The Day The Music Died

According to Dad , the nicest thing about moving to a house in the country was getting away from all those "Peanut Heads" we had for neighbors. Mom on the other hand was the type of lady who wanted to get to know all the people around us. She would invite all our neighbors over one at a time for dinner. If they had kids Mom would volunteer to babysit if they needed. At the end of the dinner Mom would make sure our new neighbors felt welcome to visit at anytime.
Dad would make it clear by his attitude that "anytime" meant whenever he wasn't home. Dad would tell me that just because you lived next to someone it didn't mean you automatically had to like them. He had no problem letting everyone know how he felt.
This is another thing that I inherited from Dad.
One time one of our neighbors stopped Dad as he was coming home. The clueless bozo said, "Hey Gene you've never stopped by my house for dinner or drinks. Don't you like us?"
Dad glared at the man until he went away. He never bothered Dad again.
(When I say glare , I mean the stare from hell. Dad's glare was all eye. He never frowned or changed facial expression. One moment Dad was looking at you , the next the eyes changed and you would feel great fear. Mark once said of my Dad's glare ,"If he could turn his eyeballs around he would melt his brain to mush .")
Even with Dad actively sabotaging her efforts , Mom always managed to make friends where ever she went. She was truly yin to his yang.
So on March 8 , 1973 as we moved into this old farm house outside Cambridge , Illinois , Dad was as happy as I'd ever seen him. The nearest neighbor was more then 300 yards away. After that it was half a mile in any direction.
As Dad got out of the moving van we had rented he joked," Now I can whip all you kids and no one will ever hear."
Mom playfully slapped Dad in back of the head."Be nice Gene" she said.
The first time I went into that house was though the back door. I found myself in a nice large Kitchen. Behind the kitchen was a room that just had the cabinets and sink. In front of the Kitchen was an even bigger dining room. Off to that was a huge living room . In the living room was two doors. One led to the stairs upstairs and the other was a den.
Immediately at the top of the stairs to the left was a bedroom. Another larger bedroom was straight across from the top of the stairs. After that bedroom the hallway took a turn to the right and at that end were 2 more bedrooms( one small ,one Master) and a bathroom. In the middle of the hallway was another door that went to the attic.
Everyroom in the house had the most beautiful hardwood floors I had ever seen to that point in my life. What was even cooler was that whoever had lived there before had left many things behind. Dad said the landlord said we could use anything in the house we wanted to . The dining room came complete with a big table and chairs. The den came with a large desk and chair. One of the bedrooms came with a nice sized console television. In that same room were some built in bookshelves. It was loaded with many 50's detective novels among them were a bunch of Ellery Queen books.
But the greatest treasure was the attic.
Walking up the stairs and into the full attic was like walking into an antique store. There was everything from radios straight out of the 40's to an old box of magazines full of old monster books and newer Creepy and Eerie books. ( These had by far the coolest covers I had ever seen.) In one corner there was an old brass bed , complete with mattress and springs. There was a collection of records , next to a set of books about the old west. There was even an old Victrola , that was taller then me. The one item that was coveted by all the kids ( cept me) was an old Motorola Portable Record Player.
Rose immediately began fighting over who got to keep it. John and Geno insisted that they had the more records so therefore they should get to keep it. Besides Rose listened to all that girlie stuff. Who wanted to listen to that? Rose started pouting .
"But Daddy, I was going to listen to some of your records too."
Rose got the record player. She also got the first room just to the left of the stairway. Geno and John got the bigger bedroom(with the TV) next to that. I got the bedroom right across from Mom and Dads room.
I was thrilled. I had never before had my own room. At one time all 4 of us boys shared a room. Now I had a bedroom of my very own. The reason I ended up with it was because it was a bit colder then the other rooms. Dad thought it was because it was a corner room that took all the wind. He messed with the window a bit, then told me I'd live.
I didn't care. I had a room all to myself. That room could have been 20 degrees cooler and it wouldn't have mattered to me. Finally the only one I was sharing a room with was my dog. And he slept on the floor.
Once we all unloaded the moving van I started to fix my room up. At last ,I had room for all my toys. I even had room for some of the Doc Savage books, I had stolen from John. Dad grabbed one of the old radios from the attic so I could have something to listen to at night.
For me life was sweet.
During that first weekend in our new home, Rose took every chance she had to rub it in to Geno and John that she had a record player and they didn't. Geno would retort that they had a color TV and that they didn't want her stupid old record player anyway. The Rose would go into her room and slam the door shut. Within seconds her record player would be blaring at full volume. Geno would bang on the door and tell her to turn it down. Then he would go into his room and turn the TV up full blast. They would do this until Mom or Dad would scream at them to turn it all down.
Dad would yell," Stop crying about Rose's record player you Goddamn Idiots!" Moments after he would storm away both the record player and television sets were turned to full blast again.
Looking back at it, I'm fairly sure the only reason they wanted that record player anymore was that Rose had it.
Within just 3 days of moving in to our new home resentment had built to a fever pitch over the record player. Evertime John or Geno would bring it up Dad just told them ,"You're idiots."
I didn't care. I was laying on my bed , in my own room reading my stolen Doc Savage book . Occasionally I would sneak out and steal one of the Creepy or Eerie books that my brothers had brought down from the attic. Duke unsure of his new surroundings followed me wherever I went.
We had moved in on a Thursday. That Sunday Dad took Mom and Rose into Kewanee ( the nearest "big" town) to get some groceries . Dad left Geno , John and myself at home. He figured that they would only be gone for a couple of hours . He didn't think that we could get into any trouble in that short of time span.
He was wrong.
Almost as soon as they left, Geno began to talk about how he didn't care about that dumb record player. A little later we all went outside and Geno and John were shooting old pop bottles with their sling shots , while I watched.
"Daddy's little girl always getting what she wants" ,Geno kept saying. John would just nod and say ,"Yeah she gets anything she wants."
Geno began to speak in a mimic of a girls voice,"Oh Daddy I want to listen to my records."
"She's got dumb records. All girl crap", John muttered." They should all be broken."
Geno and John both lowered their sling shots and looked at each other. A wicked smile spread over Geno's face. He looked at me and said,"Go in the house and grab all her records. Hurry!"
I ran into the house and up to Rose's room. On her dresser was a stack of records. There was a smaller stack of records on the nightstand next to her portable player. I looked at those and smiled. I scooped them all up and brought them outside. Geno had found some rope or string and tied one end to a tree branch.
"Ok you tie a record to the other end of the rope. Once we break it you tie another one. John and I will see who can break the most."
All their practice of shooting at me had paid off it seemed. Rose's records would only last 2 or 3 shots before it shattered. Geno was laughing hysterically ( he was ahead) and John just had a smile. After they had broke the first ten or so records that I had put up ,I told them I was tired of stringing them up and that could do it themselves. Geno and John then took turns stringing up Rose's records. While one would tie up a record the other would "accidentally" shoot the other with the sling shot. I eventually went in and watched TV. (I knew I was going to need an alibi) Soon they had broken all of the records. The last few they played Frisbee with.
I heard Dad's car pull into the driveway. I was still sitting in the living room when Rose came in and went up to her room. She was only there for a few moments when she came back down screaming ,"Where are my records!"
"I don't know. I think maybe Geno borrowed them."
Rose tore out the backdoor and confronted my older brothers. It didn't take long for Geno to gleefully point out the pile of shattered records under one of the trees. Looking out the back window in Dad's den I thought Rose was going to attack him. Her screaming intensified until Mom and Dad came out to see what was wrong.
"What the hell is going on!" My Dad seemed to scream that whenever he was around his kids.
"They destroyed all my records" , Rose sobbed kneeling over the pile of broken vinyl disks.
" Damnit ! Can't I leave you people alone for 2 minutes with out you trying to kill each other. I don't want to hear anything from any of you!' Dad started to walk back to the house.
"But my records?!" Rose was as furious as I'd ever saw her. Dad ignored her and kept walking to the house. Rose was going to say something else until she noticed one of the broken records.
Rose screamed out,"They broke one of your Hank Williams records!"
Dad stopped in his tracks.
Rose was digging though the rubble. "Here's a Jimmy Rodgers! And Here's a Johnny Cash! They broke all the ones I borrowed from you!"
Now how did those get there, I thought smiling to myself.
The only ones more shocked by this then Dad were Geno and John. They both had that deer in the headlights look. Geno appeared as if he might bolt any second. They started to try and blame the other for what happened. In all the confusion my name was never brought up. In fact I don't think they ever understood what had happened.
Dad came in dragging my brothers up the steps to their room. He was screaming so loudly the only thing I could understand was "Goddamn waste of air!"
Geno was 15. John was 14. They both learned that they weren't too old to spanked by their father that night.
I never did see those sling shots again.
And Dad was right. He could whip us and no one would hear.


Oh I forgot to add. The big console television in my brothers room? If those two Einstein's had bothered to lift the top they would have noticed it was one that came with a built in record player.