Lightnin' Hopkins_ His Life and Blues - Alan Govenar [92]
By 1965 the quality of Lightnin’s life had improved, and as much as he balked at traveling, he flourished on the festival and concert circuit. While there are few records of how much he was actually paid, he seemed to be doing well, relatively speaking. His promoters took care of him, finding him a decent place to stay, driving him around, and getting him food and booze when he wanted them. And when he got back to Houston, he loved to cruise the streets of the Third Ward in his black-and-white Dodge, making his rounds, shouting out to his friends, and sitting in for a card game or rambling into a back alley to shoot dice.
Yet even though he had more cash to throw around, he still complained about being broke much of the time. Mansel Rubinstein, who operated Mansel’s Loan Office on Dowling Street, saw Lightnin’ often during the 1960s and says, “When he’d get back from out of town, he liked to get out there and play cards and gamble and drink, and when he needed quick money he’d come see me. He’d pawn one of his guitars, and I give him a short-term loan, of maybe fifty or a hundred dollars, and then when he needed the guitar, he come back and pay off the loan plus the interest, which back then was probably about 10 percent.” Mansel had grown up in the Third Ward, and operated his pawnshop and loan office in the back of Rubenstein’s Dry Goods, one of his father’s three stores on Dowling Street.61 Rubenstein says that Lightnin’ came to his father’s store often, not just to shop or pawn his guitar, but to talk, and they eventually became friends. “Lightnin’ trusted me, but he wanted me to travel with him and help manage his affairs, but I didn’t want to. I also had a small record label, called Whiz Records, but I never recorded Lightnin’. But if he was doing something locally, I might go with him to be sure he got his money.”
As much as Lightnin’ was earning more than he ever had before, he spent his money fast. His habits and vices hadn’t changed. He was still a voracious gambler who was known to lose huge sums in a single game. And he was a heavy drinker, though Strachwitz says Lightnin’ once told him that “Antoinette had saved his life” by getting him off the rotgut wine that had “nearly killed him” in the 1950s. “He may have switched to gin,” Strachwitz says, “but he still liked to drink.”62
The house where Lightnin’ Hopkins’ stayed when visiting his mother in the early 1950s, Centerville, Texas.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Leon County Courthouse, Centerville, Texas, 2008.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Warren’s Bottom, Leon County, Texas, 2008.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
The house where Lightnin’ Hopkins lived in the 1930s, Leon County, Texas, 2008.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Ray Dawkins, Centerville, Texas, 2008. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Lorine Washington, Centerville, Texas, 2008.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Lightnin’s daughter Anna Mae Box, Crockett, Texas, 2002.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN GOVENAR
Bill Holford (right), ACA Studios, Houston, ca. late 1950s. COURTESY OF RICH PATZ/ANDREW BROWN
Lightnin’ Hopkins at the Sputnik Bar, Houston, Texas, 1961. ©CHRIS STRACHWITZ
Lightnin’ Hopkins, Houston, Texas, 1959. COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF ANDREW A. HANSON
Texian Boys members (L–R) Ed Badeaux, John A. Lomax Jr., and Howard Porper jamming at the Houston Folklore Society.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARGARET LOMAX, CA. MID-1950S. COURTESY OF JOHN LOMAX III
Lightnin’ Hopkins, Houston, Texas, 1959. COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF ANDREW A. HANSON
clockwise from top: Long Gone Miles, LC Williams, Spider Kilpatrick, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Houston, Texas, 1960; paul Oliver interviewing Lightnin’ Hopkins, Houston, Texas, 1960; An unidentified friend, Long Gone Miles, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Chris Strachwitz, Houston, Texas, 1960. © CHRIS STRACHWITZ
(left) Lightnin’ Hopkins at Sierra Sound, Berkeley, California.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM CARTER, 1961. COURTESY OF ARHOOLIE RECORDS
(below) Lightnin’ Hopkins and Barbara Dane, Berkeley, California.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM CARTER, 1961.