My aunt Clare is 79 years old. She remembers this scene like it was yesterday. "I'm here to get my baby out of jail" is a song that was sung years ago. But the memory of that is etched in her mind.
I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (or "An old house brings back sad memories")
I was told this story last year when I was talking to my Aunt Clare in Georgia. She remembers this episode very well. This is a scene from long ago. It takes place in San Antonio at Grandma and Grandpa Goode’s house on Mesquite St. They had moved from the Fairview community in Wilson County to San Antonio two years before. My Aunt Clare who was born in the Camp Ranch Coummunity, was 8 years old. It was in 1939. Her cousin Dorothy Lee was staying with the family, because she was expecting a baby.
Dorothy Lee’s mother, Aunt Iva from Coleman, Texas, has come to visit her daughter. Aunt Iva, like Grandma, plays the guitar and sings. Aunt Iva is my grandmother’s sister. Dorothy Lee was sitting on the side of the bed. Aunt Iva played the guitar and they started singing a song together. Clare stood close to her mother, Grandma, hugging her waist, as Grandma put her arms around her. She watched her cousin, Dorothy Lee sitting on the side of the bed, with her head down and her hands clasped between her knees, her eyes closed, singing the mournful sad song, harmonizing along with her mother. The scene is etched in my Aunt Clare’s memory to this day. She said it was such a sad song. She even remembered some of the words to the song. It went: “Oh Warden, I am here to get my baby out of jail.”
As a young girl in the early 1940s, I spent time in that house on Mesquite St. one summer. I still remember how each bedroom looked and the furniture and beds. I still remembered what the kitchen looked like and what it smelled like with a big pot of beans cooking on the stove, and the screen porch off to the right side. I can imagine I see Aunt Iva and Dorothy Lee singing that sad song. It made me cry when I found the words to it! So I let my imagination take over.
A few years ago I went by the house on Mesquite St. in San Antonio, and the lady who lived there invited me in to see the house again. It had not changed much at all! It was just as if I had stepped back in time in 1942. I was that 10-year-old girl, and Grandma was sitting on the bed brushing her long hair and putting it in a bun on top of her head. I stood there 10 years ago and let the memories wash over me. It was like a warm blanket. The old wooden floor creaked as I walked out the door on to the porch and down the steps into the sunshine. I remembered Aunt Clare’s story of that day in 1939, when Aunt Iva came to visit Dorothy Lee and they sang that song.
I looked up the song on the Internet and found out the words to the old song. Let your imagination take over too, and think about this scene in the house on Mesquite Street, in San Antonio. Here is part of the song. It will probably make you cry too.
I'm Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail
(K. Davis/H. Taylor)
"I'm not in your town to stay,"
Said a lady old & gray
To the warden of the penitentiary
"I'm not in your town to stay
& I'll soon be on my way
I'm just here to get my baby out of jail
Oh warden, I'm just here to get my baby out of jail"
"I tried to raise my baby right
I have prayed both day & night
That he wouldn't follow the footsteps of his dad
I have searched both far & wide
& I feared that he had died
But at last I've found my baby here in jail
Oh warden, at last I've found my baby here in jail"
Then I heard the warden say
To the lady old & gray:
"I'll go bring your darlin' baby to your side"
2 iron gates swang wide apart
She held her darlin' to her heart
She kissed her baby boy & then she died
But smiling, she kissed her baby boy & then she died
(Richard M. Feldman) Ever since I was a young boy, the only thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. I wanted to own and work on a real ranch, with cattle and horses. Especially horses.
While I never became a cowboy, considering everything I have done
I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (or "An old house brings back sad memories")
