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Dr. E. W. Branyon’s Bio
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seen.... About the only means of transpor- tation the family had was by mule and wagon. Later my father bought a fringed- surrey and it was the talk of the commu- nity.
Though our life in Hamilton seemed Spartan compared to today, it was light years from Daddy’s childhood. Dad made sure of this in many ways, including booking theatrical departments from Montevallo and other col- leges to put on plays at our high school. He was one of the three or four top leaders of the community, in charge of about three-hundred students, and we lived in the bottom of a three- story dormitory on campus. We were at the center of all things cultural. He opened and closed the auditorium for the special events, so I saw most of them.
As Dad noted: “School buses were privately owned and the farmers hauled hogs, cotton, fertilizer and farm products in them when not hauling children. They were very un- sanitary and smelled of the last commodity they had hauled.”
Mom would drive me sixty miles on dirt roads to Jasper, or to Haleyville to take piano, clarinet and finally saxophone. There wasn’t a
