Blog 695 – 07.16.2017
(Excerpt from the book, Emily – The Little Girl Who Sang Her Song To Anyone Who Came Along)
Episode 16

As I said, Emily is with me wherever I go. During her adventure here we made several road trips together. One of the first started off as a flight just the two of us from Houston to Chattanooga to pick up a car my parents were giving me. Emily was still a baby so I held her the whole flight just requesting more milk when her bottle ran dry. She was quiet and quite content so long as the bottle had milk.

We had earlier that summer put Emily’s brother Ben on a plane to visit his Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Rogie in Johnson City, Tenneesse. They had planned to take Ben to the World’s Fair which was in Knoxville, Tennessee that year, 1982. I picked-up the car my parents were giving me and drove from Chattanooga to Johnson City to get Ben. I had to be back for work on Monday and had a long drive back to Houston so knowing how difficult it would be to get away from Grandma Nancy if she got her hands on her grand baby girl, Emily, I decided to leave Emily with my mom. As far as I know Nancy never learned of Emily’s first visit to Tennessee. If she had I’m sure I would have heard the explosion even all the way in Texas.

Ben was ready to get back home as soon as I got there so quick hugs all around and we were on our way to get his sister from Mom and Dad and back to Houston. I told Ben that Emily was waiting for us in Chattanooga after we were on the road and he was thrilled. Like all the rest of us Ben loved her from the start and he spent the most time with her till she left Texas after high school for the East Coast.

A couple of years later we made another road trip. This time the whole family to Chattanooga around Christmas time. That time we drove first to Raleigh, North Carolina, where Nancy and Roger were then living. We stayed there a couple of days (It was then I first met Sandra’s sister Lyn and her three lovely girls: Dooba (Deb), Kristin, and Penni). Then we stopped in Chattanooga for a couple of days on our way back to Texas to spend some time with my folks.

We had but one other road trip together, the five of us, Sandra, David, Ben, Emily, and I.  That time in was just to see my folks and we saw Rock City. Anyone who has ever driven in the South has seen the signs, “See Rock City.” I even saw one in South Vietnam when I was stationed there in 1970. I am sure some homesick southern boy had ordered it and stuck it where all us southern boys could see it. Emily saw Rock City as a little girl and had a View Master disk so she could revisit the images of Fairyland Caverns, the Swinging Bridge, and other Rock City favorites. I have a picture of Ben, Emily, and I sitting on Grandma White’s porch with Lookout Mountain, the home of Rock City, in the background. I am wearing a big black cowboy hat, Emily her heart rendering crooked little smile, and Ben a grey Rebel cap so we had probably been at least to Point Park on Lookout Mountain for him to have on that souvenir. Rebel caps and Davy Crockett coon skinned caps are two of the boy favorites souvenirs and Ben’s brother David chose the coon skinned cap.

One of the more memorable road trips Emily made with her other mother, Linda, her younger brother, Jay, her cousin, Linda’s niece Michelle, and I. It was a long road trip from Houston to Indianapolis, to visit Linda’s sister Esther and brother-in-law David, then to South Carolina, to visit Linda’s folks, then on our way back a stop in Chattanooga to visit mine. Whew, it was whirlwind adventure but apart from a little bickering a good time for all I think. We also made a detour on that road trip to see the Vietnam Memorial where I cried, my tears covered by a rain storm. Even the skies wept with me for all my brothers lost in that foolish war and all the Vietnamese soldiers and civilians on both sides. I quote the lyrics of a song popular when I served in Vietnam, “War, good God y’all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it, say it again.”

In September of 2008 hurricane Ike visited Houston, Texas leaving many without power or water services for days and in some cases weeks. I had planned a road trip for Sandra (who was staying with me at the time, I had separated from Linda and had small apartment) to Chattanooga and then on up to Virginia. Emily was supposed to fly to Chattanooga and attend the White side of the family reunion with me. Sandra stayed in the motel opting out of seeing my dad’s side of the family.

I met up with my brother Robert at the reunion and while we were waiting on Emily’s delayed plane to arrive we drove a few miles from where the reunion was being held in Rossville, Georgia to the nursing home where our grandmother Lillian Trotter Davidson spent the last months of her adventure here. Lilly had always been a sharp observer of people and could tell you much about someone having seen them only briefly. I always thought she would have made a great police detective. She had only been in the nursing home a couple of months. Her mind had begun to leave her and she only recognized her son Lamar and her daughter Pat and not even them always. Robert and I visited with her as she was finishing her lunch in the dinning area. She was like a child with a beaming smile and she flirted with Robert asking him if he was married. She had no clue who we were so we had a fun visit with her. She seemed quite happy.

As we were leaving Pat and Lamar arrived so we decided to go back in the nursing home with them and visit with Lilly in her room. Being from Texas and wanting to look the part for my Tennessee family I had dressed in black with a western bolo tie, my dad’s, a black Cisco Kid style cowboy hat, and shining black cowboy boots. I had even printed out the words to the nineteen forties favorite recorded by both Bing Crosby and Roy Rogers, Don’t Fence Me In, (the song was written by Cole Porter). I had planned to sing it at the reunion Emily accompanying me on her guitar.

As we walked through the dinning and lounging area to get to Lilly’s room a sweet little lady called out to me, “Hey, you can’t come in here with that cowboy hat on without singing us a song.” I replied, “M’am, am I ever ready for you.” I then pulled out the words and began a bold rendition of Don’t Fence Me In. Robert and Pat were red faced with embarrassment at their crazy brother/nephew but I had my audience from the first refrain and many were singing along with me remembering those words from their younger days better than they now remembered their children and grandchildren names. It was a magical moment. Roy and Bing would have been proud, even the nurses had fun seeing their charges so happy reliving a special time in their lives. As we were trying to leave after visiting Lilly a nurse had to buzz the door to let us out and she smilingly said to me, “I guess we did fence you in after all.” So she had the last laugh.

Robert and I then hurried to the airport, picked up Emily and by the time we got back to to the reunion several had already left but I would not have missed my sing along with Lilly’s new family for the world. Lilly was only there a few more months but she brighten that place and warmed all their hearts till she was transferred to a much bigger room where if I know Lilly she is doing the same thing and now along with Emily to a much larger crowd, our extended family.

Emily had a great visit with her mom in the motel while I visited a couple more members of my mother’s side of the family and my first wife Barbara’s aunt and uncle. Mom and dad were already passed but I am glad Emily was there at the reunion and that she had her guitar and sang a couple of songs for the reunion folks and many more for just her mom and me. The next day we three drove together to Emily’s Virginia home. Sandra and I stayed a couple of days then made the drive back to Texas and thank goodness the power and water were back on in the apartment though for several weeks all the traffic lights around Houston were flashing red which made each of those intersections a four way stop and made getting around town even more challenging than it had already been before the storm. Still I was glowing a bright color for days, just the after glow of having spent time with Emily and loved ones I did not get to see often enough.

Your friend and fellow travel, Em’s Dad,
David White