Clownin’ Around

article by Lou Davenport | photo by Andrew Bailey

Last year, as many of you know, my cousin, Lisa Trussell and I planned a party for our uncle, J.B. Humphrey who turned 100. We had to follow the strict guidelines the VA had set because that was when the Coronavirus was almost at its peak. We definitely understand that those were for the veterans as well as us, so everybody would stay safe and healthy.

Last year, we had to wear masks, be “socially distanced,” and only have 15 family members.  We also had only 20 minutes to have an Honor Guard, the ladies from “Southern Grace” sing four songs that were related to the 40’s and have enough time to read all the honors, proclamations and speeches that Uncle J.B. was honored with last year. Thankfully the director, Markeeta, helped read most of them.  And as the ladies were singing their last song, we heard the Aeroshell Team that’s based in Mound, Louisiana start their flyover.  I’m getting chill bumps right now remembering those planes going over doing all kinds of aerial acrobatics.  Since we could only have fifteen family members, I sent everybody that wanted to see the air show to the parking lot at the old North Monroe Hospital. My daughter and son-in-law went over to the bowling alley and probably saw the planes better than we did!

This year, when Lisa called the VA to see if we could have another party, surprisingly they said we could do whatever we wanted.  Lisa had already gotten Uncle J.B. out when there was an old WWII plane named “Doc” at the airport and they along with, her grandson, John Wallace (who is a real plane “nut”) got to go for a ride!  So, we knew that all the VA residents had had their vaccines so it was nice that he could go up in that old plane. The news was there and actually interviewed John Wallace! Right now, family members can make appointments to go see them and actually talk to them, if you wear a mask.

Lisa and I got to talking about another party for his 101st birthday and we came up with a “clown” theme.  That was about the only thing that we didn’t have time to tell last year.  He was a member of the Barack Shriner Clown Troop and was known as “Beeker the Clown!”  We all call him “Uncle Beeker,” not uncle J.B. so that name he choose for his “clown name” meant a lot to us all.

Lisa called Nell Calloway and she gave us a pavilion outside the museum and set up tables and chairs. Since we choose a “clown” theme, I bought some vinyl tablecloths and napkins in multi colors, in keeping with the clown theme.

And we wanted some music, so I knew just who we needed! Mason Howard!  He’s a young local musician who can play just about any instrument, and just about any song you can think of.  

Speaking of Mason, the first time I saw him perform, he was Johnny Cash when Josh Madden’s band did the “Legends” show at the Flying Tiger and he was dressed in black. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought he was a young Johnny Cash.  He also plays the saxophone with the horn section when Josh and Joel Jordan were “The Blues Brothers!” Since my mama loved Johnny Cash, I knew that’s who we needed. I called him and he was free to play that day. I went ahead and booked him right away!

We also decided to bring the food and Lisa made her delicious pulled pork and baked beans and my cousin Beverly Comeux brought her world famous potato salad. My son-in-law donated some buns since he’s a bread man!

So once again, we started making phone calls and found out the Shriner Clown Troop could come so we wanted them to greet him as his son, Phillip wheeled him over from giving his oral history at the Chennault Aviation Museum. He had no idea they would be there and you could tell by his face, he was surprised that many of our family members were there.  One of the clowns even brought an album full of pictures of the clown troop and there were some of him as “Beeker.” Debbie brought an 8 x 10 picture of him as the clown in his full clown makeup and outfit and his actual clown costume! We set one of the tables with that picture and his costume, a card I made that had a Shriner fez on the front that everybody could sign, a floral arrangement that had I used solidago (that looks like bitterweed) and some bupleurum that has tiny yellow blooms and is very “flowy.”  I painted some dowels in “circus colors” stuck those in and finished it off with a crepe paper “fold out” that looked like a clown collar. I also put several other pictures of him and one of all my aunts.  

Lisa ordered his cake from Albritton’s Bakery in West Monroe and they went way beyond what we could have imagined.  It was a chocolate cake with white icing that they had decorated with red icing to look like a circus tent and even found a picture of a Shriner fez and make a fondant of that to have on the side of the cake.  It had a top layer that had “Happy 101” and that cake tasted even better than it looked!

The only thing we didn’t count on was the wind. If I hadn’t had the help of my cousins, Allen and Patrick, we’d have not gotten those tablecloths to stay on. But, since it was “breezy,” the weather was perfect.

The last table I did was for my mother.  Her birthday was October 9th, a Saturday this year.  She and my uncle were the best of friends so we thought we’d honor her, too. What a lot of people don’t know is, my Mmama was an artist, too, with a degree from LA Tech in Art Education and Elementary Education. She taught 3rd grade for many years at West Side Elementary in Bastrop. 

In 1968, she’d done an oil painting of a clown and gave it to my cousin, Mike, to decorate his room in their new house.  Luckily, Mike gave it back to me several years ago and I used it on her table.  I made a flower arrangement with flowers that were as close to black eyed susans, her favorite flower, that I could get, and some yellow colored pompom mums that had brown centers with some of the left over  buplerum. I even clipped some stalks of corn that had come up under my bird feeders!  I also had my favorite picture of her and some pictures of me, her and my dad.

My daddy’s family was very close and my mama and daddy even got married at Uncle “Beeker” and Aunt “Cy’s” house and so did Lisa’s mama and daddy, my “Uncle Punkin” and Aunt Faye. I added that wedding picture of my parents and the painting she had painted of the clown and her table was just beautiful.

Mason Howard was set up right before I got there and he started playing “Happy Birthday” when my uncle was wheeled out.  We all sang, too, then, Mason played for three hours! He only stopped long enough to come and eat lunch and when the party was over, I sent him a container with plenty of the leftovers. He was playing with Dead Reckoning later in the evening and I knew that kid had played  needed something good to eat before he had to go perform again. Dead Reckoning is a local blue grass band that sometimes gives free concerts outside in Kirby Rambin’s front yard.  If you get a chance to go see them or Mason, please do!  You’ll be so glad you did!

For the rest of the party, everyone was able to sit around and talk to Uncle “Beeker” and to everyone else.  Everybody signed the card I had made with a Shriner Fez on the front.  

The best thing for me was just getting to sit back and listen to Mason play.  When he played “I Walk the Line,” one of my mama’s favorite songs, I’ll admit I got a little tear.  She died in 1974, right after I got married and was expecting my first child, a daughter I named Carolyn after her.  It’s funny that Carolyn is a teacher just like my mama and Adam and me are both artists like she was.  Paige makes the cutest embroidered sayings and funny faces so she got the creative “gene,” too.  She also has my mama’s big brown eyes!  Everytime I look at her, I see my mama.

Lisa and I are both worn out today, but, it is a “good worn out!”  And, if our uncle makes it to 102 and he very well could, we’ll do something fun again!  As my cousin and his grandson said, “Papaw will probably outlive us all!”  I think he might be right!

Many thanks to Mason Howard, Albritton’s Bakery, Chennault Aviation Museum, Nell Calloway for the beautiful plague they gave him, all my cousins that helped  and especially to the Northeast Louisiana Veteran’s Home for letting us take our uncle out to have such a wonderful birthday!