Remember, Fall Back One Hour Tonight

It is also a good time to check your smoke detectors!

Rerun, Bell Reunion, Marietta, 2010

Joe Kirby (c1955 - 2015)

Joe Kirby was a dedicated father and journalist.    He had a sense of history.   He did his adopted hometown Marietta, Georgia, good.  He also wanted military members get proper recognition and appreciation.   He was a nice person.  It all adds up.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Repeat Video, Noonday Baptist Church 175th Anniversary

Noonday Baptist Church had its 175th Anniversary a few years  ago.  I think the oldest churches in Cobb County are Noonday Baptist, Concord Baptist,, and the First Baptist Church of Marietta.

. Anna's family played a prominent role in Noonday through the years.

 On with the  video of 175th Anniversary of Noonday

Mickey Griffin

This a picture of Mickey Griffin that I took at a Varner Reunion a few years ago.  He is an childhood friend.  The reason I am reflecting on Mickey today is that I ran into him at Kroger's yesterday.  He was standing outside talking to a friend.

We didn't shake hands - before I warned him about my bad cold.  I asked him did his family still have anything to do with the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Atlanta.  He said no, that was mostly his late father.

I remembered his older sister and her name.  She is living in East Marietta he said.  She was several years older than us and had her driver's license.  One time, late at night she took us to the Dairy Queen on Roswell Street and Park Street.

Mickey was neighbors with Larry Holcomb, Van Calloway, Eddie Gocha, and last but not least  Jimmy Pat Presley.  Jimmy Pat had a bad influence on us all.  He was daring and it rubbed off on us.

Mickey used to come to my Atlanta Journal paper route dump off place at the corner of Manget and Frasier Streets and help me fold the papers and sometimes walk around with me and Skipper (my dog) as I delivered the papers.  We talked about universal topics, such as girls and more girls.

Mickey with his family lived on Alexander Circle, at the corner of Phillips Drive.  They either lived next door to Billy and Rita Delk or the Griffins moved and the Delks moved into their house.

It is always a pleasure when I run into him.

All this Means It Is Time to Rake Leaves

Rerun: Hoe Down, Bear on the Sqaure Dahlonega

In April of 2014 we went to the Bluegrass festival in Dahlonega  "Bear On The Square" which is an annual event.

The video is strolling around catching people strumming and jamming.  

I looked for a picture taken that day of me bravely holding a stuffed bear but couldn't find it.

That same day, later in the evening, I was not so bravely hugging a commode.  Too much of an assortment of food, no pictures of that one, thankfully.

GOBAGS Jan 20, 2010

GOBAGs is Good Old Boys And Girls.  Good or not, that is what we call ourselves.

Tuba Sinny: CRAZY ABOUT YOU, A

THE EDDIE HUNTER

This past week I came across a person that I knew from high school.  He did not know me from recognition (remember, I'm invisible) but I recognized him, once he said his name. 

I introduced myself  and told him we were Facebook friends.  He was surprised.  He said, "You are THE EDDIE HUNTER?   I read your post every day."

Gulp!  I should have thanked him for giving me more responsibility.

Or I should have told him no I am not THE EDDIE HUNTER I am "a Eddie Hunter"... wait,  I mean "an Eddie Hunter".

THE EDDIE HUNTER is floating around in cyber space somewhere, and I don't mean me.

True,  I started my blog chicken-fat.com in 2005.  A couple years after that I got a heated e-mail from Eddie Hunter.  He said how dare I infringe on his right of using his name on my blog.  He said he was THE EDDIE HUNTER.

I wrote him back and said I was born Edwin T. Hunter, Jr., but was given the nick name Eddie at birth, which was in 1941.  "When did you get your name Eddie Hunter?"  I asked.

THE EDDIE HUNTER has not  answered back yet.

Video Rerun, Jackie Gaskin's birthday

This video is Jackie Gaskins' surprised Birthday Party Breakfast at Carol's Cafe earlier this year.  I had a pleasant surprised myself at Carol's that day.  You can order fried spam with your eggs.  MAN!  And not only that but you can order fried eggs, not like Martin's that only has scrambled eggs.!  MAN OH MAN!

You and You

Years ago when I ran a lot I got to know a lady that lived near Addison School.  Back then she had a little easy going elderly brown dog.  For a bunch of years when I was running and I see them walking I would stop and pet her dog and walk with them a block or two and we talked about what they were building here and there near the school.

Her husband is a building inspector.

I don't think I have seen her and her dog for over two or three years until today while riding my bike.

I rode up by Addison School.  Out by the let off and pickup part of the parking lot  is a little pond.  It is an ongoing  science project, I suppose, with little signs identifying different plants and flowers.

Anytime I ride my bike by the school on weekends I ride by the pond and stop.  Most the time as soon as I stopped  I would hear a "KA-PLUNK!"  of a frog diving into the pond.

Today as I rounded the corner and pond was in view I saw a woman bent over a flower cutting it's stem with scissors that she probably brought for that reason.

I didn't know it was my old friend, yet.

I braked right behind her and said, "I caught you!"

She raised up and it was my fiend, she said, "YOU!"

I said, "YOU!"

Then her old dog's replacement jumped out of nowhere barking fiercely at me.  It was a little gray Schnauzer. 

She told me I lost some weight.

I have?

We talked for a moment and I peddled off.  I thought we have known each other probably 35 or 30 years and we only know each other as YOU. 

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! THE SPIRIT by Will Eisner The First

THE SPIRIT Comics was drawn and ran in the funny pages of the newspapers in the 1940s.  Although Will Eisner created the character, he had an assembly line of artists who generated the product.  Will Eisner near the end of the life in the early 2000s started creating graphic novels which were very good and meaningful.

Click on each page to enlarge it to be able to read it and for it makes more sense.

Ben's 100th Day

Dr Jonathan Swift and Jim Lamer

(Dr Swift operated on Jim to save his leg that night)

Photo by Mary Fulcher Lamer

The Atherton Drug Store Explosion, Halloween 1963 that killed 7 and injured about 25 people, brought the best and and maybe the worse of people. Jim Lamer was there and was knocked down. That night he was to be the best man at Gresham Howren's wedding. In his pocket was an engagement  ring he was to give to his fiance. It was missing after the fiasco. It is believed that probably somebody thought Jim was dead and took the ring.

Rerun: Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, 2011

In October we think of cemeteries.  The mother of all cemeteries around here is Oakland Cemetery on Memorial Drive in Atlanta.    Historically it is an idea place to soak up some Atlanta History.  From one little hill that offers an excellent view of Atlanta, and is the same spot General Hood watched the burning of Atlanta by Sherman.  Over the wall, is where James Andrews of Andrews Raiders (Great Locomotive Chase) was hung.  Margaret Mitchell is buried there and other Georgia Nobles.

There are a lot of activities at Oakland going on this month.   Tours, strolling musicians, and even food trucks.

This video I made a few years ago but it is probably the same there, time doesn't move on in a cemetery. 

Remembering Atherton's Explosion Halloween 1963 in Marietta

Above:  Marietta Natives talk about their lives on October 31, 1963, the Atherton Drugstore Explosion; on Halloween.

We the Harvestees

Not long ago on a Louisiana cooking show  on TV the star  interviewed a family who had a huge ranch in Texas.  They had a trailer they pulled around and select a cow and butchered  her on the spot.  They had all the tools  they needed to cut the cow up into packages, the trailer was also a giant cooler.  Their product was fresh meat. 

The spokesperson the butchering family avoided using the word "kill" or "slaughter".  They used the word "harvest" when they talked about ending the cow's life and making it a lot of packages. 

Harvest sounds nicer doesn't it?

Today I noticed a sign in front of a church with this question:  ARE YOU PART OF GOD'S HARVEST?

Whoa!

Move Over Arlo!

On the local TV news today I saw what the citizens of John's Creek, Georgia,  must have considered the trial of the century.

The defendant was accused of blowing leaves excessively.    

More than one neighbor came forward testified to the horrors they had to live through:  A constant loud noise of an electric leaf blower humming away.  One neighbor complained that she couldn't even hear her kids outside playing.

The defendant's defense in so many words, "I like a neat yard."

The TV cameras were in the court room.  The judge  lawyers, reporters, and witnesses were also there.  The judge listened seriously as both side presented their arguments. 

The man was  fined $250.00.

This may be even as  serious or more serious  as the trial when Arlo Guthrie got caught dumping Alice's Restaurant's garbage out into a gully.

Video Rerun, Varner Reunion 2014

Don's Military Trophy

There is a fairly new restaurant in Woodstock named Semper Fi.    As you may have guessed the restaurant  has an accent on the Marines.    Well, really it is a restaurant in appreciation of all armed service personnel and first responders present and previously. 

They have good hamburgers and good grilled cheese sandwiches (that has  candied fried bacon).

Their walls are decorated military stuff (mostly Marines) that patrons have brought in, such as pictures, company flags and banners, and so on.  I talked to one of the co-owners several times.  I told him I was in the Navy.  He thanked me for serving and asked if I had anything I could donate to put on their walls.

I thought and thought, and I just don't.  None of my pictures I took in the Navy has a military point of view.

However, I did think of the  above picture.  It is of my friend Don Lash taken  on the back second level of outside stairs of the HU-4 Barracks.  He is posing, showing off his black-eye received the night before at the EM Club.

We were snowed in.  The roads were closed and there was nothing to do but go to the EM Club and drink.  At the EM Club people were getting cabin fever. 

A drunk Marine punched Don in the face.

I think it had something  to do with he and Don had a disagreement about the music being played on the jukebox.

Cobb Court Houses

This isn't the old Courthouse that the old Cobb County citizens miss so much - this is more like a group of Cobb County Courthouses, maybe a Cobb County Courthouse Compound or Complex, or maybe a fort or a little Kingdom

Zombie 2011 Repeat

I knew it, I knew it!   When I looked for my youtube video of the Zombie Walk I made it said it was made in 2013.  I felt it was before that.   Well, I found the one for 2011, which is the video here.  There are two videos!

I knew it!  I knew it!

Asheville, NC - Wow!

"Asheville, is awson, but cool!"  That is what Benjamin is probably thinking..

Video Milage: Doc Cudd, Vanderbilt Blacksmith

Who was the Founder of Huntersville?

Both of our sons were in Asheville, North Carolina, Sunday.  Adam the youngest,  and his friend Savvy left Asheville.  Rocky, the oldest, and his wife and son Sabrina and Benjamin arrived.  It was almost like they were a tag team or a relay team.

I told my friend Thelma about both of them there and she joked about naming the town "Huntersville".

I knew there is a Huntersville, North Carolina.  I decided to Google Huntersville, North Carolina, and learn a little more about it.

Huntersville is about 12 miles of downtown Charlotte and is a suburb of Charlotte.  On the 2010 Census the population was 46,773, which makes it the 19th largest municipality in North Caolina.

Huntersviile was named after either Rev. Humphrey Hunter, a local Revolutionary War Hero or Robert B. Hunter, a local cotton farmer.  Historian scholars disagree on which one.

I think the scholars should take their scholarly debate out to the parking lot, roll up their sleeves and settle their  argument  the old fashion way.

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

Tuba Skinny, October 16, 2015

The Tuba Skinny Band is back in the French Quarters, at their favorite spot on Royal Street playing away.  This is dated Oct 16, 2015, which was just this past Friday.  

Social Security and Guns

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! PANIC's Charlie Chinless

Remember the old black and white Charlie Chan movies, Charlie as a genius Chinese accented detective and his smart-ass American accented Son Number 1?
This was from MAD's sister comicbook, PANIC.  And the art is by Will Elder, who was also a MAD artist.

Video Rerun, of Merchants of Downtown Marietta Yesteryear

OK, it is about time to experiment; to try something new; gamble; or be innovative. 

The other day I was looking for a certain video I made on Youtube.   Which I found.  It was the Zombie Shuffle video.  While in the process of looking for it I was a little surprised that I had about 330 plus videos stored on Youtube.

Those videos are just sitting there not helping me bit, after I all I did for them.  After all, if I didn't create them they wouldn't exist.

Being one who believes in recycling, I decided to run some of them again.... get more mileage, you know.

Here is one now, about long time downtown merchants at the Marietta Museum of History discussing how things used to be.

AFFLUENZA

There is a new word for defense of  the super rich when getting caught red handed doing a crime.  "Affluenza".  It means you are so affluent you do not know the difference in right and wrong.

A rich spoiled kid in Texas drunk and high was driving recklessly when he struck a car on the side of the road that had car trouble and someone pulled over to help them.  The rich kid killed four of them in one swipe and although clearly was breaking the law he did not spend one day behind bars.

His team of lawyers used Afflenza as a defense.    Simply stated is that a defendant is wealthy and spoiled and  never  was taught the difference between right and wrong.

Of course poor people do not qualify to use this defense.

Is this America or what?

Door Closing Responsibility

Today I found myself with a new but temporarily  responsibility .  Today is a windy day.   At Anna's physical therapy clinic I parked directly in front of the door.   After sitting in the car for a short time a lady walked up and went inside.  I suppose she expected the door to close itself like it normally does, so she just let to of it as soon as she got inside.  The wind opened it back up.  I thought if the wind blows strong enough it might spring the whatchcallit on the door.  I got out of my car and pushed the door flush with the door frame.

I just got back reading my book and the same thing happened.  A lady opened the door and walked away thinking it would shut it on its own and the strong wind pushed it open wider.   I jumped in again and saved it.

Then  it happened with another lady  that I expected would know better.   Maybe she did, but also in her infinite wisdom she knew somebody would be dumb enough to assign himself door closing  duty.

Hhmmpphhffff!

Zombie Shuffle in Downtown Marietta

Saturday (Tomorrow) will be the Zombie Walk in Downtown Marietta.

About two years ago, October 19, 2013,  I was aimlessly walking in Glover Park in downtown Marietta  and I noticed a lot of people dressed like and walking like me. 

At first I was furious thinking they were mocking me but  then I remembered the old saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."   

Then I took some videos, which I am playing again right now, getting more mileage out it.

Am I smart or what?

a Creative History Tour

When we visit a historical city we are there because it is a historical city.  Events that changed history happened and we want to see and hear the facts from someone who has knows.

That is where a tour guide comes in.  A learned tour guide.

We have soaked up knowledge at various forts, old cities such as New Orleans, Savannah, Jekyll Island,  Charleston, Asheville, Philadelphia, Jamestown, Williamsburg,  Charlottesville,  and more.  The tour guides pointed out buildings and houses that famous people lived in, streets where famous duels were fought.

We walked away from each tour feeling we had just gained a little bit more knowledge about history.

What if we were conned?    And we just heard a story of a creative tour guide that made it up as he went?   I would feel  we didn't get what we paid for.  We were duped!

The historical city of Savannah had been issuing tour guide licenses .  The potential guides have to prove they knew the history of Savannah and its landmarks.

But maybe not anymore.

Some potential tour guides sued the city saying it was interfering with their Freedom of Speech.

It looks like they won.

Now, they don't have to be accurate in pointing things of interest out.  Now, it can be all BULLSHIT!

Would you want to be on a facts not mandatory   history tour?

What if a college professor who taught brain surgery decided to use his free speech decided to exercise his free speech and put on a little show instead of teaching?

"Bye, real history tours!"