Those Protective Elephants

The Groover Brothers

Brothers Gene and Parks Groover at a Bell or Varner Reunion.   Gene retired as a Georgia State Patrolman and lives in Dalton.  Parks retired as part of owner of Marietta Lighting and lives in Waleska.

They are the descendants  of the owner of the historical Groover Hardware on the Square in downtown Marietta.  I think I read that the rope that hanged Leo Frank was bought in their ancestor's store.

Gene had an interesting adventure a few years ago.  He and a friend navigated a houseboat miles up a river in north Georgia and lived to tell some interesting stories about it.  

Tuba Skinny: Weeping Willow Blues

G C BBQ with C?

This lady is the wife of one of the owners of GC (Grand Champion) BBQ at the Publix Shopping Center near the corners of Shallowford and Johnson Ferry Roads.  I think she is over the front counter.

Her husband and other owner (s?) went to chef schools and worked with or for local barbecue guru Sam Huff, of BBQ#1, as did other quality barbecue houses in Cobb County such as David Poe's and Righteous Q.

She always greets Anna and me with our  first names.  I hate to admit it but I cannot remember her name.  I have been told it several times but it is not an everyday name, she is from Peru I think.  

But I do remember it starts with C... Cerice?  Carjack?

And she always remember what was on or minds the last time we ate there.  Like she might ask how is the bathroom remodeling going or did we get the lights on the deck, or how did they solve the counter problem in the kitchen.  I told Anna when she sees parking she probably goes to her computer and pull up our names to see what was the last topic of conversation we had.

They also have a GC BBQ  at the Krog Market in Atlanta.  There they have smoked chicken salad but they don't have it here.

But, their barbecue pork and beef briskets are delicious.

By the way, we read they are the winner in this year's A TASTE OF MARIETTA.

But Don't Tell Anyone

True Story:  We had an appointment to see an officer at a bank today.  The bank officer was late seeing us because she was dealing with a highly emotional woman crying and her time flowed over into our appointment time.

The lady was distraught and needed consoling.  That was fine.

After the officer and her got up and she walked the sobbing lady to the door, kind of semi-hugging her she invited us in.

After we were seated in front of her desk she apologized for not keeping with the appointed time but she said the lady that just left had a lot on her plate.  Her son stole her money.

Wow!

And we were the first ones she told, of course we were the first ones she saw.

So much for the bank keeping their customers' personal business confidential. 

Looking Back Thursday, Ed Hunter

Looking Back Thursday.  My father Ed Hunter (1913-1988).  Apparently these were taken during his courting days, a wild and crazy playboy by night and a Glover Machine Works apprentice by day.  He is the one on the right in both pictures.

He went on to be a policemen.

Tales from the Shade

This morning I had plans, like most mornings, to go to the Sweat Mountain Dog Park.  However, someone had conflicting plans:  The drive into the park was blocked off for maintenance.

Then I went to the Woof Park Dog Park in Woodstock.

After Willow had her dog interaction/mingle time we headed back home.  Every time we go there we pass American Tool in an old house on Main Street. 

My great grandparents William A. and Emaline Ray Hunter lived in that house.  I heard they built it.

Next to the house is Ingram Drive.  Coincidentally William and Emaline's grandson-in-law was Vernon Tip Ingram.

I bet they lived on Ingram Drive.  Today, I investigated.

I pulled into Ingram Drive and drove beside the HunterHouse/American Tool Rental.  Ingram Drive went into a shady area.  I followed the road.   There were about four houses which have seen their better days.  They all are among big old tall trees, the whole neighborhood was shady.   At the dead-end I turned around.  The driveway I used to turn around in stood a man watching me intently.  He was gray headed and smoking a cigarillo.

I thought, "Heck!  Why not?"

I got out of the truck and  told the man that my great grandparents lived in what now is American Tool Rental and their son-in-law was an Ingram (later I realized it was their grand-son-in-law).  I told him a condensed history of how William found his way to Woodstock, and the name change, bla bla bla.  He listened with interest. taking a puff of his cigarillo from time to time.

He pointed at the large house behind him.  He said they used to be nursing home taking care of the elderly, and a 100 year old woman was a resident there that used to live in that Hunter/American Tool Rental house.

I said it had to be Lois Hunter Carroway.  She lived to be 103.  Her sister Jacie Hunter was the one who married Tip Ingram.
He said, "That's right!  We called her Miss Lois!"

Now, we know another chapter of the Hunter Saga.

Marie Foster Prance (1920-2015)

Marie Foster Prance (1920-2015), ,  Anna's mother, died one year ago today, Apr 26, 2015.   

On paper Marie died April the 27th.    She died May the 26th at  about 11:35PM.  The doctor did not get  around checking her vitals until after midnight.   Therefore, she was pronounced dead on April the 27th.

In the parking lot of the American Legion at a Bell Reunion.  Faye Murner in the back of Jackie Gaskin's Jalopy.  By the way, Jackie no longer owns the Jalopy - I think it was repossessed.   I remember Jackie's exact words to me as I was taking this picture just as  they pulled off:  "Eddie, I got me one!"

Blue Lights Galore!

Last night about 10:00 I took Willow out for a short walk and bathroom time. There were two or three cars parked alongside our neighbors' hedges and a bunch of young people in their late teens or early 20s standing around talking. They got quiet when we walked by them, and by body sounds of either shoes or clothes I sensed one of them was about to approach me and have words for messing up their social time together. I kept on walking, not looking back, then I returned home by going through my neighbors yard to avoid them. Inside I told Anna and Anna called Glenda and Terry, the owners of the hedge the young people were hanging around. Glenda called the police'

Two police cars showed up with their blue lights flashing, then two more.. I think the cops struck a gold mind in illegal activities. We saw from our window that they had at least one in handccuffs and searched him and put him into a squad car. And they searched the other cars. They called for a big wrecker or car transporter and one or two cars was put on it. They stayed there questioning the youths for over an hour and finally three police cars dispersed which left two or three youths standing by a truck and one police car left with their lights on them. They got into the truck and I think the police car followed them away.

Nosy old fart, aren't I?

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! SHOCK's THE WHIPPING

Art by Wally Wood.
Be sure and click on each page to make sense of what is going on.

Tuba Skinny: YOU GOTTA GIVE ME SOME!

May 13, 2013

Emmett Burton

Emmett Burton at the Varsity in 2015.  Emmett's father was a policeman in Cobb County the same time my Daddy was.  They worked together.

Emmett tells me he has a picture of his father and my father  in their uniforms and he is going to give me a copy.

Emmett might have been a Cobb County Commissioner at one time, but don't hold me to that.

Doug Davis Died

O.M. Doug Davis died Wednesday at age 76.  Doug told me one time his parents owned a restaurant/gas station on the 4-Lane at Clay Street.  I know of the one the Nesmith family owned but I cannot place his family's.

Doug was a fixture and behind the scenes worker at the Bell and Varner Reunions. 

He was a easy going good person.

Allattona Pass

This is or was Allatoona Pass.   This picture was taken when our son Adam gave us a tour of Allatoona Lake.

 I suppose Allatoona Pass is below water level.  On October 5, 1864, there was a Civil War fight here, over control of the railroad.  Whoever controlled the railroad controlled the war, a distance probably over 25 miles.  I thought the curvature of the Earth would block their visuals, but apparently not.

When I learned my great grandfather William A. Hunter's unit, 139th N.C. Regiment, Company I, was one of the groups that fought there I perked up.  However, William could not have been involved, he got shot in the knee during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain about four months earlier and he was then recuperating in a private home near Woodstock.

Interesting, in studying the fight I learned that Sherman's communications specialists  communicated from the top of Kennesaw Mountain and the top of the highest point at Allatoona Pass by light reflectors.

About 1979. Edith Hunter Sims (1908-1996).  According to my genealogy software we are 1/2 first cousins, twice removed. At the time we met, in the 1970s Edith and her first cousin Eric "Joe" Hunter were the only living grandchildren of our ancestor Jason Henderson Hunter (abt 1817 - abt 1885), who was mine and my generation of Hunter first cousins great great grandfather.

For a few years she and her  Joe came to the Hunter Reunions in Marietta and the bigger Hunter Reunion in Blairsville.  Then she brought her two sons.  One son was a big game hunter and owned a chain of saloons across the Southern United States.  I think he told me his restaurants were decorated with his hunting trophies, such as deer heads, elk heads, and whatever.  The other son was one of the founders and vice president of Holiday Inn.  He lived in Memphis, and later retired and moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and bought his own bank. 

One time Edith and her two sons were here the day before the Reunion and they wanted me to drive them around in their plush rented car and visit my uncles.  At one uncle's house, who lived in an average income house, after we had a cordial visit, back in the car, the son who owned the bank reach for his beer, found it was warm, he lowered the window and toss the can onto my uncle's front lawn.  That said a lot of how he probably felt about us.

A few years later Edith had a stroke and was blinded.   

When I was with Anna on a business trip to Memphis I drove to Jonesboro, Arkansas, and looked up her grave.  She is in a big plot with the rest of her family and parents.  I looked for Jason's grave in the same huge graveyard but could not find it. 

Ed and Mama

1987.  Ed West and my mother Janie Petty Hunter at her 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration.   Ed  is a friend since he was 16 years old.  I estimate the age 16 because he was one of the few of us that was old enough to drive.

Ed and Mama liked to play jokes on each other on the phone.  One would call the other pretending it was a business call and if the other one took it seriously, well, the joke was on them.  Either one of them  gave it away more times than not, by giggling.

When Ed was in the Army stationed in Germany, his father was in a bad accident.  He came home on emergency leave.  While he was home I got him a date with my co-worker Sue.  We double-dated.  They hit it off.

After marriage and two kids later they both called me to remind me I was the one responsible for them getting married.  I was ready to say, "Aw shucks, you are welcome."

They did not call me to thank me for being responsible for their happiness, they both were on the line, they called to scold me for being responsible for their unhappiness.

They got a divorce.

Oh well.

My great grandparents Daniel Webster Petty (1843-1913) and Sarah Jane Garrett  Petty (1850-1929).

Daniel was born in North Carolina, son of Elijah and Letty Lewis Petty.  In 1849 his mother Letty Lewis died and the family moved to Fannin County, Georgia, where he grew up in and married Sarah Jane  1873. 

Daniel, in the Civil War enlisted- Confederate Army Co B, 65th Regiment, Ga. Infantry.  In the CSA he spent a lot of time in hospitals with stomach disorders - probably because of all his hospital time he switched over to orderly.

The Daniel Webster Petty moved his family to Murray County, Georgia, in 1890.

Sarah Jane Garrett Petty was born in Fannin County,

daughter of Joseph and Nancy Elizabeth Mashburn.  Some of her grandchildren (my mother's generation) believed Sarah Jane was a epileptic and other believed she drank too much.  She was known to, if a grandkid, got within her reach, she would grab the kid and shake him or her.

Me and Skip Williamson, 2001

This is me and comic artist Skip Williamson.  For a few years he, his wife Harriet, and his twin daughters lived in Marietta on Gordon Combs Road.   He bought the home because of the garage behind us in the picture.  

He bought it from a co-worker and supervisor of mine, Stanley Daniel.  Other than his postal career Stanley had his hands on other things.  He had a country and western band and also a body shop which he did the work in  this garage.  Skip liked the way Stanley had the lights because it gave out a natural light, idea for auto painting and drawing cartoons.  

The garage made its transformation from body shop to artist studio.

It looks like Skip has me by the collar and waiting for the law to arrive doesn't it?

Thar She Blows (Blowing Rock, NC)

This is the Blowing Rock of Blowing Rock, North Carolina.  It is located at the peak of a cliff, which is shaped sort of like a horseshoe, the rock being in the center of the curve of it.  If you walk up to it you can hear the wind blow against it.

Remember in front of it is a big valley.  I think if you read Sam Carsley's and My Big Adventure With Paper Airplanes over the Etowah Valley side of Allatoona Dam you would understand perfectly why the wind does this.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! PANIC's Ads in Comics

PANIC comics was published by EC comics who also published MAD comics.  As a matter of fact, the same artists drew for both publications,  But some drew for PANIC and not for MAD, example the person that drew this, Joe Orlando.  Joe drew for PANIC but not for MAD.  I don't think his quality  was good enough for MAD comic.  He died a couple years ago, and ironically, he was the CEO of MAD in his last years.

click on each page to make it readable so you will know what is going on.

Hot Jazz from Tuba Skinny

Checking out the JAMES BOND move SPECTRE

Yesterday we rented the latest  JAMES BOND movie SPECTRE. 

Man!  Was it good!  Before the credits James was responsible for tearing up almost a whole city block in Mexico City, jumped on a flying helicopter, kicked all the bad guys out in mid air (not without some good hand to hand combat).

Man!  Was it good!?

As soon as they got the fist action packed  scene out of the way, and the opening song and format screen credits and the duel came on that always opens the Bond movies  I knew I was James Bond.  My adrenalin rose with the music and I felt I could leap buildings in a single bound - wait!  Wrong hero.

After it was over and I was still trying to catch my breath I started thinking about the details.   Like all James Bond movies I can think of it had a countdown on a ticking time bomb with the heroine tied beside it.  It has some beautiful scenes of the Alps, like many Bond movies.  Like other Bond flicks for comic relief was Q who was the inventor for the British Spy 00 network.  In this movie I learned his title:  Quartermaster.  That makes sense.

As in the other movies the super brains villain was suave, witty, slightly effeminate, and had a fat long haired white cat.  However, here is one original twist.  James and the main bad guy were raised by the same grownups.  It almost was like Smothers Brothers plot of "Mama loved you more".

It was good.

Douglas Quarles

Another Doug picture!  Yesterday it was Doug Hunter.   Today it is Doug Quarles (I may have spelled the last name spelled wrong).  Almost two years ago Anna's cousin Pat's husband Mike died.

I was a pallbearer.  Another pallbearer was Pat's supervisor.  After the graveside services Her supervisor and I introduced ourselves.  His name is Doug.  We kind of walked around the cemetery talking. I said my uncle is buried right over there, Dick Hunter.  He said, "Dick Hunter is your uncle?"

Doug said he was named after Dick's brother Doug Hunter.  He went on to say that he is on Lola Jean's Turner side of the family.

Doug and I, were strangers until that funeral and both had the same Doug Hunter for an uncle!

Small World again!

Paris Douglas Hunter

My uncle  Paris Douglas "Doug"  Hunter (1916-1986).  Like most of his brothers he worked at Lockheed and loved sports.  One time he was seriously considered for playing professional baseball.

When I was a kid I looked forward to see him because he knew how to get my giggle box going.  He had a sharp wit with a quick response.  I think he had a nickname for all his nieces and nephews.  I was "Tedo", who I think was a wrestler in the 1940s.  My sister Bonnie was "Bonami".  Thus, he gave "Bonami" a facebook  pseudo name.

He married Lola Jean Turner (1918-1996.  I thought Lola Jean was a 100% family person until I went to the Marietta Public Library, branch upstairs in a metal building at Larry Bell Park and accidentally  saw her with a group of kids around her telling a story with enthusiasm..

Doug and Lola Jean had four kids, which three grew into adulthood.  The fourth one, Jeanne in 1946, apparently died at birth or shortly Afterwards.

Donna and Jerry

Donna Mullinax and Jerry McBee at a Varner Reunion.  In high school they might have briefly dated.  Many years and some spouses later they realized they still cared for each other. 

In this picture Jerry is partially paralyzed from a stroke and is a resident in a nursing home.  Donna lived in Villa Rica and was a contributing writer to GEORGIA BACKROADS.

Jerry died in 2011 and Donna left us in 2013.

Men With Tools

Yesterday I was standing in line at a tool store.  I was there to purchase a wheelbarrow wheel.   The cashier's station was the closest to the outside door.  When it came my  time I put the wheel on the counter.  She took her scan gun and was about to aim it at the bar code when the front door opened and in walked a tall person.  The person was so tall had to how the head to it would not hit the top from of the door.  The person had on a black dress, black stockings, and a fashionable pocketbook.

The person had masculine features.

He/She took one look in the room with a lot of people with tools in their hands and turned around and left.

I'm not sure someone was with the person or not.

The cashier looked at me and her eyes doubled focused.  There was a glint of a smile on her fade briefly.

She got back to work and asked me if I wanted  to receive their newsletter and scanned the wheel.

Donald Bruno Lash's Black Eye

Don Lash.  This picture was taken on the fire escape 2nd floor (or deck) landing  of HU-4 Barracks in 1964.   Don Lash is posing with his black eye.  He was proud of his black eye, sort of like a trophy.  He had never had a black eye before.

The story how he got his black eye:  A lot of snow fell on NAS Lakehurst, NJ.  We were snowed in.  We could not drive off the base.  But we could walk to the E.M. Club. 

The beer flowed through the evening hours and people got drunker and drunker.  A table of drunk Marines started self-body dance with the beat of the loud music from the juke boxes.

And some of us mocked them dancing solo.  Although, I think most of the Marines at the that table did not realized they were being mocked, just self-dancing like they were.

But one Marine did not see the humor in it.  He knew exactly what was going on.  He leaped across the floor from their table to ours and POW!  He socked Don in the face.

We got the hell out of there.

End of story.

Dalton Tyson and Chuck Hunter

These are my cousins Robert Dalton Tyson and Chuck Hunter at a Hunter reunion.  Dalton is the older brother of Donald Tyson who was on this blog yesterday.  Dalton at one time owned the Past Time Grill (a pool hall) and another time or maybe the same time he owned Terminal Taxi Company, which he purchased from the Goddard family.  Terminal Taxi was located conveniently next to the Greyhound Bus Station and a rock's throw from the Past Time Grill.  He and Donald are the sons of Ed and Belle Kuykdendall Tyson.

Chuck, son of Dick and Jeannette Hunter, is a builder.  One time he started a contracting company named after his mother, father, and himself.

Dalton Tyson is the only relative I know of  that a contract was out on him at one time.  A person in prison put a contract out on him.  It was a jealous husband behind bars kind of thing.

Evidently, the contract was not carried out.  Dalton died of natural causes in 2000.

Genealogy American History

On the genealogy program WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? last night did the heritage of TV star Scott Foley.

Interesting, one of his ancestors was in George Washington's "Life Guards".  I thought life guards were people that hung around swimming pools with little red cross patches on their bathing suits that would jump in and save you if the need came up. 

But in the Revolutionary War Life Guards were about 50 elite soldiers who had proven themselves and their primary duty was to protect the Continental Army General, namely George Washington.  I did not know there was such a unit.

They got about 100 of the top soldiers together and George himself picked slightly over half to be his Life Guards.

The requirements to be considered to the Life Guard Unit:  Obedient, combat ready, good physical shape, handsome, and height 5'10".

Those last two requirements are strange.  Did George Washington want to be surrounded by 50 handsome men?  And why be 5'10"  tall?   I think I know that one.  George Washington was 6'2".  Four inches taller would make him about a head taller than the people around him.  He wanted to be seen and recognized.

Also on up the same family line of Scott Foley, I think it was his eight time great grandfather in Massachusetts was suspected of being a witch.  He confessed he was a witch.  Then later, said he was lying, he was not a witch... which got him out of any burning at the stake they might have had in mind.  Smart move. 

Donald Tyson and his Two Sons

Donald Tyson, my first cousin, once removed, and his two sons, I don't have their names.  This was taken on the second of February at Bascomb Methodist Church, near Woodstock, Ga. at our cousin Billy Tyson's funeral.

Donald is the son of Ed Tyson.  Ed Tyson is my grandmother Minnie Tyson Hunter's brother. 

Donald grew up  on the same property my grandmother Minnie Tyson was born and grew up on.  Donald became a developer, builder, and real estate agent.  He was also a race car driver.  I doubt if he is still racing, he is in his 70s now. 

The late Don Rhymer and Jackie Gaskin driving his *  jalopy.

*This old jalopy was sold last week.  I saw it in front of Jackie's house decorated with American flags and a FOR SALE sign.... then poof!  It was gone the next day.

The Movie TRUMBO

I wanted to see TRUMBO because I read and liked one of Dalton Trumbo's books, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN. It was an anti-war novel and critical the warmonger leaders.  I also liked the beat of the music in the previews.

Dalton Trumbo was of the ten Hollywood screenplay writers who was blacklisted during the witch hunt of "commies" during the red scare - they refused to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities".  Trumbo was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify.

He was a registered Communist Party member, which was perfectly legal.  It was just a political party, no espionage or anything like that.  He refused to provide them names of other members of the party.  It was a matter of principle.

After Trumbo served his time he was still on the Hollywood Blacklist and could not get work under his name.  So, he began writing screen plays under pseudo names and selling his stories to other writers not as good to use as his own.

Hedda Hopper was constantly against the black listed men, which kept them from being hired.  It took the bravery of the King Brothers and Kirk Douglas to hire them and a plug from new president John F. Kennedy didn't hurt.

The movie was well done.  They combined acting with real newsreels and TV news of the time. 

The movie was directed by Johnny Roach; written by John McNamara;  and starred Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, and John Goodman and others.

Sometimes Marietta is a Small Town

This morning in the Marietta Daily Journal there was an article about Bob Halliday, restorer and owner of BOB'S GARAGE.

Articles that we find interesting Anna reads aloud to me.  She read this one.  Bob Halliday grew up at the GEORGIAN OAKS Motel on the "4-Lane" because his parents were the innkeepers.  .  I perked up at that sentence because one of my old email friends girlfriend, was a waitress there and was arrested for burning it down, if I remember correctly.  

The articles tells of Bob's passion for restoring things.  He moved back to the Marietta area about ten years ago and started a restoring/antique machine-like business on JVL Industrial Drive.   I perked up again.  A number of years ago, it might have been near ten years, I remember he emailed me to tell me what all he had and services he offered.  I forwarded his email to the MARIETTA MUSEUM OF HISTORY, thinking they might could benefit each other.


.Click here for the article


Marietta is small town, sometimes.

Noonday Creek Trail in Woodstock

I have biked on the Noonday Creek Trail between Bells Ferry Road (Marietta) and Vaughn Drive (Kennesaw) many times.  

I heard they were extending the trail all the way to the Chattahoochee River.  

Now,  fast forward to the present.  On rainy day at the Sweat Mountain Dog Park Willow has got muddy sometimes.  So, on those kind of days I carry her to Woof  Park on Dupre Road in Woodstock.  Beside Woof Park's parking lot is a long wood bridge going over the wide creek to a cement walk.  Out of pure nosiness I followed the trail and discovered it is a continuation of the Noonday  Creek Park near  Town Center that I mentioned above.  In the past two weeks I have walked, ran, and biked on the Noonday Creek Trail in Woodstock.  It goes from downtown Woodstock, through a large wooded area, parallel to the Noonday Creek to Highway 92. 

  Here are some of the pictures I have taken: 

click on each image to make it larger and prettier.