Me Roofing

 While sorting pictures I came across this picture. The memory of me putting on my own roof by myself still make my fingers on my left hand tingle. I had to press down with my left hand I had to hold the blade with my right hand and cut the tabs. My left hand fingers tingled and hurt for years afterwards.

But wait! I s putting a new roof solo is not what this is about. It is about my hat. I noticed in the picture I was wearing my gray striped railroad hat.

Months before when the picture taken we went to Chattanooga to the Railroad Museum. We bought our sons the gray stripped railroad worker type of hats. We bought them hats. We didn't buy me a hat.

After thinking about it I decided I wanted a hat like that too. I saw them for sale at Goldstein's Department Store, which at that time was where McClellan's was, and now it is a restaurant. I called Goldstein's and Mr. Goldstein answered the phone. I described the kind of hat I wanted and he said that he had them. I asked how much and he said, $3.99.

I worked at night getting off at 8:30am. When I got off one morning I drove to downtown Marietta, walked into Goldstein's and walked to the work hats and caps and picked up the railroad hat I wanted. Mrs. Goldstein followed me, stood back until I made my choice. There were no price stickers on any of the merchandise. I asked her how much is it (Herbert had already told me on the phone $3.99). She held the hat up and hollered to Mr. Goldstein about 20 or 25 feet away.

She said, "Mister Goldstein, how much are these hats?"

He didn't look at the hat, but looked at me. He said, $2.99.

I already knew he had a reputation for looking at the person, not the product when telling the price.

I didn't know if I should feel lucky I saved a dollar or insulted because that is all he thought I would pay.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! PANIC' Comicbook's SANTA's Visit

 This had been posted on CHICKEN-FAT more than any thing else, and always during this time of the year. It was originally published in PANIC Comicbook, which is a sister satirical magazine to MAD Comicbook.  It was done by my cartoonist Will Elder.  And it was banned in Boston, really.

Me Faking a Wreck in Carmel, NY

 

If you were speeding down this road in Carmel, NY, you might have sped by turned over car with a human body on the ground, probably flung out the back window.

Then you might pull over, run out and see what happened and help the poor soul, if he is still alive.

Then I would jump up and apologize and say I was just posing for a picture with the car, being the ham that I am.

That wrecked turned over car was, I think, on its side for at least two years that we Navy buds would see every time we visited my uncle Roy who lived on the top of the hill right beside the car.

"Dear" and Sexist? Ooo La La!

 

At a bank yesterday I overheard a bullish man say to a teller. “Is Mable** here?”

He went on to say, “I need to know when n Mable* is off so I can come here on those days”.

Then after his transaction he said, “Thank you Dearr”

“Dear”  Sexist?

*Mable not real name.

Grocery Carts for the Homeless

 

We find ourselves in Cobb County’s Town Center area a lot..  Maybe 2 or 3 times weekly.  Mostly we are cutting through on Barrett Parkway.

On Barrett Parkway U.S. Highway I 75 is there with entrance and exit ramps  to and from Barrett Parkway.  

I noticed on the two entrance ramps (North and South) there are almost always unclaimed grocery shopping carts.

I have seen many homeless people push around grocery carts with their belongings in them.  That way, their stuff in right in front of them, they can keep their eye on all their belongings.

So, why empty carts at the beginning of entrance ramps?

I think when the homeless decided to move on and would have to leave his cart vehicle there.  He/she would never get picked up hitchhiking on the expressway if they kept their grocery carts.

Yesterday, near a ramp entrance  was a row of maybe 9 or 10 carts, of different colors, like red Target, metallic for Krogers, and blue ones too.

I think a good Samaritan collected them all up   and hopefully then put at the two incoming ramps for newcomers..... like saying WELCOME!

Allatoona Pass Civill War Sight Now Below Water

Allatoona Pass is a stone’s throw of Allatoona Landing at Lake Allatoona. Back on Octobr 5, 1864, it hosted a very bloody battle in the Civil War. 5000 men were involved. There was 30% casualties.. Months before in June was the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, here in Marietta, as a matter of fact, by reflectors the two high points of each communicated. My great great grandfather William Trammell/Huntter’s unit 39th North Carolina Infantry, Company I was there. Willliam wasn’t. He was in a private residence in Woodstock, Georgia, recuperating from a shot in the knee he received on Kennesaw Mountain.

Dating Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACK

 Anna pointed out that the latest AARP Magazine has a section about Bob Dylan. I started reading it. It appears to be a collections of short notes and short articles about Bob Dylan. One short is about the song BLOOD ON THE TRACKS and it has 1993as a header.

1993?

Wait! That is not when it first came out.

How I know:

In the morning, Spring 1975 I was driving home from the Atlanta Post Office. I worked the night shift and otf at 8:30 am. About 9 am in Mapleton I was on Gordon Road crossing Bankhead Highway under a green light in my Grimlin and WHAM! A pickup truck ran the red light and t-Boned me on the driver’s side.

The force of the collision caved in my driver’s door and knocked me on the other seat. The Grimllin landed upside down. The guy that hit me went through his pickup’s windshield which probably killed him instantly.

I don’t think seat belts were the law then. The driver’s side was crushed in. Before it was crushed in it knocked me on the other side. On the other hand, the driver of the pickup truck went through the windshield, which killed him. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt either. In the same wreck there is an argument for and against seatbelts.

I landed upside down in a McDonald’s parking lot. I remember when my car stopped bouncing and skidding Bob Dylan’s BLOOD ON THE TRACKS was playing on the radio.

People came running out of McDonald’s to see if they could help and I’m sure to gawk. I don’t know if they tried to move me or what.

I do remember, hanging upside down managing to get my Marboro pack out and lit up a cigarette. Just as I exhaled one time the cigarette was jerked out of my mouth by an ambulance driver.

The pickupr driver was sick and was driving to the drugstore to pickup his medicine. They believed he blacked out.

They called my wife Anna at work and she dropped everything and came to the ER at Cobb General on Austell Road.

She was pregnant with our first born, who was born October the 1sr, 1975.

After they gave me pain pills and got the broken glass out of my hair Anna had to go back to work. She called her mother to come and pick me up to carry me home.

Then, I was sitting in the waiting room in a wheelchair waiting on my mother-in-law to pick me up when a tall young man came into the waiting room and sat down. Then an older lady came in and sat down. The older lady looked around and saw me sitting and asked me what happened and I told her and told her I was waiting for someone to pick me up. Then she walked around the waiting room and saw the tall young man sitting, The older woman asked the young man was he there to pick me (pointing at m) up? He looked at me and said no. Then she explained her reasoning why she thought I might be the one he was looking for.

Then she sat down. After several minutes the tall young man got up and wandered around and walked behind her and started bending over like he pecking her head. He made faces fat the back of her head, gestures, and pecking, sort of. Being high on pain medicine from the wreck I got the giggles.

And that is why BLOOD ON THE TRACKS was not in 1993. Actually, I Googled it today and it was released early in 1975.

All reactions:

4Russell Engelhardt, Bradley K. Martin and 2 others

4 comments

Share

Peter Bagge Meets Harvey Kurtzman