My father was a self-taught mandolin player. He was one of the best string instrument players
in our town. He could not read music, but if he heard a tune a few times, he could play it.
When he was younger, he was a member of a small country music band. They would play at local
dances and on a few occasions would play for the local radio station. He often told us how he
had auditioned and earned a position in a band that featured Patsy Cline as their lead singer.
He told the family that after he was hired he never went back. Dad was a very religious man.
He stated that there was a lot of drinking and cursing the day of his audition and he did not
want to be around that type of environment.
　　Occasionally, Dad would get out his mandolin and play for the family. We three children:
Trisha, Monte and I, George Jr., would often sing along. Songs such as the Tennessee Waltz,
Harbor Lights and around Christmas time, the well-known rendition of Silver Bells. "Silver
Bells, Silver Bells, its Christmas time in the city" would ring throughout the house. One
of Dad's favorite hymns was "The Old Rugged Cross". We learned the words to the hymn when
we were very young, and would sing it with Dad when he would play and sing. Another song
that was often shared in our house was a song that accompanied the Walt Disney series:
Davey Crockett. Dad only had to hear the song twice before he learned it well enough to play
it. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" was a favorite song for the family.
He knew we enjoyed the song and the program and would often get out the mandolin after the
program was over. I could never get over how he could play the songs so well after only
hearing them a few times. I loved to sing, but I never learned how to play the mandolin.
This is something I regret to this day.
　　Dad loved to play the mandolin for his family he knew we enjoyed singing,
and hearing him play. He was like that. If he could give pleasure to others,
he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing his time and
efforts to see that his family had enough in their life. I had to mature into a
man and have children of my own before I realized how much he had sacrificed.
　　I joined the United States Air Force in January of 1962. Whenever I would come
home on leave, I would ask Dad to play the mandolin. Nobody played the mandolin
like my father. He could touch your soul with the tones that came out of that old
mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his pride in his
ability to play so well for his family.
　　When Dad was younger, he worked for his father on the farm. His father was a
farmer and sharecropped a farm for the man who owned the property. In 1950, our
family moved from the farm. Dad had gained employment at the local limestone quarry.
When the quarry closed in August of 1957, he had to seek other employment. He worked
for Owens Yacht Company in Dundalk, Maryland and for Todd Steel in Point of Rocks,
Maryland. While working at Todd Steel, he was involved in an accident. His job was
to roll angle iron onto a conveyor so that the welders farther up the production
line would have it to complete their job. On this particular day Dad got the third
index finger of his left hand mashed between two pieces of steel. The doctor who
operated on the finger could not save it, and Dad ended up having the tip of the
finger amputated. He didn't lose enough of the finger where it would stop him
picking up anything, but it did impact his ability to play the mandolin.
　　After the accident, Dad was reluctant to play the mandolin. He felt that he
could not play as well as he had before the accident. When I came home on leave
and asked him to play he would make excuses for why he couldn't play. Eventually,
we would wear him down and he would say "Okay, but remember, I can't hold down on
the strings the way I used to" or "Since the accident to this finger I can't play
as good". For the family it didn't make any difference that Dad couldn't play as well.
We were just glad that he would play. When he played the old mandolin it would carry
us back to a cheerful, happier time in our lives. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the
Wild Frontier", would again be heard in the little town of Bakerton, West Virginia.
　　In August of 1993 my father was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He chose not to
receive chemotherapy treatments so that he could live out the rest of his life in dignity.
About a week before his death, we asked Dad if he would play the mandolin for us. He made
excuses but said "okay". He knew it would probably be the last time he would play for us.
He tuned up the old mandolin and played a few notes. When I looked around, there was not a
dry eye in the family. We saw before us a quiet humble man with an inner strength that
comes from knowing God, and living with him in one's life. Dad would never play the mandolin
for us again. We felt at the time that he wouldn't have enough strength to play, and that
makes the memory of that day even stronger. Dad was doing something he had done all his life,
giving. As sick as he was, he was still pleasing others. Dad sure could play that Mandolin!