153
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153
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Transcription
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MUSIC
"Hey, what are you doing Kid: [sic]"? With a start I turned and saw Old Joe standing in the door way. What was I doing at 5 years of age, standing at Old Joe's bunk bed? I was blowing on his harmonica, and it tasted like something I had never tasted before. Old Joe chewed tobacco and his harmonica got the benefit of the portion that didn't stick to his mustache when he tried to hit the spittoon.
For many summers my Father hired a man that I knew as as Old Joe. He must have been a drifter that would appear at haying time when Dad needed more help in the hay field. When the day's work was ended, we would sit out on the porch in the cool of the evening and listen to Old Joe play his harmonica. To me it sounded as if he had moved the organ from the church. He played, Amazing Grace, or Onward Christian Soldiers. He played music that I had never heard before, Darling Nellie Gray, Down by the Old Mill Stream, When Johnie comes Marching Home.
I wanted a Harmonica and knew that if Santa knew how badly I wanted one, he would bring me one for Christmas, but Dad beat Santa to it, he bought me one for my 6th birthday, and on that day, my music career began. Dad could play a harmonica and he taught me how to breath in and out so that I got a note with each breath. I soon found out that with enough huffing and puffing I could get a noise that sounded as if it might be a tune.
We had a neighbor, Clint Jones, who often helped during the haying season. Clint would bring his banjo with him and then we really had music, Old Joe would play his harmonica and Clint would accompany him with his banjo. I wanted Clint's banjo, and he sold it to me for $5.00. I paid him from my allowance which was fifty Cents a month. Now I had a harmonica and a banjo. Old Joe and Clint were soon gone, but night after night I would try to make the Harmonica sound as if Old Joe was playing and at the same try to get the right cord on the banjo.
Victory was mine on the evening of May 14, 1924. I made my first appearance between acts of the High School Senior play. I heard my first audience clap, stomp their feet and, as I left the stage, call for more, but I had no more, I could play only two pieces. The banjo and harmonica did well, they followed me thru college. I later purchased a guitar from Clint Jones and was able to use either the guitar or banjo with the Harmonica.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
