The time machine races forward to 1952. Caroline Piper graduated from Ash Grove, MO high school to attend college at Southwest Missouri State. After three years helping his father on the family farm, Paul Hickman returned to college at Southwest Missouri State. Paul and Carolyn would soon meet and fall in love. They both graduated in the spring of 1956. Dad received his degree in chemistry and mom majored in music. However, before graduating these two love birds decided they couldn’t wait and tied the knot in March 1956.
After graduating Dad secured his first job with Dupont in Joplin, MO and the newlyweds moved to Webb City, MO. In November 1957, I was born! In the spring of 1959 Dupont closed the lab in Joplin. Dad was offered a job in Tacomo, WA so with a one-year-old in tow, the young couple loaded up all of their worldly possessions and headed to the Great Northwest, but not for long. Mom–not a huge fan of being so far from hearth and home– returned to Springfield in late summer 1959 and began teaching music in Bois D’Arc MO. Dad, missing his family, soon followed after landing a job as a chemist with the City of Springfield. After settling back into their home turf, they bought their first house in 1960. One of the central furnishings (in my opinion) in our Dayton Street home was a record player and stack of 78 rpm records. I would sit for hours playing through that stack of records, giving birth to my lifelong love of music. Mom recalls that I could pick out the particular songs I wanted to listen to based solely on the look of the record label. So it was at the ripe-old age of 2, Brad Hickman (BH) was introduced to Billie Holiday (BH) through these 78s. There were many greats I encountered, wearing out the grooves of those records.
Commodore Records was founded in the spring of 1938 by Harlem-born Milt Gabler, who happened to be Billy Crystal’s (‘City Slickers’, ‘When Harry Met Sally’, ‘Monsters, Inc.’–and for you oldies out there–‘Soap’) maternal grandfather. Commodore’s biggest hit was “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday. She was a friend of the Crystal family and in his autobiographical stage play 700 Sundays Billy talks about his relationship with Billie Holiday and how she used to call him “Little Billy” and he called her “Miss Billie”.
Record: Billie Holiday – “Strange Fruit”
Source: Garage Sale – April 2015
Price: $5.00 for an “album” of 20 records
Did Carolyn even last 3 months in the great northwest?
Maybe, but not much more. I think the rumors that Bigfoot lives in the Cascades terrified her.
Good stuff, Brad!