My Relatives Make an Appearance in Bill Jehle's Book, One Man's Trash

I halted on page 161 of Bill Jehle's book this morning to ponder the implications of my own family members making an appearance in his history of the Cigar Box Guitar.

My mom was Vonna Lou Streeter. Her dad, Tom Streeter had a sister named Elsie Streeter (my mom's Aunt Elsie) who gets a mention as conductor of a home-made instrument orchestra in an excerpt from the Logansport paper on page 161 of One Man's Trash.

Bessie Wininger (who, blessed by one of Bill's typos, becomes a Wiuinger) gets credit for her talent at braying like a mule- a talent my grandfather also possessed. Maybe he learned it from her, or the other way around. Maybe Galveston, Indiana was just a hotbed of mule imitators.

If I remember correctly, Bessie Wininger also married a Streeter, maybe my mom's Uncle Claude? which is how we became related to the Wininger family. I got to be pretty good pals with my Mom's Uncle, Bid Wininger, Galveston's retired telegraph operator, because he lived a hundred years and because Galveston was between South Bend, where I grew up, and Bloomington, where I went to college for a bit.

The name Rodibaugh also strikes me as familiar, if not familial. I think my grandparents were friendly with some Rodibaughs.

Really. What are the odds? This reminds me of a T.C. Boyle novel.

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comments

Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates September 9, 2011 at 1:08pm

SWEET! Good to know that we have a number of [CBGers] documenting this new movement.

-WY
David Sutton September 9, 2011 at 11:51am

YES! And I did. My book is in production at Fox Chapel publishing and it should be available to BUY next Spring. We're in the editing/designing stage right now. I think it's going to be a hit, it's a good read with LOTS of nice photos.
Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates September 9, 2011 at 10:43am

So David, weren't you also going to do a book (or did I miss that one)?

-WY
bairfoot cajun December 26, 2010 at 9:13pm

family history, must have called your interest in this subject of cigar box guitars david,now you are making history. i just ordered this book--one man,s trash--- and i are anxious to read the history.i was told an interesting story when i went home for thanksgiving holidays,i found out that my grandfather(who died before i was born) had built a cigar box guitar,when my oldest brother was very young,probably sometime in the mid to late 1940,s.
JUJU December 25, 2010 at 6:48pm

hehe what are the chances of your family ending up in bills book thats great - i aim to buy this book very soon

This reply was deleted.