MTFCA Forum

Rural America the way it used to be. This is actually a Facebook post from last year that popped up on my feed today as a memory.

Jest Before Christmas -- Eugene Field

December 19, 2019 ·

In a feeble attempt to celebrate the fun part of Christmas which used to include one room school programs, brown paper sacks with an Orange and some Peanuts and Hard Candy, poems the kids worked and worked to memorize for what was called their "Piece" at the program, no politics, not much religion involved in the whole deal, just a chance for the little school to put the kids on display for the community and give them a chance to perform in front of an audience ---
This Eugene Field poem, which I memorized as my piece for the program in 6th grade has been running through my mind for the last couple days as I am now old enough to be nostalgic about the days when I was a kid in Westmore rural school 70 years ago. It is called, Just Before Christmas .... Enjoy!
Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl - ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes, curls, an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!
Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake -
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for belly-ache!
'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
But jest 'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!
Got a yeller dog named Sport, sick him on the cat;
First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!
Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,
'Long comes the grocery cart an' we all hook a ride!
But sometimes when the grocery man is worrited an' cross,
He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,
An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched me!"
But jest 'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!
Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibuls that lives in Ceylon's Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!
But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,
Nor read the Life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she'd know
That Buff'lo Bill and cow-boys is good enough for me!
Excep' jest 'fore Christmas, when I'm good as I kin be!
And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn-like an' still,
His eyes they keep a-sayin': "What's the matter, little Bill?"
The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become
Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!
But I am so perlite an' 'tend so earnestly to biz,
That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"
But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me
When jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!
For Christmas, with its lots an' lots of candies, cakes an' toys,
Was made, they say, for proper kids an' not for naughty boys;
So wash yer face an' bresh yer hair, an' mind yer p's an' q's,
An' don't bust out yer pantaloons, an' don't wear out yer shoes;
Say "Yessum" to the ladies, an' "Yessur" to the men,
An' when they's company, don't pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinking of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,
Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!
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I wonder if there is any thing a kid today wants as much as I wanted a .22 for Christmas that year. I was about to turn 11 and there was no doubt in my mind I was ready to move up from the BB gun I'd had for a couple years. We had a single shot Remington but I wanted a .22 of my own which I never got. When I was about 14 my dad won a gun in a contest at the tractor dealership he was working at and he chose a .22 Remington bolt action tube feed repeater that I pretty commandeered but it really wasn't mine. I never really had a .22 of my own until years later when I bought myself one. I also still have that Remington he won and the scope the neighbors bought me for Christmas for it.

Thanks for the neat poem, Uncle Stan. Thanks also for the .22 story, it brought back good memories. I got upgraded from my Red Ryder BB gun when I was twelve. For Christmas I got a J. C. Higgins .410 bolt-action repeater. Shot many rabbits with that little shotgun. Mr. Sweat, who ran the little country store near where we lived would break up a box of .410 shells and sell them to me by the each and keep the rest of the box in reserve for me. He knew that I would buy the whole box in time but couldn't pay for them all at once. Mr. Sweat and his family were nice folks and highly regarded in our little community. I eventually got my first .22 when I was about twenty. I traded the .410 for it, another J. C. Higgins bolt-action repeater. Thanks again, Bob

Stan, for some reason your post caused me to flash back to Herman and Frieda. Isn't about time for them to reappear? (Spot the hidden commercial?)

Oh, I'd love to. You may remember that several years ago I roughed out a story "Einar and Torvald Go Racing." The boys build a fairgrounds racer to win the $100 prize at the county fair, organized by the tall, dark haired boy that came to the Norwegian Sheepherder's Ball and danced with Tillie. Of course it turns out that they knew each other when Tillie was in South Dakota, she was in 4th grade and he was in 8th, now they are almost grown. He is tall, handsome, dashing and still sniffing around Tillie. Yolanda and Yondola reappear, drama, excitement, more drama, Ford Helferstout is on their mechanic team along with Clara Freida. More Drama!!

But I never had time to do more with it. It is in a file on my old computer somewhere.

I just had some calls last week of people wanting to order Herman and Freida books for Christmas, which I have been out of for years.

I had a lady who was going to set it up for print on demand but she never got much done with it.

Thanks for remembering.

I like the poem

I have enjoyed my copy of "Herman & Freida" but I need to ask do you have any CD's available of your fiddle music?

Denny

I don't really play that kind of fiddle -- where I'm playing old timey fiddle tunes. I play Western Swing backup and Honky Tonk Country fiddle but not things like Arkansas Traveler etc., I used to do some show tunes,-- Orange Blossom Special, Black Mountain Rag, etc., but I never got any recordings of them.

If you want to hear me sing a couple songs, you can follow the link below. There are a couple live songs from a festival I played in Gillette, Wyoming over Labor Day and a few tracks from my "Turn Me Loose and Let Me Sing" CD from a few years ago. I play some fiddle on it as part of the Triple Fiddles on a couple songs. The lead fiddle though, is Bobby Flores.

I'm in the process of re-mastering my "Bunkhouse and Honky Tonk" CD which is all songs I wrote include "Ridin' For the Family Brand" which is what won the songwriter awards years ago when I was still tall, slim and healthy and singing all the time, playing music pretty much for a living.
I'm still tall.

Here is the soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/stanton-howe/03- ... n-stand-sh

Stan,

I enjoy Western Swing and Honkey Tonk and I very much enjoyed listening to the track posted. If you do put "Bunkhouse and Honkey Tonk" on the market for sale please keep me in mind as someone who would like to purchase a copy.


But the album cover should be you with your foot on the running board of your Model T Coupe holding the fiddle or a 1920's style microphone.

Email me your address and I'll send you a copy. stanhowemt@aol.com

My publicity photos are mostly with a guitar instead of a fiddle and leaning on or standing beside one of my Cadillacs. It's a Country Music thing.

Me about 20 years ago with my new-to-me 64 Eldorado convertible in front of the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming where I was headlining the show.

Stan,

As per your request I sent you an e-mail

Love the caddy ... It reminds me of the caddy in the George Jones video of "Who's going to fill their shoes" It appears at the very end.

Denny