It seems right funny to be my
age, trying to remember sixty plus years ago. It doesn’t feel like I am 79.
There are so many happy memories of my brother Don and my cousin Jack Butler, and I've been thinking about them both lately.
I’ve written about the almost
total lack of housing when we moved back to Atlanta in about 1945, almost the
end of the war. My family owes Don thanks for noticing a moving van in front of
a house on 9th St, one block up the hill from old Boys’ High School,
which had been renamed Henry Grady High School. My timing may be a bit off here
but you get the picture.
Brother Don was in the first
class that graduated from Grady and I was in the first class that went all five
years there. It was a fine school because we had the cream of the crop of teachers
from all over Fulton
County. At that time, Fulton County
drew the best teachers in the state because its pay was the highest. After a
short time, we also got the best principal in the state, Dr. Rural Stephens.
The first and only year I taught in Fulton
County, Dr. Stephens was
my area supervisor.
We truly enjoyed our big old
white frame house after getting by in a small apartment. We began catching up
on many family and friend get-togethers. Most of the family was back in the
area, or at least the south. My oldest brother was back home from WW2.
My Uncle Dan, Mother’s
youngest brother, and his very loved wife, Estelle, moved to Macon and had
another child, my cousin Carol. They had three older children. Their middle
child, Jack, had lived with us for a while. He loved music, as I do, and I
spent many hours curled up in a big old chair just listening to him play and
noodle on the piano. He was a fine accordion player as well. He graduated from
high school and joined the Navy. All of us adored him as he was like our older
brother.
After his stint in the Navy, he
came home, graduated from Mercer, and then Emory Dental School. He married his
beautiful Frances and set up a dental practice in Clarksville, Georgia.
I graduated from UGA the same
year and married about three months after they did. My memory may be off, here,
but I think Frances wore my hoops for her “something borrowed.” My “something borrowed” was my
beautiful wedding dress which had been worn by my friend, Babs Hezlett and, yes,
I wore the “family hoops,” too. Jack and Frances were married by Dr. Gus
Verdery, Baptist Hospital Chaplain. He married Tony and I, also.
Those growing up, teen years,
were busy ones for Don and me. We were solidly immersed in the activities of
Atlanta’s old First Baptist Church, on the block of Peachtree Street between 4th
and 5th streets. We sang in the young people’s choir, and later in
the senior choir. Dad was a member of the 20th Century Men’s Bible
class and an usher, for years. Mother was active in all the women’s groups.
aboe, the Butler family, early 1920's
My mother worked away from
home from the time I was 9 or 10 years old until I was in college. I was
usually the first one home in the afternoon and I absolutely hated coming into
an empty house. I was afraid and lonely. My job was to clean up the kitchen
before Mother got home. Also, after moving to 9th Street, in cold
weather, I had to rebuild a fire in the huge old furnace, in the basement and
feed coal into it. I hated it so much, I’ve tried to make sure my children and
grandchildren never come home to an empty house.
So many of the good memories
of my teen years were of times spent with my brothers and cousins. We often
moved around as a group with various friends mixed in. Don had lots of friends
and I guess I was the little sister tag-a-long. If Don resented my being ever
present, he didn’t show it. As we got a little older, Jane was Don’s steady
girlfriend, and I began actually dating. We had fun together. We all loved
music; and harmonizing when we sang was great fun to me. I remarked, not long
ago, that I wish Jane and I lived close enough to sing together if only for our
own pleasure. I remember one day trip we took to a beautiful park, south of Atlanta, called Indian
Springs. Jane’s brother, Bill, a few months younger than I am, went along to
make a foursome. We carried a picnic lunch and had a grand time.
I still chuckle when I recall Don’s and my foray into
the first really racy movie
scene. The film THE OUTLAW, with Jane
Russell released in 1943, according
to Google. But I’d have
only been ten years old and Don, 13. So I guess it was
re- released
when we were teenagers. It was shown to a packed theatre, the
Lowes Grand, in downtown Atlanta. We were SO straight, but
we went to see
THE OUTLAW three times! Each time we agreed on an “acceptable movie”
our parents would have approved of
in case they asked. So three Friday nights
we spent our money
to see Miss Russell’s naked
hooters for about five
seconds. It really did nothing at all for me except, perhaps, an inferiority
complex. Our cousin, Jeannine was living with us at the time so
we carried her
along once.
I believe I’ve written about
singing in Jane and Don’s wedding and how the substitute organist lost her
place in the music. She just took her hands off the keyboard until she found
her place. Thank heaven I was still on key when she jumped back in. At that
point, I’d been singing a long time and it did not bother me that much.
Jane and Don's wedding, above.
To me, it is such a shame
that families live far apart. My parents always stayed in touch with Jack and
Frances and kind of kept me informed about the little ones as they grew. One
day, in about 1968, someone rang my front door bell. It was my favorite cousin,
Jack. He’d been in Augusta
for some kind of meeting and was on his way home. He spent the rest of the day
with us; rode with me to pick up my kids at school; and stayed to visit with
Tony at dinner.
After Jack established his
dental practice, he took care of my parents’ teeth from then on. It was a
win-win situation for them. They totally trusted Jack plus they got to spend
time with Frances and the children. Quite often they could hardly wait to tell
me something cute the kids had said or done so I got to enjoy them too.
Not too long before he died,
Jack drove down to Don’s, in Marietta,
so they could go together to another cousin’s funeral, in South
Georgia. I believe Jack was having some vision problems so it was
doubly good that Don could drive them. Don told me later how much he treasured
that last visit with Jack.
I moved to Knoxville in 1971 and didn't see Jack for years after that, which I regret. He died in the 1980's. However, I am so happy to be back in touch with his sisters and some of his children.
I am fortunate to still have precious brother Don and my sis Jane.