With the passing of my brother John Eicher Weaver, this past year, I am finding it important to label the photos my parents preserved in their family album and share some here. The 3 Weaver brothers where raised in a family environment that valued liberal arts education. Peg Weaver, Margaret Glessner was a 1932 graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and Paul Henry Weaver, was a 1938 graduate of Ohio State, with a BS and an MD. He had attended 3 years at Antioch College, Yellow Springs OH, prior to transferring to OSU, where he and Peg met on a blind date.
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1952 Recording session with the reel to reel tape recorder. (see microphone left of me) Tom with clown nose, Jack as a mountie and Jim, in his flannel shirt, in some sort of acting role. During this time, our parents, Peg and Pete Weaver, enjoyed role playing "Billy's Buttered Biscuits" episodes, "Try 'em, buy 'em" with their good friends who worked in Faribault's education circles, Marge and Ed Silvis, Faribault Public Schools and Frances and Brad Craig of Shattuck Campus, where they laughed and played.
1952, likely on a Sunday Morning, when we each had to wear a sport coat, Tom (5), Jack (8) and Jim (12) at the small Weber grand piano in the living room. Each of us continued to have music in our lives, me with clarinet and vocal. Jack with guitar, electric guitar, Jim with cello and guitar.Comments by Peg Weaver, mother of 3, in her Rememberings of a 83-Year Old Grandma Memoir
on our interests as younger boys p 68-69
"Jack's second grade teacher, Dena Mueller (whose sister cleaned for me), told us that she thought Jack had worms because he was chewing his pencils! When he was in third grade and having some behavioral problems, his teacher, Jane Herbert, and the elementary supervisor, Madge Paro, suggested that we take him to the University for testing, suspecting that he was an underachiever. Among the tasks that he was asked to perform was drawing a man. Jack's man wore a space suit and the University had no models for evaluating it. Jack told me that this drawing appears in a textbook on student testing. Tom and neighbor Sue Heath had continuous and strenuous competition in weekly spelling tests. On several New Year's Eves, Neila, Ken and Sue Heath joined Pete, Tom and me for snack celebrations, smoked oysters, sardines, cheese and Pepsie. Early on Tom began collecting butterflies and moths, often with Richard Rodewald. Borrowing books from the library, Pete and I became involved in trying to help with identification and preservation of his collections. Eventually our home housed several lepidoptera collections in large picture frames. This was fun for me, too, since nature hobbies were always appealing When he was in Junior High, Jim's interests revolved around electricity. With a sealed jar containing a small, Christmas-tree-light-bulb plugged into to the house current, a light appear at the top of one of our tall European larch trees and could be seen for quite a distance since our lot's elevation was higher than much of the community. The basement doors were wired to buzz when they were opened and the basement had a tesla coil. Using a pack-ratted electric transformer, munching squirrels were startled at our window box bird feeder, a touch of the switch sending them sailing into the air. The furnace room was loaded with pack-ratted acquisitions stored on jerry-built shelves Jim constructed. Jim was also interested in pulleys, stringing a system between his bedroom and Dick Swain's house next door. "Pulleys save steps," was a phrase we used to tease him. When he took a math course from Ray Budenske, his answer to a problem was correct, but, because he didn't obtain it in the way the teacher had taught, he didn't receive credit. This bothered me --- innovation was penalized.
One of Jim's hobbies was shooting a bow and arrow, setting up a shooting range behind the garage, hauling in bales of straw to hold the bull's eye and catch stray arrows. Unfortunately, the straw was made from quack grass, which invaded our asparagus patch close by. When he was a high school senior, Pat Handy, Jim's very close friend, was killed in an accident on a train trestle near Faribault. This was a difficult time at our house.
Both Jim and Jack went to a Boy Scout Camp at Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, Jack receiving the Order of the Arrow. I remember driving a group to the camp, following the east side of the St. Croix River, seeing Stillwater Prison on the opposite bank.
When Tom played basketball during his sophomore, junior and senior years in high school, Pete and I attended the games in Faribault. The coaches had wanted Tom to join the Varsity when he was a ninth
grader, but Pete and I vetoed that idea, believing it would not be for Tom's benefit. Often a crowd chartered a bus for out-of-town games, especially in snowy weather, leaving the driving to some one else. Standing six feet nine inches, he was an asset to the team, had a good touch and made neat hook shots. In Tom's senior year, 1965, the Faribault team played in the State Tournament and was runner-up for the State Championship! A reception for the returning team was held at the high school with a huge crown attending. Faribault was proud of its team! Although Tom was offered a basketball scholarship by Davidson College he didn't accept, preferring to select a college on a different basis and not wanting to be beholden to basketball for his college education. Very helpful in this decision was the AT&T (American Telegraph and Telephone) stock that my parents had given to each kid for his college education. The Faribault Canning Company provided summer jobs for many Faribault teen-agers, including Jim and Jack. Jim was in the pea-canning department; Jack, in the warehouse, stacking cartons. Another summer, Jim worked at the turkey plant, grabbing turkeys from cold water baths. How his clothes stunk! Tom worked for the Rice County Surveyor, Tom Taylor, helped Larry Knutson with outdoor house-painting, and was a gas station attendant."
1952 Tom and Jack reading the colored funnies in the Sunday Paper, prior to going to Sunday School at the Cathedral of our Merciful Savior in Faribault
Rememberings of a 83-Year Old Grandma Memoir reflections by Peg Weaver p 70
"All of us had fun using the tape recorder -- Tom singing "Do you Know the Muffin Man" and "0 Come, All Ye Faithful", Jack telling his stories of "Space Patanies" and "New Orleans Cows", all of us presenting versions of corny "Billy's Butter Biscuits", Ed Silvis having provided the script. When Marge and Ed with Frances and Brad Craig recorded this with us, we all became hysterical listening to the play-back with Frances' eastern accent for "hoss-cah conductah" (horse-car conductor).
Each boy took piano lessons for a few years, each having the usual problem of not wanting to practice. The high school orchestra and band had Weaver players: Jim on the cello; Jack, bass fiddle; Tom, clarinet. Each sang in the high school choir, Jim also singing in a male octet. Jack played bass fiddle in a Koopman band, where Oscar Teisberg (the sober, public school band director who appeared to walk around with his eyes closed) played clarinet. Jack was enamored with the electric guitar, making his first purchase at Schmitts music store in Minneapolis, later ordering Fender guitars through Eastman's music store in Faribault. For a high school choir concert he played his guitar to accompany "Black, Black, Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair".
Combo rehearsals often took place in our living room. Jim's combo played before Rock and Roll became popular and its music was not loud. Its members: Charlotte Allen (piano), Bob Ericcson (string bass), Curt Herbert (clarinet), Janet McKeeby (drums), Rog Schroeder (cornet), Herb Sellner (trombone), Wally Borgstahl (vocalist), Jim Weaver (home-made guitar and manager). Jack's combo was definitely Rock and Roll AND LOUD with an amplifier for his electric guitar. The members: Jim Hanson (piano), Harold Weatherson (sax and clarinet), Russell Seely (instrument?), Gary Mudge (string bass), Jack Winjum (drums), Jack Weaver (guitar).
For our living room Jim and Jack built a hi-fi system with large cabinets housing speakers and amplifiers. Pete liked to play classical records at high volume on the hi-fi, driving me to another part of the house or outdoors, almost ruining my enjoyment of classical music. However, my singing was inclined to be loud, which probably bothered all of them. When Jack played his guitar in combos, for his amplifier he used the one he had made for the hi-fi system, borrowing the Buick station wagon to transport the bulky cabinet. "
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