I Love You This Much

Suzanne of C.U.S.S. has named me and others for the I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH AWARD. I was delightfully surprised. I really appreciate Suzanne’s faith in me.

I’m not sure what duties are expected of but I will give it my best. Up until now I have been devoted to spreading hateful lies, rumors, and malicious accusations. But I am going to Love Everybody This Much (look! My arms are spread wide apart)

I humbly accept.

Night on the Town

Yesterday evening we went to an outdoor concert in downtown Marietta. The weather was just right with a cool breeze. The music, I think, was suppose to be Beach Music – I guess it will do, for the price we paid – somehow I thought it lacked the beat, the words in the songs were there, but not the beat.

Earlier we ate outside at Marietta Pizza and I thought Willow our dog was well behaved. Not once did she snatch the food from a little toddler or anything, and bit or snapped at no one. Of course we had to eat outside because Willow was with us, which was nice. It is on a corner and you get to see the foot traffic of people coming and going. It may be better than dining out a sidewalk café’ in Paris, especially if you are a Marietta native.

Years ago that same corner building was Atherton Drug Store, a favorite hangout for Marietta High School students. Doc Atherton was known for approaching us face to face and rudely tell us to leave we were not going to buy anything. It didn’t hurt our feelings at all, and the hour or the next day, he would shoo us away again.

Then on Halloween night, 1963, Atherton’s blew up. A gas leak. Seven people was killed and 34 were injured. But like Phoenix the building rose up out of the ashes, this time only one story high, and in time Marietta Pizza came about. It is no Atherton’s but it will do.

Willow had not eaten yet, so we walked down to the Krystal and bought two of their best hamburgers. We spared no expense. We walked up to Atherton’s Park to feed them to her. This little park behind what used to be the train depot and is now Marietta Visitor Center and the Kennesaw House. As usual young college kids were hanging out around the tables. The park is named after Red Atherton, used to be Mayor Atherton. Yes, he was Doc Atherton’s son.

Earlier that day I got an email from a person, an artist, who said he enjoyed my blog we were on the same wave length and we were the same age, 66. Same age and same wave length? Poor him.

He said he lived near Little Road and Little John Trail in east Marietta. I know the area. It reminded me of an elderly lady that used to come to the concerts on the Square in Marietta. That reminded me of the old lady with the very sweet smile that we used to see at concerts on the Square, just like the one of that night. She lived in the same area, near Little Road.

The whitehead lady with the big smile was about 75. She moved to Marietta with her parents many years ago. She got a job with Southern Bell,. Which became Bell South. She retired before it became AT&T. We used to like to come early to the concerts to make sure we got a good bench and the gray haired lady did also. And so did a Victory Cab driver who lived in Woodstock, Georgia. The cab driver and the white haired lady shared a park bench. The lady was covered with tattoos. I only saw the tattoos on her neck, arms and her ankles. All the tattoos were penises. Big erect penises. She also had a wood keychain holder shaped like a penis.

We saw her and talked to her at every concert for about 3 years, then poof! She quit coming. Never more.

I think the cab driver faded away a while after that too. He came infrequent after that, then not at all.

An old high school friend – well, our friendship went beyond high school like houseboats, cruising around, etc etc yak yak – Monty told me over email that he was going to have a cold beer waiting for me. Lately he and his wife have been renting a table and decorating it with flowers, and that sort of stuff. I wanted to break bread, or pop a beer with my old friend. And was looking over the table reserved section when I heard him holler out, “ROCK! – Hey ROCK!”

And there he was flagging me down. I returned Willow to Anna and walked over and we had a beer and Monty introduced me to his wife and friends. I am bad a t names…. I always am at a first meeting… with me, names have to be rubbed in before I get them straight. Monty kept talking mentioning Kay this and Kay that…. I thought he was talking about his sister… and how come his sister was on his mind so much? Well, I think his wife is also named Kay. I think I made a fool of myself – again.

I enjoyed talking to Monty and meeting his wife.

As always, it was a treat watching the people and where Anna and I sat was a good place. We sat near the fountain and everybody has to make a loop around it during the evening – at least once… to be seen.

Another couple that our sons were in the scouts saw us and came by and talked. He said he reads my blog from time to time and he said he didn’t realized when were scout parents that I was so much in “old Marietta” state of mind. He said he wished he had known that – until recently he was buying and selling land near Kennesaw Mountain.

After about almost one and a half hours Willow let us know she had enough noise for her sensitive ear drums, so, LEAVE NOW! Or BAD HUMAN!!!

Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson (1767-1845) postcard

This is the last life portrait of Andrew Jackson, 1845, by George Peter Alexander Healy. Old Hickory was the 7th U.S. President.

He looks like a hateful old fart doesn’t he?

He loved to race horses for high stakes and his opponents often became his enemies. If you said something about his wife being married to someone else he would probably challenge you to a duel… and for other reasons he might challenge you to a duel.

He was also instrumental in having the Cherokee and Creek Indians removed from their homelands in the east and march on “The Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma – which defied the Supreme Court’s ruling.

I’m sure he had some good qualities as well.

Yikes! It is Sykes! or How To Get Ahead

When I worked for the Postal Service in Atlanta M. Sykes was a union representative. He pretty much won most of the cases against management that he worked on. He was smart, a smooth taker, and when either a worker or a manager tried to pull a fast one, he saw through it and called them on it.

He was a black slim man that was a nice dresser. He knew the score, so to speak. He also had a wit about him I remember.

I was a data technician in the time keeping office. It was a division of the Finance Department headed by a bully of a guy, with the initials to his last name M. Over the years we watched M. bring in his relatives and give them give them jobs of management. It was plain and simple nepotism.

Chuck and I sat down and made notes on who was related to whom and how quickly they rose in the ranks. We carried our notes to M. Sykes.

He carefully went over our notes as we verbally told him and he made little side notes along side our notes when asking more detailed questions.

He said he was going to see M. tomorrow and back him up against the wall with this.

Hot dog! Finally something was going to be done about the blunt nepotism in the fiancé office.

We didn’t see M. Sykes the next day, so we didn’t know what happened. We reported at midnight and I think Sykes work day began at 10:30pm.

The following night he wasn’t there again and we asked his supervisor where was he. He told us he had been reassigned. I quickly thought of what must have happened and unfortunately I was right.

At 8:00am smartly dressed Sykes, in his 3 piece suit,reported to work as a new manager in finance. He avoided us ever-since.

Greed wins every time.

John F. Kennedy Space Center postcard

This card was bought in the 70s at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I would think things have changed since then. For one thing, they found out Columbus was wrong after all, the world is flat.

Daniel Webster & Nancy Jane Garrett Petty

The above picture is of my great grandparents, on my mother's side, Daniel Webster Petty (1843-1913) and Nancy Jane Garrett (1850-1929). Daniel was born North Carolina, probably McDowell County, but spent his youth in the Fannin County, Georgia, where his wife was born. And that is where they married.

December 31, 1862 - Daniel Enlisted in the Confederate Army Co B, 65th Regiment, Ga. Infantry. Daniel spent a good bit of time sick in the hospital and finally became a member of the medical corp. There, he contacted piles, which he suffered with the rest of his life.

Daniel's unit saw action in Mobile, Alabama, and several battles that his unit had in common with my great grandfather William A. Trammell (then - now Hunter) unit NC 39TH Infantry, Co. I. And William spent some time in hospital care too. I wonder if they ran into each other - maybe talked to each other, each not knowing their genes would meet about 70 some-odd years later. It is a small world and even smaller then.

In 1890, at age 46, Daniel and his family moved to Murray County, Georgia. He had several siblings who already moved there.

Yuma, Arizona, Marine Air Station postcard

In 1967 my Navy Reserves unit went to the Marine Air Station at Yuma, Arizona. When I first stepped off the plane I was struck in the face with a blast of dry heat, not like the high humid heat we get in Georgia.

The barracks were much better than the one I stayed in at HU-4 in New Jersey. They were actual rooms, not cubes formed by lockers. There were two bunks per room, and you shared the bathroom (oops - I meant "head" with a connecting room, so, essentially up to four people had to fight over the same water hole, but I never had to wait on anybody or anybody ever had to wait on me.

We were there for two weeks. One night a bunch of us crossed over into Mexico to San Luis. What a money grabbing town! The standard law there is that you if touch merchandise you are obligated to buy it. All through the central downtown area people were forcing leather goods, shiny silver knives, bull whips, shirts, and all kind of stuff in your face. I felt like an armless man trying to twist and turn my way through the people.

Most of the nights I went to the E.M. Club and had a couple of beers and that was about it.

Work-wise I typed any letters the Commanding Officer needed typing and walked about a mile to pick up the mail every day. I was an enjoyable interesting walk. It was through the desert and I tried to go a different path every time, just so I would have not missed anything - I saw some strange looking birds and bugs, lizards, but no rattle snakes and I got to daydream too - or call it solitude.

The weekend I rode with a helicopter crew to a military base near Los Angeles. Their base was just across the highway from Disney Land. I hitchhiked into downtown L.A. and ran into my immediate boss, Chief Sprung.

Chief Sprung insisted we share a room in a hotel and the next morning he called an old friend of his who made it big with technical stuff with the Disney Studios. He came and picked us up and we spent the rest of the weekend with him. Because Sprung and his friend had a lot to talk about, old times and such, his graceful wife kept me entertained – let me clarify that, she was a good conversationist, we talked for hours.

They lived in Hollywood Hills, next door to Steve McQueen. She took me out to the fence and introduced me to Steve’s two huge growling dogs, who, once they were introduced, acted very friendly.

We took the bus back to Yuma.

While we were there, one of our pilots and his plane disappeared in the mountains while training. They found him and the plane, or what was left. It dampened the spirit for the rest of the time there, which were a few more days.

Pictures Taken by a Nut

I am still sorting out my hobby- mess in the basement, wherever I have a couple of hours. Yesterday I came across some photo prints I took at least 30 years or more ago. I thought I would get some more mileage out of them.

The first pictures are Lillian Carter, Jimmy Carter’s mother and Billy Carter, Jimmy’s brother. Shortly after Carter was elected in 1976 we drove down to Plains, Georgia, to check things out.

“Ms Lillian” had a table set up at the train depot where she would come to certain times and sign things for tourists. We saw a tourist try to shake her hand and she said something to the effect, “Don’t touch me!”. That made sound rude, but hundred of people probably wanted to shake her hand everyday, so she was just being honestly frank. Chances are some of them had germs on their hands.



I saw Billy leave the Billy Carter Service Station in his vehicle and make sort of a u-turn that carried him to the Carter Peanut Office just about a half block away. I took his picture several times. He glared at me and I remember he shot me a bird – although I am still looking for that picture. Billy and his mother are dead now.



Larry McDonald was the very conservative “communist behind every tree” John Birch Society congressman. This picture was taken during a 4th of July parade. I got to take his picture at two different 4th of July parades before he got shot out of the air by communists.
Both of the times I took his picture in the parades he always held up the parade to give me the opportunity to take a good one. I had a big 200MM long barrel telephoto lens and he must have thought I was part of the press.
From Wikipedia:
Lawrence Patton McDonald (April 1, 1935 – September 1, 1983) was an American statesman and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the seventh congressional district of Georgia as a Democrat. He was a passenger onboard Korean Air Flight 007 shot down by Soviet interceptors and presumed dead. He was a cousin of General George S. Patton [1].
A Conservative Democrat, he was active in numerous civil organizations and maintained a conservative voting record in Congress. He was known for his staunch opposition to communism and believed in long standing covert efforts by powerful US groups to bring about a socialist world government.



My father-in-law had a few chickens to roam free-range his land for many years. For this mother and baby chick it is sundown and roosting time.




A frog is a frog, unless you know something about them. So, in my case, it is just a frog that was very still when it posed for me.

Coca-Cola sign postcard - this time with a car

On the back:

“From the Archives of the Coca-Cola Company

Drive Refreshed
Original painting by Gil Elvgren, 1950

This ad, one of a series that appeared in magazine and billboards during the 1950s, reflected the new preoccupation with the automobile.”

It also reminds me of yesterday when I saw my old friend tooting along in his 40 coup Chevy.

Will Elder Predicted the Future in His Art

Yessiree! How would Will Elder know that one day he would die? He drew his own grave in MAD comic #5 in the OUTER SANCTUM he illustrated. His grave, above, was taken from a larger picture of the intro page - click on the below picturelook at all the details that Will was famous for, or his signature, so to speak:

Synchronicity

Yesterday an old high school friend. PR, called me and told me he was redoing a ’40 Chevy coup. He told me he needed a cigarette lighter to plug in the dash and went shopping on ebay and found one for a reasonable price (I forgot what is considered reasonable). He bid and the price went up. Someone else was bidding. The cigarette lighter ended up being pretty expensive and even more so because he never smoked in his life – but he needed it to complete his dash.

After that he found ebay interesting and surfed around it some. He owns an old sign that is the original sign for a country store west of Marietta that was well known when we were growing up. Just for the heck of it he had planned to put the original up on ebay and see how the bidding process would go. But first, he wanted a little research so he googled the name of the store and my blog came up. I did an posting on that store, at least once, maybe twice.

That is why he called me. We talked a while, filled each other in on some news of people we knew while growing up. We do that every time we talk. He wanted to know if I had ever written on my blog about our teacher Nell, which I have.

In an email I sent him a link to the month which is March 2006, and told him to scroll down to find it.

I could have gave him a direct link to the Nell episode, but I wanted him to scroll down and come across a picture of his old antique car that he refurbished last year About a year ago he came by and shown me the old Model T that he remodeled, and I posted it then.

So, I assume he saw the picture shiny old antique car and also the Nell the teacher article.

A little later in the day I was driving to the grocery store and I noticed a very pretty shiny red or maroon antique coupe in front of me. Its license plates was the name of my friend’s wife… and it is an unusual name, you don’t hear that name every day. It just about had to be PR with that car with the expensive cigarette lighter.

I tooted my horn and at each stop sign I tooted it again and he finally he pulled over. We talked and said how coincidental we run into each other today, the same day he came across my blog. His wife was laughing.

When I got home I told Anna and told her of running into my friend and she told me I had dark chocolate on the corners of my mouth. Now I know why his wife was laughing.

Riveting & Socializing in the Shipyard postcard

This is a Coca-Cola postcard printed in 1944. It looks like a take on Rosie the Riveter at the shipyard.

This reminds of Helen Dortch Longstreet.* Have you hear of General Longstreet’s wife at Bell Bomber during the WWII? Helen was born in 1863 and in time married Confederate General James Longstreet. Of course by the time of World War II the general had passed on. At age 80, in 1943, Helen took riveting training and went to work for Bell Bomber here in Marietta. She didn’t do much riveting but did do a lot of socializing. If a supervisor spoke to her about her lack of productivity she didn’t hesitate to call one of her many connections, which included President FDR – then the supervisor would find that he was the one in hot water.

She did what she damn well pleased. I think management finally created a job for her as moral director or something.

*From the book Cobb County, Georgia and the Origins of the Suburban South, a Twentieth Century History by Thomas Allen Scott, pp167-68.

Memorial Day

Today is the day to the remember people who gave their lives for our country. They died so that you and I can enjoy Freedom and Liberty.

In my life time I have had at least eight uncles and four cousins to into the service and one to not make it back:


Robert Gerald “Jerry” Hunter (1941 – 1966). Jerry was a F-105 pilot shot down in Viet Nam. Jerry graduated top of his class in Douglasville, Georgia, and also graduated with honors at Citadel College in Charleston. He was freshly married to Laural Ann Milby. Hunter Park in Douglasville is named in his memory.

Will Elder 's Background Stuff

The late Will Elder, in his art for MAD and other humor publications or stories was known for the many humorous background details that had hardly anything to do with the story. A good example is this, which were these panels which were originally in HELP! Magazine as the story GOODMAN MEETS T*RZ*N and reprinted in a book named GOODMAN BEAVER.


The GOODMAN BEAVER book is over sized, there fore a whole page is bigger than the scanner’s plate, so I had to focus on the one little background action I thought was funny.

The illustrations are lined up in order. First zoom in on the little monkey looking up the guy’s cone.

And, as most of the time, you will need to click on the picture to enlarge it, to get the most of it.

“What Hath God Wrought?”

On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message (“What Hath God Wrought?”) to Alfred Vail at a train station in Baltimore. - from today's page of History Channel Page-a-day Calendar.

On the other hand, Alfred Vail, not knowing Morse Code to respond, emailed him back saying it came in just fine.

Musk

Here are two portraits using auto and tropical looking foliage as props and backdrops. One is my great uncle Will Tyson solo and the other is Anna’s great great Jones uncles.

The Jones men and James man lived in the Alpharetta- Cumming-Milton area. Will Tyson lived in the Woodstock area. Did they go to the same portrait studio?

Will married in 1926 and I don’t have all the marriage dates of the Jones men (L. James was their first cousin), but two of them married in 1906.

Were these prop-cars were available by or before 1906?

I wonder if they were all single when the two pictures were made. They might have wanted the image of being modern single playboys on the prowl.

This reminds me of my little red 2 seat Mark II Triumph I bought in 1965 when I got out of the Navy; sort of like a male peacock spreading his feathers.

Castillo de San Marcos, St Augustine, Fl postcard

On the back it says:
"Begun in 1672 and built intermittently for 25 years. It has never been successfully assaulted, but has served as as a haven for city residents during St. Augustine's long and color history. Photo by David Noble."

This post card must have been made before we assaulted it about 1989. We very cleverly disguised ourselves as tourists and slipped on the compound. Wait! I have proof this card was made before we arrived. I bought the card at the gift shop!

You should have seen me, with a dagger clinched in my teeth, I swung on some kind of line down from the sentry walk in a swashbuckling way, then did not have enough momentum to swing to the sentry walk on the other side, so, I had to go back and forth and back and forth until the line slowed down so I could drop off it and run to the parking log before they caught me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!

first Birth-second.

Atlanta at Night postcard

I worked in Atlanta from midnight until 8:30 am a the Postal Federal Annex for about ten years.

It must be about 1980 at 11:30pm because look! There I am, running from one dark shadow to the next making my way to the Federal Annex. Look! I leaped out of the shadow that time! I heard a grunt in the dark.

Balls 2

Outspoken Sign at Mulligans, in Marietta, that is, well, outspoken.... the tee-shirts that owner Mike Norman was selling there caused an uproar too.

Postman and Little postman postcard

This is another fact that investigative reporting has uncovered. Being a retired Postal Employee I have known this for years, but now that it has been uncovered, I guess I am no longer bound to honor the secret I swore to keep.

And the secret is/was that every postman has a little person in his mailbag to sort the mail and other duties as the situations demand, such as hand the postal carrier a bottle of water, cap screwed off; and when a dog becomes too aggressive, reach out of the satchel and give the dog a quick hard slap or grab him by the tail… every time they are surprised and run away whimpering.

A Tangled Web.

Our neighbor was the late Harold Killian (1919-2002). He died the day I was in the hospital with my heart attack. Harold was my 3rd cousin, once removed on my mother’s side. Our first common ancestors were William and Mary Poly Giles Killian.

Harold’s relationship comes in through my father’s side too. My great grandfather William A. Hunter (Trammell)’s only daughter was Arminda Jane "Nin" Hunter. She married Lewis Poor, and their daughter Lillian Poor married Charles Clifford Killian. Harold and Charlie Killian were first cousins, once removed. Through the Hunter line, he would is not related, just related to in-law Charlie Killian.

Still on the Hunter side, I have an aunt, Ruby. She is the widow of my uncle Jack.

Anna’s uncle by marriage is Lamar. Lamar is Ruby’s nephew.

Wait. I am not finish.

Back to the next door Killian family: Harold’s widow told me that that a few days ago their granddaughter’s husband’s grandmother’s sister died, and in the obituary was listed Ruby as a surviving sister.

Chart that!

Urban Action

Another lively illustration by the late Will Elder. Look at the water force, the expressions... pure art.

St Augustine, Fl Ponce de Leon - Flagler postcard

This giant complex was built by Henry Flagler in 1888 to be the Ponce De Leon Hotel. If I read right, it metamorphosed itself to be the Flagler College, a liberal arts or visa versa, it did just the opposite, first it was Flagler College then the Ponce De Leon Hotel,

I don’t see any cars on either of the two cards, so both were probably taken near 1900, give or take a couple of years.

Sam Lance and his son John Henry Lance

This is the Rev. John Henry Lance (1834-1888). He was the son of Samuel Riley and Rebecca Hunter Lance. Rebecca was the daughter of my ancestor John Hunter, which makes us first cousins, 3 times removed. He was beheaded, kinda, for preaching against moonshine.

His family, parents and siblings seemed to have kept a hot trail moving back and forth between Union County, Georgia, and Clay County, North Carolina, which was not far away at all.

This paragraph might explain how his father, Samuel R. Lance, came to Union County, to begin with.

A friend of his (Samuel R. Lance), whose name has long since been forgotten, was to have a duel with a fellow from Union County, and as fate would have it he became sick, not being able to fill the appointed date. Dueling custom has it that if you are sick you have the right to name a replacement, so Samuel Lance, being noted as a fighting man, was chosen to fight in his stead. He came to Union County by request, to uphold the honor of a friend, fought the duel and won, leaving his adversary, against whom he had no malice, lying motionless up the ground.

He came to Union County in the Spring of 1839. He returned to Buncombe County and told his brothers and moved his family one year later.
- From BLOOD MOUNTAIN COVENANT, A SON'S REVENGE pp7-8, by Charles E. Hill

Samuel R. Lance, as mentioned above, was married to Rebecca Hunter, daughter of John Hunter, who also moved to Union County about that time. I thought it might have been a few years earlier, but maybe not. What I am wondering, who came first to Union County and the other followed, Samuel R. Lance or John Hunter?

Getting back to Samuel’s son: Rev John Henry Lance, who used to be wild himself preached against the making of moon shine. On his way walking to church one Sunday morning to preach, at a creek he came upon some that did not appreciate his sermons on moonshine and they had words, which led to violence, which Rev. John Henry Lance neck was cut so deeply his head only hung by the skin.

The book BLOOD MOUNTAIN COVENANT, A SON'S REVENGE tells about it and his sons’ seeking revenge. The author, Charles E. Hill, a retired druggist, is married to one of Reverend John Henry Lance’s descendants. He did a lot of research. It is a good book, based on facts. The only problem I have with it that it is hard to figure out where the facts end Mr. Hill’s elaborations kick in, or is it all fact, quote by quote?


Old Salem Church Cemetery, Union County, Georgia

Brumby Hall of Marietta postcard

This postcard fits right in with this morning’s post. It is the only souvenir we came back with, besides a bunch of brochures.

We first planned to go to Brumby Hall first. We knew by what Anna pulled off the Cobb Preservation’s website to park next door in the parking lot of the Marietta Center ran by Hilton. Near the entrance to enter the Brumby grounds there were only a couple of cars.

We walked the beautiful walk to the house. I went inside and the only person was a very polite maid in a uniform dusting and vacuuming. She didn’t know anything about people coming on a tour today, but did look around for something to give me, which she gave me this card.

Then we read the printout more closely and saw that the hours of all the Cobb Houses tours today started at 1:00pm. I looked at my watch and it was almost 12:00 noon.

Well, early again!

We went to lunch and went on to the Manning house first.

The back of the card says:

“Brumby Hall and Gardens,
500 Powder Springs St.

built in 1851 by Col. Arnoldus Vanderhorst Brumby, founder and first superintendent of the Georgia Military Institute, which was destroyed during occupation of Marietta in 1864. The Greek Revival house is furnished with period antiques by the Friends of Brumby Hall. Located on the grounds of the Marietta Conference Center and Resort. It is open to the public for tours, receptions, weddings, and other events.

Photo by George A. Clark”

Cobb Historic Houses – Another Sightseeing Tour

Sunday was another tour, this time almost in our back yard. The Cobb Preservation Foundation had about 8 or 9 older houses and institutions (homes, a church, a school, and a pavilion opened with docents on hand, ready to give you a tour.

Time only allowed us to visit four houses but the docents at each one shared some very valuable information.



First we went to the Smith-Manning House, we always thought of as the Manning house. It is probably the 4th or 5th oldest house in Cobb County, and maybe the 2nd or 3rd oldest in Marietta. In was built in 1838, which is only 4 years after Marietta was incorporated. The docent, the son of Johnny, that I went to school with, told us the house was built in a format the a lot of houses in Charleston was built in – to protect from the elements he told us. His mother Jill, also a classmate, was there, she said, "Isn't he good?" He was.

This barn – garage looking thing (top picture) was built in 1939. Anna’s father worked in the CCC then and remembered gathering rocks for something at Judge Manning’s farm. This must be it.

Also, my 86 year old neighbor said he used to play out on the Manning property when it was "Manning Mines" That is news to me they were mines there.



The second house was the Lawrence House. Which is a nice big old empty house over looking streets cut for a new subdivision which was probably once part of this property.




The house is empty except there are a few antiques here and thee and notice the screen by the window. It has hinges.



Brumby Hall and Gardens is a beautiful place. In 1851, Col Arnoldus Vanderhorst Brumby had it built. He was the head of Georgia Military Academy (GMA), which as next door, which later became the Marietta Country Club, and which now is the Marietta Conference Center, which is owned by the City of Marietta and leased by the Hilton Hotel Corporation.
In 1864 when Sherman came to Marietta he burned the court house and other prominent buildings. He also burned the buildings of the Georgia Military Academy but spared Colonel Brumby’s Hall? Why? It is believed he did not torch the hall because he and the Colonel were classmates at West Point.

Connections make the world go around.

The very knowledgeable docent there gave us an excellent tour. There are some very nice portraits and furniture there. While we were there, the back door opened and shut several times, and so did the next door, which was a sun room. I wondered if there had been any ghost reports there.

The house is on the Marietta Conference Grounds, thus, Hilton is responsible for keeping it clean – but don’t expect to drop by and see Paris Hilton running a buffer over the beautiful hardwood floors or anything.

The last building on our tour was about 8 miles or so out of town at the Chaney House. I took pictures a few years ago at this house, which I prefer. Then it was in the middle of an opened meadow. Now it is in the middle of several close big buildings which is an assistant living compound.

When I took this picture I didn't know I was standing in the middle of the Tennessee-Georgia-Florida Highway, which was the highway when the only mode of transportation was horses. But I learned that this day.

In the Civil War this was the headquarters of General Schofield’s (Union) headquarters..

The house was empty, as all but the Brumby Hall were. There, along with the docent was a short white-haired man I have seen at Marietta concerts and he was on a video of helping remake the Trammell House which I took special interest in, because the Trammells are relatives. I asked him didn't he help with the Trammell house. Indeed he did. He was a very nice guy and his wife was there also. I picked up that his said that they live on South Avenue near Waterman Street. I said, "Hey, that was right in the center of my paper route!"

Small world!

Atlanta: Driving Down Peachtree Street

Also on our trip to Atlanta Friday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to ride down Peachtree Street. It has been years since we have been on Peachtree south of the Fox.

I do know the official lines, but to me, once you go by Ponce de Leon Avenue and the Georgian Terrace on the left, and The Fox Theater and North Avenue on the right you are just about downtown – you are entering the deep cement canyon… or “downtown” as locals call it.

Anna manned the camera and I manned the steering wheel and drove. We left the Botanical Gardens in Piedmont Park and went up 14th Street and turned left on Peachtree Street.

Years ago, when we frequented this area a lot this area was infested with painted Love Children making love not war. Now it is infested with well dressed yuppies hustling and bustling making money.

On with the drive (it would add to it, if you play classical music – we did).
















If you enlarge this picture and squint your eyes you might can read that the name of the eatery is Gladys Knights Chicken & Waffles. We ate there once.


This is the Shakespeare Tavern or Playhouse, which, of course, has plays by WS. The place is believed to be haunted.






Now, we are really downtown. See all the broken out windows from the tornado that came through here a couple of months ago.








The Famous Coke Sign is here, it was up a couple of blocks years ago.


Over there hanging out in the crowd in Woodruff Park is the Phoenix. No, not the same Phoenix that is in Days Of Our Lives, but a statue of the Phoenix who rose from the ashes - which Atlanta thought itself was after Sherman left leaving the town in ashes. The Phoenix moved to. It used to be about five west, in the center of the street, next to the Federal Annex Postal building, where I worked.


CNN Building which is not on Peachtree Street but Marietta Street.

The Bus Stops Here.