!! If they say anything or try to stop us we will show them the letter!” My Mom, who didn’t like controversy, said that she didn’t want to be the Rosa Parks of Lynchburg! I wish that Mom had kept that letter! Now we know how the church congregation solicitation works don’t we? The church would get the real estate records for the area, look up the new home sales, and see what street(territory) they were living in to send them a letter! I’ll bet they got a lot of the congregation that way!?
The pictures below are, clockwise:
Madlad, 8 months old, and Mom at our home on Chapel Grove Rd. in Evington!
Family picture with my sister Cornelia in front yard at 1502 Pierce!
Dad and me, Mom and me, ducking rocks! Notice Dr. Johnson’s home in the background, the next territory!
What if….a little thing can cause big consequences, theme of the movie “Back to the Future!” Ok….What if: Dad and Mom had settled in Roanoke(no Soul station for Lynchburg? Surely someone would have thought of the idea…maybe)? What if: I had gone to the bathroom before the deed was transferred? Dad arrested for impersonating a White person?

 
STORY #20 “THE GLEN CLARK DELIVERY BICYCLE ACCIDENT!

There were a lot of stores in the neighborhood, almost one on every other corner! Meade’s, Simmons, Bibee’s, Hall’s, Ward’s. Every store had something to attract customers in a unique way. Simmon’s was just across the street from us…I could go out the door and right into the store with Mint Juleps on the brain! Hamilton’s Store at the corner of 13th & Pierce Sts. had a unique service….delivery! Classmates Herbert Walker & Glen Clark would take items you ordered right to your house! I know you all remembered the delivery bike Glen rode with the big basket on top of the little wheel and the big wheel in the back! All the groceries had to fit in the front basket! Glen had his apron on, and took off with what looked like a normal delivery. I was at the corner of 14th & Pierce Sts. talking to Paul and Juan, and watching Glen ride down the street. Glen was going to turn left and go up 14th St. toward Fillmore. We all turned and looked down the street, so none of us saw the collision! Oh but we heard it though, a big crash after a screech of tires!  We looked up 14th St, a blind corner from Pierce…..Glen had run headlong into a car!! Glen was laying on the ground holding his arm…there were grocery items, milk, eggs, tomatoes, lying everywhere! We Froze none of us could speak or move! The driver got out of the car to see if he could do anything? Mr. Hamilton either heard the crash or someone ran up the street and told him about it, but he ran up the street and helped Glen to his feet…..I go blank from there, still frozen, I couldn’t tell you if he was taken to the hospital or not! A small crowd had gathered and talking, hoping that Glen would be all right? I need for someone to take up the story from there, I was still frozen! We are trying to restore the Hamiltons Store, and make it a Museum! You can read about it on my web-site under “pierce st. gateway!” If you can help out by donating, you will find the forms and blanks on that page! By the way, there is a picture of Glen Clark on my first “pierce st.” page! Glen passed away recently!

 
STORY #21 “COMMUNION AT JACKSON STREET CHURCH!

My Mom told me one Sunday that this was going to be a special Sunday at Jackson Street Church! This was Communion Sunday….what is that? Mom said you will find out when we get there. I waited for Rev. Pannell to announce the occasion, he did! “I want you to come up a few section at a time for our Communion service! We partake the body of Jesus, and the blood of Jesus” at least  it went something like that? All I heard was the Blood part! The first group everyone kneeled in front of the alter…Rev. said “This is my body take it! “Then he said “This is my blood, drink it and be blessed!” Again, all I heard was the blood part…. Rev. said “Do this in remembrance of me.” Man, I would remember anyone that you want to remember, just don’t make me do this! The first group rose up and went back to their seats….they seemed alright! A few groups went up and came back, I was concerned about the fact that it was almost our turn, and the blood part! Finally it was our turn, and Mom took me by the hand and took us to the alter. I stooped down beside Dad, and the service continued… Jesus body was represented by these small round paper wafers. Rev. said “This is my body, take it.” I ate it, this ain’t bad, kinda stuck to the roof of my mouth, but I got through it! On No….there it is….Rev. said “This is my Blood, drink it and be blessed.” I looked to my left, Mom drank the liquid in the tiny little glasses that fit into the holes in the round alter. I looked to my right, and Dad did the same, no different expression, and put the tiny glass in it’s place. I was the last one, and the glass was in my hand. Rev. Pannell was getting ready to say go in peace, and I still had the glass in my hand! Here goes nothing…down the hatch…..I don’t remember what happened next after what I said! Before I thought….(this happened to me a lot), I said loudly “Ma, this ain’t nothing but grape juice!!” There was a big SMACK (Mom had a backhand you could never see coming), I don’t remember anything after that…….

 
STORY #22 “A HARD HEAD MAKES A SOFT TAIL

Dad wouldn’t let me ride my new bike in the street, only in the yard! We had a fenced in yard, but it wasn’t long enough to get up enough speed to ride! Boy oh boy, if I only could ride up the street and back it would be great! Dad told me that it was dangerous in the street! Elmer’s bike was taken last week right off his porch, and it hasn’t been found yet! My bike could be taken, I could be hit by a car, I might run over something and get a flat tire…. This possibility never occurred to me when the urge to ride, pedal and break was too tempting! You know me, and then you know what happened…. The gate opened, and I went up 15th Street with a big smile on my face! I was riding down Fillmore when I noticed four boys at the other end of the block. They saw me….I waved, and next thing I knew one of them grabbed me and pulled me off the bike to the ground! I was holding on to my bike for dear life…finally letting go! As I saw my bike going down the street, I said…..here it comes….”OH NO!” Dad told me this would happen! I picked myself up and ran up Fillmore Street crying….big time! I ran to my house where Dad was reading the paper. I said “Some kids stole my bike!” “Did they come in the yard?” “No….I…was….up…..the street.” Dad said “WHAT, WHAT, I told you, never mind, which way did they go?” Dad jumped in our car and sped down the street. I didn’t know what was worse….losing my bike or getting yelled at when Dad came back for disobeying him? I was always hard headed, but all of you knew that….right? It seems that there was a gang stealing bikes in the area. I found out that they would paint, and disguise the bikes some kind a way! I was upset at the prospect of this happening to my bike!  I had just told Elmer that I thought that I saw his bike at the market on Grace St! We put a certain decal on the crossbar of the bike. It was a decal of a guy in a toilet, all you could see was his head sticking out. His hand was on the plunger and the caption said “Goodbye cruel world!” That decal in a certain place on a different color bike would be a dead giveaway! Elmer told the police and hoped that this report would put him a little closer to finding his bike! Anyway….that was the longest few minutes of my life wondering where Dad was, and it was all my fault! My eyes were glued to up 15th Street with tears in my eyes when around the corner came our white Chevrolet. In the trunk was MY BIKE! Dad told me that he saw the boys gathered around the bike on White Rock hill. He pulled up, rolled down the window and yelled “Where did you all get that bike!!!” The boys dropped the bike to the ground and ran off in different directions! Dad picked it up and put it in his trunk, and started home! Man….I was glad to see that bike! The next thing he said stopped me in my tracks….. “Take a good look at it because you are not going to see it for two weeks! A hard head makes a soft tail!” That was the longest two weeks of my life! Below is a picture of my sister and me….IN THE YARD! If you look in the basket by the rear wheel on the bike, you will see the radio a few weeks before it was destroyed at the basketball game! Story #8!

 
STORY #23 “THE RADIO STATION WASN’T MY FIRST REAL JOB!

My first job was at a department store! G.C. Murphys had opened in Pittman Plaza, and was very popular with everyone. It had a flower dept, toys, records, everything under one roof. There was a Snack section manned by Chef Sam Watkins. People would come for miles around for his sandwiches! They had a cool item that no-one had….an escalator! I rode my bike there and discovered that they had hired a Black cashier. Leroy Copeland DHS-’67 was hired to oversee the record department. If you wanted to get all the latest songs out, Leroy could get it for you! The only other record shop was L. Oppleman. They had booths where you could play the records and see if you liked them or not. Their 45’s were 98cents, Murphy’s were 76cents! Lp’s were $2.77 for mono, and $3.77 for stereo. The songs sounded better in stereo for some reason? Leroy had the hifi going all over the store while you were shopping you might hear something you liked! He was selling a lot of records! Leroy told me there was a part-time position open at the store for a cashier. I applied for it. You had to take a test…..I was the only Black in with five other people for the same position. The questions were things like….if an item was $2.99, and the customer gave you $5.00, how much change would you give back? Well, back then there weren’t many Black cashiers anywhere in town….Leroy was the first on the sales-floor with a key to the cash register! You had to keep up with the total in your register every few hours. I just knew I didn’t get the job being the only Black in the bunch, but to my surprise I got it! I was the only one that passed with an almost perfect score! I guess that they liked a Black guy counting correctly, rather than anyone else giving back the wrong change! Mrs. Candeler was our supervisor! I worked Thursday 5-till close at 9PM, and was on sick call if someone couldn’t make it to work. I worked Saturday from noon-7PM, being still in school. I walked to work mostly cutting through Miller Park, walking up the wall in front of the Salvation army! I listened to the radio a lot, and told Leroy about this great song I heard. It was Leroys job to guess how many copies of one song to order? We’ll order 50 copies of “She Loves you-The Beatles. 50 “Shotguns” by Jr. Walker, and so forth! You try not to tell a customer you don’t have a song, just that you can get it for them! I learned a lot about marketing, and sales! The records came from Deans one Stop, a record distributor from Richmond. I thought this was strange, the lady that brought the records was a little White lady, and boy did she know her music! She knew the Temptations, 4 tops, Wilson Pickett like they were best friends! I was there when she brought to 100 copies of this song that she said was going to be a hit and best seller! Leroy played the song over the stores loudspeaker system and a crowd came to the record department and wanted to buy copies! I’ll never forget, the song was “The Horse” by Cliff Nobles & Company! I was there for a year before I got laid off, but I had enough money to start my little radio station WKKD! The rest of the story is on my “WKKD” page on this web-site. Leroy, who recently passed away, provided the music for the station! He would give me a copy of any song he wanted me to push on the radio. The one copy he gave me could turn into hundreds he would sell that week….we had a great racket going! Everyone was happy….I had music for my radio station, Leroy had customers for the record department, and Lynchburg had a great place to buy the latest hits! My job was great till a few of my teachers and friends came to G.C. Murphys to shop, and I waited on them! Below is a shot of Leroy, I am sure all will remember him! He was one of the few people who owned a 8 mm movie camera!
(CLICK HERE) for a beautiful home movie at the Copeland’s home, Christmas 1968 part I.
(CLICK HERE) For Christmas 1968 part II.
Leroy was at Murphy’s from 1965-1969! Go to “events” on this site to see what Leroy is doing now! I talked to Leroy to get his approval of this story, and he told me something I forgot about in getting the correct number of records that would hopefully sell. You know a song, so do you order 25, 50, or 100 copies of it? We used a guide that came out every week….it listed the latest top tunes in different categories, Country, top 40, R&B/Soul, etc. Since at the time Lynchburg didn’t have a Soul station, you really had to rely on “Billboard Magazine!” For example, if you hadn’t heard of a song, but it was #2 on the Soul charts, it must be a best seller somewhere…..so you should order 100….get it? Under Leroy’s picture is an example of Billboard for the week of September 10th, 1966. If you want to download the magazine and read about singers from the past……
(CLICK HERE)


 
STORY #24 WOW, LOOK AT THAT LITTLE SUCKER GO!!
I would get home from Payne school around 2:30PM after school let out at 2:20PM. I was a latch-key kid, and wore my key to the house around my neck. After letting myself in the house, I had to do my homework, before maybe visiting a few friends. My older friends wouldn’t get home till 3:45PM after Dunbar let out at 3:25PM remember? That gave me an hour before Mom and Dad came in from school around 3:45PM. It was plenty of time to get into some mischief of some kind! One day I noticed this thing in a round glass case on the side of the house? It had something in it that moved a tiny bit, just barely. I happened to cut on a light or two, and I noticed that the little thing in the glass started moving faster. Interesting…. I cut on a few more lights, and it went a little faster…wow, a discovery? I wonder what it was? I cut on a few more lights, it was really moving now! I happened to cut on our electric stove….it was really, really moving now! About then, the furnace cycled on and that thing was going so fast you could bearly see it! You could see the gears moving as they worked the dial for some reason? By now I had about every light and appliance on in our house! Right about now, Mom and Dad arrived home. They would always tell friends that everyday they would turn the corner on 15th St, and hope and pray that the house was still there and not two chimneys smoldering….next would always come a sigh of relief! Anyway…Dad got out of the car and I very proudly told him I wanted to show him something. I don’t remember anything too much after I told him “Just look at that little thing in the glass case go!” I saw the belt come out of the loops in his pants….”Oh NO!” Just imagine me cutting off switch after switch fast as I could all through the house, while dodging the belt! Wow…..now what did I do wrong!!??

  STORY #25 MOM WOULD HAVE LOVED A KEURIG!
In the Goins household, it was a trip getting out in the morning to school and work. Dad had to get out his suit, and Mom her best dress to teach school at Lynch Station school. It was the year 1962, I had to get to Robert S. Payne school, and my sister Cornelia had to be dropped off at Bethune Nursery school. All this had to be done around one bathroom. My 30 cent lunch money was always on the shelf near the door on the way out! Mom had to have her coffee which took up a lot of time to prepare. Get out the coffee pot, pull out the long stem and load it with Maxwell House in the round part on top. A word you don’t hear too much of is “purk!” You fill the pot with water and sit it on the stove. after a while a bubble of coffee would rise up to the glass knob on the top and make a sound….a “purk” (I guess that is how you spell it?) Mom would sit around and watch the coffee pot, and count the number of “purks” it made. Too many and the coffee would be too strong, and not enough too weak. After the amount was reached, she would take the pot off the burner and pour herself a cup of coffee. Put in the Carnation cream and sugar, and everything was great for the morning! This preparation took about 20 minutes out of her day and I was always thinking that there must be a better way? I tend to take after my parents in buying the same things that they did, if they are still around. Dad loved Chevrolets! Go to “class cars” and I have pictures of most of the cars I remember him having…hence my Chevy Van! Dad bought me a J.C. Higgins bike from Sears! Mom loved Maxwell House coffee. Dad lived in Sears….I have their tools, craftman drills,  sanders ect. Dad would probably be forming a picket line now with a sign that says “Bring back Sears!”  Mom would have loved a Keureg! Zee and I have his & hers Keurigs! I like my coffee with Coffeemate, and Truvia Sweetner…..Zee likes hers with Coffeemate and Equal Sweetner. We both want it fast, and the whole process takes 3-5 minutes! This would be an ideal Mothers day present….just put the pod in the machine and push the button! Everytime I look at our kitchen coffee set up, I think of Mom….look at the picture below, and you will see why!
STORY #26 EMMETT TILL AND I HAD SOMETHING IN COMMON!
I WAS WATCHING THE SAD STORY ABOUT EMMETT TILL, AND THE RECENT LAW THAT WAS PASSED IN HIS NAME! WHILE WATCHING PICTURES OF HIM I NOTICED SOMETHING IN ONE OF THEM THAT I’LL BET NO-ONE SAW BUT ME! IT LOOKED LIKE HE LOVED RADIOS, AND WAS TUNING IN A FAVORITE STATION ON HIS IN THIS PICTURE. I ENLARGED THE PICTURE IN THE STORY, AND SURE ENOUGH HE WAS TUNING IN A ZENITH TRANS-OCEANIC. HE WAS PROBABLY PICKING UP DISTANT STATIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. THAT RADIO HE WAS LISTENING TO WAS VERY EXPENSIVE IN THAT TIME, AND COULD PICK UP VERY DISTANT STATIONS WITH NO PROBLEM! ! I HAD A CHEAPER MADE IN JAPAN RADIO, AND USED TO DO THE SAME THING….TRYING TO SEE WHAT RADIO STATIONS I COULD PICK UP AT NIGHT! I LOOKED IN MY COLLECTION, AND I HAD ONE JUST LIKE HIS! I POSED IT NEXT TO THE TV FOR COMPARISON IN THE PICTURE BELOW….SAME RADIO! I WOULD LIKED TO HAVE MET HIM AND DISCUSSED THAT RADIO HE HAD! HIS ZENITH WAS WAY OUT OF MY PRICE RANGE TO HOPE FOR ME TO GET MY HANDS ON. I WOULD HAVE TOLD HIM TOO NOT TO VENTURE OUT BY HIMSELF ANYWHERE SOUTH OF VIRGINIA! I WOULD HAVE TOLD HIM TO EAT PLENTY OF CRACKERS…..THEN YOU WONT BE ABLE TO WHISTLE??
STORY #27 THE STRANGE THING I WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS ONE YEAR?  
About once a month, Mom would get in the mood to bake a cake from scratch! Now you know I had to help out! I always did the mixing and prepared the batter…eggs, flower, sugar…ect. After everything was measured out and put in the pan, it was placed it the oven. Our mixer was the common two blade one, and after all was finished, I had one for each hand! After my sister came along, and had to help out, there was to my dismay, one for me and one for her!  “Oh no” Yea that was an oh no moment…. Anyway, there was one item that we put in the batter, that I was interested in….that was vanilla. You only needed a small tablespoon for the cake, and that stuff smelled so good! I had this idea…..when Mom wasn’t looking I poured out some vanilla into a glass, and couldn’t wait to take a great big swig of it! That was the nastiest stuff in the world!! How can something that smelled so good, taste so bad! Anyway, I wanted to do a cake every week, but Mom had to work and do other things that made this wish impossible! I then saw the answer to my prayers on TV, the Kenner Easy-Bake Oven! On my Christmas list it went…. Dad thought that is was funny at first, but I was serious! I could imagine the salesman saying, “Here is a green one, your daughter should love this one!” Then Dad would say, “It’s not for my daughter, but my Son!” I could imagine the expression on the salesmans face! Dad was asking how did it work and cook the food? He found out that in worked from a lightblub! The oven didn’t cost that much, so you know I got something else too…like another radio! The oven didn’t work out as well as expected, and I soon abandoned it. After trying a few mixes, I put in in the oven to bake. No matter how long it stayed in it, the batter was always real soupy and soft, and didn’t taste too good? I tried a higher wattage light blub, even though the instructions call for no higher than at 60 watt one! I never told the guys about my little experiment in kitchen cooking, they would have laughed and rode me real good!!

STORY #28 WHO LET THE DOG’S OUT??!

Right across the street I had a first hand view of all the Tennis activity at Dr. Johnson’s house! It was noisy sometimes, but no-one was home during the daytime hours, and there was always the constant “thunk” of the practice ball server. Doc. loved to keep the court clean and sparkling for all tennis fans to enjoy! The scrapers, and rollers didn’t make that much noise, but it was still noise! The only thing that Dad hated about living across from Dr. Johnson was “dem damn doggs!” Doc. hunted during hunting season and in the garage storage house he kept his hounds! They would leave early in the morning and hunt somewhere… You had better believe that Doc. Boulware, and a few more would pile the dogs in the back of Doc’s ’58 Buick station wagon, and be on their way! I took the picture below to show you how close the doghouse was to our house…. The white house in the picture was only divided by 15th Street! The lefthand window was my room, and right under it was my parents room. Those dogs would perform most of the night, especially if it was cold. It wasn’t just a “bark,” but a long “Ohhhgawowowo, a howl Ah-ooh ah-ooh” and when one would stop, the other dogs would start up! Dad and Mom would not only be kept up by the phone (story #12 &13), but when the phone was not ringing, the dogs were howling. If you closed the window toward doc’s house, you had to open the window on the other side of our house for a vent. No problem right? Except the smell of Dinner-Bell Meat Products would creep right up Pierce St. hill, cross the expressway, and right into my window! This was one of two things that Doc. and my Dad argured about. The other thing was the fact that Doc. accused me and my bunch of breaking down his rosebushes located at the edge of the tennis court, at the hedges. He found out later that everyone in his fold was using that shortcut to get from Pierce St. to the tennis court without going through the front steps entrance! He just saw me and a couple of my friends do it one day, so we got accused!! Dad would raise cane for Doc to do something about those dogs short of calling the Police or the dog pound, or something! After this went on for a while, Doc. even came came over one night to see how bad the barking was….it was bad even with our windows closed! Doc. got this idea to seal off the top vent located in the arch of the “A” frame! So the dogs could get air, he opened a larger vent on the tennis court side of the garage/doghouse! It worked…all of the barking went in that direction…..problem solved!!

STORY #29, THE MCCAINS ARE GOING TO DIE IF I DON’T HELP!!
We never missed “The Rifleman!” I am sure that everyone remembers the opening scene where he rapid fires the rifle walking down the street, then the theme song starts…”The Rifleman!!” Every week I would act out the shooting, and try to fire fast shots. I had a plain rifle that couldn’t shoot as fast, and sometimes caught my fingers when I tried to copy the act! One Christmas my friend Billy got the ultimate present, the “holy grail” modified cap version of Luke McCain’s gun with the large round trigger handle. I had to try it out during the next show, and had Billy bring it down to my house to see if I was as fast as Luke? One night we were watching the episode “Ordeal.” This was the one about them getting lost in the desert. The horses ran away, the water ran out, Luke hurt his leg, and he sent Mark ahead to bring help. Everything that could go wrong did, and 8 year old me had to help! Dad noticed me glued to the tv, watching intently. Back in the day, we had about two minutes during the commercials to either go get a snack, go to the bathroom, get a drink, and rush back to the tv by the time the program started back again! I had it timed pretty good….boy what I would have given for a pause button, and a better aim at the toilet! Anyway, Dad knew my routine, and just moved out of the way when the tv advertisements came on, or risk getting run over… This time, he knew that something was wrong? I went and got a big glass of water while the show was going on. Thank goodness he followed me to the tv just as I was about to pour the entire glass of water into the back of the tv set!! Dad grabbed my hand and water went everywhere, but into the tv set! I forgot who said “oh no”  this time? I remember Mark was crawling in the deasert to a rancher fixing a fence. He could bearly say help, and the rancher didn’t hear him! I was helping Mark say “HELP!” In the end, the rancher finally heard him, and rescued Luke who almost didn’t make it. All was now ok, including my rear-end had Luke got MY drink of water by way of our tv set!
STORY #30, MY DAD THOUGHT WATCHING GRASS GROW WAS MORE EXCITING! 
Everyone was playing and watching basketball, football, going to the school games and cheering our team to victory! For a few years, I called the half-time activities(’67-’68), and Miss Dunbar events over the loudspeakers! That is when I found out that folks thought that I sounded good! I was a fan of a sport that no-one played around here I thought, but I never missed being in front of the tv to watch my heros play a round of golf!! Dad, after watching a ball game said,”I could get more excitement watching grass grow!” Sam Snead, with that trademark straw hat, was playing Cary Middlecoff in a championship match! I heard terms like, par, dog-leg, bogie, and eagle. I had Dad buy me a set of plastic golf clubs for my birthday one year! I’m going to say “oh no” now and get it over with… I got the brilliant idea to make a par 4 golf course in our yard. it worked out perfectly down the front, down the side, across the back, and up the side. You even got back to where you started at the end of 4 holes just like you would do with a 9 or 18 hole course! My plastic ball had holes in it, and didn’t go too far. I was doing great till I added a sand trap and a lake that made a muddy mess….put the “oh no” here! Mom came out of the house and stepped right into it with her new shoes! I noticed on tv the holes had a container of some kind, mine were a set of old ash trays I buried. There is a shot of me playing on my “home” page on this web-site, scroll down near the bottom for a laugh! I would talk to myself like I was the announcer….”There he is with a #3 wood to play slightly to the right he swings…”  You wont believe this! I made a hole-in-one one day…BUT…no-one saw it but me! I would have Dad slow down in front of Oakwood Country Club, so I could see what was going on! Dad would always play along with me about things that would interest only me. I wanted to stop and go in there, but he told me that we can’t go there, and would be put out, to my disappointment! We parked up the street and watched for a while! Dad decided to suprise me one Saturday and got me to come with him…where? Somebody might know where this place is? We went rt.29 north, and turned down Amalon Rd. We turned off this road and came to a clearing and there it was….a Golf Course! I think that Dad paid the owner to let me watch for a little while… You wont believe this….there were Black players with golf bags, clubs, and everything! I looked down at my feet and there was a real Golf ball! It was hard and heavy, and I slid in in my pocket when no one was looking. There were two Black guys arguing over the number of strokes, till they saw us and stopped! I only remember that it was near a place called the Polar Bear Club? I don’t think that it is there anymore? I kinda lost interest in Golf, replaced by radio and eletronics. There are now a few of my friends who now play Golf with each other! I talk to Hylan, Harry, Chrisy, who didn’t know that I had this interest….they started out as caddies at Boonsboro Country Club! I have been asked to tag along recently, but I don’t have the interest I once did! My hero Sam Snead is buried in Hot Springs, Va, not too far from here!   Wow!
STORY #31, I’VE GOT SUNSHINE ON A CLOUDY DAY! 
 We attended Jackson St. Methodist Church at 9th and Jackson Sts. every Sunday! Dad was a deacon and trustee, and Mom was part time organist. Like I said, going there was just like going to Dunbar six days a week, because Mr. Seay, Mrs. Weeden, Mrs. Edley, Ms. Manns, Mr. Washington, Mr. McClure and over half of the school were members there! Our main organist was Mrs. Hazel Royal who played our church organ beautifully. The organ was an electric pipe organ that could be heard for blocks away if the top floor windows were open! Hazel Royal didn’t play every Sunday, she needed a break every now and then. This is where my Mom came in. My Mom would play every fifth Sunday! This meant that she played an average of four times a year. The week before Mom was to substitute, she would always have to come in at night to practice the songs for Sunday. She got the key from Rev. next door, and we went to the church on Wednesday night. To my dismay, I had to come with her, missing my favorite tv programs that night! She didn’t dare leave me at the house to get into God knows what? Whenever my Dad and my sister went somewhere, that meant that I had to go to the church and watch her practice! “oh no!” She would hit a few wrong notes, and would have to start again till she got the songs for Sunday right! This particular night, all who know Jackson St, knew that the only restrooms were downstairs…..way downstairs…. You had to go downstairs, through the Sunday school classrooms, and past a door to the back of the church, and Mom had to go. She got up and left, and she left the organ ON! Now she should have known better….right? You know me, we would visit my parents friends house and getting out the car she would tell me to put both hands in my pocket and keep them there till we leave! ……Ahh, come on… but she knew that I couldn’t help but touch something, anything! After a short while, the hum of the organ’s compressor got to me and I sat down at the organ! About this time I was playing keyboard’s for my group the Virginia Woolves. We had an organ that belonged to Piggy. It sounded ok, but it really sounded like an accordian! We were at the time practicing “My Girl,” trying to learn the music while Piggy and Jessie sang. We had no bass guitar, but two lead’s. One of the lead guitar players would play the big strings on the guitar like a bass guitar when called on! Temptation….temptation…. Next thing I knew I was hitting the floor petals and it just happened…… THUMP THUMPP  THUMP, THUMP THUMP, THUMP, the beginning of “My Girl!” Next the keyboard, dah dha…da..da..da…da..da, da  da! Now here I am looking like Ray Charles singing, “Ive got sunshine on a cloudy day…When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May!” Something told me to look around….and I saw them…standing there with their arms folded…..Rev. Pannell, Deems Melvin, and MY MOM!!! I just stopped singing and playing, got up, went back to my seat,  didn’t say a word…. Funny, no-one said a word either, and practice went on like nothing had happened! To tell you the truth the silence hurt worse that getting yelled at! By the way….fifth Sunday went off without a hitch! I really wish that they would repair the organ!?
STORY #32 WHERE ARE ALL MY FRIENDS?
I noticed that lately my Dad was quiet and in a sad mood? After a while I asked him what was wrong? He was on the verge of crying sometimes….. He said “I am losing all of my friends” I know that I had my gang that I would visit, and they would visit me! We would play games, ride bikes, hunt for snakes, watch monster pictures on tv….ok…. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have someone to associate with! I knew that every now and then Dad would attend a funeral, and then  he would be sad for a while. One thing about Dad, he could make friends quicker than me! When I made the transition from Kingston School in the first grade then  to Payne School in the second grade in Lynchburg city, I had to meet new friends. My first few days in Miss Lea’s room, she was introducing everyone in the class to each other. I found out that there were two Roberts in my room, me and Robert Shaw! Not only that, the two Roberts both lived on Pierce St! I was at 1502, and Shaw was at 622. When I got home one day, Dad said come on lets go visiting and find the other Robert! Reluctantly, I went along….we met Roberts parent, Mrs. Edna Shaw, Rev. Byram, Robert’s brother Peter, and he had a dog names Sarge! The next thing you knew they had a card game going, and we were playing outside with another classmate Jimmy Brown, and David Cardwell from up the street! Within that my second grade year, I had most of the friends I still have now! Dad had his church buddys, and teacher buddies, he would play Bid whist, and pinochle (I think the spelling is right?)  Dad lived to be 87, and a lot of his friends passed on before him! I remember: Whitt Vaden, Graham Marshall, Vernon Langhorne, Archie Monroe, Harry Royal, Lawrence Spencer, Langston Walker, Hector Strong, Leslie Camm, Wayland Mitchell, Lloyd Abbott, Gordon Hemmings, Percell Logan, Charlie Gilmore, Charlie Elliott, George Claxton, Malcolm Jefferson, and lots more! I know how Dad feels….the same thing is happening to me now! I list the obits in my “Newsletter” and discover another classmate has passed on! My running buddys include: Paul Farrow, Billy Mabry, Billy Wooten, Nick Kittrell, Leroy Copeland, Eric Hubbard, Thomas Spriggs, Gerard Hutcherson, Wistar Withers, Claude Hunter, John Price, Piggy Megginson, Calvin Hunter, Sandy Robey, Bo Giles, Hank Mason, Alon Coleman, Ivory Glass, Harry Carter, Charles Fore, Melvin Pinn, Flipper Johnson, John Thorpe, Sidney Crumwell, Sterling Daniels, Earl Payne, George Walker, Thomas Lynch, and a few more. I used to walk Penny Early home from school sometimes…..I remember dancing down 15th Street after we passed her house! I remember Reggie and I going to see her when she got sick at Guggenheimers Rehab center, and I am ashamed that I never went back! The same thing is happening to me now, just like it happened to my Dad back then! The card games I played were Fish, War, and Old Maid?? I did notice that Dad was running low of friends, then this happened. I came home and went into the living room…..Wow…..what did I see? Dad had set up a few card tables and there was playing and smacking around a few cards: Susan Davis, Mary Pullen, Virginia Jefferson, Jennette Irvine, Snowdy Pope, Drucilla Moultrie, Cordelia Pinn…..trying to remember who else was there? I had walked into a hornets nest of teachers….female teachers having a good time playing cards! I believe it was bridge? I just waved goodbye, and backed out of the room liked I had gone into a lions den, and quietly went into my room! All I remember hearing was…”beat that…what you got….match this….how much you got??” It seems that Dad had run out of guys, and was having a ball??? There are a few of my runnin’ buddies left that I still talk to and keep in touch with. I recently found out that Reggie and I were seeing the same Doctor! All we talk about now instead of whose house were we going to play at it’s what is your A1C number? We also discuss who was sick, who passed away, and who we haven’t heard from in a long time! Back in the day, these discussions were the furtherist from our minds! Right now I would love to play ball with the guys again, build a crystal radio set with Claude, call a few girls then hang up when they answered!? Where is my time-machine??
                                                                      Gone but not Forgotten!
STORY #33 THE DAY DUNBAR WENT TO SATURDAY SESSION!
I remember back in the day there wasn’t a way to tell if a singer was Black or White unless they appeared on tv or an lp cover! We only had a few dance shows that we could watch….remember Hulabaloo, Shindig, American Bandstand and Saturday Session? Saturday Session was the program on tv that featured local high schools dancing and having a good time! There was a differen’t school every week! It always started off with a close-up of a 45rpm record spinning on the turntable….I played “We’re Rolling On” by the Impressions for the first song then it would fade back to a school dance. It was kinda a protest song, but no one said anything, I snuck it past! I almost played “We’re a Winner!” I knew that someone would say something about that one!! I was always starting something along that line…..see what you think: (click here) httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5gD-cp9l3k
I loved it when the school was Campbell County, Gibson, Central, ect, Then we could have at least an hour of good music! In the year 1968, I was the DJ for Dunbar on Saturday Session! We all got on a charted city Bus and went early Saturday Morning to videotape the hour long program. We were told that it would come on at I believe 2PM. Classmate Dennis Saunders brought Willie Crews, and a few members of the Rockin’ Rhythms to do a set on tv! After the taping, all the girls wanted  to do some shopping at the Towers Mall which was adjacent to the tv station.  We all agreed to be back at the bus by 12:30 to go back home. As luck would have it, a few classmates were late, and we started back to Lynchburg. As time flew by and the miles flew by too, it looked like we weren’t going to make it home to watch all of the program! We got to Lynchburg about 10 minutes before 2PM! We all knew that by the time we got back to school, made it home, turned on the tv, we would probably miss half of the show! We came down Kemper St, and I shouted….”Hey everybody, lets go by my house and watch the show! The bus is going right by my house now! Stop the bus!” We all got off the bus, ran up 15th st, and into my dining room to turn on the tv with only minutes to spare! (I’m glad Dad wasn’t watching the game!) We watched the entire show, sitting everywhere we could squeezing in about 25 people in one room!  We had just bought our 25″ color tv set, we had kids sitting two in a chair on the floor, standing up, everywhere, we didn’t care! I remember Myra had worn this beautiful dress with a pink and purple flower print. I was looking at the colors, almost exactly matching her image on tv! After the show, everyone thanked my parents and used the phone to call their parents to let them know that they were all right! I could have imagined worried parents when the almost empty bus arrived back at Dunbar! The bus driver told them that they all gone to some guy named MadLad’s house to watch the tv, and they were all right! I remember, I was the hero that day, and the class was talking about watching the program at my house for weeks! I often wondered if maybe by chance the tv station might have kept a copy of the videotapes? That would be the bomb at a class reunion to watch! I had a friend of mine that worked in sales/advertising, and I asked him about it? To my disapointment, Frank told me that videotape was new and expensive back then, and they probably used the same tape over and over again for the next school….wow….oh well!
  STORY #34! WHO STOLE AND ATE WILEY’S SANDWICH?!
The elite group to be a part of if you were into electronics was the Dunbar Projectionist Club! Headed by Wiley, Ben, Reginald and others, the joy of putting on Mr. Stamps padgents and plays, guaranted you an “A” in English if you were in his class! I was in the tenth grade when I was picked as a possible future member of the club! The senior members were all the time riding me hard with “grunt” jobs all the time in order to keep my shakey reputation stable at school. I was fetching everything possible for the leaders so I could stay in good standings! One time there was a older projection projector that needed a change of the main blub. Wiley and Ben ordered the correct blub and when it came in, Wiley proceeded to try and install it. After a few tries, the old blub wouldn’t budge. He didn’t want to break it, but it just didn’t want to come out. After a frustrating few minutes to an hour, I was watching him pull his hair out and the old bulb was still in place! I asked him “Do you want me to get it out for you?” He replied…..”you don’t know anything about this, I’ll figure it out!” After a few minutes, the old blub was still in place. A lot of the members of the club were in the room where we kept all the equipment watching the struggle… Finally, I asked again “Do you want me to get it out for you?” Wiley finally said “Ok Goins, you think you know so much, get it out!” I came over, did a few twists and turns, the bulb poped out, and I handed it to him! I said “Would you like for me to put in the new blub?” The rest of the guys in the club were laughing and snickering at the action that took all of a few seconds! I then learned that me, being the “grunt” had embarrased the upperclassman of the club, and that was a no-no! That and a few other instances put me on the list to be picked on. Oh…the secret of the blub was that it was a bayonet bulb where you just push it in and turn it, and it would come right out! It was on then, and I could do nothing right for the club! Here comes the mystery…. Everyone in the club didn’t use their lockers, but we kept our books and things in the Projectionist room located right pass the overpass that went over the parking lot in the Mozee building. I learned a lession early when at the beginning of the year, I lost a stack of 45’s I had put into my locker because the janitors didn’t bother to change the combination this particular year! We all had a key to the Projectionist room, and had a honor system for our personel stuff. I bought lunch most of the time, or went to the snack bar, but a few of us brought our lunch. Wiley went to get his tuna-fish sandwick for lunch only to find a big chunk of it missing! Oh…he was pissed, accusing all of us of eating his sandwich…..me especially! Everyone knew that I almost always ate in the cafeteria, so I didn’t do it!? After a few other members had sandwiches missing or bites taken out of it, this happened. The Seniors and Juniors were to meet in the Cafateria for some kind of meeting with a College representative after school (if anyone was there or remembers this, please contact me. I remember it really did happen, but I don’t remember the occasion?) Anyway, everyone was waiting for whoever was to meet with us, who was running late. We found out that the person would be 45 minutes to an hour late! Instead of sitting around and looking at each other, Wiley suggested that we get a record player brought down and play music till they arrived. “Hey Goins…..go up to the room and fetch us a record player!” Yes….I did it! The room was a long way away from the Cafeteria, so I went and got it. The Transcription record players that the schools had were very heavy! If you remember them, they had a speaker built in to the case cover, and didn’t sound that bad! Most of us had a stack of records all set to play them when I got back. After a struggle, I finally got back and put the record player on the table. I got the plug out and plugged it in, everyone was standing around waiting for the short dance to start when the unthinkable happened! I opened the cover, and a MOUSE jumped out! I had unknowingly brought a passenger back with me! The girls jumped, ran, got up on tables, the guys chased the poor mouse up one side of the Cafateria to the other! It ran up and down both lunch lines and through the stage area! Oh….I was still standing there with the record player cover in my hands! The guys started throwing things at it…trays, notebooks, napkin holders? Wiley yelled “Thats that s.o.b that ate my sandwiches….his a-s is grass!!” He was obcessed and determined to get that mouse!! After the chase went on, it looked like the mouse was winning! From out of nowhere, Wiley found one of those big dictionarys from our library. An exact throw landed the big book right on top of the target! For a while we were afraid to move the book, but, you know what happened next…..it was BAD! This is where I need someone to tell me what happened next, some got sick and went home, some dropped their records and ran out, it was BAD! Oh….I was still standing there with the record player cover in my hand!
  STORY #35! WHAT CAUSED MR. STAMPS TO SAY, “WHO IS THAT FOOL ON THE SPOTLIGHT!!??”
(CLICK HERE) FOR STORY #35, LOOK FOR “MY CONFESSIONS” ABOUT HALFWAY DOWN!
  STORY #36! FIRST TIME IN A CHEVY CORVAIR!
This was about 1964, Lucy and Richard Hicks were real good friends with my parents! Ms. Hicks started her elementary school teaching at my Dad’s school Lynch Station Elementary. She commuted there everyday for years with my parents while Mr. Hicks worked at GE. My Dad always said that the Lord blessed us with three sets of eyeballs in the car during the 55 mile roundtrip to and from work all those years! There were NO accidents! One day Mr. Hicks told us that he was picking up his new Chevrolet Corvair, and he brought it over for us to see! Mr. Richard Hicks knew that it would be a treat for my and my sister to ride in the Corvair! It was a white convertable, where was the top? He asked could he take my sister and me around the block for a ride! It was great, windy and noisy like a race car, (engine was in the back)! I had heard of this Corvair, read about it, but this was up close and personal! We went up Pierce St, down 15th, down Wise, and back around….We were waving like in a parade! When it was time to get out, I did something that I thought was unheard of…. I got out of the car without opening the doors, I just hoped out! We thanked Mr. Hicks for the ride, one that I will always remember!
CORVAIR!
  STORY #37! THE SCYTHE VS. THE SNAKE! 
Curiosity killed the cat, but it almost killed me! I was famous for reaching for things that I shouldn’t touch after been told not to. Everytime we went over to one of their friends houses, I would be told to put your hands in your pockets and KEEP THEM THERE! It was either that or be left in the car(in the back seat!)…. Those hands had better not be  out, not ever to scratch my nose, or they would get smacked! It was like something told me to “go ahead, pick it up!” My hands were in my pocket when we went to stores downtown and in the Plaza! Once my parents were visiting fellow school teachers Lloyd Abbott and his wife in Gladys, Va. Mrs. Abbott had an award winning salt and pepper shaker collection on display in large glass cases all over the house! You had to open the door to the case to get to them…Sure enough I saw an interesting one that she has left on the coffee table, I picked it up, looked at it, and dropped it! Yep, a piece broke off it, and I was in big trouble! I had to say I was sorry, and I think that Dad bought her another one! This was on a Sunday, Dad told me not to touch the TV(he knew that Lassie was getting ready to come on)! Oh I cried and cried! He said “You have been touching the wrong thing all your life, and it’s time to stop!! He said a while back I could have been killed….then he told me this story! Before we moved to Lynchburg, Dad wanted to trim some tall weeds at our old house near Chapel Grove Church….I was about three years old, and don’t remember any of what happened. Our next door neighbor was Malcolm Spencer, who used to babysit me while my parents taught school at Kingston. He borrowed his swing blade called a Scythe. It was a huge sharp blade with a couple of handles that you wore with a strap over your shoulder. I was sitting on the woodpile looking as Dad moving the blade back and forth clearing a path in the weeds. He was careful not to get close to me with that thing! There was a piece of tin in the way of the weeds, and the tin was moving a little? Dad told me that I was wondering what was under it, so I reached over and pulled it to the side. I said “Daddy look!” It was a copperhead!! Before I said anything else, the snake was in three or four pieces on the ground in seconds! I might not have been here now, knowing the distance between Evington and Lynchburg General, to get help with a snake bite! This was another “Oh No” moment, that I am thankful, for that slowed me down with putting my hands on things!  After Dad told me that story I saw snakes everywhere!!
[“] scythe
  STORY #38, SHADES OF “COOLEY HIGH” !
 I know that everyone remembers the 1975 movie “Cooley High!?” Well in another “Oh…No…” moment the Zoo scene was a true to life happening for me! Our ninth grade class at Dunbar went on a class trip to Washington, D.C. in 1966 on busses. We went to the museum, the Jefferson memorial, and the National Zoo! You know I took my shortwave radio to see what I could listen to there… I had to check out the Soul stations in D.C……WOOK and WOL. Jerome and a lot of my classmates were from there, and would sometimes spend the whole summer there, and tell me about the radio stations and the music that never made it to Lynchburg! They would bring back Soul record sheets from the record shops there. We had an interesting visit to the zoo that reminded me of Cooley High. When I first saw the movie in 1975, I told everyone that the same thing happened to us in 1966! I remember visiting the snake house in which we saw the King Cobra in a glass cage. It was crawling along the bottom of the cage when I stopped to read the sign about the snake. After I finished reading, I looked back and the snake was gone? I looked up, and the snake had risen up, and hood had formed, and it was ready to strike! There was glass between me and and snake, but that didn’t stop me from running out the “Snakehouse!”  My radio was a little heavy for me to carry everywhere, so I took one of my belts and looped it through the handle of the radio, and over my shoulder…..easier to carry! I remember Linda coming over and she wanted to hear a catchy tune we had never heard called:
“That’s Enough by Roscoe Robinson!” (click here) httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyHCpYpUW3E
Heading to the monkey house, we had my radio up kinda loud. The security guard came up behind up and told us to cut the radio off……why? The music upsets the monkeys!? I thought that they kidding, so hard headed my kept it off till we walked to the other end of the cages….then I turned it up!! A few seconds later, something wizzed by my face, and everybody jumped and scattered….It smelled really bad…..you know what it was, just like in the movie, but it didn’t hit anyone!
[“] I Almost got hit with Monkey Sh-t! Everyone scattered, and the guards were laughing at us running….told ya!
You better believe that my radio was off till we left the Zoo! I watch Cooley High a lot for the music soundtrack(Motown!) I wonder what ever happened to Cynthia Davis who played Brenda in the picture…..she never acted in another movie?
                                                                                                            “] Brenda….have mercy!!
  STORY #39! WHO IN THE HELL INVENTED “SIDELINE BASKETBALL??”!  
Up at Payne School, we all remember when the school system painted kickball bases, basketball goals, dodgeball areas, and lots more! Kickball had mostly the same rules as regular baseball…..the pitcher rolled the ball to you and you kicked it….if the other team caught it, you were out! I remember during a game, the ball was kicked, and a lot of teammates tried to catch the ball kinda running into each other. The ball tipped off someones hand and went into the air again. Just like it was planned, Susan was right there to catch it, and was the hero of the day…..this caused us to win! Those days are only memories now since the teachers parking lot took over our basketball court on the side of the school! We all played basketball on the only goal next to the building, and we hoped that there were no big kids using the court…We all knew the rules of playing ball…..pick a team of five each, shirts and skins(nothing on but shorts on)! You take the ball outside the line, after tossing a coin to see who gets it…..tossing it to your teammate. It was a mad rush to get the ball and shoot it because there was one goal for everyone. you dribbled it around till you could make a shot….you couldn’t start again after stopping….you had to shoot it or pass it to another team member. You had to really follow the ball because both teams had the same goal! It was fun, no real rules, just a lot of skinned knees and stomped on radios(childhood tales story #7  on this page.) A few of the guys were tall enough to block a shot….and we all kept score! This was 1962, and we were headed to the gym to play basketball! I was in Ms. Slaughter’s class, and we played against Ms. Pinn’s class. I didn’t know at the time, but there was a rivalry going on between them two!? The key to sideline basketball was for everyone to have a chance to play…..ok? The rules were quite different….. There were two goals at each end of the court for each team….. All of the classmates lined up on different sides of the court, each team on different sides! One side would get the ball, and they would have to pass it to the person next to them till it got to the other end of the court. You wouldn’t believe how hard this was….you could hand the ball to some teammates, and they would drop it like it was hot or something? Anyway, the last five in line would play each other and try to score a goal. The ball was passed to me, and I immediatly threw it at the goal! There were a lot of laughes, shouts and boos because I had forgotten that we had a goal and they had a goal, and I was shooting at theirs! Ours was at the other end of the court!? Thank God it didn’t go in! I had to redeem myself from this embarassment, so I got the ball and dribbled it up the court toward our goal. Suddenly, I was surrounded by Ms. Pinn’s team, yanking and pulling at the ball! I wasn’t going to let that ball go no matter what….I was crouched down about half way down the court! I did the only thing I could do….I shot the ball toward the right goal this time with all my might….here’s what happened….. The ball went straight up in the air, hit a giant light fixture…..came down and bounced off the track.(Payne had a track that you ran on about 10 feet in the air you had to climb a spiral staircase to get to it….kinda dangerous if you asked me?). Anyway, back to the ball…. The ball bounced and hit the top of the backboard……bounced a little, and went straight into the goal!(NOTHING BUT NETS!) None of the goals had nets back then and my shot didn’t make a sound, but everyone knew that it went in! I was the hero that day, but Ms. Pinn’s class won! After all that excitement, there was a short time till it was time to go home. Mr. Patterson from our Custodial department plugged in the record player to the PA system in the gym, and played a few songs for us! I remembered that I was fascinated seeing a record on the turntable and the music coming out the speakers! See of you remember this one:
[] SIDELINE BASKETBALL
 
TRUE STORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD TALES! I HAVE FORGOTTEN A LOT OF THEM, WONDERING SHOULD I TELL THEM OR NOT?
KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE TALES!

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