George kin

George Washington might have been born on this date. Again, maybe not. He was born February 22, 1732, which is OS February 11, 1732. If I have this straight, he was born according to the calendar then on 11th, however that was the old calendar. After the new calendar dates was set into place days before the date it was shifted 11 days. Do you get it? Good for you! Now, explain it to me.
Speaking of George Washington, for those who know me will not be surprised that George is a relative. Actually, an in-law. My Petty family is related to George's wife Martha Dandridge Custis.

Genealogy of a Building

This building was built in the mid 1940s.  It is on Anderson Street, =between  the corners  of  Waddell and Atlanta Streets.  It was built in the mid-1940s as the First Methodist of Marietta Annex. 

When they were building we lived on block away.  I was about 4 or 5 years old.  Us kids watched them build it and when the workers went home it became our playground.  We ran, jump, and crawled all over that building.  Mike Hobby, about 3 years older fell through an opening in the floor and landed on the bottom floor.  A nail or spike was through his foot.  He was more worried about what his father was going to say more than how severe hurt his foot was.  My daddy was the unofficial neighborhood witch doctor.  He ran kerosene through the wound, which seemed to fix it up.  The Hobby family, lived next door never knew of their son’s wound.

After it became the Annex I remember one time a magician came to town to put on a show for us kids there.

Another time a young man came to give a talk about his young boys police club. He had a code of conduct for boys in his club was to live by and a official looking police badge for them to proudly wear.  He took up money memberships and left delivering a very import unspoken message:  Never give your money to strangers.

Now, it is the law offices of former Governor Roy Barns. Gov Barnes has one unique room for a mock trial.  It is courtroom with a jury box and a high desk, or bench, for the members of Barnes group can practice their cases.

Kennesaw Avenue, Marietta

This is about where the street crosses the RR tracks and now goes over the Marietta Parkway.

C. 1980.  In my later father-in-law's chicken house 

There is Paris, and also two other Paris's

Paris, Texas

Frank PARIS Hunter

According to Uncle John's Bathroom Page-A-Day Calendar, 2018, Tuesday, Feb 20, 2018: Paris, Texas, was founded in 1844, when a farmer, storekeeper, and postmaster, donated 50 acres of land to establish the town. The town was named after the general store, the busiest store in town. Why the owner named the store Paris, no one knows.

There is a 70 foot Eiffel Tower replica wearing a cowboy hat in town.

Also, that is believed to be where our grandfather Frank Paris Hunter was born in 1879. Also, 1879 is the year Frank's family left Texas to move back East. I think they had plans of moving back to Franklin, North Carolina, Frank's father William A. Hunter's hometown, but had a second thought, maybe because he was wanted for murder in Franklin, and instead moved to the Woodstock, Georgia, area, where William recuperated from a knee wound where he was shot during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Frank was probably named after where they were leaving and where they thought they were going.

Margaret Mitchell, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GONE

If you want to learn about the Old South, read Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND, or better still read about her.

Did you know after high school she went to a finishing school up north, and she refused to attend the class she was assigned to because a black lady was also a student?

Edgar Foster

The kid in both pictures is Anna's mother Marie's first cousin Charles Loy Foster (1909-1964). By kid, I don't mean the goat. His parents are Edgar Bell Foster (1884-1932) (Marie's father 's brother) and Sophie Lackie (1886-1965). They lived in the Roswell - Crabapple area.

Boys' Night Out

Benjamin and Rocky at Monster Trucks show at Mercedes Benz 

Politicians Speaking on the 4th of Julyi

I took this picture on the Square in Marietta on the 4^th of July in the early 1980s.  J.B. Stoner, self proclaimed racist was speaking.  

Seating and waiting their turn were another right-wing conservative Congressman  Larry McDonald talking to another politician.

And in the background is an EDDIE’S TRICK SHOP sign.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! WONER WART HOG, MASK MEANIE!

From a HELP Magazine.

click on each page to make bigger, readable, understandable, and unbelievable .

Foster Siblings

Children of Paul Everette (1835-1936) and Myrtle Irene Jones Foster (1895-1991)

Left to right:  Eva Marie Foster Prance (1920-2015), Federal Employee; Paul Everette Foster, Jr (1922-1995). Postal employee); Charles Jones Foster (1925-2012), TWA Pilot; and Myrtle Irene Foster Meek (1932-1992), Bank officer.

All born and died in Marietta, Georgia.

Atlanta Train Terminal Never More

The Atlanta Train Terminal. It was a grand old beautiful building of its time wasn't it? It was on Spring and Mitchell Streets, across Spring Street from where I worked at the Postal Service at the Federal Annex.

I think they bulldozed it away in the late 1970s to make way for the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, a non-descript building with no character or artful look like the Atlanta Terminal had. Behind it at the tracks, underneath the bridges and viaducts was an area that never saw daylight is where I parked my car. A guy named Thumond charged $5 a month. It was the cheapest parking in Atlanta. Also, an area you don't hang around. You park and run! The area was on the edge of what would become Underground Atlanta. Then, when I parked there it was an area for the homeless and criminally insane, I found out. It was cluttered with beer wind bottles and occasionally a pile of human shit. 

Once I got out of my car and a heavy elderly man approached me and asked if I had some money to spare. I said no, but he wanted to talk so I paused to hear what he had to say. Bad idea. He grabbed me and wrapped a strong arm around my neck and with his other hand touched a knife blade to my throat. He told me he had just escaped from prison that very day and he needed money, now how much money did I really have. I gave him my wallet, he looked at it and said something like, "Shit! I got more money than you, you should be holding me up!" Then he sung me a rendition of a religious song... we still had a hold around my neck. He sung me another religious song - both songs were about Jesus and how much he loved us. The second song, I think he was in the habit, when singing it to spread his arms wide apart to really belt it out, to get the point across, I suppose, which he did, which released me, and I ran off like a wild rabbit. He was too old and drunk to chase me. I did not park there again.

Moral: Never trust anyone that holds a knife to your throat and sings to you about Jesus.

Rocky's First Fishing Trip

Getting back to the meeting with the gentlemen from the County Parks:  On the new park there is a 5-acre pond.  The spokesman said they would clean outf the pond of dangerous stuff in the water and around the shore.  He said they would have experts examine the water and determine what kind of fish are there now, and if they are dangerous get rid of them.  How?  I wondered.    And they will stock the pond with fishable fish.  And, they will also put carp in.  He went on to say carp is good for ponds, they eat the fungus, bacterial, and anything else unhealthy.

Then I remembered one time when my son Rocky was young he and I went through the woods to a pond on Trickum Road to fish.  Rocky caught a big fish.  It was heavy.  We carried it home.  Our neighbor, the late Harold Killian, said it was a carp, and not good for eating.

The carp was still alive.  I forgot if we kept him a bucket of water or what.  We carried him back to pond and tossed him in.  He instantly flipped his torso and disappeared below water.

I wondered if somebody caught that carp and did not want it so threw it in the pond as they rode by.  But now I know, after hearing the man from the county park it was there for a reason, to kill unwanted bacteria and fungi. 

We almost cooked the lifeguard and ate him.

Hillary Locked Up? HA HA!

4 Generations of Hunters

Eddie Hunter

February 13, 2016 · 

4 Generations of Hunters. The baby is Ray Hunter, the oldest child of my generation. He is being held by his father Harold Herbert Hunter. Herbert's father Frank Paris Hunter and Frank's father William A. Trammell/Hunter are also in the picture. William A. was a Confederate Soldier that was wounded on and during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (1864). He was shot in the knee. He recuperated in a private home in a little community called Andersonville (not THE Andersonville with the CSA Prison camp), This Andersonville is just outside of Woodstock. He liked the people in the community so much in 1879 he returned to the area with his family to live. His son Frank was born in Texas months earlier 1879). That is why all of us Hunters are here, and still reproducing ourselves.

Capt No Beard Benjamin

AARRGGGGG!!!

1960 Class MHS Reunion, 2010, Ann & Don

Ann Mussura and Don Croft

Photographing the Deceased

Back in the early part of the 20th Century it was not unusual to photograph the dead.
Here are two pictures of Anna's mother Marie, her two brothers Paul and Charles with a brother that didn't make it, and in one picture is their father Paul Everett Foster, Sr.
They had three brothers to die the day they were born: James 1927, John 1928, and Charles Wilson Foster 1930.

Their sister Eloise was not born yet (1932). She lived.

Today is National Cherry Pie Day

HAPPY NATIONAL CHERRY PIE DAY!!

John Abercrombie, 13, on Bike.

I think this is Joseph John Abercrombie who was born in Alabama.  I do not know when he was born, but his father was born in Alabama in 1914.  So, if his father, also named John Joseph, was about 25 when Jr., was born, would make him being born about 1939, and 13 years later when someone said he was 13 when this picture was made would date the picture about 1952.

He is descended from John Hunter, who was the the son of my great grandfather, William A. Hunter.

Thus, John Joseph Abercrombie and I are 2nd cousins., if everybody fell in line like I think they should.

William Luther Foster and wives

Anna's great uncle William Luther Foster (1879-1941) and his second wife Addie Dryman (1879-1963). His first wife (above) was Lillie Mae Cook (1884-1904). Lille Mae is buried at Midway Methodist Church between Alpharetta and Cumming. He went by Luther. Luther is Anna's mother's father's brother.

Struck at the Marietta 1st Baptist Church

This is the First Baptist Church of Marietta.  It is one of the first churches in Marietta.  I have been to a few concerts and funerals here and know people who were/are members but I would not say that  I am a familiar face in the building.

This past December we went to a Christmas Concert at the Church.  We parked and went into the building at the basement level.  We got onto the elevator with several elderly people.

After the elevator door slid shut an elderly lady, all dressed up in her Christmas attire studied me for a moment and slapped my forehead.

She didn’t explain herself.  I wonder if we were class mates 50 or 60 years ago  and she was just paying me back?

HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY

HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY (white sale)!

According to today’s UNCLE JOHN’S BATHROOM PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR:
Teddy Roosevelt had the Roosevelt family crest inked on his chest.

Andrew Jackson, who ordered the Trail of Tears, tattooed on his inner thigh.

Children of U.S. Presidents have than average rates of alcoholism and mental illness.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! MAD's Robinson Crusoe

Chicken-fat tries to stick stick to what is in the today's news (unless our mind wanders).  It is being topical.  It is also being "getting on the bandwagon".  What does Robinson Crusoe have to do with today's news?  Robinson built a wall too.

This was ripped from the pages of MAD #13.  MAD's version was written by editor Harvey Kurtzman and art by Will Elder.

Click on each page to enlarge it to make it readable and maybe understandable.

Artful Negotiating

“I WANNA WALL!!”

Artful Negotiating.  

Art by Robert Crumb 

Building a Wall

You have to be pretty smart to build a wall.  Lookie here!  MAD #13 comic book’s ROBINSON CRUSOE, art by the late Will Elder.

Men's Portraits in Automobiles

Anna's great great uncles, the Jones Brothers in Alpharetta, Georgia

My Great Uncle, William Obeduah "Will" Tyson (1884-1979)

Anna's grandfather, her mother's father, Paul Everett Foster (1835-1936)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S!

Did Vince Poofed?

obituary dated  FridaySeptember 29, 1995

The other day while filing I came across this newspaper clipping in the Marietta Daily Journal.  The obituary does not tell the interesting story involved - here is a copy of a blog I put on Chicken-fat June the 27, 2006:

Oh Vince, Where Art Thou?

Vince Desantes was born July 16, 1941. I don’t know if he was born in Boston, but that is where he said he was from.

Why would I remember the date he was born? Because I was born on that date also.

Vince came to work for the Postal Service in about 1985 or 1986. He was a Marine retiree – although the you don’t really retire from the Marines, the Marines is a state of mind, so they say.

He was a slim person appearing not to have an ounce of fat on him, dark tanned looking skin, and naturally bald as a pealed onion.

You might think he had an inflated ego until you realized he spent a career in the Marines.

Vince came off as the type of person not to take shit off anyone. But if you studied him closely you will see he would not take shit off peons the same entry level he was. He was forever striking up conversations with people of authority and trying to get on their level.

Vince tried buying a new house. He was turned down. That made we wonder just what kind of past did he have, -during an economic blow-up that just about anybody who wanted to buy a house was approved.

Sometime during our work time in the same building I remember he was wooing his aunt in Boston. Somehow he managed to get her in a nursing home and got to be power of attorney which he had her locked away with the keys thrown away and he bought him a new big red sports car with money he suddenly came into.

Joe, a deaf co-worker, claimed Vince was gay. Maybe Joe wasn’t persuaded by Vince’s gruff voice, he may have had an extra sense perception to see things nobody else could, not that it should matter anyway.

After work Vince hung out at Rocco's  Pub and was on their chili-cook-off team every year. They were considered very good, they won several first prizes at various cook-offs in Texas and Stone Mountain, Ga.

The first chance Vince bid on a window clerk’s job and got it. A few years later I decided to give the window service a try, I have just about done everything else, so I too went to work on the window.

I didn’t like it at all. It was too much kiss-ass to the customers. Which is the way it probably should be, to be very courteous – but just not my style.

Vince was very good at kissing the customers’ asses. And after watching him I figured out he knew which asses to kiss. He loved to rub elbows with the elite. If a county commissioner or any elected official came in he would manipulate the line so they would end up at his station. He was a master of it. If the VIP was close to the head of the line he would slap up his little sign that said he “This Window Is Closed” for a few moments and fiddle with his stamp stock or something. Then when the VIP made it to the head of the line he would quickly jerk away the sign and tell them jokingly (by first name) to “come on down”, as in The Price Is Right. Then he would encourage them to get into buddy – buddy talks.

The reason I know Vince’s birth date is one time before the window opened one window clerk was busy putting out balloons, birthday looking decorations, and a birthday cake around the corner, just outside of the customer’s view. She said it was Vince’s birthday. This is a woman who prides herself on how efficient she is. When she told  her it was my birthday too. The smile didn’t leave her face, but it did freeze.

Even though my birthday was ignored I enjoyed the cake with “HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCE!” as much as anybody, and went back for seconds.

After a couple of years I got fed work with window work and went back to the distribution area where I could lose myself in my music with my ear phones on.

Joe the deaf clerk asked me in his own way did Vince flirt with the men customers. I told him not that I noticed, only the affluent ones.

Sometime during this time Vince grabbed a male co-workers ass and the guy threatened to flatten him, then the word was out.

Also during this time Vince’s aunt died and he bought a new house. One of the first thing he did after the estate was settled was go out and get him a nice young boy. He adopted a 14 year old boy orphan.

The boy was a street wise kid that was always in trouble with the law and school.

Do you know those business reply envelopes? I think in the postage area are some bars, a permit number imprinted and a statement that says “no postage necessary”. Well, somebody has to pay the postage.

A quick 101 course on business reply envelopes. The company that would make those available to mostly potential customers would have to come in the post office and set up an account and put down a sizable deposit in the account. Then, as the envelopes come in a postal clerk would total the amount of postage each day and deduct it from the running total of the deposit the company ran in. When the company’s deposit started running low they would be notified and they would put more money in it – or not.

This has nothing Vince, but something that happened once that I thought was funny. Marietta is the home office of a famous fast food company. This fast food company in their restaurants had comment cards, so you could complement them or complain about your service. Many restaurants have that. A group of people, probably knew each other, in Florida, started sending in these business reply comment cards with cartoons on them. While they had their meal they would doodle on the comment cards and drop it in a mailbox. For a while it shifted from doodles to nude anatomy then it graduated to fornicating and sodomy cartoons. The restaurant chain had to pay postage on each of those – which they were coming in by the shovels full at its peak.

Maybe it was/were a disgruntled employee or employees – with a warped sense of humor.

Back to my story:

Normally, at where I worked Tony handled the business replies on weekdays. Tony was off on weekends, so Vince was Tony’s relief – he did his job on Saturdays.

What I didn’t know until it was over was that Vince was stealing money out of the various business reply accounts. He stole thousands.

The Postal Inspectors came to Tony and they had a plan to set up a trap for Vince. I don’t know the details, but it worked. Vince bit the bait.

The following Saturday it was secretly known that Vince was going to be arrested and Tony would come on his off-day and do the job as they carry Vince away in handcuffs.

Saturday morning came and Vince did not show up. He didn’t call in. Tony was there so he did fill in on his own job.

Later that morning it was the Acworth Police found Vince’s car in a lakeside park. Inside was a man holding Rosary beads with one hand and a handgun with the other hand. His brains were blown out.

His adoped  step-son insisted on seeing the body and identified him.

The body was cremated quickly with no services. The boy wanted to know when could he get his hands on the sports car and how old did he have to be before he could sell the house.

We talked about this at work – some things did not add up. Tony had an old friend that had authority in the City Government of Acworth and he checked around. It even raised more questions:

According to the autopsy Vince’s body weighed about 250 pounds. Vince was skinny as a rail, probably weighing under 150.
According to the autopsy Vince’s body had tattoos on the arm and neck. The real Vince had not visible tattoos with his shirt on. According to the autopsy there were several needle marks on the arms – Vince wore short sleeves and no one recalls seeing needle marks.

But his loving adopted son identified the body as Vince Desantes.

About the same time Vince was suppose to be at work that day, 6am, he withdrew the maximum he could from an ATM machine.

Why would someone withdraw money and kill themselves the same hour? And if so, what did he spend it on? He only had a few dollars in his wallet – along with his drivers license.

We think it is possible that Vince picked up a wayward type of man, and blew him away, maybe in more ways than one.

To make things more interesting, to put a little spice in the pot, so to speak, Vince had a will leaving everything to his adopted son, but as executor he named the person he coped a “feel” from the guy threatened to flatten him.

I often think I see Vince in a crowd, but each time after getting closer I see it is not him. If he is still alive I think he is probably far far away.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT LINCOLN!!