PTSW: Starting Over

 This little poem by my mother, Ruth Baird Shaw, was published in the July 1990 issue of Home Life magazine.

I'd like to have another chance

    To live my life once more.

I'd like to take my tests again.

    I'd make a higher score.

I'd like to have another chance

    To use the wisdom gained.

Perhaps I'd then become, in time,

    The person God ordained.

I can’t go back to yesterday

    However poor the score,

But I can have another chance.

    Today, I’ll try once more.

-Ruth Baird Shaw

Gleaning Facebook: Pete's Been Gone Ten Years

  Pete has been gone a whole decade now. Here's what I wrote on Facebook about him that day along with some of the responses from my Facebook friends...

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January 27, 2014

I have a letter Pete wrote me in the sixties when I was a naive teen. I was greatly concerned. Some friends had told me my great hero was a "communist"! So I wrote him a letter and asked him. He took the time to respond thoughtfully. I have many of his records, tapes, and now CDs. The first came with that first bunch of LPs that came came with my "membership" in the Columbia Music Club in those teen years.

I was privileged to see Pete in person only three times.

Sheila and I read about a tribute to Woody Guthrie that would be held on the mall in Washington DC during Smithsonian Folklife festival of 1982. We knew Pete would be there, ordered Amtrak tickets and only a couple of days after hearing about the concert were sitting right under the stage for a marvelous couple of hours listening to Pete and Arlo and SweetHoney in the Rock, and the re-united Weavers, and others. What a great concert and sing-along. And afterward I got to talk with Pete and Arlo, who were just… themselves. Down to earth. They were not stars, they were just folks, who listened as well as talked. No preening, autograph-signing, or overt flirting with the girls backstage like I had seen at other post concert meetings with singers.

A year or so later we and our friend Mike Burton went to see Pete and Arlo in Atlanta... was it at the Atlanta Civic Center? Another great concert.

A couple of years ago we heard that 92 year-old Pete, with John McCutcheon, and Tom Paxton, would perform at an event in East Rutherford NJ. We could combine that with a visit to my daughters who were both living in NYC. Another great concert, even though Pete's voice had largely deserted him, he still led the audience in sing-alongs. Afterward we had nice visits with John and Tom, but Pete didn't stick around this time.

I have met few in my 66 years as genuinely sincere, as brutally honest, as humbly self-effacing, as magnificently talented, as consistent in living true to his beliefs, as Pete Seeger.

The world is a poorer place today without this good man and a richer place for his 94 year journey through it.

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Howard Smith

What was his response to teenage question?

Joan Shaw Turrentine

He was, no doubt, a great musical talent.

Monica Sheppard

Very lovely tribute and story of your experiences with him. And, you're right, we are richer for his time here on earth.

Margaret Oren

I was raised on scratchy Pete Seeger albums. I think we were the only kids on the street who did interpretive dance to "We Shall Overcome."

Betty Smith Franklin

lovely, Terrell. I saw him in his 80s and have a lovely story of "backstage," too. He was singing with his grandson. His voice goes right to your heart.

Richard T. Ware

Very well said Mr. Shaw! I never got to see him in person, but, as you know, we've been performing his songs since the 1960s.

Jim Geist

Wow....a letter from Pete S....cool.

Lois Gilbert

Thank you.He was my role model.My goal with my music is to get every one singing!

Terrell Shaw

Howard, as you might expect, since his contempt of congress conviction had recently been overturned on a technicality, he answered my question indirectly as he had answered the HUAC. He said that some folks (John Birchers at the time) considered Ike a communist. He DIDN'T tell me, as he did the HUAC and could have legitimately told me, that his political opinions were no one else's business! He wrote briefly, as I remember, about what he believed rather than dealing in labels. I need to find that letter. It was short but I was impressed that he bothered to answer at all.

David Crowder

Pete Seeger was the best. Sad he has left us, but I know he lived a fulfilled life. A poet and gentleman.

David Crowder

Of all the songs he did...My fav has been and always will be Guantanamera.

Terrell Shaw

Lois, I definitely follow in his musical and storytelling footsteps. I try to involve my audience as much as possible and even in stage performance I remember that the words come first and they need to be directed honestly to someONE. (As Tevye that someone was often God!) I think Pete's audiences always realized he was not singing by rote but actually in the moment speaking/singing to communicate to real people.

Terrell Shaw

David, that song was on that first album (We Shall Overcome) so I've been singing it for fifty years! And one of my favorite stories involves Guantanamera. Alberto spoke no English. He had been in Mr. East's class for a week or two at the end of the last year, but was assigned to mine for the new school year. When I found him he was literally hugging the doorframe in Stuart East's room, refusing to budge. We were all lamenting our lack of a second language. I said to Stuart, "The only Spanish I know is a song: Yo soy un hombre sincero, de donde crece la palma…"

On the basis of a very poorly pronounced "I am a truthful man from the land of the palm trees." Alberto, looked up, smiled and left Stuart's room with me!

David Crowder

I also liked The Sandpipers version. It just puts me at peace. Also remember, without Seeger there would have been no Turn, Turn, Turn by The Byrds.

Bitsy Burton

I believe that Cleve was a big fan of Pete Seeger and a lot of the music I like was influenced by what Cleve listened to.

Kathy Wilson

You were so lucky to have seen him in person.

Donald Murdock

Awesome, Terrell. He was a treasure who sang the integrity of his convictions on behalf of us all. Quite the educator.

Evelyn Cochran Loyd

I have known Evelyn Loyd my whole life. While I usually only saw Evelyn at family reunions, weddings, and funerals, I knew she was a much loved part of my dearly loved Aunt Vek's family. She was the wife of my older first cousin Benny Green Loyd, son of Aunt "Vek" -- Vera Mae Baird Loyd. Evelyn died January 16. 

Ieula Ann Dick (Baird) and Benjamin Wilson Baird were my grandparents

They produced eleven children - Grice, "Willie B." (later called "Bill",) "Sis" (Louise), Lola (died as a baby), "Vek" (Vera), Mary, Charlie, Tom, Jack, Leon (died at 3 years old), and Ruth (my mother)

Aunt Vek and Uncle Pelham Loyd had three children Marian, Benny (Evelyn's husband), and Leon.

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Sheila and I attended Evelyn's visitation and funeral in Rockmart on January 19 and I want to share this information here for the family members who were not able to attend.

Here is her obituary from the Miller Funeral Home in Rockmart.

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Mary Evelyn Cochran Loyd Obituary

Mrs. Mary Evelyn Cochran Loyd, age 83, of Rockmart, GA, passed away Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at her residence.

Mrs. Loyd was born in Taylorsville, GA, on March 18, 1940, a daughter of the late Claude Allen Cochran and Texana Dudley Cochran. She had lived all her life in Taylorsville and Rockmart and was a housewife and homemaker. Mrs. Loyd was a member of Second Baptist Church of Rockmart. She was an accomplished seamstress who enjoyed crafts, working in her yard with flowers, was an excellent cook, and cherished the time she spent keeping her grandchildren.

In addition to her parents, Mrs. Loyd was preceded in death by her husband, Benny G. Loyd, on April 20, 2014, whom she married November 9, 1957. Two brothers, Harold Cochran and Wendell Cochran, also preceded her in death.

Mrs. Loyd is survived by two daughters, Diane (Doug) Gage, and Lori (Tommie) Russell; two sons, Danny Loyd and Jeff (Layne) Loyd; grandchildren, Amanda (Todd) Cooper, Heather (Russ) Mines, Jennifer Presley, Brad Loyd, Brandon (Hayley) Loyd, Kevin (Ashley) Loyd, Luke (Jessie) Jones, Lauren (David) Wu, Sarah Gage, and Aden Jiles. Twenty-six great-grandchildren with one on the way, three great-great-grandchildren, a special daughter, Teresa Krawiec, and several nieces and nephews also survive.

Funeral services for Mrs. Loyd will be Friday, January 19, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. at Second Baptist Church with Rev. David Warriner officiating. Eulogies will be delivered by family members. Interment will follow in Rockmart Memorial Gardens with Rev. Eddy Hughes officiating.

Mrs. Loyd’s family will receive friends Friday from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. at Alvis Miller & Son Funeral Home.

Pallbearers will include Brad Loyd, Brandon Loyd, Luke Jones, Bailey Cooper, Chandler Cooper, and Kevin Loyd.

Alvis Miller & Son Funeral Home & Crematory has charge of the arrangements for Mrs. Mary Evelyn Cochran Loyd.

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From the funeral:

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Photos displayed at the funeral home:

Engraved messages to Evelyn from Benny:

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February 10, 2024

A lovely poem by (I think) Lori Loyd Russell 

after her mother Evelyn's death.

From Lori's Facebook page.

Our lives go on without you, 

but nothing is the same.

We have to hide our heartaches 

when someone speaks your name. 

Sad are the hearts that love you, 

silent the tears that fall, 

Living our  hearts without you 

is the hardest part of all. 

You did so many things for us 

your heart was kind and true, 

and when we needed to talk to someone 

we could always count on you. 

The special years will not return 

when we were all together, 

but with the love within our hearts 

you will walk with us forever.

January 23

I knew that day, before we even started out from Wilmore, Kentucky, that I would take an unannounced side trip around Fort Mountain along the way to Atlanta. I wanted to ask a question. I wanted the right answer. I needed a little help and I thought the sound of Holly Creek splashing down the mountain, the smell of green pines, the majesty of the Cohutta...

Sheila and I parked on a dirt road and walked among the giant pines. She rested against one and I leaned in to kiss her, and asked my question.

She gave the right answer! Just one word expressed unreservedly, enthusiastically, beautifully.

.

That was 53 years ago today. I love her and admire her even more in 2024 than in 1971.

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(We did not get a picture that day. This picture is about a year later.) 

The Thrift Place Bake-off

 Lillian has become quite a baker! Look at this creation.

MLK Weekend, 2024

Alvin Jackson has been a leader of Rome's MLK weekend for 38 years. He has been at the corner of Broad and First for the start of the annual 

 

We asked Terri Morgan to snap a photo of us before the walk started. The stenciled portrait of MLK is by James Schroeder. James was there so I persuaded him to sign his work for me. 

At the end of the march there was Alvin on the steps of the City Auditorium .

The choir was outstanding!