Banjo on the Mountain: Wade Mainer's First Hundred Years

Photos, Letters, and Memories

PHOTOS, LETTERS, AND MEMORIES 39 W.J. and Polly Mainer family photo, c. 1912. L to R: Gertrude, Eva, Willis, W.J., Essie, Wade, Finley, Polly, J.E., James. wade We were a poor family but in our hearts and our living and in the ways of God they taught us something. My family was all Christians. My older brothers and sisters left home when I was still a small boy, and I don’t know too much about them after that. Back during the Depression you couldn’t find work and you had to get out and get on your own. It happened that Papa had a little farm and we raised all of our stuff to live on. During the wintertime my dad would dig a hole in the ground and cover food to keep through the winter. If we wanted anything he’d buried, apples, potatoes and things like that, we’d go out, get what we wanted, bring it in, and Mama would cook it on the stove. All told, I think he was working about fifteen acres. He had a mule and a turning plow and a bull-tongue plow. He hitched the mule to the plow and worked in the garden—no gasoline engines nowhere ’round! This page intentionally left blank Julia Mae Brown, mid-1930s Frank Hall Brown and daughter Julia Mae, 1930s. Julia as Hillbilly Lillie, ca. 1935. wade In 1935 I met Miss Julia Brown when we were on WBT in Charlotte. She was a singer and musician, playing part time over WSJS in Winston-Salem. Julia’s father was a farmer, and he listened to the Mountaineers’ morning program. Julia and her mother decided to give her father a surprise birthday party, if we were available. Our book keeper had the date open and arrangements were made. This is where I first met Julia. We continued on WBT for a while, and then went to WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina. During this time I corresponded with Julia and, when we did not have a show date on Saturday night, I would drive approximately a hundred miles to see her. 42 Julia at home, 1930s. Julia Mae Brown publicity photo, 1930s. Hallowe’en costume, 1930s. 43 Julia, 1930s. Julia at home with Jack, 1930s. julia Ifoundtheoldguitardownatmygrandpa’sinNorth Carolina where I went to visit a lot. It kind of fascinated me. I got interested and tried to play it—didn’t know nothin’ about it! When I was a teenager I still liked the guitar, and my dad bought me one, a Kalamazoo. I sent down to Nashville, Tennessee for a songbook that had guitar chords in it. I learned some chords and just started pickin’ from there. I took lessons on the piano but I liked the guitar better. My uncle M. G. Brown was a fire chief in Winston-Salem. He came over to visit my dad, and he heard me pickin’ and singin’ there at the house. He said, “Julia, I think you’re good enough to be on the radio.” Thatjustkindofstruckachordwithme,soIaggravated my dad until he took me over there to Winston-Salem, and there’s where I got onto WSJS radio in 1934. I tried out and they said I was OK. Dad took me over there whenever he had the opportunity. It was around twentysix miles from home, and I wasn’t regularly scheduled. It came to an end right after I met Wade—I don’t think I broadcast too many times after that. We lived on a farm in Mocksville, North Carolina. The farm had quite a few acres, I don’t recall exactly how many. Dad had horses and hired help. Back then you’d have to have a mule or two to pull the plow. He had a tractor in later years until he finally gave up farming. Dad, he got up early and he listened to the Mainer Mountaineers in the morning. He really liked their program, so Mom and I we got together for Dad’s birthday in 1935. We talked it over and decided to get them to come up and surprise him. We sent them a letter and they had the date open, so they said they would come. We made arrangements and they came up. JULIA MAE BROWN MAINER W.J. and Polly Mainer, ca. 1940. Itwasaboutoneo’clockthatdaywhenIhadaprogram. Mama told me to keep Dad in...