Toy & Virginia Moon -kids

 I came across this unique set of proofs or photo booth pictures of siblings Toy and Virginia Moon. On the back is written "about 1921". They are Anna's relatives on her mother's side. Their parents owned Moon Grocery Store, on Roswell Road where Johnson Tire Company spent a long time after they left. Toy is the grandfather of my facebook friends Stephen D. Moon and Keith Summers.

Why My Nickname is Rock (my last name is already Hunter)

 

Copied and pasted from a previous Chicken-fat blog:

I am a frugal person, I recycle a lot,

Thirty years ago we named our first son Rockwell Tyson Hunter. From time to time some one will ask why did we pick such a name.

Well, my middle name is Tyson, and so it is my father's, and it is also his mother's maiden name.

Now for the name Rockwell. Back in 1957 when I was in high school, one day a new kid came to class. I forgot his first name but his last name was Crane. He was tall and Lanky. He sat next to me in class and I asked him was he related to Ichabod Crane. He gave me a hateful look.

Then, that same day, at lunch several of us were up around the baseball field hanging out. Crane walked up near and stood at a distance. Trying to friendly and to welcome him as one of us, I said, "There is old Whooping Crane!'

He came at me swinging his fists like a lopsided windmill with broken blades. He had no fighting sense about him. He only knew when you are in a rage you attack giving it all you have by swinging your fists.

I am not much of a fighter either. But I do know how to dodge a something coming at me, especially when the route of the on-coming fist is so predictable. So, I merely danced around dodging his fists, and from time to time hit him in the face with no problem at all, he knew nothing about blocking oncoming blows either.

I won the fight. I had no damage look about me at all, no blood, no body scratches or marks, where Crane on the other hand had a bloody nose, and puffed up swelling around the eye and his clothes were torn and dirty.

There was a movie playing at downtown Marietta's Strand Theater at the time, starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randal. The name of the movie was "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" And not many months before the movie "Somebody Up There Likes Me", the story of Rocky Graziano, prize fighter starring Paul Newman. Both movies plus Craine and my actions called somebody who witness the fight to say, "Will Success Spoil Rocky Hunter?"

My new nickname caught on and spread quickly. I was Christened "Rock Hunter" by my peers. I went by the name Rock for the next ten to fifteen years, and still when and even now when I happen to run into a long lost friend, chances are he/she knew me as Rock.

So, it was only fitting that I named Rocky Rockwell.

And some place else in this blog world Crane may be at this very moment posting his blog which ends by saying "... and that is why we named our first son Icabod."

Glover Machinery of Marietta inside

 Grandpa Hunter and his sons worked here.

Late Sisters Frances & Bonnie Hunter

 

Frances Janie Hunter (1937-2024) and Bonita "Bonnie" Shela Hunter (1955-2022).

Neighborhood Pride

 

During this season at the entrance of each nice subdivision there is a sign listing the neighborhood's graduates. That is nice. That is community pride.

In the middle of all these McMansons subdivisions is our subdivision . We are mostly retirees and starting couples. We don't have a sign showing our pride in our graduates because there probably aren't any.

Not long ago on my morning walk I counted 7 or 8 houses that at least a family member that had been locked up in jail at least once, or sent to reform school or prison. (one of those was a white collar crime, embezzling - before he was convicted he a Mentor in Sprayberry High school's Mentoring Program).

I think it would be a good prideful neighborhood thing to put up a sign each time one our neighbors gets out of the "Big House" and welcome him her back home. We could tack the sign on an old oak tree and tie a yellow ribbon around it. What about that for neighborhood pride?

Brothers Charles & Paul Foster

 

Charles and Paul Foster. This is Anna's uncles, her mother Marie's two brothers, the youngest is Charles Jones Foster (1925-2012) and saluting Paul Everett Foster, Jr (1922-1995).

In school Paul worked part time as a projector operator at the Strand Theater in Marietta. He joined the Marines and fought in the Pacific. After the war he reenlisted in the Air Force. After that tour he joined the Marietta Post Office where he retired. He married Barbara Shea, no children.

Charles also worked for the Strand Theater while he was in school. He was in charge of getting the weekly programs printed and delivered. During WWII he enlisted in the Army, went to Pilots school and flew supplies in Europe during the war. Afterwards, he continued being a pilot for TWA until he retired. He married Florence Rogers and they moved to Kansas City. After he retired they moved back to Marietta. After Florence died he married Jane Johnson.

Charles an Florence had three daughters.

Hunts in Marietta

 Hunt's Ice Cream and Restaurant on the Square (Church Street) and The Economy Ice Cream on Atlanta Street. Simply the best Chili Slaw Dogs ever.... and the best Lemon Custard and Whitehouse Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream (vanilla ice cream with plump maraschino cherries....the flavor is a nod to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's cherry blossoms characteristic of Washington, DC.) Amazing what is etched into a young mind after so many years.

I Cannot Tell a Lie, George could not have stood in the boat.

   

Before we move on from our Memorial Day appreciation of those who fought for our liberty in the Revolutionary War I would like to share this MAD Magazine #25 article  of my favorite MAD artist Will Elder’s Crossing the Delaware pun.  Enlarge to read and see details better.

Bus Hunter

 My uncle Robert Ray "Bus" Hunter (1906-2005). It appears that Bus is dressed in his finest, which traditionally people used to do on Easter Day. I don't know if this picture was taken on Easter Day or not. I remember when I was less than ten years old one Easter we, as a family, sat in the car on the Square in Marietta, timed to be there when church let out. It was enjoyable watching people come to the Square dressed in their best to get an after church ice cream at one of the Square's five drugstores (Jones, Hodges, Williams, Athertons, and Reynold's and Ferra). It was an impromptu Easter Parade.

Speaking of Easter Parades, when in the Navy, stationed in New Jersey, on Easter Sunday, about 1964, a bunch of us went to Atlantic City's Boardwalk. It was the mother of Easter Parades. With the exception of us, people were dressed up, gaudy but nice.

Coca Cola Bldg on Roswell St, Marietta, Ga

 In the early 1940s my Daddy and I would take my wagon and he would pull me from out apartment in the Clay Homes to this building, which was mostly uphill and on each trip buy a case of Cokes and put in the wagon bed. I had to walk back home in tow with Daddy and the Cokes,

 

The top picture is my dad Ed, WC, and Unknown, & Hunter Cow.

The bottom picture is his nephew Jimmy Crain and he at the Vet Hospital in Milledgeville, Ga.

My uncle” W.C.”  (Walter Clarence) Hunter, my Dad’s bother.

“W.C.” also had a first cousin named Walter Clarence Hunter, son of John Rufus Hunter.  He was born in Woodstock and when grown moved to Indiana to work in the steel Mills and married and lived his life there.  His nickname was “W.C.” also.

Our uncle W.C. was born on Clay Street in Marietta.

When his family moved to Manget Steet he fell out of a tree across the street and was unconscious a number of months.

That also happen to me, across Manget Street from their house. I learned a new trick of swinging on the tree I was clinging to and grabbing hold of he neighboring tree and shimmy down to round.  When I called my fiends to watch me show off, the top of the 2^nd tree snapped and down I fell.  But I was only unconscious for a few hours.

I think W.C. was the first of his seven brothers to go into WWII.

He was shot in the head and recuperated in Africa.  At a Red Cross W.C. and a friend was outside at a Red Cross or similar drinking coffee when some U.S. Sailors came walking up to the canteen.  W.C. told his friend something like this:  “See that Sailor there?  He looks exactly like my little brother Dick.”

And it was.

When W.C. returned to Marietta, I think is mind was in bad shape.  He hung out with his father’s drinking friends.  They liked to drink  in wooded areas (Cobb County was dry then).

Shortly after he returned I think he married and it was a very short marriage.  They moved to the shore of Lake Jackson.  We visited them one time.

W.C. had a hard time with demons his mind met in the war  As a drinking teenager I have had a few encounters with him.  I think he was   I wasn’t sure he knew I was his brother Ed’s son or not.

He was not able to tend to his own needs.  Several of his siblings took care of him at times.

He has got himself in trouble several times with the law which included Daddy several times.

One time the Lockheed Plant guards called Daddy and said, “Ed come and get your brother, he is here with a gun ordering us off his property.”

He finally was admitted to the Veteran’s Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, where  he spent to rest of his life.

I think his mind was completely messed up being in a bloody war defending our country.

 

Walter Clarence “W.C.” Hunter (1908-1998).

Federal Holidays too Commercial?

 

Kroger Shopping Today

As we entered Kroger’s today we saw McKinzie. a young lady Kroger’s clerk , bringing in shopping carts from the parking lot.  It was the first time we have seen her in a couple of months.  We have been friends with her for probably over a year.  She knows our shopping habits better than we do.  I told her my sister Frances died.  It shocked her.  She almost cried.

Being that it is Veteran’s Day, the Krogers’ cashier asked was I a Veteran.  Indeed, I am!  We got a 10% Discount.

On the way home on the radio some political expert was talking about how National Holidays have become too commercial – he said for instance Presidents Day Sales, and so on.  I agreed with him until I remember edour 10% discount for shopping at Kroger’s on Memorial Day.

Chaney Brothers

 The Chaney Brothers at a Bell Reunion. The one wearing the apron is Ken Chaney. He usually helped with barbecuing the chickens every year. When I was growing up, being at Larry Bell Park Swimming Pool almost everyday in the summers I thought Ken was a hot tempered bad ass. But after we became the elderly and I got to know him at the GOBAG meetings I found, he is easy going and mellow as can be.

MEMORIAL DAY Ruminants

 

Did I ever tell you when in 1963, when I first reported to Helicopter Utility Squadron 4 (HU-4) at NAS Lakeurst, NJ, I met Don Lash in the E.M. Club and we both had too many beers and decided we were going walk down to the hangar and joy ride a helicopter? "How hard could it be?" My biggest objective after that promise was: "change the subject! Change the subject!" It must have and it worked! No joy riding that night. HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! And remember those who gave their lives or were wounded n the service keeping us free.

 Here are four Hunter Brothers and their wives, First row, Ruby Lanston, Zelma Ogle, Saraj Frasure, and Lola Jeanne Turner.

Top row, each in-lined with his wife, are Jack, Bus, Stanley, and Doug Hunter.

By Jack’s tie I think this was taken while Jack was still in the Navy.

If my mind is not playing a trick on me I think I remember the taking of this picture. It was in the living room of our house on Manget Street in Marietta. All 4 of the Hunter brothers here spent their formative years in this house.

I have no idea where my parents were. Maybe Daddy took the picture.

The Hunter Brothers general rule when gating for a group picture is to line up in age order. Maybe the spouses sat down first.

Us a Nuisance?

 

This was taken, Feb 2009, from the patio above The Strand's Marquee. We are looking south. The County Court House Complex is on the left; straight ahead is Atlanta Street coming into town; and to the right is Glover Park. Notice the little sharp metal things on the light pole? It is to keep the birds from making a nuisance our of themselves.; however, in the birds' eyes we humans are making a nuisance out of ourselves.

West Atlanta St, Marietta, Ga

West Atlanta Street - just south of the railroad crossing in 1933. At left is part of the "City of Marietta Gateway" entrance gate from Atlanta.

Way before the Four Lane (US 41) and I-75... this was the shortest route from Atlanta to Marietta and back... It was the route of the train track and the trolley cars.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! HELP's #8 Gilbert Shelton's WONDER WART-HOG Meets The MERANGSTERS!

 

 

Benjamin on Beach

 

a One..a Two, a Three - Hit It!

 

The fife is a symbol of one of the musical instruments played in the Revolutionary War.

It was also played in the War of 1812. In the War of 1812 my g-g-g- grandfather Greenville Pullen (1788-1860) was a military musician who tooted a fife. Here is what I have on him and his fife:

He was in the War of 1812. Enlisted in Milledgeville, Ga., in 1814 for a term of eighteen months. He was discharged at Fort Jack, near Savannah, Ga. He enlisted as a private and later was appointed musician, a fifer for the company. Records show he was discharged after both arms were broken in an accident while at work on barracks.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

 HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!

me on USS NEWPORT NEWS, Jan 1965

Brothers Rocky and Adam

 

May 1979, Brothers Rocky and Adam, nose to nose.

Me and Bikes and Benjamin

 I’m not quiet sure when I learned to ride a bike. I think Santa brought bikes to Frances and I the first year we moved in with Grandpa Hunter. That would have been when I was seven and a half years old.

As I remember it, that Christmas Morning Frances and I just hopped on our bikes and pedaled up the hill on Manget Street, then up East Dixie Avenue, then up Atlanta Street to Waterman Street, and then down Wayland and cut right at Steele’s Store and visited the Claytons on our new bikes.

Like I said, that is the way I remember it. I think we had to go through a transition of leaning to keep balance on bikes… keep it moving. I vaguely Daddy pushing me down the hill on Manget Street to get rolling fast enough to keep my balance, but I think the time I took flight on it, completely balanced, once when Grandpa Hunter was pushing down Manget Street hill. I remember gliding away from Grandpa and staying balanced, and away I went.

I must have been closer to 8 years old.

The reason I am trying to show the most probable age I learned to keep my own balance on my bike was because our grandson Benjamin took the flight of bike balance today at 4.75 years at Grant Park today. We are so proud. So are his parents.

It brought back sweet memories for me.

Below: Benjamin Biking in Grants Park.

Pettys in Varnell, Ga, c1948/9

 My Petty family (mother's side) in about 1949*, in Varnell, Georgia: 1st Row L to R: LaVonn Petty (daugh of Leonard); MaryBeth Petty (daugh of Wallice, Wallace's arms around her, she died in 2008); Georgianne Petty Grant (died 1966); Cecil Grant (died 1958) (husb of Georgianne); Osmo Petty (died 1978); and Eddie Hunter (me - son of Janie Petty Hunter).

2nd Row: Jeannette Phillips Petty holding son Billy (wife of Leonard) died 2004); Leonard Petty (died 2001); Wallace Petty (died 2007); Thelma Cox Petty (died 1994); Anthony Rollins being held by his mother Opal Petty (died 1992); Janie Petty Hunter (died 1996); Viola Ridley Petty (the grandmother, mother, brother, or mother law) (died 1968); and Frances Hunter(daugh of Janie Petty Hunter), Frances arms around Harriet and Rhonda Petty (daughters of Wallace Petty).

3rd Row: Mary Jo Johns Petty(died 2000), wife of Tom Petty; Tom Petty (died 1979); Walt Ridley (died 1953), brother to Viola Ridley Petty: Ed Hunter (died 1988), husband of Janie Petty Hunter; Roy Petty (died 2000); and Sara Petty (not yet McLemore) (died 1999)

*based on a baby in the picture that was born December, 1948. That would make me age 8 in the picture.

Adam Being Born:

 May 23, 1979, Adam Paul Hunter, age 2 seconds:

Billy Joe Royal's 1st Singing Gig

 

Copied and pasted from a previous post: on my blog chicken-fat.com

PCB and Billy's First Singing Gig

For a while now I have been copying old LP record albums into the computer into a MP3 format. Before we had children we accumulated about 500 albums of all types. Now, this is a way to archive them. Today I copied Al Hirt's Swingin' Dixie.

But while going through my collection to pick from, I came across an album of an old friend, who shall remain nameless. For the purpose of this entry I will call him Billy.

I grew up with Billy and his brother. We and other friends in the same little circle had some hell raising times. I remember on a country road one time Billy was driving behind me and I was driving about 70 mph and he eased up and he made his front bumper tap my rear bumper. It scared the heck out of me. Several times in high school we got caught drinking in the parking lots of evens and Billy was an expert lying out of it getting us off free.

Billy loved to sing. He could imitate any body, soul, rock, or country so close, if one didn't know better you would swear the sound was coming from the person that made it famous.

The night after school was out for the summer in 1959, Billy, his brother, three friends, and myself crammed in Billy's '50 black Ford and drove to Panama City, Florida, otherwise known as the Red-neck Riviera. That is where most of our high school friends were going.

We did not have much money. I had only $30 and that was more than anyone else in the car. We found a motel called Key of Rest Motel, which was a dump. It had no paved parking lot and you had to share a bathroom with the next room, and no air conditioning and the buildings were made of concrete blocks with no type of insulation, but that was fine for $8 a night. There were six of us, but the owner-lady charged by head. We told her there were four of us, which was $2 each. After we made the deal we went to the nearest package store and bought some Spearmen 8 six-packs of beer for $1.50 a six pack.

While driving around the area we ran into 5 or 6 more friends that did not have a place to stay. We invited them to stay with us. Then we played on the beach and layed in the sun.

I noticed that a sign on the beach put up by the City of Panama Beach, Florida, said, "No Colored Maids Allowed On Beaches With Bathing Suits". I thought that was very sad. We were living in a cast system and didn't even know it.

That night was a place called "The Hangout" which was a shelter overlooking the beach and the Gulf. The music was loud and people were dancing. Teenagers drunk their beer in the shadows and the police looked the other way unless there was trouble.

About 11pm we returned to our room at the Key of Rest Motel. I think there were about ten or eleven of us. We were feeling the effects of cheap beer and also feeling the effect of a Florida sun-burn. We could not possibly sleep against each other in a crowded room. One of us went through the bathroom to the other door to the other room and knocked on it. Nobody answered it. He eased the door opened and looked inside. It was all clean and ready for occupancy. About half of us moved to the newly discovered room. Needless to say, we had no pajamas. We slept in our jockey shorts.

In the middle of the night the door to the unpaid room opened. It was the lady owner showing the room to a newly wed couple. There was a bunch of screaming and hollaring.

We were evicted. The lady-owner checked our suit cases before we were allowed to leave. It is a good thing she did, she found four towels.

We had no place to go so we went to the beach. Panama City Beach has very beautiful soft white sand. So, each of us nestled us a comfortable mound of sand and fell asleep.

As I was sleeping I thought I heard the sound of a lawnmower approaching. Then, we were all showered with a chemical. What we didn't know was each night or early morning the City sprays the beach for insects... they ride by in a crop dusting kind of contraption that shoots out some type of insect killer.

That was about all of Panama City Beach we could take for that year. As I remember, we left sometime before noon that upcoming day.

We went to see Billy and his brother's uncle and aunt in Valdosta, Georgia. We ended up staying in the area for a week. After a couple of nights they decided there were just too many of us to sponge off them, so another uncle and aunt came and picked three or four of us up and carried us to their home in Tifton, Georgia.

The uncle that lived in Valdosta sung in a country and western band in a furniture warehouse every Tuesday night. Billy had never sung in public to a big gtoup of people before, but he was going to give it a try. The Tifton uncle and aunt carried us back down to Valdosta Saturday night for Billy's first time singing in public.

Billy did great. The crowd went wild. Also that night, Billy and his brother's mother and sisters came down from Marietta to hear him sing.

That next morning their mother carried us all back home to Marietta, except Billy, he stayed there for the summer singing.

After that he got a job singing in Savannah and later put out a record which became a hit and through the next dozen years or so he put out a string of hits and became quiet famous, here in metro Atlanta, anyway. Later, he became fairly popular in Las Vegas and Nashville. He stills sings professionally, and occasionally I hear him on the radio, but I don't think he has put out any top 40 kind of stuff in a while, but they still play his old top 40 songs.

Isaac & Adeline St John Wright

  Anna's great great grandparents on her father's mother's side.

Adeline was the daughter of James St. John (1756-1850) and Elizabeth Boomer (1757- 1850s).

Isaac was the son of Isaac S. Wright and Charity Catherine Fox.

Adaline and Isaac were married 19 Apr 1855, West Virginia. But I think at the time it was Virginia. West Virginia did not form itself until 1861.

They has 12 children, 5 daughters and 7 sons.

Isaac served in the Confederate Army. They are buried in Enon Cemetery, just north of Woodstock, Georgia.

Mailman on on JEOPARDY Years Ago.

 Posted on Facebook 3 years ago:

On JEOPARDY last night mail carrier Keith (or was it Kenneth?) almost won. I just want to say I was rooting for him. (Art -Jack Davis).

Kuykendall's Secret

 James and Betsy Kuykendall Capman in front of their store in Alabama. Betsy Kuykendall Capman was related to me and Anna by blood before we were even born. Their DNA flowed down via our ancestry lines.

I don’t know what is in the box, but whatever it is, they are proud of it but not letting us get close to it.

Aunt Bee Hunter Crain, 23 Skiddoo!

 Posted on Facebook years ago:

23 Skidoo! (whatever that means). The Roaring 20s young lady on the right is Beatrice Elizabeth "Bea" Hunter Crain (1903-1971). I heard the reason of Bea's nickname "Bea" is because one of her younger brothers, my father, could not pronounce Beatrice when he was a toddler and the big family adapted. Bea was the only daughter of nine kids and the only one born outside of Georgia (Hunt County, Texas). Before she married she was a Southern Bell Telephone operator in the days before they had telephone dialing. Instead of dialing you would tell her who you wanted, and as a small town as Marietta was at the time, probably you could tell her the first name only. In 1931, Bea married Robert Spencer Crain (1903-1991), who owned several local businesses. They had five children and took in some of Spencer's orphaned kin and raised them as their own.

Bea was very generous and opened her house for family wakes, I remember visiting both my Hunter grandparents' bodies (two years apart) in her living room, and hosting big family get-togethers.

LLama Research Retained

 

Yesterday I heard that Llamas are now being used for companionship in nursing homes.  I suppose they have a nice disposition and cuddly.  Although they seem to be too big to cuddle.   

It reminded me in the 6^th grade at Waterman Street School, our teacher, Ms Miller, assigned each of us a subject to research and write a report on. 

My assignment was Llama. 

That was about 70 years ago but here are the Llama facts I retained:

Their name is spelled with two Ls.

They are natives of South America

They are pack animals. Like camels.

As a defense mechanism they spit on their opponent with a putrid foul smelling saliva, which does the job.

 

Now, back to being a warm companion to a nursing home resident: 

What if the patient makes the Llama mad like accidentally running over it’s foot with a wheelchair:  Will it spit in the patient’s face?