The Exclusive Chicken-Fat Reading Clubhouse

I recently discovered there is another reader of Chicken-Fat who works in Villa Rica, Georgia. This one is a male. The other Villa Rica Chicken-Fat reader is a female.

I wonder if they are fans? Or are they critics? Or do they read Chicken-Fat neither as fans or critics, but as researchers. They are looking for me to mess up so they can run and tell somebody I was talking about them in a bad way and maybe the people they tell sue me and they will get a percentage. I know how people are!

Whether they are fans, critics, or researchers I think they should meet weekly and discuss my writings and swap notes.

Just think, there are so many readers of Chicken-Fat in Villa Rica they could fill a house up from wall to wall. *

*Providing the house is a co-ed two-seater.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Teachers

Silver Tongue Devil

Ralph Harper took this picture at the Bell Reunion and I was completely unaware of his action. See what just one beer does to me? Also, I notice, if I use my nick-name Ralph Harper and I have the same initials...disreguarding the middle one.

You can tell by the music that I am doing some smooth talking to Sandy.

And what do you think Sandy is thinking? Maybe it is "I hope that handsome brute sweep me off my feet!"

or

"I hope that red nose isn't catching!"

1959 OLYMPIAN - More Teachers

The G Is Back In GOBAGS

As you can see by the video we were not exactly talking about important issues of the day. But we did tell a few remembrances about our teenage years and tried to remember a few names of some off-name beers we consumed back then. Plus Arnold told of a few thrilling no contest fights he had. We were regular swashbuckling adventurers back then, weren’t we?

On this Date In History, September the 28th

On this date in 1850 Flogging in the US Navy and on merchant ships was abolished.

Which, I’m sure it was abolished in the postal system of the time too. This reminds me of an incident in the post office in the late 1960s.

At the Parcel Post Annex in Atlanta there was a supervisor named Barnwell. Anew mailhandler was assigned to Barnwell to work on the loading dock. Apparently, a mistake was made by the new man and a dispatch of some mail was not sent in time. Barnwell got reprimanded by his immediate boss. Barnwell was telling one of his men about the situation and said he should kick the new man’s ass. Denard told him not to worry about it, he would take care it.

Denard took the new man around back and kicked his ass.

Barnwell got reprimanded again.

Later I got to know Barnwell better and I bet it was all Barnwell’s fault. He was not a detailed man. And saying something like that around a crazed lunatic like Denard was just plain not-paying –attention- to- how- people- are as you can get.

Al Capp, (Alfred Gerald Caplin) creator of the LI’L ABNER comic strip, was born this date in 1909.

I am rereading the daily LI'L ABNER comic strips from the first one to the lastone for the 4th time now. It put such a good satire and farce of modern society it is worth the time – in case I missed something.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Teachers

Last Friday Night Continued -

Flashback: Back at Glover Park.

Back to the concert Friday night: Where was I?

We got to sit at a reserved front row table with Rupert who commandeered the table. Rupert is a unique individual that just about everybody that comes to downtown Marietta knows Rupert by name and he knows their names - and their spouses and children. He seems to always have something going on. He is also generous with his time, cooking for organizations dinners, etc.

Politicians like to talk to him. I think they know that having been seen talking to Rupert is a good thing.

One of the people dropping by to talk to Rupert was Terry Poor. Then his lovely wife Cynthia dropped by. Rupert invited them to sit with us.

I believe we all are no more than 3 or 4 deep from each other, so it is just a matter of asking the right questions to find out just how you are connected to the stranger you are talking to. I think I probably asked the right questions – or no, they already knew we were related because they are friends with my first cousins Johnny and David Hunter. In this case, no right questions were needed. We share the same Hunter and Ray genes. We are both decedents of William A. Hunter, aka William A. Trammell, and his wife Emaline Ray.

I think Terry and I had a good conversation about our family members.

The band GLOW was very good. They were very lively. The second scene of this video shows Terry dancing with his granddaughter and the third scene is the band playing. A small Flip camera that I use does not do justice to the band. They were good. I was fascinated by one of the band players, a tall guy playing a guitar – or pantomiming playing a guitar, I’m not sure which, who was very lively running back and forth across the stage making insane faces. They put on quiet a show.

Click on their name in the above paragraph and visit their website.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Teachers

Bell Gang Reunion September 25, 2010

Saturday was the annual Bell Gang Reunion.

The top video is a quick whistle stop view of it all, without any words. I found that these homemade video productions are usually pretty bad on the ears. When many people are present there is always the roar of the crowd and words scattering all over your brain. It simplifies it to try to substitute appropriate music for the occasion.

However, the second video are some of the same scenes that has understandable words and sentences that make sense with not much of a background word-racket. You might say the second video had meaningful verbiage.

I think both videos show that everybody had a great time at this year’s Bell Reunion.

SUNDAY FUNNIES - THE HAUNT OF FEAR

EC's THE HAUNT OF FEAR comicbook dabbled in horror and ghost stories. Hey, here is one now, titled SUCKER BAIT illustrated by Graham "Ghastly" Ingels Ghastly also did the cover. You can see he earned his nickname the hard way.

A Poor Man

At the last concert of the downtown Marietta Glover Park series last night I met another cousin that is a Marietta resident and apparently always has been. He and his wife live just a couple doors down from my first cousin David Hunter. His name is Terry Poor.

We grew up in a small town that became a big town. It is surpisingly we have not cross paths. Well, we could have a couple of years ago, but due to my scattered brain way of doing things we didn't. He called our number and left a message. I didn't return his call. Well, my defense is that I don't remember doing that. But on the other hand, I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning either.

I bet people find plenty of puns to use with his name, so he is probably sick of it. He appears to be a very charming likable guy, but how many Poor puns can he take? Deep within his mind the dark side of him is probably saying, " Someday I'll show'em!"

But Terry does read Chicken-Fat.com, which proves he is a very good person.

We share William A. Trammell/Hunter and his wife Emaline Ray as progenitors. There genes are our genes. Terry is decended from William's only daugher Arminta. Do you know why her name was Arminta? A lady in a little community of Andersonville, just about a mile north of Woodstock, cared for William after he was shot in the Civil War.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Teachers

Hey Teach!
Hey Daddy-O!

Bell Reunion This Saturday

The Bell Boys Reunion will be this coming Saturday, Sept 25, 2010.
at the Horace Orr American legion. Somebody said to bring chairs.

They also said 2pmish will be eating time.

Saturday will be the day you can tell that 73 year-old drunk about the crush you had on him or her in high school.

1959 OLYMPIAN - PTA

The Yuppie Preppy Teenage Girl Vagabond

Yesterday we got our flu shots and I got my shingles shot. I never thought much about shingles, even after hearing some gory details of how shingles can affect the human body. Then, a friend had the shingles and I heard a more one on one account. It sounded more personal. The shingles effected some of my friend’s organs such as his kidneys. Then he went on a dialisis machine and finally, his daughter is donating one of her kidneys to him.

I thought it might be in my best interest to get a shingles shot.

The flu vaccine is just about readily available at any pharmacy that sells shots, it seemed. But to find someone that had the shingles vaccine and for your insurance to fit or conform to their list – well, that is another story. We spent a good two or three hours in pursuit of the vaccine. If I understand it, the vaccine has to be stored in a frozen state, and what is thaw out for the day has to be used that sameday.

One drugstore had plenty but our insurance did not jive with what they accepted. Another drugstore chain jived with our insurance but they did not sell the shingles vaccine. Finally we found a grocery store pharmacy that had the vaccine – or they had one dose left. We dropped everything and went there and I got the shot. It is a once in a lifetime shot. Anna got her shot last year.

The druggist was an expert shot giver. Neither one of us felt the needle. Afterwards she told us to stick around the store about ten more minutes, then we could go. I think she wanted to make sure we had no adverse reaction. She said they were now out of the shingles vaccine and will have to wait for another shipment.

I thought of an old postal state of mind quote: “Who cares? I got mine!”

Not long afterwards we were each eating a roast beef sandwich at Arby’s on Sandy Plains Road. In the booth next to us were three well behaved young teenagers. I doubt if they were old enough to drive yet. They were all dressed nicely, stylish, and expensively.

Suddenly one of the teenage girls was standing in front of us. She said she and her friends were practicing basketball at Sprayberry High School. She asked for a quarter very directly, “Would you please give me a quarter?”

“Why do you need a quarter?” we asked.

She looked at us like thinking, “What business is it of yours?” But thinking about it for a moment responded.

“To pay for my food.” She said. We gave her a quarter. She thanked us and walked away.

Later, the girls all together. As they left they all rang the brass bell to let the Arby’s help and the customers know that they were happy with their service. The Arby’s girl behind the counter hollered out a “thank you” and I felt we should have thanked them too.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Admin Educators

GOBAG minutes

The GOBAG meeting was pleasant yesterday evening. One pleasant thing was seeing an old friend, Bill Rampley, showed up on his own power. Bill has been very ill lately. But he has been taking treatments and yesterday looked very robust. Bill is also a big man. Looking robust and as big as he is, if threatened to beat up everybody in the house the house would soon be vacant leaving only Bill and the waitress with a bunch of unpaid bar-tabs.

Also, on the video you might see in the title that the word GOBA is used and not GOBAG. You might think it is another error on my part. Wait! Maybe not. What does GOBAG stand for? It is an anagram for Good Old Boys and Girls. So, what would it be if no girls show up? GOBA for "Good Old Boys And…”

So, there you go!

1959 OLYMPIAN - Dedication Miss Clara Nolen

I had Miss Nolen for 11th Grade English. She was a very intelligent jovial lady that taught well. Because of her I can still cite many of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry:

I was a child
and she was a child,
My Annabella Lee.

We loved with a love
more than love,
Me and my Annabella Lee.

"or somehting like that" I mumble as I bow.

September 21st's Days in History

1863 - Union forces retreat to Chattanooga after defeat at Chickamauga, which is just west of Dalton, Georgia. Chickamauga was the 2nd most killing field in the Civil War.

1947 - Stephen King was born. Stephen King, I think, is the most prolific of substance writer I have evern read...and he just keeps on banging them out. I became a Stephen King burned-out many years ago.

1948 - "Texaco Star Theater" with Milton Berle premieres on NBC-TV. Remember Uncle Miltie and how he loved to parade around dressed in drag and we just howled. A man dressed up in a dress! How funny! we thought.

1959 OLYMPIAN - the spirit of things

Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite!!

How would the above be for a title of new Hollywood horror-thriller movie?

We have been hearing on the news lately that the bedbug epidemic is becoming a national concern. New York City, so I read, is infested terribly with the little varmints. Because New York is sort of a hub, the bedbugs are finding homes to raid all over the USA.

Of course the politicians and organizations that make their way in life by packaging fear will have a new target; a new purpose.

No bed, no house, no human is safe from being covered with bedbugs. And they are hard to get rid of. According to Google research bedbugs don’t eat you, they suck blood out of you and leave big opened sores.




On my walk this morning I was thinking it might make a good horror movie. In one scene there is a bed infested with bedbugs so thick the bed quivers like a living creature… then show an actress getting ready for bed, unaware of the quivering bed she is about to climb into. Somebody in the audience, who gets absorbed in movies jumps up and hollows at the screen: “DON’T GET INTO THAT BED!!!”

But of course she doesn’t hear the warning and climbs into bed. The next scene will show close-ups of the little creatures crawling and chomping. There will be screams from the audience.

What is a good horror flick without a good sexy scene? We will see a young actress, who hasn’t made a name for herself yet, climb into bed and the bedbugs leap on her, which she jumps out of bed and try to shake the bedbugs off, then she quickly get rid of her pj’s, still shaking her body . That would be reason enough for many men to buy a ticket.

To keep it in balance we need a shaking young man too.

I hear the ticket booth’s cash register chinging in my mind now.

1959 OLYMPIAN - Front Cover and Table of Contents

Here we go again!

Double Feature: Antiques and Shiny Old Cars

It seems there is always a good excuse to have a festival in downtown Marietta. People love to come to these weekend things. Usually they have eats and it is always fun to watch people.

Downtown Marietta has an antique thing around this time every year with some of the same venders returning. There was one man who had a booth that had the best old post cards. I remember flipping through his cards many times. Apparently, he got tired of all that flipping and no buying. I didn’t see his booth this year.

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

One of the things I don’t like about all these festivals is that they move the Saturday Farmer’s Market to a more remote place. I like consistently, I bet the venders of the Farmer’s Market do too.




This weekend there was also an antique auto show managed by the Marietta Museum of History. They offered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes. At the museum the other day when we went to hear the lecture about Regina Rambo Benson the lady head of the museum said last year because of bad weather, and no restored antique car owner wants to take their car out in bad weather, only three participants showed up, just enough to receive the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! DEATH STAND!

This was originally a story from EC TWO-FISTED TALES. My copy is a recycle product published by Russ Cochran. The cover is illustrated by Harvey Kurtzman and the story was illustrated by Jack Davis, but written by Harvey Kurtzman. Harvey was the comic’s editor too.

The story takes place during the Korean War. As in all of Kurtzman’s stories the heroes do not always live, the same as the real world.