Charles remembers the summer of '64

The only time I met your dad was when my Mom, Sister, and myself were traveling across country to spend the summer (a few weeks) in Nashville at my uncle's home in the area my Mom grew up in. We had stopped for a couple of days in Brandon, MS to visit relatives. 

   So much for a brief history, let me share about your Dad.

 

    I am not sure, but I think the year I met your dad was in the summer of 1964.  It was roughly 62 or 64, my sister would know/remember better than me.  I was an antsy, sports loving kid, so of course much of visiting relatives at  10 or 12 is a bit boring.  Your Dad would have been what, 18 ish when I met him?  I remembered him as being a really neat guy and someone I looked up to.  I have only fired a gun twice in my life.  Your Dad was the first who tried to teach me to shoot a .22 riifle shooting at tin cans off a fence out back behind the Hog area.  I remember that I didn’t hit anything, the target or otherwise but was amazed at how good a shot your Dad was.  After that he drove me into Jackson with him to go to a Hog auction.  I remember sitting up in the stands with him and him telling me what was going on and being amazed at how fast the auctioneer spoke and not really grasping the whole concept of everything. Well, needless to say the time I spent with your father was quite an experience.

 

I guess one measure of impact is how much experiences stay with us.  Of that trip that summer, the one experience - person wise -  that has stood out through the years was meeting and doing things with cousin Melvin.  For years I wanted to contact him and a problem was that since we were visiting the Browns, I always thought his last name was Brown as well.  It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that my cousin told me Melvin’s last name was Rhodes.  I’m very sad that I didn’t put more effort into tracking him down then so I could have made contact.  I would have loved to have spoken with him again after all the years.  

What I can share with you, bottom line is this, for him to have made that much of an impression on a young kid on a summer vacation I think speaks of the type of person your father was.  A very good person.