SUNDAY FUNNIES!! PIRANHA CLUB Ambulance Chaser by Bud Grace

 

Celebs Who Died 2023

 

Bar Hopping With Jocks on New Years Eve

 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.

C W Conner Obituary

 Posted on my blog last year

Obituary for Claude William Conner

C.W. (Claude W.) Conner was born October 21, 1939 in Walton County, Georgia. He passed away on December 1, 2020 in his home in Ellijay, Georgia. He spent much of his early childhood in the rural South among the simple joys of a way of life now forgotten. His family moved to Marietta, near Atlanta, in 1943 so that his Father could find work. As a boy and later as a teenager, C.W.’s ambition to become an artist grew. As a young man, his desire to pursue a career in art was put on hold because of the need to earn a living. So, he applied his native artistic talents outside the art world as a draftsman and in the building trades. He had extensive experience in home design, building and landscape design. Even though he did not have any formal art instruction, over the years he continued to experiment with materials that were available to him to develop an original artistic style of his own.

C.W. Conner’s art reflects his humble beginnings in the rural American South and his adult life experience in the “big city.” His unique painting method used found objects and materials like old barn wood, tin roofing material and various types of house paints along with more traditional art materials. His women’s faces, figures, roosters and scenes of country folk going about their everyday chores and enjoying life’s little pleasures have become his trademarks. His carved walking sticks are legendary.

C.W. lived his life on his own terms and said he had done everything he wanted to do.

C.W. was preceded in death by his parents Claude Herschel Conner and Sallie Brown Conner. He is survived by his loving sister and brother in law, Janelle Conner Miller and Hugh, his nephews and their wives: Kent Miller and, Selma, Curt Miller and Elizabeth, Stan Miller and Patti Waller and his niece and her husband, Zana Miller Ireland and A.J., his daughter and her husband Cherie and Mark Countz and their children and many grand nieces and grand nephews and countless friends and neighbors.

To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Claude William Conner please visit our Sympathy Store.

Petty Clan in the Red Hills

 Petty clan, many years ago, Left to right, first row: Leonard (b1924), Opal (b1913), Sarah (b1927),.

Second row: Janie (b1918), Viola (b1885), Osmo (b1915), Roy (b1921), MaryJo Johns (bb1913)(wife of Tom), Tom (b1908), and Wallace (b1910).

Notes: Their "Red Hills" house is behind them which means the house was taken near Cohutta, in Murray County, Georgia..

The oldest sibling, Georgianne is missing. Maybe she took the picture.

Their father William Elijah Joseph Petty died in November, 1935, the picture was probably taken shortly after his death.

Why is Osmo is wearing a hat?

Brothers Tom & Osmo Petty and Which Wife?

 Brothers Tom and Osmo Petty. I am not sure if that is Tom's wife Mary Jo or Osmo's wife Viola standing beside Osmo

The Hunter Clan in Marietta, Ga. about 1944

 The Hunter Clan of Marietta, c 1944* before they multiplied and multiplied: all left to right:

Kids up front: Probably Jerry Hunter and Jimmy Crain in front of W.C. Hunter; Bobby Crain in front of Jack Hunter; Me (Eddie Hunter) in front of Ed Hunter; Frances Hunter in front of Frank Hunter.

1st row: Tom Crowder, W.C. Hunter, Jack Hunter, Ed Hunter, and Frank Paris Hunter.

2nd row: Minnie Tyson Hunter (behind Frank Paris Hunter), Janie Petty Hunter.

3rd row: Sarah Frasure Hunter, Bee Hunter Crain, ? , ?, Doug Hunter holding probably Sandra Hunter, Octavia "Tade" Tyson, Carr, probably Elizabeth "Jo" Hunter Stewart. ?

4th row:?, ?, Lolagene Turner Hunter,

Last row: Stanley Hunter, Bus Hunter, Herbert Hunter, and ? . This last person looks like Jimmy Crain but appears to be older than Jimmy would be in about 1944.

Ones that are probably in the picture but I can't pick them out: Zelma Ogle Hunter, Fay Hunter Rogers, Anne Tyson Crowder, Evelyn Crowder, Ed Tyson, Ann Tyson Brown, Will Tyson, Dalton Tyson, Lacy Powers Tyson, and Belle Kuykendall Tyson. If you can help, please don't be shy.

* I estimate the year 1944 by looking at me in the picture. I am the kid closest to the camera. I look about 3, and I was born in 1941, so there you have it.

Downtown Marietta Christmas Lights:

Last night (Christmas Eve) Anna and I went downtown to the Square and took these pictures:  Click on each picture to get the most out of it.

Will Elder's Circle

 

Art by Will Elder. He dfew all these characters for MAD Comicbook.

Marietta, Georgia, National Cemetery at Christmas

 https://youtu.be/Ftx5axIW4QY?si=CoqgJIZLgYw5pGNJ

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! PANIC's Comic Santa

 Art by Will Elder.  Which, by the way, was banned in Boston.

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Will Elder via Playboy's ANNIE FANNY

 Will Elder via Annie Fanny

HUMBUG!

 

Manhood

 Dawson Cemetery, Shallowford Rd, Marietta, Ga. A friend of mine lived next door to this cemetery. He kept the grass cut. Later he moved to Resaca, Georgia. Next door is the Resaca Confederate cemetery. After a while he noticed no one cut the grass. So, to keep his area from looking bad he cur Resaca CSA Cemetery. And now it is old way of life continued.

Pay notice to the names in this cemetery, Marietta’s elite at the time.

One day while riding driving by I noticed there was a crowd standing in the cemetery. Must be a funeral I thought. Closer I saw they were all preteen boys. And closer, I saw the boys gathered around two boys slugging it out. The cemetery is across the street from a middle school.

Cousins Stanley & Osmo Petty in Detroit Fighting at Bars

 This picture is first cousins Stanley and Osmo Petty, before 1941, in Detroit. Siblings Osmo and Opal Petty went to Detroit to find employment, they heard it was easy to get a job in Detroit. Their first cousin Stanley Petty went with them. I think they had no trouble finding jobs, also no trouble getting into fights. Opal told me Osmo loved to go to bars and get into fights.

HO HO HO Santa by Will Elder

 

By my favorite comilc artist, the late Will Elder

Postal Bllues

 Posted on Facebook 8 years ago:

I thought about the Post Office today. Here is a true event I experienced while working as a window clerk:

When I was a Postal Window clerk I from time to time would wait on a nut. I guess that is to be expected. There are nuts out wandering around and they do business and social activities where they have to interact with people, which the people they interact with know before the interaction gets too involved, they are dealing with a nut an back off.

But is rare to be talking with two nuts at the same time.

Once, when I was a window clerk an elderly couple were next. I asked them to come up to my window, which they did, in an unsure manner. They looked to be in their late 60s or 70s. The man wore worn overalls and the woman had on a flowerily dress. They had a serious look of their face.

Somebody knocked down their mailbox the man said. They didn’t even stop the woman said. The man added if he had knocked down someone mailbox he said it would have been an accident and he would stop and offer to replace it. The woman told me whoever hit their mailbox and knocked it down didn’t stop.

They said they would like to see some examples of regulation mailboxes. I had a Postal issued publication that illustrated different types of mailboxes and had the legal dimensions, minimum and maximum, and showed an illustration how long the post should be from ground to the box. Of course, that would be about the right height for a carrier to be able to deliver the mail from his car window and move on.

Some of the illustrations had big red X’s on them which was saying that was the WRONG way.

The elderly couple studied each picture and talked among themselves and finally focused on one standard looking mailbox and the man pulled out his wallet and said, “We’ll take that one.”

I said we didn’t sell mailboxes you would have to buy them at a hardware store or someplace that sold mailboxes.

He said, “Well how come you have a catalog?”

Are they real or are they joking? Maybe they both are getting to be senile about the same time.

I explained that it wasn’t a catalog it was just showing Postal regulations on the requirements for a mailbox.

They looked at me like the didn’t believe me, but if I didn’t want to sell them a mailbox that was my right, it was a free country.

Then, the man said if they go down to the hardware store and buy a mailbox and a pole how long would it be until we sent someone out to put it up.

Again – are they serious?

We don’t put up mailboxes, that is your responsibility I told them.

He said he could put it up, he had dug many of a hole for a post for fences in his time, so he didn’t mind.

They walked away talking about their next approach to the problem of no mailbox.

I wonder if they ever came up with the proper chain of solutions.

Ca

HOW!

 Petty Siblings Roy, Janie (my mother), and Osm poising by the Big Rock. The Big Rock was on their property in the Red Hills, near Cohutta, Georgia, they were in their teen years. The Big Rock covered an entrance to a cave. In the cave was Indian lore. When the highway department paved the Cleveland, Tennessee Highway they bought rocks from nearby farmers. They bought some from William Elijah Joseph Petty. They highway department workers had t blasted the rocks out thus sealing the entrance to the Indian Lore cave forever.

SUNDAY FUNNIES: Stamps

SUNDAY FUNNIES 1st class stamps.  Click to enlarge.

Warning:  Don't try to use any of them to mail a letter. 

Sliding Into a Pond on a Cold Day and a Late Friend's Mother

 Our current weather condition reminds me of the Ice Storm of March 1961. When the storm came it was during the night. In March 1961, we woke up to a frozen white Winter Wonder Land. I worked in Atlanta at the time and it was too dangerous to try to drive to work. So, I called in. So did all my friends that were not away at college. We went out to play on the frozen slippery terrain.

Larry got a near worthless used car from his father's used car lot and we rode around and learned a lot about the physics of driving on slippery ice. We went to Town & Country Shopping Center, which was empty of customers' cars because of the weather and used the wide open spaced parking lot as a training ground. We would spin, get speed up and slam on the brakes en enjoy the slide. Later we tried climbing a steep hill and I forgot what happened but it put an end to our riding that car.

The steep hill was leading off Powder Springs Street across from Garrison Road. We were just a block or two from the Marietta Country Club. We got the idea of going up to the golf course and sliding down the big hill there on the green. When we walked up to the Country Club we realized we were not the first ones to think of sliding down the hill on the golf course. Many kids were there sliding. They had serving trays they were using that they slipped in and got from the dining or kitchen area of the club. Other kids had flattened big cardboard boxed, and even one group of kids brought a car hood they rode on. I tried a serving tray, a cardboard flattened, but finally got the not so bright idea of riding down on a round red Coke sign, which the face of it was facing the ice. I started down the hill, picked up speed, and for some reason the Coke sign started to spin, or I should say the Coke sign and I started to spin faster and faster.

The Coke sign became a runaway out of control Coke sign. I couldn't get off or guild it. At the bottom of the hill is normally a pretty little pond. That day it was partially frozen . I hit the pond, it may have skidded to put me more in the middle, then sunk.

It was almost thigh deep in cold icy water. I walked out. The fun was over.

I needed dry pants. My pants were sloshing and about to get stiff with ice. I was walking. I lived on Richard Street which was about 2 or miles away, one block from the 4-Lane, across the highway from the future White Water Amusement Park.

Sometimes I can be resourceful when it comes to surviving. I sloshed and crinkled my way across town, about halfway home to Colonial Circle, where Mrs. Latimer lived.

My friend Gene "Jenky" Latimer was killed in a drag race the previous May or early June. I knocked on Mrs. Latimer's door. She was happy to see an old friend of Jenky's. I told her my pants were wet, could I borrow a pair of Gene's pants. She gladly gave me a pair, which I went to the back and changed into. Then Mrs. Latimer baked us some banana-nut bread, which we had with hot apple cider.

Still, each time I ride by Colonial Circle off Fairground Street, or eat banana bread I think of that day.

Merry Christmas

 

Art by Me.

William Elijah Joseph Petty Family, after 19325

 

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.

A Fish Tale

By Norman Rockwell
 

Rich's Christmas Tree Tradition

 

Up until Rocky and Adam were old enough to appreciate it, on Thanksgiving Thursday night, Riches Department store on Forsyth Street in Atlanta had the Lightening of the Christmas Tree.

On Forsyth Street for a long time Riches was on both sides of the street. Up high enough for trucks to drive under was a glassed in, three or four level bridge with indoor temperature. Normally each level were just different shopping areas. But on Valentine Thursday night different kinds of live Christmas music was sounded from each level. Some were church choirs, solo songs, and popular singers.
It was a sight with sounds to behold.
All of Forsyth Streets, blocks going each way was very crowded.
I remember we went once or twice before kids, and I think once, maybe twice with the boys.
But it got where people did not like to go down town, too dangerous. They moved the Christmas Lightening to Lenox Square, miles away.
When the songs are sung and the tree is lighted, it means, or meant

LET THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BEGIN!  CA-CHING! (sound of cash register.

Osmo & Violet Petty

 

Probably taken in Indiana.

How Do Get To Carnegie Hall?

 

We watched a special on musician Jon Batise this evening.  He and his family are New Orleans natives and know music.  He has won many music  awards and is still humble to the common man.  He also his wife Suleika Jaouad tended to his wife was clinging to life with leukemia (now she is better).  If was a great wafch.

You heard the old joke on someone asking a beatnik in New York City how to get to Canage Hall and he replied, “Practice man, practice>”

I remembered that joke when the last part of Jon Batise special that he gave a concert at Carnegie Hall.  Jon has been practicing all his life.

It also reminded me of Carnegie Hallin 1964 when a bunch of my Navy Pal drove up from Lakehurst, NJ, to The Big Apple, Carnegie Hall to see a Folk Singers’ Hootenanny.   We saw plenty of well known folk singing groups, including Johnny Cash.  Which I thought Johnny Cash was a country singer, not a folk singer.

Is There Any Other Way?

 

Here  is a funny memory that  I just re-remembvered:

Back about 25 years ago when I was a clerk at the Post Office one time we were coming in very early, like 2 or 3 a.m. 

There was a married couple in our sorting crew.  The husband was probably in his late forties and the wife was probably ten years older. 

One night or early morning their was a snow of ice storm.  Driving to work in the dark was very treacherous..  Everybody made it to work except the married couple.

Everybody was needed.   The supervisor called their home.  Thy said they could not get out of the driveway..  The supervisor told us they could not get out of the driveway.  One clerk, Ed, volunteered to go get them.

He went.

A time later he came back without them.  He said he honked hen banged on the door and they did not come out. 

Later when the supervisor asked why they did not come out they said they did not hear the car horn or he door bell.

Then they said it must have been when they were taking a shower.

“Shower together?”

“Well yes, is there any other way?”

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Al Capp's I'L ABNER

Loose Young Men Hunting on Thanksgiving

 THANKSGIVING STORY. We are invited to kin-folks Thanksgiving dinner later this week. The hosts suggested that each person to come armed with their favorite Thanksgiving story or memory. I do not speak well in front of a group of people. I do OK in one on one conversations, but more than two or three people I don't. I thought about what I want to say, which is a Thanksgiving memory. I thought maybe I should corner each person there, one on one and tell them my story. But better still, put it on Facebook and my blog and let them read it for themselves, if they want to. If they don't, that is OK too, I won't know the difference.

My Thanksgiving Stories:

First I want to briefly tell you my second Thanksgiving Story: It happened Thanksgiving 1963. That was just several days after Kennedy was killed. At the Naval Mess Hall in Lakehurst, New Jersey, our Thanksgiving dinner was a solemn occasion - nobody felt like being thankful or happy. Who knew what would happen next? What did happen was the Navy just rescue the men from a sinking foreign transport off our coast. Our Naval base was the nearest to bring them for food. I think it was a ship from one of the northern countries of Europe. They all were given orange flight suits to wear. They were happy and THANKFUL to be alive. Although we could hardly understand a word they said, after dinning with the happy to be alive crew it rubbed off on us. Another good reason to go to the E.M. Club to get plastered.

Now, let me tell you about the Thanksgiving story I don't I will ever forget, unless I do: Back in the early late 1950s or early 1960s a group of friends and I decided to go hunting early on Thanksgiving morning. Larry Southern knew of a place in White, Georgia, near Cartersville of endless dirt roads. Our plan was to take turns with two of us riding on the fenders and when we saw a rabbit shoot it. We have been out on dirt country roads countless times and rabbits would run out in front of us. Maybe we arrived at the destination about 2am, and proceeded to ride the dirt roads, taking turns at fender duty. We did not see any rabbits. We gave up and came upon an abandoned country unpainted shack. We built a fire in the fireplace and sat around and talked about life and gossiped. We were not getting much accomplished , we decided to drive back to Marietta. Out on the highway going to Cartersville we had a flat tire. We were driving one of Larry's father's old junk car somebody traded him for a better car (hopefully). The old heap had no spare. We sat in the car and talked and gossiped some more. Daylight began to slowly shift in. When it got light enough that we could see some things around us we saw we were parked across the road from a house. Beside the house was a pasture and behind the house was a little hill. Near the top of the hill was an outhouse, maybe 50 feet from the house.

Larry said he was going to use that outhouse. We knew he meant it. He loved to use outhouses. Monty and Johnny tried to talk him out of it. He wouldn't want to listen their reasoning. He got out of the car and walked beside the house and up the hill.

Something you need to know about Larry: He was then a shy person. He would do sneaky things but hoped he would never get caught, it was too embarrassing. When he did get caught he scratched his forehead so his hand would cover his face. We have seen him scratch his fore heard more than once.

Larry went into the outhouse and shut the door. The rest of us sat there and talked and speculated what would happen if he got caught.

Then I saw a little grey headed mother walking up hill with some newspapers in her hands. I told my friends and we were having laughing fits watching each step the lady took.

She opened the door and dropped her papers.. Out bounded Larry trying to pull up his pants with one hand and scratching his forehead with the other.

He ran down the hill, jumped in the car , started the engine and we rode off, flat or no flat.

We got down the road a very shot distance but around a bend and out of sight and we gave out of gas. This time we were in front of a service station that sold tires and gas. We started to pool our money to discovered that every one of us was broke.

Somehow I got elected to go to Larry's house, or his parents' house, get his car and his money was hidden in his car, and drive back to White, Georgia.

I hitchhiked back to Marietta. I lived with my family close to the 41 Hwy, or 4-Lane, as we called it locally. My last ride carried me as close as two blocks for our house. I walked into our house. My family was having Thanksgiving dinner. Invited down from Chattanooga was my mother's brother Tom Petty and his wife Mary Jo. I hurriedly ate, standing up - I was on a mission. I took my car and drove over to Larry's house and got his car. Luckily, his parents were not there - I would look awful guilty trying to explain everything to them. I left my car at Larry's parents and took Larry's car and drove back up the 4-Lane to Cartersville. That was before the I-75 was built.

Right after the first street turning off into Cartersville, I gave out of gas.

Back then we ran out of gas a lot. We did that a lot and just dealt with it as it happen. It was also a way of life to park on hills with the front aiming down in case we had to push our car off.

I was out of gas with the mission incomplete. The only thing I knew to do was to start hitchhiking towards White and worry about Larry's car later. After all, they need the money to get gas and a tire for the heap. As I was walking backwards on the northbound lane of the US41 with my thumb out I looked over to the southbound lane and there was my four friends walking backwards with their thumbs out. I hollered and we joined up.

I do not remember the details of what happened next. We got Larry's car, put gas in it and went back to white and had to walk to the owner of the service station's house to get him to open on Thanksgiving to sell us a tire and some gas. I think he sold us a used tire for $5 and sold us gas.

It was something I think I will remember until I can't remember no more.

Uncle Osmo, Aunt Opal, Red Hills

 c1936 - A friend, Osmo Petty (hat), and his sister Opal Petty in front of the old house they lived in when they lived in what they called "the Red Hills" in Murray County, Ga.

Remember Pearl Harbor

 Pearl Harbor Memorial in the National Cemetery in Marietta. In case you are interested in seeing this. When you enter the National Cemetery Arch it is on the far left and if I remember correctly, it has the fatalities and survivors of Cobb Countians at Pearl Harbor that day.

All reac