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KINGSTON SPRINGS SOUND OF MUSIC – 1930’s
By EVA C. LEE
Carolyn (McElroy) Cauthern’s letter about the KINGSTON – BELLEVUE reunion mentioned JENNY GORDON, and did anyone remember her singing on the river bluffs?
IT sure stirred up some memories for me because we heard it two miles away. This was in the 1930′s. I WROTE THIS LITTLE STORY.
KINGSTON SPRINGS SOUND OF MUSIC – 1930’s
Sound which is heard, results from stimulation of auditory nerves by vibrations, in the air. Some sounds could be heard in the early years, for miles. Today the air waves are cumbered by cars, air planes and the like.
I have a note book with paragraphs about early Kingston Springs residents. Alma Gorden is included. We knew her from seeing and hearing her beautiful voice, as she came off the HARPETH RIVER bluff with a bucket to get water from the SPRING LOT, open ground level springs. Mama had all us Lee children, along with neighbors children, walking the two miles to Church. Alma would pause from her singing, and speak to Mama and us children before she climbed the stile over the fence. We could hear at our house, as the sound traveled up the river and resonated loud and clear.
ANOTHER EARLY YEARS resident was BURL GRIMES,who was said to play the french harp better than anyone in town. He was often seen with his fishing pole on his shoulder, going fishing. He had a favorite greeting to any person he met, no matter what the weather, IT’S A PRETTY DAY OVER HEAD.
When a store burned in the early years, we could hear the explosions of the can goods, and see the bright red sky but did not know what was burning until my brother walked to town.
Another memory of sound traveling was once when Daddy let me, a five year old, go to Nashville with him to sell some furs he had trapped. While waiting for the train in Kingston (you had to flag it down) Daddy put his ear down to the rails and listened, then said “the train is near, I can feel the vibrations in the rails.” In a few moments the train sounded it’s horn for Craggie hope.
A MODERN SOUND OF MUSIC, is THE BAND OF BLUE practice I hear when I’m raking Fall leaves. It makes me forget I’m working. Also I have found the roar of interstate traffic is very loud when the wind is from the South, and hardly audible when it is from the North. Even the train horns are loud when the wind is from the North.
I will have to include this little children’s verse called;
EXTREMES BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
A LITTLE BOY ONCE PLAYED SO LOUD
THAT THE THUNDER, UP IN A THUNDER CLOUD
SAID, “SINCE I CAN NOT BE HEARD, WHY THEN,
I’LL NEVER THUNDER AGAIN.
AND A LITTLE GIRL ONCE KEPT SO STILL
THAT SHE HEARD A FLY ON THE WINDOW SILL
WHISPER AND SAY TO A LADY BIRD
SHE IS THE STILLEST CHILD I HAVE EVER HEARD.
