Charles Brooks Foster

c1885 - Charles Brooks Foster (1856-1928). He married Ardella Catherine Vinson (1857-1933). They lived in the Milton/Alpharetta/Roswell, Georgia , area. He is Anna's great grandfather on her mother's side.

Another Adventure of the Invisible Man

The Invisible Man invaded the Cobb County Voters Registrar Office, apparently, unnoticed of course. In the year 2000 I retired from the Postal Service. That same year I got a PO Box. We had it for over 21 years when we gave it up early this year. There is an election coming up in May so we went on line to the Voter Registration Office to check our information make sure all was up to date. It wasn’t. It showed our ex-PO Box address. We changed it on-line. Later again, we went on line to check to see if everything was OK with our information. It showed Anna’s street address but it still showed the PO Box as my address. We called and told them they did not change it. They said I would have to fill out a change of address form and they sent me the form. We filled out the form and I went to the Voter’s Registrar office and signed it in front of the lady that told me to. She asked did I plan to vote by mail-and I said yes. She said just a minute. She left the counter and in a few minutes returned and told me everything was OK on my form. This morning we went on line to my information and still had the PO Box as my address.

My Parents Courting in the 1930s

c1936/37. This picture was taken during my parents' courting phase. Left to right: The first couple are my parents, Ed Hunter and Janie Petty; the second lady I do not know, I think her name might be Jonnie Rollins; the next lady is my mother's older sister, Opal Petty; and the next couple is Lois Carter and her date. I don't think her date in this picture was her future husband , Toy Moon, they probably had not met yet. Lois like Opal and Janie (and maybe Jonny Rollins) were from the hills of north Georgia who had come to Marietta to work. They were young and then they married, multiplied, grew old and died, like we all will.

Waterman Street School Adventures

Sex Education. This is the east side of Waterman Street School. See the front entrance to the right? Actually, there were two twin front entrances. This one is the one nearer to the eastern side. On those steps leading up to the front doors I remember discussing the life's mysteries, Sex, and such as how to make an egg's shell soften to feel like a thin membrane and to make it look like a hog's ball (soak it overnight in vinegar). I was fooled. Larry Southern showed me the soft-shell egg and told me it was a hog's ball. On those same steps one time Larry pulled out a condom and showed me, and I was impressed with the little white O-ring around the opening of it. Which I had a very scientific observation that went something like this: "so that is a rubber? Where do you buy them at?" About 12 or 13 years later again Larry would take a condom out of his pocket. This time it was on the back row of the Hill Street Baptist Church. I wasn’t along with Larry and my other friends that Sunday night but I got several first hand accounts. They heard that on Sunday nights at Hill Street Baptist Church some loose teenage girls went there and they were easy to pick up. So, the boys went to check it out. During the sermon Larry got bored and pulled out a condom and started playing with it. It wasn’t long until he blew it up and tied a little knot in the O-ring thing. His cousin Jesse, also one of us, reached over and flipped the balloon shape rubber. Larry wasn’t expecting it and it got loose from him and landed in the aisle. There was a big fan at the near the back pews that kept the air circulating and brought in air from the outside. The white balloon was yanked into action by the fan’s wind current. It floated and gently bounced down the aisle like it had a soul of its own and wanted it saved by coming down to the preacher’s inspiring sermon. Larry and the others quickly left. Many years later, Larry's younger brother became the preacher of Hill Street Baptist Church. In the picture see the fire escape ladder coming from the two class rooms on the second floor? One time a boy named Van rammed my head into the fire escape at ground level and it took about 8 stitches to sew me up. It was right in the center of my head, I looked kind of like Frankenstein's Monster for several years until the scar finally went away. If I look closely, I can still see a hint of it. Van died about twenty years ago. He was a diabetic. He died because he went to the hospital to have a leg amputated and they removed the wrong leg which caused complications.

Horror for Real

Yesterday we bought groceries at Lytl Grocery store on Whitlock Avenue. While we were checking out I looked out the big plate window and saw a Goodyear Store. I felt chilled. On West Gramling Street, just south of what was the Marietta Country Club were apartments. One boy, about 12 years old, came home from school, and if my memory serves me correctly, he discovered the murdered bodies of his younger sister and his mother. And then his father try to attack him. I think the kid got away and ran for help and got it. It was all over the news for days. His father worked at that Goodyear Store.

John Marshall

This day in history, January 20, 1801, John Marshall was appointed U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice. John Marshall had a sister named Hannah Elizabeth Marshall . Hannah married Zachariah Petty. They are my ancestors. So, John Marshall, Supreme Court Justice is an in-law of mine, linked through the Petty side. How do you think I got my job at the Post Office?

Stockholder's Meeting of Chicken-fat

Hello. Here is my stockholders report for the blog chicken-fat.com Ahem! (me clearing my throat). I started chicken-fat.com in 2006. Radio personality Jean Shepherd inspired me. On his radio show he could talk on and on about nothing and I said, “Hey I can do that!” Only thing, when Jean ran out of things to talk about he played a kazoo. So, I am looking for a good second handed kazoo, or a violin. As of today I have produced 9930 posts As of today chicken-fat has had 1,879,490 visits. Yesterday it had 116 visits. Daily visits usually arrange between 100 and 500. If it is over 500 I think they are looking for a false prophet and if it is under 90, then I feel they finally got my number. There has been 9570 comments. After about 5 years or so I disabled my comment receiver. They got to be a pain the ass taking up all my time The reason for this report. The report is a daily thing, every day, free for the taking. I might as well get my money’s worth. If something is free I’m there with my hands out. Why do I do it? Brain pushups, brain pushups.

HAPPY ONLY CHILD DAY!

Time Warp

I was going through some photos I took in the summer of 2014 of the reenactment of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and came across this picture: a platoon of Johnny Rebs standing near-attention when a yellow school bus rode by. Imagine that there was a time-warp and the group of Rebs are real and also the school bus is real. Either the men or the bus just went through a cosmic cloud and ended up in another time. How will they explain this to their boss? I relate, I am always finding myself in situations not easily explained.

Me in Overalls 1947-1948 School Picture

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Taxes and Sammy Smoot by Skip Williamson

The cartoon Sammy Smoot was created by the late Skip Williamson. Back around the year 2000, give or take, Skip moved to Marietta along with his wife Harriet and twin daughters. I read someplace that they have moved to Marietta and called and introduced myself. Skip invited me over for a beer. He bought the house and property, which included a garage from my ex postal boss Stan. As a part time income Stan had a body shop in his garage. Stan had made the lightening ideal light for painting cars, and it so happens, the right lightning for a cartoonist also. I enjoyed a couple of years with Skip and drinking his beer. Then they moved on and he died. I don’t know how he died. Since it is that time of year, tax time, this is Skip Williamson’s cartoon starring Sammy Smoot about taxes. The photo is me and Skip Williamson in front of his garage converted into a studio.

First Methodist of Franklin, NC I know this board is for Georgia cemeteries, but because of unique experience I’ll like to share this. Delete it if you wish. In the early 90s I was communicating with my distant cousin, the now late Thelma Swanson. Thelma lived in Franklin and was very much in genealogy, so she had a lot to share with me. One of the things we discussed was my ancestor, William Trammell. William was a Revolutionary War “Mountain Boy” and during battle at The Battle of Kings Mountain, his arm was sliced off. I was convinced he was buried in Franklin, Macon County, North Carolina, because his son Jacob Trammell, who cared for him did. Thelma said she would look around and see what she could find. Not long after that she got in touch and said she believes William was buried in First Methodist Cemetery, in downtown Franklin. She told me to come on up and we would look together. I, and my two young sons, drove to Franklin, spent the night in a motel that smelled like cooked cabbage and the next morning met Thelma. We went to the cemetery she spoke of and she believed it was a high tombstone in the shade of a big oak tree. We couldn’t read the lettering, it looked like the weather had partly dissolved the carved print. “I know!” I said, lets go to a K-Mart, buy a sketch pad and charcoal (we bought crayons) and rub the stone. Across from K Mart was a Burger King, so we had lunch. We got back to the cemetery over one hour later. As we entered the parking lot we could see the tombstone in question glowing a bright gold color in the shade. What happened, while we were gone, the earth shifted itself a little, which now bright beams of light were shining through the leaves, and other sun light was sending light beams to the cars’ windshields and mirrors, giving it a fill end light. If you saw the movie INDIAN JONES AND THE LOST ARK you understand. It was William Trammell!

My First Smoke

On the latest YOUNG SHELTON tv show two adults who had quick smoking backslid and as they smoked they talked of when they had their first cigarette. Their discussion on their first cigarette took my memory back to when I first smoked. I don’t remember the first cigarette but I remember when I first started smoking. We lived in the Clay Homes. I was either age 4 or 5 years old. I think I was 5, because my buddy, Carol Joe Clayton was one year younger, and he was apt and able to scheme and swipe lit throw away cigarettes just like I was. We watched people smoking in the Clay Homes. When a person tossed his or her cigarette it was usually still lit and good for a few more puffs. So we would grab it, almost before it hit the ground, or pavement. Under our system they were free and came even lit. Then someone told my mother. She bought a pack of cigarettes, probably from Steele’s Store across the street. If I remember correctly it must have been a Pell Mell pack of cigarettes. The pack was solid red. Mama told me to sit down and she handed me a pack and told me to smoke. Truthfully, I thought for a short time I was very lucky, my parents were letting me smoke. Then after I finished that one and told me to smoke another one. I smiled and lit up another one. After that I told her I didn’t want to now, I wanted to go out and play. She shoved the pack of cigarettes in front of me and said “smoke another one.” And another and another. I got very dizzy and ran to my bed crying, I did not want any more cigarettes, ever! And I did not, for the next 11 or 12 years. Unfortunately, Carol Joe Clayton died as a young man in a wreck on the covered bridge on Valentine’s Day about 1963 or 64. In our formative years, in he Clay Homes I had a speech defect. I think I had my Rs and Ws confused. Carol Joe understood me perfectly translated to whomever couldn’t understand me.

Money or No Money, That Is the Question

Apple will be doing a movie production today in downtown Marietta. Only residents, Postal and Emergency vehicles will be allowed in the area. If it is downtown Marietta there are plenty of restaurants and other businesses, so what about business owners? And just as important, what about customers? I remember a couple years ago a movie production was made on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta. The merchants had to carry the movie production company to court an sue to get reimbursed for the money they should have made.

HAPPY TRADING CARDS FOR GROWNUPS DAY!

Luther and Lilly May Cook Foster

Anna's grandfather's brother Luther Foster and his wife Lilly May Cook. Anna's late mother Marie made very meticulous notes on the back of the pictures. This one points out that Lilly May died almost eleven months after they were married.

HAPPY NATIONAL BEER DAY!

Art by Will Elder in MAD Magazine

Hen and Her Baby Chick Roosting

By me. Not a bad photo, even if I do say so myself.

Happy ARMY DAY!

picture from MAD Comicbook #10, by Wally Wood

Real Chicken-far!