Before Rand McNally

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Interesting People

 I worked about 15 years at the Atlanta Post Office before transferring to the Post Office in Marietta. Most of the time in Atlanta I worked in the time keepers office. There you can not help from meeting some interesting people.

This evening my mind had re-runs of a guy at the Atlanta Post Office that worked in the box section. He was a vey nice easy-going guy but maybe too easy going.

Once he took the supervisor’s test. Afterwards the Atlanta Postmaster wanted to meet him. He had made the lowest of any one ever taking the test. That was one thing I remembered about him.

Another thing, one time my office co-worker went to this guy’s house in Paulding County to see something he had for sale, I forgot what, a table or something. While there my co-worker had to go to the bathroom. He asked where the bathroom was and they told him. They also added, “Turn on the light and Watch your step.”

They were right. The bathroom had no floor. Only the frame of the floor, like rafters. The boards were discolored, not new timber any more. They did not have a basement so you just saw dirt. Apparently, the guy started off remodeling their bathroom and lost interest, or the novelty wore off and he just quit. He got the plumbing completed but just not the floor. The plumbing in the bathroom is the most important, right?

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! MAD #10, a face upon a barroom floor

 illustrated scripted by editor Harvey Kurtzman.  Illustrated by Jack Davis.

Confession

 

At the Marietta Museum of History one time several years back it was bringing up memories of the Marietta Police Department.

About a half dozen ex Marietta cops got up told of their memories, which were mostly hilarious. The memories also showed they were humans with big hearts.

One retired policeman, I don't remember the name, at the podium asked for people born in Marietta to raise their hands. Almost everybody and I raised their hands.

Then he asked how many people went to Marietta High School. A good many of the people, including me raised their hands.

Then, he asked for people who rolled Marietta High School to raise their hands. As far as my peripheral vision could tell, I was the only one who raised a hand.

Maybe I had better explain:

At a football game two friends and I arrived fully stocked under our coats with rolls of toilet paper.

Every so often we would throw a roll high in black sky and it would unroll as it traveled in the air. twice it looped over the power lines.

MHS was playing Roswell. When the Roswell Band came marching on the field at half time as they march we let the toilet paper fly. Rolls flew and mysteriously did magic tricks like wrap around the legs of the band member trying to march,, tangled around tubas and other horn instruments.

I think everybody on the Marietta side were happy with the Roswell Band Half Time Show for a change.

I am pretty sure the statue of limitations has ran out.

Sheila

 2006.  My old buddy Sheila at my first Bell Reunion.  When she was  a kid she lived directly across the street from my uncle and aunt Stanley and Sarah Hunter and their boys.

click on picture to make it bigger.

I Got to Pee

 

Canada Travel Adventure

 

This is a travel adventure, I suppose, in early October 1973. How do I know this? While on the road back home I remember hearing on the news that the Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was resigning because of a scandal. He resigned October 10. 1973. Hooray for Spiro for being a time-mark for me.

We were friends with a married couple who were as hipped as they could get. They kept up with all the folk music, all the protesters, and so on. I am not critical of this.

They decided to move to Canada to be among and mingle with “their kind” – the people who avoid being drafted in the Vietnam War. The only problem with this is the husband, like me, had already served in the Navy.

They moved to Toronto. The husband was a computer whiz and had no trouble getting a job. The wife, it took a little longer.

They left us a check book to pay their bills as they came via mail, which I checked their mail daily and mailed it to to them fairly frequently, but not every day.

After they got settled they and got a nice apartment in high risr they invited us for a visit. We took them up on their offer.

We took a couple of weeks leave and drove up. We stopped at Niagara Falls and spent a day checking out the Maid of the Midst boat that Marilyn Monroe was in and we checked it out on the New York, U.S side, which is on top of the falls, and on the side where you can see the falls fall in all its glory, the Canada side.

Then we drove north, if I remember correctly Toronto was about 70 or 80 miles north with very little activity between.

They were both working, but they us a key hidden somewhere, I forgot where. Their apartment was high up and they had a great view of the city.

When they came home we went to their China Town and saw an interesting local parade with Chinese dragons.

I think our Columbus Day was the same day as Canadian Thanksgivings is. They both took off and we went to the city center which was full of activity. There is a science museum with some interesting hands one experiments going on. I could control a laser beam to melt a hole through metal, which I told the husband to hold his car keys above his head and see if I can shoot them off his head (laughing)….no no no.

Also he and I climbed a huge tree in the parking lot. Look hard you can see us, but watch out for the water balloons.

They also had a theater with special effects. If I remember correctly, the seat you were in would tilt, turn, to make it feel you were actually there. It also appeared to take us on a very fast ride around mountain ledges, cliffs, jumping gaps, and whatever. There was a young lady next to me, which I did not know, got really bananas in the movie’s fast tracks movies, so transfixed she grabbed my leg close to the crotch and held on for dear life. How can you politely tell a lady younger than you to please remove her hand. You don’t. You just sit back and enjoy the ride.

They had to go to work the next day. We went to a walk in movie to see a movie that was banned in the states, I forgot what it was, it might have been THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS. Starring Marlon Brando. Or he title might have had the word YELLOW in it. Who Knows.

That’s about all I remember worth sharing.

Welcome for Nothing

 

It has happened a lot lately. Somebody asks me if I served in the Armed Forces and I replied, "Yes, the Navy."

And like a automatic expected response they will say, "Thank you for serving."

I feel like blushing and saying something like, "Aw shucks, it was nothing."

I am telling the truth. There wasn't much to it, as for as being heroic. The base I was stationed at, NAS Lakehurst, N.J. 08733*, which was almost equal distance between New York City, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City. We kept the roads hot going to the big cities to have fun.

As I remember, the above picture** shows me holding the only weapon I used while serving. And it was a rubber tomahawk while playing cowboys and Indians at my uncle Roy Petty's place, about 60 miles north of NYC.

*But I am proud that I still remember the zip code, after 50 years.

** first cousin Rodney Petty; Me (With Indian feathered head-dress on); Navy buddy Joe Rexroad; and other first cousin Billy Petty.

click on picture to see details, mainly me with Indian headgear on.

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The Dog Coupon Lady

 

The Dog Food Coupon Fairy. A few months ago we went to Petco to buy a sack of dog food. We like to study the sacks to figure out which is the most for the buck. While we were studying, a woman approached us and said she just happened to have a coupon for a certain type of dog food, which was rated high in what was good for your dog. The coupon was for a whole big sack of dog food, free. Of course we used it.

Yesterday, we were back on the same aisle of shelves of sacks of dog food trying to decide what we needed, for nutrition at the best price. A lady with black pants and shirt showed up and told us all kinds of facts about the different types of dog food and what to look for. She sounded like a health-nut talking about things like the right amount of protein and what was better digestible, bla, bla bla. She also guided us to the brand she represented . Then she said she had a dollar coupon to give us. She couldn't find the dollar coupons she had hidden way but did find a $2 coupon she had stashed, which she gave us.

Later we were talking about twice we have been approached in that aisle and given valuable coupons. We said it was like having a Dog Food Coupon Fairy with you.

Did I mention she knew all about the value of exercise, food nutrients, and all that - just like a regular health-food nut? Did I mention she reeked with the odor of nicotine?

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Cultivating a Talent

 

Willow and I were coming back from our walk a few minutes ago when I heard a loud belch from the house across the street. Then, a man's voice, "I didn't do it right."

Another man's voice said, "No no, you have to do it like this..." And he let out a loud belch that may have been fortified with liquid, it sounded something giant wild swine barking a mating call.

I determined from the sounds and voices were coming from the 2nd floor balcony. A big tree prevented me from seeing them and hopefully it also prevented them from seeing me.

It reminds me of a time back in grammar school Van Callaway and I were working on making our burps and belches louder and maybe with some pep to them. Quality burping was our goal. Van's neighbor, Donald Earwood, a few years older, could burp anytime he wanted to and as loud as he wanted to. We always admire Don, he was witty and always seemed to have control over things, especially his burps. We went to see him for some burping advice.

"Eat plenty of olives." Don told us.

"Eat plenty of olives?" we asked, making sure that is what he said.

"Yep!" He confirmed what he had said.

We bought a jar of olives and tried it and it just didn't work for us. I suppose we didn't have what it takes.

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SUNDAY FUNNIES!!

 Not only did EC publish MAD, War, and Horror comics, it also published Sci Fi comics.  Most were scripted by publisher William Gaines and/or his working buddy Al Feldstein.  I say "scripted" because "by" may be untrue.  Gaines said they stole many of their stores, like some from Ray Bradbury and so on.  "Everybody was doing it" Gaines said.  In fact, Ray Bradbury caught them using his material and wrote them asking for royalties.  Then Gaines and Bradbury developed a wonderful professional relationship.

Art by Will Elder and John Severin (2 of the 4 original MAD artists).

Click on page to make it bigger and readable.

W.C. and Jimmy

 

Jimmy Crain, my first cousin, visiting our uncle W.C. Hunter at the Veteran's Hospital in Millegeville, Georgia. W.C. was a WWII casualty. He was shot in the head and the Army put a metal plate in his head. Recuperating in a North African military hospital he and another patient were drinking coffee outside and a group of U.S. Sailors walked by. W.C. pointed at one and said that guy looks just like my kid brother Dick. And that was Dick. After the war WC moved to Lake Jackson married, and moved back to Marietta single. The war did a number on him, he had a hard time living in society. W.C.'s name was Walter Clarence Hunter. He had a first cousin in Woodstock that had the exact name, so maybe that is why he preferred W.C. Jimmy visited W.C and my sisters did also. He got other Hunter visitors also. Near the end he had a throat operation and he could not talk after that I heard. Jimmy died in 2001` and W.C. died in 1998.

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Poof! It is Gone

 

This was the 1st Methodist Annex. Now, it is the law office of former Governor Roy Barnes.

It was built about 1945-46. I know, because I was there. We lived about a block away in the Clay Homes. I was preschool.

When the workers building the Annex left in the evening we, the local kids, would suddenly materialized. We played war, invented toys such as see-saws, leaping contests and whatever else we could invent with what we had.

One kid, Mike Hobby, fell from one level to the next, landed on his feet like a cat, however a spike or nail went through his foot.

Mike and his little brother George did not live in the Clay Homes like the rest of us, they lived in an older house next door to the Annex-to-be. They just moved there from Macon. Their father, Marian Hobby, gave them strict orders do not play in the Annex-to-be. Opps!

Of course they did not want their father to know they disobeyed him. I don’t remember how this came to be, but Daddy solved their problem. If I remember correctly he cleaned the wound with kerosene. And all’s well that ends well.

Daddy was something of a local unofficial witch doctor. He could get foreign objects out of one’s eye socket, puncture infectious pusy sores and other home remedies. I remember seeing him many times over the stove holding a needle over the stove’s blue flame, getting ready to operate.

I remember one time my legs were infected with who knows what, my legs were covered with risons with whiteheads. We went to his parents’ house and got a sack of black walnuts that have fell off the tree. He wanted just the black liquidy goo that surrounded the walnut shell. He rubbed my legs with that smelly stuff for a few days, and in the disease was gone.

Poof!

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