Years ago when Mary Garland Simmons and I worked for the same command on Base we were preparing to sit down for a meeting when the Commander hosting the meeting went to introduce us. He asked us if we knew each other and I said “Hey Mary Garland, how you doing?” She replied back “Fine J. Scott, how are you?” The Commander laughed and said “Well since you two are throwing out the County double names for each other, I guess you do know each other!”
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| L-R Leah, Michele, Trisha Neal and Mary Garland (Johnny Carbone Has Got Their Backs) |
Yesterday Mary Garland and her sister Trisha Neal along with other family members, including 96 years young Aunt Leah Sterling, were all in Buzzy’s Country Store having a good time catching up with everyone. (Leah, Mary Garland and Trisha Neal now reside in Florida but make frequent return visits back to their homeplace on Harry James Road. When they sold the place to Mr. Tony Offutt, he very graciously has allowed them to come back and for a visit when they can do so.)
Earlier yesterday I had stopped by Ricky Yeatman’s funeral service where I talked with Ricky’s cousin Margaret Ann Radford-Wedemeyer. When I asked her how her brothers Robert Earl and William Boyd were doing she pointed out to me where they were seated in the church. I then asked her about the double names and Margaret Ann noted that it was her Mom who did that by naming all of her sibs double names.
On my way down to the Store, I of course thought about Ricky and his passing, but also thought about folks with double names. I drove past Pat John Forrest’s house and then the site of the old El Charles Inn where John Wayne Raley grew up. I smiled thinking it was appropriate that across the road from both of them was John Phil Fenwick’s place. A little ways further I passed Garnett’s residence and thought about her and her brother George Robert Morris visiting me at the Store the other day.
Thus later on with Mary Garland and Trisha Neal dropping into the Store, it really was a day of double names. I thought about all this as I left the Store and headed up to Brinsfield’s Funeral Home in Leonardtown to pay my respects to Pat Gerek and his extended family.
On my way back home to Piney Point it occurred to me that while the double named part of my day was a fun experience, the double funeral services in one day were not. That yin and yang thing at work again I guess.
I don’t know for certain if this was the first rock n roll song to feature a double named lady, but it still remains one of the best rock songs ever: