My Margie

Margie Carter Camp - circa 1931-1934??

So, when last we met, I had made contact with and visited my long-lost Camp family around the Shreveport, Texarkana and Jefferson, TX area. What I didn't have room to say in that LONG post was that all my life when I was growing up - my grandmother Margie, my mother and I would come to that area - every two years - for about two weeks in the summer. We came to attend two family reunions which were held around July 4th.

One of the families we always spent a night or two with was my grandmother's brother John and his wife Zanah Carter. They had A LOT of children - from some that were my mother's age down to a couple of girls who were just a little bit older than I was. And - coincidentally - one of those daughters was also named Lynda - with a Y.

During conversations with my newly found uncle James Leland Camp, he has shared that his dad (my grandfather Jim Camp) and his second wife Hattie remained very good friends with John and Zanah through the years. He recalls visiting their house often and that they would come over to visit Jim and Hattie - even spending the night. So....this begs the question...why didn't John and/or Zanah ever tell Jim where his children were? You see...Jim Camp always believed that Margie had taken the children and moved to CALIFORNIA. Holy cow - sure glad that didn't turn out to be true.

Well, so be it, maybe they felt on some level they should not get involved. But James Leland and I think it so strange that he and his parents were often in the same places that Margie, Mother and I were. My poor Mother always believed that her Daddy had abandoned her, wanted nothing more to do with her and her brothers - or something to that effect. And, I don't know what his true thoughts were - but I believe he did love them and wondered where they were.

After he remarried, he still felt love for Margie (my grandmother). One night, he couldn't sleep and was up and wrote a song about her. First thing the next morning he told his wife, Hattie that he wanted to tell her something. He didn't want her to be offended or have her feelings hurt, he said, but he had to write this song.
So, let me share the lyrics here with you. James Leland so very kindly gave me one of the two remaining copies of the sheet music.

My Margie
lyrics by J.D. Camp music by Gene Brooks

I've been wondering since you went away My Margie,
What I'd done to make us drift so far apart.
Since the day you went away to love another,
My love for you still burns deep in my heart.

After twelve long happy years we spent together,
I still wonder why you felt you had to roam.
Til the day I die I know I'll still be wondering,
If you will change your mind and come back home.

I am sure down in your heart you know I loved you.
Yes, I loved you more than human tongue can tell.
And I wonder if in trhis great lonely world dear,
Together we will ever chance to dwell.

Chorus:
My thoughts are always with you, My Margie.
And our loved one's you've had through long years past.
If in this world we never meet again dear,
May we meet in the world on high at last.

You may remember I mentioned "secrets" in the previous post - and
within the lyrics of this song, you will see at least one of them.

Here is a picture of James Daniel Camp, my grandfather. How
I wish I could have known him here in this world - but I am looking
forward to a reunion, as he says, in the "world on high".



Remember that line in the chorus - "and our loved ones you've had since longs years past"? I believe that line refers to his three "lost" children. The eldest, James Earl, passed away within a year after he remained in Texas with his grandparents and Margie, Gladys (my mother) and Joe had moved to Florida. My grandfather was not informed until six months after his son had died. I'm going to post another picture of Earl and Joe - and look at those crazy high-top tennis shoes Earl is wearing. James Leland tells me that his father (my grandfather) kept those shoes for years, in a box along with other memories.



I just wish my mother would have known all this, in her life, but you know, I guess when she went to "that world on high" in 1979, her Daddy was probably right there waiting for her, and her brother James Earl right by his side.

This is all very emotional for me - and I truly feel the loss of not having had the chance to know James Daniel Carter "in this lonely world". He passed away in 1963. See you in Heaven Papa Jim (this is how his other grandchildren refer to him).