THE SINGING, WRITING, HALF-BAKED BANJO PLAYER TURNS 71

 by Joseph S. Bonsall

 

Saturday, May 18th is my 71st birthday, and one has to ponder a bit where the years have gone . . . yet I am one who KNOWS where he has been and am quite certain where I am going.

 

My mind’s eye sees a bloody little kid running home to his mother after yet another lost fight. Oh, I won a few, but with every split open head or blackened eye, lessons were always learned. I learned how to outrun the bigger guys and went ahead and mixed it up with guys my own size with varying results. I wouldn’t change much of any of it. I grew up a bit tough and it has really served me well over these years.

 

I also see a little boy singing at church and in his bedroom and in the echoing halls of the El station at the corner of Kensington Avenue and Tioga Street.

 

I see a teenager accept Christ at an old-fashioned camp meeting in Medford, NJ. I see him working various jobs, from carrying groceries to short order cook to mail boy to a veterinarian’s assistant and a sugar salesman.

 

I see the Faith Four Quartet practicing in the basement by the coal heater on Jasper Street, gathered around a piano that my mother bought me.

 

I see myself playing second base for the Kensington Ramblers and wide receiver for the Lighthouse Boys Club Lions. I was an All Star until I got to high school and got creamed trying to make varsity, so I joined the choir instead!

 

I see my father having a debilitating stroke at age thirty-nine, and all of a sudden me becoming the ‘man’ of the house. It kept me from going to Viet Nam. I see my high school choir; my sister, Nancy, growing up; and Mommy sometimes holding down three jobs at once in order to make ends meet.

 

I see Daddy’s cars . . . Studebakers, Fords, Chevys. I see my own cars . . . a ‘59 Ford, a ‘59-Winged Monster Chevy, and a ‘63 Chevy. All of which I cracked up at one time or another. I was more like my daddy than I would have ever liked to admit in those days.

 

I see GIRLS. Susan Gehan and Linda Sidelsky. Donna Law and Sandra Kane and Jackie Van Mater, and other pretty girls with whom I never got to first base.

 

I see Joni Easton . . . my very first real love, who eventually broke up with me because I wanted to sing and not stay in Philly. I see my first wife, Barbara. A wonderful woman who was also not comfortable with my chosen profession, but while we were together, she gave me the greatest daughter in the world . . . my Jennifer!

 

I see a young man dreaming about singing in a great quartet one day and doing whatever it took to make that happen.

 

I see Mary sitting in the front row of an Oaks’ show in Freeport, IL, at the Masonic Temple, smiling up at me in early October of 1978. I fell head over heels as my mom would say. A torrid love affair and special attraction that has lasted to this present day. A blessing on every level that exists within the seemingly strange parameters that have been my life thus far. She STILL smiles at me.

 

Mary also brought another special life force into my life, another wonderful daughter Sabrina Sue. Sabrina came equipped with my first cat ever, Pumpkin. She would later give us two grandchildren, Breanne and Luke of which BRE has given us a GREAT Grandson, Chance who is already two years old!

 

We would eventually have a lot more kitties in our house as well because, as Mark Twain said, “Having a cat leads to having MORE cats!” Mr. Clemens was right, as usual!

 

I see myself singing with The Keystones. A cutting-edge little Gospel band that I would leave in October of 1973 to join the Mighty Oak Ridge Boys, who have made every dream I have ever dreamed come true—and THEN SOME!

 

I joined this group when I was twenty-five years old and, yes, I am turning seventy-one. That adds up to FORTY-SIX years of singing with Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, and Richard Sterban. I don’t know how life gets any better. Good health, great family, great friends, still singing songs, and a personal relationship with the God of this Universe through His Son Jesus Christ.

 

Allow me to reflect a bit on just one of those passing years . . . 1998! The year I turned fifty. Mary and I worked it out to purchase a 350-acre farm in Macon County, TN / Monroe County, KY as a second dwelling place (yes, the state line runs right through the property). The farm has been one of the greatest blessings of my life, and I thank God for it every day. We have owned this place for over twenty years now. There’s a lot of hard work out there and I love every second of it!

 

In 1998, my mom and dad left Jasper Street and moved into the Southeastern PA Veterans Center. A tough time for me. Almost as tough as it was to lose them both in 2001.

 

In 1998, my daughter Jennifer married Dan Stevens and, they are still together today and doing great. This makes a dad go “phew” for sure! I am very proud of them.

 

In 1998, Grandson Luke was born and here in 2019, as Pop Pop turns 71, he is going on 21 and has joined the US NAVY! I pray for him every day. I so love this boy

 

It seems like just yesterday a tiny little Breanne was running around the house wanting to “watch a moodie” while Luke was a little lump and, of course, it also seems like yesterday that Jennifer and Sabrina were little girls as well.

 

The Book of James tells us that our ‘life is a vapor that passes quickly’ and my vapor seems to be moving right on along.

 

Little Joey and high school. Joey and The Faith Four and Keystones. Joey and early Oak Ridge Boys. That Joey seems like quite a while ago, but not really. The earth is just spinning a little faster these days, it seems, and one day the last song will be sung, and the last word will be written, and the last banjo lick will be played (a happy day for some I am sure). However, when that time comes rest assured that I will be with Jesus. I will see old friends like Nana Gertrude Clark and Lo-Dee Hammock and June Carter Cash and Johnny and George and Barbara Bush and SO many others who have gone on before me. I will take my place in a rather full choir and sing a few songs for the angels while mommy and daddy cheer me on as they always have.  I will be on that far side bank waiting for YOU to get there.

 

I hope all of this is far off, though, because I would like to be singing for a long time to come down here, if that is His Will. Duane Allen and I once vowed that we would sing until we drop. Well, we are working on it!!!

 

Don’t ever feel bad for Ban-Joey. He has been blessed beyond deserving and is very thankful for every breath and every day.

 

SEVENTY-ONE?  Bring it!