Memory Lane Monday~

Here is this week's entry from my dad's journal that I'm including on our blog for our kiddies to have someday~

Well, yes, we have moved again and this time from Doraville to Stone Mountain. A new beginning for Grandma and Graddaddy and another school for us to get new friends, make new enemies (always happens and though I want to shun those memories away, they are still here, just suppressed with more good memories than bad), and get used to a new school layout. The new house is the most new we have ever lived in. Paula still got her own room, Tony, Al and myself got another and that was that. I was in the fifth grade here to start, just 11 years old and big for my age. Dad taught me to cut the grass and that was a help for him around the house. We had long since started chores and though allowance was 50 cents a week, I found ways to make monies.

I started cutting neighbors' lawns for them. Most of the yards were flat, used their mowers and gas, but there were no string trimmers. I used a pair of hand snips to go around the mailbox and areas where the mower would not get. We had a group of kids in the neighborhood who liked to play all the time. Hide and seek at night, "woofle"

{wiffle} ball was tops and I was good at it.

This is where they penned the name Webster on me for good for reading the dictionary all the time and reading other books. I loved books. Sports, history and science fiction all helped me to escape from the reality of a disappointing home life with money issues. Mom and dad still did not go to church though I visited a couple in the area with some friends, including Stone Mountain Methodist where a girlfriend of mine went. I got to go to Six Flags with her and her youth group when I was 12 and it was a great day. No brother or sister to mar up the day with their own agenda. Tony was so much smaller than me, whenever we went out, mom would always make me watch over him. Some days it was fine, others he caused me headaches. Tony liked to fight and it did not matter how big the other guy was, he always knew I was near.

This is the downtown of stone Mountain, complete with hardware, drug store with fountain and what was called a dry goods store. I loved to just go there and walk through the stores. The fountain had the best strawberry ice cream cones and chocolate sundaes ever made.

The mountain was exactly one mile from home or about 5 minutes on bikes. Me, Tony of course and several friends would meet at the mountain and play army, cowboys and Indians or just hang out. This was long before they put a fence around it and started making you pay to enter. I bet I have climbed this mountain 500 times in my life. 75 of which was one summer when I was 32 and did it almost every day as a means of losing some weight.

The Ku Klux Klan still met in the area and in a field not far from our home. We could hear them when they did meet. The music and speeches, hatred of blacks/ foreigners/"gays" and all were loud. Several times, me and a couple of friends would go over and sit in the woods nearby where we could see and hear it all. They had a shed in the field where we broke into one day and it was full of army stuff. We helped ourselves to machetes with sheaths and belts, army helmets, hand held axes and some small shovels. It wasn't being used by them, and we were just kids, so what was going to happen? Seems the mayo was chief klansman and carried a lot of weight in the area.

Dad had found some new work we still bowled on Saturday mornings in a league but at Belvedere Plaza, not Tucker. Christmas was as usual wit a live tree, minimal gifts, stockings and a time to drive around and look at lights. We still went to the drive in as often as possible.

Memory Lane Monday~

So I can't wait to tell you all how our first day of 2nd and 5th grade went! But that will have to wait until tomorrow...because today is Memory Lane Monday {continued from 8.9.10}~

Chestnut Drive Church of Christ was where I went to my first Vacation Bible School. It was a blast, and only a few blocks from home. We rode our bikes over and to this day, I remember some of the things we did there.

This is where we were living when John F. Kennedy was shot. I can still remember the day. They let us out of school and cancelled classes the next day too.

We went on several picnics while dad was plant manager. But he got fired for firing one of the owner's queer lovers. Yes, we were not so politically correct then and they were "queer", not gays.{You have to remember this is my dad's journal and I'm typing pretty much verbatim what he has written. Sometimes I don't agree with the way he states things...but he's my dad and this is what he wrote. Right, wrong or indifferent...and I want to be true to that.}

Below is a picture of the old "Zayers" store, kind of like an earlier version of Wal-Mart. Anyway, when the Beatles came out they had long hair and wore shoes that came to be known as "Beatle Boots"; low top boots that had a good heel and zipped up on the inside. Well, when my birthday came around that is what I wanted and mom and dad took me to Zayers. I slipped a pair on that were a knock off and did not have the zipper. Which was okay with me until we tried to take them off. Seems that there was a nail in the sole that was angled toward the toes and I did not feel it there until we tried to remove the boot and pay for it.

Well, needless to say, when I went to pull off the boot, the nail went into the bottom of my foot, dead center and I screamed. Mom and dad were close by and they tried [to no avail] to get my foot out. Dad had a bad temper and went to get a sales person who soon called the store manager and we had ourselves a big discussion about how to remove the boot. When the manager took it upon himself to try and yank the boot off, the nail went in deeper and I thought dad was gonna kill him. He went over to the hardware department, opened up a pair of Swiss tin snips,came back and proceeded to cut the boot off of my foot. When the manager indicated we'd have to pay for the damaged shoe, you should have seen dad's face. He was so close to the manager's nose I thought he was going to bite it off!

We did not pay for the cut up boot. Nor did we pay for a brand new pair or a pair of new socks and in the confusion, dad put the Swiss snips in his pocket and we got those too. I don't recall ever going back to that store again until I went by this week to take a picture.

Well, there you have it. Another peek into my dad's life. It's not always pretty, is it? But honest and at times, a bit funny after the fact. He sure has come a long way. Just like all of us have. But so much of these memories are bound in prejudice and un-Christlike attitudes. God really has done a work in his life. But hopefully, that can be said of all of us. Not just my dad. And I just have to say...it makes me smile to know that he took this picture of the old Zayers store...from the comfort of his truck. Check out the hood in the bottom of the shot. There's a deserted parking lot there where he could have stepped out and then got back in lickity split. Still, he just parked. Turned the camera on. Took the shot. And drove off. Just like that. Hysterical if you ask me.

Please pray for Joel & here's another Memory Lane Monday~

So it's Monday and finally, Joel's surgery is scheduled to happen this afternoon. It has been such a long ordeal. So many times, I've wondered if we are doing something wrong by moving forward with this. His surgery was cancelled by anesthesia in June. Given his gastrointestinal history {premature birth with necrotizing enterocolitis and bowel perforation as an infant resulting in multiple abdominal surgeries and a colostomy}, and the fact that he had blood present in his stool the night before surgery in June, they felt it best to do some tests and reschedule. It's been such a difficult thing. No one wants to take responsibility for this...his pediatrician ordered the tests but then initially refused to clear him for surgery even after they came back clear as a bell. Anesthesia wouldn't approve the surgery until another doctor would...again, even though his tests were perfect. The surgeon felt the blood was a "non event" or strictly isolated. But still, we were made to visit a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. He was a God send though. Loved him. And really, am relieved to have one for the future if needed. His words to me were, "This is crazy. Blood in his stool? One time? And they cancelled his surgery for it? This is crazy." So he was really nice about all we've been through trying to get this surgery done. And he cleared him on the spot.

But you know me. I start to wonder and worry that we are doing something wrong. That maybe we are facing headwind because this isn't God's plan for us. But then I have to remember that God's people walk by faith and not by sight. And that as we pray and trust Him to lead us, He will do so within His will for us. He will keep us as He wants us to be...and so we rest in that.

Please pray for Joel and for us. He is supposed to not run, play, jump, etc for 9-12 days postoperatively. Huh? So, this will be a challenge. But I can deal with all of that. It's just giving my baby over to strangers to put him to sleep, manage his breathing, and operate on his body! Once that's over and done with, I think I will manage! So we ask for and appreciate your prayers today and throughout the coming days. I will update here asap and will do so as things happen via Facebook.

And now, Memory Lane Monday:

This is the 5th entry from my dad's photo journal~

In the summer of 1960, we moved to 3770 Larkspur Terrace near Glenwood Road. I started school at Peachcrest Elementary. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Sigenthaller. Her son is a big time newscaster with ABC today in New York. We lived here two years and watched Towers High School get built.

My girlfriend in the first grade was Deborah Sims who would later marry my cousin Tommy Willingham. I was the fastest runner in the first grade. We had presidential relays and tests in competition for various areas to try to get kids in better shape physically. These were some good days.

It was during this time in my life that I had the best time with our cousins, especially the ones in Statesboro where Nana and Papa {my mother's parents} lived. Mama's real mother died when she was a little girl and Papa remarried less than a year later being as how he had 6 kids and all. This was the first house where we had an outdoor pool, which had no filter and went green many times a summer. Dad never got the hang of chlorine and such. One time we had about 100 tadpoles growing in the pool which we had drained down to just a couple of inches of water. Really stunk bad!!! Al was born while we were here and we needed a bigger place, so we moved. Again.

By the way, 3770 was our house number here and also later at Rockbridge Road. This is a picture of the fence that circled the house. It had, still does, barbed tops and one day I dared Tony to hit Paula with a toy hoe. He chased her around the house and yard where she tried to jump the fence. The barb got her leg where she needed 4 stitches. But the big trouble came when he hit her on the head where she needed another 3-4 in her scalp. I got in trouble for daring him, but Tony got the brunt of the belt.

A man came along one day with a pony, a Shetland pony, and we got dressed up in our cowboy outfits and sat on the pony and had our pictures made. Mom still has this picture today.

We walked to school, one and a half miles. I clocked it when I made the pics for this book. Seemed like 3-4 back then but, it was a different time then, and kids weren't snatched away like they are today. One of the best highlights of our days at Larkspur, was going to the Glenwood drive-in which was just down the street. We saw every Tarzan, Flipper, and Elvis movie that came out. I was a good time. There were swing sets, huge ones and round about merry go rounds that you pushed, not electrical, with many monkey bars. Mom would pop corn, bring burgers and cokes and we would sit on the roof of the car, in front of the car or watch the movie from the playground area. I saw "The Ten Commandments" here.

Glen Haven Baptist Church was just around the corner and though we did not go regularly, we did go some. My mom and dad were married by Brother Randy Hardeman at that church and this is where your father and mother met first.

The picture below is an area at the end of the street where your uncle Tony set fire to the woods, ran home to tell me he couldn't keep it from spreading and I called the fire department. He got a major spanking for this.

Memory Lane Monday~

This is the third excerpt from my dad's photo journal that chronicles many of his childhood memories. This one is short and has a tad of humor along with some sad at the end. But again, this is his story.

When I turned 5, Paula came home and told mom that i could go to school with her the next day. So mom packed me a lunch and took me to school with Paula. Mom hadn't been home for 30 minutes (after going to town for a few things) when she got a call from the school asking her why I was at school. Seems that Paula took me to school as her "show and tell" buddy. I did not get to stay long and I cried, but mom came and got me.

We had some good neighbors, the Osbournes, who lived two houses up. They were good friends with mom and dad. The four of them bowled at Medlock Bowling Center (pic shows Medlock Plaza) and it was here I first bowled. We got to shadow bowl every week after their league was finished (this is bowling without pins.)

The Osbournes had two sons, Marshall and Ronald. Ronald went to Cuba after graduation from high school, on the invitation from Castro. He was a great cartoonist and wrote for a newspaper sold to the Hippies culture called the Great Speckled Bird. He did lots of drugs and was killed.

Marshall lives today in Marietta.