The House with the Cannon in the Front Yard
Almost every year, from 1973 to 1990, neighbors and friends gathered in our front yard, behind a semicircle of various American flags from across history, their cups filled with Artillery Punch. My father yelled, “Fire in the hole,” and BOOM, an 1860’s era US cannon blasted its charge.
It was the 4th of July Farringer Cannon Shoot.
Neighbors gather for the 1987 cannon shoot
When Shiloh National Military Park was about to undergo renovations around 1965, my father, Dr. J. L. (Jack) Farringer, was asked if he could store one of their Civil War cannons. He was a natural choice, as he had chaired the 1965 Civil War Centennial Celebration and Reenactment of the Battle of Nashville. He was also pivotal in the founding of the Metro Historical Commission in 1967 and served as its first Chair until 1973.
My father gleefully agreed to accept the polished brass cannon and installed it in its place of honor at 2325 Golf Club Lane. I was 10 years old and have no memory of my mother, Mary Margaret’s opinion, but for the next 30 years, ours was “the house with a cannon in the front yard.”
That house no longer stands, but those who attended the annual Cannon Shoot will never forget that family event. My brother, John, loaded and rammed the charges into the cannon. It was fired thirteen times, once for each original colony. My father and brother wore minuteman costumes. The anachronism and irony of the era of the cannon was completely ignored.
Jack Farringer rams a charge
My mother found a recipe in The Joy of Cooking, 3rd edition, for Artillery Punch. It was awful! But if the first few sips could be tolerated, one no longer noticed the taste. The punch included: 1 quart each of rum, brandy, rye whiskey, strong tea, lemon juice, and sugar, 2 bottles of claret wine, 1 bottle of sparkling wine.
We laughed as we noticed many guests tossing the contents of their cups of punch in “reaction” to the cannon’s boom. The grass in the area withered for weeks following the event.
Well in advance of the 4th, invitations in the form of a couplet poem were put in our neighbors’ mailboxes, and friends brought friends.
A policeman stopped cars from passing by as the cannon was firing, and my father knew just how much gun powder to put into each charge to avoid breaking the windows of our neighbors’ homes across the street. Of course there were no cannon balls, but there were sometimes enormous smoke rings.
Jill Farringer Meese lights the fuse and the cannon roars
CWSM-TV News covered the cannon shoot every year. In the bicentennial year, my mother, my sister Janice, and I dressed in colonial costume, and the event was very briefly on NBC News.
Eventually, Shiloh Park requested the return of their polished brass cannon. It had been no small task to maintain the shine on that barrel. About 1976, Daddy purchased a cast iron Brennan cannon, manufactured in Nashville for the Confederacy. He felt this rare piece should be on public display and traded it to Shiloh Park for another brass Union cannon, this one with a lovely green patina.
My father passed away in 1990, only 2 1/2 months after the last cannon shoot. We did not have the heart to continue the event and eventually the cannon was sold to another collector. It lives on in my memory, that of my siblings, and everyone lucky enough to have experienced this wonderful display.
Contributed by Jill Farringer Meese
President, Nashville Historical Foundation
