Overheard at Wal-Mart

In the shampoo aisle.:

Man: Where you going honey?

Woman (With a very low-cut on): I’m going over here to the women’s feminine section - something you know nothing about!

Man: I lived with 20 women – don’t tell me I don’t know nothing about women stuff! Shhhhh….

HI-YO SILVER!!!

On this date in 1933 The Long Ranger premiered on ABC radio.

I remember the radio and the TV show. Larry Holcomb and I used to put on our holsters and take our favorite sticks (horses) and gallop all over the neighborhood keeping law and order.

One of us was the Lone Ranger and one of us was Tonto – it is according who you ask –whoever you ask would say he was the Lone Ranger and “he is Tonto”.

Of course Clayton Moore was really THE ONE AND ONLY Lone Ranger. Just asked him. Merita Bread or whoever owns the rights to the Long Ranger practically had to hold him down and rip off his mask – but instead, they even acted dirtier – they had lawyers threaten to sue him… how low can you get?

So, who was that masked man?

Our Gang (of Hunters)

The above picture is my grandmother Minnie Tyson Hunter smiling in an ironic way to her children: first row, left to right, W.C., my father Ed, and ?, second row: Herbert the oldest, and Bee, the only daughter. In this picture Herbert (the oldest) reminds me of Alphafa of Our Gang. Remember how Alfapha was a Romeo or Casanova. In this picture Herbert looks something of a Romeo or Casanova. Herbert grew owning his own barber shop, and for a while he jointly owned one of the first, if not the first, airfields in Marietta. He died at age 75,

Herbert’s sister Bee, grew up and married a local entrepreneur and spent her time watching over her big family, of her own, and extended. She lived 67 years.


This is a picture of my father on the left and my uncle Jack on the right.



This picture was taken a two or three years later. My daddy was very recognizable – he is on the far left. One of the two other boys is his older brother W.C. W.C. was about three years older than Ed, my father. So, does any of the two boys look 2 years older than the boy on the left? Also, consider this: W.C. was called Peanut because of his small statue.

Ed spent his life as in law enforcing. At one time he was chief of the Marietta Police and right after that he was the chief of the Cobb County Police. He died in 1988 at age 77.

Jack spent a career in the Navy and was a chief petty officer. He was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and he and his fellow PT crew members are credited with saving Eddie Rickenbacker in the Pacific. I don’t know if at the time Rickenbacker was on the boat that Jack knew that the new airfield in his hometown was named The Eddie Rickenbacker field or not. Jack died at age 75.

W.C. was wounded in World War II and a metal plate was put in his head. He never fully recuperated from his war wounds. He died at the Veterans Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, at age 90.

I heard the family back then always had a family cow. Look, there’s one now!



These two are my uncles Dick and Stanley Hunter. Dick on the left joined the Navy and went to war. According to his service strips on his arm he reenlisted. He married in Massachusetts but finally came back to Marietta with his family and he went to work for Lockheed in the Planning department.
He and his wife Jeannette had twelve children that lived. Dick was mayor of Marietta in the 1960s.
He died at age 59.

Stanley went to War also and in on the invasion of the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. After he returned home he worked for the city and then went to work for Lockheed where he retired, except being a bailiff. He was an active member of several local civic organizations and was a pillar of the community. He died at age 76.

The two sons that I do not have good childhood pictures of are Bus and Doug.

Rocket Man Fell Before He Took Off

For five or six years I have been entertained and educated daily by Uncle John's Bathroom Reader page-a-day calendar.

Today is the first of over a thousand pages that a teenage buddy was on the page of the day.

On today's page it tells that Billy Joe Royal, is best known for his 1965 hit "Down in the Boondocks", thought he was about to make a big comeback in the mid-1980s with a song called "Burned Like a Rocket". It was released to radio stations in January 1986 - just days before the Challenger tragedy. Nobody was in the mood to buy a rocket song. It flopped.

Angels and Numbers

Sixty-eight percent of Americans believe in angels. A far lesser percent of the British do.

And they are so much alike in other ways. I forgot the numbers but almost the same percentage of Americans live in Brittan as British living in America.

Up Up and Away!!!

On this date in 1996 SUPERMAN co-creator Jerry Siegal died at age 81. He and Joe Shuster created SUPERMAN in 1932 and sold it to Detective Comics.

They created a boy’s dream: someone to stand up against bullies, leap buildings in a single bound, and was faster than a speeding bullet.

However, the super hero creators, learned quickly truth, justice, and the American way when they lost their royalty rights in court. Detective Comics and other comics through the years made millions. Not so with the creator. They had to settle for the meager amount of $94,000.

That is the American way isn’t it? The rich get the biggest cut… that way, the rich can be happy and spend money and it will dribble down to the poor (if we are good). That is just logical economics.

The Toasted Pups eatery

This picture came from the Marietta High School 1955 yearbook, The Olympia. The right side was an ad for The Toasted Pups Grill.

The Toasted Pups was on the North Park Square, separated from the block The Strand and Cobb Theaters on by Root Street. Root Street looks more like an alley than a street.

After the toasted Pups next in that spot was Dr. Cutherson, an optometrist. My uncle Leonard made glasses there.

I don’t know what else was there, maybe a Goldstein uniform shop or something because Hubert Goldstein owns the building. Now the space is empty and needs improvements – it has been in the news off and on lately, for being an eyesore.

But, back to The Toasted Pups: Back in high school sometimes when we got out of a movie late we would stop in the eatery for a bite to eat before heading home. I remember one cold wet evening after a movie going into The Toasted Pup – I remember the blast of hot wet air and the smell of grease hit us as we opened the door to go in. It had a long counter with stools – that was the dining area.

Behind the counter was a grill, a counter to prepare stuff, and a cash register.

At the end of the room was a window and a door going outside to Root Street and beside the door was a window.

We ordered coffee and had a seat. There were a bunch of men in the place chatting staying dry and warm. The cook, who was the only evening employee, was a blond guy, not too much older than me. If I was 16, then he was probably eighteen. I slightly knew him because we had a mutual friend, Grady.

The blond guy served our coffee and whatever else, probably french fries and went back up to talk to his hanging out spot and leaned against the counter and continued to talk to some of his friends.

The door opened and a black man stepped in. He was probably in his 40s, non-descript dressed. He sat down at the counter. The blond guy jumped up from his leaning perch and rushed over to him and plainly told him to leave. He was not abusive to the black man but he was stern. As he held the door opened for the man to go out he told him he would have to order from the window outside on Root Street.

The man walked around the corner on Root Street and ordered from the window and had to wait in the rain and cold to get his food. Then, he disappeared into the night.

The blond guy and the men he was talking to were trying to figure what made him do something so stupid. Was he drunk? Was he crazy? They finally decided he was probably from up north where they allowed such things.

I felt sorry the man. We were in the middle of the caste system and didn’t even know it.

Fast forward about six months or so on Halloween night. My sister just bought a new white 1959 Chevrolet from Anderson Chevrolet.

She and my mother went to the downtown area to sit on the Square in the new car and watch people walk by dressed up in their costumes.

I was with my cronies. I was the one driving my family’s 53 Chevrolet. I ran into my sister and my mother and I begged to swap cars with them so my cronies and I could cruise around in my sister’s new car. She generously let me take her new car.

Within ten minutes I had a wreck in it. Driving down Washington Avenue I sideswiped a car coming in the opposite direction. Or it sideswiped me, or both… who knows?

The guy driving the other car was the blond guy that was the cook at The Toasted Pups
Grill. Lordy, Lordy. It was a small town.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UGA!!

On this day in history in 1785 the first US state university was chartered in Athens, Georgia. It was originally named something else, which I don’t remember, but in time it changed its name to The University of Georgia, or for short UGA.

My great-great grandfather Eugene Hargraves Tyson (1798-1868) graduated from there. I read that he was a Latin scholar. I speculate he was a student there about 1820 when the University was about 35 years old. He holds the unique position in my genealogy carts as being the first common ancestor that Anna and I both have – although, he is her great-great-great grandfather…. We did not discover this until I got into genealogy research.

Eugene Hargraves Tyson did like many UGA students do today. After he graduated he stuck around Athens. He was a tax collector. I have seen his ledger book of his collections.

Eugene married Frances Eliza Portress Herring. In 1832 or 1833 he gained land in Cherokee County, Georgia, by means of the Georgia Gold Lottery. His gold mining operation was on Kellogg Creek, just northwest of Woodstock, Georgia.

I have a son Rockwell T. Hunter, who also graduated from UGA. His middle name is Tyson. It all makes sense now doesn’t it?

Loco Mojos For Sale

In my last post, the picture of Umbrella Rock, which I thought was just a balanced rock – until Chris told me the name, reminded me of the other things on and round Lookout Mountain.

As a child and on my own we drove up to Lookout Mountain often. On it was Ruby Falls (a large cavern with a very high water fall), Rock City, and a lookout fort used in the Civil War.

Down on the base of the mountain were tourist-luring companies such as B.Lloyds and Stuckey’s. Each one had signs telling you that you were only blank miles to their stores. On the sign they were tell of their homemade hand scooped ice creams, pecans, praline candies, and souvenirs – and clean rest rooms.

I remember the Stuckey signs were orange and the B.Lloyd’s were white.

Also, right there at the base of the mountain, going around a bend on the federal highway was LOCO JOE’S. Loco Joe’s not only had pecans, praline, hand scooped homemade ice cream, and clean rest rooms. They also had fire works!

Loco Joes’s specialized in having stores on the state line. In this case they were near the state line of Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. I seen another Loco Joes on the South Carolina and Georgia State lines… also selling fireworks. Selling fireworks in Georgia was illegal…. Somehow, through the years I think they figured out a way to work around that…. Clever greedy money grubbing rascals!

Loco Joe’s had orange distant countdown signs too…… I think some of the Loco Joe signs showed a mountaineer sitting and leaning lazily against a tree, with a shotgun in one hand and a jug with xxx label in the other….. he was Loco alright – Loco all the way to the bank.

Wrights on a Rock on Lookout Mtn

This picture was taken on top of Lookout Mountain overlooking the Tennessee River, which is snaking itself around the base of the mountain and the city of Chattanooga.

I don’t know if this balanced rock is in Tennessee or Georgia. The state line splits the mountain somewhere nearby.

I like this picture because it is in-your-face and good composition.

The family sitting on the rock is the Wright family. The picture was taken in 1931. The lady sitting next to the end on the right side is Lila Wright. She was Anna’s grandmother’s sister. She used to own a country store on Canton Highway in Marietta. I used to see her at family gatherings.

The elderly man on the rock is identified as Grandpa Wright. I assume it is Lila’s father and Anna’s great grandfather (Tammy – if you are reading this, your great-great grandfather) Henry Gable Wright (1857 – 1936). That means he was about 74 in this picture, on top of a balanced rock overlooking the Tennessee River… not me!

SUNDAY FUNNIES - MAD #1 continued

The above is the artwork for the cover of MAD comicbook number 1. It was done by the late Harvey Kurtzman, who also wrote all the stores.

As usual, click on the pictures for a bigger picture.

Last Sunday on this blog was Sunday Funnies. Then, I had the splash page by Will Elder of the story GANEFS! (notice – Have you ever noticed that all titles and sentences in MAD end with an exclamation point?).

This Sunday, here we go again. We are still with MAD comicbook number 1. This time I am showing the splash pages in the first issue of MAD except GANEFS”

Jack Davis illustrated the first story: HOOHAH!



Wally Wood illustrated the second story: BLOBS!




Will Elder illustrated the third story, which you have already seen, so we are leaping over that one to the next one.

And John Severin illustrated the fourth story VARMINT!

A Look at TOWEL HEAD

We watched the movie TOWELHEAD yesterday.

We were attracted to it because it was written and directed by Alan Ball. Alan Ball has written/directed such masterpieces such as SIX FEET UNDER, TRUE BLOOD, and AMERICAN BEAUTY…. to name a few.

What is more impressive is the fact that he is from Marietta, Georgia. I knew his older brother.

The movie TOWELHEAD is about a displaced half-Lebanese girl. I don’t know if “displaced” is the right word – she just didn’t seem to fit in, due to no fault of her own.

The Lebanese girl is thirteen and is just coming of age. She just started her period. It seems that males of all ages were checking her out, and some went beyond that. I think it all had to do with her problem of being accepted.

Because she had dark skin and looked like she was from the Far East, like her strong-headed father, she was treated as an outsider by her peers. They would knock books out of her hands, call her names, and so on.

People can be very intolerant and cruel to people different from themselves. That has always been the case, and I don’t see it changing.

Actually, the teenage girl was a naturalized citizen, born and bred in the U.S. of A. the same as the people who thought she was a muslin enemy. She was Catholic.

In the movie there was a bit I got a charge out of – it was flying the American Flag, in its full glory. Somehow, some people have got the notion that the more you wave the flag the more patriotic you are and thus your opinions count more…. In the subdivision they lived in was a little almost unspoken competition of who could put up the best looking flag.

It was a typical Alan Ball black humor observance of American behavior.

BENJAMIN GUMP

Benjamin Button as an old man - wait! I mean a new born baby.

Last Thursday we returned to the new movie theater that we saw AUSTRALIA in to see THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.

The last time we were there we were the only two people in the room watching the movie. This time eight more people came. We were the first paying customers there (of course). I noticed as we drove up in the huge new parking lot there were only three or four cars. There are 16 movie theaters. The man who sold us the ticket was the complete staff I think. The other cars belonged to a customer off in some theater and a contractor putting some spackling compound and scraping the side of the wall of the theater we were in. We were concerned he would still be working when the movie started. He finished up with about 4 minutes to go.

For a while I thought we again would be the only two watching the movie… but as I said, 8 other people joined us. We sat in the complete center… seven of the eight chose to sat in front, behind, and beside us. I felt crowded.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON was a very good movie… very well done, that took us through about 45 years of history in the early to mid of the 20th Century. I’m sure you know by now the uniqueness of it. Benjamin was born an old man and grew younger each day. It reminded me of a twisted version of FOREST GUMP. Great movie!

Funny – the contractor who was scraping the wall to smooth it down I think sort of got the hint he should leave and come back. Half way through the movie we were watching, in the next theater we heard on the wall….”BAM BAM BAM!!! He was banging on the wall for some reason… working or being spiteful?

Kennestone Hospital is Forever Changing

The above is Kennestone Hospital in Marietta when it was still a sensible size. A little later more people came to Marietta, and their needs caused more people to come, and all those people needed an army of doctors, and those doctors needed clubs, waiters, etc … it is a never ending cycle.

Kennestone was built in the early 50s. It was named Kennestone because out the back windows was a beautiful panoramic view of Kennesaw Mountain and out the front window, off in the hazy distance you could see Stone Mountain, if you squinted and strained your eyes.

Not long after it was finished I was a patient. I think I was about 11 or 12 years old. I broke my arm. I was at Wednesday Night Wrestling at Larry Bell Park Auditorium. I think there were three or four matches that night. The last one was the one I came to see. A man was going to wrestle a bear.

Before the man vs the bear event I was busy showing off in the blenchers for a cute girl about my age I had never seen before. I met a friend there, I forgot who it was, and we were doing all sorts of acrobatic tricks on the blenchers. The girl was sitting with her parents. She kept her eyes on us… she seemed easily impressed.

One of my tricks on the blenchers didn’t go as planned and I fell about 7 feet and landed on my arm. I was in terrible pain. It was time I made my exit.

My father was talking to Eddie Sullivan’s sister who was behind the concession counter. I walked up to Daddy and said, “Daddy, can we go?”

He knew I was looking forward to this night. He looked down and saw that I had my jacket holding my arm. He said, “Why are you covering you arm?...” And he removed my jacket, to see my arm plainly broken.

He took me to the new Kennestone Hospital. A very nice nurse was flirting with me… or so I thought… we were getting along great and suddenly she put something over my mouth and nose. It was ether. I gagged and went out like a light. I can still smell that agonizing smell every time I think of that moment. Choke!

Later I woke up in the children’s ward with a cast on my arm. I stayed over night.

Later, in a about a year my youngest sister was born at Kennestone. And much later, both my parents died (at different times) at Kennestone, after it had extended itself much bigger.

Also my wife Anna and sons Rocky and Adam had to undergo medical treatments (again, at different times)and got to know hospital beds there.

In the early days of the hospital, say when I was about sixteen, it was sort of a social center. Friends were always getting hurt, in a wreck, or had some kind of accident and had to be rushed there.

I spent many evening in the waiting room then.

Kennestone was in the south. Therefore, in its first dozen or so years segregation was the rule of the day. The blacks had to go the “Colored” section in the basement for their medical attention…..tch tch.

Before Kennestone came into being there was a man by the name of Lamb who worked for my father on the Marietta Police Force. A serious looking fellow… as I suppose a cop should be.

Lamb left the police force and became the security person at the hospital. I don’t know if he retired or got a better offer and resigned or what. But during our social times at Kennestone, which even included the roof, you could always count on Lamb materializing and shooing us on.

I think he was a security force of one. Now, Kennestone Security had many more people, around the clock.

Kennestone has grown by leaps and bounds. They have grown about the size of the whole big oversized block and have even extended beyond that…. They started off three floors, now I notice there are seven or eight.

The year before last for a procedure I had to report to the Green Tower, or maybe the Blue Tower. Darn! was I checking in a castle or a hospital?

As I get older I am becoming a patient more. I have been rushed there for heart-attacks, strokes, and pneumonia. I think they should have a “Frequent Patient Plan”.

Kennestone is now Kennestone Wellsstar…. I suppose it is owned by the Wellstar Corporation, and they have office buildings all over Marietta and Smyrna.

The hospital keep swallowing up land, streets, and parking lots around them, like a giant amoeba that changes it shape as it consumes more…. Some time in the future I expect to hear a loud belch and there is no more Marietta – only one large shapeless hospital.

The below is only a small segment of the hospital as it is today….. stick around, it will be different next week.

This is for you Si! More GANEFS!

As you may recall, last Sunday I had a post uniquely named SUNDAY FUNNIES. I only displayed the opening splash of GANEFS! which was a story illustrated by Will Elder in the first issue of MAD Comicbook.

In the comments Si wanted to know more about the story. So, without further ado, here's the rest of the story:


(click to enlarge)

Obama Fighting for Truth, Justice, & the American Way

We watched the inauguration yesterday. It was really something to see. It is about as close as we come to bowing to royalty and worshiping the ground thy lordships walks on.

There were so many house-hold-name politicians floating all over the screen patting backs and smiling.

One Republican they talked to was saying it was time to act and do away with childish quarrels of the past – lets get on with it! He reminded me of Charles Durning, playing to Governor in “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” when he realized the crowd loved the Soggy Bottom Boys’ music and got up on stage and shook his ass with the music too. Maybe you would have to have been there.

That reminds me, my PARDON MY PRESIDENT tear a page weekly calendar, this week told me in 2003 Republican Ohio congressman Bob Ney ordered that all French fries sold in the U.S. capitol be renamed “freedom fires” in retaliation for France’s opposition to invading Iraq.
A few years later he was sent to federal prison for corruption.

Soon –to-be-banished Vice President Dick Chaney was in a wheelchair. Anna said, “What happened to him, did he shoot himself?”

I admired soon-to-be-banished president George Bush for gracefully bowing out so the man of the day could be sworn in and make a speech and tell us it wasn’t about him, it was all about us.

And, by watching the sea of people covering the Mall and the streets of DC, I think the people really believe it is all about them. And I think they are right. And by the way, it was bitter cold, around 19◦. Brrrr.

I think President Obama is an elegant speaker and knows how to move people like a Bible thumping preacher….. I think he can get people worked up in frenzy to do what is necessary to get us out of this economic downward tail-spin we are in. FDR did it – I think BO can too. And, maybe not, only time will tell.

I just hope the radical nuts leave him alone and let him do his job and not throw any shoes at him.

I only wish I had the foresight to be there in that freezing temperature running a “I LIKE BARACK OBAMA” T-shirt stand.

Polk England

This is James A. Polk England (1862-1916) and his wife Mary Louise Atkins. They married May 27, 1895 and had 8 children.

All eight children are in the picture. The youngest are twins, Roy and Rought, each sitting in a parent’s lap. They were born in 1905. So, I think the picture was taken about 1907,

James was a son Daniel and Rebecca Hunter England. Rebbecca was a daughter of John Hunter.

James and his family moved from Union County, Georgia, to Hall County, where their future generations thrived and live today… except some that moved on to Barrow County.

You may have noticed that Polk England and his family has been on this blog before, which I more or less said the same things about him. Well, this is genealogy fishing.

HAIRSPRAY the play - picture me dancing wildly

We went to see the musical HAIRSPRAY at the COBB ENERGY CENTER yesterday.

We were looking for a good reason to go the new Cobb Energy Center and hi-dee-ho, our son Rocky gave Anna two tickets to HAIRSPRAY for her birthday.

The place is big and beautifully designed. It has tiered balconies and at least six private boxes.

We had orchestra seats, which were very near the action. You could easily see facial expressions on the stage without binoculars. During intermission we walked down the few rows to the orchestra pit and looked down.

Good Lord! From the stage deck to the orchestra pit looked to be over 10 feet. I remember reading about somebody, I forgot who, fell off the stage into the pit and broke a leg. It might have added to the excitement if he or she landed on the percussion instruments – then scream.

Seriously, it looked like a health hazard…. With fast hard energetic choreographed precision dance numbers where every step has to be just right because somebody will be stomping and stepping in that very same spot in the next second, somebody could easily trip and tumble into the music pit. Ouch!

Oh well, I guess they are aware of it, no need to warn them.

It was a matinée show. Curtain time was 1:00pm. We were in the building a few minutes after 12:00 (of course) and were in out seats by 12:35 – they didn’t open the theater seating area until 12:30.

I enjoyed watching people flow in. I noticed a lot of women brought their daughters. There were a lot of preteen girls there. It was a full house and I saw only one pre-teenage boy.

I overheard somebody say there is not a bad seat in the house. I looked around – by cracky, that is right. No pillars and all seats are slightly higher than the seat in front of them.

HAIRSPRAY is the same HAIRSPRAY movie that John Waters wrote the screenplay and John Travolta played Edna Turnblad. It is a high energy musical with a lot of good music that dealt with some social issues that should have been dealt with long before…. Such as looking down on someone because they are overweight, snobbery, and last but not least, the race issue – the mistreatment of blacks.

I was engrossed at the moving of props in timely synchronized manners. How efficient! And the dancers were the ones that openly moved the props… I bet the stage-hands union balked at this “new theater” style, where it is ok for a group to be dancing, and while they are dancing and singing push a jailhouse off stage.

The audience, without being asked, were required to fill in missing scenery or props - some things were just understood to be there, in an imaginary sense. Which is good – maybe one enjoyed certain parts better than his neighbor because his imagination was more detailed…..maybe.

I think the story line was the same in both movie and play…. The same value in both… although the endings were slightly different…. But they were both good in their own way.

SUNDAY FUNNIES

click to maker bigger to see the detail.

The above is the splash panel drawn by Will Elder in the very first issue of MAD, which then, in it infant stage was a comic book.

53 Years Ago Today The Nautilus Submarine

On this day in history in, in 1955,the Submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage.

I remember it well. The captain was a bearded fellow by the name of Captain Nemo. Also on board was a rebel sailor named Kirk Douglas – who whipped a giant squid. Really! I saw the newsreels and they don’t lie.

The Story Teller Meets Chicken Fat

It is nice being retired. We can stay up late and sleep late anytime we want to.

That is unless we have a doctor’s appointment.

We can go to day time things too! Yesterday, for instance, we went to The Marietta History Museum to listen to Ray Duane Ruggles tell about growing up in Marietta.

We were the first ones there (of course). The lecturer Ray Ruggles was there sitting up his props and all. He asked me if I liked old post cards and I said yes, He handed me a book that had one or two photos per page. They all were of Ray sitting on the steps of various state capitols. He said he wanted set out to have his picture taken on the steps of every state capitol of the United States, and he has done all but one, and so the reason he hasn’t done that one yet is because they haven’t built a bridge there yet. He doesn’t fly in airplanes.

Ray and I had the same coach on Little League, Pepper Martin, who also part time played dinner time music on WFOM-AM Radio and announced the Marietta High Football games. Although, I think Ray was a year or so behind me. He was on People’s Finance Team and I was on Southern Discount.

He also told of many other things I saw in Marietta while growing up… we shared this town at the same time – same age – I am surprised we didn’t run into each other, or butted heads, or something – but again, maybe we did, and we just don’t recognize each other now… once the skin get thick, develop wrinkles, the jaws begin to sag, and hair begin to thin… well, your image changes you into a different person, whether you want it to or not.

Ray mostly lived in East Marietta, on the other side of the 4-Lane, just outside the city limits, and I was more inner city… that could explain why we do not know each other.

Ray had a moving story about a childhood friend Dennis Vines who went into the Navy and during a celebration at Midway Islands, jumped off the ship and broke his neck and back. Later, when Ray was in the Navy, and was near where Dennis was in a Naval Hospital he visited him.... he cited a poem he wrote about his friend.

I too had a friend in grammar school named Dennis. Dennis couldn’t stay out of trouble. One time the teacher sent him to the principal’s office and as he walked by the teacher he made a horrible face at her, behind her back of course, and the students roared with laughter. The teacher jumped up and marched Dennis to the principal. Dennis was only with us a year or so until his family moved out of our district. As Ray spoke, I wonder if he was talking about my old lost friend.

He mentioned WPLO Radio station. I almost forgot about WPLO. WPLO was owned by PLOW Incorporated….. We loved to listen to WPLO for a certain period… I think they changed to country, and I was more of a Top 40 Rock and Roll kind of person.

We were talking to the couple seated in front of us before the lecture started and one of the things the lady said was that she was the speaker’s sister, but he gave her instructions not to tell anybody.

Then, near the end he told of his older sister and her date carried him and his two younger sisters to the Strand Theater one night. She and her boy friend left them and went to Ringgold, Georgia, to get a quickie marriage that Ringgold was known for and he and his younger sisters walked home.

While he was telling the story the couple in front of us was blushing, chuckling, and nodding their heads. He topped it off by saying that was 50 years ago and they are still together, then he pointed them out and everybody clapped..

It was an enjoyable entertaining hour. Afterwards, I gave him a card with the electronic address of CHICKEN FAT on it. He looked at it and said, “Charles Atlas? Are you CHICKEN FAT? You wrote about Perry Parham!”

He remembered my article on Perry Parham, my friend who was a star Little League player and was ran over and killed on Gramling Street. Not only was I impressed he remembered my article, I was just as impressed that he even read CHICKEN FAT.

It is always nice when someone gives me a positive WOW! when they find out I do CHICKEN FAT.

I would answer yes to his question, “Are you CHICKEN FAT?” I have been called FAT and I have been called CHICKEN. Guilty.

Jones Drug Store

Here is a rare picture of the Strand Theater showing that Jones Drug Store was right next to it.

If I remember correctly Jones Drug Store lead off from under the marquee of the Strand, about even with the box office.

It was small store, shaped something like a lopsided pie. One end, closest to the Square was almost to a point and the other end was wider, which was the pharmacist area. Everything was neatly organized with no wasted space.

The Square also had four other drugstores: Hodges (Dunaway’s), William’s, Atherton’s, and Reynolds & Ferrell. The other drug stores had the floor space to have a soda fountain and luncheon area and a magazine rack. Not Jones’ Drugstore where ever square foot counted.

Eventually, Jones’ moved over a mile away across from Roswell Street Baptist Church where they had a big merchandise section, cosmetic section, soda counter with a grill, with lunch booths, and a big magazine section.

Mrs. Jones, Doc Jones’ wife, seemed to be all over the place with her eyes on everything.

I remember two females behind the soda fountain, one had an eye problem, and the other was Cora. Mrs. Thomas was in cosmetics, she had a son named Dickie about a year younger than me.

My, where does time go?

Here is a rare picture of the Strand Theater showing that Jones Drug Store was right next to it.

If I remember correctly Jones Drug Store lead off from under the marquee of the Strand, about even with the box office.

It was small store, shaped something like a lopsided pie. One end, closest to the Square was almost to a point and the other end was wider, which was the pharmacist area. Everything was neatly organized with no wasted space.

The Square also had four other drugstores: Hodges (Dunaway’s), William’s, Atherton’s, and Reynolds & Ferrell. The other drug stores had the floor space to have a soda fountain and luncheon area and a magazine rack. Not Jones’ Drugstore where ever square foot counted.

Eventually, Jones’ moved over a mile away across from Roswell Street Baptist Church where they had a big merchandise section, cosmetic section, soda counter with a grill, with lunch booths, and a big magazine section.

Mrs. Jones, Doc Jones’ wife, seemed to be all over the place with her eyes on everything.

I remember two females behind the soda fountain, one had an eye problem, and the other was Cora. Mrs. Thomas was in cosmetics, she had a son named Dickie about a year younger than me.

I think I remember but not positive that after Jones Drug Store moved from next door to the Strand Theater Fox Jewelers moved into their spot.

My, where does time go?

♫ BALI HAI!! ♪

click to enlarge

Do you remember the musical SOUTH PACIFIC?

I recently came across a batch of pictures of Anna’s uncle Paul. Paul served in the Marines in the Pacific in World War II.

In the above picture he is on the first row, the last one of the right. Look at the men with the coconut bras and grass skirts. Some enchanted evening – right?

Sarah C. Moody & Robert Cabel Tyson

This is my great-great grandmother Sarah C. Moody Tyson (1815-1896). She spent her formative years in Ball Ground, Georgia, but I think she was born in Dalton.

She was the daughter of Alan and Nancy Murphy Moody. Some of her siblings were born and died in Tunnel Hill and Dalton, Georgia. Both towns are in Whitfield County.

One of the many things I regret: A couple of years ago my sister and I made a little day trip to Whitfield County and while there I wanted to find West Hill Cemetery, which I knew I had some Petty and Trammell relatives buried in. While driving around on the little small car-paths in the cemetery, I rode by a big marker that said ALAN MOODY – which chances are good that was my g-g-g-grandfather, but I did not get out of the car and climb the bank to get a closer look and take a picture. I thought I could drive around the hill and get closer. Guess what? I could not find the marker again.

I hope to return someday for a second chance.

Sarah looks like she may be a Native American doesn’t she? That may be because of the clothing she is wearing.

Sarah married Robert Cabel Tyson (7 Oct 1821- 6 April 1864), September 30, 1843. They had eight children.

On these postings I normally just put living years, and skip over the exact date, but this time I thought for Robert Cabel Tyson the exact date was in order. If you know the history of the Cobb – Cherokee area, you know Sherman’s Yankees invaded the area in June of 1864, just short of two months before Robert Cabel died.

However – Some of Sherman’s Calvary were ahead of the regular troops and had some skirmishes. One, in the Tyson neighborhood about the same time Robert died, which I don’t know how he died, so don’t go blaming Sherman or his boys.

Past and Future Presidents

The other day I heard on the news that in Atlanta at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library somebody broke in and stole Jimmy’s and Rosalynn’s bikes. It was interesting because the thieves had to get by very high secret service security to get those bikes.

There is a story behind the bikes also. A local bike dealer said a secret service man brought Jimmy’s and Rosalynn’s bikes in to be repaired or tuned up, or whatever. The owner said both bikes were in bad shape so he said he just gave the couple two new bikes and I think I heard in the news jabber that they cost over $1000 each. Now, he said he is trying to find a way to give them two new bikes to replace those.

Why?

I admire Jimmy Carter as much as anybody for all he has done for World Peace and Habitat For Humanity and all other things he has done for humanity. But, he gets a good retirement plus he has had several best sellers… I’m sure they are loaded and can afford their own bicycles.

_____________________________________________________________________________


Also I heard on the news that Obama will have to give up emailing while President. It was mentioned that George Bush had to also. Presidents just don’t email. They listed a bunch of practical reasons, and I don’t remember a one of them.

But it got me wondering what is/was President-Elect Obama’s email address?

Obama4@gmail.com?

44thprez@aol.com?

Coke Was Here

This use to be Coca Cola Company years ago in Marietta.

I remember walking with my daddy up the Roswell Street Hill that the Coke building was almost at the top of pulling my wagon. Wait – now, that I am remembering details – daddy did the walking and I did the riding, in the wagon.

He would purchase a case of Cokes there. I wouldn’t think they would have any provisions for walk-in customers… but maybe it was a “who you know” thing.

Then, he would pull the wagon loaded with a wooden case of Cokes back and I had to walk… all the way back to the Clay Homes, about three blocks (downhill). Life was hell back then.

The foreground of the picture is the Marietta National Cemetery. I think I took this picture about 4 or 5 years ago. I hate to say it, but I haven’t even noticed if the building is still there. I know they have been building upscale townhouses all around it and behind it… if it is still there, it is just a matter of time until the bulldozer arrives.

The First Emperor and his Stoned Army

These pictures I coped off Google. The museum did not allow photography in this exhibit.

Yesterday we went to the High Museum to see the First Emperor, China’s Terracotta stoned Army.

Stoned Army – get it? Stick around I got more!

Actually they are not stoned, they are hardened clay.

The Terracotta Army have been in stance, spears drawn, cross-bows cocked, arrows aimed, ready to do battle for over 2100 years. Until recent times they were unknown . One day a Chinese farmer was digging a well and up comes a replica of a head. He told the authorities – this was in the 1970s, and they begin digging and found thousands of the Terracotta Army poised for battle.

They were/are guarding the first Emperor in his crypt. The guy was obsessed about death and not being able to govern all that he gained while he ruthlessly took in his small neighboring countries.

Throughout the exhibit it was mentioned that quality control was big. Foremen were accountable if whatever they were in charge of was not the best possible quality, so just about everything made had the foreman’s stamp or seal on it. And accountability could mean losing one’s head… so, I imagine quality stayed the highest.

The real live army, the ones that helped the emperor take over countries, had to show his superiors’ heads of the enemies that he just chopped off. His promotions and rank were based on the number of heads.

In a way, large organizations still work in almost the same manner, in a matter of speaking

The emperor had about a thousand workers, in assembly-line fashion, construct the thousands men of the Terracotta Army. I wonder if such details as the cooks and latrine brigade was also created for clay?

This exhibit only had about eight figures. Each figure is over six foot tall and look very imposing or intimidating. I can see how they might “scare” off the enemy that came to harm the first emperor. … but how can you harm a dead man? He was afraid for them to try anyway.

Another thing they did, was redirect an underground river to flow through the emperor’s tomb to give it a pleasant park-like setting… with clay water fowls and musicians.

But how in the world did they, over 2100 years ago redirect an underground river? I am not ever sure we have the know-how to do that today.

Back to the assembly line creating the parts: I think one little group would make the arms, another the legs, another the torso, and so on. Strangely, everyone of them looked like a different individual, even if they came from the same cast or mold… the trick was in the facial hair, head hair, and the magic of widening a nose slightly with the soft clay before it hardened, or putting a smile or smirk on some, frowns on others, and so on. Each one looked like a thinking individual.

Think Mr. Potato Head.

The lifeless life-like warriors were like having a virtual army around the emperor at all times. He could sleep peacefully….. or lie dead peacefully.

Then I came home and to relax myself form battling the I-75 northbound traffic out of Atlanta I played my virtual pool game on the computer and I noticed the game was produced by TERRA.COM.

Then, suddenly, everything made sense.

Things You Might Not Know About Ft Sumter

...but you might.

If you have a vague understanding of U.S. History, as I do, you probably read and accepted the fact that the first act of aggression concerning the Civil War was April the 12th, 1861, when the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter.

I just read the first act of aggression was, as we have been told, when the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter.. but wait! It wasn’t on April the 12th, but on this date, January 9th, 1861, when the CSA fired shots on the Star of the West, a contract ship hired to bring supplies and men to Fort Sumter.

So, what does that tell us?
A: Outsourcing is nothing new for the Federal Government.

Maybe ten or so years ago we went to Charleston and took a history tour of the town, and at night took a ghost tour… and also we went to Fort Sumter and listen to a ranger tell us interesting things about that fort.
What confounded me was I thought it was a natural island in the Charleston Bay. No no. It is man made. That was news to me. Ships from New England carried big rocks and boulders down and dumped them a certain spot. The boulders built on themselves and a man-made island was formed. Then they built a fort on top of it. I’m sure that over simplifies it, but that sort of sums it up.

That must have taken a huge amount of human muscles and broken backs and very smart engineers to do such a feat. Imagine, no kind of power-ran machines to lift those huge boulders and throw them overboard and I bet it was dangerous too. And how did they get them onto the ships to begin with? It is beyond my comprehension.

Leaders Know Best

We watched THE PEOPLE CHOICE AWARDS on CBS last night. We spent a good deal of the time saying, “Who is that?” or “I never heard of that show (or group)”.

We see our share of movies but don’t see many sitcoms or drama shows on TV.

However, one thing that perked me up was the name: THE PEOPLE CHOICE AWARDS? That name sounds socialist or communist inspired doesn’t it? People’s choice! Bah!

Of course everybody knows it is up to our leaders to decide what we like to watch the best – it is just un-American to think otherwise.

John Rafas Hunter (1870 - 1940)

These two pictures are of John Rafas Hunter (1870-1940) and his wife Lilly Hill (1875-1972). John is one of great grandfather’s son, or a brother to my grandfather.

I think John was probably born in Benton County, Arkansas, or around Grandbury, Texas. He arrived with his parents and siblings in Cherokee County, Georgia, in 1879, where he spent the rest of his life.

Three of their children either married steel workers or was one.

The oldest daughter Elaine married Paul W. Poor. They moved to Sheffield Village, Ohio, where he became manager of a steel mill. Also later he was the county’s Sheriff. They had five chiclren.

The next to the oldest daughter Emma married Andrew Abercrombie. They moved to Birmingham where Andrew worked in a steel mill. They had four children. After John Rafas died, Emma’s mother moved to Birmingham to live with Emma and her family.

The only son Walter Clarence “Brother” Hunter moved to East Chicago, Indiana, and worked in a steel mill.

And some of the next generation of males went into the steel business.

Don't you know when they got together for Christmas the biggest topic of discussion among the men folk was the latest techniques in steel producing?

The youngest daughter Guyrine died at age 18 of a rare disease. Her female friends and cousins were honorary pallbearers.

One of the real pallbearers was a young man named William “Will” Obediah Tyson. Will’s sister Minnie, married Guyrine’s uncle Frank Paris Hunter, which in time I became their grandson. Small world.

Guns Don't Shoot People

In Jackson, Ohio, an angry 4 year old shot his baby sitter. In South Fulton County, Georgia, a 7 year old girl was shot in the face, while watching TV, by drive-by shooters.

Both the baby sitter and the 7 year old girl are expected to survive.

Are the above reason good arguments for gun control?

Of course not! Owning firearms is our Constitutional right. After all, guns don’t shoot people, people do.

Therefore, outlaw people!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BONAMI 2!!!

We will see you tonight at the Olive Garden.

Billy Joe Royal's Aging Hometown Fan Club

Above is a picture of the audience at the Strand Theater in Marietta waiting on a concert by Billy Joe Royal. My friend Skip told me the date of that concert was November 28, 1958.

Notice the young fellow on the end of the second row up going up. His name was Jake Cogburn. He died almost 50 years later, October 14, 2008, of thyroid cancer.

The concert crowd to see Billy Joe on New Years Eve of 2008, was about the same crowd – the exact people, as attended the concert in 1958, minus a few, like Jake, of course.

Everybody loves to see a homeboy do good, and it even better when we knew him and he knew us. He makes us proud.

Most, if not all, of us in the audience that night qualify for retirement. I think they were all my age, give or take a year or so. When we get together at things like the Bell Reunion or the upcoming Varner’s Reunion we interact with each other about the same as we did when we were teenagers. In a sense we transform ourselves mentally into teenagers again. It is a state of mind.

I wonder, if Billy Joe gives a concert 15 years from the last concert, how many of us will be still alive to attend? Then, we will be well into our 80s…and if so, can we still transform ourselves mentally into teenagers if we have to use walkers and hear aids?

Samuel DeBarris Lance (1851-1929)

Samuel DeBarris Lance was an interesting person. He was the son of Samuel Riley and Rebecca Hunter Lance. He joined the Confederate Army at a younger age than allowed. Here is what I have in my genealogy notes about him:
Samuel had naturally curly hair.

In the Civil War he was wounded in the line of duty. He was holding a stallion during drill and was kicked in the right leg. The wound never entirely healed.
As a young man he traveled to Missiouri with his friend and companion, Sid Wright. He staked out a claim for many acres of land, which he never returned to farm.

Samuel Debarris was called "Debarris" by family and friends probably to differentiate him from his father Samuel Riley which was mostly called "Riley.

Debarris was a very young Confederate soldier. He was serving under General Lee at Ringgold Ga. He was holding the horses and was struck in the leg by a large stallion with a wound that never fully healed. He has a confederate gravestone at his grave in Hayesville, NC at the Hayesville United Methodist Cemetery. There is a record that he applied for and got a disability pension in 1925 before he died in 1929 for his service in the Confederate military. His wife Malinda Davenport Lance continued to draw the pension of about twenty-five dollars a month after his death.

In spite of his injury ,Debarris lived a very colorful and productive life. He was a tall impressive figure with brown curly hair.

His first marriage was to Tennessee Elizabeth Anderson and they produced a large family of eight to ten children. They began their marriage in Union County, Ga. but moved to Clay County, Hayesville,NC, when it may have still been called Fort Hembree for the fort that was built there to gather up the peaceful local Indians and send them on the tragic "Trail of tears". Debarris and his brother, "Andy" Lance helped built the original courthouse at what is now Hayesville, NC. They did the brick and mortor work on it and liked to tell how they walked the comb of the peak of the roof to celebrate it's completion. "Cap" Anderson had won the bid to build the courthouse and they were working with him.

Sadly, his wife Tennessee died in childbirth, giving life to her son, Charlie.

After Debarris lost his first wife, He married the very young Malinda Elizabeth Davenport. Malinda was staying with a mother that had given birth and needed assistance near Fort Hembree. Debarris then started another family of ten children.

He fathered 18 children from both wives.