HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

 

About 35 years ago, our sons Adam and Rocky and their 2nd cousin (on my Daddy's side) Jason.

Halloween Night Explosion at Atherton;s and some & thoughts

 

We just watched Krista and Amy present  Marietta Museum of History’s report on the deadly explosion of Atherton’s Drug Store on Halloween Night, October 31, 1963.  I have a few thoughts and remembrances:   First of all, (holding both hands up) I have an alibi, I was in the a Navy helicopter squadron in Lakehurst, NJ, with 300 witnesses, who will vouch for me, unless they have died of old age already.

 

As I remember the first time, I was aware of Atherton’s Drug Store, was on West Park Square about 3 stores from the Whitlock Avenue corner, next door to Johnny Walker’s Men’s Clothing.  William’s Drug Store was on the corner of West Park Square and Depot  Street, where a children’s book or toy store is now.  Hodges Drug Store was on North Park Square, Dunaway Drug Store bought it.

I thought Mayor Sam Welch was mayor around 1948, 49, 50, in that neighborhood.  He appointed my father Ed Hunter Chief of the Marietta Police about that time.

Sometime in the 1960s my uncle Dick Hunter was mayor.  I think he was after Red Atherton.

Above Atherton Drub Store was office space.  Doctor Means, who brought me into this world had an office there.  Doctor Means was short little jovial fellow who was always glad to see me.  He never would charge me.  I was born without breathing and it took him a long time to beat life into me.  I guess I was his pride.  I’m glad he never got to see my school grades, he might have dreaded his action.

As a teenager I and many more hung out at Atherton after school.  Doc Atherton (Red’s father) asked us more than once to leave.

The only time some of us were physically  thrown out of Atherton’s is when several of us got into a French Fry fight, throwing at each other, and Cleo grabbed Larry Bradford and I and  marched us through the front door.

At Atherton’s,l probably about 1959 or 60  I saw the only racial tension at Atherton’s.  Tony  and a friend of his, black and about 3 years younger came in to Atherton’s from  fishing all day on a Saturday.  Tony ordered two Cokes.  The waitress Mott said she could not serve “him”.  Tony said she did  wasn’t serving “him”, he placed the order and he will pay for it.  Mott appeared very uncomfortable but held her ground.  Tony and his friend left.

My first cousin, Johnny Hunter, was one of the on-the-spot volunteers at Atherton that night.

 

Here is  Dr. Jonathan Swift and Jim Lamer  Jim was injured at Atherton’s that night and Doctor Swift saved his life.

 

Romeo Hudgins ran the rescue operation that night.  Romeo was a quick actioned man.  I know he was my Little League coach.  If some parent disagreed with him he would step those long legs of his over the fence and say, “Lets settle this!”  He was the owner of Hudgins Welding Service Atlanta Street and Reynolds, just across West Atlanta Street to the Confederate Cemetery. 

 

 

 

Khrista and Amy also told how ther explosion sort of put a damper on Halloween celebrations for about a decade but they renewed it and things got, er-sort of out of hand.  Our youngest son was born in 1979.  About 1982 we carried our two boys to the Square for the Halloween Celebrations.  One of he funniest costumes that year that several people had was a raincoat closed.  When the person felt he could get away with it he would quickly open his raincoat and a huge artificial penus, about 3 or 4 feet long would spring out and erect

 

Losers Weepers, Fondlers Keepers

 

Before you do anything else, if you have an iphone, look at options and be sure “Find my ….” Is turned on.  Yesterday  our power was down from 4am am until almost 7:30 pm.  When we got up and realize the situation we were in we had to make ourselves comfortable.  We grabbed our iphones, ipads, and Kendalls.  And more or less kept occupied with those gadgets most the day.  We were on the deck most the day but went in a couple of times, and went out to eat and each time we moved we would gather up our portable electronic instruments. 

At about 7:25pm the power came back on.  We were overjoyed and happily gathered up our gadgets and all…. Wait!  My i-pad was missing.

We looked high and low for my ipad.  We looked everyplace possible and everyplace unlikely and couldn’t find it.  I

This morning Anna remembered an option on the iphones “find my…” and it was on.  She read she instructions and it told her to call Apple and they could turn on something to make the ipad give out sounds.  After 8:00 she called Apple and after giving them certain numbers thy turn on the sound-thing on the ipad. 

We heard it! 

We follow the beeps and found it in a cloth carry bag that would have been the least likely place we would have looked.

Whoopee 

Make sure your “Find my iphone” is turned on.

 

Gary McGee the DJ Lives!

 

About a year ago I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room and I overheard a male new patient at the counter.  The receptionist asked the man his name and he said Gary McKee.

“Gary McKee?!”  I thought.

Over 20 years ago Gary McKee was one of the top Dj’s in the Atlanta area.   He was on he air primetime morning commuting time on WQXI.  Also, his sidekick Yetta Levette. I had a hard time keeping up with Gary McKee and his prime time competitor Skinny Bobby Harper.  They both did outrageous funny things.

The lady behind the counter gave him some forms to fill out.  He went and sat down.  It is not a big room. 

I told him I couldn’t help from hearing his name was Gary Mckee.  “The radio Gary McKee?”  I asked.

He smiled and proudly nodded.   I bet he gets that a lot.

I gave him my “Chicken-Fat” blog card.  He said he would look at it.  I think he was just being kind, I don’t think he ever did.

Salt Peter Cave near Cartersville

This is a picture of a closed factory I took in Cartersville about a year or so ago.  It may be the old Westinghouse building I have rode by a twice times over 50 years ago.

 

We went to Salt Peter Cave I think near Kingston, Georgia.  Once as an Explorer Scouts a group of us schouts went with our scoutmaster and camped out not far from the largest mouth of the cave.

Secondly,  a couple years later just a bunch of friends went.   I forgot if we camped out or not.  I remember the cave was miles out a long dirt road.  It was marked private property.  Well, we were elderly teenagers, what do you expect?

The cave goes into a mountain or large hill with two entrances.  The cave has many tunnels, rooms, stalagmites  and stalactites.   I remember one big set of stalagmites  and stalactites met each other, it looked like two teepees, one balanced on top of the other.  Once getting way beyond where we should have went I felt around and found something round and smooth, this was in the dark, I couldn’t wait to turn on my flashlight to see what was.  I was thinking it was an monster egg or something.  It was a flashbulb.  In one room I think we waded on the edge of an underground pond or lake.  We left there quickly.

We came across two or three gave size pits.  We figured they were Indian graves.  During the Civil War they mined for salt peter in this cave.

You can go through one tunnel and come across and opening facing the opening the huge entrance door, which you could probably throw a house through.  When you come across the entrance to the room you are 25 or so feet up and you can walk carefully down to the big  room’s floor  but what we did not know until we got about ten feet down was layers of bat shit.  And yes, its true, bat shit is slippery.

Outside the biggest cave opening  is a tree hanging over the opening.  Larry carried a heavy rope.  One of us tied the rope to a=the tree over the mouth and we took times swinging out in the pitch black and swinging back.  It looked that a thrill, swing out and at one point the floor of the cave drops deep and you are above blackness. Then, your weight causes you to swing back to the take-off point.   I unintentionally  put a stop to all that fun.  I was last.  I was overweight.  I swung out  and as soon as I left the rocky edge I  felt myself slipping.  I hung on for ear life and  finally slid off the rope onto the rolling hill going down into the blackness.  I hit the upward hill of the cave and started rolling fast towards the drop off into blackness.  I was rolling fast and cold not grab anything to slow me down.  Then my body crashed into an upward boulder which stopped me solid.

The skin was burned off the palm of my hands and big blisters replaced the skin.  I was in misery for a few days but I lived (as you can tell).

 

Ebenezer Prance Strother Park (No Swimming)

This is the new park on Ebenezer Road, near the Canton Road end.  I think the name of it is Ebenezer Park.  I think the name of it should be Prance Park, named after the land owners about 100 years ago.  Of course the Strother family probably wish it would be Strother Park named after the more recent land owner. 

The newest house (brown) was owned by the Strother family.  The oldest gray house was owned by the Prance Family.

I took these pictures about when they opened.  We dropped by last week and we were the only ones there except the guy cutting the grass.

BABYDOLL Heckled

This may be before your time.  The movie was considered by the critics as very artsy, which is another way of saying they "didn't get it."  We had to drive to Cartersville to see it, it was banned in Cobb County.

This was in the first issue of HUMBUG, written by editor of Harvey Kurtzman and illustrated by Georgian Jack Davis.

Click on page to make it bigger and hopefully understandable.

 

Gus's Rock Barn

 

Another Canton landmark I forgot about.  The Rock Barn.  I read about the Rock Barn years ago and found it interesting, but as interesting as it is, my retention period is about as long as my last cup of coffee. 

I did a little Google on-line research and read  that the Rock Barn was built in 1906 by Augustus Lee Coggins.  It seemed I remember reading before it was built to hold prize winning horses.

I wonder if Augustus Lee’s Coggins nickname was “Gus”?

 

Gus,

You old Cus,

Don’t make a Fus,

Build a rock Barn

For your Hus

Canton Landmarks

 

A lot of buildings are built and in time they are bulldozed away when they make way for something more to suit the needs of the community.

If a building lingers  around it is a landmark. 

Therefore, I nominate the Dairy Queen on the Marietta Highway in Canton, Georgia, a Landmark.

Marietta History Museum visits St. James Cemetary

 

The picture is of my first cousin Elizabeth “Jo” Hunter, daughter of  Herbert Hunter,  in the late 1940 at St. James Cemetery.  She later married Charles Chuck Stewart.

 

We just enjoyed another history video of Marietta and connections presented by Amy and Krista of the Marietta History Museum.

Today they visited various historically important people’s graves in the Saint James Episcopal Church Cemetery on the corner of Polk and Winn Streets.

Amy and Krista bicker at each other and once Amy even broke into a song above Krista’s fussing about her doing it.  They are a riot!

They are funny and educational!

Who Said Postal People Have Dull Lives?

 

This is fellow retired postal employee Carol.  I ran into Carol at a grocery store. Carol was a relief rural route carrier.  Then she wasn’t.  Then she was a Target employee.  Who knows what goes on particulars that go on in people’s mind that impel them to do what they do. 

Carol lived next door to fine family in a nice East Cobb off Trickum Road.  If I remember correctly a little kid of the nice family next door banged on their door in the middle of night.  The reason the little girl was banging her big brother, a teenage was on a killing rampage.  He had just stabbed to death their parents.

It so happened that another close by neighbor was also a Marietta Postal employee, a supervisor, named Keith.  Keith is very athletic, involved in sports and a smooth taker.  I forgot the details but I think Keith was involved getting the teenage boy captured.

 

Dog Wandering Visitor Center

 

I took this picture of the Marietta Visitor Cemter/Depot about a year ago.  I just noticed the dog.

 In older times, like in 1862.  when James Andrews and his Raiders were waiting around the Depot to take The General train as passengers  to Big Shanty to embark on The Great Locomotive Chase,  a stray dog wandering around would look perfectly natural.

But there is a leash law now.  Dogs just do not do that anymore.

Box Car Salvadore Dali

 

Today I saw a long freight train roll had.   After a few went by I began looking at the free-hand creative art on each one.  Wow!  Every one was drawn by a talented person.   I wished I had taken some pictures but by the time I would have pulled my phone out and start taking pictures I would have missed some good ones.  Next time I’ll be ready.

I assume that all the boxcars on this train will have different destinations.  Maybe on the way another artist will take up where the last artist left off.  I wonder if each Boxcar artist signs his work?

It may be an interesting cult.

What Is Behind the Green Door?

 It is either the back door of Dupre's or Theater of the Square.

Benjamin in Glover Park,

 About a year ago.

Me on the Home Plate

 

I watched The Braves and The Dodgers Duke it out last night.  I watched it pretty intently with be Braves leading, until they were tide and then I got sleepy and bored, like I knew what was coming.  I went to bed.

Watching closeups up the batters and their facial expressions took me back to old time.  Yes, me.  At the Little League play-offs at The Crackers’ Ponce de Leon Ball Park in Atlanta.  Our team, Southern Discount was in the playoffs. 

I didn’t keep up with our game much, I knew we were losing, that was about all I knew or cared.  I and another benchwarmer were playing some kind of game or something when our coach, Romeo Hudgins, hollered for me. 

I ran up to him.

Romeo told me to go bat.  Me bat?  It was my first time.  I got a bat and ran up to the home plater ready to knock the ball out of the park.

The catcher said something challenging or smart allecksy to me and started loudly chanting.

I thought “How rude!  he doesn’t even know me.”

The pitcher threw three perfect singing striking balls right passed me, without me even blinking.

The game was over. 

We lost.

My Little League career was ove, just when I was on a roll.

Mystery Man

 

I was doing my walk this morning and haven’t even gone far enough to be off my street when a red pickup truck slowed down, then stopped and the window rolled down.  An old fart, about my age, said, “How you doing?”

“So so, how you doing?”  “Who is this guy?”  I thought.

We talked and talked.  We talked about the old days in Marietta and going to the Old Hospital on Cherokee Street, and Doctor Merl Haygood, and more old Marietta stuff.  And all the time wondering “Do I know this old fart?”

We talked about our time in the service, he was in the Army about the same time I was in the Navy. 

I know it is a Small World, but it would be nice if I knew who I was talking to.

He said he thinks I should get another dog.  It seems he knew about Willow’s departure.

I am not sure, but I think it could have been the same guy that between 5 and 10 years ago at the bottom of the hill on the street near by in the morning before daylight I saw the flickering of flames in the back of a house.  That was before I carried a  cell phone, so it must have been nearer ten years or more.  I bangedf on the door of the house and no one came.  About that time a pickup truck slowly rode by and I ran out in the street and waved him down.  He had a cell phone so he 911.

The firetrucks came and what it was flames were surrounding the LP gas bottle and the fittings.  The put the flame out and woke up the woman that lived there then and told her.

Ironically, a week or so later while walking I saw the woman in her yard and I told her that I was the one who called 911 (which really it wasn’t, it was the guy in the truck).  I expected a pleasant “Thank you” for saving her and her daughter’s life, but just got a glare, “Why don’t you mind your own business?”

Anyway, back to the guy in the truck this morning, that might have been the person that called 911, if he had on his mask this morning, like he should have, I could have said,

“Who is that masked man?”

 

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! HUMBUG's "Jack Davis's Killings

 HUMBUG Magazine started in the late 50s.  It was very much like MAD because it was created by ex-MAD artists and editor.  It is a long complicated opinionated story why they were "ex" (or "axed") and this post is about comics.

Except for the cover, this rest is drawn by Georgian Jack Davis.

click on each page to make images bigger and readable.  It is 50% about reading.

My Version of 13 Days

 

We are watching the movie THIRTEEN DAYS  which is about the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.  The official crisis was from October 16, 1962 to October 28, 1962.  My friends and I went out drinking wine straight out of the tilted bottle, to discuss it, like should we join up and help them or head for the hills.

I compromised.  I joined the Naval Reserves.

I went to the Naval Air Station Atlanta and signed up and was sworn in.   I was sent to the Dobbins Air Force side of the base for a physical.  The doctor turned me down because of my urine test showed I was a diabetic.  The doctor added, unless you had any wine recently.  I did!  So, I took a lot of water according to their suggestion and try again, which I did.  I was flushed out.  I passed the physical.

I went to a two week boot camp at Christmas time  at NAS Atlanta. Starnes, a Navy DI was our boot camp instructor.  After I joined, but before boot camp my buddies and I took advantage of the EM Club on the base.  What I did not know that the bartender Starnes would be our DI.  I must have tipped well, he did not bother me like some others.   He seemed to have it in for one black recruit.

One night in the barracks after I shined my shoes and whatever else in preparation for the next day I went to bed, or as Sailors would say, “Hit the bunk!”  That was before 10:00pm.

 

About midnight the person that had guard duty in the barracks shook my bunk telling me I had a visitor in the head (bathroom).  I went to the head with no idea what who to expect.

I walked in the head and there stood Parks Groover, old childhood friend, Parks Groover, grinning from ear to ear. 

He had a trench coat on and officer bars on the shoulder of the trench coat.  From underneath the trench coat he pulled out a bottle of whiskey and we had a few drinks.  If I remember correctly, Parks just got out of Air Force.  He was a surveyor, surveying the islands near Australia.  He said, “In case they ask, your grandfather died.” 

I said, “He did!”  About 13 years ago.

 

Dr Doctor

 

Small World (isn't that a Disney song?)

 

We hired a man to help us do some various chores that needed to be done.  This morning  he mentioned he worked for Lockheed as a buyer.  Anna told him she worked at Lockheed for Department of Defense as a contract administrator.

The more they talked they realized they worked in the same building at Lockheed, and probably the same floor about twenty years ago.

Small world.

That reminds me of the time in a restaurant in downtown Marietta we went to a restaurant and there was about a 15 minute wait.  We put our names in and sat down and had a friendly conversation with another couple.  We made small talk talking about Marietta and how it had changed and so on.

Then the hostess said, “Hunter, party of two.”

Anna and I stood up and so did the couple we were talking to.

The guy and I are first cousins and just did not recognized each other.

Allatoona Dam Memories

 

This is an interesting  bottle cap of a malted chocolate beverage.  Because of its name and emblem I took another look.  A dam?  Allatona Dam?   Well!  I never heard of it.

I find out every day just because I never heard of it does is not proof it doesn’t exis.

The bottle cap also brought back memories of the Dam and the Etowah River  On the north west side of the damn is a huge almost straight up embankment whlich one end of the dam is built onto.  I

In my teen years a few of us climbed up embankment we.  We had to hold on to small trees and bushes.  It wore us out.  When we got to the top overlooking the dam we were breathless.

Why did we do it?  Ego?  Or because it was there?   

No.  The real reason is that if I didn’t  I was afraid someone would get behind me, fold their arms, flap them, and squawk like a chicken.  

Breaking Arms

 My facebook friend Judy broke her arm while vacuuming. Of course, I had to tell her about my broken arm: Judy, I’m so sorry. It is never pleasant to have to deal with a broken limb. I broke my arm in my preteens at a wresting match. I think there were to be 3 bouts and the 3rd one of the contenders was either a gorilla or a bear. I wanted to see it so Daddy took me to Larry Bell Park, where they hold such events in Marietta. . Daddy hung out at the concession counter talking to someone he knew. A found a friend and we sat together and near a cute little girl sitting with her parents. The little girl kept her eyes on us and giggled as we showed off. I thought I would really impress her when I did a spectacular leap from the top of the bleachers to about 4 rows down. My plan did not work, I tumbled and broke my left arm.

My arm was bent. I was in pain. My covered my arm with my light jacket and found daddy hanging out at the concession stand talking to Elizabeth Sullivan, a family friend. I told him I didn;t feel good, I wanted to go home. Being a cop he said what's wrong wih your arm? You have it covered? He yanked the jacked off my arm, which make me grunt painfully and saw what I hiding. Daddy took me to the new Kennestone Hospital. The medical people gave me ether, I think, and set my arm with a cast. I had to stay overnight and they were not organized yet. I wasn’t a toddler or an adult. They put me in a very young kids ward. Kids crying. I deserved that for showing off like a fool.

Rockys, Suddenly It All Made Sense

 Benjamin Rockwell Hunter sitting in Rockwell Tyson Hunter's lap, photo by Edwin "Eddie" "Rock" Hunter, Jr.  Suddenly, it all made sense!

THE GREAT SPECJKED BIRD, EARNIE MARRS, & DASHBOARD JESUS

 Copied and pasted from a previous article in Chicken-fat.com:

I

Let me tell you about THE GEAT SPECKLED BIRD and Ernie Marrs:  If you are young  or new to the area, you might not heard of either.

THE GREAT SPECKLED BIRD was an Atlanta underground newspaper in the late 1960s and 1970s.  It bravely took on the establishment in stories,  political cartoons,  and editorials.  Hippy-looking people on street corners peddled the newspaper.  It was well done and very informative.

One of the editors was the late Ernie Marrs.  Earnie was a song  writer, singer, poet, philosopher, and roofer, which was his day job, that he did not quit.  Ernie wrote several songs that made it high on the charts.  The one that comes to mind is "DASHBOARD JESUS."

A co-worker, Pat,  knew  Ernie well.  They were regulars at the Stein Club on Peachtree, just south of 10th Street.  One time, I think it was a Sunday  Anna and I were driving around with Pat and  she was telling us all about Ernie Marrs.  She asked if we wanted t meet him and we said yes.

He lived in Little Five Points in a garage apartment.  When we got  to the steps leading to his apartment I had been drinking some, and had to pee.  I thought I would use Ernie's bathroom.  I couldn't hold it much longer.  I was the first one up the stairs knocking on the door.

No one came.

Ernie was not at home.

Like I said, I could not hold it any longer, so I urinated off the top landing of his steps, facing the big looming buildings of Atlanta.  Anna and Pat were waiting in the car.

Then I heard footsteps running  up the stairs.  I introduced myself to Ernie Marrs changed hands and shook his hand.

 

We had an instant party.  He played some good music and poured the booze.  He was glad to see us, or I suspect he was glad to see Pat.  He pulled out correspondence he had with Bob Dylan and  other nobles of the topical folk world and read and pointed out things in the letters.

I think we had a party and invited him once and if I remember correctly, he had to work late, those roofs don't put themselves up, you know.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! EC's BLUE & GRAY sci fi

 

Artists John Severin and Will Elder

Flesh Eating Pests

 

I just heard on the news the government flies over heavy wooded areas, like in the north Georgia mountains and  drop thousands of little food balls that are designed for foxes, coyotes, and other wild meat eating pest animals to eat.  The balls have rabies shots in them.  

They said it smells like fish.  

Maybe they should drop a load over Washington, DC.  It wouldn't hurt.

Thoughts about the Presidential Debate

I noticed on the Vice President debate that both opponents instead of answering an incriminating question used their time to change the subject about something incriminating on the other side.

Also I think Pence, as Trump, did not try to stay in their time allotted at all.  It was an unenforceable rule and they knew it, either that or maybe Republicans at an early age are taught that rules are not meant for them.

Giving credit where credit is due:  I think it is fair to say Vice President Pence was more gentlemanly than his boss.

Trump said he will not attend the 2^nd Presidential Debate, a virtual debate would be a waste of his time.  I don’t think he is able to do a virtual debate, that is not his style.  Instead of asking and answering civil questions I noticed in past debates he might walk behind his opponent and stand inches from her.  Or he might interrupt every thing his opponent says, or ask personal downgrading personal questions about his opponents immediate family.

I think he does all that to intimidate his opponent.  I did not know the same rules apply as in a wrestling match.

art by Jack Davis, in MAD Magazine