Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1962-01-24
Melvin
|Thonnp son
Continued From Page u

my other one, and he gave me
SIS for il. I worked at little
jobs and all day on Saturday
and paid him IS a week. l was
Is then.
II played the drums with the
school band at Mullins. Base
and snare drums and bonRo,
and the rest. l just picked tina,
up. I'd get a couple of sticks
and pat on chairs and tables.
You ever hear of Slim Minis
and the Sunshine Boys? l prac-
uced some with them.
I'VE moved here from Null
Inns. I was in the eighth grade
That year / played percussion
drums for Mrs. Woody's play
'Mikado'.
1--WE been playing right
much since I've been here. But
there aren't many people who
play. Roger Morris played with
me. Do you know him? They
call him 'Termite'. He played
second guitar, backing me up
l played first guitar. / like to
play first. He could always
play all right. He was good.
But every once in a while he'd
miss note.
I'VE played in the All tai
ent contest over in Whiteville.
That was two years ago. Rich
ard Horne played with us. He
played the drums.
I'VE won that. But they did
us kind of dirty over there.
They hadn't told us anything
about it, and then when we got
over there they told us we had
TO play for all the other acts
too. We played for the baton
twirlers and the pantominc
acts and all that. We played for
them all. Tap dancing and
singing acts.
I'VE got irritated at the
whole business. l mean, they
didn't say anything about it to
us before
so we got up and started to
leave. We weren't even going
to hang around.
They called us back. We
were already leaving. And we
got irritated at some older wo-
men who were there. They had
been giving u1 the old bay eye,
you know? They didn't like the
way we were playing the mus
ic. They didn't like the music
we played either. They didn't
like that rock and roll.
But they called us back. We
went back on in, and they told
US we were the winners. They
gave US the blue ribbon.
Then we got out of there.
We figured we better lea"c
while we could. There were A
lot of them that thought they
were going to win. They were
complaining and everything.
We got out.
Then we went on 10 the
district competition. But Rich
ard didn't go with us. II was
Just the two of us. Roger and
me.
Some of those boys up there
had six-piecc bands. We knew
1t was going to be tough. But
we still finished second. And
one of my strings was even
broken. | didn't have any to
put on. so l Just played up on
the next one. The Judges
squlntcd their eyes little
when | hit some of the notes.
I've played at some of the
street dances around here. You
know the Yam Festival here
last October. Well there was a
guy playing guitar with the
band at the teen-age dance
who used to work for Daddy.
and he asked me to come on
up and play.
SO | did. He let me use his
guitar. It was a good one, al
most new.
Il mixed up bunch of songs
and played them all together.
You ever hear somebody do
that? | played Oh. Lonesome
Me- and Boo Boo Stick Beat
and One Mint Julip' and
'Rhumba BOOgie' and a couple
more. But all at one time, you
see.
II really tore it up. played
1t loud. | like to play lbud
"On the last note | hit |
broke three strings on that
boys new guitar. He was mad.
boy. | paid for them.
Il traced my Belmont Spec
Il traded my BeImon. Spe-
cial. I've got a Kay guitar now.
The Belmont was the one !
had ever since Mullins.
Sometimes l play at the
banquets around here. And
I've played with some of the
boys at Myrtle Beach. They're
pretty good.
81 played at Ernest Sanders
fish fry year ago last Octob-