“The first time we drove by your old house we saw some very strange looking construction – boxes on poles in the back yard. The next time we drove by there were about 12 – 15 birds in the street. At first we thought they were small chickens they looked more like chickens that pigeons but later deduced they must have been pigeons and must reside in those strange looking constructions in the back yard.” — Buddy Shively on recent visit to Kenentt
I haven’t seen Jackie Cash in thirty (thirty-five?) years. She was a year behind me in high school and I had a bit of a crush on her. She found her way to a couple of my websites last week:
“…we watched her nephews Everett and Matthew sing about Rudy and then she read every word about KBOA the early days. She really enjoyed it. You have a 20 minute interview with Paul about the radio and it was neat for them to hear his voice and share it with Robin’s children who never knew Mr. Jones. I just thought you’d like to know how you’re reaching people.”
This is, for me, the reason we spend countless hours constructing these websites. In hopes that somebody will find them and find them interesting. (Why has the “letter-in-a-bottle” analogy never occurred to me before?)
As I read Jackie’s email, the image I had of her was the high school girl I knew. And then I realized that she is now in her early fifties and –probably– older than her mother was when we were in high school. I confess to a strange sense of loss that’s hard to explain. My youth, perhaps.
Doug Howard graduated from KHS a few years after I did. I knew he was doing well in some part of the music industry. According to Google, Doug was VP and general manager of Polygram Music Nashville before going over to head up Disney’s Lyric Street Recdords. Follow up: Dan Landrum did a great job of blogging his tour with Yanni.
“Rush H. III has been selected as the name for a son, born to Mr. and Mrs. Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., 412 Sunset Boulevard, at 7:50 a.m. Friday at Southeast Missouri Hospital. The child is the first in the family and weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. Mrs. Limbaugh was formerly Miss Mildred Armstrong, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Armstrong of Kennett. Mr. Limbaugh is associated with his father in the law firm of Limbaugh & Limbaugh.”
From a Rush Limbaugh fan site. I can’t verify it, but I’m pretty sure Mildred worked at KBOA back in the early fifties.
“In August of 1990, I received a call from the organizers of the Hornersville Sesquicentennial Celebration. They were looking for cheap entertainment and wanted my barbershop quartet. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), that quartet was defunct. What about cowboy songs instead?, I asked. Cowboy songs would be just fine.”
From The Secret Origins of The Sons of the Western Bootheel. I’ve created a little “fan page” although I’m not sure one performance qualifies me as a fan. Download and listen to some of the songs. The guys are pretty good and there’s a real honesty to thier music.
