SUNDAY FUNNIES!! LITTLE LULU again

Yep, Little Lulu again. I still say that Little Lulu comics are more "kids acting like adults" than PEANUTS.

Varner Reunion - April the 28th!

Horace Armfield


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29 Days Until the Varner Reunion

Carolyn Roper (soon to be Ford*), Sharon, and Lloyd Coursey.

* This picture of taken at the 2011 Varner Reunion.

Lloyd's birthday was yesterday. If you see him, wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.



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30 More Days Until the Varner Reunion

Joel Jackson


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This Day in History, March the 29th

The history that I picked and listed on this post consists of headlines that people my age were very much aware of at the time and later made it in the history books.. They were all household words– especially Marilyn Monroe!

1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg convicted of espionage.
1959 "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe & Jack Lemmon premieres.
1962 Jack Paar's final appearance on the "Tonight Show".
1971 1st Lieutenant William L Calley Jr found guilty in My Lai (Vietnam) massacre.
1973 Last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
1976 8 Ohio National Guardsmen indicted for shooting 4 Kent State student.

31 More Days Until the Varner Reunion

Bobby McEntyre


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Jim Dandy To The Rescue!

I read in the obituaries that an ex-neighbor had died. He lived with his parents across the street from our family when I was a teenager.

I don’t remember much about this guy. I think he was self-employed getting into one business adventure after the next. They all blended in. Then, his age was probably near 30, give or take.

What amused me more was he was a law and order man and was always trying to give the police a helping hand. Really! He had a large antenna on the back of his car which I suppose to listen in on police radio chatter and when he heard of potential trouble off he went to give them back up.

I wonder if he had a bullet in his gun?

I don’t know if he was deputized or just a wannabe cop, but many times at night while we were cruising we saw his vehicle speeding down the road to get someplace urgently. He was a volunteer vigilante that was hyper and nervous. I think he could have been dangerous like some are today.

32 Days Until the Varner Reunion

Diane Cooper Moss


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33 Days Until The Varner Reunion

Jackie Turner


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My Spaceship

This train engine was built by Glover Machine Works that was located in south Marietta. My grandfather worked there, my father worked there before my time, and I played there.

On Glover Street there was an old blind man named Charley and his sister that lived in an old unpainted shack behind Glover Machinery. When I was eight or nine years old on Sundays sometimes I would drop by and visit Charley and talk to him about my dad and his brothers growing up. He knew them all and remembered their antics. I wish I had retained what he told me.

Then I would leave Charley’s house and walk by their outhouse, which they had a clothesline going to the outhouse. It had two purposes: to hang clothes and to be a hand guide to lead Charley to the privy.

Behind the outhouse was a patch of woods. On the other side of the woods was a high cement or brick wall. And on the other side of the wall was the backyard of Glover Machine Works. In the middle of the yard was the above train engine. Then, it was not black; it was rust red-brown.

At the time I have seen Buck Rodgers and Flash Gordon Saturday morning serials, not to mention a comicbook animal character, a rabbit like Roger Rabbit, I think, that had a spaceship.

On Sundays mid-afternoon I was climb aboard my spaceship and fly from one trouble spot in the galaxy to another and have hand to hand combat with the most hideous evil creatures that one could imagine. I always won. Good triumphed over evil again.

34 Days Until the Varner Reunion

CW Conners


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SUNDAY FUNNIES!! MAD'S ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Alice in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.* Can you count the number of diffently produced movies you have seen another version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND? Well, here is another from from MAD Comicbook #18, published in the early 1950s. This time it was probably laid out outlined by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by Jack David.

*Lifted word-by-word, copied and pasted, straight from Wickipedia. How's that for plagiarism?

35 More Days Until the Varner Reunion

Bill Hawthorne


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The New Silent Movie THE ARTIST

(above - THE ARTIST trailer youtube)

THE ARTIST starring Jean Durjardin, Berenice, and John Goodman; directed by Michel Hazanavicius, won the Oscar for Best Picture of the year, along with several other Oscars in other categories. It won more awards than any other French film.

The joy of going to a matinee is sometimes almost having the theater to yourself. The other day we went to a matinee to see The Artist and until almost show time I thought we were going to have the whole theater by ourselves, but at the last minute another couple came in and sat in the row behind us. Were they afraid of being alone in the dark or something?

While we were waiting for the movie to start, I remembered seeing on the news about 15 years ago at that same theater the manager and a ticket clerk counted the night’s money intake and fled to Las Vegas. Apparently the law caught up with them partying as their adventure did not stay in Las Vegas. Not that their adventure has anything to do with this movie, but just an interesting side note.

The Artist is a silent movie about Hollywood during the silent movie era. The luxury living of the movie stars was all told with pictures, body language and very few sub-titles. The protagonist is a movie star who was a blend of Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and Clark Gable. His character laughed death in the face from one dare-devil stunt after another. His best friend was a little Jack Russell dog who won the hearts of at least 50% of the audience that day (the 2 of us).
The basic story line was as a famous movie star, he had an unhappy home life with his wife. Once he bumped into a girl who was trying to get into show business and used his influence to give her a chance. She became famous while he slid out of the public eye as movies began to have sound. Why? Because he refuse to adopt himself to making talkies. He had a French accent.

The movie was very artfully done with each scene a study in composition, facial expressions, and body language. In one scene, the heroine thoughtfully put her arm through the arm of the protagonist’s coat and embraced herself – just like a mime! – which the French have been perfecting for years.

Below is what Wickipedia said about the music. I was impressed how the music dominated the movie to set the mood, pace and action.

The film's music was composed by Ludovic Bource and produced in Belgium. It was recorded by Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by Ernst Van Tiel. Recording took place during six days in April 2011 at Flagey's Studio 4 in Brussels. The film's climactic scene is set to Bernard Herrmann's "Scene D'Amour" from his score to Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. In Vertigo, that composition similarly accompanies an extended scene without dialogue. Only one song (sung, with lyrics) is used in the soundtrack, "Pennies from Heaven", sung by Rose "Chi-Chi" Murphy (uncredited). This song was written in 1936 although the film is set between 1927 and 1932.

My rating is: “A Very Good Movie”.

36 More Days Until the Varners' Reunion

L to R: Paul Roper, Joyce & Melvin Denard, Horace Armfield, Ronnie Knilghton, and Ray Denard.

This was the pre-Varner's Reunion Meeting held in the parking lot of Burlington Outlet, and formerly Varner's Parking lot.

For details CLICK HERE.

Chickens Anyone?

I hear a lot about people recuing dogs and cats but I haven't heard of anyone rescuing chickens.

Now is your chance to show what a humane person you really are. If you live in the Cobb County, Georgia, area you can rescue 8 chickens in one swoop. the owner has to get rid of them and is looking for a good home for them. They are not house broken or anything like that, but they do lay eggs. It is like they are paying rent with the eggs. The present owner does not consider them poultry but pets that lay happily keeps them in eggs. I don't know if they have names or not.

If you are interested in savings the lives of 8 upstanding little lives email me now at ethunter@bellsouth.net.

37 Days Until the Varners' Reunion

I took the above picture at the 2009 Varner's Reunion of the husband and wife Judy and Steve. It is a picture of a pleasant looking couple and that is about it. Last year, doing about the same I am doing now, I ran it on the this blog saying, "16 More Days to the Varners' Reunion." And that is it. I don't know why but the blog post became very popular on the Internet getting on some days between 20 and 40 hits and on any day at least 10 hits. Now, it has slacked off. Figure that one out!

The reunion is on April the 28th - for more information CLICK HERE!

38 Days Until the Varners' Reunion

Brothers Tommy & Terry Towsend


April the 28th. For more details CLICK HERE!

GOBAG Video in B&W - Why?

You might ask why did I video a GOBAG meeting in black & white. Maybe it was because I could. But that is not the real reason.

Monday we went to see the movie THE ARTIST which is a newly made black & white silent movie, which was an inspiration to do this. I originally planned to have close ups of different faces, and little subtitles saying ridiculous out of character statements. Then, after realizing how much work would be involved, I backed out.

Here are the leftovers.

39 Days Until the Varners' Reunion!

Arnold Guest

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HAPPY 1ST DAY OF SPRING!

40 Days & 40 Nights Until the Varners' Reunion!

Bill Grizzard & David Clackum

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Equal Opportunity to be Groped

The adjc.com reported last week that a female 46 year-old assistant Fire Chief of Peachtree City took an early retirement the day before an attorney released the findings of an internal investigation. In the allegations, of sexual harassment or misconduct of the assistant chief at a department installation and Award Dinner at the Flat Creek Country Club .

The article said she was accused of groping one man and two women and dancing very sexual with one of her male subordinates. It went on to say that she will not face formal charges for the allegations but a complaint has been filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity.

Who complained? I bet it were the non-gropees. After all, they did file with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Department – their non-groped status was not very “equal opportunity”. Not being groped could have been a public embarrassment.

41 Days Until the Varner Reunion

Danny Hardin

For more information and details CLICK HERE!

SUNDAY FUNNIES!!! HUMBUG's TV Commercials

This came from the pages of HUMBUG Magazine, issue #9, 1958. It was probably written by Harvey Kurtzman and was illustrated by Will Elder. It is a spoof on the TV industry patting itself on the back and also a spoof on commercials. Incidentally, on yesterday's blog, the Saint Patty's Parade, illustrated by Arnold Roth was pulled from the same magazine.

Eat Your Corn Beef!

And drink your Guiness!

HAPPY SAINT PATTY'S DAY! Cheers.

42 Days Until the Varner's Reunion

Brothers Mark & Bill McGee

April the 28th!

For information and detailsCLICK HERE

Cheated For The Wrong Reason

This morning’s ajc.com lead in to a story headline was: Feds Give Georgia $19.2 Million To Help Low-Performing Schools.It has been widely reported that a large number of Atlanta teachers were caught cheating on students’ exams to bring up the Atlanta Public School’s performance average. It is an on-going investigation and there have been firings, paid administration leave, denials, and firings pending further investigations.

WAIT! They got it all wrong! They should have picked the smartest students exam papers and change their answers to be wrong, to bring DOWN their average to qualify for a chunk of that $19.2 million.

Billy and Sarah's 75th Wedding Anniversary

The picture on the right is William Henry "Billy" (1846-1944) and his wife Sarah Ellizabeth Bagley Mathis (1849 - 1944), Anna's great great grandparents on her mother's mother side, celebrating their 75th Wedding Anniversary. I suppose Billy is serenading her.

This picture was in the GEORGIA BACKROADS, Spring 2012 issue.

Billy lost one of his legs in a Civil War battle. He died in October 1944, the same month the picture was taken and Sarah died two months later in December.

GEORGIA BACKROADS got this picture from the Vanishing Georgia Project, which Anna's mother Marie contributed.

43 Days Until the Varners' Reunion

Beth Sorrell & Harry Hansen

See your friends again.

Varner 4th Annual Reunion Just Around the Corner!

(click on the above image to enlarge to read)

The bottom part of the poster is missing, electronically whacked off. Monty sent a picture of the full poster, but not being a computer guru somehow I couldn't figure out out how to print the whole picture to turn around and scan it. What is missing is the rest of Campbell High School spelled out and also Sprayberry High School - and maybe also Humpty Dumpty Nursery.

44 Days Until the VARNER'S REUNION!

Ex-Mayor Bill Dunaway

This Date, March 14th, in History:

1794 Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin.

Do you know the story of background story of Eli Whitney inventing the cotton gin? Have you heard my version? If not, then I know you are a newcomer to this blog. Here, I’ll tell it again: General Nathan Greene, Revolutionary War hero, was given Mulberry Grove Plantation , close to Savannah, by the state of Georgia for their appreciation of him. After they got the plantation running the General died and his wife, Catharine “Caty” Littlefield Greene, was left in charge.

She had three rather famous visitors, at different times: One was George Washington to visit his old comrade. Another one was General “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, also a General of the Revolutionary War, who apparently came for the same reason , and both not learning of Nathaniel’s death until their arrival. “Lighthorse Harry” was Robert E. Lee’s father. Also, “Lighhorse Harry” died on his visit there.


The third visitor, apparently knew of Nathaniel’s death. He came to apply for a teacher’s job that Caty ran an ad in the papers. He didn’t get the job, because it had already been filled. Caty invited Eli to stay for a few days before his long journey back. While there, he invented the cotton gin and he needed one more item which he was going to have to make and Caty thought of her comb and gave it to him, and walla! The cotton gin was born.

Now, back to Eli arriving and finding out the teacher job had already been filled. I believe there is a strong possibility the person who filled that job was Winston Tyson, sister of my great-g-g grandfather Eugene Hargraves/Job Tyson. It is recorded that was a teacher for the Greene children at Mulberry Grove Plantation – I just can’t find the exact dates she taught there.



1879 Albert Einstein Ulm Germany, was born.(E=mc²/Theory of Relativity, Nobel 1921).

If Einstein stayed in Germany he would have probably been killed by the Nazis because of what he was, not who he was. I wonder how many very gifted people the United States Government let slip through their fingers because of what they were.

Look! More Patriotic Outfits!

Wonder Woman
Evel Knievel

On This Date March 13th:

1852 The Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly

Checking Out the CAPTAIN AMERICA movie

We watched the movie CAPTAIN AMERICA yesterday. I thought it was pretty good. It is based on the comicbook character with the same name. It was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. It starred Chris Evans and directed by Joe Johnston.

It was a Marvel production and I Stan Lee was one of the two executive producers.

I have been a comicbook fan for over 65 years but I never took much of an interest in many superheroes, with the exception of Batman, Superman, Plastic Man, and maybe the Mariner or whatever his name was. Then when Spiderman came on the scene I took an interest in him too.

By watching the movie, I think I would have enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA.

The movie has a certain way about it as did RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I think Joe Johnston must have been a big fan of Steven Speilberg. They went to great details making the cars and the clothes look like the 40’s, and how hateful Nazi leaders were.

The movie was crammed full of action with a lot of weaponry and a lot of hand to hand combat… and even a shy boy- girl relationship (no fondling – just one quick kiss). But where it fell short of a hot romance it did make up in lots of bad guys being blown to bits.

I give it a Pretty Good.

Take Care of Their Own

Last night, just before bedtime I routinely let our dog Willow out to “take care of business”. Usually, within minutes she is back at the door scratching.; but not this time.

That wasn’t like her. I got a flashlight and went to the back yard to check things out. In the darkness of a tree shadow of moonlight I heard a crunch, then another crunch. I shined my light in the direction and saw Willow bent over something.
I moved in closer to get a better look. Willow was standing over a freshly killed rabbit (two pieces). It was severed about an inch below its neck. Angrily I made Willow go back inside with me.

It was not entirely her fault, although she was the one that did the killing and was about the one to do the eating. She was bred to hunt. It was an instinct. She had killed chipmunks, squirrels, and other rabbits who dared come into our back yard. Most get away but at times I have seen her snatch a poor animal behind its neck, give it a good jerk and it suddenly becomes limp.

I thought I would get rid of the rabbit’s remains in the morning when it was daylight. We considered the options of burying it, flinging it someplace far out in the woods, or whatever. Finally, we decided to put it in several layers of plastic bags. Pour a box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda in behind it and put it in our garbage can.

This morning, after our walk I waited for it to get daylight and then I went to the backyard with several plastic bags. I had a mission.

The rabbit (both parts) was gone. I looked all over our chain-linked back yard and it was not there. The only thing I can figure that it was eaten by either hawk, owl, fox, or whatever else scavenger or animal of prey. One thing for sure nature took care of its own doing its Chain of Life thing.

You heard the expression We Take Care of Our Own haven't you?