Yesterday in traveling to my uncle’s funeral, I had turned on our local 9.20 AM WLIV radio station in my car as I love to listen to the country oldies on this station, Just a few minutes later an ad came on from Cookeville, Tennessee and it featured the voice of Drue Huffines.

That voice on the radio took me right back to my childhood days. I had already been thinking all week about how I grew up and about my uncle that just died and about my Daddy’s family.

In all of my growing up years there were two men’s voices that were staples in our home. The two men were Drue Huffines and Jack Woodward. Our local radio station used to come on the air super early in the morning. I am not sure of the exact time that it came on but just know that it was always blasting through the house when I got up.

The radio station had a segment called birthdays and anniversaries where you could call in and request a special song to be played for your loved ones or you just give their names and whatever song was played was their honorary song that morning too.

Every single year on my birthday morning, my Grandmother Hodges would call me bright and early and tell me to listen to my special birthday song on the radio. The first year after my grandmother died I remember being super sad that I would no longer hear her voice wishing me a happy birthday.

Another new segment on the radio that came later was a program sponsored by Winningham Hardware called, ” I’ve got your number.” A random household would be called and the person on the line would be asked a trivia question and if they got it right they would win the cash jackpot. Each unanswered question caused the jackpot to be more each time. The answer to the trivia question was posted each week in the hardware store. Shoppers were encouraged to come in and get the answer to the question and shop while they were in there. My uncle, James Hodges, was the very first person to be called on “I’ve got your number”

WLIV also had a live gospel singing segment every Sunday afternoon. My husband’s Dad, Mom, and brother Joel sang in a gospel group called “The Poston Family” and they would sing on the radio a lot on Sunday afternoon’s. Below is a video of one of their records:

Funny how you remember all of these things!

Before HIPAA and all of that, at midday on the radio you could hear who all was admitted to the hospital and who was discharged. Baby announcements and deaths were even on there too. Another program was the swap shop and you could call and list items or call the number on the advertised items and purchase things. Community events were announced on that radio station too.

The voices of Drue Huffines and Jack Woodward filled all of our homes and we felt like they were members of our own families.

When my husband went to Iraq at 50+ years after being activated with the Tennessee National Guard, someone mailed over a cassette tape of the swap shop. One day he was playing the cassette in the bunker when some of the guys walked in from a completed mission. When those guys heard the swap shop blasting throughout the bunker their eyes got big and they said, “How are you picking that up?”. My husband jokingly said by way of satellite. He said they all paused in their tracks and just listened. It was a real comfort to hear home.

I will always associate the voices of Drue Huffines and Jack Woodward with precious memories in my life and I just wanted to share a little bit of my thoughts on a very tender day in my life in driving to my uncles funeral.

(WLIV first aired on November the 26th of 1956 which was the year I was born!)