Blowing Rock, NC postcard

One Fall we went to Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It was a very scenic trip.

While in the area we also went to Grandfather Mountain. I was interested in seeing the whole area, which covers Boone and Burke Counties, NC. I have been in those counties before but not since I became interested in genealogy. For some reason I have yet figured out, I like to walk over the terrain of where my ancestors walked. It probably means I am nutty as I can be.

We spent a good while on Blowing Rock, which the tourist town is named. Indians said if you throw something off the big rock it just might come back up to you. I think they probably used more mystic terms.

I think I know why things might come back. The rock named Blowing Rock in on a high mountain chain ridge. It also at the inside point where two ridges from different directions meet, forming a V. Blowing Rock is inside the V, behind the point.

So you have wind coming from the west that gets corralled in the V, like in a funnel

And when it reaches the inverted point it cannot bounce back because the wind is still blowing behind it and the only way its force can go is up.

Years ago when my friend Sam was going to Georgia Tech once he and I went to Allatoona Dam to try something. Sam, with his study of aviation and physics was pretty certain if you sailed a paper airplane off the top of the dam the air draft would carry it up and keep it up. We tried it and it worked. A little notebook paper folded airplane stayed airborne for a very long time... well, long enough for us to lose interest... remember, I have a short attention span... so, maybe we left... it might still be there, about 30 to 50 feet over the dam lazily swooping up and down with the air currents.

Boy, were we smart!!

Eddie Sullivan Died This Weekend

My oldest sister called me yesterday and told me our old childhood playmate Eddie Sullivan had died in a hospital in Ellijay, Georgia.

Eddie and his wife apparently moved to Ellijay when they retired and were thinking of moving back to Marietta. He died of pneumonia.

Eddie and his family lived a few doors from us in the Clay Homes Project.

Eddie was 72, according to the on-line obituary I read. I thought he was a few years younger than that. My sister was told by his relative he died Saturday, the on-line obituary said he died Sunday.

Mr. Sullivan had a wood flatbed trailer that he used everyday in his work.. He and his family manned and supplied the concession stands at Larry Bell Park, and they needed that trailer to haul cases of drinks and snacks around. I don’t think they handled Coke products – I seem to remember they had the kind of orange drinks in brown bottles, and maybe RC Cola.

The trailer also served as to haul of picnic supplies to our annual picnic.

On one our annual birthday picnics we went to Sweet water Creek down in southwest Cobb County, or eastern Douglas County. A bridge went over the creek and beside the bridge was a road that went into the wide creek and came out on the other side.

I was about 5 years old. The old dirt road going into the water served as sort of a beach. I waded out in the water and it was fine. I took another step and WHOOSH! I stepped into a drop off and an undercurrent drug me away and under water. I could only see dark water.

Eddie, his older brother Dickie, and Daddy jumped in and pulled me out. Wow. I always felt grateful to Daddy and the Sullivan boys.

In 2006 and 2007 at the Bell Gang Reunion I ran into Eddie and we talked. He seemed the same as he always has been, quiet and very nice. That is where I took the above picture.

Negative Scanning Gadget

I am slowly going through my thousands of negatives, scanning them and digitizing them and throwing away the negatives... the negatives are just taking up too many boxes. Now, I will boxes of CDs taking up too much space.

Doing this must be good for my brain, I have had several memory jolts of pictures I have long forgotten about.

Above is a picture of Kennesaw Mountain with a couple of churches in the foreground in downtown Marietta. During the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, about 144 years and 15 days ago people in Marietta said the war "sounded like popcorn popping."

This is the Liberty Bell and its crack in front of Independence Hall on one 4th of July when we vacationed in Philadelphia. Some people will look at this and say "The Forever Stamp!"




This is our son Adam in Philadelphia on that same visit at a little park that if I remember correctly Benjamin Franklin is buried in, very near the Philadelphia Mint. Here Adam is playing his harmonica he brought along. If he had only brought along a hat to put on the ground in front of him and also maybe I could dance to attract a crowd.



This is our Rocky, probably his freshman year at UGA.

UGA VI IS DEAD

UGA VI is dead. He died of a congestive heart failure in Savannah, his home town.

How will we morn? Will the University of Georgia fly their flag at half-mast? Will the president declare an official day of mourning and suspend classes for a day? Will that extend to dedicated UGA alumni? Can they call in Monday.... do they wear black with a red armband?

There will be many details for them to work out.... so, little time.

Burial will be Monday in Sanford Stadium in Athens.

I don't know, but I bet that one of UGA VI's off-springs is on the side-lines and ready to run in.... but first let him hice his leg and urinate on the not-home goal-post.

As UGA would have said, "Arf"

Big Band and Big Chickens

note - click any of the pictures to enlarge. And also note, the picture above of the old Cobb Cobb County Courthouse. If you stand and look at it, in the same place you are standing, if you stood in the same spot say 115 years ago, you would see the same scene, in person. An elderly gentleman with a yankee accent and I figured that out... then, on the other side of the plastic Big Chicken Statue is the Lost Mountain Store. He asked, "Now, does that mean that store is used to be on that corner?" (only native Cobb Countians over 30 years old would get that. Lost Mountain Store is almost ten miles west of that point)

______________________________________________________________


We went to a concert on the Square last night. They had a band that played “big band” type of music. It was a nice change of scenery, or change of hearing. They played mellow type of crooning music with some lively swinging 40-ish music. There music was very relaxing and enjoyable. The crowd seemed more relaxed too.

Willow and I went over to reserved tables section to see my old friend M.C. This year he and his wife have been reserving a table right up front. He is a d.j. at heart and loves music... really, he is a d.j. at heart, he has part time dj business. He was there and had a cooler of beer. I only had one…. Last month on concert night I had another one of his beers…. My freeloading is getting to be habit.

Willow and I also wandered around and took some pictures, as you can see above and below. There seems to be a Big Chicken theme for Art in the Park, which is kind of unique – if you like plastic art. That is the above pictures.

When I sat back down with Anna I thought back when we were in high school one time on the 4-Lane at Clay Street (or Cobb Parkway South and South Marietta Parkway to the new people in Marietta) a car full of teenagers rode by and one of them shot us the finger. I don’t remember how, but we immediately identified them as Sprayberry High School Students, and I think they just as quick identified us as Marietta High School students. It might have been the SHS AND MHS jackets that was often worn.

So, somebody in the SHS car shot us a bird. To show them that we were not afraid of them, MC did a u-turn and got in hot pursuit of the car. At a red-light some cars were already stopped, so they could not run the red-light, which I think they would have if they could. We got behind them and jump out of MC’s car and we rushed over to their car and dared them to come out. They sat there with the car doors locked and looked straight ahead.

Boy, we looking mean, shaking the car, daring them to just come on out… there were four of them and two of us… we were brave weren’t we?

The light changed and they drove off, leaving us standing there. WHEW! I felt relieved.

Thank God they did not open those car doors. I probably would have screamed.

The pictures below are of the block I did on my blog about the stores across the street from the court house, such as Jimmy The Greek, NY Deli, C&M Army-Navy Store, so on, as the building looks today. The day I wrote about that block I did not have suitable pictures, so here I am, days late, and dollars short.

Duck!

The Supreme Court has ruled that everybody has the right to own a gun. The way it reads, I thought everybody has a right to own a gun to maintain a militia. Oh well, I'm wrong again.

All you innocent bystanders, don't feel like you got the short end of the deal. You have the right to own a bullet proof vest.

John F. Kennedy Space Center postcard

I remember touring this Lakehurst, NJ-hangar-like building twice. Once BK and once AK. Each time the guide explained how the giant rocket came in the giant doors on something similar to RR tracks, and they did the final touches to it, then it would leave, also by rail, to the launch site at a very slow speed. I forgot what speed, but something very slow.

I wonder if the tour guide remembered me nodding my head like I understood what he was talking about…. And, if so, why did I come back for the same thing?

On the back it says:

"NASA Apollo Saturn V, 500 F. facility vehicle enroute from NASA'S vehicle assembly building to launch complex 39A."

Noonday Baptist Church Cemetery, Marietta, Ga

I thought I had already done a post on Noonday Baptist Church Cemetery, just north of Marietta. But this past weekend I tried to look it up to link for a fellow family researcher and it was not there.

Boy, do I need a system.

My wife Anna grew up in Noonday Baptist Church, and so did her father, and so did his father. Some of the people buried in their graveyard are her relatives and some others were relatives and friends of mine, or children of friends.

At the top is Carol Joe Clayton – I have mentioned him several times. He was the one that had a wreck on one of the two covered bridges in Cobb County and was killed. We used to live next door to Carol Joe and his family. I was about a year old than Carol Joe.




Clyde and Ernest Clayton are Carol Joe’s parents. Cyde was the mother.







George Ann and Maggie Lance are descended from my g-g-g grandfather John Hunter.
The below is a description of the people buried in this plot by Louise a Hunter-Lance cousin, in her own words:
Maggie Lance that is buried with the baby Dorothy is Charles Wesley " Charlie" Lance's wife. He was married three times. She is Maggie Crane Lance. And George Ann is daughter to Samuel Riley and Rebecca Hunter. She is a twin to Josephine that died young. George Ann and Louisa mostly raised Charlie Lance after his mother, Tennessee, died during his birth in 1890.





The above are Anna’s progenitors.



Anna’s brother James.



Although one of Anna’s late brother is named Julian, this Julian is her cousin. He drowned in the Atlantic Ocean at Tybee Island.





Some more of Anna’s relatives.



The Wilkes children were killed because of a car wreck. Two died instantly and the oldest daughter died the next morning. Their father John “Joe” was a deaf co-worker of mine. Joe thought the world of his kids. Nothing was sadder than watching him pick up their toys in his backyard after the tragedy.

Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee, postcard

Not so many years ago we went to Fall Creek Falls State Park, in Tennessee, southeast of Nashville and north of Chattanooga. We came down State Highway 111 alongside a river at the bottom farm lands of a long valley. The scenery was beautiful, but I don’t think there were any zoning laws, around every corner was a new surprise.

We had to drive up in a mountainous area to get to Fall Creek Falls State Park. One thing I remember up on that lonely road was the large amount of dogs on the roadside. I think probably previous owners took them to this sparse area and threw them out. The dogs looked disillusioned and hungry. Never trust a human.

The park claims to have a bunch of water falls, I forgot how many. At one place there are twin falls… two creeks almost meet, just before each tumble off a cliff. Then, I think there is the big water fall, which is pictured here, and more smaller ones.

The state park has a motel-like lodge on the edge of a good size lake. We signed up for a room. While the clerk was signing us up, she glanced at the blanks we were filling out and said something like “Marietta! I am from Smyrna! We just moved up here last year – I had to move away from there.”

To her Smyrna no longer had the southern charm that she grew up knowing. We dropped to each other names and places and knew a lot of common Cobb County Marietta/Smyrna stuff.

It is a small world. No matter where we roam, it seems we always run into someone from Cobb County.

On the back of the card:
“Fall Creek Falls State Park. Beautiful Fall Creek Falls in one of the most photographed natural wonders in the United States. It tumbles over cliffs and falls 256 feet into a shaded pool at the base of the gorge.”

Fall Creek Falls tumbles over cliffs and falls 256 feet. That is a lot of falls for one sentence.

256 feet? And, then I say, “And that is just at high tide!” and slap you hard on the back to help you get the most of my fascinating wit.

Movies Lately

These are recent movies we have seen with our Blockbuster membership:


BRAVE ONE, THE – with Jodie Foster. Jodie Foster and her fiancé’ gets beat up in Central Park. Her fiancé is killed. Jodie decided to fight violence with violence. She is sort of like a Charles Bronson in drag reenacting death wish. It is always nice to see bad bullies get their payback. But there are moral and legal issues that Jodi’s character did not give much thought to.

BUCKET LIST with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Two old farts share the same hospital room. They are as opposite and two people can be. They have both been told they have less than six months to live. What’s next? Make a list of things you have always wanted to do and do them. The list looks very much like Earl Hickey’s list to right all the wrongs he did to people. It is very heart warming. Good movie.

SAVAGES with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. A brother and sister team up to take care of their ailing father who never cared much for them. Philip Seymore Hoffman, as usual, did some very good acting, and Laura Linney probably did too, it is just that Hoffman overshadowed her. It was fairly good.

SHOOT EM UP with Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti. The title tells it all. There were a lot of shootings and killings. The hero, Clive Owen killed his soldier like enemies after him like swatting insects. More than once he killed men by catching them by surprise and with a powerful hit, ram a carrot into the guy’s eyeball to his brain. In just a minute or two he killed something like 50 men that was all attacking him. One while he and his female friend, while making love, was attacked by a dozen or so meanies and he, standing, with her straddling him, spun around and killed them all while she was making climatic panting screams. I understand this movie and
Clive Owen’s character is part of a series. I doubt if I will catch anymore… a bit too bloody for my taste.

Long Man or Tennessee River postcard

or another postcard from the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, of their "celebrating the river" series. It says on the back:

" "Long Man" is one of 53 medallions at the Aquarium depicting the history of the Tennessee River from Cherokee myth to 1992. Yunwi Gunshita, or Long Man is the name the Cherokees gave for the Tennessee River."

I wonder if the name was given to the river before or after "The Trail of Tears"? The Indians were herded onto river boats at Ross Landing near Chattanooga and transported up river as a segment towards Oklahoma. If they named the river Yunwi Gunshita afterwards, it is understandable. If you look closely you will see the word shit in the word Gunshita

Uncle John's Facts

Here are a few interesting tidbits picked off Uncle John’s Page a Day calendar and his 20th Anniversary Bathroom Reader:

The Himalayan Mountains take up 1/10th of the Earth’s land mass. Do you realize how big that is? That is 10 % of the Earth is Himalayan Mountain country. And every lot would have a view! Realtors and developers where is your get-up and go?

Mosquito Eggs can survive in a dehydrated state for five years. How long can a human embryo survive in in a dehydrated state? It looks they are going to win.

Only 16% if able-bodied males in the 13 American Colonies fought in the Revolution. I’m sure there is a message there, someplace. That is almost one out of six was ready to give his life, if need be, for independence. Which also means "only" one out of six.

In 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 200 people living in Indianapolis commuted to work by subway or ferry. However, there are no subways or ferries in Indianapolis. So, just how valuable are those statistics the Census Bureau gives us?

"The Dakwa" Tn Aquarium postcard

On the back of the card it says: " "The Dakwa" is one of 53 medallions of the Aquarium depicting the history of the Tennessee River from Cherokee myth to 1992. According to the Cherokee, a large fish called Dawka dwells in the Tennessee where it joins Toco Creek."

Speaking of the Tennessee River and Indians, my g-g-g-grandmother Polly Hogshed Trammell, an Indian, drowned in the Little Tennessee River while tending her fish baskets, so the story goes... or is it another myth?

This post card we bought when the Tennessee Aquarium was opened less than a year in Chattanooga. It is the first transmission from the scanner's new position on Anna's computer, then I emailed it to myself.

Clever, No? I say as I get right in your face and tap my finger on my temple.

What Do Those Big Dark Simple Eyes See?

Thursday I wanted to hang up an antique saw in our den. I needed a skinny long nail as dark as possible so it would not be draw your eyes to the nail, but do its job unnoticed. I went to the locally owned and operated hardware store which I try to whenever I can to give them some business. They are just down the road a few blocks from Home Depot.

I went to the nail section and looked. I only needed one nail. But, not wanting to make them go to all that trouble of ringing up just one nail I picked out 4 or 5 nails some shorter and some longer.

I went up to the cashier counter. There was only a short little cheerleader looking girl behind the counter. She looked about 15 or 16. She was wearing short shorts and had a very cheerleader type of smile. Her eyes looked blank and simple.

I told her these nails were 99¢ a pound so she would have to weigh them. She said she didn’t have a scale. They do have a scale.. So, I said, “Well, you can probably estimate” I handed her the nails and said “How much do you think these weight?”

The held them and closed her eyes, then opened her eyes and looked at them and said, “a half pound?”

I told her they would not even way a tenth of a pound – but I said, “Lets just say they weight a quarter of a pound – that would mean they would be worth about 25¢, which, with tax, say 28¢…. Is that ok?”

She smiled and nodded her head in approval, she rung it up on the cash register and said, “31¢ please.”

I suppose she was looking for the final number and when she rung up the 28¢ the system automatically added the sales tax… but who knows.

Across from the Old Courthouse tour

The above was Groover's Hardware, mentioned below.

We have heard some good things about a new eatery in downtown Marietta, Washington Avenue, or Roswell Street, from the Court House by the name of New York Deli. We also heard it was very crowded. We solved that problem by being ourselves… we arrived at 11am and just about had the place to ourselves. It was good…very good. I think we will go back. They had deli kind of sandwiches such as the Reuben, pastrami, and very good home-cut fries.

Two doors down my Uncle Spencer used to own a bonding company. Many nights I drove by and saw my uncle sitting there. Other times his son Jimmy was sitting behind the desk. Of course the bonding business is a risky business. I know a few times people that he put up the bond for skipped town before their court date. On at least two occasions my father went with him to hunt down the bond skipper. They went as far north as New York City.

In one of the store fronts, maybe this one, was one time a restaurant called The Black Satchel, owned by Hill Townsend, a friend of my father. I think Hill had hopes it would be a hangout for lawyers and politicians, being just across the street from the court house – it never happened.

Hill’s youngest son was a houseboat buddy back in high school.

Within a door or two in the 50s was a little meat market. A friend of mine, Parks had a relative that I think owned the place as teenagers we would drop in and visit or say “Hi” from time to time. It had a smell to it… fish and meat. Sawdust covered the floor.

While eating in the NY Deli I noticed the second floor windows about halfway up the street – it had strange looking dresses on display – like period costumes. The way I noticed them in the NY Deli while eating and looking out the window watching people pass I saw the reflection from the corner Cobb County Government building, that stood where the old courthouse use to stand – in their copper colored windows that they can see out, but you can’t see in, only a reflection I saw the dresses.

When we walked out of the NY Deli I saw a door leading up some stairs. Painted on the door was an sign advertising the period costumes upstairs. I wonder if they rent them or sell them? It seems period costumes mostly would have a one time use.

While we are on this block let me visit a few more stores of my past. Next door to the deli was a restaurant I think named Tres Joli. The same restaurant was one time named somebody the Greek. Nick the Greek? No, I think Nick the Greek was a play. The Greek restaurant’s owner’s brother owned George’s Restaurant on West Atlanta Road. For a while after we got married we got hooked on George’s prime ribs. They cooked the best medium rare prime ribs.

On the corner of this street was Groover’s Hardware, not it is Tommy’s Sandwich Shop, which is also a good place to eat lunch. Next Groover’s Hardware was a jewelry store, now I think it is a clock shop.

On down a store or two was C&M Army and Navy Store. I went there to buy my U.S. Army knapsack and sleeping bag when I joined the scouts. The owner I think was a Morris or Morrison and was one time the solicitor and it seems always was county official of one status of another. I may have some things mixed up confused, but I think when I turned 18 I went to that Army Navy Store to register to vote, which was directly across from the Courthouse.

Summer Has Arrived

Yesterday was the first full day of Summer. You would have to be outside a few minutes after 7pm Friday, when Summer first came in to tell the difference…. Suddenly a cold breeze quit blowing and it was quickly replaced by a blast of hot air. And the bottle of water I was drinking suddenly turned to dust and crumbled into my hands.

Mother Nature likes to get down to business in a timely manner.

Jones Reunion 1912 or 1913

This is a Jones Reunion 1912 or 13 in the Milton area, which was an area between Alpharetta and Cumming, Georgia. Anna’s folks.

Notice the formality. The men wore suits with ties. The women wore light color dresses. The men’s suits were mostly dark. And the men were in one area, the lady folk in another area, and the kids up front.

I doubt if a baseball game or sack race was held at this reunion.

At the Marietta Hunter Reunions we all wore what we were comfortable in. To me, that meant shorts mostly.

American Apple Pie Kind of News Story

Can you think of any thing more Apple-Pie American than working in your garden? Well, maybe a beauty contest. And lets face it, Americanism is also capitalism. So, what person is a walking symbol for capitalism? I would say Donald Trump. Also what deals are made behind the closed doors sometimes seals the deal in capitalism adventures – and also lawyers ready to pounce – that is All-American too…. now, all we need is a television personality – wait, there’s one of those too!

So, sit for a fine true all-American Apple Pie story that include all the above:

Pike Nurseries of the Atlanta area was well know for it garden knowledge and integrity. Members of the Pike family were often on radio call-in show giving gardening advice to people who called in. We bought from them several times and it seemed each time we dealt with the female retired school teacher type – the kind that loved gardening.

Dalton, Georgia, had a beauty contest coming up called the "Resaca Beach Calendar Girl Contest." Resaca is a small town near-by and had its share of Civil War activity. In 1983 the "Resaca Beach Calendar Girl Contest." Was won by Marla Maples, who later became Mrs. Donald Trump.

Last year Pike Nurseries declared bankruptcy and a company from California bought them out. At that time Randy Pike was the C.E.O. Now, of course he is no longer affiliated with Pike Nurseries.

Randy Pike was to be one of the judges of the "Resaca Beach Calendar Girl Contest." In or near Dalton he attended a party hosted by the person sponsoring the beauty contest Dalton carpet pioneer Zack Norville, father of television personality Deborah Norville.
Ok – with me so far?

At the party was a photo session for the contestants in their two piece swimming suits. One lady observed that Randy was drinking too much and changing types of drinks. He went around and pulled down the bottom parts of two ladies suits. Another one he groped her chest. And one beauty said he told her he was going to be one of the judges and if she gave him oral sex…. And so on.

After the party, the police came to Mr. Pike’s motel room and arrested him for 8 counts of battery and groping several females… wouldn’t the groping be part of the battery?

Some of the girls are hiring lawyers preparing to sue. And you would never guess it, but Mr. Zack Norville said he saw none of what was claimed…. Not that it didn’t happen, it just happened without his knowledge – so, of course he cannot be responsible can he?

Of course, it is also American as apple pie to consider the accused person innocent until he is proved other-wise in a court of law.

Okefenokee Swamp postcard

Just south of Waycross, Georgia.

It is where Pogo Possum lives and many kinds of birds that make strange sounds all the time. The Indians said it was the “land of the trembling earth” It is not the earth that trembles – it just seems that way when you tremble. You tremble because snakes are hanging from all the low branch cypresses studying you… and in the dark water the gaters are studying you… and waiting.

One time about 1960 we were coming back from Daytona Beach with Harry and David… not the mail order fruit company – or maybe it was Bobby and David.. anyway, we were in David’s convertible, we were north of Folkston, speeding and we ran off the road and technically we were in the Okefenokee Swamp.. I remember plowing at a high rate of speed through bushes and foliage. I forgot if we had a flat or what…. But, we lived to tell about it. Really! See?


Also, besides Pogo, it is also the home of the Swamp Witch.

Terry and the Lumber Jacks

Above: Before

Yesterday’s cliff-hanger was that I was waiting on Terry the tree man and his men to show up to cut down the limb hanging, and also cut up the tree it landed on and a dead dogwood tree by the street.

Terry said they would be there in the late morning, probably about 11:00, if every thing goes well with the 4 or 5 big trees they were to cut down and up before me.

So, normally in contractors’ time, 11:00am means between 4:00 and 6:00 pm, the next day.

Not so. They pulled in at 10:20am the same time promised. They came in two trucks, one a big dump truck looking thing and another bright red truck with his name and telephone number and it was pulling a big wood grinding machine. The back of the red truck was covered. The idea was to throw the limbs into the grinder and it would chew them up and throw the chips in the back of the red truck.

Terry quickly introduced me to his four men and told me with the exception of one new guy, it was the same ones that took down my oak tree a couple years ago. He jokingly told me he bought the big shiny new red truck just for me. It is smaller than the dump truck, he could easily back the truck and the grinding machine through the double gates.

One of the guys over heard him tell me he bought it just for me and said, “And you are paying for it!!!” and let out a hearty laugh.

They immediately got to work. Each man had his job to do. Terry cut limbs off the smashed tree and the end of the fallen branch and the two of the men picked up the limbs and carried them to the buy feeding the grinder. Then Terry climbed the tree with a chain saw dangling on his belt.

By the way, I think I said the limb looked to be about 70 feet up. Looking and estimating when I took the above picture, I think it was more like between 30 and 40 feet.

When he got up to the broken limb he took the end of the rope and was pulling up with him and looped it over a limb above, then when he brought it down, tied it to the broken limb. Then he finished severing the limb with his chain saw and it fell and dangled in mid-air. A man on the ground lowered it down slowly as not to hurt anyone.

Then they all got sawing, feeding the grinder, until nothing was left but a few speckles of wood chips.

I thought there were a whole bunch of dead chopped up wood puppets in the back of that red truck.

And then all but one and the truck with the gridner went up front to the dogwood tree and cut that down. The man left behind quickly herded the chips with a blower in a neat little pile, raked them up with a rake he had close by, swept them in a little container then went up where the men were finishing putting the dogwood tree in the grinder and threw the debris in as well.

Everything was finished. I handed Terry a check at 11:00, the time he said they would probably arrive. It took them 40 minutes.

I was impressed by their precision – they all knew their jobs and knew how to be most efficient at it in the shortest amount of time.

Which reminded me a robbery a jewelry store had a few weeks ago in Smyrna. About 5 men came in with masks. It was quick and everybody knew their job and the job was very coordinated. They wore masks and carried guns. The shopping center it happened in had no idea what hit them… but knew they had been hit… hard.

So, if the tree cutting profession goes through hard times, I think I know just the job they can do as a team... I think I should get a cut for the suggestion.

Below: After

Mel's Drive-In postcard

It may be the famous Mel's Drive-In with carhops rollerskating. I'll a chili-burger at Varner's Drive-In in Marietta any day

Timber!

Today I will have to hit the floor running.

Wait. I am already up and I did not hit the floor running. I kind crawled out of bed in a stupor. First, let me drink a couple cups of coffee – then I will run.

In the morning, hopefully fairly early, a tree cutting company will come and do some cutting. In one of our tall trees in the back, about 70 feet up a huge limb collapsed during a storm a couple weeks ago. It landed on another tree and squashed it. And to top things off the huge limb is not severed from the trunk of the tree. So, one of the adventurous tree men will have to climb way up and chop that baby off from its mama…. But I think they will cut up the smaller tree the end of the big limb is resting on… or maybe they would want to first cut down the limb then go chain-saw crazy.

They have a job to cut down a big oak tree before they come here. They owner told me they should be here by late morning.

Today is Wednesday, which is Senior Citizens Day at the grocery stores. Can I do my exercise then rush to the grocery store and rush back before they arrive. I might ask myself, “Am I feeling lucky? Do I think they will run late like all contractors do? What’s it gonna be Punk?”

Green County, Arkansas postcard

This is out of my old post card collection that I swiped off the ‘net.

My scanner is temporarily decommissioned.

This is a lily pond in Green County, Arkansas. When I came across it I lifted my eyebrows, because that is where my ancestor Jason Henderson Hunter lived the last segment of his life and is probably buried someplace near.

Teenage Crooks

Yesterday in our neighboring county Paulding the news reported two teenage boys have been expertly stealing merchandise for quiet a while now and has not sold any of it, they just hoarded it.

I think they were talking about an abandoned house they were keeping the stuff in. In the house was room after room of valuable merchandise that they somehow stole. One closet has about a dozen blowers neatly stacked in it and what struck me as being bizarre was a dining room table they stole, they had china, silver, and placemats down, just like it was in the showroom before they took it.

It also reminded me of my high school days. I was in school with two boys, DW and CB, who were very different from each other.

DW was a year a or two older, blond to a point his hair was almost white, and maybe shorter than average and he always seemed serious, and yet he had street smarts, he got in several hard blows fist fights through his high school career. I remember one Sunday after the end of a movie at the Strand Theater everybody were quickly marching over to the parking lot behind Dupre’s Store and beside the railway tracks. DW and somebody I don’t remember had a prearranged fight – one pissed off the other one at the Stand Theater, so it was payback time. They fought and fought, and kept on fighting. They both became very bloody with torn clothes. I don’t know who got in the most licks. I recall seeing DW in some more fights also. I don’t think he was a coward by any stretch.

CB on the other hand was very bright, but liked to act goofy, and tall. He did an excellent imitation of Red Skelton’s character Clem Kadiddlehopper. He worked park time at a historical park near Marietta and knew a lot about the historical events in sequence that happened at this park. I remember one time as a teenager I was hitchhiking on Roswell Street and he picked me up. He was driving and his mother was in the passenger seat. He had his learner’s license. To listen to CB and his mother was like listening to two professors, trying to impress each other with trivia facts they each knew.

DW traveled solo on a motor scooter here and there.

DW and CB had a two man thieving organization. They were experts in the stealing of merchandise business. You could go to a store in clothing store in downtown Marietta – there were not too many away from downtown back then – say pick out a nice suede jacket you wanted, come back and tell DW and/or DB what rack you found it on, the color, size, what the price tag said, and any other thing to help identify it and then all you had to do was be patient and you would receive that same suede jacket at a very cheap price. If it had a price of $45 they would probably take between ten and fifteen dollars.

That was the rumor or reputation that followed them. I honestly don’t know if it was true. Just by knowing each of them at a nodding distance, I suspect it was true.

About ten years after high school I went into a convenience store near Grant Park on Boulevard in Atlanta and saw DW working there. He told me he was the assistant manager. I would think he had a very interesting career in one way or another. I bet if you did research to follow his name you would start thinking his initials were A.K.A.

I saw on the news less than 20 years ago that CB was running for public office in either Dekalb County or its county seat Decatur. He lost.

Then, about ten years later CB was in the paper again, this time on the obituary page.

Hecker Products

One store clerk to a junior clerk: Keep your eyes on the cute little girl with the green hat on. She will try to leave the store without paying.

Denis Kitchen

P.S.

I overlooked this negative, it should have been on the previous post. Denis Kitchen was the publisher of Kitchen Sink Press. Denis was a big force as a cartoonist and as a publisher as provider of alternative-type comics.

He is also the one that turned all the LI'L ABNER daily comic strips into books.

He was very friendly and accessible at the DragonCon convention. We talked about his plans of recycling some of Harvey Kurtzman’s stuff.

I do not think his company is still around. I do not know the details.