Daddy the Witch Doctor

This building was built about 1946 or '47.   It was built as an annex for the Marietta First Methodist Church.

After the Church moved to a bigger location Office Sales and Service, which was next door, took it over.

And presently, it is law offices of Governor Roy Barnes.  I heard he had a mock-up of a courtroom there, with pews, Judge big desk and all to practice and fine tune the lawyers courtroom skills.

In 1946/47 when the building was being built I was about 5 or 6 years old and played there daily after the workers went home.  Most of us local kids did.  We climb all over the building, having fake gun fights and chasing one another.

The Hobby family lived right behind the building in an old white building.  One time while playing in the construction area Mike Hobby fell from the 2nd level  floor to the ground floor.  He did not break any bones but a nail did go through his foot.

He was afraid to tell his parents because his father game him and George strict orders not to play in the building.  They were Catholic.

My daddy had medical skills that he surprised us with often.  This time Mike Hobby went to him with medical needs, to pull the nail the rest of the way through the foot.  Daddy did, and afterward soaked the wound with kerosene.

Daddy had a lot of medical home remedies in his head.  One time my leg were eaten up with risons, little bumps with white heads.  He got black walnut podshells from his parents house and massaged my legs in the black juice.  He was a whiz at take foreign matter from a person's eyeball.  When my sister broke her arm the doctor told her she would never be able to use that arm again.  Daddy made her squeeze a rubber ball all the time and it fixed her arm.  I often saw him standing at our gas stove eye eating a knife or a needle for an operation. 

His parents never found out.