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Memories
from a Marshall alum “It was great in ’38,” Billy Raies said about being at Marshall almost 70 years ago. “We had, like, 1400 students – it seemed like I knew them all. It was the happiest four years of my life – and I am 93 years old!” Billy’s best memories of Marshall are when he played “bones,” accompanying the Hayes Brothers Band at fraternity dances. “The band’s bass fiddle player was later with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra. I saw him at the Palladium in Hollywood years later in the mid-1940s. Big bands would play downtown at Vanity Fair – Glen Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, etc. I was able to play with these bands, although I never played at their request,” laughed Billy. Now, you are probably distracted by reading above that Billy played the “bones.” Here’s the story. “When I was 12, I attended an old time fiddlers contest where I saw a dude playing two bones in each hand,” Billy said. “All the kids were trying to emulate him. Well, I was working in my dad’s Sweet Shop at the time and he had a nickelodeon. The butcher next door dried out some animal bones which I used to play along to the music. I learned to use three bones in one hand, emulating the sound of tap dancers. The butcher enjoyed it so much, he would put nickels in the nickelodeon just to hear me play. Those were Depression days, so often those nickels amounted to half the Sweet Shop’s income for the day.” Later Billy’s dad bought him some professional bones made of hardwood during a visit to Boston and Billy began entertaining in high schools, theaters and college shows. “My favorite gig was at the Sun City West Sundome for the Performing Arts, in front of 7,100 people.” After graduation Billy had the opportunity to work at the New York World’s Fair on Long Island in 1939 and 1940 as a commentator for Swift and Co., demonstrating how hot dogs and other meats were made. “Being in the right place at the right time, I was also fortunate to be able to play the bones on the first telecasts ever shown from the RCA exhibit.” Billy then worked as an accountant for the University of California’s Los Alamos, N.M., scientific laboratory for 38 years. “This was during the time the Manhattan District developed the atomic bomb,” Billy said. “The lab opened in 1943; I was hired that August. The top scientists in the world were there. Enrico Fermi and others walked past my office daily. We never knew what we were working on until an A-Bomb was exploded at White Sands, N.M.” Since many of the 7,000 employees belonged to clubs made up of alumni from various schools in the area, Billy decided to start a Marshall alumni group. “I asked the head of data processing to give me a list of Marshall alumni and was surprised to see I was the only one. The next week an article appeared in heavy black ink on the front page of the Sante Fe New Mexican bearing the following headline: Marshall College Alumni Convene The Marshall College Alumni Society held its charter meeting in the phone booth at the Los Alamos Golf Club. Officers elected were William A. Raies, President; W.A. Raies, Vice President; and Bill Raies, Secretary-Treasurer. The purpose of the society was to plan cultural and charitable events for the ensuing year. However, the board of directors, which was composed entirely of the club’s officers, was in such violent disagreement of the nature of these events, that final action thereon was tabled until the next regularly scheduled meeting. Billy is now retired and interested in visiting with members of the Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas Club. He continues to play the bones, whether he is asked to or not, added Billy with a chuckle. He has a son, Billy, and a daughter, Lisa, and six grandchildren. Written by
Billy Raies and Jenny Drastura |
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