Emotional Return To Dad’s Mississippi Hometown - Father & Son Road Trip Day 4 / Both Our Birthplaces
Road Trip May 2021 Day 4 with My Dad
Transcript
0:02
welcome everyone adam the woo here today
0:02
number
0:03
four
0:04
of our road trip my dad and i we are
0:07
crossing the state line into mississippi
0:09
where i was born in tupelo which later
0:11
in the day we're gonna go by there but
0:13
also you have a lot of memories here
0:15
yeah i was born in aberdeen we're going
0:17
to go by aberdeen here shortly and
0:19
see a few things there i noticed the
0:21
sign says birthplace of america's music
0:24
you would think it would say birthplace
0:26
of adam the woo
0:28
and you were born here too well that's
0:30
true we were both born here so we have a
0:33
well i was gonna say we have a kinship
0:34
because we are we are father and son you
0:36
know what
0:37
[laughter] i'm inviting you to join
0:39
we're gonna go through verona so we'll
0:41
go aberdeen verona and tupelo inviting
0:44
you to join me and my dad
0:46
shall you
0:48
okay this is the old bridge that came
0:52
into aberdeen
0:54
on the u.s highway 45 used to be the
0:56
main road of aberdeen main street that's
0:59
the old bridge of course the roadway is
1:01
gone because they built this new
1:04
tennessee tom bigby waterway through
1:06
here there's a lock and dam yonder
1:08
that's a railroad trestle there the big
1:10
big bridge frame
1:12
that tributary looking place over there
1:14
coming under the bridge that's the old
1:16
tom bigby river
1:17
did you ever drive across that bridge oh
1:20
hundreds of times yep yep going from
1:22
here to amy or here to columbus
1:24
that was the main highway in those days
1:26
now we're sitting on the new highway the
1:28
new highway 45 bridge
1:30
found the highway drove up here it's all
1:32
fenced off kind of peeking through the
1:34
fence
1:35
dad was just mentioning that you can see
1:36
the little bend in the top portion on
1:39
the far end of the bridge
1:41
him and my grandpa
1:43
drove by here and they saw the accident
1:47
of the rv
1:48
mobile home mobile home
1:51
smashed in the top of that thing it's
1:52
too tall yeah it's smashed in the top of
1:54
the bridge and you can see it all bit
1:56
there
1:58
that has to bring back some memories
2:05
it was a sight to behold
2:05
the road's a little bumpy but it is
2:07
still accessible at least till the other
2:08
end of the bridge whether to cut the
2:10
road off
2:15
this is 45 you said old 45 old us
2:15
highway 45
2:20
going into
2:20
aberdeen
2:25
and he would set me up on that shelf i
2:25
remember letting my legs hang down
2:32
my grandpa had a friend that owned this
2:32
service station with the gas pumps
2:34
gas pumps are over here
2:36
you were saying you first learned how to
2:38
put peanuts in a coca-cola bottle in
2:40
here yeah my daddy taught me how to put
2:42
peanuts in a coca-cola bottle six ounce
2:45
bottle of coke
2:46
costs five cents
2:48
and a five cent bag of peanuts i've done
2:50
that i mentioned that in some of my road
2:52
trip videos
2:53
i learned that from you and this is
2:55
where you learned it from your dad
3:01
there used to be a shelf
3:01
the length of this window on the other
3:03
side on the other side inside of my
3:05
daddy would pick me up and set me up on
3:07
that
3:08
shelf and my legs would hang down i'd
3:10
sit there yeah with my legs hanging down
3:12
drinking my coke peanuts [laughter]
3:18
buddy now the tracks don't run through
3:18
town anymore right well they partially
3:20
do but the the train doesn't go through
3:22
town correct yeah the railroad range
3:24
right up this rather than the road here
3:27
i rode this train it was a passenger
3:29
train from here
3:31
to st louis missouri
3:33
at that depot from that of this depot
3:35
yep
3:37
back when i was in
3:39
i don't know maybe i was nine years old
3:41
eight years old you can see this is
3:43
where the tracks end right here yep
3:45
that's it
3:48
still so a few little remnants left oh
3:50
yeah
4:12
okay this building you're looking at now
4:12
and the next building next to it
4:14
was all part of a manufacturing a
4:17
clothing manufacturing establishment
4:20
back in the day
4:21
when my mother and my grandmother both
4:24
worked here
4:26
uh
4:27
in the uh they were both seamstresses
4:30
in the production department making
4:32
pants and shirts and various sundered
4:34
clothings
4:36
that was a big deal back in those days
4:45
buxon's jewelry and music that's where i
4:46
bought my first guitar okay you're
4:48
looking at a bank in this facility here
4:49
on the corner
4:51
of meridian street and uh whatever this
4:54
other street is jefferson or whatever it
4:56
is uh this used to be the coca-cola
4:59
bottling company for aberdeen
5:01
it was owned by mr miseries clark they
5:03
owned the franchise for the bottling
5:05
company back in the day back in the
5:07
1950s and 60s and my daddy worked here
5:11
for 22 years
5:13
retired from the coca-cola company i got
5:15
to work here one summer after my
5:18
freshman year of college
5:19
uh delivering one of the driving one of
5:21
the delivery trucks for the route in the
5:24
area
5:25
fond memories of coca-cola
5:28
you said jefferson right it's washington
5:30
street yeah i couldn't read it i could
5:32
see better from here
5:33
and
5:34
meridian and washington and the grocery
5:36
store
5:37
that you worked out was over on that
5:39
little section of downtown meridian
5:40
street yeah i think it's under that sign
5:42
that says jin jin chinese food that's it
5:45
yeah okay let's drive over there and
5:48
but before we pull out there though
5:50
lookie over here at this building okay
5:53
that building with the bricky looking
5:54
front and the glass windows and
5:55
everything that used to be a pharmacy
5:59
for a
6:01
medical clinic which was adjacent to it
6:04
which is not there anymore
6:06
dr murphy's medical clinic that's where
6:10
i was born you were born right in here
6:13
not in the not in that building but in
6:15
the adjacent medical clinic
6:18
that's now an empty lot parking lot now
6:21
nice wow
6:24
19
6:25
49 right there in that empty lot
6:28
where they're now doing some weed eating
6:34
that is cool
6:34
that's where i was born no kidding okay
6:36
mr uh mr
6:39
c.l hawaii mr ed white and mr leonard
6:42
hussey used to own a grocery store here
6:45
that i worked at
6:46
and i think it encompassed all of this
6:48
that you see covered by the awning there
6:51
uh they ran a grocery store oh so
6:53
starting at this awning right over here
6:55
yeah the hair visions exactly all the
6:57
way down
6:59
and then um
7:00
mr hussy ran i also ran a cotton
7:02
business out of this out of here so the
7:04
grocery store were these two
7:06
spots right was that one of your first
7:08
jobs that was probably the first job i
7:10
ever really had yeah they're bagging
7:12
groceries and stocking shelves and
7:14
yeah did the whole schmear now i re i
7:16
recall years ago when i was very young
7:18
you took me by here and i met mr hussey
7:21
i think you probably did yeah he was an
7:23
older gentleman yeah and i was very very
7:26
young so i was older i recall
7:28
going in here as well so this this kind
7:30
of rings a bell
7:32
for me as well
7:37
now adjacent to
7:37
buxton's
7:38
jewelry is also buxton's music what
7:42
significance does this have
7:44
well just to all be together
7:47
it was all one place that was the
7:48
original story he seems to have expanded
7:51
apparently they did
7:53
this is where you used to just have a
7:54
wall
7:55
in the jewelry store with some guitars
7:57
and some music books and things
8:00
and that would have been the story
8:09
i couldn't hardly tell you
8:09
how many times i just went into that
8:11
store and drooled over the guitar some
8:14
window shopping
8:16
probably the same signage up top here
8:26
they probably think you're casing the
8:26
joint
8:52
i saw that i'm gonna walk over there in
8:52
a second
8:53
you remember whereabout it was dad
8:56
right along here against this
8:59
first guitar why'd you buy why'd you buy
9:00
a guitar what influenced you
9:02
back in 1963
9:05
the beatles released their first popular
9:08
music in the states called i want to
9:10
hold your hand
9:13
and that was the beginning of my
9:15
maybe needle mania crazy you wanted to
9:17
play the guitar and then learn to play
9:19
together see everybody in high school
9:21
every boy in high school fancies himself
9:24
a singer
9:26
i wanted to one-up everybody [laughter]
9:29
i wanted to learn to play a guitar you
9:31
did learn you learned it already i could
9:33
sing so yeah you got it that's neat so
9:35
this is where this is where the the
9:37
magic happened well began
9:40
well this was the place right over there
9:42
along the guitars
9:44
i'd come in and i'd say mr buxton can i
9:46
just strum on one of your guitars for a
9:48
few minutes wow yeah
9:54
and eventually you bought one
9:54
saved up and got one
9:57
he died at 99 of that he was telling me
10:00
goodness
10:01
on the far end there far left yeah yeah
10:10
oh you know what there you go there
10:10
so that's
10:11
over on the side you can still see when
10:13
the guitars were still there on the top
10:14
of the shelf that's right they were
10:16
located up top
10:18
right up on the little ledge right up
10:21
wow
10:27
big star groceries
10:29
was one of the two major shopping
10:31
grocery stores here in town
10:33
and my mama made them both every every
10:35
week and i'd come up here with mama grow
10:37
grocery shopping she won a bag of
10:38
groceries in there one time it was a
10:40
thrill she was so excited to get a free
10:43
bag of groceries
10:48
doesn't look like it's open anymore i
10:48
don't think it's open anymore
10:51
i don't remember what any of those other
10:53
stores were either
10:55
drove about a block or so from this
10:57
point no vehicles
10:58
the road here has seen better days
11:01
and the aberdeen water tower is obscured
11:04
by this tree
11:06
this is the old city swimming pool
11:08
right up here
11:11
it's not used anymore right it's
11:12
abandoned it is abandoned yep
11:23
the city pool looks like they've got it
11:23
filled in oh they filled it in they sure
11:25
did
11:26
so when you were swimming here you could
11:27
look right up and see the water tower
11:30
with the town name on it
11:33
shallow water
11:39
the distinction of the
11:39
the two differences was a fence it was
11:41
fenced off
11:42
right down the middle there
11:45
this way
11:46
so i'd be walking where the pool
11:48
used to be i'd be in the water
11:59
you had to be an adult
11:59
or you had to be accompanied by an adult
12:01
to come into this section there's the
12:03
lifeguard
12:04
stand right there
12:23
i'm guessing
12:23
maybe three feet four feet
12:25
all the way down to the deep end
12:28
that diving board down there and stuff
12:31
and that here
12:36
long steps
12:36
down into the water
12:39
on both sides
12:48
would hold me in one arm
12:48
and i don't know if he was walking
12:50
and just doing this with his other arm
12:53
or if he was actually swimming with one
12:55
arm
12:56
right
12:57
so we go to the other side from stairs
13:00
to stairs and then swim back
13:07
what year would that have been
13:08
approximately
13:17
mid 50s early 50s
13:17
1950s
13:19
so
13:20
50 65 years ago
13:24
65 years ago you're standing in the same
13:26
spot
13:32
periodically
13:32
the water tower
13:35
for some reason ooh i almost slipped i
13:37
almost just slipped right there in the
13:38
mud
13:40
it gets slick there's no life guard
13:42
where the will the water tower freeze no
13:45
no no the water tower would overflow
13:49
and the kids would run under the water
13:51
tower while the water would be falling
13:52
off now the interesting thing is
13:55
you follow oklahoma which was another
13:57
hometown of mine they had one of these i
14:00
never realized there was one in aberdeen
14:03
give me a shove
14:23
have you had enough
14:23
one more time one more time around
14:36
yes
14:36
hi mom
14:38
look at me no hands oh don't do you're
14:40
scaring me
14:42
all right let's throw it down that's
14:43
good
14:55
that's original equipment they don't
14:55
make them like that anymore built to
14:57
look like a rocket that slide
15:04
it's an old fire well it's not a fire
15:04
truck it's the the piece that you would
15:06
pull behind a fire wagon a fire wagon
15:13
i would sit up here and drive the team
15:13
of horses
15:18
oh so you wouldn't pull behind the this
15:18
is the fire wagon yeah the horses would
15:20
be connected here
15:23
sure is
15:29
lot's changed since those days
15:29
it looks like it was some kind of
15:30
steam-operated pump system
15:41
this little wheaty thing turned i guess
15:41
and pump the water out
15:47
this is the old ice house i believe
15:47
that's the old ice house and they bring
15:48
out chunks of ice if you were buying
15:51
let's say a pound of ice they would take
15:52
their ice pick and chop off a pound of
15:55
the ice or two pounds or five pounds or
15:57
whatever you're buying
15:58
right off of the huge chunk of ice now
16:00
we're on the other side of the water
16:02
tower kind of near the bottom of the
16:03
hill of the pool what was in that empty
16:05
lot that empty lot you just it's where
16:07
the old sawmill it had a name but i
16:10
don't remember the name
16:11
big old sawmill
16:13
where they took trees
16:15
and sawed up the trees into boards of
16:17
lumber that they would then sell the
16:19
lumber companies to build houses my
16:21
daddy owned his own truck and trailer
16:23
and would haul logs out of the woods
16:26
and bring them in
16:27
and uh they he would unload them to the
16:29
sawmill people and they would pay him
16:32
money to be the
16:34
to be the guy that brought the logs in
16:36
for the lumber it's kind of a neat deal
16:38
i was just a little kid at the time
16:41
i would i went to work with him once or
16:42
twice my brother went to work with him a
16:44
couple of times
16:45
but that's the sawmill area used to have
16:47
a
16:48
used to have an artesian well i love to
16:50
go down and drink straight out of the
16:52
ground water straight out of the ground
16:54
nice oh yeah
16:56
this is where i used to come to the
16:58
movies
16:59
on friday nights and or saturdays as a
17:02
kid
17:03
and there's something interesting about
17:05
the old falcon theater you don't see it
17:07
now
17:08
but back in the day before people stole
17:10
stuff all the time
17:14
there used to be two bicycle racks
17:17
right out front
17:24
they took up a parking space one bicycle
17:24
rack faced this way
17:26
with a bicycle rack face this way so you
17:28
ride your bicycle up here
17:31
park your bicycle in the bicycle rack
17:40
no locks and chains
17:40
and your bicycle was still here when the
17:43
movie was over wow and come back out now
17:45
another thing about bicycle racks
17:56
you were good if you could walk
17:56
the length of that top bar of that
17:58
bicycle oh wow from one end to the other
18:01
while it was while it was moving
18:03
huh while it was moving no no no it was
18:06
a stationary rack oh the rack i thought
18:08
you meant on the bike like okay no
18:10
no you get off your bike okay and like a
18:13
tightrope okay
18:14
and uh it took me a while to master that
18:16
so you did that right here yeah right
18:18
here walked on the
18:20
and you could go and come back without
18:22
having to get off that was even better
18:23
how many movies you think you saw inside
18:24
here
18:26
okay this is the first christian church
18:28
here in aberdeen
18:30
this is where i grew up probably from
18:32
this the first sunday after i was born
18:36
i went to church here
18:37
sunday morning sunday night wednesday
18:39
night
18:40
when i got old enough to go to youth
18:42
groups that's where i went all that
18:44
stuff the corner of college place and
18:46
hickory street
18:51
and later in your life you came back and
18:51
ministered here for a short while
18:53
correct not exactly no i came back and
18:55
preached some revival meetings and
18:57
did some weekend stuff but i was never
18:59
the preacher here no just like just part
19:01
time for certain events but this is the
19:03
church that ordained me to go into the
19:05
ministry okay
19:07
and uh for for most of my life this was
19:10
the only
19:11
part of the facility to the church
19:13
campus
19:14
just this front building and they extend
19:16
the extension i recall
19:19
your mom and dad my grandma and grandpa
19:21
celebrating their 50th wedding
19:22
anniversary on the side over there yep
19:25
yep and grandpa was an elder here he was
19:28
a deacon here he was a deacon here yeah
19:29
now we did a talk to someone in the
19:31
office and they said we could wander
19:33
around this
19:34
is where the 50th wedding anniversary of
19:37
grandma grandpa your mom and dad we had
19:39
it in this very room yeah that was quite
19:41
a crowd it was a big deal i don't
19:43
remember exactly what the date was
19:45
it could have been in the wintertime
19:48
just don't remember
19:50
but it was a big deal
19:53
it was funny watching old people feed
19:55
take to each other
19:56
that's right
19:59
that's right i recall that as well
20:04
well we're going to get a chance to go
20:04
into the old sanctuary building
20:06
see anybody up there you recognize i do
20:08
actually uh this is
20:10
as far back as anyone could remember the
20:12
history of all the preachers from back
20:14
in
20:15
the 1800s
20:18
i remember him
20:20
i don't know why i remember him except i
20:22
do i don't remember this gentleman
20:32
anyone hiding there in the dark
20:32
i prefer to handle this
20:35
alien [laughter]
20:38
peter
20:39
the gymnasium mario degeneres
20:43
oh my goodness my goodness
20:53
so you stood right up here and preached
20:53
a revival or two
20:55
behind this podium
20:57
this is where our family sat
21:01
this was our pew
21:04
the third one
21:10
the creaky floors
21:10
the floors are
21:12
floors have that creaky sound
21:14
if you come from a church that uses
21:18
a projector screen
21:20
you may not know what these are
21:23
these are called hymn books
21:26
this church still uses hymn books it has
21:29
the piano and the organ yep there's the
21:32
piano there
21:33
organ over there
21:35
stained glass windows handheld fans
21:44
so i grew up in the day when these were
21:44
common because there was no air
21:46
conditioning in the building
21:48
in the 1950s so this is where you sat
21:50
you guys sat right here he sat right
21:52
here mom and daddy me and leon
21:54
right here
21:56
and that was before
21:58
the pews had cushions on them
22:02
in fact
22:06
i remember when these floors were
22:06
hardwood floors
22:07
they put the carpet down
22:10
my daddy came up here
22:12
to help do something one night
22:16
i came with him
22:18
daddy worked
22:20
i didn't
22:22
and i remember sliding
22:25
on the hardwood floor and you can see
22:27
the floor is slanted downward yeah and i
22:30
would get way in the back back there
22:31
behind the last pew and slide under the
22:34
hardwood floors under the under the
22:36
underneath
22:38
sliding
22:39
i you told me the story but i don't know
22:40
how it ends
22:42
well i i ended up dirty totally dirty my
22:44
clothes were [laughter] just totally
22:45
filthy didn't he say get up off the
22:47
floor more than once
22:49
now this is the communion table
22:52
communion is where they take where they
22:54
have the elements for the lord's supper
22:55
the bread and the grape juice or the
22:57
wine
22:58
and this chair would be for one of the
23:00
elders and this chair would be for
23:02
another elder
23:03
and when they got ready to
23:05
pass out or to administer
23:07
the emblems to the congregation
23:10
one men one man would pray regarding the
23:13
bread and one man would pray
23:15
regarding the jews
23:18
we had people in the church where'd you
23:21
go i'm right here behind you right here
23:23
over here
23:24
we have people in [laughter] the church
23:26
who would work with the youth okay
23:29
and when i got up around my teenage
23:31
years
23:32
there was a couple in the church
23:34
and they're probably weren't about four
23:36
or five of us teenagers at that time
23:38
but this is where we would be right here
23:42
we would sit on the pew
23:44
and the husband and his wife would sit
23:47
with their legs hanging up
23:49
nothing yeah anyway and that this is
23:51
where we had our original youth meetings
23:55
and yes this is the exact podium
23:59
that they had back in the day
24:01
when i was a teenager
24:03
they would have youth night
24:06
and there would come times when i would
24:08
get to preach
24:10
for a youth night and i distinctly
24:11
remember
24:13
one night i was
24:15
pontificating at my height and i ran out
24:18
of things things to say
24:20
i read all my notes ran out of things to
24:22
say and i just said
24:25
well that's it folks [laughter]
24:31
that's the end of it that's the end of
24:31
the sermon
24:33
oh gosh
24:42
and i'm thinking to myself somebody shut
24:42
that kid up
24:44
long story short
24:46
it was me
24:48
it was you that was doing the yelling
24:49
all of a sudden wayne who was sitting on
24:52
one side of me elbowed me leon that was
24:54
sitting on the other side of me elbowed
24:56
me from that side
24:57
and it was me
25:00
you had fallen asleep and you were
25:01
yelling in your sleep
25:04
you were sitting right back here on this
25:05
background
25:07
second from the end
25:19
i didn't film the story about the
25:19
you vomiting on the floor
25:21
that's fine
25:22
i'll probably just leave a little teaser
25:23
in so they can wonder what really
25:24
happened
25:26
it involved a tuna fish sandwich that
25:28
didn't agree with you
25:29
and the pew up here second from the
25:31
front inside the kitchen here
25:34
drinks are now drinks have gone up in
25:36
price
25:38
they are now 30 cents
25:40
wow inflation the dr pepper logo it's
25:44
the old dr pepper logo
25:46
mellow yellow
26:00
all right on to the next place
26:00
where would the next place be in
26:01
coordination to where we're at now let
26:03
me think then we're going to go out
26:05
go to the house next go over to the
26:07
house
26:13
heading toward my old homestead
26:14
when you were born were you brought to
26:15
this house
26:17
the my only recollection is this house
26:19
we might have lived in the house next to
26:21
it which is no longer there
26:23
until they built the house that we're
26:25
going to learn so grandpa had it built
26:27
yes and then the family moved in correct
26:31
it's just at the bottom
26:33
bottom of this next next hill
26:40
this second house here
26:40
that's my buddy with the german shepherd
26:42
dog he used to stick the german chip oh
26:45
right there in that house
26:57
this is a daycare here but this used to
26:57
be my great aunt's house on the left
27:05
and at the bottom of the hill
27:05
yes you have that's wow that's where i
27:07
grew up now that the shad in the
27:10
back with the rusty roof my dad built
27:13
in fact my dad built everything you see
27:15
there he used to have
27:17
he used to have his ice machines in that
27:18
shaft he did had two or three of them he
27:21
worked on ice machines he was a magician
27:24
with ice machines now i visited this
27:26
house many times we come here for
27:28
christmas many christmas mornings
27:30
christmas weeks you were a young boy you
27:32
were pretending to be superman i think
27:34
you had a superman outfit on
27:36
and back in that day my brother smoked
27:38
and you bumped into his cigarette and
27:40
you said ooh boeing by fire
27:44
[laughter] because i was bad
27:46
because i was burned by fire went by
27:48
fire didn't even hurt didn't even now we
27:50
do have some photographs of what the
27:52
house looked like when grandpa's truck
27:55
coca-cola truck
27:56
or maybe one of his wood delivery trucks
28:00
was parked okay this is the photo
28:02
this is probably uh
28:04
mid 1950s my dad was driving his log
28:08
truck
28:10
and is that the log truck there is that
28:11
the coca-cola truck oh that's the log
28:14
we just talked to one of the neighbors
28:16
that drove by and asked what we were
28:17
doing in the road show to match up the
28:19
photos introducing
28:21
my dad talked about my grandpa my uncle
28:25
who sold the house
28:26
and they said that at the moment there
28:28
is no one here and we were
28:30
we're allowed to walk around so we're
28:32
just going to walk around and
28:34
let me just tell you some stories here
28:36
my mother
28:38
loved roses
28:40
so she had rose bushes down both sides
28:44
of this sidewalk in front of the house
28:47
we were and me and my brother in the
28:49
neighborhood kids were forever playing
28:51
football
28:52
and we were always getting balls and
28:55
jumping over her rose bushes playing in
28:58
the yard so
29:03
we had to reckon with mama many times
29:03
over her rose bushes
29:09
now see i recall being right in here
29:09
when i would come back to visit for the
29:11
holidays playing baseball here you would
29:13
be you know pitching the baseball i
29:16
would hit the baseball that way probably
29:18
over
29:19
that and i mowed this yard a couple
29:21
times
29:22
for grandpa
29:23
as well the shed's still back there
29:25
where he had his his ice machines
29:28
in the backyard it all used to be dirt
29:30
dirt and gravel
29:32
until daddy poured the concrete for the
29:34
driveway here
29:36
and i don't know if you've ever heard me
29:38
tell the story
29:40
of your uncle leon
29:42
giving me a fork
29:44
and telling me to stick the fork into
29:47
the outlet
29:48
did you do it this is the outlet
29:54
i'm just amazed the shed is still back
29:56
there and the area where the garden was
29:59
in the backyard wow
30:01
he put the awnings all these awnings
30:03
back here with the and everything
30:06
amazing
30:08
two mimosa trees down here
30:15
over in the side yard right here
30:15
i also recall you telling me grandpa
30:17
didn't want to sell the property next to
30:19
him well he bought the property
30:21
intentionally not to build anything
30:23
there so he wouldn't have a neighbor
30:25
nobody would build next to him
30:27
and for a long time when i was a young
30:29
boy
30:30
betty would plow up this side yard and
30:32
for a garden we did a garden from any
30:34
time i can remember when he used to use
30:36
a plow and a horse
30:38
to plow up the garden you mowed the yard
30:42
you told me a story you mowed the yard
30:44
and you put lettering
30:46
so that someone that was from a bird's
30:48
eye perspective could read it what did
30:50
you spell out beetles so you did like
30:52
the beetles
30:54
i would lower
30:55
and raise the cutting blade
30:58
i came home i mean
31:00
it was it was an arctic it was a work of
31:01
art and my daddy came home from work and
31:04
made me mow over the hole oh man
31:06
you had the beetles you had the guitar
31:08
you wanted to be paul mccartney yeah
31:11
or george harrison
31:17
my brother when he was still living at
31:17
home
31:18
he and i like to play basketball so
31:20
daddy
31:21
put a big pole in the ground with a
31:23
backboard
31:25
and a basketball goal and it was 10 feet
31:30
until
31:30
the basketball goal rusted
31:33
and fell off of the bathroom
31:41
this was well later in my day when i
31:41
came here for vacations or for christmas
31:44
this was one of the guest rooms and the
31:46
tv room was the next was the next one
31:48
over where
31:50
grandma would watch all her shows
31:52
matlock in the heat of the night
31:56
a christmas story we bought them a vcr
31:59
for for christmas day and a christmas
32:02
story on vhs yeah and we all sat in that
32:04
room we did and watched it
32:12
very nice of
32:12
built those uh
32:14
yonder
32:15
very nice of the neighbors to let us
32:16
walk around
32:17
and those big pine trees were just
32:19
seedlings these pine trees were just
32:22
seedlings
32:29
oh you can get a really good view from
32:29
over here of
32:31
the shed
32:33
and the kitchen was that small window
32:37
that small window there was the kitchen
32:40
on the far end
32:43
grandma always she didn't want any of
32:45
the
32:46
the grease splashing up on the side of
32:49
the wall so she put up a full-size wall
32:53
piece of plastic that's right to keep
32:56
the grease from splattering
33:02
when i was a little boy
33:02
long before daddy ever built that metal
33:04
shed
33:06
the first shed out here was actually a
33:07
chicken coop
33:09
oh and daddy kept all of his
33:12
tools and
33:14
truck parts and all that stuff in a
33:15
chicken coop then when that finally
33:17
dilapidated it was a wooden structure
33:20
that's when he built the metal building
33:22
i am really happy that shed is still
33:24
there that
33:26
that is neat there used to be a massive
33:28
oak tree in the backyard
33:31
picture if you would
33:32
say between that tire
33:34
the tire that is a flower bed yeah in
33:37
the house a huge massive oak tree
33:41
maybe a little closer toward us anyway
33:45
one day it just rotted and fell over
33:48
thankfully it did not fall on the house
33:50
yeah it fell
33:52
long ways like this and took out the
33:55
clothesline mama had a clothesline four
33:58
or five lines of clothing
34:00
and it just wiped the whole thing out
34:02
i of course as a kid loved playing in
34:04
the branches yeah until they finally
34:06
came and chopped up the tree and called
34:08
it all off
34:10
ah lots of memories here lots of
34:13
playing football out here playing
34:14
baseball out here basketball baseball
34:19
we did a bunch of it
34:21
what would be the next closest spot from
34:22
here you'd like to go and reminisce out
34:24
we're going to go out this way to uh
34:27
we actually used to have a walmart okay
34:29
there anymore go see the walmart there's
34:31
a place out here where i taught you how
34:32
to drive let's go check that out go
34:34
check that and then the new high school
34:36
right here where you graduated when i
34:38
graduated yes
34:43
before that was mama's tv room that was
34:44
granny's room right there
34:46
and she was living with us
34:53
yeah this image here
34:53
looking down here
34:55
really brings back memories for me just
34:57
the sidewalk
34:59
going up into the door
35:02
it almost looks like it could be the
35:04
same door from decades ago that same
35:06
wooden door
35:12
and the living room where we opened all
35:12
our christmas presents and all that were
35:14
these windows right here and i would
35:17
sleep on the pull out couch
35:20
in there
35:21
and then sometimes at night i would peek
35:23
out
35:24
the window of the door and look across
35:27
into this empty field just i'll say
35:30
daydreaming it was at night but i wasn't
35:31
sleeping
35:33
i just still have this image of peeking
35:35
out over here at this empty lot
35:38
in my youth
35:40
how about that amazing
35:42
all right moving on now before pulling
35:45
out onto the next road
35:47
tell the story about this there used to
35:49
be a ditch right here there used to be a
35:50
ditch there an open ditch and there used
35:52
to be a row of uh bushes there along the
35:55
ditch that continued farther this way so
35:56
the yeah so the ditch would have been on
35:58
the right-hand side of those bushes
36:00
between the bushes and the road that
36:02
grey house over there some buddies of
36:04
mine lived and i spent the night with
36:06
them one night and it snowed
36:08
probably about
36:10
eight nine ten inches maybe of snow
36:13
my mother clearly told me
36:15
not to come home in the snow
36:17
that she would come over in the car and
36:19
get me later in the morning i of course
36:22
being the adventurous one decided
36:30
to disobey my mom right and walk home in
36:30
the snow well when i got to the edge of
36:32
the road you couldn't tell where the
36:33
edge of the road was because of all the
36:35
snow you couldn't tell where the ditch
36:38
started and stopped because of the snow
36:40
so i just
36:41
on a whim
36:43
jumped
36:44
into the ditch and i wound up in the
36:46
middle of the ditch how did how deep was
36:48
the ditch you think probably three feet
36:50
maybe three and a half but you were tiny
36:52
i was yeah i was sunk down in the snow i
36:55
was sunk up in the snow muddy as i'll
36:57
get out when i climbed out and i lost
37:00
a house shoe
37:02
that i didn't find until the snow melted
37:05
needless to say grandma he's probably
37:07
not very happy she was not a happy
37:09
camper and now pulling in the empty
37:11
parking lot of what was a walmart not a
37:14
walmart super center but a standalone
37:17
walmart store
37:19
this was a little bit later on this
37:22
wasn't like in the early years of you
37:23
being here that's correct yeah i was
37:25
long gone after getting married and
37:26
leaving home and all that but we would
37:28
come back for christmas and for holidays
37:30
and we did go in this walmart some some
37:33
day at some point we came back and it
37:34
wasn't a walmart anymore
37:36
it was a wally's something or other and
37:38
now the wall now the wally's is gone
37:41
now it's nothing
37:42
it's empty you don't see too many
37:44
walmart's clothes
37:46
no you know it the aberdeen walmart
37:49
officially to go on record
37:51
closed and there is no other walmart
37:52
here in town yeah they they moved the
37:55
corporation moved the uh obviously it
37:57
wasn't making enough money so they moved
37:59
it over to amery about uh 16 18 miles
38:01
away
38:02
and across the street from this is an
38:04
old pizza hut you ever had pizza hut
38:06
place there yeah we've never yeah pizza
38:07
there once before and check this out the
38:10
walmart sign discount city
38:13
is still there
38:15
they didn't even take it down when it
38:16
became wall-e's
38:19
walmart discount city and that pizza hut
38:21
we're referring to
38:23
right over there
38:24
that's the iconic shape of a pizza hut
38:31
there's no disguise in that
38:37
we're on bulldog avenue this is the
38:37
school that school building that i
38:39
graduated from in 1966
38:41
it was a brand new facility then
38:44
and we were the first class to graduate
38:46
from the new facility
38:48
and we were so proud of that
38:50
don't know if we're going to be able to
38:51
get in and look around or not but uh
38:53
just wanted you to see
38:55
where i graduated from high school and
38:57
yes i did graduate from high school
39:00
that's the football stadium off to the
39:01
left play any games down there
39:04
i did actually
39:05
i played all the home games my senior
39:07
year of high school
39:08
on that field i was on the football team
39:10
yep yep
39:11
that was our home team's place to play
39:15
this is the hangout
39:21
you get in the car and you drive into
39:22
town you turn around and come back and
39:24
you drive around ernie's fountain grill
39:28
go in and get a burger maybe a
39:30
banana split a milkshake or something
39:33
and this is where i learned to play
39:36
bumper pool
39:37
inside there
39:39
inside the ernie's fountain grill
39:42
bumper pool it has seen better days i
39:45
like the architecture though very cool
39:47
very retro
39:48
now this whole area has changed
39:50
but over in this section was where i
39:53
first learned to drive quote unquote
39:56
learn to drive you taught me by bringing
39:58
me out into this area which was a
40:00
shopping center adjacent to this field
40:04
and just showed me how to you know take
40:06
it out of park drive around how to turn
40:09
speed up slow down
40:11
hit the brakes
40:15
one day you're still going to learn one
40:15
day i'm going to learn how to be a good
40:16
driver
40:18
it was right over in this section right
40:20
you know right over in there you look
40:21
beyond the burning trees you see those
40:23
piles of rock and sand and some other
40:26
building equipment looks like and then
40:28
this warehouse looking thing with the
40:30
roof line
40:31
that used to be originally when i was
40:33
young that used to be the drive-in
40:35
theater you pull your car up and watch
40:37
the movies pull up take the speaker off
40:39
of the thingy yeah and uh
40:42
forget to hang it back up when you're
40:44
left oh rip the rip the side mirror off
40:46
yank everything out
40:48
oh drive-ins a thing of the past some
40:50
still exist
40:51
just not just not one here in aberdeen
40:53
hey we're having a change of thoughts
40:56
this was the strip mall parking lot this
40:59
was the part of the parking lot they
41:01
built this building since then yeah so
41:04
we this is the original asphalt and
41:05
concrete where i learned to drive not
41:08
over here and you can see the other
41:10
entrance because it circled around and
41:11
came out on the other highway yeah over
41:13
there so right in here i would have been
41:17
taking my first
41:19
first drive
41:21
it wasn't a stick shift that's true it
41:23
was automatic so that's that's six would
41:25
have been a lot more difficult
41:28
this is the first house that we lived in
41:30
when we took the church to preach at
41:32
verona mississippi
41:34
this house actually had us an address in
41:37
shannon
41:38
mississippi
41:40
and your mom and i lived there about
41:41
three or four months this was before you
41:43
were born
41:45
and um
41:47
we're gonna try to find that house i'm
41:48
not sure we're gonna be able to find it
41:50
though things have changed over the last
41:53
40 50 years right up around this where
41:55
this bridge is kind of
41:57
uh somewhere between here and the next
41:59
few miles so verona is more or less
42:02
tupelo mississippi
42:04
yeah from what i can determine i think
42:06
tupelo probably has incorporated verona
42:09
into its
42:10
metropolis metropolitan area
42:13
after a little searching
42:15
come to the conclusion that that house
42:17
has been torn down
42:19
along this road
42:21
but where we're heading next this build
42:22
do you recall this billboard being here
42:24
no this is new to me you can see the air
42:27
conditioner unit yeah
42:31
right over here
42:32
what number is that 1301 1300.
42:36
yeah the whole building the whole
42:37
building's 1300. yeah this is it
42:40
there's another one over here at 1306.
42:42
you can see where the air conditioner
42:43
unit used to be there yeah
42:45
yeah yeah right there right there yeah
42:48
so this is you dad and that's who's that
42:50
in the middle uh that's his wife
42:53
i'm trying to remember his name mitch
42:56
mention anita
42:57
neat background let me see the photo of
42:58
the side door this is where you guys
43:00
moved after that house we couldn't find
43:02
there's mom around the side that door
43:04
still side door yeah
43:10
there we go yeah
43:10
see that's pretty cool right yes
43:13
number three
43:14
yeah around the back they had a garden
43:17
you had a garden in the back right that
43:19
garden in the back here yeah
43:21
yeah my corn blew over and i went back
43:23
out and stood it up
43:33
and the church is just right up there
43:33
yeah check it right there we go church
43:34
up there yeah we're gonna walk over
43:35
there and you guys we got a photo of the
43:37
church uh the church in the car yeah
43:39
it's in the car i was born just up the
43:41
road in tupelo head is your zone yeah
43:43
yeah that's what the church still looks
43:45
like right yeah they're going down see
43:55
so you guys didn't have fire to walk
43:55
home dad he was just right here
44:00
yeah that's it when was this picture
44:00
taken down
44:03
1974 74. that's when i was born
44:06
you born for me i was born 74. i'm an
44:09
old man
44:11
i was like i'm not as old as my dad
44:13
i'm 40 somebody's 47 in august i'm 43 50
44:16
20
44:17
i'm 36. [laughter]
44:19
don't take 50. all right good to see you
44:21
right man y'all see my puppy i got a
44:23
pretty puppy man i don't know what she
44:25
means she got picked
44:27
now looking at the sign it is now called
44:29
the gateway mb
44:32
not verona
44:38
and my first thought was that this was
44:38
part of that original
44:39
building
44:40
looking at the photo but
44:42
looking a little closer
44:44
you're saying it's not this is the front
44:46
door
44:47
that was facing the roadway this is the
44:49
road right here
44:51
okay this is palmetto road okay that's
44:53
the front door facing
44:55
the road notice the sidewalk coming out
44:58
from the front door
44:59
there's no sidewalk going out
45:01
they have the doorway the front door now
45:03
is in the corner of the building
45:06
yeah and this is a side portion here
45:10
now they may have
45:12
taken this original building
45:14
and built out from it
45:17
and then of course added on this wing
45:19
okay which would have been see this see
45:22
this is kind of the beginning of a wing
45:25
but it's not extended out like that
45:28
and on this off to the side
45:30
there was a place where you guys would
45:32
have your fellowship meals
45:35
there it is
45:40
this is across the street
45:40
because
45:42
there were people in the church back in
45:43
that day
45:45
he did not believe in eating
45:47
on the church property
45:50
so whenever we had a fellowship meal
45:53
we'd go across to that building you
45:54
can't see it for the trees now but that
45:56
white car is parked there
45:58
oh up top there
46:01
you have to walk all the way over there
46:04
to eat
46:10
oh yeah i can see it there is the
46:10
structure there with a truck parked in
46:12
front and there is the structure now
46:16
kind of tucked away behind
46:19
those trees
46:28
standing where the front would have been
46:28
as he described it has been extended
46:31
outwardly
46:33
and the sign was there
46:36
as shown right
46:38
right about in that section and you took
46:40
a photograph at the sign
46:43
right over here and you had your leg
46:45
propped up on it
46:46
let's see if i can
46:48
flip through here and show it there it
46:50
is
46:52
the old sign
46:53
which was right right about in this
46:57
section here
47:03
here's my dad
47:06
yeah this is uh this is where i was
47:07
preaching when you were born
47:09
in 1974 1474 we're gonna go from here
47:12
into tupelo and see if we can locate the
47:14
hospital where you were actually that
47:16
would be great and elvis presley also
47:18
born in tupelo maybe we can go by his
47:19
place as well we could show where elvis
47:21
was born where i was born and earlier we
47:24
showed where you were born
47:25
three of some of the most important
47:27
people ever to be born in mississippi
47:28
there you go and a few miles away at
47:31
four or five miles made it into tupelo
47:33
from verona
47:35
the north mississippi medical center
47:38
does the building always look like this
47:40
or has it actually the building that you
47:41
were born in was much smaller this has
47:44
been expanded a lot over the years but
47:46
that area right there you see the where
47:48
the pillows are and see that car coming
47:50
out that was where we pulled in
47:53
to take your mom in
47:55
and then i found a parking place and
47:57
that's where you were born
48:05
i sat out in the
48:05
that's back in the old days where you
48:07
didn't go back with the mother when she
48:09
had the baby so i sat out in the waiting
48:11
room waiting and waiting and waiting and
48:13
waiting for you to get here you took
48:14
your sweet time that's why i was called
48:16
a wedding i guess this was
48:19
and anyway the nurse came out and
48:20
somebody had told me that hey you know
48:22
one of the one of the things they'll do
48:24
is when you have a baby they'll give you
48:26
a like a
48:28
plastic
48:30
bucket full of stuff
48:32
diapers and all this kind of stuff for
48:34
newborn babies
48:36
so this nurse came out and walked by me
48:38
and went down the hall and came back
48:40
with the bucket with all this stuff in
48:41
it and i thought to myself
48:43
i bet that's for my wife and for me and
48:45
for my new son of course i didn't know
48:47
you were going to be a son
48:49
that was before we
48:51
people started doing you know knew what
48:53
the baby gender reveals that's what
48:54
we're trying to do
48:56
anyway you were surprised i was
48:58
surprised happy we had a son
49:00
uh we had already decided your mom and i
49:02
had already decided
49:04
that once i found out you and uh that
49:07
she and the baby were okay
49:09
then i was to just go home because no
49:10
reason for me to stay up there i was
49:12
just supposed to go home
49:14
so i went home and i wanted to celebrate
49:16
and not being a drinker of alcohol
49:20
i did the next best thing
49:22
i bought the largest pizza i could find
49:25
pepperoni pizza and i brought a two or
49:28
three liter diet coke
49:31
and i went home and pigged out
49:34
and watched tv
49:36
[laughter] that was my celebration we
49:37
celebrated and continued on
49:41
going around this would be the back door
49:44
now arrived at
49:46
the birthplace of elvis presley
49:49
this very small home
49:52
he was born inside of kind of wraps it
49:55
up i've been here
49:56
several times over the years but i felt
49:58
it a fitting ending to
50:04
this episode
50:04
and that's gonna do it for today
50:08
mississippi adventure
50:10
covered a lot of ground we did
50:13
thank you very much
50:18
take that let's do take two
50:18
let's do take two
50:20
we covered a lot of ground
50:29
yes we did just take take three
50:30
that's gonna do it for today
50:32
mississippi adventures we covered a lot
50:36
of ground we did thanks for joining us
50:39
see you tomorrow
50:41
okay thank you thank you very much again
50:43
all right
50:45
take four
50:49
look elvis has a guitar like you
50:51
purchased that i believe it is kind of
50:53
like the one he got his at the hardware
50:55
store in tupelo you got yours at
50:58
the jewel
51:00
the jewelry shop
51:09
from mississippi
51:11
thanks for joining us thank you very
51:12
much
51:18
take number what is this 14
51:18
that's going to do it for today we
51:20
covered a lot of ground on this
51:23
mississippi episode did we not we did
51:29
you got to do a thank you then thank you
51:30
very much thank you thank you very much
51:33
take number 96.
51:35
look you have a guitar like this
51:38
kind of from aberdeen the jewelry store
51:40
mine didn't have any strings on it
51:41
either we covered a lot of ground today
51:45
in this mississippi that's going to do
51:46
it for today
51:51
yes it is
51:51
thank you
51:54
nailed it now
51:57
what that's all