Memorial Day Reminders

Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. 

Two brothers gave all for their country.
Major Dick Johnson 1831-1864
J.E. Johnson 1839-1864

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. 

In Everlasting Memory, We, the people of Narragansett, dedicate this memorial for the courage, valor, and sacrifices of our Veterans in Vietnam.

Jasper County KIA WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and Korea

Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings, and participating in parades. 

Celebrating Veterans from many different Wars! 

At least unofficially, it marks the beginning of summer.

🎈🎈🎈2015 ~ Saturday May 23, Hot Air Balloon Festival Point Mallard Decatur

I got up early this morning and drove to Decatur for the Hot Air Balloon & Tractor Festival.

I was greeted by this beautiful sunrise!

I arrived around 6:45-7:00 and was trying to find a park when the balloons started to ascend into the air, so I pulled alongside a curb got out, and started taking pictures.
Someone pulled out of a parking spot right in front of me so I pulled into it and continued taking pictures a total of 157 just on my big camera.

This one almost did not make it. They had to land and try again right before the grove of trees behind them.

Lots of Hot Air Balloons 

I took a couple of videos on my cell phone.
After all the balloons disappeared into oblivion I walked over to the park and started taking pictures of the crowd, the vendors, and tractors.

People standing in line for breakfast at the Little Red Lunch Box 

Maggie Moos is not open but as the day wears on she will be flooded with people!

I started my trip home and realized that I had not eaten breakfast, so I started thinking about what would be good.
I decided I-Hop!
I pulled into I-Hop and was seated all by myself but that was ok.
I ordered a Belgian Waffle with fresh cream, blueberries, and strawberries.
It was delicious but I could not finish it.

Belgian Waffle with creamy strawberries and blueberries 

They have four different types of syrup Original, Butter Pecan, Blueberry, and strawberry.
I did not use any syrup because my waffle was delicious without it.

Next, I stopped at Office Depot to have a book bound. The employee had a hard time pulling out the staples and getting the paper straight for the book but he did it! I had put the book together with three staples each and four books went into this one.

Next, I went in search of Mt Dews that might be on sale, but the only sodas that were on sale were cokes.
My first stop was Publix, bought several items but no Mt Dew.

Next, I went to Kroger's to buy chicken legs to make chicken stew for Memorial Day but, again no MT Dews.

Should have brought this Mt Dew home with me!

And this Pepsi would have been enough for everyone on Memorial Day!

Even Jammin Jeff was enjoying a Mt Dew and Pepsi (see sitting on his table)

The crowd was enjoying the view of a large Mt Dew and Pepsi.

Called hubby and he said they had Mt Dews on sale at the Dollar General Store, all that was on sale was cokes, two twelve packs for $5.00 so I bought two.

I drove home, I was so sleepy that I almost did not make it, almost hit a big dog, and had to put on my brakes. I cannot stand running over any animal.

Went home and unloaded the groceries that were perishable from my van.
I stretched out on the futon went to sleep and was awakened by a pounding on the door.
It was on the television it was loud so, I got up drank some Pepsi uploaded my pictures to the computer, and started supper.

I cooked corn and corn fritters with fresh vegetables for a salad.
It had been a very trying day trying to find Mt. Dews on sale!

Living and Moving from the family estate with my Brave Little Taylor

At age one year six months, my Brave Little Taylor walked four blocks to a friend's house by himself when my parents lived on Main Street.
He walked to the end of the street that we lived on, turned left onto Central Avenue, walked two blocks, turned onto South Spur Street for about half a block to where my friend lived.
We had walked to this address many times, and my Brave Little Taylor remembered the way.

When my Brave Little Taylor was 10 months old, we moved to Killen into a three-room house with no indoor plumbing.
There was an outhouse within walking distance; we had to walk through tall grass to get to it.
Our drinking and bathing water came from a sweet spring behind our house. A shed was built over the spring to protect the clean, fresh water.

The house we lived in was built of wooden planks, with a tin roof, wood floors, and sheetrock walls.
We had a coal heater for the cold months and a window fan for the summer months.
We only lived at that location for about a year.

While we lived in that house, my Brave Little Taylor went for a joy ride.
I had left my Brave Little Taylor sitting in the car to run inside to brush my teeth. A big mistake!
While I was brushing my teet,h I heard a click. Then I saw the car rolling down the hill. Our house was built on the side of a small hill.
I started running toward the car. There was a fence between me and it, so I jumped the wall, grabbed the handle, and jumped inside just in time, for it was headed for the big oak tree in the field near our home.

I never thought much about leaving my Brave Little Taylor inside the car because I knew he could not drive or crank it.
It had a floor shift that had been taken off the column and moved to the floor. My brave Little Taylor was playing in the floorboard of the car when he bumped the floor gear shift; it knocked it out of gear, and it started rolling down the hill.

We bought a long wire cage with wooden legs and a tin roof for the black rabbit we had bought for my Brave Little Taylor.
One morning I went outside to feed the rabbit,  I opened the top of his cage and out flew a swarm of wasps, they chased me all the way to the house.
I felt so sorry for the rabbit. He was ok because I never saw him again after that.

The three-room house was built on Hubby's great-grandfather's old homestead.
The old home place was still standing, but just barely.
My father-in-law said he thought his friend was going to buy the home place, so he did not bid on it when it was auctioned off; some stranger bought it.

My father-in-law's grandmother, Sally, was sick for a very long time and was cared for by a woman named Martha.
In 1935, Sally died, and her husband, Charley, married the woman who had been caring for her, and they lived together until he died in 1941.
After his death, Martha sold the land. From what I remember hearing, she was taken advantage of by a local lawyer, and the land was auctioned off.

At one time, that area was owned by their family
My father-in-law was just a small boy when his grandfather died.
My father-in-law's parents had purchased eighty acres from his grandfather.

The old home place was later torn down by Hubby and brother-in-law.
My sister and her husband later lived in this same three-room house for about a year after we moved out.

We moved about half a mile from our present home to the new brick, three-bedroom house with indoor plumbing.
Our new home was built by Hubby's Uncle Doc.
About a year later, Doc was killed when a giant horse got loose. He ran out into the highway in front of Doc's truck.
When Doc's truck hit the horse, the steering wheel in his car lodged into Doc's stomach, and he was killed instantly.

The land where we built our new home was once a pigpen, which made it exceptionally fertile, and it had been cleared for the pig houses; it was given to us by my in-laws.

I no longer had to walk to the spring house for drinking water.
I was always afraid that I would find a snake or spider waiting for me when I went for that fresh, sweet drinking water.

We had fresh water from a well drilled over 90 feet deep until it hit a rock.
Our pump was placed under our brick home, which we would later share with family.

Hubby's grandmother bought our first air conditioner; we no longer used window fans.
She bought our first automatic washing machine so I would no longer have to fill my Brave Little Taylors big red wagon full of dirty clothes and walk to my in-laws' house to wash clothes on her
 wringer washing machine.
I did not have a dryer, so I had to hang my clothes on a clothesline; you could see diapers blowing in the wind just about every day.

Times were still hard but they were a lot easier than when we first began in that three-room house on Hubby's great-grandfather's former home estate

My Brave Little Taylor

My brave little Taylor, I depended on him for everything.

When my second was born, my brave little Taylor was the one who helped.

When I needed diapers, my brave little Taylor would run and get me one.

I had gone Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve in Muscle Shoals with my husband and in-laws when I started having labor pains. We were on Veterans Drive near Holiday Inn, which is now Hampton Inn,n when I had my first labor pain.

That night, we gave my brave little Taylor his Christmas present, a big red wagon.

Early the next morning, we went to the hospital where my second son was born at 7:27 A.M.

We lived with my in-laws after my second son was born until we moved into our house in February of the following year.

We slept on the fold-out sofa, and the living room and kitchen have no walls between them.

My mother-in-law worked at Genesco, and so did my husband. 

Every morning, my mother-in-law would cook biscuits and gravy and put on a pot of coffee. I hated the taste of coffee, and the smell made me sick.

My mother-in-law always cooked a large meal for Sunday dinner. She always cooked a pot of white beans, sometimes peas, and always some kind of meat. Most of her cooking was done on Saturday, so all she had to do was warm up the food.

My in-laws only had two children: my husband and his sister.

Every Sunday, everyone would gather at my in-laws for Sunday dinner after church, which ended at 11 A.M.

This ritual went on for many years until she got Alzheimer's disease.

While we were sitting at one of those Sunday dinners, my husband and I got into an argument.
We were still arguing as we got into the car and left. As we approached the pine thicket hill, I became so enraged that I said I was getting out of the vehicle. My sister was visiting with us; she was sitting in the middle of the car seat between my husband and me. 

I opened the car door and started to get out when he speeds up, I was hanging onto the car door being dragged. My dress was ripped off, with gravel in my arm, which left a scar, and I was a few months pregnant with my second son.

In later years, my mother-in-law cooked breakfast and sometimes supper for my middle son when he moved his trailer alongside the creek bank, which was across the road from her house.

His dog, Pat, stayed at her house every day after my son went to work, and my mother-in-law would feed her.

In the afternoons, Pat Mae waited patiently on her porch until she heard my son's car coming down the road; it was like she knew how to tell time.

Pat Mae would take off running to greet my son as he drove into his driveway.

Pat Mae was born before April 2002. She lived for over thirteen years.

My father-in-law died in April 200,5, and his wife lived several years in their home alone.

My mother-in-law was taken to Lauderdale Christian Nursing Home, where she lived for many years until she died in 2012.

1992 ~ Edvard Munch The Scream Art

College Art
Munch takes the viewer into the depths of emotion. The viewer can see the pain and anguish through the horror in his face, the shape of his head, and the placement of his hands on his face.

Munch used closed forms, giving the viewer the feeling that the figure doesn't want any connection to the outside world.
In the content of the isolated central figure, viewers may see themselves alone, in-depth, experiencing emotional grief, loneliness, fear, love, sensual passion, jealousy, or death.

Despair, carried by continuous linear rhythms reverberates thought the picture.

Edvard Munch & The Girl on the Beach 

His use of the different lines provides stability while giving the viewer a sense of trust. The diagonal lines give movement and action.
The sky and clouds are horizontal and curved, which seems stable yet gives the feeling of instability.
The small lake seems restful, yet the repetition of continuous lines gives the feeling that the world is closing in on the subject. He also uses implied lines that suggest movement by their form and by relation to the other lines.

Implied motion is linked with the action of lines and the repetition of shape or other rhythmic elements.
The shape of the mouth conveys the scream; the placement of the hands conveys the pain and grief the figure is feeling.


Objects appear to grow small as they recede into the distance by use of the parallel fence.
They converge on a common point, the vantage point. The two figures seem smaller, and the boat in the lake gives depth to the picture. The black print appears to symbolize pain, grief, death, etc.

Why I like this picture of art!
Munch's use of lines to convey a sense of pain and despair connects with every individual on this planet.
At some point, we can all connect with this piece of art.
It portrays depth in emotion, as well as loneliness in a massive world.
This has always been my favorite piece of art; it shows life as it really is. At some point, we all feel this pain!
The girl on the beach was another of Munch's artworks that depict darkness, loneliness, and despair.

2015 ~ Friday, May 15, Feeding birds not squirrels and raccoons!

Bought two new bird feeders and filled them fully and for several days the birds ate well. This morning I looked outside and both feeders were completely empty. I saw a frog in the swimming pool so I went to rescue it.
I found footprints all over the floor of the deck and a pile of pooh.
I guess the Raccoon has found the new feeders and he ate so much that he could not hold it.
Raccoons are worse than squirrels.

Before we removed the cover from our swimming pool, we had two squirrels chew a couple of small holes in the top of the swimming pool cover. After chewing the holes in the cover they would jump up and down making the water come through the wholes so they could get a drink.

All winter the water level was too low for them to do that but we had been filling the pool up with water getting ready to open the pool for the summer. 

We had already had problems with the raccoon he got under the belly of our RV. Hubby had left the propane tank cover off and the raccoon had crawled inside the belly of our RV. 

Well, Hubby fixed the problem with the raccoon and we thought he had gone until I bought the first bird feeder.
One night I looked out the window there was the raccoon standing on his hind legs eating the bird food.
I moved the feeder under the motion sensor light hoping that would scare the raccoon off.
Well, I had not seen the raccoon until last night when he left me proof of a pile of pooh and muddy footprints all over the deck floor. 

I love critters but I wish he would stay off my deck.
Last year we had to fish out a baby raccoon from our swimming pool.
I guess I will have to move the bird feeders off the deck.

I have a pair of red birds, a pair of bluebirds, a pair of finch and many other small birds I love to feed.

Raccoons and squirrels eat too much they can go through a bag of bird feed in just a few days. They need to get out and hunt for their food not be severed like a king and leave a present behind for me to clean up.

Caught the raccoon with his hands in the bird feeder 

Caught the raccoon with his hands in the bird feeder

2015~ Friday & Saturday, May 15-16, UNA Front Porch Storytelling Festival Florence, Alabama

Had a wonderful time at the UNA UNA Front Porch Storytelling Festival 

from 8:30 AM until 9PM last night.

Friday, May 15, 2015
9:00-9:25 AM Listen to Spencer Bohren sing and play Ring them bells
9:30-9:55 AM Listen to Rev Robert B. Jone talk about his grandmother.

Rev Robert B Jones

10:00-10:25 AM Listen to Bil Lepp talk about the toilet, the inflatable Santa and the Easter Bunny.
10:30-10:55 AM Listen to Donald Davis talk about his grade school teach Mrs. Ledbetter.

11:05-11:30 AM Listen to Kelvin Kling talk about his wife getting her foot caught in a fly trap.

11:35-12:00 PM Listen to Geraldine an English Vicar talk about her time in prison.

Geraldine Buckley

12:00-1:30 PM
Lunch
We ate at Einstein Bros Bagels

Einstein Bros Bagels UNA 

Einstein Bros Bagels UNA 

Where I ordered a Veggie bagel (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce) with cream cheese, chips, and coke

1:30-1:55 PM Listen to Donal Davis talk about His Thanksgiving Christmas Play and getting more exposure than he wanted.

2:00-2:25 PM Listen to Kelvin talk about Playing baseball.

2:30-2:55 PMListen to Bill Lepp talk about the real baby Jesus.

3:00-3:25 PM Listened to Spencer Bohren talk about his experience with the Hurricane in New Orleans.

3:35- 4:00PMListen to Geraldine Buckley talk about living in Spain with her parents and serving nuns liquor.

4:05-4:30 PM Listened to Rev Robert B. Jones singing and playing Amazing grace in many different ways.

4:25-5:00 PM Listen to Walt Aldridge sing and playing It's a long way to Richmond.
5:00-6:00 PM Dinner Break we rode to Subway for a sandwich, chips, drink

6:00-7:15 PM Dolores Hydock /PanHarmonium reading from a 12-year-old Sally Foster journal and up to her death at age 49.
Sally grew in Rogers Hall now part of UNA.

7:20-7:55 PM We had a recap of all the storytellers.

8:00-8:10 PM Six students were in a storyteller contest they had to tell a true story about DARE.

There were three students from the middle school and there were three from high school.
The first runner won $150, the second runner up won $250, and the winner won $500 from each category.

The first one winner from the middle school told about her trip to New York and a bomb threat.

The next winner told about the abuse of her boyfriend for over a year.

8:10-9:00 PM The show ended with three on a String a wonder, funny, talented group of men playing, singing and acting.

Three on a String

After over 12 hours of fun, I was ready to go home.

I will be back today for another day of fun.

Another day of pure fun!

Saturday, May 16, 20159-9:25 AM Listened to Spencer Bohren tell about his visit to East Germany to perform.

9:30-9:55 AM Listened to Rev Robert B Jones singing Dark was the night.

10-10:25 AM Listened to Bill Lepp talk about him and Skeeter making bottle rockets.

10:55-11:05 AM Listened to Donald Davis talk about his two-car family.
11:05-11:30AM Listened to Kelvin Kline talk about reaching for the stars.

Kelvin Kline

11:35-12 PM Listened to Gerldine Buckley talk about her secret hate with roach bugs.

Lunch from 12-1:30PM
We ate at A& W where I ordered a hamburger, fries and water.

A&W at UNA 

1:30-1:55 Listened to Donald Davis talk about his brother getting his arm broken twice.

Donald Davis

2:00-2:25 PM listened to Kevin Kling talk about tickle pink
2:30-2:55 PM listened to Bil Lepp talk about his WWII service.
3:00-3:25PM listened to Spencer Bohren sing and play Billy Joe who jumped off the Tallahassee bridge.

Spencer Bohren

3:35-4:00 listened to Geraldine Buckley talk about disbursing her daddy's ashes, the wind changing and how she was covered in her daddy ashes, went back to where she was staying, took a shower and watched her daddy wash down the drain.

4:05-4:30 listened to Rev Robert B Jones sing We shall over come someday.

4:35-5:00PM listed to Walt Aldridge talk about his great grandfather Richard Key and how Walt was 1/16 of a murder.

Walt Aldridge

6-7:15 Dolores Hydock became an old woman telling the love story of Eglamore and Cristobal. 

Delores Hydock

http://www.storypower.org/silenceonstage.html
7:30-8:05PM recap of all story tellers
8:05-9:00 Listening to three on a string doing songs, and skits.