THE GOOD OLD DAYS....

Back in the early sixties a building boom was in full swing in Tullahoma. People moving into Tullahoma from all parts of the states needed housing. The Arnold Engineering Development Center near by was adding to its growing work force. I was working for my father, Hubert Burton who was a home builder. I had been working with Dad since I was around 12 or 13. Dad was teaching me the building trade. Dad was very good at his trade. Dad only had a sixth grade education but was street smart and had a natural talent for building houses and was a very good cabinet builder.

During those early years learning the building business we had a crew of Dad, myself, Harold Kimbrell, Buck Buchanan, Ronnie Jones and my younger brother Frank Burton. Frank only worked during the summer while he was out of school.

 Dad had an offer to build some houses for Doc Oliver, who owned Taylor Drugstore on the square in Tullahoma. Doc Oliver would supply the capital and pay Dad’s payroll each week. Doc Oliver wanted Dad to help his son-in-law, Don Bailey, learn the building trade. An agreement was reached where Don would work with Dad’s crew.

Taking on the brash new college man didn’t set too well with the crew. I can’t pin point the real reason why we all didn’t like Don at the beginning. We all had some good laughs at Don’s expense during those early days. Dad had told Don to go to Highlands Lumber Company and order two 18 foot 2X 12’s and tell then we needed them ASAP! In a short while we heard a racket as Don pulled up to the building site with the 2X12’s tied to the bumper dragging behind his white Volvo. We sure got a good laugh as the 2X12’s were now some what thinner than they started out.

One day Doc Oliver came out to our work site. Each time we would start a new house we would move some of the left over materials to the next job site and try to use it up. After several new homes were built the pile of materials were covering the yard in the back of the house that we were building.  On seeing all the mess in the yard Doc called Don to his car and we could see that he was giving Don a chewing out over the pile of materials. As Don exited Doc’s car we heard Doc tell Don, that better be cleaned up the next time I return. After Doc left Don went and bought 5 gallon of kerosene and set fire to the whole pile of materials. Yes, he cleaned it up; about three hundred dollars worth.

Don would leave to go some where and leave his hammer on a 2X4 brace at the center of the wall. If we were sheet rocking the wall Harold would say just cover it up and we would. No telling how many hammers we covered in the early days. I did a remodeling job on one of the houses we built years ago and while tearing out the paneling on the walls on a house on Fort Street I found one of Don’s old hammers.

We had built a house for the Owens and it was near completion. One day the electrician needed in the house and it was locked. He climbed in the bathroom window and his hammer fell out and knocks a big piece of white porceliem off the bottom of the tub. Don hired a man to come and fix the damaged bath tub. The Owens returned on a Saturday while the man was in the house fixing the tub. When they arrive at the house Don kept them out of the house while the man completed the repairs. I think he even took them out to eat. Years later I built some cabinets in the house for the Owens. Mr. Owens asked me to look at the bath tub. It had a discolored spot in the bottom. He asked me if I knew what was going on with the tub. I replied that I had never seen one go bad.

Once for a reason I don’t remember Don fired Frank and Ronnie. He told Dad that he had fired them. Dad said did you pay them to which Don replied no you have to pay them. Well Don I didn’t fire them, guys load up all our tools we are going home. Cool heads did prevail and no one was fired.

After a while we began to like old Don more as he took control of all the building we were doing. He was now in charge of all phrases of the building and selling the homes. He wasn’t losing any more hammers.

I will never forget Don coming up on the roof of the Matthews house on the corner of Fort Street. I had just installed a copula with a weather vain rooster with North, South, East and West on the top. Don took his finger and flipped the weather vain around and it broke off.  He had to glue it back together.

On the other Matthew’s twin brother’s house that we built on Country Club Drive, Matthew’s insisted that the garage should have had a steel beam in the center to hold all the ceiling up. The house was all completed and he was crying that the beam was going to be installed before he would make the final payment to Don. To the best of my knowledge the steel beam was ordered and placed in the yard next to the drive. Matthews paid Don the payment but years later after Matthews died I went back to put fancy locks on all the windows and doors for Mrs. Matthews. The steel beam was still lying in the yard next to the driveway.

Mrs. Matthews pulled a good one on Dad. Her husband had made a deal with Dad to cut the trees in the way for the house. Dad would get the trees to be sawed for lumber to build a fence at his house. Mrs. Matthews wasn’t aware of the deal and sold the logs to a sawmill. Matthews had to pay Dad for cutting the trees. Mrs. Matthews always felt bad about selling the logs. She even cooks all the crew a big Thanksgiving dinner as we worked that holiday trying to get them into their new home.

Work got real slow in Tullahoma and Don and his family moved to Clarksville. He wanted Dad and me to come to Clarksville and build his houses. Dad agreed and off to Clarksville we went. Don had rented us a trailer to say in while we would work Monday through Friday and return home for the weekend. Early Monday morning we would leave Tullahoma around five o’clock on our way to work another week. We would always stop at Kristy Kream for doughnuts and coffee. We built some big houses in Clarksville for Don.

One Friday morning it began to snow heavy. Dad told us to gather up all the tools we are going home before we get stuck up here. Parker Smith was working with us while out of work. We loaded up the 1964 Ford truck of Dads and I would drive. Man it snowed big time. By the time we arrived in Nashville the snow was already six inched deep. Traffic was at a stand still. We sat in front of a liquor store for three hours before we moved. I joked about going into the liquor store and buying us a bottle of wine. Dad was very nervous on the way home. Come to find out he didn’t have any insurance on the old truck. We would have to get out and help push people’s vehicles over hills. Once we even had to push a bus. The trip took us nine hours to get back to Tullahoma and there was twelve inches of snow on the ground. My car was covered with snow and a thick sheet of ice and I drove home to Estill Springs with my head out of the window.

I had built our family a new home in 1965 before going with Dad to Clarksville. I was missing my wife and family and made a decision to leave my Dad and try to find some work around home. A sad day after all those years working for my Dad.

A phone call left on our answering machine from Don Bailey while I played golf on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. I returned the call to Don and was very happy to talk with him about those days working with him and for him. Those were the good old days.