President Ford had stellar college football career

For official presidential appearances, U.S. President Gerald Ford, a “Michigan man,” frequently asked the U.S. Marine Corps Band to play the University of Michigan’s college fight song, “Hail to the Victors,” in place of the traditional “Hail to the Chief” Presidential Anthem. 

Ford, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., attended college at U-M in Ann Arbor and played football. He was the Wolverines’ center on the offensive line and played linebacker on defense. 

He helped his team go undefeated and win national titles in 1932 and 1933. He was Michigan’s MVP in 1934.

 

Some 40 years later in 1975, imagine President Ford’s surprise when he arrived in Peking, China, and was greeted by a band of Chinese musicians who were belting out the melodic refrains of “Victory for MSU,” the Michigan State University fight song.

There was no whodunit mystery about it. With great pride, the jovial Peter Secchia, a businessman from Grand Rapids, Mich., and an MSU alumnus, took full credit for the “mix up.”

Peter Secchia spent a lot of time at the White House from 1974-77 as “a friend of the Ford family.”

Secchia said: “When the president went to China, the White House called me and said, ‘We don’t have the sheet music for the Michigan fight song.’ I said I’d get it to them right away…and I sent them the Michigan State fight song.”

Here's Sparty!

Secchia got the better of President Ford once again when dignitaries gathered in 1978 to dedicate the Gerald R. Ford Freeway (Interstate 196) in western Michigan. 

Secchia slyly rigged the unveiling of the large highway sign. It was covered with a Michigan colored (maize and blue) banner. When all the president’s men pulled the rope, however, it revealed not the highway sign, but a second banner – in the Michigan State colors (green and white). 

Secchia, the clever prankster, said he has a videotape of the moment, showing former President Ford turn to Michigan Gov. William Milliken and muttering, “Where’s Secchia?”

 

Peter Secchia

Professional football was an option for Gerald Ford, after he graduated in 1935. The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers both dangled offers. Earl Louis “Curly” Lambeau of the Packers sent Ford a letter, agreeing to pay him an annual salary of $1,540 ($110 per game for a 14-game season). 

Ford once joked: “If I had gone into professional football, the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today.” 

Instead, Ford earned a law degree from Yale University in 1941 and began practicing law back in Grand Rapids. Pearl Harbor put his legal career on hold. Ford enlisted in the Navy in April 1942 and served four years in the South Pacific. 

In 1948, Ford was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ford would serve continuously in that chamber until President Richard Nixon tapped the Michigan congressman in 1973 to become Vice President Ford (replacing Spiro Agnew). 

Ultimately, Watergate misdoings led to Nixon’s demise, and Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.

Ford became president – the first person ever to occupy that office who had not been sent there by voters. 

Immediately after taking the oath, President Ford appealed to the American public: “I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers.” 

Three other past U.S. presidents also donned varsity football jerseys while collegians. We’ll have to check the box scores.

‘Go to Stow’ is a tourism phrase in England

Visitors to the United Kingdom like to go to a place known as Stow-on-the-Wold. It’s a picture-book, historic village in Gloucestershire County, located in southwest England. Only about 2,500 people live there year-round, so “quaint” is also a good modifier for Stow-on-the-Wold. 

Because the town has the highest elevation of any community within the Cotswolds region, at 800 feet above sea level, the locals warn of winters in “Stow-on-the-Wold, where the wind blows cold.” 

The charm of the place begins with its name. The word “Cotswold” is in fact two words: “cots,” meaning a sheep’s shelter, and “wold,” meaning gently rolling hills.

Stow-on-the-Wold is known as the “Holy Place on the Hill,” in tribute to St. Edward. The town church is named in his honor, built near the middle of the 11th century. The church bells are the loudest in all Gloucestershire. 

The town square in Stow-on-the-Wold was once the site of England’s premier sheep market. As many as 20,000 sheep were often sold during a single day. 

One American travel writer offered this description of the place: “Imagine the cutest cottages in honey-colored limestone, ornamented with thatched roofs and beautiful flowers.” 

Stow-on-the-Wold’s reputation as a haven for retirees dates back more than half a century. When Irishman Harry Ferguson quit selling Massey Ferguson tractors in 1954 and retired at age 70, he and his wife, Maureen, took up fulltime residence at Abbotswood, a sprawling 10-bedroom country manor on a 774-acre estate.

 

Harry Ferguson was loved and celebrated by the Irish and British people, and stories about the world-famous “Little Grey Fergies” were told and retold around the pub tables at The Porch House in Stow-on-the-Wold, England’s oldest roadside inn. 

Patrons recall Harry Ferguson’s 1946 gigantic cocktail party for his customers, held at one of London’s swankiest hotels, Claridge’s. Wearing a business suit, Ferguson hopped up onto the seat of one of his new tractors and drove it around the ballroom…and then bump-bump-bump down the hotel steps onto the public sidewalk.

While living at Abbotswood, Harry Ferguson wrote new chapters of history related to the automotive industry. He introduced car safety improvements known a four-wheel drive system and anti-skid braking. He decided the best way to showcase these advancements was through the development of a Grand Prix race car.

Sir Stirling Moss drove the Ferguson P99 Formula One four-wheel drive racing car to claim the Gold Cup championship in 1961 at Oulton Park Circuit near Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. Sadly, Ferguson, who died in 1960 at age 75, did not live to see the victory flag wave.

Sir Stirling Moss

 During the last 10 years of his life, Harry Ferguson was twice offered knighthood, and he twice declined. Responding to a letter from Sir Winston Churchill, who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and an advocate, Ferguson said: “Knighthoods should be reserved for servicemen and statesmen, whose financial rewards were relatively small, and should not be given to businessmen or industrialists with financial wealth.”

A recently retired British chap and multi-millionaire has taken up residence at Abbotswood. He is David Beckham, 45, who enjoyed a 20-year career as an elite professional soccer player, before hanging up his cleats in 2013. 

His wife, Victoria Beckham, sang with the all-female British pop group known as the Spice Girls. Today, Victoria is an internationally acclaimed fashion designer. The Beckhams have three sons, Cruz, Brooklyn and Romeo, as well as a daughter, Harper.

Tip your Irish cap to Harry Ferguson

In the village of Dromore, County Down, Northern Ireland, there “stands a sculpture that digs into the collective memory of those of us who grew up in the Irish countryside,” so wrote the town historian in 1992. 

“The scene it sets is that of a farmer looking out into a field over a gate, lost in his own thoughts…laying his protective eyes over his crops or animals. However, this sculpture is not a tribute to an ‘ordinary’ farmer but, rather, to an extraordinary one,” said Harold Gibson, who served for a time as chair of Dromore’s local historical group. 

The farmer – Harry Ferguson – is “one of Ireland’s most fondly remembered engineers. His inventions changed Ireland, and indeed the world, and his surname became synonymous with farming and agricultural machinery” that was branded as Massey Ferguson. 

The bronze statue, sculpted by John Sherlock of Limerick, Ireland, welcomes visitors to the Harry Ferguson Memorial Garden in Dromore.

Gibson said: “Harry Ferguson was born in 1884 near Dromore, the son of a farmer, and he grew up…mechanically minded,” capable of fixing farm machinery.” 

Ferguson was captivated by the flying accomplishments of Orville and Wilbur Wright in North Carolina on Dec. 17, 1903. Harry and brother Joe built Ireland’s first airplane, and Harry flew it at a grassy field in Hillsborough Park near Belfast on Dec. 31, 1909. 

The Belfast Telegraph reported: “As Mr. Ferguson advanced the lever, the aeroplane rose into the air at a height from nine to 12 feet, amidst the heavy cheers of the onlookers. Mr. Ferguson made a splendid flight of 130 yards.” 

(In comparison, Orville Wright’s initial flight six years prior on the sands at Kitty Hawk reached an altitude of 20 feet and covered 120 yards. When Wilbur Wright took his turn behind the throttle on the same day, he flew the plane a distance of 852 yards.) 

Harry Ferguson was hired by the Irish Board of Agriculture in 1919 to take a look at how farm production methods might be improved by introducing more efficient machinery. 

Ferguson saw “the limitations of having a tractor and a plough as two separate machines and endeavored to engineer a way to rigidly attach them, creating one machine from two,” Gibson noted. 

Ferguson’s invention of the “three-point hitch” revolutionized the farming equipment industry, and in 1925, he patented a hydraulic version that could be attached to other tractor models as well as his own. 

Henry Ford welcomed Harry Ferguson in 1938 as a partner in a joint venture that sought to combine Ford’s mass assembly technology with Ferguson’s engineering genius. 

It worked swimmingly at first, but the relationship soured when Henry Ford II, 28, grandson of the founder, took control of Ford in 1945. Ford gave Ferguson the boot. Ferguson set up his own tractor factory, and began cranking out tractors that were affectionately labeled as “little grey Fergies.” 

Ferguson also filed legal action against Ford, alleging patent infringement. Finally, in 1952, Ferguson received a hefty $9.25 million settlement from Ford. (That computes to about $90.73 million in today’s dollars). 

Now, with a comfortable nest egg tucked away, Ferguson executed one more business deal. He merged his Ferguson tractor business with Massey-Harris, a major tractor producer, in 1953. The new company would be based in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Ferguson bowed out in 1954.

The mystique of “Little Grey Fergie” lives on for new generations, fueled by the writings of Norwegian Morten Myklebust in his series of children’s books.

Tractors rolled on to improve living standards

Canadian manufacturer Massey-Harris was a major player in the “tractor wars” that heated up during the post-World War II economic boom.

With little fanfare, Massey-Harris eventually climbed into third place in the race to become the world’s largest agricultural manufacturer by the 1960s, trailing only giants International Harvester and John Deere.

Credit visionaries Daniel Massey and Alanson Harris. Massey founded his company in Newcastle, Ontario, in 1847. It became known as Massey Manufacturing Company in 1879 when operations were moved to Toronto, Ontario. Harris started a foundry in Beamsville, Ontario, in 1857.

The two entrepreneurs merged their operations in 1891, creating the Massey-Harris Company, based in Toronto.

Massey-Harris quickly made inroads into the U.S. market. For the most part, Massey-Harris tractors were distinguished by their bright red bodies with yellow accent colors and wheels.

Another post-World War II development, in 1946, was the split between Henry Ford II and Irishman Harry Ferguson, a bloke of an engineer who was labeled by his countrymen as the “mad mechanic.” 

This falling out between Ford (grandson of Ford founder Henry Ford) and Ferguson rippled like amber waves of grain all across America’s rural fruited plain, and the farming landscape began to change quite dramatically. 

In 1948, Ferguson built his own tractor factory in Detroit, Mich., to go head-to-head with Ford-built tractors.

In 1953, Ferguson agreed to a merger with Massey-Harris to form Massey-Harris-Ferguson, with headquarters in Brantford, Ontario.

The company name was shortened to Massey-Ferguson in 1958. The hyphen was officially dropped in 1970, and red became the primary Massey Ferguson color.

Agricultural historian John Iwen wrote: “When the agricultural machinery market collapsed in 1979, Massey Ferguson was caught unaware and was nearly destroyed by rising interest rates on an accumulated debt of $1.6 billion.”

Henry Ford II (above)

Harry Ferguson

Iwen said The Wall Street Journal described the situation as “one of Canada’s worst corporate financial disasters.”

Iwen reported that a company named Varity was created in Toronto in 1986 to essentially “pick up the remains of Massey Ferguson.” 

In 1990, AGCO rescued the Massey Ferguson brand, saving it from the graveyard. AGCO’s roots back date back to the Allis-Chalmers and Minneapolis-Moline tractor companies. Today, AGCO continues to market Massey Ferguson as its flagship brand. 

Alas, the contemporary tractor world remains topsy-turvy, reported Jennifer Reibel of Farm Equipment magazine, based in Brookfield, Wis. 

In a nutshell, a century of consolidation has been occurring in the farm equipment industry. “As farming became increasingly mechanized, farms grew larger in size and smaller in number,” she said. 

More than 160 U.S. tractor companies were eventually whittled down to seven full-line farm equipment companies. Of those, only John Deere remains intact today as an independent company. 

“Today, the total number of U.S. farms is about 2.2 million, down from 6.8 million in 1935,” Reibel noted. Hence, farming has a totally different complexion. Fewer people farm more acreage. To meet the changing needs of growers, farm equipment is getting bigger and more productive, but the market overall is shrinking.

She quoted Curt Blades of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers as saying: “As the farm population continues to age that continues to drive consolidation among farmers. Farms are growing in size, with fewer family members to operate them.”

The plot thickens with global competition. Kubota (orange) of Osaka, Japan, and Mahindra (red) of Mumbai, India, are vying to gain bigger pieces of that shrinking American pie.

Where have all the Fordsons gone?

Once the king of the hill in American agriculture, the blue Fordson tractors have all but vanished from the rural landscape. 

The Fordson tractor factory in Dearborn, Mich., which was owned by automobile manufacturing barron Henry Ford and his son, Edsel Ford, was humming along between 1918-27, but the American agricultural market began to experience declining farm prices early in 1928, an omen of the upcoming Great Depression. 

In anticipation of hard times ahead, Henry Ford suspended U.S. production of Fordson farm tractors in 1928. He reckoned the world’s diminished demand for new tractors could be handled by Ford’s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Cork, Ireland, which had opened in 1919.

It’s an interesting story for the Ford family. Henry’s father, William Ford, was born in Ballinascarthy, an Irish village about 30 miles down the road from Cork. William Ford emigrated to the United States in 1846 to escape the effects of the Great Famine. He was 21 and settled on a farm near Dearborn, outside of Detroit. 

In 1861, William Ford married Mary Litogot, a daughter of Belgian immigrants. They had six children; Henry was the eldest. 

Irish academician Dr. Leanne Blaney explained that Henry Ford decided to invest in Ireland while World War I was still raging. Ireland seemed safer than England. He found a suitable factory site within “a city park and racecourse on the banks of the River Lee.” Construction began in 1917.

 Henry Ford

In 2017, on 100-year anniversary of the Ford groundbreaking in Cork, Michael McAleer of The Irish Times in Dublin wrote: “Forget about Michigan and the Motor City. ‘Ford is a Cork company; it just has a very large American branch to it.’” 

“The trundle of an assembly line in Cork showed that Henry Ford never forgot his family’s roots,” McAleer said. 

From 1928-39, all Fordson tractors and its new variants were manufactured at Cork and other Ford plants on English soil in Manchester and the Dagenham district of London. Ford’s U.S. business suffered greatly. Ford lost its dominance of the American tractor market,” with its share bottoming out at 5% in 1939. 

Henry Ford was forced to reverse gears. To recapture U.S. farmers as customers, he knew he had to produce American tractors in America. A deal was struck between Ford and Irishman Harry Ferguson, who was manufacturing superior tractors in the United Kingdom.

Essentially, Ford would produce tractors in Dearborn, using Ferguson’s patents. It was a bumpy arrangement with Ferguson to begin with, but things became even more complicated with the onset of World War II in Europe in 1939. 

In 1945, the company gavel passed to Henry Ford II, eldest son of Edsel and Eleanor Clay Ford, and grandson of Henry Ford. 

Henry Ford II, who was 28 years old, promptly severed ties with Ferguson, who was 61 at the time of his dismissal. 

Ford branded tractors began replacing Fordsons in the fields in 1953, and, it was decreed in 1964 that all tractors made by the Ford companies worldwide would carry the Ford oval blue brand and distinctive script. 

In 1986, Ford expanded its tractor business with the purchase of Sperry-New Holland. Four years later, Ford’s farm equipment lines were acquired by Fiat of Turin, Italy. Fiat removed all Ford identification from their tractors. 

Fordson and Ford tractor enthusiasts responded by forming the Ford/Fordson Collectors Association with the purpose of “saving the past for the future.”

Owney’s ‘stamp of approval’ continues to resonate

The “Owney the Postal Dog” commemorative postage stamp, issued in 2011 by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), generated a lot of publicity for the famous canine postal service mascot who lived in the late 19th century. 

The stamp introduced younger generations of dog lovers to the heroics of Owney, who was a “postal mail pouch pooch” of the highest order. 

Owney was an orphaned, scrawny, Irish-Scottish border terrier mix puppy when he was discovered nestled into a lump of mail bags at the Albany, N.Y., Post Office in 1888. 

Owney went on to ride the rails with the Railway Mail Service branch, crisscrossing the country as a goodwill ambassador. 

The dog’s grit symbolized the postal service’s motto: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” 

After Owney died in 1897 during a visit to Toledo, Ohio, postal clerks from all across the country contributed funds to have Owney’s cinnamon-colored body preserved by a local taxidermist and displayed for public viewing…rather than see their beloved mascot interred. 

Hence, the “taxidermied” Owney, all 18 pounds or so of him, became an important exhibit at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., a unit of the Smithsonian Institution.

 

When Owney’s “Forever” stamp was unveiled July 27, 2011, it was a “red carpet event” in Albany, as the city observed “Owney Day.” 

Jennifer Gordon Sattler, author of “‘All Aboard Owney!’ The Adirondack Mail Dog,” said: “Any time you can put a spotlight on stray dogs that need a home, I’m all for that.” 

Volunteer leaders with the Mohawk Hudson River Humane Society were among the celebrants, and the organization’s spokesperson said: “We’re proud that an Albany dog is on a stamp that will go across the country…and around the world.” 

Gwen Girsdansky of The Daily Gazette published in Schenectady, N.Y., reported: “The shelter brought several dogs to be shown during the event. The story of Owney is about a great connection people have with animals. The event was a perfect time to celebrate and show people that connection.” 

Kathy Quandt of Discover Albany, the local tourism marketing organization, said: “This isn’t just a story; Owney was a real dog.” 

Mary Darcy, the co-creator of the popular All Over Albany news and culture website, is one of Owney’s greatest fans. One of her loyal readers, Don Begley, wrote in: 

“You could not ask for a better ambassador (than Owney). He was courageous and trusted those who loved him. Give your heart to a dog and you will never be let down and forever loved.” 

Begley continued: “Could a person be as trusting as Owney? I would like to think so, but alas, my years, which there have been quite a few, have left me doubting. I once asked a theologian, ‘do you think there will be dogs in heaven?’ His reply was, ‘no.’” 

“I replied, ‘if not, I do not think I would care to go!’” 

Did Owney ever ride the mail train on the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad into Morehead City, N.C.? If so, the town needs to add a chapter to its illustrious history. 

During Owney’s lifetime, Morehead City was “the summer capital of North Carolina.” Owney would have been treated royally. 

Former Governor John Motley Morehead, who helped bring the railroad from Goldsboro to the coast, once wrote: 

Morehead City enjoys a “salubrious climate…and its fine chalybeate spring, strongly impregnated with sulphur, makes it a pleasant watering place.” For both humans and canines.

‘Mail pouch pooch’ was a post office icon

Owney was a scruffy puppy who found his way into the Albany, N.Y., Post Office on a drizzly fall day in 1888. A back door to the building had been left ajar. 

A bit later, a mail clerk discovered the young dog sound asleep on a heap of mailbags. The cinnamon-colored dog, who was an Irish-Scottish border terrier mix, was attracted to something about those mailbags. Perhaps it was the texture of the fabric or the scent. 

Sandy Hingston, senior editor at “Philadelphia” magazine, believes the name of the postal clerk who discovered the mutt was Owen. When the stern supervisor asked “whose dog is this?” the crew replied that “Owen’s his owner.” 

That’s as good of an explanation as any as to how the dog got the name Owney, Hingston said. The postal workers begged that Owney be allowed to stay. The boss man acquiesced. 

Thus, the little dog with a “friendly demeanor” became the “adorable, furry-faced mascot” of the Albany Post Office. Owney actually ran the place, barking orders. Really. 

As the clerks sorted the mail, Owney barked once for “out-of-town” mail and twice for “local delivery” letters. Three barks meant it was time for “lunch.” 

His fame escalated as he became known as “the mail pouch pooch.” When the mail moved, Owney moved with it, riding the mail wagon to and from the train depot.

 

Once, Owney reportedly saw a mail pouch fall out of the wagon. When the driver reached his destination and determined that a pouch and a pooch were missing, postal workers were dispatched on a search and rescue mission. 

All was well. Owney was found lying atop the missing mailbag in the road, guarding it until it could be retrieved by someone from the post office wearing an “official blue wool uniform.” 

Owney’s reward, in effect, was a promotion. The Albany postal workers consented to allow Owney to see the U.S.A., riding with the Railway Mail Service. They bought him a leather collar and affixed an identification tag: “Owney, Post Office, Albany, NY.” 

They asked railway mail clerks to obtain baggage tags to identify the railroads traveled and the communities visited by Owney. 

Owney’s song, written by Stephen Michael Schwartz and performed by Trace Adkins tells us: “Everywhere he goes in this great big nation, Owney gets a token of appreciation.” 

It got to the point that Owney had so many medallions attached to his collar, they “jingled like sleigh bells.” 

U.S. Postmaster General John Wanamaker presented Owney with a little jacket, so the tokens could be pinned on, more evenly distributing the weight. 

In service now as the “official postal service mascot,” Owney visited every state in the union and toured the world, collecting 1,017 medals and tokens in all. Railway mail clerks loved having Owney ride their train. He was a good luck charm. None of “Owney’s trains” ever had a wreck. 

Owney was set to retire in 1897, but one last official visit took him to Toledo, Ohio. It was not a happy ending. The circumstances are cloudy, but Owney was apparently chained to a post inside the postal station. Toledo Gazette blogger Lou Hebert, wrote that “Owney detested being restrained and starting protesting loudly.” Owney allegedly nipped the clerk on the hand. 

Toledo Postmaster C. Rudolph Brand ordered that Owney be put down on June 11, 1897. Railway mail clerks chipped in money to have a Toledo taxidermist preserve Owney’s body, so the canine postal hero could be viewed at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. 

‘Dance to the old shag music hits…’

“Beach music puts a swing in your step.” 

This cleverly worded two-line headline topped an article appearing on the LiveAbout.com website in 2018.

The late Robert Fontenot, a veteran entertainment journalist from Lake Charles, La., told his readers: 

“The Carolina Shag is a dance thought to have originated in the 1940s at the clubs dotting the strands along the beaches of North and South Carolina. While it’s impossible to tease out which came first, the shag or the particular style of music to which it is danced…the two went hand in hand.” 

“The dance itself is a six-count, eight-step pattern, similar to swing, that is performed with a partner to what is now known as ‘beach music,’ which combines elements of R&B, blues and rock’n’roll,” Fontenot wrote. 

Keep it simple. But bear in mind, he was trying to explain things to an audience made up largely of folks from above the Mason-Dixon line. (LiveAbout.com is part of the Dotdash digital media empire, based in New York City.) 

Fontenot continued: “A variety of songs and artists are a part of the shag music genre, but two bands, in particular, stand out: General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board and The Tams. You may know the first band from its 1970 hit, ‘Give Me Just a Little More Time,’ and the latter from its 1962 hit, ‘What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am).’” 

Fontenot was right on the mark. The Tams formed in Atlanta and had a string of hits, including “You Lied To Your Daddy,” “Hey Girl,” “I’ve Been Hurt” and “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy.” 

General Norman Johnson of Norfolk, Va., was simply the best there ever was. After his death in 2010 at age 67, the Charlotte Observer dubbed General Johnson as the true “King of Carolina Beach Music.” 

In a listing of “All-Time Beach Music Top 40 Songs (The Classics),” Radio 94.9 – The Surf, based in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., General Johnson dominates. His bands claim nine of those 40 slots. 

He is mentioned seven times with Chairmen of the Board songs and twice as the lead singer with his former band, The Showmen. 

In 1961, the Showmen recorded General Johnson’s classic song “It Will Stand.” The band played and sang: 

Hear those sax blowin’

Sharp as lightnin’

Hear those drums beatin’

Loud as thunder….

That was the winning formula, which has been carried on by North Carolina-based beach music groups that are continuing to perform and tour, such as The Catalinas from Charlotte, Band of Oz from Grifton and The Embers from Raleigh. 

All have rotated members in and out for the past 50-60 years, but the infusion of horns and percussion has become a trademark of contemporary beach music. 

The Embers band formed in 1958, but its biggest hit came in 1979, with “I Love Beach Music,” a song written by Jackie Gore, one of the original band members.

 The Embers

The lyrics pay tribute to legendary beach music groups, including Billy Ward and The Dominos, The Drifters, The Catalinas, The Tymes, The Showmen, The Tams, The Clovers and Willie Tee. 

The song tells us that Carolina girls and boys are born with “beach music in their bones.” 

The rest of us can learn “to shag on the beach,” with the salt in the air and the sand at our feet. 

The words to the songs go like this: “Shama-lama, baby, ding-dong…ooooh-mau-mau” or “Oogum oogum boogum boogum.” 

Name those tunes!

‘Beach music’ spreads to the middle of nowhere

If one is searching for the best “Carolina Beach Music” band of all time, all roads may lead to Williams Lake in rural Sampson County, N.C. If you can find Spivey’s Corner, you’re getting warm and are almost there. 

Rural families started going to Williams Lake to swim and picnic in 1932. The property belonged to Clayton and Lillian Williams. 

“In 1936, a jukebox was hooked up to a generator,” reported Kent Wrench, a regular contributor to the Sampson Independent newspaper. The good times rolled every year from Easter through Labor Day, on through the 1940s, the ‘50s and into the ‘60s. 

Robert Honeycutt, who had been assisting Clayton Williams in running the operation, took over management responsibilities in 1965, at age 22. Honeycutt sensed change in the wind. Kids in wanted to dance to music from live bands, not jukeboxes. 

He took a gamble by enlarging the pavilion and building a bandstand. The place became “The Williams Lake Dance Club.”

 

Now, Williams Lake is officially located on the map in the “middle of the middle of nowhere,” but it still became the “center of the shag dancing universe,” wrote author Bob Boan. 

The first live band to come and play at Williams Lake on April 21, 1965, was Bob Collins and The Fabulous Five from Greensboro. Mary Lemuel Blalock of Dunn took notes. She put the group in her “top three” favorite North Carolina bands to play at the lake. 

Blalock’s favorite local group was Gene Barbour and The Cavaliers from her hometown of Dunn. The band later became the Men of Distinction. She also liked Ken Hesler and The Tassels from Raleigh, which later became known as The Pieces of Eight. 

Neal Alan Furr of Raleigh, a beach music historian, made a tally of the extraordinary talented artists who performed at Williams Lake. Here’s his partial list: 

The Tams, The Embers, Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, Mary Wells, The Showmen, The Catalinas, The O’Kaysions, Junior Walker & The All Stars, The Drifters, The Platters, Major Lance, Eddie Floyd, The Coasters, The Chiffons, Martha Reaves and the Vandellas, Barbara Lewis, Billy Stewart and Jackie Wilson.

The Mighty Tams 

“I don’t think we appreciated what we had,” Honeycutt once laughingly told a reporter. “We got used to seeing The Tams and Maurice Williams. Who would’ve ever thought that Jackie Wilson would play out here in the woods of Sampson County, or The Platters? It was a heck of a lineup. We just didn’t realize – and we didn’t think to take pictures.” 

To be fair and balanced…there were other shaggin’ hot spots in eastern North Carolina. 

One that rivaled Williams Lake to some degree was at Lake Artesia, also in Sampson County, about 25 miles to the east. It was more of a pond than a lake. Patrons who toted coolers of icy-cold brewskis fondly referred to the place as “Lake Amnesia.” 

The Town of Faison, in Duplin County, had a dance hall as early as 1960, when the C. P. Ellis Produce Warehouse hosted bands such as Ulysses Hardy and The Mighty Blue Notes from Kinston. Mary Lemuel Blalock danced there, too. 

She said that one of the Blue Notes musicians who performed in the “pickle packing shed” was a 15-year-old saxophonist. He would later go on to play with James Brown and become one of the most eminent national and international Jazz and R&B artists of all time – Maceo Parker. 

The search for America’s best beach music band is a winding road that leads to curious places. We’re getting there.

Let ‘Carolina Beach Music’ soothe your soul

It’s shaggin’ time across the Carolinas. Who are the premier shag dancers of all time? That’s not going to generate too much controversy. 

Kurt Lichtmann, who formerly taught dance classes at Ithaca (N.Y.) College, and is a shag aficionado, said the clear winners in his mind are “national shag champions many times over, Jackie McGee and Charlie Womble.” 

Howie Thompson of Little River, S.C., has written books chronicling the progression of shag dancing. He believes Jackie McGee and Charlie Womble represent “the heart and soul” of shag dancing. “They are to the world of shag dance like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are to the great musicals of our time,” Thompson wrote.

Charlie Womble and Jackie McGee

Jackie, who is from Laurinburg, N.C., graduated from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Charlie grew up in Apex, N.C., and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. They first partnered up on the dance floor in 1981, were married in 1989 and continue to dance and teach the shag at their production studio in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. 

What is the best “Carolina Beach Music” song of all time? There is a wide, wide variety of opinions about this. 

John Staton, arts and entertainment editor at the Wilmington Star-News, votes for “Under the Boardwalk” by The Drifters (1964). “With its slow lilt and lyrics about a pleasure-filled summer, it’s perhaps the definitive beach music song.” 

Ben Steelman, who recently retired as Star-News book columnist, selects “Sixty Minute Man” by Billy Ward and The Dominoes (1951) as his favorite beach tune. Musicologist Kit O’Toole of Chicago is supportive. She said “Sixty Minute Man” was one of the “most influential records” in rock music history, combining gospel, R&B (rhythm and blues), doo-wop and “a touch of naughty humor.” 

Radio 94.9 – The Surf, based in North Myrtle Beach, lists Ms Grace by The Tymes (1974) as the best beach song ever. Author Dr. Rick Simmons of Pawleys Island, S.C., said the record played on thousands of jukeboxes and is arguably “the most popular beach music song of all time.” 

Dr. Simmons is also partial to “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” by The Tams (1968), “which epitomizes the beach music experience.” Staton is a fan as well. He says the song’s title “could be beach music’s motto. With its doo-wop inspired backing vocals and ‘carpe diem’ lyrics, it’s all about seizing the fun to be had in the moment.” 

Eric Hodgden, who owns and operates a DJ business in Raleigh, offers a different perspective. His team reports that the favorite beach song for wedding reception dancers is “Carolina Girls” by General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board (1980). 

Jim Newsom, a musician and journalist in Norfolk, Va., proclaims General Norman Johnson as beach music’s original and only “five-star general.”

 

General Johnson

“Johnson has one of the great voices of rock and soul, an instantly recognizable sound that wraps itself around a lyric and pulls every ounce of emotion out,” Newsom wrote. 

General Johnson started out with “The Showmen,” who had a big hit in 1963 with “39-21-40 Shape.” Minit Records of New Orleans mislabeled the title as “39-21-46” on the record. Johnson said he always thought it was an intentional ploy to “arouse curiosity.” 

The Showmen dissolved in 1968, and Johnson moved on to Detroit and formed The Chairmen of the Board, which became the best beach beat band in the land, with hits like “Give Me Just a Little More Time” and “On the Beach.”