Ah Memories: Rag Mop!!

By kiki

Rag Mop: This tune brings back many memories from my early teens (early 1950's). The song, a 12-bar blues, written by Tulsa Western Swing bandleader Johnnie Lee Wills and steel guitarist Deacon Anderson and performed by Lionel Hampton (vocals by The Hamptons) and published in 1949, was huge back in the mid-20th century among the Simons Brickyard (a company town) teenagers and young adults.

It was played and danced repeatedly at house parties and Friday night dances held at the Vail Elementary School Auditorium…I close my eyes and see my older late sister Rachel and her friends, Josie, Rosie, Lucy, et al. doing the jitterbug with guys like Beto, Tony, Chuy, and others at whatever house parties we 13-14-year-old teens were allowed to attend….To attend the Vail Elementary School Auditorium dances, one needed to be at least 15 years old, leaving us young teens out in the cold…At times, we tried to crash the dances, only to be thrown out on our butts by the older guys.

After we were thrown out one Friday night, we young kids climbed a knoll that used to overlook the auditorium. From that vantage point, we used our primitive slingshots (2 leather bands attached to a shoe tongue) and papered the auditorium's roof with rocks.

At one point, the school principal, Mr. Bellamy (he had to be there for the 15 and over-crowd to hold their dances), came out to investigate only to be met by a hail of rocks; he then ran back inside. We left feeling good: thinking that we had gotten our revenge over the older teens, young adults, and Mr. Bellamy...Us younger teens never did get a chance to attend a dance at the Vail Elementary School Auditorium because not long after our slingshot assault, both the school and brickyard were closed.