The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

The Callans and McClarys
was about four, we used to get
everything done in the morning
and then go to the bus stop right
in front of the house, get on the
city bus and we would go downtown.
He loved the big clock at
the mall down there, and he
used to love to throw pennies in
the wishing well. Sometimes we
would go to Grandma Callan’s
for lunch. Once a week we
would take a little fun ride. I
would take him around to see
different things, so he wouldn’t
feel like he was alone all the
time.
He liked to eat peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches, but
he had to have you make it with
peanut butter on one side and
jelly on the other, then put it
together. You couldn’t just
spread the jelly on the peanut
butter.
He used to go to the playground
at Whipple Lane School
in the summer. They had a pet
day. So you had to have costumes
for the pet. His pet was a
turtle. We had a cat and the
turtle. So I made a clown costume
for the turtle. Al would cry
because I made the hat with a
little snap, and every time the
turtle pulled the head in, the hat
would come off.
One time I called the
doctor because Al wouldn’t eat
anything. He was always a good
eater, so I figured there must be
something wrong with him. Next
day I was out in the yard working
in the garden, and Millie and
George were out there. And
George says, “Oh, Millie is
having a ball.” They didn’t have
any grandkids because their son
became a priest and their daughter
was a nun.
I said, “What do you
mean? He said she had been
making dinner for Al at four
o’clock every day for the past
week. So naturally he didn’t want
to eat at six. Up until the time we
left Springfield, every year they
sent him a birthday card with a
dollar in it.
Al’s Al’s first first violin
violin
Al’s older brother Bernie
came home from school one day
and wanted to play the clarinet.
We went through the whole
business of buying the clarinet on
time. And after two years, he
couldn’t play Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star. It was terrible. Bernie
Al’s biggest fans are his parents, Marge and
Jack Callan, who posed wth him backstage
after one of Al’s gigs in Oregon.
~ 62 ~
Fiddle lessons with Shirley Paul Hees,
ca. 1982
had some crazy band in the
basement, but none of them
could play anything either.
Along came Al and when
we went to Missouri, he said he
wanted to play violin. Dad said,
here we go again. Dad called
down to school, and found out
about the classes. We went to a
yard sale the following Saturday,
and bought his first violin. It
belonged to a kid who had won
all kinds of fiddling contests, that
played at the Baldknobbers ( a
hillbilly revue in Branson,
Missouri). It was his first fiddle.
But it was all beat up. Dad
bought it for 20 bucks or something,
so dad worked on it like a
Trojan. He completely restored
it and refinished it by hand,
rubbed the varnish in with his
own fingers. That was Al’s first
violin.
Al started taking lessons,
and after a year he couldn’t read
music. Al learned on the Suzuki
method. They teach you to hear
the music. They don’t even teach
you to read music for the first
two years. He hears the music,
and can make his fingers play
anything he wants.
He took lessons, played at
school, played at Christmas
concerts, and he played in the
Springfield Youth String Orchestra.
Then when we moved up to
Eldon, Missouri, they didn’t have
any strings. He started playing
the sousaphone. He had played
for his teacher on the violin. And
they wanted him to play a theme
for the Christmas concert. He
said, “Mom, I can’t do it, my
bow needs to be restrung. I said
to him, “Where am I going to
get it fixed up here?”
There was a little music
store, Vernon Music, and Al had
gone out with the owner’s daugh-