You, Too, Can Play The Spoons

Chapter 1

When I was about 10-years old (1933) in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri, I spent much time with my grandmother who was then a widow. She lived on a 20-acre farm just outside of the town of Willow Springs which her father had established in 1869.

She was a great reader and read some each day to any grandchild who happened to be with her (we heard each of Harold Bell Wright's books several times). She was interested in the news of the day (Kansas City Star and primitive radio). She knew all wild things and the call and song of all birds. To her, the call of the screech owl was a song of joy - not an eerie scream of fear. She taught us there was nothing to fear but fear itself, that one had to tolerate (put up with) chiggers and briars but one was to respect all people and rattlesnakes.

Grandma liked music and kept the beat with her toes, fingers and any item at hand. In this was the beginning of my life as a spoon player. After the evening news on the radio, we would listen to what music we could tune in. We would listen to the music as long as the battery would last. The battery was then a large car battery which required recharging at least weekly. The music was all country music played live and broadcast on the 50,000-watt "clear channel" stations from Nashville, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Cincinnati, New Orleans, etc. Reception in the Ozarks was limited to the evening, nighttime and early morning hours.

The event of the week was the Saturday night "Grand Old Opry" from WSM in Nashville. Grandma would have us all tapping our fingers and anything else with which we could keep the rhythm and beat. A favorite was keeping the beat by scraping her old wash board with her thimbles on our fingers. We made kazoos by folding tissue paper over combs. We put dried peas in gourds and rattled them. She didn't have any store-boughten musical instruments.

One day Grandma took a pair of her big-spoons (tablespoons to flatlanders and city folk) and showed me how to hold them in one hand and keep the beat and off-beat by tapping them down on my leg and then bringing my other hand down and tapping the other spoon to add the off-beat. This was for me; and a musician was born.

It evolved naturally from there. I discovered several moves and developed my style by trial and error. I found I could play waltz time, fox-trot time, polka time and several drum rolls. I could play soft and loud. I could lead and play second. I could solo and syncopate. I could play "Shave and a Haircut - Six Bits" with the best of them.

How grandma did tap her toe when I played "Redwing" and "Arkansas Traveler" with the Grand Old Opry musicians! She was so pleased that she gave me a pair of her nickel-silver big spoons.

I took them to her shed and drilled a hole near the end of each spoon and fastened them together with a rivet. I bent the handles slightly so their form held the bowls about 1/2-inch apart. This made them easier to hold in a constant position and made the playing easier and gave more flexibility in adding "show-off" moves.

Those spoons have been my one and only lifetime pair. They are tarnished and show the wear but the sound seems to improve through the years.

I almost had a real big problem. Grandma forgot to tell my mother that she had given me the spoons. When mother saw what I had done with the spoons, she was fit to be tied and I almost got a trip to the woodshed when dad got home. I somehow convinced them to check with grandma and all was then right with the world again.

My spoons were added to the noise that dad made with his banjo and with the other music in the family and neighborhood. As I grew older with my three brothers, we took music lessons. One played the piano and clarinet and went to Annapolis. One played the piano and then just about every stringed instrument there was and, after Radio and TV School, went on to a career in country music at Nashville as a song writer, manager and producer. One played baseball and became a Wildlife Biologist. I did piano, trumpet and bugle and became a Forester who played the spoons.

Now, that brings us to the real beginning.