View From The Front Porch-Stan Hitchcock Friends....I consider one of my greatest blessings to be...Friends. I have been in a business for about 55 years that has put me in a position to meet a lot of people, to sing to them, to visit with them after the shows, to write stories for them, to fish with them, cook for them, pray with them in the bad times, rejoice with them in the good times...Friends...the bedrock of anyoness life. Facebook says that I am at the limit of my Facebook Friends...and I say marlarkey...you can never put a limit on your friends. It is impossible to have too many friends. There are old childhood friends from school...most of them go their seperate ways after graduation...but still, you never forget them...Childhood Friends. There are buddies that you served in the Service with. In my case, Paul Covey, who was my best friend in High School...and who stood on the platform of the Frisco Railway Depot, in Springfield, MO, on August 19, 1954, waiting for the Train that would carry us to Great Lakes Naval Training Center, North of Chicago, split us up and send us in different directions, but still we were special friends then and still are today. Paul stayed in and made a career out of the Navy...I picked up my guitar and made music. The friends you make in Service are always special, like Pee Wee Garrison who let me join the band on board ship and sing my hillbilly songs on deck of the rolling, tossing ship and who mentored me in important ways on being a musician...and being a man. We lost Pee Wee last year, and I will always miss him. There are friends from the Early Years...1959, I met a group of young people after I returned to Springfield from the Navy. These young people were a family group of singers and called themselves The Waymakers. We sang together for the Good Samaritan Boys Ranch, and they were there, backing me up on my first recording session in 1960. You never forget friends like Bob and Connie Bilyeu, and all the rest of the cousins that made up the group. Then there are the Music Friends...including my Partner, Chuck Lowrance who I met the first year in town, a DJ who helped me by being a friend, and also playing my records in the beginning, and all through the years. Music Friends, and in this I have been extremely fortunate, for I got to town early enough, 1962, that the grand old masters of our music were still around and in their prime. They allowed me to come in to their select group and they taught me, they helped me, I loved them and I believe they loved me back. Many of them have gone on now, Red, Roy, Ernest, Minnie, George Morgan, Johnny and Kitty, Billy Walker, Cal Smith, Hal Rugg, Tom Brumley, Faron, Ferlin, Johnny Russell, Buck, Hank Thompson, Charlie Louvin, Bob Luman, Porter, George Hamilton IV, Jimmy C, Vern Gosdin, Nat Stuckey, Tammy, George...and on and on...and it makes me sad to go on listing names that are no longer with us, and that meant so much to so many...and that I called Friends. And the ones that still survive, and I Thank God for all of them, are special Music Friends. And in that Special group...are the ones that played the music behind me on stage...that slept scrunched up in the cars traveling across America...who helped me get through the long lonesome nights of the Road. Thank you. And there are the Friends Of The Faith, the ones that surround us in love at our Church, who pray for us, and who really care...they keep us going no matter what. So, Im thinking today of Friends, all over the World, that have touched my Life in some way, and continue to do so today. The Facebook friend that come to visit the Old Farm House and brought me some packages of Vintage Fishing Lures that I treasure, and the friend that sent me the album of mine that I did not have, others that encourage me with their comments and thoughtfulness...Friends...the Cornerstones of My Life. I raise the old Red Coffee Mug in a salute to you all...Friends. stan
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:12:35 +0000
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