Spring Is In The Air

Here I am reusing some pictures to get more mileage out of the money I spent on pictures.

Also here I am invading the privacy of two June-Bugs' intimate compromise. 

In case you are interested I was trying out my new close-up  lens I had just bought.  

Oh Me!

This morning, I woke up about 4:30 like I do most mornings.  I took Willow for a short bathroom walk, then came back and did some emails and got ready for the pool.

We usually arrive at the pool a few minutes after their opening time, 6:00am.

Routinely we arrived, about 6:10, maybe a few minutes off.  I reached for my wallet to get our membership cards to have them scan them and guess what?  No wallet.

The person on duty on the desk knew us.  He looked us up on the computer and manually inserted our presence.

All during my swimming exercises today I worried about my wallet.  I think I was slightly out of my routine assembly of things, which probably threw me off forgetting my wallet.  I was sure it was home where I left it, so I was not worried about where my wallet was.

What I did worry about  was the two mile drive home afterwards.  Anna did not have her wallet either.  We just had the bathing suits and towels.  I heard they lock up people that get caught without their driving licenses.  I didn't have my clothes, only a wet bathing suit. 

Would I be standing in jail holding the bars in nothing but my bathing suit.  Would it be too late for breakfast?

Oh me!

It is a two mile drive to the house and have to go through one school zone with a 25mph speed limit  and four red lights.  What if I break a traffic law and cops pull me over.  Well, I will obey all rules as to not give them a reason to pull me over.

But what if someone hits me?  Even though it is not my fault,  I would still have to show my license.

We made it home.

Whew!

Throwback Thursday

The Braves are about to start playing baseball in their new home, Sun Trust Park in Cobb County.

While we are on the subject here is Anna's grandfather Paul Everett Foster, Sr.  (1895-1936) in his baseball uniform, about 1916, on the right.

Jeane, Alton, and Terry

2006 Bell Reunion

Yesterday at Krogers I ran into Jeane, pictured with her brother Alton (center) and Terry.

She updated me on her brothers.  I remember another time a few years ago I ran into Jeane at Brandi's Hotdogs and as we gorged ourselves with dogs and spicy chili she again updated me.

Somehow, I don't remember the course of the conversation in Brandi's that day but we centered on a certain aunt of her's that lived on Powell-Wright Road, and when I heard her name, being the postal employee I was, I immediately told her aunt's house number.

I am not that smart, but her aunt lived at the edge of where one route ended and another one begin, and her mail  should be delivered for to the other carrier but it wasn't, so we had to watch out for it to hand it over to the other.

Also that same  aunt years ago on Kincaid Road drove by just after I slid in the snow and into a ditch.  She got out with ropes and chains and pulled me out.

A Small world.

Billy Carter's Birthday

Billy Carter was born this date, 1937.

These pictures were taken  November 1976 the weekend after his brother  Jimmy was elected president.

If Jimmy and Billy were alive today, and Jimmy and Trump were running for President I think Billy endorsing his brother is not a given.

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

I suppose these pictures speak for themselves.  By the name you know it is where the Wright Brothers had their first flight with their homemade flying machine, December 17, 1903.  It is right next to the Atlantic Ocean, with the sea winds blowing constantly.  I'm sure the winds helped, like my granddaddy helped getting me started riding my new bicycle for the first time.
Speaking of bicycles did you know the Wright Brothers owned and operated a bike shop in Ohio?

Although another inventor, a in-law relative of mine, actually invented his flying machine first.  See below.

Micajah Clark Dyer (1822-1891) was the father of Joseph Washington Dyer, who married Emaline E. Lance, my fist cousin 3 times removed..

Here is what I have on Micajah Clark Dyer:

Because of the circumstances Micager was raised by his uncle Micajah Clark Dyer, Sr.

He was considered a mechanical genius.  He was beleived to be the first person in Union County to have running water, using hollow trees and later metal pipes, by gravity flow.  He invented and patented a perpetual motion machine, that he after he died, was offered $30,000, for it, but his son Mancil refused.  He also built a flying machine, small, that was reported to fly.  After his death Morena sold the model to Redwine Brothers in Atlanta.

THE UNION COUNTY HERITAGE 1832-1994, art #410 by Patricia Davis Everett.

Above:  Inventor Micajah Clark Dyer's grave, in Old Choestoe Baptist Cemetery in Union County, Ga.

Kennesaw Mountain and Kennesaw Memorial Cemetery

Kennesaw Mountain, Big and Little, looming over Kennesaw Memorial Cemetery.

NATIONAL JOE DAY!

Joe Jenkins at Woodstock, Ga. concert

Today is, believe it or not, NATIONAL JOE DAY!

Why is it National Joe Day?  Who Knows?

HAPPY NATIONAL  JOE DAY!

Joe Biden

Joe Friday

Joe the Plumber

Billy Joe Royal

(colorization by Joe Jenkings)

G.I. Joe

Joe South

Joe Palooka

Joe Kozloski

Joe McCarthy

Josephine (Napoleon's  Sweetheart)

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Jay Lynch's Nard N Pat

Above, the front cover of Bijou Underground Comix, which I picked the below story from.

Last Sunday Funnies we had Underground cartoonist Skip Williamson, who had just about 3 days before.

This Sunday Funnies we feature Jay Lynch (Jan 7, 1945 - March 5, 2017), Underground Cartoonist, who also died this month.  I hope this is the last "in memory" of a recently died cartoonist, we have here.

Be sure to click on picture to get the full appreciation of the cartoon.

First Block of Atlanta Street

This is the first block of Atlanta Street in downtown Marietta.  I was born on this Atlanta Street about two blocks away.

Fifteen to twenty years ago I liked to go downtown early on Sunday mornings and bike or run all over the area.  It was a comfort zone.  I started life here.

One Sunday morning I was running up the first block of Atlanta Street when head of me at the end of the street and the corner of what was Washington Avenue, now Roswell Street, ran around the corner into my site.  In the first door way, he darted to, and flattened himself out.

Then a police car came into view from where he ran from.   It slowed down and looked down Atlanta Street and did not see the guy they were after and kept going forward.

About that time I ran by him, flattened against the door.  He did not look at me.

I'm glad we did not make eye-contact. 

I think it was a "Whew!" for both of us.

On the left was Marietta's first firehouse.  Now, it is Johnny McCracken's Pub which has expanded and does quiet well and very well on Saint Patrick's Day.  Some believe the premises is haunted.

Up the stairs used lead to WBIE Radio station, owned and operated by James Wilder.  Interesting fellow.

I remember as a toddler this right building was the bus station.  When I was about 6 years old the Greyhound Bus Station was built around the corner and at the foot of the hill at Roswell, Anderson, and Green Streets.

And where I stood across the street to take these pictures was the Marietta Police Department, which was no bigger than an average retail store on the Square.

Clearpool Camp Lake, Carmel, NY

My uncle Roy Petty was the director of Clearpool Camp for inner-city kids.   One spring day we visited him and after we realized every were having lunch in the chow hall, we stripped down to our skivvies (that is Navy talk for underwear)  and hit the water with a big splash for swinging out on a rope and letting go.

Me

Don Lash

Clearpool Camp Chow Hall, Carmel, NY

Throwback Thursday: Annie Tyson

This is Aunt Annie Tyson (1893-1979).  She is our grandmother Minnie Tyson Hunter's sister.  She married Thomas Orlando Crowder.   They had two children, Evelyn and Horace.  They lived in the Fair Oaks area of Marietta.

In this picture Annie looks to about 12 or 13.  By her expression she looks as though her boyfriend might have just jilted her.

Gentrification and the Runaway Tricycle

The Clay Homes, Marietta, Ga 132 low income families

Same area, space Clay Homes bulldozed away.

Same area space, upscale townhouses

This huge vacant lot was the homes of 132 low income families.  It was The Clay Homes Projects.  I lived there about six years.

Now it is the home of upscale townhouses.

That is Gentrification.

Same area space upscale townhouses are being built.

This is the hilly drive that led from the back of Western Auto Store and Marietta Provision on Atlanta Street to Waddell Street in front  of Pete Steele's Store. 

When I was four or five years old I learned if going down a hill on my tricycle if I raised my feet f the pedals I could coast. And the steeper the hill the faster I would go.

I was doing just that going down this hill when everything went black. 

I woke up on our couch with everybody around me. 

A lady driving down Waddell hit me and sent me flying.  It was completely my fault or dumbness.

The Helicopter Heist

I always liked this picture.  I took it because the peaceful sunset it has and the "Horse" helicopter in the foreground.

The helicopter represents a story:

Our squadron, HU-4, mostly flew the "Horse" kind of helicopter.  It seems there were always one parked out front of our hangar, like this one.

On my first day (Sept 1963) assigned to HU-4, after being assigned a bunk and a locker I met my new Cube Mate Marblow.  Marblow was a short little guy, sure of himself, that looked like Michael Myers.  He was from Maryland.  That must have been on a Friday.  Marlow asked me if I had seen New York City yet.  I said no.  He said, "Well lets go!"
We took a bus to New York City.  We got off the bus at Port Authority on 42nd Street.  The first thing we did was take a series of subways over to the Bronx or Brooklyn, and visited an old time friend's wife.  I think his friend was away in the service too.
Then we went back to Manhattan around the tourist traps such as Times Square and 42nd Street.  To make a long boring story short a man bought us drinks in a bar.  He came over an joined us.  He was very dignified.  He asked where we were staying and we told him we were taking a bus back to the base.  He said, "Nonsens!"  It was too late.  He had room for  only one of us and he would pay for the room of the other one of us.  He suggested Marlow stay with him.  That sounded good to me.  We walked to the William Sloan W.M.C.A. House and at the front he paid the desk man for me a room.

The next morning I walked all around the tourist area of Manhattan taking it all in.  Sometime in the late afternoon I went to meet Marlow at the Port Authority.  While in their bar I tried drinking a Manhattan, then another one.  Then I got my courage up to go to the telephone booth, look up to see if Harvey Kurtzman's name was in it, and surprisingly it was.  I was tipsy enough to call my hero, the creator of MAD, Harvey Kurtzman.  He lived in Mount Vernon.  We talked.  I was very polite and distant.  I'm sure fans call him a lot.  Marlow finally came and we took the bus back.
  Neither one of us ever mentioned what he and his "Sugardaddy" did.

 When we returned to base I walked up the hill to the EM Club.  The personnelman who checked me in was at the club.  He was always smiling and had a penetrating stare.  He invited me to sit at a table with him.  He introduced himself  as Don Lash.  He told me he was from Chicago and was on two years active duty, the same as I.
I told him about going to New York City for the first time.  He knew just the questions to ask to make me squirm.  I didn't want to get Marlow into trouble, but Don kept asking direct questions.  Finally we were getting loaded and Marlow's "surgardaddy" was getting to me an old subject.

The more we drank the more we talked and before it was over the beer was doing all the talking.

We, or the beer, decided we could probably fly a helicopter, we wouldn't know until we tried.  We knew there would be a "Horse" in front of the Duty Office at the hangar.  We decided we could probably climb inside and find the start button before someone noticed us.

We started walking towards the hangar, about three quarters mile away.

I thought, "How the hell am I going to back out of this without looking like I am backing out?"

I think Don was thinking the same thing.

Before a block away from the EM Club we walked by a someone in the Squadron Don knew.  We stopped to talk to him and walked with him back to the barracks. 

Don skillfully changed our target without even mentioning it.

Whew!

Don and I remained close friends for about a dozen years after our Navy time together.