Soap Box

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Ten o'clock on a Sunday morning doesn't seem very early to most folks, but to a hard-working twenty-something musician who just finished playing his club gig a few hours before, it's like the crack of dawn. Especially one who had stayed awake most of the night in excited anticipation of what was going to happen this morning.

Because today was September 20, 1964 and Hazel Juanita Alexander of Tulsa, Oklahoma was marrying Charles Edward Daniels of the suitcase brigade of itinerant musicians whose last known permanent address was at his parent�s house in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Sunday is a great day to be married, but in our case it was also a necessity because it was the only night in the week I had off, the other six were spent entertaining the patrons of the Fondalite Club until the wee hours of the morning.

We were married by a Justice of the Peace in his little walk up office on Boulder Street in downtown Tulsa and the marriage was attended by the other four members of my band, The Jaguars, along with their spouses and girlfriends, Hazel�s parents and a family friend, about 12 folks, counting the bride and groom.

We said our vows, kissed the bride and headed for the Pickadilly Cafeteria for our first meal together as man and wife.

My bride was breathtaking beautiful that morning in a blue dress and high heels as we said goodbye to the wedding party walked out onto the streets of Tulsa and into a world that would teach us a lot of lessons in the next half century.

We went to my hotel room for a few hours and then to visit Hazel's parents who seemed somewhat shell shocked at the realization that their youngest daughter had just married a traveling guitar picker who didn't even have a permanent mailing address.  

We went back to hotel room at the Reeder Hotel, which was to be our home for the next few weeks. It was just a block or so off of Tulsa's version of skid row, but I never had to worry about leaving Hazel there at night while I was working because Mr. and Mrs. King, the owners, and the employees who worked there were a tough and able crowd and brooked no foolishness.

When we finished our gig at the Fondalite we moved on and Hazel went back to her mother's house until I came back to town, which was pretty often as the Fondalite was a regular stop for The Jaguars.

We were playing clubs around the country and I usually had only one night a week off to get back to Tulsa but we managed, looking forward to the day we could make a more permanent arrangement and the next year when the baby came it became glaringly clear that three week stands at the Fondalite and fly in days off was not nearly enough for two people as in love as we were and now God had blessed us with our fondest wish, a baby that we named Charles William.

And now there were three.

I sometimes have people tell me how lucky I am to have accomplished some success in the music business. Some of them act as if I just walked on the scene and immediately started making a lot of money and became well known.

Well, I won't belabor the fact, but let me tell you there is a price to be paid for accomplishment and my wife and son can tell you that. We were separated for long periods of time and sometimes being apart was so gut wrenching it is about all you can bear.

I remember when Charlie was a baby and I had been gone for sixteen weeks straight, walked in the house and picked him up and he started crying, he didn't know whom I was.

But Hazel was right there beside me through car repossessions, used appliances and even having the electricity cut off.

She believed in me and encouraged me and when Bob Johnston called me in 1967 and asked, if I'd like to move to Nashville she never hesitated. We packed up and arrived in town with a twenty-dollar bill, the clutch out on our car and a busted water pipe in the house Bob had arranged for us to move into.

I won't go I to all the ups, downs and sideways that would take place in the next several decades - those are for the biography I hope to finish one of these days - but suffice it to say that God has truly blessed us and we have seen so many dreams come true, so many desires of our hearts fulfilled, watched our son grow up into a fine young man who still dotes on his parents.

I don't even try to imagine what my life would have been like without my darling Hazel in it, it�s just something that I don't even want to contemplate and I am firmly convinced that our Heavenly Father ordained it. 

We could have taken some time off, gone off to some romantic spot to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary, but we made a joint decision to be on tour when it happened.

It's kind of ironic that the 20th of September falls on a day when we're playing in Oklahoma, the state we were married in.

A big part of the way I make my living is putting words together and communicating a thought but I cannot even articulate the way I feel about my wife, the depth of the love I have for her, the pleasure I have just being in her company, and folks the wonderful part is that fifty years have not dulled the excitement the anticipation and the looking forward to bigger and better things.

That light burns even brighter.

Thank You, God.

I sure do love you, Darlin'.

Charlie Daniels