Stories: A Few Vignettes
The Overton Park Stories program continues, and we have a few fun vignettes to share with you today. Remember, we’re accepting all kinds of stories–short or long, verbal or written, words or photos. Get in touch!
We’re also excited to announce that we’re partnering with the Memphis and Shelby County Room at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library to collect stories! If you’ve got photos of the park that you’d like to submit to a permanent archive, you can donate them to the new Overton Park collection at the library. We’re also holding a story collection day on Saturday, June 29 from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the Memphis Room. You can bring your photo albums or come prepared to tell us your story, and we’ll have scanners and audio recorders ready for you. If you’ve never been to the Memphis Room, please use this as an excuse to come check out this local treasure!
Here are a few stories and photos that you’ve submitted to the project. Keep them coming!
Welcome to Memphis!
When Bena and I moved to Memphis in 1961, transferred from Perry, Florida and knowing two people here, my employer Buckeye Cellulose put us up at the Parkview, in those days an apartment hotel.
On one of our very first evenings there, I thought it a good idea to crank up my bagpipes (I’m a terrible player, but enthusiastic – worst of all worlds for any instrument, especially the four-in-one bagpipe). I was huffing along peacefully (?) on #8 fairway when suddenly I was blinded by a bright light. Had I died and gone to heaven? Au contraire – ’twas the Memphis constabulary, telling me to shut down the racket, ’twas against the noise ordinance, going to jail, never see Bena and the light of day again, etc.
Then with a laugh, he told me it would be a waste of time to arrest me – because the Police chief was named McDonald and was a (real) piper!
He still told me to shut it down. Not the last time I got that dictate.
– George Cates
Au Naturel
My memory of playing the Overton course (for probably the only time), was just after graduating college in ’64. My last semester I had taken Abnormal Psychology, so I was PREPARED for what happened. On the long fairway paralleling Poplar I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a would-be case from the textbook: buff naked, peeking out from the woods along side, he showed me all his glory again and again and again. “He’s not dangerous,” I assured myself. “Don’t react; he’ll go away.” I tried to convey this to my partner, Barbara Johnson, but she wasn’t buying it. (Hadn’t had the course.) After an eternity, as they say, Mr. Naked calmly road his bike across the stone bridge and joined Poplar traffic. I didn’t hear any wrecks.
– Anne Carriere
Photos
“I took this picture in 1972 of my daughter Molly (now Jason’s wife) and my nephew Charles (now Monique’s husband) on the jungle gym in the old Overton Park playground.” – Jimmy Jalenak
“Me with my two aunts and cousin at the Levitt Shell, 1977. From left: Brenda Craig, Dawn French, Shelley Thomas, Glenda Eadey. We frequently played on the stage when there wasn’t a show going on, so this could have been one of those afternoons.” – Shelley Thomas
“My parents and I traveled from Missouri to Memphis on my mother’s birthday, the day this photo was taken at the zoo.” – Keith Cole
