You can download the recordings of

Grandma Attaway and Aunt Nan singing from the record they made in 1954 here.

“When the Roll is Called Up Yonder“

“In the Sweet By and By“

Where did these recordings come from?

As I was going through things that I had gotten from my Mother and Daddy in late 2010, I came across an old 78 private label record – recorded in one of the record stores of the 50’s and 60’s that had equipment to do so.  I don’t remember how I came to have it, whether they gave it to me while one or both were still living, or whether I got it after they were gone.  But it was obvious to me that I kept it only for sentimental value because it could never be played on a record player even if I could find one these days that could play an old 78. I did briefly consider trying at one point to do just that in order to possibly retrieve a small portion of what was on it.  Thankfully, I abandoned that idea.   It was severely scratched, and it was so warped that I could lay it on a table and slide my hand underneath it in places.

But it occurred to me that just maybe there was some specialty company out there somewhere that might be able to get at least a few words off of it for me.  So I started looking, and I found a man in California who had good references from recording artists and collectors alike, who had used his services to transfer their old vinyl to CD to preserve them.  Many claimed that he “cleaned the sound up” so well that the new copy sounded better than the original ever did.  So I started having email conversations with him about what I had, and how important it was to me; and I decided to take a chance.  I carefully followed his instructions about shipping to protect it.  He told me to make a “cardboard sandwich” out of it, tape it up and ship in a box bubble-wrapped and with Styrofoam “peanuts”.  I did all this, and mailed it off with high hopes and very low expectations.

Just a week after I mailed it, a package arrived from him with the original record and a CD.  I held my breath as I put the CD in, and to my relief and great joy, I listened to the entire record as it was originally recorded, hearing the voices of my great-grandmother  and her sister for the first time in my life almost 60 years after they recorded it!

Granny and Aunt Nan

On May 1, 1952, Grandma Attaway (Matilda Virginia Northcott Attaway)and her sister, Aunt Nan (Nancy Catherine Northcott Cottrell) went into Gilliam’s Radio shop in Brownwood Texas.  I don’t know who all went with them.  The record label had been written mostly in pen, and other than the names of the songs, the date and establishment, it listed “Group: Sis. Gressett and Inez Stauber” and “Piano: Faye Martin”.  Someone had penciled in “#3” on one side, and “#4” on the other.  I believe it must have been my grandmother, Sallie Attaway Bingham, who wrote on it in ink “Mother and Aunt Sis.”

The record starts with Aunt Nan saying a few words, and then Grandma Attaway says a little about her 91^st birthday coming up next month, and how she is looking forward to a big birthday dinner.  Then they sing “Sweet By and By” and “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder”.  For the label on the CDs that I copied, I used part of a picture that is familiar to the Attaway family – one of all of the living sisters at the time standing behind Grandma Attaway and Aunt Nan, who are seated at a picnic table in the park with a birthday cake in front of them.   I wonder if this reunion picture could also be the birthday party she was talking about on the record.  I am almost 100% certain it was that same year.

Neither of these dear ladies could have known at the time what a great gift they were giving to their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren. My grandchildren have heard them now (Grandma Attaway was their great-great-great-grandmother).  Not many people have heard the voice of someone so far in their past.  Grandma Attaway was born on June 12, 1861.  This was two months to the day after the first skirmish in the Civil War was fought (“Battle of Fort Sumter“).  Abraham Lincoln was President, and would not see the fateful play where he would be shot until almost four years later.  The whole record only lasts 5 or 6 minutes, but I think it is nothing short of amazing that now, almost 150 years later, we can hear their voices.

If you have any old records you would like to preserve or some old video you would like to have converted to DVD or other digital format, I definitely recommend the work of Eric Van der Wyk at King Tet Productions.

/Bob’s boy