Me, behind American Legion, beer in hand.
My mama told me not to be wasteful, reuse things: Recycling my pictures: St. Johns River, birds on a rail, in Jacksonville, Florida.
THE TODAY SHOW has been around since I was in high school. I remember J. Fred Muggs well. Story by editor Harvey Kurtzman, art by Atlanta's own, Jack Davis.
Paul Krassner (1932-2019) R.I.P. I cannot say enough about how bold he was for our freedoms. He was the editor and publisher of THE REALIST Magazine, which tested our freedom of press and speech in every issue. In his editorial ramblings he managed to mentioned he was a child prodigy that played a violin solo Carnegie Hall at a young age, about 5 or 6 I think. His profound wit was up there with Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, and Lenny Bruce.
Book (comicbook) Report
FRONTLINE COMBAT. Before MAD Comicbook/Magazine
existed at EC Comics existed they had a big selection of Horror and Science-Fi Comics. Then writer/artist/editor Harvey Kurtzman
came along. He is credited for writing
and editing most of EC’s two new War comics FRONTLINE COMBAT and TWO-FISTED
TALES.
Harvey Kurtzman has been
dead over a quarter century. Now, I
suppose “the best of” FRONTLINE COMBAT is in digital Kendal form. FRONTLINE COMBAT Kendall covers all kinds of
war, WWI aerial dogfights, pirates,
Civil War, Indians, Roman times, modern airplane fights, and on and on. The details were well researched. Kurtzman had an assistant who did the
research. He even went down in a
submarine. Kurtzman also verified
Sherman’s quote, “War is Hell.” The
American soldier did not always win, and some were natural bullies. I counted stories, one Forward, and one Introduction. One
included comic was a special on the Air Force, which was all good, like a show off of what we have.
The artists in this Kendal
is George Evans, Alex Tooth, Harvey
Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, John Severin*, and Jack Kubrt. It is interesting that John Severin and Will
Elder worked on most of their stories as a team, but not one Elder and Severin was
included.
This was before MAD was
created, these war comics took a lot of research and then Kurtzman created MAD
and he is more remembered for MAD than he is of the War comics.
Have your heard the Joel Chandler Harris’s story about Uncle Remus ‘s story about Ber’ Rabbit and “The Tar Baby”? Well, I had a very similar experience when a the High Museum when I asked a Chinese Terracotta Guard a question.
Marie's Postcard Collection. Speaking of shopping centers and other things in Cobb County that was here then but not now, here is Sope's Creek Covered Bridge. It was near to a paper mill on the creek that General Sherman arrested the women workers as traitors and sent them up north to "fend" for themselves. The postcard says the creek and bridge was named after local Indian Chief Sope. I didn't know that.
The card goes on to say the bridge was built about 1870 (I didn't know that either). The card also says the nails were wooden pegs... another thing I did not know. See how educational reading a postcard can be?Marie Postcard Collection: This is Fountain Square, Chattanooga. On the back it says Junction of Georgia Avenue and Lookout Streets showing Fireman's Memorial Fountain and Cannons captured by the U.S. Troops at Santiago de Cuba by U.S. Troops.
Tooting My Own Horn
I have been blogging daily my blog Chicken-fat.com since
2006. When I make my daily post, out of
nosiness, I check that stats to see how many visitors I had the day before.
Up until recently I have had between 50 and a couple 100
visitors each day. But in the past week
or so the attendance has increased a whole lot.
For instance yesterday I had 11,520 visitors. Today, so far, has been 8863. At times last week it has been up over 15,000
a couple of times.
I have no idea why the big increase. I have not changed subject matter or anything. My text, as aways, looks like an English
teacher would love to get ahold of it with a red pencil.
Who knows?
Here are the Jones brothers and cousins: Oscar Jones, Walter Jones, Claude Jones, Homer Jones, Henry Jones, and Leiman James of the Alpharetta-Milton-Forsyth Col, Ga. area c1900. Walter is Anna's great grandfather.
Art by Will Elder, Story by Ed Fisher. Normally if the art is by Will Elder the story will be by Harvey Kurtzman. But not this time. This was written by the famous NEW YORKER cartoonist Ed Fisher (1926-2013).
This story has been on Chicken-Fat's SUNDAY FUNNIES before, but in case you missed it.
Just a day or so ago a
storm named Milton was raging in Florida.
When I thought of its name
I thought of an old friend named Milton.
Milton Martin. There is a Milton
Martin car dealership of Gainesville, Georgia, but I don’t think it is the same
Milton.
We moved from Manget
Street to Richard Street in about 1954.
I was in the 8th Grade.
A block away was The
Boston Homes. The Boston Homes was a rental project. It was on a side of hill.
Richard Street went to the
“4 Lane” aka “41 Highway”.
I made friends with people
who lived in The Boston Homes. Two of
my new friends were Milton Martin and Gene Brown.
Milton and I had the same
sense of humor and seemed to catch on to the other’s wit.
As I said Richard Street ran
into the 4-Lane, across the 4-Lane was a thick patch of woods. About 4 of us built a little cabin, or “Hide
Out” in the thick, which would later be the area the amusement park White Water
would be. I remember one time, after the
Hideout was built we stocked it with girly magazines. The girls wore low-cuts. Some of our younger friends could not
understand why you coud not tilt the picture sideways and peep down their
low-cuts.
Milton and I had a silent
game going on that only we understood.
We pretended we were making a movie of all our friends, without their
knowledge. When one was doing something
stupid one of us would make a buzzing noise like a movie camera might make…
only us two caught on.
Almost next door to Milton
was a young man named Crowe. I think he
lived with his parents. He worked at
WFOM FM Radio. Later years I think he
was one of the top officers of the radio
station.
I think Acworth Beach
opened in 1954 or ’55. On Easter that
time my sister Frances, who had her drivers’ license decided to go to Acworth
Beach and lie on the beach to get sun.
Milton and I decided to go with her.
We did very little beach or swimming time, but instead walked around the
beach park. Not far away we saw a bunch
of row boats turned upside down on the ground.
There was a “Boats for rent” sign.
I think we were their only customers that Easter Morning. We rowed across the lake to the other side. We discovered there were a lot of little
tributaries coming into the lake. We rowed
up and down the little water paths, seeing trees hanging overhead and so. It was awesome.
What we did not realized
until hours later we were sun-cooked. We
were red as lobsters. And the next day
at school I was in pain, I could hardly move.
In time I peeled. But some near
70 years later parts of my body exposed to the sun that day are darker and you
can definite see my bathing suit lines.
Milton was a couple years
older than I. I remember when he became
eligible he joined the Air Force. I
remember the night before his physical examination he ate plenty of
bananas. He was afraid he underweight to
join the military.
It must have worked.
Away he went, I don’t
think he returned.
Just reviewing some early pictures. This is about 1971 when we lived in Smyrna,
Ga. This is at the dining room table
playing Canasta with a Cuban couple.
You have not played Canasta Cards until you play with Cubans. They screamed, laughed, shook their arms to
show their exciment. Every draw was a
life or death act.
The Cuban couple owned a ranch in Cuba. They rubbed the Cuban government wrong and
they had to go. They took a midnight
boat to Miami.
Their daughter’s husband was a fellow timekeeper for the
Post Office in Atlanta. He had to work the night this picture was
taken.
I remember the night this picture was taken I cooked steaks on
a Hibachi, T-Bone or Porterhouse, next to the caport. The man came out and we talked as I flipped the meat. I suppose that is a universal tradition, when
having company in nice weather the man of the house cooks outside and the
visiting male keeps the cook company and talk about man things.
He spoke Spanish or Latino and I spoke Southern Fried. We had a hard time understanding each other so
we smiled at each other a lot and nodded enthusiastically.
Then when putting the steaks on a platter one slipped and
fell on the ground. I showed him I was
angry at myself and I would eat the dropped steak. He shook his head and signed that no, he
would eat the fallen steak. He
insisted. I insisted.
I forgot which of us won but we agreed it would be our secret,
the women folk had no need to know about it.
BOOK REPORT (comicbook):
WEIRD SCIENCE Issues 7 – 12) Vol 2.
WEIRD SCIENCE was a comic book in the 1950s published by EC Comics, who
also brought you other sci-fi comic plus Horror Comics (TALES FROM THE CRYPT,
etc). war comics, and last but not least humor & satire comics (MAD &
PANIC).
When William Gaines father
Max, was killed in a boating accent,
William ended up running EC Comics, which then EC stood for Educational Comics
but soon stood for Entertainment Comics.
William was not happy with his new responsibility and planned to sell
it. But as it turned out he and
artist/editor teamed up and put out some very entertaining books and money
making comic books. The science fiction
line was not a money maker. They lost
money. But Science Fiction was where
William and Al’s heart were.
I read this book on-loan
from my Kendal ipad through the LIBBY system.
It had about two dozen very interesting scifi stories. The artists includes Wally Wood (excellent
sci fi illustrator), Al Feldtein, Harvey
Kurtzman (creator of MAD Comicbook), Joe Orlando, Jack Kamen and more.
Some of the stories were
openly stolen. Publisher William Gaines said “everybody did it back then), and
some was much like O’Henry Stories.
I think I have read all
these stories in my preteen youth but they were still just as
entertaining. They are withstanding the
test of time.
A pen pal told me Krogers in Texas no longer deals in change.because of the virus. They don’t accept or hand out coins. They issue some kind of debit card for the change.
The Wright Brothers, c1890. The Wright family members lived around Canton Road north of Kurtz Road and up the road to Woodstock, Georgia.
Yesterday on Jimmy Carter’s 100th Birthday we
watched on Public TV a special named something like MISS LILLIAN, which a Miss
Lillian lookalike told in first person of her experiences, quotes, shooting
from the hip, and so on. The actor
looked so much like Miss Lillian she would remind us it wasn’t really her by
starting off a sentence like “After I died ….” a couple of times.
It was great, see it if you can find it on educational TV.
It reminded me of November 1976, when Jimmy Carter was
elected President. We drove to Plains,
Georgia, to take pictures. Miss Lillian
was very much available in and near the train depot. She was very graceful and only lost her cool
when a lady tried to hug her. Afterall,
she was a nurse and knew about germs and hugging.
The Jones Sisters. (1) Anna's grandmother, Myrtle Irene Jones Foster (1895-1991). (2) Edith Gertrude Jones Wood (1898-1986). (3) Vernice Vera Jones Sudan-Wood-Brown (1906-1982).