Chicken Fat: Reece Heritage Farm, again

Today, we went to the Byron Hubert Reece’s Heritage Farm about 10 miles south of Blairsville, Georgia, next door to Vogle State Park. Byron was a prolific writer of prose and poetry. As a matter of fact he was Poet Laurette of Georgia in 1950s. Life wasn’t easy for him, which probably inspired him. Hardship is hard, but it can also be inspirational. He also had TB and spent a lot of time in the Batty Hospital in Rome. His father was sickly so he had to work at the their farm so they would not lose it. He was an educator at Young Harris College. He had pressure on him coming all directions. He finally ended it all.

He is a distant relative. We are both descended from John Hunter.

Now, I understand, annually Union County Historical Society has a celebration of his life at the farm site he worked so hard at. They serve free tomato sandwiches (with Duke Mayo of course), and a bluegrass group played. This time the Bluegrass group was the Shady Grove Singers, which includes the preacher, his wife, and three others of the Shady Grove Baptist Church in Union County.

I talked to a young single lady down from Murphy, North Carolina. She said he heard about this so “Here I am.” She said. She asked me did I know anything about the band. I told her exactly what is above, because that is what they told the audience. Later, in another part of the park/farm I saw her in a swing, by a bubbling brook talking on her cell phone. I overheard her tell whomever all about the band, which was exactly word for word what I told her, and what the spokes lady (the preacher’s wife) told us. I like it when I know someone listened to me.

The bubbling brook she was sitting by makes a nice slushing over rocks and jumping 6 inch water falls. It is also a tributary to the Notley River, which is one of the few rivers that flow north. And by the way, that creek was flowing north too.

An authoress of a book about her ancestor Micajah Clark Dyer sat down and talked to Anna and I for a while. While there we bought her book at he gift shop. Anna read part of it to me on the way back to Marietta. Micajah Clark Dyer is a distantly related in-law. I knew about him already. He invented a flying machine before the Wright Brothers did, had it legally patented and all that.

Also, I got to meet a facebook friend (and distant relative) Ken Akens.