Unintended Bait

What is so hot about my blog’s July 2007 Archive?

I looked over it and I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. It seems I mostly talked about Willow who was new then but I talked about other things too, but not anything real exciting. Then I think I discovered the reason why. One title compared Willow’s black sleek coat to that of a Black Panther’s. I wonder if the people were searching for scandalous or praiseworthy stuff on the militant Black Panther organization?

The reason I asked, the counter, as of two days ago started showing when people visited what they went for – just what ever they see on the first page or draw up something out of the archives. July 2007 was hit more than anything else, and secondly was my little thing about Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum, two apparently mentally challenged orphaned brothers in their early 20s.

The searchers for Dee and Dum were more international. They were mostly from European countries.

I got a feeling the searchers for Dee and Dum and The Black Panther were disappointed.

Larry E. Holcombe (1942-2000)

In an earlier blog entry a few days ago I mentioned my friend Larry, who I jumped through an opened car window of his yet-to-meet future wife Sheila.

Larry’s name was Larry Eugene Holcomb. He was born April 10th 1942 and died July 3, 2000. He lived 58 years.

He was a good friend of mine that I ran around with since childhood. I was almost a year older than Larry. Our back yards touched.

When we were around 7 or 8 or so we played cowboys a lot. Our back yards were an opened cattle range. The old leaning chicken house in our back yard was a salon when it wasn’t a ship sailing the high seas. Whatever mode we were in, we knew to report back home at 4:30. Four thirty was the time The Long Ranger came on the radio. We were faithful fans. We had Long Ranger’s badges we sent off to Maretta Bread for. Larry wore a Long Ranger’s black mask. I felt fruity with mine on, so I lost it.

Across the street from my family’s house was Larry Bell Park. Larry Bell, named of the CEO of Bell Bomber that eventually became Lockheed was huge sports complex that had tennis courts, softball fields, baseball fields, Little League Fields, and much more. It also had a creek going down the length of it. On our side of the creek was all just about wild growth. At one time they made three level plateaus for tennis court but just never developed it beyond the three levels. That was another opened range we would put our sticks between our legs and gallop over looking for evil bad guys with pencil thin mustaches.

Larry’s mother Jackie made him do his homework at a certain time everyday. I forgot what time was homework time but it sure put a damper on my playing.

On Saturday mornings we went to the movies. A.M. Saturday morning movies were targeted towards us young adolescents. His younger cousin Tate would meet us up at the theater and sit with us. After the movie was over and we left to meet the bright glaring sunlight our biggest project was to lose Tate. Sometimes we did, sometimes he managed to keep up.

Larry’s next door neighbor was Cliff White, who was also his uncle. Cliff had his hand in local politics and after a while of living next door, Larry’s father decided to get into local politics also. He went to see my father who was chief of the Marietta Police and asked for his support when he ran for councilman of our ward. I don’t think Daddy committed one way or the other. He frowned on Gene I think because Gene was showing signs of drinking a lot, and then Cobb County was a dry county.

Gene ran for councilman and won, without Daddy’s help. Later he ran for State Representative and won that too. I thought Gene looked like Lash Larue. Cliff went on up too. He became Deputy Commissioner under Commissioner Herbert McCollum. It was under Herbert McCollum that we lost our fine old stately courthouse and the county changed with the times: modern buildings and hands under the table deals. Jesse McCollum, Herbert’s wife was my 3rd grade teacher.

One time or another Larry enlisted into the Air Force. I forgot in what stage of life his life he was in at the time.

Larry and I ran around with the same bunch in high school. Sometime in the later years of high school Gene got caught with his hands in the till. He was treasurer of the State Fireman’s Fund, whatever that is, and he was caught embezzling the money. He was sent to prison, where he died. I never spoke brought it up to Larry, but he did to me several times.

Before Gene was caught he built up a lucrative juke box and pinball machine business. He had machines in all the private clubs in Cobb County that sold booze. It was still a dry county, but as long as it was a private club and no killings the law stayed away. These private clubs also had gambling with slot machines and poker games.

I should mention by then my father was out of the picture. Although when he was in the picture he and his men raided the world famous Aunt Fanny’s Cabin Restaurant in Smyrna, and shocked the elite How dare him?!

For Larry’s family to survive he had to keep the coin operated machines up. Once a week he would go to each club, take the money out of the machine, count it out, show the person in charge and rake off half of it to them. No need for paper work – no taxes.

At times I went with Larry to help him. He had an old truck we would to from place to place in. I suppose it was the company truck that was also used to deliver new juke boxes or whatever.

We went to a club that looked like a big plantation-style house on the 4-Lane, aka Cobb Parkway*. What is a big mansion looking house doing on the 4-Lane which wasn’t even a road until about 1950? I don’t know, but this house is close to Barclay Circle. In Civil War times the Fletcher family (that owned the famous Kennesaw House in Marietta where Andrew Raiders spent the night before The Great Locomotive Chase) had a summer home on Barclay Circle. They stayed on Barclay Circle when Sherman came to town in 1864. They were wealthy, so I suppose they had a big house of the times there, which as I said, is probably less than a quarter of mile through the woods to this club with a colonial-style house. If it did have historical significance it doesn’t matter. After the club moved on Strother Ford had their dealer ship there and the big building was their sales office. And, in time, it no longer served the needs of having a modern look, so it was probably bulldozed away. It is no longer there. Progress.

I wandered off the subject. Getting back on track, we went to the club I mentioned above, got all the money out of the machines, counted it, showed the manager, then raked off half of it and gave to him his share. Larry raked his part into a white cloth sack he carried for that reason. We got into the truck, drove down the road a short distance and Larry looked around and no white cloth sack. We pulled over and looked all over the truck. It was not in the truck.

Larry said he must have left it at the club we just left. We returned and went in. The few people playing poker at a nearby table and the manager and bartender all said they haven’t seen it. I bet at least one of them did. There was about $200 in the sack.

When we left I was really teed off at some unknown dishonest person in there. Larry didn’t say a word against them but he blamed himself for leaving the sack available.

Most of us in our late teen years and early manhood years would drink socially. Larry didn’t drink alcoholic beverages at all. He was right in the middle of it but he didn’t touch the stuff but had nothing ill to say about drinking. I think he didn’t drink because both of his parents were heavy drinkers. One time he told me Gene and Jackie left the Elks Club and stopped at a convenience store and Gene went into buy cigarettes. Jackie, under the influence, forgot her husband was in the store, and scooted over to the driver’s side and drove home. The state representative had to walk in the middle of a cold night home.

One time Larry bought a black 57 Chevy from another childhood friend Bobby. It had a soup up engine and loud muffles. It rumbled when it idled – it sort of reminded me of a big black animal growling and ready to pounce on something when it idled like that.

Right after he bought it from Bobby, at Varner’s, he and I rode around in it a while. It was late at night. We were going down Cobb Parkway (aka 4-Lane) and was in a desolated part of the highway at that time, at the bottom of the hill in front of what would become White Water Amusement Park and the engine cut out and went dead. We tried pushing it off the road when we heard a big truck up near the top of the hill. Then we saw its lights getting closer and closer. We both decided the truck was destined to hit the car at a high rate of speed and we ran. I thought about the brake lights. If the truck could see the red brake lights it would warn him. I ran back to the car and jumped in and put my foot on the brake petal. By now the truck lights lit up the whole back window. When I pressed the pedal the truck began to make all kinds of squealing noises and almost went by us sideways with dust and gravel flying…. But it kept on going by us and continued its journey. I was a fool.

I forgot what we did to get his car home, or how we got home.

My re-found childhood friend Walker reminded me that he worked with Larry at Atlantic Steel for a few years. That got me thinking about poor Larry. Larry left Atlantic Steel and went in business for himself selling advertising specialties. He sold ashtrays with company names on them, matchbooks with companies names, balloons, calendars, etc. He had a territory he worked from Marietta to Rome, Georgia, 50 miles away.

We would call each other about every week to 10 days and share gossip of our friends we grew up. Both of us were naturally nosy and had a good rapport sharing information.

Larry and Sheila had a daughter and a son. I saw them at Larry’s funeral They both grew into two nice looking adults.

Larry began to come down with various ailments. He was a sick man. He could not handle his company any more and sold it.

He lost his health insurance plan when he sold his company so he had to find a job that offered insurance. He went to work for Krogers.

I never heard him complain… although life has treated him pretty badly. He never quit going to Crestview Baptist Church where we went as kids.

He mostly worked the video department at Krogers. Every time I went in I the store I would walk over and talk to him. One time while we were talking the two huge brothers I keep seeing that I call “Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum” on my blog were checking out videos. After they left I asked Larry what was their story. Larry shook his head and said it was a bad situation and he was about to tell me and a customer wanted help. Then suddenly his line backed up for people checking out videos. I told him I would talk to him later. That was the last time I saw him alive. He left me with a cliff hangar.


He called me about three days before he died to tell me the latest on our friends and added that he fell and broke his leg and the doctor prescribed some pain medicine that did not agree with him. It sure didn’t.

At his funeral the local Masons that he was part of did a ceremony with aprons, poles, flags, and whatever else to make it look mystic. His sister, Peggy, was so sick with some kind of MS disease and woozy over medicine that she could hardly walk to the grave site. I had to hold her up as she slowly took one step at a time. I remember when was a lively little ball of fire. Now, she looked utterly confused and was crying. She was the last of her family. She and Larry buried their mother Jackie a year or so before.

Although she had a husband and grown children, I bet Peggy felt very alone that day.


*You can always tell a native if a person over 50 is a native or newcomer to Cobb County. If he says “Cobb Parkway” instead of “The 4-Lane” he is a newcomer carpet bagger.

Local Honey & Mabry's Farm

This morning when I went out to the driveway to get our morning paper in my shorts and tee-shirt I slept in I realized it was chilly, if not cold. The temperature was 52 degrees. At colder times of the year 52 might seem like a heat wave, but the season reverted, it felt very cold to my bare legs.

Back earlier when I first got my bike I was looking forward to riding the bike through the year, even cold weather. Now, that cooler weather is upon us, all I can say is, “Who do I think I was kidding, besides myself?”

It has that football weather feel about the air. A cozy time to stay inside and catch up reading, if you ask me. But, it is also a good time to work in the yard without fear of working up a sweat. And soon there will be leaves to rake. Shit.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I also went to Mabry’s Farm before I went to buy groceries. I think my mind got so preoccupied grafting a entry about Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum I forgot completely I went to Mabry’s Farm.

Mabry’s Farm is right in the middle of wealthy east Cobb County. It is about 50 to 100 acres surrounded by expensive subdivisions. I’m sure the land is worth millions.

Mr. and Mrs. Mabry are in their 70s or early 80s. They are a warm, friendly, good looking couple who sell various farm products… whatever you can pick out of their garden, or they have free range eggs, or they have what I come for, locally produced honey. Yep, those little bees picked up the pollen from various yuppies’ flower beds in the area and brought it back and contributed it to the hive, which then Mr. Mabry takes it and do whatever you do to process honey and then put it in pint and quart jars.

In their carport they have a little stand with the various kinds of honey in different size jars. They are wildwood honey, wild flower honey, and raw honey. They have a sign saying for those wanting local honey, get the raw honey. One time I asked Mr. Mabry about it and he said the raw honey is the honey his bees produced. The wildwood and the wild flower he buys from a fellow in the mountains of North Georgia.

I buy the local honey. I buy a quart jar for $9 and it gets me through about a half year. Each day, I take a tablespoon of honey with a table spoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of hot water. The locally produced honey has the local pollen in it. It is like getting a vaccination. It helps keep down allergies. And the apple cider vinegar keeps your plumbing clean.

On a little table beside the honey jars shelve is a little box. A sign says “Honor System”. I put ten in and took one dollar out for change. I wonder how many people did just the opposite, put in a one dollar bill and took out a ten?

Yesterday when I drove up Mrs. Mabry was talking to a lady about her age. They were just putting the last of some flowers into the lady’s van when I was parking. The next time I was there I had a mental note to tell either Mr. or Mrs. Mabry that my wife’s great uncle married a Mabry that lived in this area – and maybe that would her inspire them to give me some more information or maybe even share some pictures. But, they were talking, about church business I guessed, so I didn’t blurt in and rule the conversation. I can wait six months.

CO Twiddle-Dee & Pvc Twiddle-Dum

Today is Wednesday. It is the day that all us elderly folks leave our rocking chairs, beds, shuffleboards, etc and converge on supermarkets such as Krogers and Publix that offer 5% discount to senior citizens on Wednesdays.

I developed an art of presenting my coupons. The trick is to present the coupons after they have rang up your 5% discount. Otherwise, they will ring deduct your coupons and take the 5% off the net total instead of the gross total. In fact, some company-minded cashiers ask are you sure you don’t have any coupons. Then, after the coupons are deducted you can say “Oh yeah! I forgot about my coupons!” and watch her steam.

But today went good, the 5% was scraped off the top, not down after the coupons.

The weather was very nice with just a slight cool breeze.

And at Krogers I got see the brothers Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum. I haven’t seen them in months.

They are in their early 20s and I have seen no visible signs of a job. They must get some kind of social security or disability income and squander in their late grandparents’ home.

Today, as always, they had on their Desert Storm fatigues with their pants tucked very militarily into their black boots. Their dress berets were tilted just right.

When I got out of the truck in the new Kroger parking lot I saw them get out of their old raggedy station wagon their grandparents used to drive.

They marched in the store. By the time I got into the store, the youngest, Twiddle-Dum was pulling a grocery cart out of the stacked carts. Twiddle-Dee was patiently waiting. The good military leader he is, he was not going to chew out Twiddle-Dum in front of everybody for pulling the cart out in a clumsy manner. Twiddle-Dee takes care of his men (or man) by chewing them (him) out in private.

Then like soldiers prowling in the jungle with rifles Twiddle-Dum pushed the cart while Twiddle-Dee had his hands behind his back taking big thoughtful steps and occasionally seeing something that would be good chow, and toss it in the cart.

They want to defend our country so bad. They could show ‘em you don’t mess with Uncle Sam. But, I suspect the military wouldn’t take them in a million years, so they will just have to continue to do their war games on their PCs.

The Twiddle Dum Saga continues – part III.

Remember, the last episode of Twiddle Dum it appears he had separated with his older brother, Twiddle Dee and was living with a male redheaded middle aged fast food server.

And since he was no longer under the critical and demanding eyes of Twiddle Dee he quit dressing so military and dressed in his true nature, a big slob. His attire now is pants hanging on him and a maroon tee-shirt with several food stains on it. I don’t think he had changed since the last time I saw him. His hair is also inconsistent messed up with no rhyme or reason.

Today on the way home from the funeral home after paying my respects to my neighbor’s family (his sister died), I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items – today is Wednesday, which means 5% Senior Discount Day, and they used to have bingo on Wednesday mornings for Senior Citizens, but evidently that fell through.

As I was looking for a cashier with not many people waiting, or little in their grocery carts I saw Twiddle Dum doing the same… he was dragging, leaning over his cart, depending on it to carry the bulk of his weight. He looked partly in a sleepy trance.

This time, the middle aged red-headed fast food server was not with him like last time. Did they part company?

Out of curiosity I asked the cashier that waited on me about Twiddle Dee. She said he turned 21 on January the 1st, and he now he can legally buy cigarettes. She said she used to see him and his brother all dressed like militants but now his brother doesn’t come there anymore. Yeah, yeah, I knew that.

I think it was sometime in December when I saw him last, before he was 21. I wonder, if he let the middle age male fast food server live with him because he could buy him smokes? Now that he is 21, he has no need for the fast food server, so kicked him out?

To make things even more interesting, when I left the grocery store and was about a half mile down the main road, I saw the middle-age red head fast food server walking by himself on the sidewalk.

I think there is a kind of story they do movies about with those boys.

The Saga Continues...

On a main road over a mile from here are several franchised fast foods restaurants. There is a red-head man, short and dumpy who looks about 40 years old that has worked one time or another in each of the local fast food places. I first noticed him at Chick Fi La', then Burger King, then McDonald's, and now he seemed to have found his home at Arby's.

I see him from time to time walking up a sidewalk hill from a section of expensive homes to the fast food block. He apparently lives within walking distance of his work, which is a must. Making minimum wage I doubt if he can buy a car. The times he waited on me he seemed to know his product and go by all the sales rules, like ask you would you like to "try" a certain thing, and so on. I thought he must live with his parents. I felt sorry for him, for some reason he got a bad break in life.

Then! We were in Krogers shopping yesterday, which is also in the same area and there was the little short red-headed Arby's man and the youngest brother of the Twiddle Dee and Twinddle Dum set. They were shopping together. Twiddle Dum would lean against the cart and push it lazily as the red headed man carefully studied the shelves and picked out products. I noticed they had plenty of toilet paper and beans in the cart.

In case you are wondering who is Twiddle Dum, as far as this posting goes, go back and look at the posting on this blog dated December 12, 2005.

Every time I have seen the Twiddle brother he was always dressed to military perfection, not a wrinkle, spit-shined boots, and he walked upright and at attention, in step with his older brother. But this day, he was haunched over, wearing a dirty old shirt with stains all over it, and baggy shorts. Very un-military clothes, to which he was accustomed to. The red headed man was more attuned to the cold weather and had on a coat, which he had buttoned up. But where was the older brother, Twiddle Dee? He must not be part of his younger brother's life for the present time because I'm sure he was the commanding officer of their little by-the-book regiment and would had surely failed Twiddle-Dee at inspection time.

Now where is Twiddle-Dee. Buried under the house?

Twiddle Dee & Twiddle Dum

On one of my walking routes this morning, about two miles from here I went by a house that I'm sure has some interesting storiess within its walls. The house is occupied by two brothers. They are tall and have huge bellies. One looks to be in his late teens and the other one appears to be in his early twenties.
I think they need adult supervision before they hurt somebody.
I first started noticing the brothers at a local Krogers supermarket in the magazine section. They would always be dressed in military attire with berets and their pants legs neatly tucked down in their boots. At the magazine rack they would be reading military type of magazines, or sometimes gun mags, sometimes video game mags, and they strike as me the type who would be looking at the girly magazines if Krogers carried those.
I noticed they would leave with an elderly couple who did not very well off and they would all get in a dumpy dented-up old car.
My childhood friend Larry worked in the video department at the same Krogers (since then they no longer have a video department). Larry owned his own little one-man business for abut 25 years but had too retire because of illness. He had the Kroger job for health insurance purposes. Larry always knew everything about everybody locally. I asked him what was the story about "those two - Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum". Larry shook his head sadly and said it was a sad situation. And he was about to tell me. Then someone wanted to rent a video and according to the computer they still owned money in late dues and it looked like Larry would be bogged down with them a while, so I went to finish my shopping. Just before I left I dropped by so Larry could tell me the two brothers but there was a line of people checking out videos. He told me he would tell me the next time I was in. Larry died before I got to talk to him again.
I continue to see the two brothers at Krogers, but now evidently his grandparents who were evidently their guardians either have died or in a nursing home, or one of each.
One day a year or so ago while riding my bike a big German Shepard came up to a fence and was barking as I pedaled by. I was surprised when one of the Twiddle brothers came out and hollered at the dog to shut-up. And I recognized the old dented up car also. Then, I took notice of their house. It was a dumpy little house with a lot of junk in the front yard with untrimmed bushes and trees, and weeds. They have a high fence surrounding their yard (thank God) and they are surrounded on three sides by huge new houses.
I suppose they are holding out because they would not know where to go if they sold, or maybe one or both their grandparents are in a nursing home and have yet signed it over to them.
They are very scary looking in a gung-ho military kind of way. I noticed they march in-step and never smile or show emotion at Krogers when they do their shopping. They march their cart out to the car to load their groceries. I think they will want to something "military" one day, like make WAR on the yuppies in those big expensive houses?