The Deck Hummingbird - One more time before Migration

Note. Just in case you don't know, I didn't until recently, if you click on the bottom right corner of the video it blows up to a full screen video.

This Day In History, September the 30th

1915: Lester Garfield Maddox (1915-2003) (Gov-D-Ga)/restaurant owner was born.




1924: Truman Capote (1924-1984) a short short story writer (In Cold Blood) was born. In the above picture Truman looks more like THE SHADOW.

1960: On Howdy Doody's last show Clarabelle finally said something: "Goodbye Kids."


It is a funny that Maddox and Capote had the same birthday. I don’t think they care for each other. They were once both guests on the Dick Cavett Show the same evening. We were in the audience. If I remember correctly Lester got mad and stormed off. It was plain that Lester did not like his birthday partner Truman. I think in Lester’s eyes not only was Truman a liberal but he had sissy ways!

After Lester stormed off the Dick Cavett Show he got more mileage out of it than Capote. Lester Maddox begin to publicly make fun of Truman Capote’s effeminate charming ways by imitation his high voice and wearing dark glasses and a dark coat when doing so*. You can’t beat Southern Humor of making fun of somebody different.

*Actually, the imitation looked more like Dr. Strangelove more than Truman Capote.

I bet across the nation today in 2011 more people will recognize Clarabell than Maddox or Capote.






Goodbye Kids!

Chief Joseph H. Vann (1798-1844)

Did you ever see the Vann House on the state hwy 52 and Federal Hwy 225 crossing just outside Chatsworth in Murray County, Georgia?

My anscestor, Jesse Bookout worked for Chief Vann. The funny part about it, back then, it was a Georgia law that a white man could not for an Indian. When the officials found out they sent in the militia to put an end to it.


Chief Joseph Vann inherited the big white house, in an indirect kind of way, from his father Chief James Vann. He owned thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves. I think it was his father James who had a very cold blooded cruel streak in him. Joseph was a sharp businessman. I toured the Vann House with my two sons one day years ago. Did you know there are no nails in the house? It is held together by pegs and spikes and things. And also, the staircase has no support; there is nothing holding it up. It was explained to me how it kept standing all these years, but it was physics talk, which went in one ear and out the other. I just nodded my head to pretend I understood what the docent was talking about. I didn't want him or my two sons to think I was dumber than I acually am.

Armchair Review of the Bell Reunion this past weekend.

I think this past Larry Bell Park Reunion was a big success, thanks to Neal Lawrence. Neal did an excellent job orchestrating all his volunteers. Everything was great.

I love to see old friends that I knew in my early life before we went our separate ways. I like to remember the times we had and also get up to date in what is new in their lives. Here are some interactions I had:

One old friend I was in the Boy Scouts with came up to me and said, “You are on the wanted list. ”He went on to explain that I was listed as one of the missing of the 1961 class that the Class Reunion people were trying to locate. I told my friend I was not in the 1961 class, I was in the 1960 class. He said I was on the list anyway. I said I couldn’t be. He had the list folded up in his pocket. He took it out and handed it to me and told me to see for myself. I looked over the list. My name wasn’t on it. I told him so. He said it was too. I told him to show me. He looked it over closely, saying he didn’t have his glasses with him. He put the paper closer to his face and said, “Here!” He pointed at the name Eddie Prather. I told him that was not me, my name is Eddie Hunter. Being an invisible man I completely understand his mix-up.

We are not young. We are grandparents and great grandparents age. But when we come together I think our brains click over another mode – the same mode it was in back in the 50s when we were surrounded by the same people as the reunion day. When together we may have the mind-set of our teenage years but sometimes the subject of our conversations were much different – l am recalling three of us discussing the pros and cons of Flomax and seepage.

I saw one old friend that was there last year. With him were two old men (just like the rest of us). I noticed their name tags and noticed that one of the men had the same name as the person that lived across from the first man on Glover Street when we were kids. The other old man’s last name was the same as the first man’s cousin who lived in the same house as the first man. Then I saw is first name and it was the same as his first cousin. Well, damn! They have remained close all these years and I got left out! I sat down and with them took each family’s name on Glover and Manget Streets and they knew something about most of them – I mean what happened to them and all. I hope to see them at the next reunion to prod them some more.

One friend, Jerry was there, to the surprise to some. He had a heart attack just a week or two ago and some expected him to die within a day or so. He looked as radiant as ever. Another friend, H.A., was there in a wheelchair all the way from the Veterans’ Hospital in Milledgeville. There were others there that were fighting cancer and appeared to be winning. We renewed our friendships of friends of our youth that we haven’t seen for a while and surge our memories. It’s good for your mind.

More About Last Saturday, the 24th!

Wait! I’m not through with Saturday, September 24, 2011 yet.

See my hand above? Do you see the little bites and the little pus heads?

Saturday evening we went to the cemetery to put new artificial flowers down at our parents’ graves. At the head of each flat bronze marker is a metal vase to hold flowers. When the vase is not in use holding flowers it should be turned upside down and into a hole about as deep as the vase is, to hold it. When we had the vase out of my parents’ marker I noticed the hole had debris in it, such as dead grass clipping, dirt, pieces of Styrofoam, etc. I reached my hand into the hole to clean it out. After two handfuls of debris and in for the third handful I noticed a weird tingling feeling all over my hand. I pulled it out of the hole and it was covered ants! Hundreds of them. Most were biting and others were crawling in all directions.

They were hard to rake off because I think their teeth, pinchers, or whatever they have had a firm hold of my flesh. Well, with enough dancing and cursing I managed to get them all off.




For the next hour or so my poor hand experience little pain pings all over. But, as you can tell by this text (that was typed using these hands) I got through it and lived and so did my hands. Now, there are only little pus capped bumps to prove my painful ordeal.

I don’t want to squeeze the bumps because I take blood thinner medicine and I bleed rather freely. Just wait until you see the pictures of my hemorrhoids tomorrow and you’ll know what I’m talking about.*



*just joking.

Bell Reunion Sept 24, 2011, the Video

Yesterday you saw the still pictures of the Bell Reuion this past Saturday. Today you see the video of the same people (more or less) making facial expressions and talking. Gosh-a-rootie!!!

Note on the previous post

If you had already looked over the previous post, hours earlier, you might want to look over it again, I put names in whenever I could. And if you see any mistakes with the names, let me know. This an't the NY Times, we make mistakes.

Bell Reunion, September 24, 2011

Still Photos - click on each photo to enlarge, if you want to see it bigger.

Phyllis Murner Roan & Hubby
Larry & Barbara White
Monty Calhoun, Frances Hunter, & Sue Varner

Mark McGee, H.A. Hanson, & Parks Groover

Neal Lawrence
Faye Murner
Jackie Barfield
James Caudell & Haydn McLean

Harry Hanson & Arnold Guest


Rick Kendricks, Sandy Ramsey, & David Cain
Joel Jackson

Janiece Jackson, Joyce J Denard, & Melvyn Denard

James Kirk, Marvin Shaw, & Mrs. Shaw


Horace Armfield
Charles Dawson
Jerry McBee, Sandy Ramsey, & Dale Dean

James Chastain & Mickey Wilbur
Benny Thurmond
Pat Rich
Jackie Gaskin
Patricia Whiten
Jerry McBee


Bobby McEntyre & Calvin Wallace
David Cain, Ray & Melvyn Denard
H Armfield, David Hughes, & Ronning Knighton
Sisters Marvalyn & Brenda

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Elder Does Sci-Fi

Will Elder wandered away from MAD comicbook momentarily to do the art for an EC Science Fiction story. I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know which EC sci-fi comicbook it came from. I scanned it last week then tossed the comicbook by into my collection. Now, I can't find it.

North Carolina Wild Flowers

Don't forget, when you are exposed to the local pollen of an area be sure and take a swig of honey, locally produced in that same area. That is what I think, anyway.

Lookee!! More OMs at the 2009 Bell Reunion

And tomorrow, Saturday Septemb 24, is the 2011 Bell Reunion.