Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

   My brother Mark and I got our singing voices from our parents. Both had beautiful voices and my mom also played the guitar. She loved gospel music and she joined her cousins the Hughes family regularly on Cahal Avenue in East Nashville for jam sessions on warm summer nights in their backyards. The Hughes were also talented musicians and singers. My mom is the lady with the blonde hair and guitar. My mother with her best friend and singing partner Dorothy McMillan

Granddaddy with my cousin Alton  My grandfather Marcellus Fain Brown was born in 1889 and died in 1968 when I was 18. For many years we were not that close because he was nearly deaf from his years of working in the Tennessee Central blacksmith shop. Being deaf you are socially cut off from people. He was one of the hardest working men I ever knew. Granddaddy was a carpenter, plumber and iron worker. He had hands of steel. He built my mother a mailbox out of channel iron and chain that he welded together. One story about him was that he once had a piece of hot iron fly into his ear and he spit it out of his mouth after it burned through his eardrum. My grandfather was a binge drinker in his younger days. I never saw him drunk but family told me that after getting paid sometimes he would go on a binge and they would find him passed out somewhere downtown and bring him home. On one occasion he was passed out on his bed when the house caught on fire. Family tried to rouse him but he j...

 Very early on the morning of September 10, 1957 pro segregationists dynamited Hattie Cotton elementary school on Greenwood Avenue in East Nashville. I was just starting first grade at Martha Vaught elementary in West Nashville. My grandparents, however only liveda few hundred yards across Gallatin road from the school on Mckennie Avenue. I remember my parents telling me that they were blown out of bed by the explosion. The explosion caused 71,000 dollars damage or 588,953 dollars in today's currency. A witness stated that it knocked out every window and caused damage to the library, classrooms and interior walls and lockers. Despite an investigation no one was charged. John Kasper, one of six suspects had secured a cache of dynamite two days before the bombing. Kasper was convicted in November 1958 of inciting a riot on the first day of that school year. Kasper predicted "blood will run in the streets of Nashville before Negro children go to school with whites".  Nashvil...

 My Aunt Mattie Louise Hall or Aunt "Tincy" as we called her with her husband Jim Hall. He was a session musician and back-up singer during the golden age of country when the Nashville sound originated during the 1950's and early 1960's. He arranged all of Roy Orbison's big hits and for many other artists. Uncle Jim had a gold record for Roy Orbinson's song "Crying: and a platinum record for Sue Thompsons's record "Sad Movies Always Make Me Cry". I loved going to his house at Christmas because of all the Christmas cards he had hanging up from famous artists. The one that stands out in my mind was Burl Ives.  

  Picture of my wife's house in 1906 from 916 Boscobel Street. I am sitting in the bottom picture where the man is sitting on the porch. This was taken when Debbie and I were dating in the 1960's.

  My grandmother Ella Belle Frogge Brown b-1894 d-1964 with my Uncle Doug about 1912. Uncle Doug was the oldest of my mothers siblings. He was born in 1911 and nicknamed Big Brother. My mother was the 2nd oldest born in 1923 followed by my Aunt Mattie Louise nicknamed Tincy in 1925. My Aunt Goldie Elizabeth nicknamed Didi came along in 1927. Uncle Alton was born in 1929 and he was nicknamed Bud or Buddy. I once asked my Aunt Didi why my mother didn't have a nickname. She said that she did. It was stinky britches but for obvious reasons they quit calling her that as she got older. My uncles were both very tall. They grew to be about 6'5" It was rare to see my grandmother facing the camera.. She lost her right eye because of German measles at the age of three. Most pictures that I have of her are a side profile.