HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIE!

Tommy Died 24 Years Ago, Today

I took this picture of  my brother-in-law Tommy Prance at his daughter Belinda's wedding reception in 1979.  Other than the suit he is wearing I think this picture typified Tommy's energetic jovial attitude.  I think the girl is probably Belinda's friend.

On July 2, 1988, Tommy and some friends were spending some time at their deer camp at Lake Juliette, Georgia,  Tommy helped build the lake for Georgia Power.  A friend was rowing a boat and Tommy was swimming aongside him.  They were talking.  His friend asked him something that required a response but no response came.  Tommy was not there.  They looked for the body for a long time but did not find it.  His body surfaced in October 1989, a year and five months later.  He probably had a heart attack.

Just down the road from Lake Julliette is the restaurant that they filmed "FRIED GREEN TOMATOES".

That summer several deaths occurred of people I knew, or knew of, and my kin.  Eleven days later my father died.  Before these two deaths on my mother's birthday June 6, a wife of a co-worker of mine who was deaf, had a wreck at Bells Ferry Road and North Cobb Parkway (the 4-Lane) and his three children were killed.  On the way back from my mother's birthday dinner the police directed us around the wreck.  It was a sad summer.

More About the Antlers on the Wall

These are the same antlers I had  last week on this blog.  My late brother-in-law Tommy Prance (1935-1988) killed it in 1977 and it made the records books.  We got it up on the wall and wanted to show it again, being up high, big and bold.  Tommy shot two moose that day.  The record of this one is in the book RECORDS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME, 8^th EDITION, 1981.  It said the animal was shot in 1977; Rank 236; Score 198 2/8; Greatest Spread 60-3/8; Number of Normal Points R 11, L, 12; and Location Killed Besa River, B.C.

L-Rod Petty, War II Hero

On June the 10th the Dalton Daily Citizen did a story about my mother's brother, Roy Petty (1921-2000).  His real name was William Leroy Petty but he had several nicknames that followed him to his dying days:  "Roy" (family), "L-Rod" (war buddies), and "Bill" (everybody else).  I knew this story was coming soon - I expected it to be timely on June the 6th when Roy made such a fighting impression, but it was not printed until 4 days later.

Click on the link below:

http://daltondailycitizen.com/local/x1828359543/Stories-of-former-Cohutta-man-s-heroics-as-a-Ranger-live-on-in-books-memories

On This Day in History, June 6:

above: siblings Roy Petty & Janie Hunter

On this day in history , June 6, in 1918, my mother, Ethel America “Janie” Petty Hunter was born in Gillette, Wyoming.

And also on this day, 26 years later Janie’s next youngest brother Roy stormed the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day Invasion.

My uncle Stanley Hunter, my daddy’s brother was also was at Normandy on D-Day. His picture is below.
Before my father’s funeral in 1988 some of us were sitting on the porch at Mayes Ward Funeral Home. I remember Roy talking about D-Day. Roy asked Stanley something about D-day and Stanley plainly stated he didn’t like to talk about it. With all that killing, I can understand why.

below:  Stanley Hunter

Brenda Joyce Moon Summers (1940-2012).

Anna’s second cousin, Brenda Joyce Moon Summers died Wednesday evening, February 29th. She died on Leap Day.

I have known Brenda either since grammar school or early high school. Through the years I have seen her at family functions and funerals. After a few, I said once, “We have to stop meeting like this.” She laughted in a surprised way and we have been swapping that little wit bit back and forth for years now. But, not anymore.

Brenda was a gentle, kind, and warm person. She was a family person all the way. Her family came first to her.

She has had bad luck losing the people she loved. She lost her 6 month old daughter Kristi in 1970 and more recently her grandson Luke, parents Toy and Lois, and brother and sister-in-law Doug and Mary. Her whole family had to endure one tragedy after another.

I hope that now she had found the ones she lost.

Charles Jones Foster (1925 - 2012)

Anna's uncle Charles Jones Foster died Wednesday,January 11, 2012, only about 3 weeks short of his 87th birthday.

Charles was born in and grew up in Marietta. He loved aviation. As a teenager he used to ride his bike to Atlanta to watch the planes take-off and land. In WWII he joined the Army and became a flight Engineer. After the war he became a pilot of TWA.

Before the war, he and his brother Paul worked at the Strand Theater. Paul ran the projector with Charles help and Charles also got the weekly previews printed up and distributed.

Charles was very sensitive about the right food. His diet was the ideal non-fat diet. Once he told me he has never eaten a Varsity Hotdog but he has tried their chicken-salad sandwich. I didn't know whether to complement him or feel sorry for him.

His life was not without tragic. His first wife Florence died and the oldest of his three daughters died before he did. He married secondly to Jane who was a good partner for him. Jane kept him active.

Charles was a good man which I'm sure his off-spring would agree.

People Who Left Us in 2011

From my viewpoint, looking through my usual tunnel-vision, the following people left us in 2011:

Ron Bennett - Anna's ex-coworker.

Carl Poss - neighobr and family friend.

Dave Dixon - friend and ex-coworker.

Elazabeth Rae Poore Johnson - Hunter relative.

Frances Price - Near relative and family friend.

Betty Henderson Disharoom - teenage friend.

Mike Hobby - Childhood friend.

Ruth Ivey - Anna's friend.

Jack Meaders - Teenage friend.

Jeannette Westmoreland - Relative of Hunter relatives.

Jerry McBee - Friend.

James Kendrick, son of friend Jack and Ann Kendrick.

James Malcomb - Father-in-law of Petty relative; and ex-coworker and friend.

Mytrle Priest - Mother of Bill Rampley.

Lynn Orr - son's teacher and childhood friend.

Shirley Prance - Sister-in-Law.

Barbara Clarke Robinson - sister's ex-coworker and mother of friend Robbie Robinson

Jim Scoggins - Nextdoor neighobr.

Alberta Shouse Kinney. Grammar scool teacher.

Michelle Canada Southern - friend's daughter-in-law.

Helen Steele Fowler - childhood friend.

W.G. Sterling - Friend's father.

I hated to hear of all of their passing. I'm sure I left out some.

Remembering

Above- The late Robert "Bus" Hunter, father of Jerry Hunter, at Gerald Hunter Park in Douglasville, on his 94th birthday.

One of my blogging buddies Lisa Cooper writes a local history column for the Douglasville Patch. In the column linked below she talks about two local heroes who died for their country, Scott Harper and Jerry Hunter, and their return home.

to read it, CLICK HERE.

OM Pat F

Pat F. at the 2008 Bell Reunion.

Pat is about one or two years older than I. I think of us as the same generation. Yet, her late sister Sarah is my aunt by marriage, which is a generation up. Oh-oh I'm confused again.

Sharee And Her Amazing Hula-Hoop Show

I told my cousin Sharie (?) that I would have her on Youtube with her Hula-hooping and I did. But she was just one of many at my aunt Jeannette’s birthday party last week.

Here we go again, the same clip her but this time solo. If this works good maybe I can talk her into finding a wide sidewalk with plenty of pedestrian traffic. All she has to do is put down a big hat upside down and put the first dollar in it to prime it then Hula-Hoop away! I am going to demand 25% as an agent’s fee.

Jeannette Hunter's Birthday Bash Videos

These two videos are a brief summary of Jeannette Hunter’s birthday party held Saturday, July the 23rd. The bulk of the people you will see are off-springs and their spouses. The rest of us are nephews, nieces, sister-in-law, spouses, and friends.

The reason for two video parts is that it is difficult for me to upload anything to Youtube over five minutes long. I tried and there was a system error. I went back and cut it into two videos. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

It was nice seeing the Hunter kin herded in one yard again.

Part 1



Part 2

D Day, June 6, 1944

My uncle Stanley Hunter fought in the D-Day Invasion.



My Uncle Roy Petty, also fought on D-Day.



June 6, My mother's birthday.

A Square Evening

Pre Concert Pictures, downtown Marietta. Click on each picture to make it bigger and understandable.

Mark Bagley Does SPIDER-MAN Again!

Monday we donated a truck load of stuff to the American Thrift Store. After I dropped the stuff off I decided to stop by Doctor No’s Comicbook Shop in the same shopping center. It has been a while since I have been there.

As I stood at the wall long comic book display, a polite young man asked if he could help me. He probably would have liked to add “Gramps” to the question. I asked if he knew what “Mark Bagley is doing now? He was doing SUPERMAN and before that it was SPIDERMAN”…..

The young man said he was back doing SPIDERMAN. The old creating team got together to draw the series of events that will lead up to SPIDERMAN’s death. He handed me an issue. The title was DEATH OF SPIDER-MAN. That makes sense.

I wondered aloud what was next, since they are killing off the superhero. He said the same team is making a series called BRILLIANT, which takes place in Seattle about a team of geniuses making some ordinary people super people.

Seattle is where Peter Bagg’s HATE’S Buddy lived for a while and had some adventures. Is this a gathering or come together of all modern comic book characters – kind of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A THIRD KIND?

I knew to ask about Mark Bagley at Doctor No’s because the shop owner, Cliff Biggers got Mark started illustrating comics. I casually mentioned that Mark was my first cousin Patti’s husband. He said their daughter worked there not long ago. I said I thought she was in Arizona or someplace out west. He said she is back here now. He named off all three of Angie’s children and Patti’s name. I was impressed; he knew more about my Hunter relatives than I do.

I asked, “Three children? I thought she had one!” He said “three.”

I said, “Well, like grandma, like granddaughter – Her grandmother had a dozen kids that lived to be adults.” He looked surprised. Ahah! I told him something he didn’t know.

Touché’!

Victoria Moon Road to Recovery

Victoria is the wife of Stephen Moon, who is the son of Anna's 2nd cousins the late Doug and Mary Cochran Moon. Victoria fell in the doctor's office during a routine visit and went into a coma. Here is brief video summary of Victoria's struggle presented by the local Fox TV News:

Cobb Mother Hurt in Fall Recovering: MyFoxATLANTA.com

HO HO HO

Not long ago, maybe a month, one Saturday afternoon, we more or less were hanging out in downtown Marietta Glover Park when I heard someone holler my name, “Eddie!”

I looked in the direction of the voice and there was only an old man with a white shaggy beard I didn't recognize. I looked beyond him and there were no one but a couple of teenage girls in evening gowns.

A lot of girls were there that Saturday, with photographers and parent photographers, posing. I think they were posing in their high school prom garb with the big tier water fountain in the background.

Maybe the old white bearded man was calling someone behind me that that sounded like my name, I turned around. More clusters of teenage girls in their evening finery…. Maybe one’s name is Betty and I just thought he said Eddie.

This time he was closer, he said it again. It was plainly “Eddie”. I double-focused on the old dishevel bearded man and saw it wasn’t a shaggy white beard at all, it was a neatly trimmed white beard. And the old man was David Hunter, my first cousin, about eight years younger than me.

We greeted each other. It is always nice to run into David. David told us he was growing a beard because he would be playing Santa Claus at events in December.
David is a community minded person and occasionally I see his picture in the paper doing something for the community.

Last week his picture was in the Marietta Daily Journal playing Santa Claus for a group of kids. Some were sitting in his lap.

It reminded me of when David was the age of those children that were around him in the picture.

My Daddy loved to play Santa on the phone to all his nieces and nephews. He called his nieces and nephews one at a time and give a big hearty “Ho Ho Ho” and tell them he was Santa and probably scared them shitless and asked them have they been good and what they wanted for Christmas and things about their school grades. He did a good job. He loved to interact with kids like that. His Ho HO Ho was an enthused Ho Ho Ho, not like the Ho Ho Ho of the bored Santa in Jean ShepArd's CHRISTMAS STORY.

Another thing Daddy did was get his nieces and nephews in his lap and tell them mind bending stories. He made them up as he went along. The story would always be an adventure story starring two little kids that just so happened to have the same names of the two kids sitting on his knees. They would get lost in the woods and have would death one defying close call after another – from hanging on to a log going down a river towards a very high waterfall to being chase by a bear - but they were always saved in the nick of time.

I used to love to sit nearby and listen to story and watch the spell-bound kids engrossed in what they were hearing.

One time, I think it was David and his brother Johnny, were sitting on Daddy’s lap, and David was So drawn into the impossible to get out alive plot he let out a cry and hit Daddy square in the face.

I don’t remember if the story continued or not, I was too busy on the floor rolling in laughter.

Red Head and Red Nose Genes.

In the comments section of the previous post my first cousin Johnnny Hunter said that he had two red-headed grandchildren.

I don't know if those are Hunter, Frasure, or Mlford genes but I see the possibility that they Hunter genes. We have a Hunter cousin Alice who is red-headed.

My mother's side of my family is full of red-heads.

That probably means I am packed with red-headed genes. Also Anna has some red-headed first cousins, so she probably is red-headed genes too. Which means, our two sons are likely to be packed with red-headed genes.

From my mother's side are also genes to have a red-nose which I have. My nose is as red as Rudolph's.

Down the line someplace in my descendant line is a child waiting to be born with red-hair and a red-nose.

He or she will look like a cross between Carrot Top and W.C. Fields.

Travelers Betty & Thelma

Betty & Thelma, Thanksgiving, 2004

Yesterday in the Marietta Daily Journal, Lifestyle section, was an article about Betty Roberts’ retirement after 40 years as a waitress at IHOP in Sandy Springs.

Click here for Betty's story in the MDJ.

Betty is a good friend of my sister-in-law Thelma. After Thelma’s husband Tommy drowned,in July 1988, Thelma’s life took a new direction.; literally. Thelma started traveling and Betty is her traveling companion.

Betty and Thelma are also great grandmothers to the same two children. Betty is on the father's side and Thelma is on the mother's side.

I see Betty once or twice each year, usually during the Thanksgiving holidays. Nothing seems to excite her, she always seems so relax and laid back. She is undisturbable.

Thelma and Betty have traveled to Canada, Alaska, and so many countries I can not think of them all – or at the moment, none of them. Betty is said she is going to Hawaii with her daughter and family on her next trip but Thelma is not going on that one.

Thelma has been thinking China. I’m sure that will be OK with Betty. China it will probably be.

Thelma makes some excellent scrapbooks on their journeys. She does not own a computer, but I think her handicraft with scrapbooks makes them more personal. I think on the trip Betty helps her collect things like menus, post cards, advertisements, photos, etc.

I think Betty is going to enjoy retirement.

The Importance of Self-Image and Grunt-Work

We are having a 90th birthday celebration tomorrow for a relative. We are renting the family center of a church. A caterer will be supplying the eats and a floral artist will see to it there are beautiful floral arrangements there.

The caterer and the floral artist and their staffs were to meet this morning and set up tables, chairs, table clothes, and whatever else should be done. I volunteered my services to help out on the grunt work. They happily accepted.

The question I asked myself what image should I convey? Should I follow the chef around and tell him my secrets on how to get the best from a grill rotisserie and tell him out how much I like garlic and hot spices in my food? Or should I tell him my adventures with the beer can up the ass of a chicken squatting on the grill? Or should I do a quick Google-study on different types of flowers good for arranging, go buy a beret’ and leotards and talk to the floral-artist about my opinion on different types of arrangements and maybe try to use a lot of French words. Or maybe I should have my earphones and ipod in place, my ball cap backwards, and sort of bop to the rhythm that no one but me can hear, as I walk and occasionally fall down on a my back and do a spin, then get back up and start moving chairs again. Or, maybe I should just bring the book I’m reading, find me a quiet corner and open my book and read and tell them if they need me to do something, just ask…. But by my expression they will understand it will be best if they do it themselves.

I picked none of the above. I wore my ball cap with the front in the front and I did what I was asked to do, which was move roll the big round tables like big wheels, and then sat them up by unfastening their legs to the table bottom and after that was done I moved the chairs, eight to a table. I put them “about” where they should go and then someone else, a paid staffer, placed them exactly where they should be. Before it was over with I was pouring with sweat.

Of course the plan was, we thought, we were to place back the tables and chairs after the shindig tomorrow.

We noticed some young men came in, talked to the leaders and the leaders told them it would be over tomorrow around 5pm. Then the young men left.

We were told those young men would be back after we finish to put the tables and chairs back into place on the racks. We said, “We thought we had to do that because we were told the church didn’t have anybody working Saturday afternoon.”

“They are not from the church, they are doing community service”.

I wondered, “What image do I want tomorrow afternoon? I wonder if they still sell “sponge-on” tattoos?