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Eugene Church · 10-26-2019, 01:38 PM

MY LIFE IN 1951
"EC's just having fun in '51"

Well, howdy again, friends and neighbors, little darlin's and all you buckaroos playing OOTPB... it's EC again.

It's June... and I'm 11 years old... every year I spent lots of my summer in northwest Alabama in the Tri-Cities area, Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia... that's where the vast majority of my relatives live... I stay at cousin George's house in Sheffield... his family are the city folk... also split time with cousins Jimmy and Bobby at their farm out in the country in the Central area... George usually goes with me to the farm... we just spent time swimming the Big Cypress or Little Cypress Creeks... never really got that clear, which was which... we also had to help Jimmy and Bobby do their farm chores... being city boys, George and I were not used to that... my uncle Leonard was a stickler for the farm work... it had to be done.

I remember one time he said we had to hoe the bottom... it was a corn patch near the creek... we did the work, but we did it kind of at our pace, not his... we would hoe a row of corn... and then go skinny dipping in the creek... hoe a row of corn... and then hit the creek again.

Naw... uncle Leonard was not happy with that... nawsiree... but ignorance is bliss... he never knew our system of farming.

We would also spend time rafting the creeks... we would build some kind of semi-floating device and use it the summer... sometimes we would just lay down on our backs on the grassy fields and look up at the clouds... ain't it amazing what you can see in the clouds, lying on the grass and smoking grapevine... never did like that stuff... it made your tongue sore... we didn't have cigarettes... none of the adults smoked.

Every Saturday in the good old summertime, Uncle Leonard would take us to Florence so Aunt Ruth could do grocery shopping at Hills Brothers Supermarket on Court Street.... while she was shopping, all of us would head to the Majestic or Princess Theatre to go to the picture show... wow... a Saturday double feature with all of our favorite rootin' tootin' shootin' cowboy heroes... Hoppy, Gene and Roy... Hopalong Cassidy ridin' Topper, Gene Autry on Champion, "The Wonder Horse"... and of course, the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers high atop Trigger, "The Smartest Horse in the Movies".

Since I was a DJ for 32 years, I'll use that story to cue up a song for all of you little darlin's and buckaroos... here's Roy Rogers doing a hit song from around 1975... it's entitled "Hoppy, Gene and Me"

I remember playing this the first time on my radio show... it's brought misty tears to my eyes and lots of misty memories, too.
Gosh, my life was good in '75, too.

Sorry, the sound quality is poor... hope you can raise the volume on your computer.

Listen all the way to the end of the song... Roy yodels at the end... and yes, even after all these years, EC's eyes again got misty.
I still miss Roy, Gene, Hoppy and about 30 other western stars... they made my life wonderful

Here's the link to the song:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=hoppy%...&setlang=en-US

10-26-2019, 01:38 PM	#964
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 36,225	MY LIFE IN 1951 "EC's just having fun in '51" Well, howdy again, friends and neighbors, little darlin's and all you buckaroos playing OOTPB... it's EC again. It's June... and I'm 11 years old... every year I spent lots of my summer in northwest Alabama in the Tri-Cities area, Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia... that's where the vast majority of my relatives live... I stay at cousin George's house in Sheffield... his family are the city folk... also split time with cousins Jimmy and Bobby at their farm out in the country in the Central area... George usually goes with me to the farm... we just spent time swimming the Big Cypress or Little Cypress Creeks... never really got that clear, which was which... we also had to help Jimmy and Bobby do their farm chores... being city boys, George and I were not used to that... my uncle Leonard was a stickler for the farm work... it had to be done. I remember one time he said we had to hoe the bottom... it was a corn patch near the creek... we did the work, but we did it kind of at our pace, not his... we would hoe a row of corn... and then go skinny dipping in the creek... hoe a row of corn... and then hit the creek again. Naw... uncle Leonard was not happy with that... nawsiree... but ignorance is bliss... he never knew our system of farming. We would also spend time rafting the creeks... we would build some kind of semi-floating device and use it the summer... sometimes we would just lay down on our backs on the grassy fields and look up at the clouds... ain't it amazing what you can see in the clouds, lying on the grass and smoking grapevine... never did like that stuff... it made your tongue sore... we didn't have cigarettes... none of the adults smoked. Every Saturday in the good old summertime, Uncle Leonard would take us to Florence so Aunt Ruth could do grocery shopping at Hills Brothers Supermarket on Court Street.... while she was shopping, all of us would head to the Majestic or Princess Theatre to go to the picture show... wow... a Saturday double feature with all of our favorite rootin' tootin' shootin' cowboy heroes... Hoppy, Gene and Roy... Hopalong Cassidy ridin' Topper, Gene Autry on Champion, "The Wonder Horse"... and of course, the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers high atop Trigger, "The Smartest Horse in the Movies". Since I was a DJ for 32 years, I'll use that story to cue up a song for all of you little darlin's and buckaroos... here's Roy Rogers doing a hit song from around 1975... it's entitled "Hoppy, Gene and Me" I remember playing this the first time on my radio show... it's brought misty tears to my eyes and lots of misty memories, too. Gosh, my life was good in '75, too. Sorry, the sound quality is poor... hope you can raise the volume on your computer. Listen all the way to the end of the song... Roy yodels at the end... and yes, even after all these years, EC's eyes again got misty. I still miss Roy, Gene, Hoppy and about 30 other western stars... they made my life wonderful Here's the link to the song: https://www.bing.com/search?q=hoppy%...&setlang=en-US Last edited by Eugene Church; 01-07-2020 at 08:20 PM.