FIRST, MY BROTHER WHO IS 4 YEARS OLDER THAN ME WENT TO THE PICKIN BEFORE I DID AND MANY TIMES I WOULD ASK HIM TO TAKE ME WITH HIM. BUT HE WAS'NT HAVING ANY OF THAT LITTLE BROTHER STUFF. SO I FINALLY WENT A COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER HE LEFT AND WENT IN THE NAVY.

IF I REMEMBER RIGHT IT WAS IN THE FALL OF 1958 WHEN I MET A FELLOW AT NORRIS CYCLE SHOP ON FRONT STREET NAMED AL HEMMING III. ONE FRIDAY NIGHT WHILE WE WERE OUT GETTING INTO TROUBLE AL SAID SOMETHING ABOUT GOING TO MS. HARVEY'S AND I DIDN'TMAKE THE CONECTION TO THAT AND THE PICKIN AND GRINNIN, BUT WHEN WE GOT THERE .MS HARVEY'S DAUGTHER ANN WAS HAVING A SLUMBER PARTY AND THERE MUST HAVE BEEN 10-15 GIRLS THERE AND I TOLD AL " SON I AM IN HEAVEN AND IF I AM DREAMIN DON'T BOTHER WAKING ME UP".ALSO MOST OF THE GIRLS WHO WERE OLDER THAN ME WERE FASINATED THAT I WAS REALLY BILL GRAY'S LITTLE BROTHER. THAT STARTED MY GOING TO THE PICKIN AND GRINNIN AND CONTINUED UNTIL I WENT IN THE NAVY IN 1960 AND EVERY TIME I CAME HOME ON LEAVE I WENT OUT THERE.

ONE NIGHT IN LATE 1959 I STOPPED AT MS HARVEY'S HOUSE AND SHE SAID I WAS JUST WHAT SHE WAS LOOKING FOR, SHE NEEDED SOMEONE TO DRIVE HER TO THE TRAIN STATION BECAUSE ELVIS WAS COMING THROUGH ON A TROOP TRAIN AND SHE WANTED TO SEE HIM AND WE ONLY HAD 15 MINUTES TO GET THERE.I WAS DRIVING DADDY'S 1951 BUICK AND WE LOADED UP, ME, MS. HARVEY, ANN AND I AM NOT SURE WHO ELSE. I MADE IT TO THE TRAIN STATION IN RECORD TIME, ABOUT 8 MINUTES. WHEN WE GOT TO THE STATION THE TRAIN WAS PULLING IN, THEY WERE USUALLY ON TIME THEN, BUT WE FOUND OUT THAT ELVIS WAS NOT ON THE TRAIN.MS. HARVEY TOLD ME SHE WOULD RIDE HOME WITH SOMEONE ELSE BECAUSE SHE WOULD"NT RIDE WITH ME AGAIN IF SHE HAD TO WALK HOME. I THINK SHE DIDN'T LIKE MY DRIVING. WONDER WHY?????

I met Mrs. Shine and Judge Harvey back in the mid to late 60's. Judge Harvey was in the Shrine with my dad, Robert Wiggs. (Bob to his friends). Mrs. Shine, as she had me call her taught my brother and I to play the guitar in the back of her house on Poplar Springs Drive. It was a tin shed like building that we practiced in, as I recall it was real small. I never saw or heard for that matter Mrs. Shine say a bad word or talk unkind about anyone. She was always real jolly and laughed alot with my brother and I. I can remember one day asking Mrs. Shine why she wore her hair on top of her head like she did and she told me it was called a beehive and it kept bees away from her. Later when I was grown I met her daughter Ann. She was Ann Landrum then. My dad found out he was kin to Jimmie Rodgers, when he found a letter Jimmie's mom wrote my grandmother. From that time on we were involved in the Jimmie Rodgers week. That to me was alot of fun when they had it at Ray Stadium. The singers tour buses would be on the field and we could go out and see them on the field. I will never forget meeting Ernest Tubb. He has Jimmie Rodgers guitar, on the back it said THANKS. Mr. Tubb told me he had a daughter name Karen to and he let me sit on his lap in the tour bus. My head was swelled for days. Mrs Shine was the one who introduced me to country music and to Jimmie Rodgers music. She was one of a kind. A very sweet and loving lady.

Tommy and I were friends in high school and Jr College. I do not remember when we started gathering at Hortense and Judge's house. Probably 1954 or 1955. The original group was (pickers) Frank Martin, Billy Covington, Bynam, McKithen with Hortense leading. (Grinners) Tommy, Perry Rosenbaum, Alden McClellan, Bill O'Leary. I believe there were a few others that came and went.

I remember a lot of stories, most can be told, but some cannot.

If someone claims to be an original P & Gr they must know what the "McKiethen squat" was.

Perry Rosenbaum

rosetree1@cox.net

This was a long time ago and my memory is somewhat faulty. I'll do the best I can.

I believe it was January 1955 when the Harveys welcomed the guitar players and their friends into their home Friday and Saturday nights. Mrs Harvey had the prettiest smile and a beautiful soft voice. She was a prolific song writer and had written hundreds of lyrics. Some bands at the Grand Ole Opry adapted her words to their music.

Mrs. Harvey was teaching who ever wanted to learn how to play the guitar and she would play and sing her songs. At the beginning only the original group, no more than ten came to the Harvey house. Two more of the original group were Dick Odom and John Morris. After several months the word got out and a crowd started gathering to watch and listen. Some wanted to play, some wanted to learn to play and others just wanted to watch and listen.

At the beginning the music (?) was terrible, but Mrs. Harvey just smiled. She knew they would get better. The players were concentrating on cords and the rest were watching and listening. Between songs various topics were discussed and the observation was made that the group consisted of the players who we call pickers and the observers were always smiling. That was when the term Pickin an Grinnin evolved.

After the sessions when the onlookers departed and the pickers fingers were raw, we, the original Pickers and Grinners, planned (plotted) things we wanted to do. This resulted in pranks that are now legends (in our minds, of course). At a future time I will tell or confess to some of the things we did 50 plus years ago.

In case you do not know, the "Tommy" I referred to was her son.

One day in the early 60s when I was visiting Mrs. Harvey she told me she had been asked by a member of the staff at East Mississippi State Mental Institution if she and some of her "boys" would entertain some of their patients one Sunday afternoon.

One Sunday afternoon when some of her boys were home from college they went to East Mississippi. They set-up under a shade tree and nurses brought chairs for the patients, wheeled others in wheelchairs and even brought some on gurneys. The patients just stared and were silent. Mrs. Harvey said she might have made a mistake, but she just started strumming her guitar and began singing her songs. When she started playing a popular hymn she noticed the audience began clapping and were soon singing along with the music.

After several songs and hymns she heard a gasp and the patients became quiet, Mrs. Harvey did not know what happened and she stopped playing. A nurse hurried over to her and asked her to continue playing and the nurse would explain later what had happened.

After about two hours they had to stop as their fingers were becoming sore from strumming and picking the guitar strings. After the patients were returned to their buildings a nurse explained that one of the oldest female patients who had not uttered a sound much less a word in over twenty years began singing along with Mrs. Harvey. Everyone was stunned. The effects of Music Therapy were obvious that day.

Mrs. Harvey went back to play for the patients when ever she could gather some of her boys on Sunday afternoons.

I believe Mrs. Harvey was related to Jimmy Rogers. She helped organize the first Jimmy Rogers Day. Mr. Harvey was still working for the railroad at that time. When the date was finalized, she told us the details at the Saturday night Pickin & Grinnin. We were ready when Ernest Tubb came to her house and asked for guides for some of the "Name" performers. All of us piled into my family's car and we escorted Mr. Tubb back to a meeting downtown. I do not remember who all was involved but I was Web Pierce's guide and led him and his wife all over Meridian.

Through Mrs. Harvey we knew all the details of the planned performance at Ray Stadium. The "Stars" of the Grande Ole Opry were to be omitted to the stadium in their cars. The city police were at the gate to make sure only the approved guests were allowed in.

We decided we were going to impersonate Opry performers and bluff our way into the stadium. I washed my family car, a 1949 grey Fleetwood Cadillac. We, Tommy Harvey, Frank Martin, Billy Covington, Dick Odom and me dressed in western shirts, string ties and cowboy hats drove up to the gate and gave the policeman a fictitious name and claimed to be a performer at the Grande Ole Opry. He waved us on through the gate and we drove down the track and parked with the Stars' cars in the North endzone.

None of the organizers knew the difference, we just acted as if we belonged there. We met a young musician who was begging to be allowed to perform that night. He had ridden the bus down from Memphis. That was the first we had ever heard the name Elvis Pressley. The next year he drove down in his pink Cadillac.

Perry Rosenbaum