Arizona Star, Guy Clark, Nashville, and US Part IV

Raf and I married on May 5, 1977, at the small meditation chapel off the Upper Room Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee.  My boss, the Reverend James Alexander, married us.  We had three attendants, Yvonne Glien, Eric Thorson, and Owen Davis.  Yvonne was a PhD student at Vanderbilt, majoring in Spanish.  Eric and Owen were musicians.  As the room was so small, loads of people stood in the doorway watching.

We had met the year before, at the Upper Room, when Raf was bringing tour groups for Greyline Tours, and I was working as a guide while attending Scarrett College (which no longer exists!).

While in Tennessee, we lived in Nashville, Bon Aqua, and Kingston Springs, and when Raf got a job with a Texas oil company, I really hated to leave Kingston Springs.

Tennessee is a beautiful state, and I love it still.  We have often traveled back to Nashville.  The most remarkable thing I thought about Nashville when I lived there was that the wind was up in the trees and not down here with us, as it is in Texas.  Much of Texas law is based on Tennessee law, and many Tennessians came to Texas and fought for our independence from Mexico.  The states compliment each other.

Honeymoon on Daddy's Creek

Us

In front of the Gold Rush in Elliston Place

This photo was taken of us by a co-worker's father at his studio in Nashville.

Two years ago at our 40th Wedding Anniversary

Arizona Star, Guy Clark, Nashville, and Us Part III

What can I say about Nashville, Tennessee?  If it hadn't been for Nashville, Raf and I would never have met and married.  It was an absolutely great place to live in the 1970s.  There was music, entertainment, and church.  It was colleges, night clubs, stars, and the river.  There was history and nature.  It was all the best things we could have asked for.  I remember, as a Texan, thinking that it's lovely because all the wind is up in the trees rather than down here blowing you around like it does in Texas.

Texas law is based on Tennessee law.  Did you know that?

One of our favorite places to go was Elliston Place and the Gold Rush:

"We knew Nashville before there was ‘New Nashville’. Formerly the Ritz Café, The Gold Rush first opened its doors in 1974 and located on Elliston Place’s historic ‘Rock Block’, directly across the street from the world famous Exit/In. The Gold will always be a haven where musicians, visitors, and locals all have a place at the bar. One of Nashville’s first establishments allowed to pour liquor by the drink and legend has it that 90% of the stories you’ve heard are true. If it’s happened in Nashville, it’s happened at the Gold Rush."

We also loved the Elliston Place Soda Shop.  But our first date was at Mississippi Whiskers...of course, it's not there any more, but on that first date we saw and heard Lenny Breau.  Here's a clip of Lenny playing that night.

I don't think Nashville is at all like it was when we were there, but there are a few photos from now!

Arizona Star, Guy Clark, Nashville, and Us Part II

Guy Clark about 1974

Guy Clark was born in Monahans, Texas, on November 6, 1941, and died May 17, 2016.  The above photo is the way we will remember Guy.

Raf first met Guy when Raf and his brother John and their band Diamond Reo first arrived in Nashville in 1974.  They were looking for the Sunbury Dunbar (part of RCA) producer Dan Hoffman, and when they arrived in Dan's office Guy was there, and a bunch of folks were picking' together, so Diamond Reo sat down and joined them.

Raf in the Diamond Reo day

Raf and I followed Guy through our married life and through Guy's life, and we really feel he was/is part of our lives from the very beginning.  Guy's song, Desperados Waiting for a Train, always reminded me of my great-uncle Em (Amazhar) Routh.  Many of his other songs are extremely reminiscent of my childhood in Texas.

The last time we saw Guy was when he played in the park in my hometown of Stephenville, Texas, and although we seldom saw him, I miss him!

Arizona Star, Guy Clark, Nashville, and Us

Me with my cousin Gary and his wife Carol.  Beautiful new home...exciting that they are living so close now!

Yesterday as we were returning from visiting my cousin who has recently moved to Granbury, we put the radio on a Guy Clark channel, and his tune ARIZONA STAR played.  That is so reminiscent of our life in Nashville in the beginning, that I just had to share it with you.  Here is a page called Girl George and Arizona Star in Nashville, Tennessee.  There is a link to the song here, too!

And, I have to mention Guy Clark, who was the best singer/songwriter of our generation, in my opinion.  We followed his career from beginning to end, and Raf even jammed with him once!

This is lower Broadway in Nashville where Arizona Star was often spotted and where Raf worked as a Grayline tour guide when we met.

Star is at the bottom of this poster, while her girlfriend, George...who did carry a sword...is at the top.  Star had tattoos that were rendered by Lyle Tuttle, a quite famous tattoo artist in San Francisco.  Raf got his one and only tattoo from Lyle after Star had hers.

This is the way Lyle looked back in the day.  From what I've seen of his recent photos, he mostly wears shirts and looks like your average "little old man".

Nashville, back in the day, was exciting, musical, artistic and quite alive.  There was no sign of Nashville Hot Chicken which seems to be the rage for culinary artists today.  The good eating places for common folk and the music industry were places like Mac's where you could get a hardy "meat and three" for about $2.50!

Star once toured with Dr. Hook.  Their tune, A LITTLE BIT MORE, is "our" song!

That was all in the 1970s...long ago...almost 50 years.  But it was a kinder, gentler place for all the hype it had.  Would that we could go back to those days...would that we could.

Great-Grandma's Second Flower

This is our second great-grandson, Bryson McDougal Kurtin.  He is two months younger that John Carl.  He is a beautiful baby with big brown-turning eyes...his daddy is half Native American, which works really well with our northern European-looking family.  His mommy and daddy chose the name Bryson, not from the Texas town of that name, but from a baby book of names.  His middle name, McDougal, is his paternal grandmother's maiden name.

Bryson and John met for the first time here at our home on Thanksgiving 2018.  This photo was taken then in our back yard, and his momma used it on their Christmas card.

I don't think John and Bryson thought much of each other at Thanksgiving, of course, but we pray they will grow to know each other and to become close family, even though they are second cousins, as their grandmothers are sisters and our daughters.

This is Bryson with his Uncle Tim who was home from university where he will complete his MBA at St. John's in Queens, New York, in May.  I think Bryson is totally proud of his uncle!

Both our great-grandsons live about half a day away in different directions, so we don't see them often, although John's parents come to Mineral Wells more because this is his father's hometown.  However, both grandmothers get to visit their grandsons a lot, and that is just amazing!

We are blessed to have both little boys and are extremely happy that Bryson will be baptized in March!