Tree Cutting in West Cobb

Today my sisters were having some trees cut down on their property.   They were not available so I went over to sort of watch over the operation.

I wondered how should I should dress:  Boots, plaid shirt, with a washable-off tattoo, like the Paul Bunyan look?  Or the brainy type, looking on the three workers and take notes continuously?   Or maybe if I had on my Tilley Hat on  and a bull whip hanging on my side I might remind them of Indiana Jones!   That's it!

But on second thought, after I saw a tree fall making a loud scary  noise I decided it would be safer to keep a good distance and to a video summary.

Also, I made myself useful and cleared off some dead limbs and debris from the previous tree cutting they had months ago.  I put the ugly brown dead foliage behind the fallen trees, so the man down the street who promised to take the logs won't have an excuse. 

Night Train in Georgia

I have an idea for a song that I think will be a hit.  The title of it will be THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN IN GEORGIA.   Wait!  That doesn't sound right!

This picture was taken either  by me or my friend Shafik Mansur.

Ben Speaks

When Benjamin Rockwell Hunter speaks, people listen.

Marie Postcard Collection. Gulfport Field

Marie's Postcard Collection.  Gulfport Airfield, Gulfport, Mississippi.  This is from Charles "Jones" Foster to his mother.  When he was in training learning to be a pilot was sent to schools all over the U.S., which left a trail of postcards.   Where the stamp goes on a postcard he wrote the word FREE.  I suppose, in WWII servicemen got postage.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! HELP Magazine Cartoon Gallery

When Harvey Kurtzman was the editor of HELP Magazine he was on a very low budget.  So, he had new cartoonists to submit their work and he paid them nearly nothing and recognition.  Many artists got their first national magazine  stuff published in HELP, such as Robert Crumb, Skip Williamson, and Gilbert Shelton, and almost me.  Two of my cartoons was accepted for publication one week and the next week they went bankrupt.  The story of my life.

Marietta Police, Retired (Mostly)

Yesterday, Friday, August 28th, 2015, The Marietta Museum of  History had a "sit around the cracker barrel session" talking about the Marietta Police Force of times gone by.

I was glad to see some old friends that I grew up with, like Jerry Millwood, Haydn McLean, Rupert Raines,  and others.  They had a panel, sort of mostly retired MPD officers.  One, Tommy Maloney I think he is still on the force.  I used to work with his late brother Phil .

About a half dozen  ex Marietta cops got up told of their memories, which were mostly hilarious.  The memories also showed they were humans with big hearts.

One retired policeman, I don't remember the name, at the podium asked for people born in Marietta to raise their hands.  Almost everybody and I raised their hands.

Then he asked how many people went to Marietta High School.  A good many of the people, including me raised their hands.

Then, he asked for people who rolled Marietta High School to raise their hands.   As far as my peripheral vision   could tell, I was the only one who raised a hand.

Maybe I had better explain:

At a football game two friends and I arrived fully stocked under our coats with rolls of toilet paper.

Every so often we would throw a roll high in black sky and it would unroll as it traveled in the air.  twice it looped over the power lines.

MHS was playing Roswell.  When the Roswell Band came marching on the field at half time as they march we let the toilet paper fly.  Rolls flew and mysteriously did magic tricks like wrap around the legs of the band member trying to march,, tangled around tubas and other horn instruments.  I think some long streams of toilet paper got hung up in shoes and trailed them as they tried to march in cadence.

I  think everybody on the Marietta side were happy with the Roswell Band Half Time Show for a change.

I am pretty sure the statue of limitations has ran out.

One lady in the audience stood up and talked about the time her late father was on the force.  She was an articulate speaker.  She said her father's  name, Harold Griggs.  I perked up.  Lawdy!  She was Grethen Griggs.  We went back to the early 1940s when we were toddlers.

It was very enjoyable seeing the policemen talk.  Police are like Marines, they are in it for life whether they are paid for it or not.

Jack Shields

Jim Whitmyer

Rupert Raines

Jerry Millwood

Tommy Maloney

Stanley Biship

Edie Milwod and Haydn McLain

Officer Little, MPD Historian

Gretchen Griggs

Marie's Postcard Collection.  The Marietta Conference Center & Resort.  Before it was what it is, it was The Marietta Country Club.  And then over 150 years ago it was the Georgia Military Academy.  In the Civil War the Cadets marched off to whip the Union soldiers, never to return.  One little interesting fact I read one time that the Cadets in their dorms, pardon me, I mean barracks, could see the Kennesaw House and flirt signals with sheets the   and the girls did the same.

Friday Night On the Square August 2015

Courthouse view from 5th floor of Packing deck

Kennesaw Mountain and 1st Baptist Church of Marietta

View from Marietta Pizza window

Strand Theater

People

And Dancing Grandma

Tuba Skinny, Cold Morning Shout!

Marie's Postcard Collection. Too funny of a card

Marie's Postcards Collection.  On the front this "funny" postcard says, "Heading for home.  Nothing can hold us."

I don't get it.  Well, I get it, his dog house is trying to hold him... but isn't the dog house his home? 

Oh me oh my, my humor has grown so sophisticated nothing is funny anymore 

Where There Is a Problem There Is a Solution

We are trying to get our eggs in order, so to speak, so my sister's house will be handicapped friendly when she returns home from rehab.  The front of the house has two flights of steps, one up a bank and one up to the house which would be impossible as she is now.  The side of the house is the kitchen door, which has only two steps.  We decided it would be easier to put a second driveway leading to the kitchen door, and there, maybe put in a ramp if needed.   

We went to the county D.O.T. to discuss our proposal and  they gave us a permit if we jump through a few hoops and hurdles.     We lined up a tree man to cut down trees that would be in the way of a new driveway and lined up a paving contractor.  

After discussing it over with Joe Jenkins at the dog park I think it might be simpler, cheaper, and easier, if we leave one tree standing  closer to the house and tie a rope to a limb.  That way Frances can grab the rope and swing into the back door.  Problem solved!

Marie's Postcard Collection, Union Pacific Station, Cheyenne

Marie's Postcard Collection.  On the front it says "Union pacific Station Street Side, Cheyenne, Wyo."

On the back it says:  "At Cheyenne, Wyoming the Old West is revived during the last week of July each year when cowboys compete in the World Championship contests at the famous "Frontier Days" Festival".

To be on the safe-side, I smiled when I typed that.

Marietta Policemen, Years Ago and Now

Marietta Patrolman Ed Hunter and his two children Eddie and Anna, and Eddie's one eyed rag doll in the 1940s'.

Marietta Policemen Ed Hunter and Jesse Cooper.  I think Jesse and his family lived on or near the corner of McDonald and Maxwell Streets.  I have no idea why I know or think that.

Marietta Policemen Stanley and his brother Ed Hunter.  Stanley was a plains clothes officer.

Cobb County Chief of Police Ed Hunter in the 1950s.  Before he was Cobb County Chief he was chief of the Marietta Police but I don't have a picture of that.

Rupert Raines.  He was the assistant chief of the Marietta Police in the 1970s. (Rupert made that face for my benefit, actually he is very gentle, 

Here is Dan Flynn, the current chief of the Marietta Police Force.  We were on a Civil War Hospital tour together in downtown Marietta.  He is very congenial and likable.  So is the Mrs.

The reason of this Marietta Police Force article is that Friday at 10:30am the Marietta Museum of History will have an opened discussion of the Marietta Police of the past.

Thank You For Serving!

click on to see picture details and me

It has happened a lot lately.   Somebody asks me  if I served in the Armed Forces and I replied, "Yes, the Navy."

And like a automatic expected response they will say, 

"Thank you for serving."

I feel like blushing and saying something like, "Aw shucks,  it was nothing."

I am telling the truth.  There wasn't much to it, as for as being heroic.   The base I was stationed at, NAS Lakehurst, N.J. 08733*, which was almost equal distance between New York City, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City.  We kept the roads hot going to the big cities to have fun.

As I remember,  the above picture** shows me holding the only weapon I used while serving.  And it was a rubber tomahawk  while playing cowboys and Indians at my uncle Roy Petty's place, about 60 miles north of NYC.

*But I am proud that I still remember the zip code, after 50 years.

** first cousin Rodney Petty;  Me (With Indian  feathered head-dress on); Navy buddy Joe Rexroad;  and other first cousin Billy Petty.

Marie's Postcard Collection: Federal Buiding/Post Office, Memphis

Marie's Postcard Collection.  This is the U.S. Federal Building and Post Office in Memphis, Tennessee.  Do you think Elvis bought his postage stamps here?  He had to buy his stamps someplace, probably in Memphis.  Did he give the clerk a snarled crooked upper lip smile when he was waited on.   That reminds me, one time when I was a Postal window clerk I waited on Travis Tritt. Really!   He applied for a passport.  

Hello Betty Goolsby!

While visiting my sister Frances at Golden Living Rehab, I talked to Betty Goolsby who was also visiting Frances.   

Betty  told me she reads my blog chicken-fat.com everyday.  she said she really enjoys it.   Betty turned 90 not long ago.   

I am flattered!

Marie's Postcard Collection. Ogden, Utah

Marie Postcard Collection.  This is Ogden, Utah.    It was sent to Mrs. Irene Foster (Anna's grandmother)  from her son,  Jones.   Then he went by Jones.  Jones was his middle name.  Charles Jones Foster.  He was a TWA pilot.  When I joined the family in the 1960s he was going by Charles. 

Aren't those mountains in the backdrop of Ogden majestic? 

Trip to Canada in Early 1970s

This is a little trip we took back in the earlky 70s, that I came across my notes, that you might find interesting:

Back in the ‘70s , 1973 to be exact, when Viet Nam was tearing the country apart, some young men moved to Canada to get away from the U.S. Draft. The leaders could not put in understandable terms why we were fighting in Vietnam. Then they wanted young men to give their life for a vague Domino theory?

At that time in history, the late 60s and early 70s we were friends with another married couple who married six months before we did. Let's call them Linda and Joe.

Joe was something of a mathematical genius. He was on a full scholarship at Emory University. Linda was something of a pseudo cool person.

Linda always wanted to make a statement with her furniture and art objects around. She was not a hippy but sought to be in hippy surroundings. Which is OK, but she seemed to think she was one of them – she wasn’t. She was still part of her family’s wealth and sponged rather nicely.

Any folk singer that would come to town we always went to their concert with Linda and Joe, which I enjoyed. We saw Pete Seegar, Buffie Saint Marie, Bernice Reagan, and a bunch others I don’t remember.

We almost went to Odetta’s concert. We were in the audience when an announcer came out on the stage and apologized for Odetta not appearing that night, ticket prices would be refunded, the reason, “Dr. Martin Luther King was  shot in Memphis.”

Linda and Joe decided to move to Canada. That was where all the conscientious objectors were going. Linda wanted to be in the “in” crowd. Joe, just like me, had already spent his time in the Navy.  So, there were nothing to object but they moved anyway. They moved to Toronto.

I was left the job of checking on their mail every other day or so, and pay the bills with the checkbook they left behind and bundle magazines and things up and mail them all packaged up.

After about six months we drove up to see them.

We first stopped a couple days in Niagara Falls. We saw the U.S. side and the Canadian side.

Then on to Toronto. Linda and Joe was surprised we found their apartment. It was their Thanksgiving which was our Columbus Day.

They lived on the 14th floor of an apartment building overlooking a park.

We got to see a good part of Toronto and the parks, where all the young ex-Americans hung out. Probably some of them pretended to have skipped the draft also.

They lived on the 14th floor of an apartment building overlooking a park.   Because most tall buildings do not recognize the 13th floor, the 14th floor was probably really the 13th.

We went to some kind of Exposition by the lake, sort of like a shot at being a World's Fair. They demonstrated laser light, it's piercing thin red bright line was able to bend as directed and also melt a hole in a steel beam.... I bet at the moment greedy world leaders were rubbing their hands together crackling, and could hardly wait until all the testing was in to know what all a laser could do.

We went to something like an Eye-Max theater at the Exposition. You sat in your seat, and looked at the huge screen which gave you the feeling you were part of the action. I think we could feel the sensation of riding in a roller coaster, flying a glider plane, and other action thrills. But, I wasn't paying too much attention, I had something else on my mind... when we sat down there were four of us. Our row of seating: Joe, Linda, Anna, and Me. Linda and Anna have been friends longer, so they would have more to talk about or share, or whatever. So, I was on the far leftside of our group. Next to me was a girl about 22 or 23 by herself. She had shorts on and I couldn't help but notice her shapely legs. I had a brief conversation with her.... she said she was really crazy about this, it was "far out man!". When we were riding down the drop off track of the roller coaster or getting so close to trees you had the natural fear of knocking a few tree tops, the girl to my left would grab my left leg to brace herself. I had on shorts. Sometimes she grabbed my knee area and sometimes higher up on my thigh. I was on a ride of my own, loving every moment of it.

We had a meal in a Chinese Restaurant in China Town and they were having some kind of holiday too. We saw a Chinese parade with dragons and firecrackers.

I remember one day they had to work and we went out on our own. We went to see the movie “Last Tango in Paris” with Marlon Brandon which was suppose to be too hot of a movie for U.S. audiences. I am not sure but we may have seen “I Am Curiously Yellow” in Toronto also.

After our planned stay we said our goodbyes and got on the road. On the way down, driving someplace in Pennsylvania with farm lands all around us, I remember hearing on the radio that Republican Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of a money grabbing scandal.

That was the last time we saw or heard from Linda and Joe.

Marie's Postcard Collection. Atlanta Public Schools

Marie's Postcard Collection:  Atlanta Schools. 

The top one is No. 156. Pine Street School, Atlanta, Ga.

The bottom one is No. 156, North Avenue School, Atlanta, Ga.

Did you noticed anything unusual about these names?  They are both No. 156!  How can that be?  I thought that each school, like fire stations, would have its own distinctive number.  A clerical error?  No, it couldn't be, schools don't make errors.