Tag: Les Green

Paternal grandfather McKinley Green, “Pop”

Though married to my grandmother Agatha (Walker) c. 1932, McKinley Green was NOT living with her or my father in 1940,.

mckinley greenSome months ago, this fellow named Jack, who worked with my paternal grandfather, sent me something on Facebook:

Roger, I have an old Binghamton [NY] Sun Newspaper dated May 23, 1959 that has a story about WNBF-TV-AM-FM and their move to the Sheraton Inn. They show pictures of the staff and a brief story about each. Here’s one on your Grandfather, Mac.

“McKinley Green, Maintenance – A World War I veteran, McKinley hails from Bloomsburg, Pa., and now lives at (yes, they actually posted his home address) He has a 32 year old son who is a World War II veteran. McKinley is a member of the WNBF Employees Club and of the Elks. His Wife belongs to the Order of the Eastern Star.

Thanks, Jack. I’ve not done as much searching on Pop, which is what we always called him, than I did with other branches of my family.

Some of what I found in a quick Ancestry.com search.

Military registration card:
Name: McKinley Green
Address: Bloomsburg, Penna.
Date of birth: Nov. 2, 1895
What’s your present trade: laborer
By whom employed: Tide Water Pipe Co
Married or single: Single
Race: colored
He was tall, medium build with brown eyes and black hair, according to the document of 6/2/17 (2 June 1917)

I never knew his birth date, and he never wanted to celebrate his natal anniversary.

Yet the 1910 US Census tells a slightly different story:
Name: Mckinley Green
Age in 1910: 14
Birth Year: abt 1896
Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Home in 1910: Bloomsburg Ward 3, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son (Child)
Marital Status: Single
Father’s name: John Green
Father’s Birthplace: Maryland
Mother’s Birthplace: Maryland
Household Members:
Name Age
John Green 47
Mckinley Green 14
Dewey Green 9
Wilbur Green 7

I wonder what happened with his mother?

And the 1940 Census tells another variation:
Name: Mckinley Green
Age: 43
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1897
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Pennsylvania
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Lodger
Home in 1940: Binghamton, Broome, New York
Inferred Residence in 1935: Binghamton, Broome, New York
Residence in 1935: Same Place
Resident on farm in 1935: No
Sheet Number: 81A
Occupation: Laborer
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 6th grade
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 40
Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in private work
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income: 508
Income Other Sources: No

They got the race wrong, and the year is fuzzy, but this was my grandfather. Though married to my grandmother Agatha (Walker) c. 1932, he was NOT living with her or my future father, Leslie, in 1940, but in a lodging house with about 45 other people. Agatha and Les were residing with HER parents, as they were in 1930.

By the end of 1953, Mac and Agatha were living upstairs at 5 Gaines Street, Binghamton, NY, while I, with my father and my pregnant mother, were living downstairs.

The more I know, the less I understand…

Les Green, painter

Les Green.bridge
My sister Marcia posted this on Facebook a few months ago:

Though the Binghamton memorial bridge is similar, the story behind the Green family painting of a bridge goes as follows: a young married couple with 3 children, saw a painting/print in a store window. Not having extra income, that talented renaissance father/husband/man made the canvas by hand and painted this painting for his lovely wife. Dad always worked in acrylic paints, as it dried much faster and was easier to work with and cheaper than oils.

See his signature trees at the Roberson event. He also had this bridge painting on display and always joked that if he ever sold it, that he would be in for a Divorce. I am sure that our father could have been inspired by the Binghamton memorial bridge, as he kind of had a “things for bridges…and roller coasters.
Les Green.painting.newsp

The bridge painting was in my parents’ bedroom when I grew up. It is now at my sister Marcia’s house in North Carolina.

Les Green – Dad – would have been 89 tomorrow.

That Les Green song: Two Brothers

Tomorrow would have been Dad’s 88th birthday.

LesGreenThere is this Civil War song called Two Brothers. I woke up from a nap several months ago thinking about it. Here’s someone’s reflection on the song.

Here are the lyrics, written by Irving Gordon, who may or may not have written “Who’s On First” for Abbott and Costello. And here’s the sheet music.

This version by Georgianna Askoff is appropriately plaintive, whereas Anna Coogan and Joy Mills are a bit too festive for my taste. It was popularized by The Lettermen, though I never heard their version, the B-side to Allentown Jail, until much later.

And I was thinking about it because my father, Les Green, used to perform it. His version seems the most authentic. I can still hear his guitar as he sang: “All on a beautiful” – he’d pick out so, so, si, la, ti -“morning”, with “morn” on a four-note melisma. Wish you could have heard it.

If memory serves – and it so often does not – he sang it far less at the point my sister Leslie and I performed with him as the Green Family Singers, mostly because it was really a solo piece for him. You see it listed on his early playlist.

This is the 15th anniversary of Dad’s death; I scarcely can believe it. Obviously, even my subconscious still thinks about him.

Music Throwback Saturday: Who Drank My Beer and Bargain Days

Dad also owned a version by someone performing Who Drank My Beer (While I Was In The Rear), written by a guy named Billy Austin.

who drank my beer.chuckA few years back, I was musing about my father’s 45s record collection. For those of you too young, a 45 was a single vinyl record played on a “record player,” that had a turntable that rotated at 45 revolutions per minute.

For some reason, I was thinking about them again recently on a particularly poor night of sleep (someone talking on speakerphone next door, two dogs barking, and a stiff neck from sleeping on the sofa to avoid the aforementioned, et al.)

Bill Carlisle and the Carlisles performing Bargain Days (Half Off) was released in 1955. You can listen to it HERE or HERE, and read the lyrics, written by Bill Carlisle, to boot. If I wanted to buy it on eBay, I probably could. The B-side was Nine Have Tried (and Nine Have Died), “and you’re gonna make it ten.”

As I noted previously, Dad also owned a version by someone performing Who Drank My Beer (While I Was In The Rear), written by a guy named Billy Austin, according to the label, though All Music attributes it to singer Dave Bartholomew. I didn’t know who performed it when I looked a few years ago, but I knew it wasn’t by Bartholomew [LISTEN], whose version is much bluesier; the one in my head was more country, and more comedic. It also was not the Tommy Duncan version [LISTEN].

I’m now positive that Dad’s 45 version was the one by Chuck Murphy from 1952, which you can LISTEN to, along with its B-side, Oceana Roll on CORAL 60800. The label was similar to the one shown, except it was orange. If I had any doubt, it was sealed when I heard the last line asking the bartender for “one on the house.”

None of the versions charted on either the pop charts or rhythm & blues charts, but I don’t have access to the country charts. Nor do I know which version, if any, was the original, though I’m guessing Bartholemew’s. This song has also been covered by Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, and by Buster Poindexter. If any of you (meaning Dustbury) have any insight, I’d love to hear it.

A picture of two relatives

classroom.mom.malcolm
My sister Marcia posted this picture of my mother. I assume it’s Daniel Dickinson school in Binghamton, NY. Can you find her?

But it was the black youth in the back row that intrigued me. He looked familiar. Specifically, he looked like a Walker, my paternal grandmother’s people.

My dad’s cousin Ruth confirmed that it was indeed Malcolm Walker, son of Melissa Walker Jackson. Melissa was the sister of my grandmother, Agatha Green, but she died when I was very young. He is first cousin to my father (Les Green), Sheldon Walker, Sydney Bullett, Gene Walker and Ruth Lewis.

Oh, my mom is in the third row, on the far left.

So this is a surprising piece of my genealogical puzzle. At some point, Dad’s first cousin went to school with my mom. It’s not shocking, but I never knew this.

BTW, yesterday was my Grandma Green’s birthday. When she died in 1964, she was the first significant person to die in my life.

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