The Antlers Quartet
She ran to me... joy written on her face. It matched the squeal I'd heard moments before, followed by the quick footfalls down the steps and into my mother's living room. She held her hands together, obviously hiding something.
"Mom!"
"Yes?", a quizzical look on my face. We were sorting through my mother's belongings... while not normally a joyful activity, we *were* enjoying each other's company, lessening the recent and raw pain we'd endured.
"You'll NEVER believe what I found!"
I shrugged. My mom had 78 years of belongings in this house... it could be Anything.
Victoria raised her top hand. Laying in the palm of her left hand was an old black and grey cassette tape. Written on top in my handwriting was "Antlers Quartet". My jaw dropped and tears fell.
"Oh, my. Oh. Where was it? Where'd you find it?"
"It was by her old jewelry box in her closet!"
To this day, months later, I don't know if it was the original or a copy I had made for my mother... but for YEARS I have searched for this lost cassette. I believed it was in my house, and on various occasions, I've torn this house apart, not accepting that I could lose such a personally valuable irreplaceable item. I KNOW I must have mentioned it to Mom, but she never acknowledged owning a copy. I can't remember making a copy. I really don't honestly know one way or another, but I'm willing to accept that this was a gift from my Mom from heaven.
I had made the tape almost 30 years ago.
I'd been married a year and for some reason, my mother and I were being nostalgic and looking at some of my baby items in her cedar chest. Next to the clippings of my towheaded hair, lay the record albums from my grandparents. They had, with another couple, formed the Antlers Quartet and were infamous in southern Oklahoma for their four part gospel singing.
"You know, Mom. We should put these on tape before they just totally deteriorate. Look, there's cracks in the vinyl everywhere."
So we did.
Holding a microphone to the record player, we introduced each song, listing the date on the recording, laughing when the record skipped and we had to nudge the needle along, and shushing a little baby in the background. (I'm still unsure of whose baby it could have been! mine weren't born yet!) As they played, the needle often just peeled up the vinyl as it went. These records would never be played again. Some were too bad to even let the needle ride in a groove.
We saved some. We made a tape. All these years later, after my mother's death, the tape re-emerged, and I could hear my grandparents' voices once again. On two songs, I could listen to my mother's gorgeous voice. A few times she stood in when Jimmie C. couldn't sing her part. My mom could Sing.
I never knew my granddad. Mam-ma was dear to me for many years, dying after I was married. But here they were. Irreplaceable.
They had travelled south central Oklahoma, singing gospel at churches, recording a few records in those do-it-yourself studios, and even had their own radio show, The Antlers Hour, on a Hugo, Oklahoma station. They'd start it off every time by singing "Give the World a Smile".
I also own some of their hymnals.
With their handwriting.
And the words to songs that give me joy.
My grandparents, Victor (bass) and Lila(soprano) Underwood, Bill (tenor) and Jimmie C (alto) Sossamon, with Jimmie Loman on piano. That's my grandparents on the right side below... see where my Choctaw blood comes from?
If you're curious and this works... click on the link to listen amidst the cracking and popping and hissing of OLD records... the Antlers Quartet . I expect to put a shadow box up at the Mills place... and it will include photos, records, hymnals, a black and grey cassette, and a new CD copy of these old songs...
Posted by Carol at 12/12/2010 3:43 PM 
Categories: Ranchlife, History
Tags: ranch Wyoming Antlers Quartet
Categories: Ranchlife, History
Tags: ranch Wyoming Antlers Quartet
What a wonderful Christmas giftfor you and your family to have. I can feel some of your thrill. While cleaning out my mother's files my sister and I came across photos that we never knew exsisted. Photo's of a greatgrandmother that passed before I was born another who passed when I was very young. Photo's of my uncles and mother when they were just young children. So many photo's of the past and now there is no one to ask about them but I'm still thrilled to have found them.
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The link didn't work, but I did wonder how you got the tape onto a CD... I have a cassette of my grandmother telling her life story but no way to convert tape to CD...
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My son-in-law did it for me... they have one of those machines that plays records, cassettes, cds, and usb inputs... so you can copy to newer versions. I'm bummed it didn't work for you... I'm going to see if I can fix it!
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This is so touching. It is wonderful that you re-discovered this treasure. (My husband sings bass in a Gospel Quartet at our church. We love southern gospel music.)
Merry Christmas!
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Carol, well i just cried in my midnight snack corn flakes. Thanks for sharing with us, it brought back many memories of my Sweet Grandmother.
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My Mother just passed away last week and we have not started to go through her things. My Dad wants to wait until after the holidays. I am hoping to find some bittersweet memories like you did. Bless you Carol, you are a treasure.
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Well, I got goosebumps for you and a flood of memories for me.
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OMG Carol!!! What wonderful memories!! Listening to the recording brought back so many fond memories of when I was little and at family reunions we'd all stand around the piano and sing hymns... the voices would ring out in the living room of a relative and everyone would come together in harmonies and non-harmonies--but everyone would sing....
my dad's been gone just 3 weeks... thank you for this gift!! <3
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Priceless. To still hold a generation or two behind us is what it is all about. Then to have the generation beyond us to hold and love makes it worth it.
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tears and smiles .... family
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Precious!!!
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you are one lucky duck my friend. do you know how many of us would kill to make a find like that? i long for any nostalgia from my past. loved the recording...priceless! a very Merry Christmas to you indeed!!!
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The link didn't work!
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Wow! What a find for you and your family to enjoy and cherish. Sorry the link didn't work for me either. Hope you get it fixed.
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I'm so happy for you that you found it. I have been tearing my house apart periodically for 10 years looking for my grandmother's little bedside clock. The face had a church scene, and the bell in the tower would move back and forth to the tick. I put it away somewhere safe; and it was never seen again. Every time I think of that clock, I go on a search again.
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How wonderful that you thought to preserve those old records before it was too late. And what a treat to have you share them with us.
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Fascinating! What a treasure! Interesting that they were in Oklahoma, where I live now.
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This is great, can you make me a c d copyof the songs. I can still hear them sing at Hall Church on most Sundays. The one picture is in the Old Church probably with dinner on the ground.
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Everyone in the family is getting one for Christmas... whoops... I spoiled the surprise!
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