Reflections: Budgie, A 1949 Plymouth and Ed

Enjoy our third “Reflections” post — one of many vignettes and stories featuring memories of days gone by. This installment is from Dr. Ed Meek.

If you would like to contribute your own Reflections story, send it, along with photos, to hottytoddynews@gmail.com.

Ed and Becky Meek on their wedding day in 1960

My new bride and I drove directly from our wedding in Paynes, Mississippi to Ole Miss for our honeymoon.

It was a Friday night on June 24, 1960, and I had a final exam at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

We had purchased a 1949 blue four-door Plymouth for $400 and were making our way to Oxford when Becky and I were almost overcome with fumes that were flowing into the car. She was hanging out one window, and I was hanging out the driver’s side window when I saw the red light flashing behind us on the highway. I wasn’t afraid because we were sure the lights were fake, probably my friends Bone and Greaser (John and Bill) Cossar or some other friends from Charleston trying to give us a hard time.

1949 Plymouth

I stepped on it, and as we sped away to Oxford I noticed there was a hole in the floorboard just below the break pedal. The exhaust pipe was broken, and fumes were pouring into the car.  The red lights finally caught up with us, and we realized they were real. As I pulled over, I was scared as heck; it had already been a tense day.

The patrolman thought I was drunk, since apparently I was weaving all over the road, hanging out the window, trying to escape the fumes. Becky and I explained we had just gotten married and were on our way to Ole Miss for our honeymoon in Vet Village (married student housing) and we were hanging out the windows to get fresh air because of fumes in the car.

The patrolman was not amused.

Finally, I got out of the car stuck my hand in the hole in the floorboard and showed the patrolman, who finally sent us on our way and wished us well.

One reason I came to Ole Miss was the late Rep. George Payne Cossar, father to Bones and Greaser, twins and high school friends. Bones played the bass drum in the band and claims that he taught me everything I know from high school. If that is true, it accounts for my pitiful score on the ACT!

My nickname in Charleston, our hometown, was Budgie. That was the only name people knew me by in my town. In fact, my records even came to Ole Miss with the name Budgie on them, along with Edwin Ernest Meek.

When I was first introduced to the Sigma Nu’s as a freshman, I was introduced as Edwin Meek, and the Cossar twins quickly jumped in and told the crowd, “Hell, that ain’t Edwin, that’s Budgie!”

The name stuck, and anyone at Ole Miss who has known me for a long time, including four Chancellors with whom I worked, called me Budgie. 

Beck Meek ironing in the couple’s apartment

Becky and I worked our way through Ole Miss. I worked for newspapers, and she owned a very profitable beauty shop on North Lamar before selling the business, earning her undergraduate degree in education and Master’s degree in Special Education. I was working for the Birmingham News, which at the time had wide circulation in North Mississippi. Almost every day I had a bylined story by Budgie Meek.

One night around 11 o’clock, the editor called me, woke me up and asked me, “What is this ‘Budgie’ on your stories?” and I explained that was my name. He wanted to know my real name, and I told him Edwin Ernest Meek and asked why?

Ed Meek in the couple’s apartment

“We are not going to call you Budgie anymore,” he said, to which I responded, “don’t you call me Edwin or Ernest for sure.”

“We’ll figure out something, read tomorrow’s paper,” he said

When the afternoon Birmingham News arrived in Oxford I had a front-page story that included my mug shot, and the byline reading ‘Ed Meek.’

From that time on I became Ed Meek, except for people like Bones and Greaser, Trent Lott, Carson Hughes and many other Snakes (Sigma Nu’s) and old friends from Tallahatchie County and Ole Miss.

Dr. Ed Meek is former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Relations and Marketing at the University and CEO of Oxford Publishing, a national publishing and trade show group. He is the founder of the Tupelo Furniture Market, one of the largest exhibition centers in America, Fellow of the American Council on Education and was awarded the Mississippi Governor’s Distinguished Citizen Award. He is the author or co-author of several books and currently serves as publisher of HottyToddy.Com. He and his wife, Becky, are benefactors who established the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at The University of Mississippi. Email him at edmeek1@gmail.com.