Betty White Died today at age 99. She was shy 17 Days of Being 100.

Wait! Shy and Betty White do not belong in the same sentence.

Florida Championship Football On News Year, and the Navy

The big championship football this weekend reminds me of another championship upcoming football game I was rubbing elbows with the player. I know nothing of championship football games in Florida and don’t pretend to, so maybe I can skirt past that part. It was December 31st 1964. Our ship, the USS NEWPORT NEWS pulled into Mayport, Florida. We were to stay overnight there. Mayport is 15 or so miles outside of Jacksonville. The upcoming night would be a big New Years Eve Party all over Jacksonville. A bunch of us took the bus into Jakcsonville. The town, especially, just outside barfs were plenty of people partying and drinking. A lot of jocks wit college logos on their sweaters – I assumed they would be playing the big game the following day. I started drinking with them. There were some local girls that started hanging out with us. One in particularly paired up with me. She was tall and skinny and had an eye patch. She also had a long horn with her. Every time I tried talking to he she would blow that long deep sounding horn in my face. Oh yeah, a lot of the college people shot firecrackers. That is about it. We made it back to the ship on time. Some others went to the Naval Officer club and hit it off with some officer’s wives who husbands were out to sea. Reuben was on the same ship the same time. Here is what he said about this adventure: 1964 not 65. You were discharged prior to New Years Eve 65. Liberty was in Jacksonville Beach, not Jacksonville. The Navy provided us a bus free from Mayport to Jax Beach. The big game was the Gator Bowl between Florida State and Oklahoma played on 2 January 65. There were a lot of students about. I do remember the lady with an eye patch and horn story, but I wasn’t drinking with you as I wasn’t yet old enough to drink in bars. I was back on the ship early, you much later. Hope you have a great New Year.

Marietta Mayors and their Teacher

I saw in the Marietta Daily Journal this weekend a picture of Former Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway and current Marietta Mayor Steve "Thunder" Tumlin at the UGA-Tech ball game. Not to be outdone by the MDJ , here they are again in the same picture, taken a few years ago, at a GOBAG meeting sandwiching Mrs. Howell, our Marietta High School science teacher. I think then their titles were switched around some. Bill was current Mayor and Thunder was Mayor-To-Be, or something like that.

Petty Clan in 1930s

Petty clan - after 1935 (Wm Elijah Joseph Petty died in 1935): L to R: 1st row, Osmo Petty, Opal Petty, Thelma Cox Petty (wife of Wallace), Wallace Petty. 2nd row: Cecil Grant, Georgia Petty Grant, Walt Ridley (brother of Viola Ridley Petty), Janie Petty (to marry Ed Hunter), Viola Ridley Petty, Sarah Petty (to marry Bill McLemore), 3rd row: Either Leonard or Roy Petty, (probably Leonard), MaryJo Johns (wife of Tom Petty), and Tom Petty.

Me & Jean Sheperd and the Bee Bee Gun

For the Umpteenth time we are watching on TV the movie CHRISTMAS STORY movie. The movie was written by Jean Shepherd (1921-1999). It is Shepherds memoirs as a child at Christmas time. I’ll take it over IT’S A GOOD LIFE anytime. It was on a New York City radio station and I used my radio and cheap earphones to listen to it I have been a fan of Jean Shepherd since about 1964. In the Navy, after the lights went out at 10:00pm, sometime after that, probably 11:00pm, on radio was the JEAN SHEPHERD show. He talked on and on about his younger life. Self Centered? Well, yes, but it was also interesting, funny, and fulfilling. I don’t think it was scripted. Sometimes he ran out of something to talk about and he would pull out his kazoo and play it until he though of more of the same subject for that night. A confession: Jean Shepherd is largely the inspiration for my blog Chicken-fat.com! If he can talk endlessly about his past and find the humor in it, I’ll make a feeble attempt doing the thing on a blog! And I’m doing it without a kazoo.

We are Falling Like Ripe Apples Out a Tree

We are old. We are like ripe apples falling from the tree. I just talked to an old school high school mate on the phone. She asked if I knew our friend Johnny Pascoe died just three days after Ed West died. Then she told me Jesse Lowman died, he fell off a ladder. The last I heard Jesse was running a gambling table in Mississippi. I always thought Jesse was more of an intellectual than the rest of us in our little click. Falling off a ladder killed Jesse. Jesse used to like to get behind me in a waiting, non-moving crowd, reach around me and pinch the person, either male or female, in the ass. Then jerk his hand back and look the other way and leave me to take the blame. I learned to stand behind him.

I like Santa

We have been watching the movie CHRISTMAS STORY by Jean Shepherd off and on today. I Googled Jean Shephard and it shows his living dates are from1921 to 1999. The story he wrote about a boy, probably about 10 or 11 who day dreams a lot, has a make believe relationships with odd unlikely people, wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas, that every adult tells him he will shoot his eye out, and so on. By his school adventures I would say he was about my age during that time, which would be being born about 1941. But no, he was born almost 20 years before, in 1921. I stand corrected. One of the things I found interesting and identifiable was the reoccurring kid in that had one statement that naturally ruins any further conversation. He is only reoccurring because the saw the movie several times today. It was “I like Santa Clause.” What more can you say? He put a cap on the conversatrion. I met people like that and I hate to say it, but I think I have been like that person more than once.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! EC's ComicBook PANIC does TWAS THE NIGHT...

This lampooing Twas the Night Before Christmas was in MAD's sistrer comicbook, PANIC, illustrated by Will Elder. Among others, it was banned in Boston, really! The has an EC artist office party, which many EC comics had, who showed their good times. Be sure to click on each page to make it bigger, and hopefully understandaly.

Evil Christmas Creature

Swiped from my friend's Par's page.

Rudolph

This is a herd of reindeer in Norway. The title of the picture is DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW. If you look closely (click on it to make the picture bigger) you can see a red light, about reindeer nose high, with a gang of reindeer bullies around it laughing and calling it names.

Ho Ho, Hee Hee

Ho Ho ho

No text needed.

No Texr Needed

No text needed

HUMBUG!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF WINTER

Santa and Kid Posing

by Will Elder

Ho Ho or Cluck Cluck

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Ripped from EC's ACES HIGH Comic, the FLYING TIGERS!

There really were a flying group of u.s. flying fighers called the Flying Tigers who made quiet a name for themselves. While doing doing geanlogy research I discovered one of the pilots is a distant Tyson relative. I found that I am related to a member of the famed FYING TIGERS aviators of WWII. Lt. Col. Orlando Waller Wood, Jr. and I are both descended from Eugene Frelinghagsen Tyson and Nancy Caroline McClure. Really! His last name is not to be confused with the artist with a similar name who did this article, Wallace Wood Cover art by George Evans; story art by Wallace Wood; and story text probably by Harvey Kurzman.

Violet & Osmo Petty

I don't know much about Violet, I think she wisely kept her distance from the Pettys.

Whoops!

Look! I Ran the Peachtree Road Race!

Because of the virus the Peachtree Road Race, which has always been held on the 4th of July has been moved up for today, Thanksgiving Day. Although many people paid their fees are not expected to run the Peachtree Road Race today. I know I’m not! I didn’t pay my entrance fee anyway. I haven’t ran the Peachtree Road Race since 1987, 33 years ago. Here I am bragging, saying without words, “Look! I ran the Peachtree Road Race!”

Hotel Lobby Lurking with a Camera in NYC

Me lurking in a NYC hotel with a camera.

Marietta, Manget & Waterman Sts

The duplex on the left my friend Frankie lived. The last I heard he was in a mental institution in New Orleans. Before that he was studying to be a Catholic Deacon. Before tha when a bunch of us was riding our bikes at Cheatum Hill while resting he pulled out a newspaper clipping of Blondie, DAGWOOD's wife. Blondie was in a slip. Frankie told a group of us that he thought she was really sexy and he mastubated over that clipping often.

Billy & Rodney

Throwback Thursday. This is Billy and Rodney Petty, sons of my uncle Roy Petty and his wife Dorothy Humes, about 1959. This same Christmas card photo was used as an insurance advertisement and was in Saturday Evening Post. At the time they lived in New York City. Later they moved to Carmel, NY, where Roy was over Clear Pool's Boy Camp, a Heinz Foundation project. The second picture is of me and some Navy friends visiting Clear Pool Camp and played cowboys and Indians. Rodney and Billy and in that picture also. That was about 1964. The color picture was taken about 1985 of Billy and his wife Joy when they visited Marietta. They live in Colorado. PS click on the picture of the boys camp. You see the dog without a tail. On a previous visit when I was in the Navy we were on walking on a road that went around a lake and a car went around the curve past and almost hit us, but swerved and hit the dog. The mishap cut the dog's tail off. When Billy grew up he became a race cae driver and builder in Colorado. Rodney is a mystery.

Hunters Cousins & Siblings

Hunter cousins and siblings in the early 1940s. In the first picture: Vickie Crain and Frances Hunter. The 2nd row: Jerry Hunter (killed in Vietnam), Bobby Crain, and Eddie Hunter (me). 3rd row: standing behind me is Jimmy Crain, who died in 2001. The 2nd picture is me and my sister Frances Hunter in a chinaberry tree., which is the same tree as in the first picture. Both pictures were taken in our grandparents' front yard on Manget Street. In both pictures you can see Larry Bell Park across the street. Also, if in the first picture you can see Manget Street is not paved yet. Back to the second picture, Frances and I look like a pair of vultures in a tree don't we?

I Gave It Up Years Ago

Today, as usual, we were early for a doctor’s appointment. We sat in the parking lot and waited for time to catch up with us. While waiting we saw a sickly old lady going out struggling with her walker, then struggling with her car door, then struggling with. It appeared the car door and the walker were winning. I jumped out and asked could I help. YES and the thanked me heartedly, She asked me to fold up her walker and put it in the back seat. She thanked me again as I held the door open for her to get into the driver’s seat. I saw on the console she had an opened flip top box Marboro cigarettes. Tch tch.

NYC 10TH PART, MID DECEMBER 2018, MACY'S OF NEW YORK