DADDY'S (Rufus Wilburn Tillman Sr.'s) 100TH BIRTHDAY,
Part 1, Feb. 10, Mon., 2014, by Danny, 1st entry, March 9, 2014.
I've gone back to Wil's Power Point Slideshow & Scrap-book presentations for Mother's funeral reception at Flemington Baptist Church, January 12, 2013, & pulled up the 5 photos with Daddy in them. Thanks to Wil for that. I wish I could also give due credit by name to those took the original photos, but I don't have that in-formation. So I'll just say,
"Thanks to you all, kind & worthy photographers!"
NOTE: To enlarge the photos & text, hold down "Ctrl" & press "+" one or more times as desired. To reduce the photos & text, hold down "Ctrl "& press "-" (to left of "+" key). Then, click on scroll bar at bottom of screen & drag it all the way to the right to see complete photos. I can enlarge 5 times on my widescreen laptop & still be able to see entire photo & text. It may be different for your computer screen.--
Daddy's 100th birthday is tomorrow, & I was trying to think of something to commemorate it. So I came up with the idea of going thru "Daddy's Song," & discuss-ing the various events depicted therein. I also invite your input-- You can comment on, or ask questions about the events you remember.
Likewise, you can ask me questions about the events in the song that you don't remember. Also, you can correct me if I've been mistaken in my remembrance of the events.
In other words, we can just have a free-for-all discuss-ion about the things we remember about Daddy that I forgot to include in the song (or things he did with y'all that I didn't know about.
I'm just reminded, for instance, that before moving to Micanopy, Daddy would make trips down to Aunt Aggie's & Uncle Joe's to work on our new house (or at least the garage part that became our kitchen/dining room/bedrooms, & would take Jane (or maybe Judy?) with him, I believe.
So, Jane (or Judy), you could tell us if you remember about that, or if you remember Mother &/or Daddy telling you about it later, as y'all were pretty young then.
I also remember that we made a Super 8 movie of Daddy in the front yard (I might've been operating the camera). Daddy was frolicking around with our dog Rex (& maybe Lassie too). I think you were in it, Jane; & you, Judy, & your horse. I don't have that reel of film. Do any of y'all have it?
I didn't get started on this till about 8:15 p.m. on this Monday the 10th. Also, I had to get up at 5 a.m. to shovel snow & sweep off the cars. So I'm pretty foggy right about now, & probably won't be able to do much typing or commenting tonite.
Ok, I'm gonna copy "Daddy's Song" from the E&OV3 booklet, & we'll get started (I'll put the lyrics in bold, & the comments in regular type--
Daddy's Song, by Danny, July 7, 2012 - Feb 10, 2013. Nathan-- guitar; harmony vocals on intro & coda. Ezra-- keyboard. D-- guitar; vocals. Rec. Feb 11, 2013. (Note: In chorus 4, I forgot to mention Camp Blanding as one of the places Daddy worked--didn't think of it till after we'd recorded the song. And since Arlington is actually a section of Jacksonville, if we ever recorded the song again, I'd sing chorus 4 like this: "Working hard each day at Jacksonville, Camp Blanding, Cecil Field & Green Cove Springs.") This song tells pretty much a true story as best as I can remember. For Daddy.
intro: Lah la, Lah la, Lah la, Lah la.
In my original version of the song, on the first day I began writing it, I sang "Dad-dy" four times. As we practiced the song prior to recording, I switched to "lah-lahs," as I began to feel that the "Dad-dys" sounded too sad.
v.1: Many years ago I made up a song for Daddy, But since then I've forgotten how it goes; This is true. The original song, which I called "Daddy's Song," was, the best I remember, my 4th piano song. I had already written the songs: (1) Chief Micanopy, (2) Princess Tuscawilla, and (3) Rejoice. All I remember about it was that it was in the key of F and that it had a sad, sweet tune. I'm pretty sure I didn't have any words for it. I must've not worked on it for very long, maybe due to having too much homework, etc. Then I guess I got involved in other activities which prevent-ed me from memorizing it like I did my other 4 piano songs (all of which I've remembered over the years). In it I would tell him things that ne'er before were told, With melody so marvelous & bold. I do remember this about the song. It seemed that the melody & chords were the very expressions that I could feel were the things I wanted to say about Dad-dy, yet could not put into words.
[Continued under "Beginning of 2nd entry, February 11, 2016, 10:31 PM" ]
Ok, I'm gonna stop for the night. I'll type more tomor-row.
P.S. Remind me to comment on Camp Blanding if I for-get.
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From Wil, Feb. 10, 2014-- Thanks for doing this. I can’t think of anything right now, but will dwell on it .
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From Judy, Feb. 11, 2014-- Hey Danny (and Wilburn and Jane),
At work today, i suddenly realized that today is Feb. 11th, and Daddy's 100th birthday! So, that's why i'm actually on the computer today after about a week or so, to wish everyone a Happy Daddy's Birthday!!!
Hope y'all are all un-freezing up there
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Thanks for getting back to me y'all. I'm getting a late start again today, as it's tonite already.
I'm looking thru my old papers to try to find my origin-al "Daddy's Song" scribblings to show y'all how the song came together. I still haven't found them, but when I do, I'll type you something & maybe send pix of the original lyrics.
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From Nathan, Feb. 12, 2014--Wow, Dad, you have such a good memory! If you still remember those other piano songs, why don't you record them, too? That'd be pretty neat. Had you been learning about the Micanopy Indians in school at that time?
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Feb. 12, 2014-- Thanks, Nathan. Yes, good idea. I've been thinking that I needed to do that. So I got Ezra to show me how to record tracks on his keyboard (he said you taught him how to do it many years ago).
Then, several weeks ago, I began laying down tracks for my 1st piano song. I recorded it from the keyboard, via the 2 mics (just like we've done when recording the songs for our CDs) onto a tape, then onto the laptop.
After that, I did the same with the other 3 songs. So they're all ready to go onto E&OV.4.!!! I'm real happy about that; it's a dream come true for me.
I'm sure you'll be home to help us sing & play before we finish recording all the songs for E&OV.4--we haven't even done one "live" song yet!! (tho' we've practiced one several times)--Seth & Ezra have been too busy with school.
However, I do have music (besides my piano tunes) ready to go onto the next CD--like the 2nd version of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain;" old Songs to Us Songs & DVT Family Singers songs; my original singing of "Daddy's Song" from the practice tape; & Seth's instrumental of "Ev'rybody's Talkin'," composed, & played on his M-Audio Fast Track, & given to me for a Father's Day 2013 present, which is our 3rd version of the song!!!
Well, I'm going to eat supper now. I'll try to get back on the computer later tonight.
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Feb. 26, 2014-- Oh, yes, Nathan, to answer your ques-tion, "Had you been learning about the Micanopy Indians in school at that time?" Yes, we had, I think in the 4th grade--about Chief Micanopy, Billy Bowlegs, & the most famous of all, Osceola. These guys were part of the Seminole Indian tribe in Florida including the area we know today as Micanopy. The Seminoles were an inter-marriage of the Creek (a.k.a. Muskogee) Indians & runaway slaves.
The original name of my song, "Chief Micanopy," was "Seminole," but in the past few months, since I'm gonna group my 4 piano songs under the name of Micanopy 1821 (the year the town was founded), I've decided to change the name of my 1st song to "Chief Micanopy."
(When I played the tune for my friends Phillip & Rex Lowe in the mid 60s, they suggested that I change the name of it to "Micanopy 1821"--that's where I got the idea of the title for the whole group of my 4 piano songs. We were at the Micanopy Baptist church on a Saturday workday, & since they lived in the parsonage next door--their dad was our pastor--they bro't their cornets over & played along with me. So I put trump-ets in part of the song when I recorded it recently on the Ezra's keyboard.)
My 2nd song, "Princess Tuscawilla," was composed in honor of Chief Micanopy's wife. There is also a lake in Micanopy bearing her name. I typed her name into Google & found, to my surprise, that there is a daylily named after her, the Tuscawilla Princess, which won the 1996 President's Cup for the best daylily cultivar (a variety of a plant that was produced from a species & is maintained by cultivation - dictionary.com).
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Feb. 26, 2014-- I forgot to post these photos for y'all--
Micanopy photo courtesy of glencoe.com.
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Osceola photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
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Billy Bowlegs photo courtesy of real-southern.com.
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From Nathan, Feb. 28, 2014-- Hey Dad, it's cool that they were teaching 4th graders about the Seminoles. How neat to have a bit of a connection with local history like that.
"Chief Micanopy" is a cool name. Whoa, that's a great memory about playing your song with your friends. They learned the music just by listening? Did they play the melody or figure out harmonies?
Tuscawilla and Micanopy are such awesome names. Thanks for the pictures. I wonder what kind of bird those big feathers are from?
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Feb. 28, 2014-- Nathan, I think Phillip & Rex just played "by ear," once I had played the song thru on the piano. Then they played along with me. I'm glad you asked about that, because, interestingly enough, they didn't play the melody. Instead, they played the bass line, which has a regular beat and form that repeats itself thruout the song. So, to kind of honor their efforts, when I was recording the song on the keyboard, I put trumpets on parts of the bass line. Then, not until I had listened to the end result, did I realize that the trump-ets sound like the cavalry. So I could imagine the Ind-ians & the soldiers standing around in the Indian vill-age playing this song & dancing around & whatnot. Or the Indians could be playing the song & the cavalry could be charging in to the camp blowing their bugles.
How the song actually came to be--
I was thinking about writing a story about the young people in Micanopy Baptist Church having adventures. I didn't get very far with this project, but one plot I do remember was that the young people (with one of their Sunday School teachers, or maybe their pastor) were driving a car across a bridge. While on the bridge, something happened--can't remember what--to cause the car to veer off the bridge & crash into the water. So I decided to write a song to go along with this incident. I still remember the words, which go along with the one & only verse the song has. In this verse, you'll discover the names of 2 of the characters of the story--one of the young people, and one of the adults. Here's how the verse went:
"Thank you Mister Haley, for saving him
Even tho' we know that Sonny can swim
He hit so hard on the dash in the crash
It was his head, we're [or I'm?] so glad he's not dead."
Oh yes, and it just came to me that there were words for a bridge too [hey, a bridge in a song about a car crash on a bridge!!-ha!] So here's the bridge: "Sonny's alright." [repeat 4X]. Hey, that was short & sweet!
Some time later, I came up with an alternate set of lyrics that match the tune quite well. It is a slightly edited version of Matthew 23:37, as spoken by Jesus:
"Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem
How often would I have gathered thy children together
Even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings
But ye would not, oh no no, ye would not!"
It just came back to me that I at one time tho't about naming the tune "O Jerusalem." I may even have done so. I did write the music out & send it a music publisher called "Tin Pan Ally" (originally the name of a section of W 28th ST where a row of music publishing houses were located according to Wiki) in NY City not too long after I wrote it. Never heard back from them however. Years later, I heard the bass line (or something very similar to it) of my song in some song or instrumental I heard on the radio.
The song has only one more part besides the bass, melody, &, the bridge I spoke of above--another tune which I guess could be called "bridge #2, but which didn't have any words.
In the final version of the song recorded on the key-board, when I play the verse for the final time, leading down to the end of the song, all the parts are playing along together--the melody, the bass, & the 2 bridges.
Nathan, I read a book about the Everglades by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, & I'm pretty sure she said what kind of feathers those were, but I can't remem-ber. I asked Momy, & she's gonna try to find out.
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Vicki, Feb. 28, 2014-- Here are where the feathers are from:
The tail feathers of the sandhill crane (the under feathers of the tail are black) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhill_Crane
The tail feathers of the great egret http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/great_egret/id
The tail feathers of the wood stork http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Stork
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End of Part 1, March 9, 2014.
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Beginning of Part 2, February 11, 2016,
10:31 PM
By the way, while I was typing Bible verses for Miss Margaret today it just so happened that her verses today included Psalm 19:10, which has some words used in a Songs to Us song recorded by me on February 11, 1988.
Ok, let's continue with the lyrics to "Daddy's Song," with comments from me--
chorus 1:
Sharp'ning handsaws, mowing, building us a house; Reading comics to me, sitting on his knee.
SHARPENING HANDSAWS
Wil, Jane & Judy, I guess y'all remember Daddy sharpening his handsaws after we moved from Jacksonville to Micanopy.
I seem to remember him doing it in the old pump house. But he also probably set up his clamps or whatever he used on saw horses in the back yard near the pump house.
I don't remember what he sat on while doing it. It was a long, tedious job, so he'd have to be sitting down.
Each triangular-shaped tooth had to be sharpened on its 2 sides. He used a thin triangular file to do this.
Every other tooth on a handsaw is bent slightly outward, first one way, then the other way. Reason being, is that when you cut thru a board, the cut line is wider than the thickness of the actual saw blade. This allows the saw to slide smoothly thru the wood while you are sawing.
With prolonged use, the teeth tend to get forced inward into a straight line. This causes the saw to stick in the piece of wood it is sawing, because now, the cut line width is becoming more & more narrow--approaching the thickness of the saw blade itself.
So Daddy also had to periodically bend the saw teeth back out to their original angles (every other tooth is bent to the, say "right," and every other tooth is bent to the, say, "left") .
He had a little tool that I think clamped onto the saw blade. This tool also, I guess, had a mechanism that would pull or push a single tooth outward at a slight angle.
I remember seeing this little metal contraption, but can't really describe it, other than it had some thin metal shafts, and several small metal thumb screws on it. - Ended this session at11:34 PM, Feb. 11, 2016
Next time:
READING COMICS TO ME SITTING ON HIS KNEE
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