L To R, Josh Perkins, Elmer Willis, Solomon Doyle, Mae Ashworth Willis, Nora Ashworth Griffin, Shelby Ashworth

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Bearhead Goes To Nashville

Back in the fifties my G Grand Father Buster Ashworth bought himself a new car, a small sedan. It was his first new anything. For years family and friends would gather round a old radio to listen to the Grand Old Opry on Saturday nights. When they were able to purchased a radio, it wasn't with money. Paw Buster & Maw planted cotton on their small farm. They would raise cotton along with the vegetables they grew and needed to make ends met. My Grandmother said they raised about one bale of cotton per year. In an earlier story, I told of Maw taking the bale of cotton, in a wagon to De Ridder and trading it for a battery operated radio. Which they used to listen to the Grand Old Opry on Saturday nights.
They all decided that since they had a good way to go and had save their money for quite a while . It was time for them to go and see the Grand Old Opry live in Nashville. Now in those days, a Trip from Bearhead to Nashville was just a dream for many. I think seven or eight of them loaded up for the trip. The ones that I know made the trip was My Grand Mother Estelle, my father Bunk, my G Grand Mother and G Grandfather, my aunt and a couple of more. So you can imagine just how nice a trip that was with that many in a small sedan. Paw Buster was well known in the area, of not driving over 40 mph. Can you just imagine a trip that far, in a small car, at that time it was only 2 way roads most of the way there. Along with the fact they had no air conditioning at all in cars in those days. If I had to make such a trip under those circumstances, there would certainly been a killing or very serious injuries inflicted to someone along the way. They arrived in Nashville around noon the day of the show. The tickets were purchased for the show that night. Got a room and everyone freshened up and ate a snack.
What followed was show time and they enjoyed ever minute of it. They all agreed it sounded just like back at home listening to it on the radio. HHaaa
Here is the funny part. On the way back to the hotel room. Everyone got to talking about how large a town Nashville was. The biggest that most of them would ever visit in their lives. In their discussion about the size of the town of Nashville, everyone agreed that there just had to be someone who needed that room worse than they did. Being very thoughtful of others and their needs, everyone agreed not to even to return to the motel. They would leave the room vacant for anyone who may come along that would need it. They never stopped. They drove all the way back to Bearhead.

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