Tag Archives: Virginia

On becoming a General Loafer

Wayne C. Henderson of Rugby, Virginia is one of the best kept secrets in the world of guitar making. He’s not even that much of a Secret. He’s played at Carnegie Hall and has made instruments for some fancy musicians including Doc Watson and Eric Clapton. So, Wayne’s been around….

He’s also a friend of my family. My mom went to high school with him and my dad used to be a “General Loafer” as Wayne refers to the fellers who hang around the shop…

In my opinion, there are two reasons those general loafers hang around. Number 1 is that there is a lot of beauty that comes out of that shop despite the clutter… and Number 2 is that if you don’t hang around, there is no way your guitar will ever get worked on.

My good friend Sarah (who lives in Minnesota) ordered her guitar two years ago. She schlepped her way to Southwestern Virginia back to Wayne’s shop and gave him the size and dimensions she was looking for. While she was there, they picked out the wood for the back Wayne clamped the sides to bend them into shape.

This past August, Sarah wanted to check on the progress. Calling Wayne was not really working. He’s always out of the shop and a phone call isn’t really urgent enough. So Sarah and I both went to Virginia to see what had happened.

We got to the shop and started our own “General Loafing”. I got obsessed with a wooden mind tricking puzzle sitting there, and Sarah inquired about the progress, and found the guitar in the same shape she left it… bent sides and a back.

Since we were there, and we just kept hanging around, Wayne just started working on her guitar. They picked out her top out of spruce, and then he sanded it down to the right thickness for good resonating glued it together, added some ribbon to the inside of the sides of the guitar, put the sides and the back together and added another piece (i can’t remember what that piece was called) and then we loafed our way on back home….

Patience IS a virtue. Good things come to those that wait. There are many more sayings that can make Sarah feel better about how many trips to Virginia it will take to get her Henderson Guitar.

inspirations from the old home place

Going home gives renewal of my creative vision. When I return to the home where I grew up in Sugar Grove, Virginia, I am surrounded by inspirations.

My mom is an avid quilter. So was my grandma. This huge pile of quilts that probably is about 5 feet tall is comprised of family tradition. Some of them were just the tops that my grandmother pieced, or the pieces before being sewn that my mother finished years later…

My mom’s thimble collection is so sweet.

and here are just some laterns that hang on the wall, also there is a section of just washboards and another section of tiny cast iron skillets.

My nephew’s rusty dump truck on the front porch.

AND one of my favorite all time activities, the Wythe raceway dirt track. When I was 5, I wanted to be a race car driver….. Instead I operate a giant piece of motorized cast iron, printing as fast as I can!

Brown Paper Bag Packages

As I was printing some brown paper bag envelopes yesterday for a wedding invitation, I was thinking there’s a lot of thinking time in printing, but also I was thinking about where I got this penchant for the good ole grocery bag.

Tiny Pine was started 7 or 8 years ago when I sewed presents onto chopped up trader joes bags and then sewed those onto cardstock for last minute birthday cards. I sold those for a while and made a sort of card line. They were cute and quirky. I know where the sewing thing comes from… , my mom and several aunts and uncles worked at Mr. Casuals for 30 years – a sewing factory in southwest Virginia that produced Ralph Lauren and Osh Kosh and lots of sort of high end jeans and pants and such. My grandma made many many quilts (my mom too). It’s almost genetic.

But why do I love the brown paper bag?

Well, I got a delivery on my doorstep yesterday for my Birthday Present. Every package from my mom looks like this. She literally puts everything in a brown paper bag and wraps it with tape and addresses right on there. The shape doesn’t matter (I’ve gotten round packages) AND she also sticks crazy stamps and stickers on it. I almost don’t want to open it I love it so much.

PS Here is another good example of reusing. That paper bag got a good work out before it got to me.

Thanks Momma!

The Parsons Family gets more press….

If you saw where I was raised in the tiny community of Sugar Grove, Virginia, where our nearest neighbor is about 1/2 of a mile away, then you would be really surprised at all the attention us Parsons’ seem to get in the media these days… 

http://radioproject.org/archive/2009/0209.html

This story isn’t really about my family completely, but it does include an interview with my Mom, Virginia Parsons. The story is about Wayne C. Henderson, a pretty important guitar builder who is just over the mountain from where I was raised. He’s a friend of the family and so when a friend of mine, Ben Hubbard, wanted to journey back to the old home place to do a story for his graduate school project, well, Momma put him up and pretty much vouched for him – which you really need when you are an outsider coming around with your semi-imposing recording equipment… 

Ben actually had visited Sugar Grove before. When we were freshman in college at Northwestern University, Ben decided, at the drop of a hat mind you, to ride along with my family and me during the holiday break for 13 hours from Chicago to Virginia to see what it was like. I suppose he was checking to see if I was telling the truth about being a hillbilly! He got along just fine and so when he wanted to come back to do this story, my Momma welcomed him. Now Ben is roaming around somewhere near the Gaza Strip for the Associated Press…. a far cry from southwestern Virginia!

What I love about this radio documentary is that Ben managed to compose it in a way to give justice to all the people participating. I cry every single time I hear my mom talk. And when my dad’s recording fades in towards the end, I can’t take it. I am mentioned and so is my younger brother, Oscar. And it is just nice to have this little snippet of family history available for everyone! 

jennifer parsons and wayne c henderson

It is also an extraordinary story about Wayne’s way of life… his passion and simplicity. He has really a good model of business. He’s old fashioned and does things in a way that makes him happy… the most important thing?

Take a listen and you will see what I mean…

And here’s a picture of me with Wayne when I received my Henderson for Christmas a couple of years ago..

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