Clemson Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory! ::

More than a bit of hyperbole there since Clemson has not even been in the game!

Digital Ink From Buster ::

I got this from Buster a couple of weeks ago and kept forgetting to post it.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE I JUST SUBMITTED TO THE LOCAL PAPER. Afterwards, my face muscles were sore from laughing and smiling.
When Marcelle and Mary were in the first grade, they wondered how old they would be before their feet touched the bus number 10 floor.
About eight years ago some of the girls, now ladies, who graduated from Camden High in 1965 and who rode bus 10, which picked up the kids in the Charllote Thompson area, began having an annual ''get together' on the 3rd Sat. in July. They later expanded the list to include some of the other '65 pedestrians.
The original cast was made up of Mary Holland Young, Pris McLeod, Marcelle Fortner, Pat Price Gillion, and Renee Howel Christopherson.
This year the group met at Helen and Lawrence Graham's oldest daughter Linda's house and they invited a couple of opposite sex members in Ronny Stroud and myself. Other classmates who attended were Cheryl Scott Colvin, Mary Workman Eddings, Barbara Rabon Shiver, Betty Jane McCallum Fort, Jane Barfield Munn, and Sandra Hammond Hughes, who has the unique distinction of having her wedding on Gilbrater.
It was an event of sharing some good laughs and memories. Since all of us are now over 60 years of age and all have 'scrapbooks and skeletons' the conversation was mostly about old times.
The bus 10 ladies had long ago voted Nettles 'Butch' Myers as their favorite bus driver who everyone had the biggest crush. They also had a list of who were the best and worst drivers.
They also had a picture which was taken in the mid to late 50's of most of the local kids who were attending a bible school at Beulah Metodist Church. There were the original members and their siblings, plus a lot of Smith's,Ive's, and Rush's.
Some other old class pictures produced some good chuckles. The sixth grade chorus picture with 30 girls and 60 bobby sox and Cheryl Colvin's majorette boots in the 2nd grade were classics. Jimmy Ring and Billy Ammons annually posed for their class pictures with their top shirt button always buttoned and Jimmy Clyburn always wore a different cowboy outfit for his class picture. Robin Hough had the best bike because his was a Donald Duck model which had a big Donald Duck attached to the handle bars.
The sixth grade must be that time in which kids start becoming part of the social herd because not only are all the girls in the chorus dressed fashionably similar, but there were lots of Perry Como jackets for the boys, as well as the ample use of Butch Hair Wax to keep the flat tops standing
There were also some pictures of former reunions and no one could recall everyone. One would notice that as the years progressed the men seemd to have more grey on top than the ladies.
Pris McLeod, an old drinking buddy of the band 'Alabama' [before they were famous] could have her own show on Comedy Central. She entertained the attendees with stories from her 30+ years of treaching.
The conversation moved to former principals and teachers and the consensus was that no one could strike fear in your heart like the sound of Mrs. Duvall walking in her high heels. Also everyone had a Ruby Dobinca Lindler Zimmerman story. It seemed that everyone who had Mrs. Z can recall board credits, no cutting in the hall and her dancing on her desk.
It is interesting to see what most recall. The funny and the unusual seem to be the norm.
One mystery that was clarified was what happened to several of our classmates when we were in jr. high. Several of us were in a fraternity called 'Lambda Beta Pi' while we were in the 7th and 8th grades. We met weekly at various member's houses, fired up some pilfered Winstons, talked about girls and just messed around. Some of the members who lived down town and did not play ball got together more often and decided to crank up their thrill meter by breaking into houses. After awhile they got caught. Now these kids were the sons of doctors, businessmen, and some of the most prominent and religous families in Camden.
They were sentenced to leave Camden for a year so some were sent to prep schools, while others were sent to live with relatives in other communities. I often think of this episode when I hear people talk of gangs or hear someone say, ' my kid would never do anything wrong.''
There was also great admiration but not envy for the oldest member of our class, Moultrie Burns who is the father of pre schoolers. We did send word to Moultrie that at our reunions we were no longer giving cash prizes to the class member with the youngest kids.
As we have aged all of us have learned to phrase questions in a manner that we do not get put or place someone in an embarrassing situation. We have learned to ask in generalities such as, 'how is everyone,' rather than' how are your parents.' So it was nice also to find out about how many of our parents were doing.
As we have entered our 6th decade many of our parents are int their 8th decade and sometimes they are not as polically correct or they once were and they have alsoearned the right to say what is on their mind. The following is an example.
The Friday before this reunion I went by to check on my mother. Now my mother, Willie, truly detest my beard. The picture above is a couple of years old and since that picture was taken I had shaved the beard, but for some whimsical reason I decided to regrow it at the first of the summer.
When I walked into mother's house her initial statement , before hello, was 'When are you going to cut that beard?'
I replied that since she was now 87 years old that it was difficult to find her a Christmas present, I thought that I would shave the beard on Xmas eve and she could have it for a yule present. The response from her was. 'If that is all you are goimg to do with it, then you can just keep the d... thing.''
The conversation became more civil and after awhile I said my goodbyes and stated to leave. As I closed the door and approached my car I heard her yell something at me. Needing to leave and not wanting to go back inside I told her I could not hear what she was saying. She yelled again and I repeated that I could not understand what she was saying.
She then opened the door and and asked, 'Don't you have a reunion tomorrow with those girls you went to school with.''
I replied, ''Yes mam.''
She then replied. ' Before you meet with those girls, you need to cut off that chickens... beard.''
She was not backing up when she said it,
Thank you for your attention.

The reference to Beulah Methodist church brought back some memories. My stepfather and baby brother are buried there. My brother, Bill, lives near the church and I stopped in a couple of years ago and took some photographs.



Here is the monument dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Cleveland School fire:



I have another Beulah church story which I will share later.

Fried Green Tomatoes! ::

I bought a few pounds of green tomatoes yesterday from a grower from Tennessee who sells down here just outside of Huntsville. I've known Jack for years, but this is the first time I've stopped in and bought anything in some time. I'm processing the tomatoes for the freezer right now and I'm sure they'll be great in the coldness of winter. I've already put up around a bushel of okra as well as some sweet corn. I haven't done as much as usual, but, with the rain, I'm hoping for at least 2 or 3 more weeks of buying food for the freezer. Oh yeah, squash. I love squash and I have been able to freeze a fair amount this year along with some zucchini. For the past few years I have been doing around 75 to 100 pounds of squash and zucchini each year but I wasn't able to do it this year.

I'm hoping to grow my own next year. I just bought a tiller late last week and, if the weather cooperates, I will soon be planting some turnip and collard greens!

Kitten Blogging On Saturday Afternoon ::

The Post From Sandy Below ::

This is what I was hoping many more people would do. This isn't my blog-it's yours, and I would love for everyone to share whatever they may feel like sharing! Anyone over on the right sidebar has posting privileges here and I can open it up to anyone else who wishes to post. Just send me an e-mail to the address on the sidebar. So far only I have admin rights, but I can give that to others also and they can be shared. Anyone with admin rights can change the look of the blog as well as the content. It really is pretty easy! Don't worry about breaking anything--I can fix it!

Buster has sent me an unpublished story which probably most of you have also received, but I will post it in a couple of days here on the blog as well as a PDF link over on the right.

I can attest to the beauty of the country where Sandy lives although I have not been that far north. When I was in the Navy I spent a year on the island of Adak in the Aleutian chain and I loved every minute of it. The island was about 2 miles wide but I forget how long. On one side was the Pacific Ocean and on the other was the Bering Sea. Beauty takes many forms and the Aleutian Islands were the antithesis of South Carolina! One has not experienced cold unless 125mph winds are involved, but, luckily, this only happened for a few days during winter.

I have several friends who have done the Alaska cruise in the past couple of years and the all recommend it!

I wonder if Sandy keeps any Jack Daniels around for those bitterly cold evenings? Just curious since I live about 40 miles from Lynchburg, Tennessee which is, ironically, a dry county!

Hello from the Land of the Midnight Sun

Fred, I read your blogs with wonder. Your life is so totally different from mine. I haven't been to S.C. in 5 or 6 years. After my parents died, I stilled visited Psamn Williamson occasionally, but after she passed away, I just didn't come back. My husband has cousins in N.C., but we haven't seen them either.

I had to retire from my job as RN in the local ICU in 2000 and my husband took an early retirement from Northwest Airlines the next year so he could keep me company in my life as a bum. We've done a lot of traveling since then and had more fun than you could shake a monkey at......or something like that. The last few years we've been spending a large part of the long dark winter down in Arizona. (We lived there from '70 til '82) We found a great place up in the Lake Havasu area. We bought a pontoon boat and spend a lot of time on the Colorado river.

Haven't gotten to do as much fishing this summer as usual, but I did get down to Seward, Alaska a couple of weeks ago to go out inthe ocean for silver salmon. When they're still in the ocean, they're a lot of fun. Fishing was so-so that week, but Resurrection Bay is one of the most beautiful places on earth, so there's certainly no room to complain.

Yesterday I gave a speech at a Women's Conference concerning the Red Hat Society and my chapter, the Vibrant Valley Divas. Dressed ready for the red carpet, of course, with all the trimmings. Then I had to come home and change into my other role because I leave in the morning to go caribou hunting up near Glennallen, AK. Freezer is empty. Must have meat. I never thought I would enjoy hunting so much. I always loved shooting and was pretty good at it, but I had never hunted or fished until we moved here. Caribou hunting is sort of like deer hunting, except that the animal is larger, the meat has to be carried great distances and someone has to always guard from grizzlies. They know that sound means dinner is nearby.

I'm happy as a pig with a new muddle puddle. Will have my 43rd wedding anniversary in January. Did it right the first time I guess. I'm still crazy about hime and wouldn't trade him for a spotted puppy. My kids are healthy and happy and my dog likes me too.

Have some things going on that just made me want to reach out and share. I still think of Camden often and all the people back there. The only ones I'm in contact with are Buster and Camille Baker Powell, but others are often on my mind. Hope there will be another class reunion before I'm too old and decrepid to dance! I'm so sorry I missed the last one. I was going to attend and visit with Psamn, but she got ill and I cancelled my trip. Lot of woulda', coulda', shoulda's there.

Anyway, I enjoy reading the blog and would love to hear from old acquaintances.

Trip Postponement ::

We have to postpone the trip this coming weekend since our pet sitter is not available so we're hoping to make the trip two weekends from now which, I believe, will be Labor Day weekend. That might work out even better. I'll post some contact information when I am sure of the trip.

I could kennel Sable with our vet, who is absolutely wonderful, but Sable hates kennels and the only time she has ever snapped at me was when we returned from a trip to Camden and I went to pick her up. She forgave me for putting her in there with all of those strange dogs and I have never kenneled her again!



As you can probably tell I love my pets and I heartily recommend Chows as pets, especially female Chows. I have had several over the years, both male and female, and find that the females are much easier to get along with as the males tend to be much more stubborn. They are great inside dogs and pretty much train themselves and they are extremely protective.

When a stranger, or, for that matter, someone who we do not know well, comes to visit, Sable will position herself between Jeanie and the other person and either sit or lie at her feet unless the other person takes a step toward her. Then she will stand between that person and Jeanie. Thankfully we've never had to see what would happen if there was true danger, but I feel much better having her with us.

Sable stays in the house almost all of the time. When we leave to go somewhere, even for several hours. she stays inside and we never have any problems. Years ago when I lived in North Georgia my house was broken into twice in one week. I wish I had had a chow inside then!

Friday Cat Blogging ::

Road Trip To Camden ::

I'm hoping to pull out next Thursday, the 21st, for a visit, but there are some challenges to this trip. Ricky, who normally pet sits for me, plans to go to Memphis to be with his brother who was recently in a motorcycle accident and is having a knee replacement as a result. I just also found out that Ricky's mother, Dottie, has been diagnosed with some degree of Alzheimers which saddens me terribly as she is a wonderful person! I'm thinking about bringing both the dog and the cat on the trip which is another challenge as the dog is several years old and has never been around cats. The kitten is only several months old and does not know what to think of the dog!

Vacation schedules have been worked out and the timing right now is good for us although hectic as usual.

Arriving in Columbia sometime late Thursday afternoon.
Visiting in Camden Friday.
Quick trip up to Gastonia Saturday morning to see middle daughter and family.
Visiting back in Camden Saturday evening.
Leaving early Sunday morning for the trip back.

This is tentative, but probably how it will play out.

I'll post an update in a few days with contact information in case anyone would like to get together for a cup of coffee!

Fried Green Tomatoes!

I picked the last of the green tomatoes this afternoon and I fried them a short time ago along with some okra. Supper doesn't get much better than that!

On another note, I seem to be dodging deer on the rural roads much earlier this year than normal. I was basically stopped in the road this morning as a herd crossed in front of me. Well, truth be told, there were five or six and I stopped to watch them watch me. I leave for work at about 5:45 am and I drive rural roads most of the way and I must be constantly vigilant since the deer population is pretty huge around here. If I wanted to put one in my freezer I could go out in the back yard. I've also seen some large turkey tracks lately after rain and flights of geese routinely fly by just yards above the country mansion which reminds me of the hummingbird blogging. The Hummingbirds have been skittish for some reason the past few days, but I'm going to try again this weekend!

Friday Kitten Blogging!

Here's the mighty kitten, Missy, stalking the elusive grasshopper!