First Day of Summer!

Hel-lo Summer!

Surviving Pettys in 1981

click to enlarge

The Petty Surviving Siblings, May 1981.  My mother and her surviving siblings. 

Left to Right or 2nd Row First:  Ethel America "Janie" Petty Hunter, Wallace Charles Petty, William Leroy "Roy" Petty, Opal Ruby Petty; Leonard Frances Petty, and Sarah Petty McLemore.

Now, there is none.

Father's Day and Dem Bones

Fathers' Day, 1999, seventeen years ago my sons Rocky and Adam took me to Two Brothers Barbecue in Ball Ground, Georgia.  That weekend Anna was in Texas to attend a memorial service for her brother Julian, who died about two weeks earlier.

I wanted to go Two Brothers Barbecue for two reasons:  (1) I like BBQ and (2) Conns Creek Baptist Church Cemetery is just a few miles just outside of Ball Ground.  It has Moody relatives there.  I always like to look at markers of distant relatives, for genealogical reasons:  I might learn more about the individuals.

This Father's Day weekend history repeated itself.

It repeated itself except for one incident the first visit:

In the Conns Creek Cemetery a dog walked up to us with a large bone and dropped at our feet.  It was a log bone, like a leg or arm bone.

We did what we felt was the right thing to do.  We called the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and reported what we found.   That was before we had a cell phone, so we had to go into the downtown part of Ball Ground to a telephone booth.  I don't think anybody was downtown but us and the Rock Store.  Now, I bet there is no telephone booth and with all the restaurants and shops a lot of people strolling around.

A deputy came out, he followed us back to the cemetery and we showed him the bone and where we found it.  He thanked us and we left.

I don't know what he did with the bone after we got out of sight.

Pictures yesterday from Conn's Creek Cemetery:

This is the Milford plot, Jeanie Milford Hunter (Johnny's wife) folks.

This is the only Moody plot I could find.  Back home looking at my genealogical data there are about four other Moodys buried in the cemetery.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Blackbeard

This is one of EC Publishing new comics, or "New Direction" comics after their horror line, such as "TALE FROM THE CRYPT" was banned.  Although I noticed they did not hesitate showing being stabbed and hung in this New Direction comic.
I'm not sure how much historical research went into this to make it historically accurate.  I don't think they even mentioned Blackbeard's real name was Edward Teach and I think he lost his life my being hung by the British on one of the islands that make up the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Art by Reed Crandall.

Tuba Skinny - CAN'T WAIT

Dancers too!

Jim's Smoked Q, Owl Town Union County, Ga

The past few days on the Facebook Community I am part of there has been some buzzing about local barbecue joints.

Here is one we have enjoyed several times just south of Blairsville, Georgia.  I was amused to see all the help was redheaded with a redheaded owner.

The food is very good and not terribly expensive.  I remember they have some smoked meats and sides not often found in barbecue joints;  Example turkey.

I thought they were Union County natives but they are not:  One time in their parking area  We squeezed into a parking place beside an elderly couple who just parked, they had a Florida license plate.  I asked did they drive all the way there for the barbecue.  The man said, "Kinda" , their son owned it.   I asked did they retire and moved to Florida and they said no, they always lived down there.  Their son and his family moved to Blairsville from down there.  I don't remember if either of them was red headed or not.

Also, we read some place recently that Jim's Smoked Que was voted one of the top BBQ joint in the U.S.A.

Ribs Reipe

I am pleased to say that the ribs I cooked on the grill yesterdday were delicious;  tender finger licking good.

I have tried cooking ribs several other times and they just were not very good.  This time they were juicy, tender, with a faint smoked taste and with a lot of tongue teasing spices.  I picked out a recipe and followed it to the letter.  While looking for the right one I came across several that suggested you first cook them in the oven.  I rejected those because it is just more fun to cook on the deck.  I followed the recipe I picked word for word even Step 1 on acquiring the ribs:

"Slowly Drive  down a dark wooded country road and look for a freshly road kill opossum... " 

Buying Water Filters

I went to a store yesterday to buy a water filter for my refrigerator.  It is recommended to change the filter every 6 months.  I usually buy two while I am there to save time (not to mention you get about a 25% discount when you buy two).

As I was walking in a sharply dressed man had just finished helping a customer put whatever he bought into his car.  I overheard the man tell the customer to drive safely driving back home.

The customer said no problem he lived a only a short distance away.

The sales person reminded him that most accidents when driving happen nearest home.

Then I heard the salesman's hand truck wheels in high speed to catch up with me.

He smiled and said good morning.  I said likewise.

He rushed ahead of me, only to stand and welcome me in the store.  He would have opened the door for me but they opened automatically. 

He stepped aside and allowed me to enter.

He saw in my hand the little empty water filter box.  He asked me what could he help me with, need to buy a new water filter for the refrigerator?

He guided me by the several salesmen holding clipboards and ushered me to nice plush desk with plush swivel chair with arms.  Man!  I was getting the royal treatment.

He was well tanned and very cordial.  I suspect he knew all the polite rules as far as salesmanship and spent a lot of time on the golf course rubbing elbows with other professional sales people and probably was at his peak when the company he represented went bankrupted.

I think he would have felt more at ease if he took me out for dinner and bar hopping before he sold me the two filters but he did the best he could under the circumstances.

I'm glad I was his customer.  I'm sure it helped boost his ego for the morning.

B. Lloyds Cox

Lloyd Cox.  This was taken at a GOBAG meeting on the day before his 90th birthday.   I watched Lloyd, or B.Lloyds, as we sometimes called him, limb the Marietta Educational Administrative ladder, using me for rungs.

I first knew him as my Civics Teacher.  One time he asked me if I smoked.  I said I did.  He looked around to make sure it was a private conversation, leaned down closer to my face and say "Aren't you afraid you will burn your fingers?"  I cracked up laughing.  He looked taken back.

A year or two later he was Assistant Principal.  Larry Bradford, somebody I don't remember who, and I were called to is office.  We knew why.  We were playing with a Whoopie Cushion, aka Poo-Poo Cushion in phys Ed and Coach Lundy taken it from us.  We walked into his office, he stood up and stood in front of us studying us.  Then suddenly he jerked the inflated cushion out from behind his back and suddenly squeezed it, letting out a huge flatulence sound.  All three of us boys cracked up laughing.  He said, "Why is that so funny?" He demanded.   We couldn't tell him why but it was.  He told us to stay in his outer office until the end of day.  I suppose that was an "in school susension." then he left to do whatever assistant principals do - kind of like am adult hall monitor.

When the final go-home bell rang, I think it was Larry who  suddenly had an inspiration.  We looked all over his office for the cushion and finally found in his desk drawer.  We blew it up and put it in his chair.

We never heard another word about it.

Lloyd next step up was Principal and after the head of Marietta Board of Education.  I am proud I was able to help.

There is more, which I may pickup where I left off some day.

Throwback Thursday, preteen friends

Throwback Thursday.  Boy Scout Camp, Troop 132.  Camping out at George and Mike Hobby's daddy's property he bought off Macland Road.

Left to Right:  Mickey Griffin, ?, Me, and Tony Hester.

That was the night George Hobby raised my sleeping bag up on a flag pole and blasted it with a shotgun. .... all, in good old boy fun.

Mickey Griffin was a fun loving kid. He used to walk around with me and my dog named Skipper when I delivered The Atlanta Journal newspapers and we do all kinds of mischievous tricks.

When I think of Tony Hester I remember the time I was showing him and Gene Sanges a trick I learned:  climb up one small tree, and at the top get it swinging and when it swung wide enough I could gracefully grab an identical size and type tree, latch on to it and artfully shinny down the tree.  I already did it twice alone, now I was ready to show off for an audience.  I got Tony and Gene down at the bottom watching me and I skillfully climbed the tree near the top and got it swinging back and forth like I did two other times.  That is the last thing I remembered for several hours, the tree top broke and I fell to the ground and was knocked out.  Tony thought I was playing a joke and went home and got his wagon and came back and he and Gene put me in the wagon and carried me to his back yard where his two little sisters Peggy and Lulu were playing with their dolls.  Tony told me if I didn't get up he was going to take off my clothes.  I didn't get up and they took off my clothes.  Then they thought I was dead.  They put me back in the wagon (naked) and carried me home, over a block away.  Nobody was at home so they left me in my bed an left.

Later my parents came home and was startled to see me in bed in the middle of the day, naked, and I had no idea why.

The lighting in that picture looks something like the Blair Witch Project doesn't it?  

Linda and Patsy

Linda Anderson and Patsy Spinks, 2010, at the Marietta High School Reunion, Class of 1960.  In high school, Linda and Patsy were both majorettes and very close friends.

I think they revert to their teenage mindset when they see each other.

By the way, it is small world:  Anna's mother grew up in the area of Patsy's father Bill Spinks'; and my uncle Spencer Crain was Bill's business partner.

Linda's mother catered our wedding reception.  And Anna worked with Linda's sister.  Apparently she took over her mother's catering business and catered Anna's parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Werthers for the Elderly

At Kroger's today in one aisle I went in about midways stood  a frail little lady looking helplessly up at the top shelf.

I figured right that something was on that top shelf she wanted.  I asked her could I help her get something down.

"Yes" she said, "That sack of Werthers."

The size bag she wanted was in back of the shelf.   I stood on my tiptoes and could barely reach the top of the sack.  with my finger tips I tilted the sack over thus making it stick on more an inch or two more so I could reach it and rake it towards me.

Opps!  I raked two Werthers sacks instead of one to me.  I handed her one and was about to put the second one on the next shelf down. She said she wanted that one too.

OK.

The elderly love Weathers.  My mother-in-law loved them, and many times while at her house I took  I would help myself to a couple of her Werthers and  acquired a taste for them too.  I'm in my mid 70's.  I qualify!

Recently I heard a comedian make a crack about the elderly and their Werthers Candy.

So, why would Krogers put their Werthers Candy on the unreachable top shelf?

Big Foot Cousins

This morning on NPR Radio on the show SECOND THOUGHT moderator Celeste Headee talked about a Big Foot (aka Sasquatch) Museum in Cherry Log, Georgia.

Numerous people said they have had sightings of allusive giant.

On my father's side my Great-g-g grandfather John Hunter settled nearby in the Choestoe Community of Union County in about 1837-38  and Hunter descendants live in the extended area today.

On my mother's side Elijah Petty settled not far away just south of Morganton, Georgia, about 1850 and some of his descendants are still in the extended area.

So, I am wondering if these wild allusive Big Foots are distant relatives?

If they give the species the  name of Big Foot Red-Nek Pettyus or Big Foot Huge Beak Hunteramus - well, then I will know.

John and Lizzy Hawkins Huey

John and Lizzy Hawkins Huey.  John is the son of my (and my Hunter 1st cousins) g-great grandparents John T. and Drucilla Wilson Huey.  The Hueys lived on and near Carmel-Bascomb Road in south Cherokee County, Georgia.

It looks like John and Lizzy just got caught smooching behind the barn doesn't it?

You Can't Kid a Kidder

July 2015, Lee and Diane Cooper Moss at the Red-Eyed Mule.  Lee is retired.  His career was detective of the Cobb County Police.  Diane Cooper's father was Jesse Cooper, a Marietta Policeman.  My daddy and Jesse worked together.

And in high school Lee Moss and I worked together at the Big Apple Grocery Store.  I have a theory of why Lee was such  good detective.  It goes along with the old saying that "You can't kid a kidder."   Know what I'm saying?

HAPPY FLAG DAY!

Rhetorical Questions

You know what a rhetorical question is?  Of course you do, like if you ask "How many angels can fit on the head of pin?"  You don't really want to know how many angels an fit on the head of a pin...or can you get any more on the head if you tell them to exhale?  I don't think angels inhale or exhale.

Another more blunt rhetorical question is , "Does a bear shit in the woods?"

You don't say you don't know, you have not read on up on that.  You jovially get in the spirit and say, "Yes!"

And here is another one:  "Does a monkey piss while up in a tree?"

 Take that smile off your face, get a serious no-fooling around look and show this picture on your smart phone and "Yes!  And I have proof!"

(you may have to click on the image to see the pee flowing)

A Ringing Phone

On our walk this morning we walked by a neighbor's yard with 3 vehicles piled in the front yard.  From one of them a telephone was ringing. 

I don't feel fully comfortable with that family, one of their teenage sons was arrested on our street just a few weeks ago making a drug deal.

Ten minutes or fifteen minutes later I walked by the house again and the phone in one of the trucks or car was still ringing.

It must have been urgent.

Pettys Visiting

The color picture was taken about 1980 in my parents' front yard. 

The two ladies in front are Viola (Osmo's daughter) and Opal Petty.

The next one back is my mother, Janie Petty Hunter.

In the back are Stanley Petty* (son of Irvin Petty)**   and Viola's husband.

*Stanley Petty on this trip to Marietta got to witness the Petty women have a few squabbles; and verbal assauts.   When he was leaving someone asked him when will he come for a visit again.  He, in a polite way, said "Never".

The black and white picture is of Stanley and Osmo when they went to work in Detroit.

**Irvin is the brother to the immediate Petty's father William Elijah Joseph Petty.