Cecil Denver Wallace, Sr: An Interview with Grandma Kathleen, Part I

I just finished a delightful conversation with my Grandma Kathleen. In that conversation, I asked her about her father, Cecil Denver Wallace, Sr., and learned a lot about him and Grandma's family as she was growing up.

Among other things, Grandma and I share this in common: Whenever someone asks for a story from us (whether it's a funny story, a serious story, or a story about anything else), we immediately blank out and go, "Duuuuh." Just kidding. Grandma doesn't go, "Duuuuuh." But it is pretty much impossible for either of us to come up with a story on demand.

Because I already knew this, when I called Grandma to learn about Granddad Cecil, I came prepared with questions! Lots of questions. As we proceeded through the interview, I realized some of the questions were inappropriate for the time period, since recreational activities did not have as much emphasis during the time period when Grandma was a child, but many of the questions were just what we needed to facilitate the conversation.

I learned that Granddad Cecil ("Cecil" for the rest of this post) had several occupations, since he had the summer off as a high school band director. He worked as an instrument repairman, a private music instructor, a gardener, and rabbit caretaker. His main instrument was the cornet. When Grandma Kathleen was in high school and her family owned a restaurant, she remembers him helping in the restaurant as well.

Grandma remembers that a back room in their house was used as Cecil's instrument-repairing workshop and that the living room was often converted to a music shop. When asked, Cecil would perform solos on his cornet.

Cecil was also "able to repair anything, including clocks.  He did everything that needed doing.  He even painted our house - inside and out.  It was a two story, very high house."

Cecil spaded their garden by hand. This must have been a big task, as the garden was big enough to produce so much that Grandma Lucy spent a lot of her time canning. He also took care of rabbits that the family raised to eat. Grandma Kathleen says that must have been a business as well, since they had so many. At one point, Grandma Kathleen had a pet rabbit. When the pet rabbit died of natural causes, her parents didn't tell her for a long time after it had died. I didn't think to ask why until we were finished talking, but I like to think that it was because they didn't want her to be sad about the rabbit.