HAPPY BIRTHDAY Handwash Song

What would you think if you walked into a public restroom and every person  standing at a hand wash basin was singing the HAPPY BIRTHDAY song?   All were singing at different points of the song.  Some were beginning and some were ending.  After you finish your business you too would go over and start your Happy Birthday song.   I guess some would really put their hearts in their singing and some will sing in drudgery.

The other days on the news one newscaster asked the other how long should you was your hands?  As long as it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song.

Of course,  while scrubbing down doctors and nurses might want to add a few more verses or maybe even make wishes. 

William D. Petty (1834-1917)

Here is what I have on my great Uncle Danel Webster Petty's brother William D. Petty

William loved to quote from the Bible and sing religious hyms.

This is from the publication SUMACH ON THE HILL:

William D. Petty was born on November 29, 1834 and was almost 83 years old at the time of his death.  He was recognized  as one of the best successful farmer and a deeply religious  man.  He was seventeen years old when Sumach Church was organized may have been one of the charter members.

At age 32 in 1866, William D. Petty was ordained an elder and served for the next 51 years.  He remembered the first church building and the first shed used at Shumach for camp meetings and revivals.  He was likely one of the leaders in the establishment of the Sumach Seminary around 1876.  He also attended all presbytery  meetings as a ruling elder of the Sumach congregation for many years.  On September 21, 1904 he voed with a majority of the ruling elders and ministers of the Chattanooga Presbytery in opposition to the organic union of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

In 1913  William D. Petty donated the necessary funds and building materials to construct a second shed at Sumach.  An old brush arbor  which had stood for many years was destroyed and the second shed was located  on or near the site of the first.

Someplace I read he was very versed on the Scriptures, could read Latin and love sing Hymns..  He also came to the church early every Sunday in the winter to get the stoves burning.

Checking out the tastless movie BAD GRANDPA

We rented BAD GRANDPA tonight.  It is so terrible and in poor taste it is good.  It is a road trip movie and obnoxiously gross.  It is also obnoxiously funny.    Farting contests and it splatters all over a restaurant's wall?  Really!  The old man is constantly looking for "poon-tang" from Missouri or Iowa to Raleigh, North Carolina and has the most disgusting pickup lines.  One unique thing about the movie I think there were very few real actors.  Most of the people you see are having honest human down-to-earth reactions and comments, they didn't know they were being filmed.  Not bad, in a way.

Bhob Stewart (1937 - 2014)

book Bhob compiled and edited

Bhob Stewart died Monday, March 24, 2014.    I electronically met Bhob through MAD comicbook, sort of.  When the Internet and bulletin boards were young we crossed paths making comments there.

In the 1990s MAD comic books were republished in four hardbound volumes, along with all the other EC comicbooks, usually with expert opinions and knowledge shared on  pages between stories .  There were three or four experts.  Bhob Stewert was one of them.

Later we ran into each other again and we became friends.  Bhob was professionally a comic book writer, TV critic, book compiler, and editor and he probably wore other publishing hats that I overlooked.

He and my friend Par Holman know more about the comicbook industry than - well, I ever will learn.  And both shared their knowledge  very generously

.

We would often share MAD artists stuff that we thought the other did not know about.

Also, I got to know his brother Joe Stewart and became friends with him.  Joe and I are both bloggers and we are both Tuba Skinny fans which we are always plugging.  Joe's blog is Tally Ho!  or
http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com.

Comicbook Bhob created

In the past couple of years Bhob had been trying to talk me into visiting Jack Davis at his home on Saint simon's Island on the Georgia coast.  He even gave me Davis's address and telephone number, an letter on what I should say when I write him asking him for an interview  and a list 50 questions to ask him, which he wanted me to video.  I just did not have the balls to do it.  But Bhob was persistent.  He continued to send me links to  articles  that pertained to Davis.

I noticed through the years Bhob was a very focused "on task" individual.  He never strayed off the subject.

Saturday or Sunday, he sent me a picture of Jack Davis, which was a black and white picture with Jack on a motorcycle, it was probably taken in the early '50s.  Another  push?

I got an email from his brother Joe Tuesday, February 25,, telling me Bhob had died the day before.   He was 76.  He lived in Plymouth, MA.

Jack Davis, illustrator for UGA Booster club & MAD

Pigging Out at Righteous Que

One of the best barbecue joints in  Marietta is RIGHTEOUS QUE..  The pork is divine, or you could say

the swine

is divine. 

But,  the beef brisket  is even better  than the pork.

The co-owner, and Patrick, seems to be the manager in charge, seems to know all the top barbecue restaurants  owners in Marietta and even  knows their spouses.  Apparently, he worked for or with them all at one time or another.  I suppose that is how he learn to cook such mouth watering meat.  The pork tastes a lot like Sam Huff's BBQ #1. Davie Poe's BBQ2, and Grand Champion BBQ (GC BBQ).

The sides are good too.

They are kind of frugal with their bread though.  You have to ask for it.    I never heard of barbecue served without bread until we walked in this restaurant.   We asked for bread and the bread they delivered is high quality.

The restaurant is a small hole-in-the wall in the Publix Shopping Center at Roswell and East Piedmont Roads.  It has only 6 small tables, so I think  it is probably more cut out more for carry out.  The first time we ate there, and next two times we carried out.  Last night we had BBQ pulled pork salads.  The salad itself it just a salad.  Lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, but the pork and the barbecue sauce made it.

Speaking of barbecue sauce they have regular sweet barbecue sauce and also white barbecue sauce that is supposed to be like the white mayo-based barbecue sauce in north Alabama.

Patrick is red headed and very polite and customer friendly.  I think the "Righteous" in the  name refers to a religious experience he had or felt. 

I mentioned Patrick was red headed because I thought it was interesting that a young man and a young lady, at two different times worked there were also red headed.  I wonder if they are close kin?

And  Jim's Smokin' Que just south of Blairsville is run by a mother and father and 3 red headed daughters works there.  Could it be a family chain?

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Artist

Today ,  February 24, is the birth date of Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910).   Winslow was an artist.  One time we went to an art  exhibition of Winslow Homer at the  High Museum in Atlanta.  I was impressed with his works. 

These two paintings  shown here are the two I first think of when I hear his name.  One of the shackled slave on a abandoned little boat in troubled waters I have seen all my life and the sharp shooter  I keep thinking of the  his quote.  He was a war correspondent illustrator  for Harper's Weekly during the Civil War.  He said something like,  "A sharp shooter in a tree  is nothing but a professional murderer."

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! BULL RUN!

Remember, click on image to make it larger and readable.

In June of this year it will be 150 years since the Civil War was fought here in Marietta.  The Civil War will be spoken  about a lot.  Here we are getting on the bandwagon early.

This story is about Bull Run.  Art by John Severin, who lead the field of Civil War illustrating.  The story was laid out by editor Harvey Kurtzman - of course history wrote it.

Tuba Skinny - Can You Spot the Hound?

Erika Lewis belts out I GOT A WOMAN!  For a few seconds I missed the hound.  But after looking again I found it.  As I mentioned the hound shows up for most of their concerts.

Harbersham's Ghost and Somebody Else's Hand

This was originally on Chicken-fat about  7 years ago.  The subject of Habersham came up recently.  A friend of ours, Mary Ann ,  will portray Mrs. Habersham in costome soon, so I couldn't resist digging this blog out of the closet and recycle it.

*Heh heh. Boys and Ghouls, actually it is not tales from this crypt, it is a tale about the resident of that crypt – in a manner of speaking, heh heh, heh, ha ha Ha Ha HAW HAW.

The above is the eternal home of the body remains of James Habersham (c1712-1775), in the Colonel Cemetery in Savannah. He was a person wanting independence and did much for the independence movement , but died before the actual Declaration of Independence was, well, declared.

The other day while indexing pictures I came across some pictures I had taken in Savannah. The Ole’ Pink House and the Habersham’s crypt brought back some memories. But I did not take the picture of Habersham’s portrait, I found it on Google.

In February of 2005 Anna went to a business meeting in Savannah and I tagged along. The five day meeting was to convene on something like the 15th. We arrived a day before and toured Savannah. We ate at Paula Dean’s “The Lady and Sons” that morning and took a tour of the city.


On the tour The Ole Pink House Restaurant was pointed out as being the home of James Habersham in Colonial Days. The tour guide added that the house was rumored to be haunted by old James himself. We made a mental note to maybe eat there while we were in Savannah.



Somehow, either that night or the next night almost all the people at the meeting decided to have dinner at The Ole’ Pink House.

When we arrived a the restaurant we were taken up to the second level and about 8 of us were seated at a big round table with a portrait of James Habersham looking down on us.



I told this part a couple years ago, so stop me if you already heard it:

We were all sitting around, waiting for our food and making small talk and the seasoned ones were bringing past funny moments that happened at their meetings. One guy, T, brought up a handicapped person that worked for him one and he imitated the poor guy.

M said, “Lets give T a hand!”

Then, without warning: WHAM! The noise came from T’s plate. A rubber hand was lying in his plate. We were all shocked.

M, one of the quieter members at the table reached over and retrieved his artificial hand and reattached it. First there were silence, then everybody laughed, nervously of course.

I didn’t realize M had a prosthetic hand, and I doubt if many more did either.

I looked up at the portrait of James Habersham and his features seemed a little strained and his eyes looked a little wider than they were a few minutes before.It appeared James was shocked too.

Then after people got over the shock and started talking again, people were making one-liners about M giving T “the back of his hand” or “M shot T the finger – five of them!” …. And wait! Everybody had more!

I looked up at James' portrait again. The look of shock had left his eyes and again they were glinting and his smile looked as if he had a few hand jokes he wanted to throw in too.

History of Acworth, Georgia, Presentation

We went to the Marietta Museum of History tonight to see an excellent presentation of  the History of Acworth, Georgia by Davis McCollum (O.M.). He is an O.A. too.

Did you know the area of Acworth used to be called Northcutt Station?   A Mr. Northcutt was the depot master there, so it was named after him.  Before that it was Little Shanty.

And of course Big Shanty was Kennesaw.  Which brings up the fact that Big Shanty/Kennesaw  was at one time called Moon Station because the train depot master there was a Mr.Moon.

Davis had plenty of stories and  old pictures of Acworth in his slide presentation and also progress of the city and still trying to retain the old landmark houses and buildings.

I did not get to take any pictures during the presentation because the room was too  dark for the slide show.  And after that was over I could either sample the many little finger foods or take pictures.... guess which I chose.

The pictures you see here are pictures I took before and after outside the Kennesaw House.

Charles Brooks Foster Parents and Siblings Someplace Between Cumming and Alpharetta, Ga.

Anna's Grandfather is Charles Brooks Foster, the second from the right.

click on each image to see and read.

Charles Brooks Foster Parents and Siblings Someplace Between Cumming and Alpharetta, Ga.

O.M.'s Doctors Office

Yesterday I went with  Anna to her doctor.   Correction:   I did not go to the doctor with her; I just went to the waiting room with her.   Our doctors' office, if not the oldest  internal medicine doctors office it is one of the oldest in town..  I went there as a teenager before I was even driving age.  Of course, there has been  several turnovers of 60 or so years but old Mariettans are attracted there.

We were sitting in the waiting room when Betty Guthrie McCord came in and sat in our little group of chairs.  I spoke and she recognized me.  Betty is always very friendly and happy looking.  Her late husband Earl McCord worked for the Marietta  Post Office.  Although we both worked for the Marietta Post Office as clerks we worked at two different offices, but we had some common postal friends.

Anna was called back and Betty and I continued to talk about old friends and old haunts.  Then, behind her I saw Linda White Watkins and her mother Lois Frasure White come in.  Back during high school and before I went into the Navy  Linda's twin brother Larry and I were good friends. 

I was somewhat surprised that Linda and Betty didn't know each other. - or couldn't remember each other.  Linda and Larry's older sister Jo Ann and her late husband Robert lived just  two houses down from Betty and her family.  Small world, and so close.  Oh well.

After Betty was  called in I moved over and sat with Linda and  her mother Lois.  Lois is 96 years of age and is alert and walks with no trouble.  Well, she had a cane but she carried that cane without missing  a step, with a pretty healthy robust walk.

I told Betty if an O.M. sits in that waiting room long  enough he is going to have a reunion with an old friend.  It is destiny.

One of the employees there walks around and makes sure people have their paperwork in order and keeping the magazines straight and encourage them to read some of the magazines.  .  I think I could do not only that put have a shitload of local gossip to tell them.

Jerry, Jerry, and Jerry

A recent Saturday Night Live had a skit with Jonah Hill about a person with a split personality.  It reminded me of a worker in the Atlanta Post Office, Jerry.

Jerry was an LSM (letter sorting machine) operator.  He sat at a machine and keyed destinations  as letter addresses was quickly placed in front of him.  Then a LSM operator had to do several a second for a couple hours at a time.  Jerry was a whiz.  He was the fastest person on the machines.  He had so much nervous energy at breaks and lunch he walked around and clapped his hands.

Jerry also probably had enough college degrees he could cover his apartment walls.  Jerry was single.  He had no idea how to  or the desire to communicate with humans.

Jerry also had at least three completely different personalities in his head.   The trouble is they were all dominant personalities.    Sometimes while Jerry was working his three personifies would have arguments and have a screaming fit at one another.  I remember his supervisor told me several times people have demanded to not work close to him - and a few  were just plain scared of him when his personalities started pitching fits.

I remember one time I was walking by and his supervisor motioned me over and suggested I casually walk by Jerry.  I did.  Two of Jerry's personalities were have a screaming argument at each other, each pointing out the other's faults, and the third personality singing loudly, I think the singing personality was trying to drown out the sound of the other two arguing; it was embarrassed for the two.   A girl working near was looking at him horrified.

One time his supervisor told me he didn't mind if people moved away from him or go home upset because he did the work of four people anyway.

Jerry hardly ever took time off he had more leave than he should have so they made him take off. 

He was gone either one or two weeks, I forgot how long.  I ran his annual leave in the system every day.  When he came back I asked him did he have a nice time off.   Without smiling he nodded.  I asked him where did he go and he said either Savannah or Myrtle Beach,  and it just so happened he was there  at whichever place it was during a huge hurricane, the whole city was evacuated.  I asked him about the  hurricane and he didn't know a thing about it.  It was news to him.  He stayed in his room the whole time.  He said the lights went out for a day or two but he didn't think anything about it. 

HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!!

click to enlarge (why?)

Today the Post Office and the Banks are closed.  But the retail stores will be open as usual to accept your money.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! ACES HIGH, SPADS!

click each image to enlarge so that you can read it for it to make more sense.

These pages were lifted from EC's ACES HIGH Comicbook.  

SPADS was illustated by Benard Krigstein

Enjoy!

TUBA SKINNY "CROW JANE BLUES"

This was the way it was, on Royal  Street, in the French Quarters of New Orleans, September 16, 2012, when Tuba Skinny played and  Erika Lewis sung CROW JANE BLUES.

The Atlanta Union Station and Me

This was the Union Train Station in Atlanta.  It was across the street from where I worked for the Postal Service for years, until they tore it down to make way for the non-descript Richard B. Russell Federal Building.   The  Union Station was empty  the whole time it was there during my stay.  The vacant little walkways and empty buildings attracted drunks and the homeless but  generally we walked right through a little cement walkway to and from the parking lot without much problems.    About the biggest problem  was accidentally kicking a wine bottle or stepping on a human  turd.  Although, within its bowels close to the RR  tracks I was mugged once - had a blade stuck to my throat until I forked over all my money.  The guy told me he just escape from prison.  When I emptied my pockets and he was convinced he had more money than I did he felt sorry for me and sung me two religious longs about how Jesus loves me - then  I ran out of his grasp. 

  

 I just enjoyed looking at the grand old building.

I wondered what those towers were for?  For a watch to stay in one of them  and announce: " LOOK!  Here comes a train!"?

5 Generations of Bagleys

5 Generations of the Bagley family in the Alpharetta - Cumming, Georgia, area, 1930.

Poor Old Doc

When I worked in the time keeping – Date Collection site of the Post Office I worked with an polite elderly gent by the nickname of Doc.

Doc didn’t have to, but he wore a coat and a bow tie every day. That was his style. He believed one should be presentable in the work place.

His dressing well and courtly ways paid off. Upper management liked his style and promoted him to supervisor. We all smirked, because Old Doc didn’t know beans about the operation or the details of time keeping.

Luckily, he was well liked, so his job got done because nobody wanted him to look bad.

After being a supervisor for a while he retired. I forgot how long he was a supervisor. I would think he probably tried to be one for at three years. When one retires the retirement is figured on your highest rate of pay, and average for three years.

After he was retired a short time Doc came by to see us, patting us on the back and smiling like he always did. He said he needed a little favor. He said his wife was now legally blind and he just could not make ends meet. He needed to borrow some about ten thousand dollars from the Atlanta Postal Credit Union and needed some co-signers.

Several people stepped right up and co-signed for the loan. My old friend Will (mentioned earlier) co-signed and tried to get me to sign. I told him that the credit union made a success of themselves by deciding who needed a co-signer and who didn’t. They only told the bad risk people they needed co-signers.

Will said the credit union didn’t know all the circumstances, some things you just can’t put down on paper – there aren’t blanks that ask if your wife is blind or not. I still didn’t sign.

Finally Doc got enough co-signers and got his money.

A couple of months later Doc was arrested for holding up a bank. Of course Doc eventually was tried, convicted and went to prison. Everybody who co-signed on his loan had to pay their share to make the loan good, which the credit union recalled for everybody to fork over their share of the loan. I think it cost each person about $2000. Then, I felt like an ass-hole.

Your SHOW OF SHOWS Host Will Show No More

Sid Caesar died today at age 91.  Way back then, I couldn't wait every week to watch YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS.  I thought Sid was a comic genius, far advanced for his time on earth.  He and his co-star Imogene Coca whipped out great routines.  They would do anything absorb or clownish for a laugh.  I think the comedy world is better off with their influence.   

Take Your Pick

Today is Darwin Day, Lincoln's Birthday, and the NAACP Day.  You can take your pick which one to celebrate.

And if your are born and raised in Georgia, you might also want tip your glass to the Founder of Georgia, James Oglethorpe - it is Oglethorpe Day too!

The Good Ship Lollypop has Sailed

So long Shirley Temple, age 85.

Old Postcard of the Suawnee River in Florida

This is an old post card of the Suwane(e) River in Florida.  It travels from south Georgia, in the middle, into north central Florida. 

 

Stephen Foster  (1826-1864) used the name in his "OLD FOLKS AT HOME" song.  I read one time, probably in RIPLEY'S BELEIVE IT OR NOT that Stephen Foster had never actually seen the Suwane River.   I don't know if it is mandatory to visit a place before you write a song about it or not.  Like I doubt if Rogers and Hammerstein actually visited the islands of the South Pacific before writing the musical "SOUTH PACIFIC".

Whether Stephen Foster actually visited Suwane River is only one of the controversies with Foster and the Suwane River.  Did he misspell it.  I read that the way he spelled it in the song is more similar to a river in South Carolina.   So, maybe he wasn't referring to the river that is in part of south Georgia and part of north Georgia at all.

I noticed driving through that area there are signs advertising the Stephen Foster Museum.  If he did mean the river in South Carolina, should the museum pack up and move?  

Hi! I Am a Flying Tiger Relative

Years ago I bought the book THE HERITAGE OF CHEROKEE COUNTY, GEORGIA (1831-1998).  The bulk of the book are little family essays  of families in Cherokee County.   It has a lot of genealogy information.  As a matter of fact, I wrote two of the articles.  Now that I updated my Family Tree Maker genealogy  program I am re-reading the book to see if I missed something, which I am finding I did.  This morning for instance,  I found that I am related to a member of the famed FYING TIGERS aviators of WWII.   Lt. Col. Orlando Waller Wood, Jr. and I are both descended from Eugene Hargraves Tyson and Elizabeth Huey Tyson.   He is a little too distant relative  for a claim to fame, but interesting anyway.

Along those same lines as claiming my distant cousin  Lt. Col. Orlando Waller Wood, Jr., FLYING TIGER member, as a claim to fame, I was thinking it would be funny if I pulled out my leather aviator jacket and buying me a pair of  goggles and take on the personality of a FLYING TIGER pilot.... as a joke, of course.

Which reminds me of a first cousin and her in-laws.   At her wedding , her brother-in-law, actually who would become her brother-in-law before the evening was over, seemed like a  studious sort of person, polite and quiet.  I think he lived near his parents in Chattanooga.  About  ten years rolled by and I saw him at another funeral.  It seemed he was taller and heavier.  Also, he had on Indian attire.  I think he had a lot of leather on and a feather someplace and maybe some color markings on his arms or something .  J asked my cousin what  about her brother-in-law and she told me he had gotten into genealogy and found out he is 1/32nd Indian.   Kowubungi!

Tuba Skinny, Madi Gras 2012

It looks cold.  They all are wearing coats. It doesn't look like any New Orleans Madi  Gras celebration I have ever seen.  Where are the beads?  where are the boobs?

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! MAD #22, Elder, The Old Pro

Continued from last Sunday.
Be sure to click on image to make it readable.