Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

I took an interest in history and the Civil War from an early age and my fantasy was always to buy a WW2 mine detector and hunt for Civil War relics. I was not able to fulfill that dream until I was discharged from the active Air Force in the Summer of 1972. By that time companies like Whites and others were marketing metal detectors and I bought a Whites. I found my first Minie ball while on my lunch break at Baird-Ward printing company. Construction on Interstate I-65 South had just begun near the plant where the Confederate lines crossed Thompson Lane near the old Battle of Nashville monument location. Over time I found many bullets, buttons and other relics there along with old coins. I was close to my brother-in-law Hulon Helms. He was like a brother to me. His hobby was hunting Indian relics and he had a fantastic collection. I tried to talk him into hunting Civil War relics but he was very reluctant at first. I finally talked him into going with me one weekend Hulon had an uncan...

My dad's oldest sibling Aunt Viola walking with my cousin Joyce on Church Street in front of McKendree Methodist church probably in the 1940's. I am told that it was common for street photographers to take random pictures of pedestrians and they would make money selling the picture to their subject.   My mother on the right was a nurse at Dr. Martin's office on Church Street before I was born My Aunt Goldie "Didi" Brown in deep thought somewhere in downtown Nashville

Claude Segroves My grandfather Claude Segroves as a young man in Hillsboro Alabama and his brother Jim Seagroves. One of the mysteries of my family is why we spell our last name differently so often. They were brothers but Jim added an a to our last name. I had a cousin named Fred Seagroves and his brother went by William Seagraves. I have seen the name spelled Segroves, Segrove, Seagroves, Seagrove, Segraves, Segrave, Seagraves. and Seagrave. Many times when a receptionist or some official asks for my name I will spell it out and they will invariably put an a in my name or spell it Seagraves. Segroves and Segraves do not sound alike to me. .My grandfather Claude would die of colon cancer in 1940 and Jim I think died of TB in 1952. Jim Seagroves

After my Aunt Didi died I found this newspaper article about my Aunt Lillie and her long lost son that somehow she was separated from when he was a baby. The article doesn't give details of why they were separated. This is one of our family mysteries that I would like more information about. Aunt Lillie was married to my grandmother's brother Jake Frogge. They lived on Hermitage Avenue for many years and I can remember going to their house many times. My mother was born close to their house on Hermitage Avenue. The famous country singer Kitty Wells also lived on Hermitage Avenue and Didi said that she was always sitting on her front porch singing. They were friends growing up but Didi said that after she started working at the Grand Ole Opry house as an usher Kitty would shun her. Didi thought that she didn't want to be reminded of her humble origins. Uncle Jake had worked on a steamboat for many years going up and down the Cumberland River. He once survived a sinking of on...

I remember this trip well. My dad was very spontaneous. Late one Friday night in the late 1950's after he got home from working at the drugstore he told everybody to get dressed.. We were going to take a trip. My brother Mark and myself were already dressed for bed but no matter the five of us, my parents, Donna Mark and myself excitedly got dressed and piled into our car.. We didn't know where we were going but there was a sense of adventure in the air. Things really ramped up when we drove over to East Nashville and picked up my sister Faye who was living with her mother across from East High. I didn't know that our destination was Fort Knox Kentucky. My sister Carolyn lived there on post with her husband John. These years were some of the happiest of my childhood but in retrospect it was the calm before the storm.

Edward Segroves, on the left in the picture, was born on December 26, 1912 in Alabama and would die in Nashville on December 15, 1935. He would die when he was almost 23 from a injury he sustained when he was about 12 years old. While playing with other boys he was hit in the head with a rock and a blood clot formed on his brain. My grandmother Mary Segroves took care of him for the rest of his life. The clot eventually expanded too far into his brain and killed him. My Aunt Freddie, daddy's youngest sister, said that my grandmother tried to get an operation for him at Vanderbilt but by the time she sought help it was too late. I had my head busted with rocks a time or two when I was a child but I never threw rocks at other kids. Mainly because I grew up hearing the story of Ed's death and how dangerous it was to throw rocks. Ed is buried in an unmarked grave at Spring Hill cemetery near to my grandparents.