Cruel and Horrible deaths

Wilson Family Cemetery

Matthew Harvey Wilson son of M & E Wilson born Liberty VA March 2, 1816
While nursing his sick uncle J.S Wilson. They were cruelly torched and murdered. 

John S Wilson 

In Memory of John S Wilson born near Fincastle VA, December 3, 1789

Sabbath night April 30, 1865, while sick and nursed by his nephew M.H. Wilson

They were cruelly tortured and murdered by robbers.

From W. C. Handy’s 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues, chapter one, pp. 3-4.

Contrast these characters with that of my maternal grandfather, Christopher Brewer. When his master, John Wilson, had given my Grandfather Brewer his freedom, he preferred to stay near Mr. Wilson as his trusted servant. At one time, near the close of the Civil War, guerilla warfare was common in this locality. Three robbers were eventually hanged five miles out of Florence. These thieves had undertaken to rob John Wilson. They stripped him and tortured him to death by burning paper and searing his body to make him tell where his money was hidden. He refused. My Grandpa Brewer likewise knew. They shot him to make him tell. He also refused. But when his wounds had sufficiently healed he went to Nashville and brought his young master, Coonie Foster, back home and disclosed to him the hiding place of the money.

Note: This incident occurred in Nov. of 1865. According to Wade Pruitt’s Bugger Saga, Tom and Dennis Clark, Elias Thrasher, John Campbell, Charles Oliver, and Albertie Gallion. were the alleged perpetrators of this crime.

From W. C. Handy’s 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues, chapter twenty-two, p. 291:

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! 

Unofficially, at least, 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 block to where my friend lived.
We had walked to this address many times, my Brave Little Taylor remembered the way.

When my Brave Little Taylor was ten months old we moved to Killen, into a three-room house that had no indoor plumbing.
There was an outhouse, that was within walking distance, we had to walk through tall grass to get to.
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 we used during the cold months and a window fan we use in the summer months.
We only lived at that location a little over 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 teeth 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 the car, I jumped the fence, grabbed the handle of the car, jumped inside the car 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 which had been taken from off the column and moved to the floor, my brave Little Taylor was playing in the floorboard of the car he had bumped the floor gear shift, he knocked it out of gear and it started rolling down the hill.

We bought a long wire cage, with wooden legs, that had a tin roof for the black rabbit that 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, I guess he was ok because I never saw him again after that.

The three-room house was build on hubby's great grandfather's old home place.
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 taken care of by a woman named Martha.
In 1935 Sally, died and her husband Charley married the woman that had been carry for her and they lived together until his death in 1941.
After his death, Martha sold the land, from what I remember hearing she was taken advantage by a local lawyer and the land actioned 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 a little over a year after we moved out.

We moved about half a mile from our present home to the new brick, three bedrooms, with indoor plumbing.
Our new home was built by hubby's Uncle Doc.
About a year later Doc was killed, when a very large 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 truck lodged into Doc's stomach, he was killed instantly.

The land where we built our new home was once a pigpen, which made the land very fertile and 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 that was drilled over ninety feet deep until it hit a rock.
our pump was placed under our brick home which later we would share with family.

Hubby'sgrandmother 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-law's house to washcloths on her
 wringer washing machine.
I did not have a dryer so I had to hang my clothes on a close line, 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-grandfathers 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 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 where now is Hampton Inn when I had my first labor pain.

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

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

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

We slept on the fold-out sofa, the living room and kitchen have connected 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, 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 11AM.

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 car, my sister was visiting with us, she was sitting in the middle of the car seat between me and my husband. 

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 the 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 Mae 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 out running to greet my son as he drove into his driveway.

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

My father-in-law died on April 2005 and his wife lived several years in their home alone.

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

1992 ~ Edvard Munch The Scream Art

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

Munch used closed-form and gives the viewer the feeling that the figure doesn't want any connections with the outside world.
In the content of the isolated central figure that viewers may see themselves alone, in-depth, the emotional grief, the loneliness, the 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 gives stability yet gives 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 repletion of continuous lines seems to give the feeling of the world closing in on the subject. He also uses implied lines that suggest movement by its form and by relation to the other lines.

Implied motion is linked with the action of lines and the repletion of shape or other rhythmic elements.
The shape of the mouth implies the scream, the placement of the hands implies 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 appear to converge toward a common point, which is the vantage point. The two figures seem smaller and the boat in the lake gives depth to the picture. The print in black seems to symbolize pain, grief, death, etc.

Why I like this picture of art!
Munch use of lines to give a feeling of pain, despair, and it connects with every individual on this planet.
At some point in time was can we can all connect with this piece of art.
It portrays depth in emotion also loneliness in a very big world.
This has always been my favorite piece of art, it shows life as it really is. At some point in time, we all feel this pain!
The girl on the beach was another of Munch art pieces that show 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