Gleaning Facebook: City Clock from the Riverwalk

The Clocktower from the Levee behind our house...

 

Billie Baird Boyd, 1936-2020

Ralph and Billie on their wedding day.

We've lost another first cousin last week. Billie was the pretty daughter of my Uncle Grice, Mother's oldest brother. She was a little older than my eldest sister. She had two older brothers, Bobby and Benny, and one younger one, Wayne. 

This is the funeral home obituary:

Obituary

Billie J. Baird Boyd, 83, of Suwanee, GA formerly of Duluth, GA died May 28, 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the family will have a private cryptside service at Green Lawn Cemetery, Roswell, GA. Ms. Boyd, a native of Porterdale, GA was a retired crossing guard with the Gwinnett County Police Department with 30 years of service. Preceded in death by her husband, Ralph Lee Boyd, her son, Ralph Lee Boyd, Jr., she is survived by her, daughters nad sons-in-law, Debbie and Frank Amodeo of Marietta, GA, Dana and John Barr of Suwanee, GA; brothers and sister-in-law Benny Baird of Rome, GA, Wayne and Linda Baird of Marietta, GA; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Charles and Faye Boyd of Suwanee, GA; grandchildren, Shawn Boyd, Brian Boyd and his wife Amanda, Kyle Boyd, Francesca Amodeo, Anthony Amodeo, Aaron Shealy, John Barr, Kathryn Barr; great grandchildren, Katlyn Boyd, Haylee Mewborn, John Mewborn, Nathan Mewborn, Preston Boyd, Jaxon Boyd; several nieces and nephews. Condolences may be sent by visiting www.billheadfuneralhome.com. Arrangements by Bill Head Funeral Homes & Crematory, Duluth Chapel

Here is the Find-a-Grave online record:

Billie Joyce Baird Boyd 

BIRTH

25 Jul 1936

Porterdale, Newton County, Georgia, USA

DEATH

28 May 2020 (aged 83)

Suwanee, Gwinnett County, Georgia, USA

BURIAL

Green Lawn Cemetery

Roswell, Fulton County, Georgia, USA

---------

Here's an accounting of the children and grandchildren of Ieula Ann Dick (Baird) and Benjamin Wilson Baird.

Of course their Lola and Leon died as children and left no descendants. Mary never had any children.
The nine first cousins who have died include:
Grice's children
    Bobby Baird
    Billie Baird
Bill's child
    Don Baird
Vek's children
    Marion Loyd Savage
    Leon Loyd (Lloyd)
    Benny Loyd
Charlie's children
    Gail Baird Dorman
    Jerry Baird
Tom's child
    Jack Baird

My remaining 12 Baird first cousins are:
Grice's Children
    Benny Baird
    Wayne Baird
Sis's child
    Otis Lavay McCullough - Lavay is the oldest of all the cousins and is now 91. He lives in Alpharetta in an assisted living facility. He is as sharp as a tack and still spreading the Gospel wherever he can. Lavay is a not-very-retired Baptist pastor.
Jack's child
    Sandra Baird Caruso
Tom's child
    Jane Baird Lathem
Ruth's children
    Janice Shaw Crouse
    Joan Shaw Turrentine
    Terrell Shaw
    Carol Shaw Johnston
    Deborah Shaw Lewis
    Beth Shaw Roszel
    David Shaw

Gleaning Facebook: Youth Storytelling Concert

Since 2015 I have dreamed of getting an opportunity to show off our outstanding young storytellers on the national level. We had hoped that might happen at the 2020 National Storytelling Conference in Decatur Georgia, but then came Covid 19. BUT instead these great young tellers will participate in the first "Virtual" NSN Conference. I hope they will have lots of support from the Rome area folks who have helped us with the Debby Brown YoungTales Storytelling Clubs since 2015!

You can attend this event right in your living room or den anywhere on God's green Earth that has internet connections!

********************************

Direct link to the ticketing for this event ONLY.

Click on the link below (or copy and paste it into your browser) THEN scroll WAY down to

"YES Youth Spotlight Performance - $ 10.00"

Please remember

#1 these kids will really entertain you!

#2 the ten bucks goes toward the mission of the National Storytelling Network. It's the primary national organization of storytellers and does great work to promote the preservation of the art of oral storytelling.

https://storynet.org/virtual.../package-registration/

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Here's the poster for the event---

Tagging 46 supporters of YoungTales.... (I know I'm gonna kick myself for all the ones I've left out!)

Comments

Anne Wallace

i am so proud of our Georgia youth...all excellent storytellers who are keeping storytelling going into our future. Kudoohs go to them and their mentor storytelling teachers to include Esther, Terrell, Anne, Adra, Chetter and Karin Amino for arranging this for our youth. (And just a touch of family pride..that's my grandson in lower right corner of photo.)

Terrell Shaw

Direct link to the ticketing for this event ONLY. 

Scroll way down to "YES Youth Spotlight Performance - $ 10.00"

https://storynet.org/virtual.../package-registration/

Sherry Norfolk

I know they'll do you proud!

People Gotta Be Free

The news is so depressing...

• 100,000 people have died from Covid in America, most of them, ultimately, because of the mental illness of our president

• The President of the United States, successor of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Obama is tweeting vile lies daily.

• We see video of a privileged white woman weaponizing race.

• Another unarmed black man has died under the knee of a white police officer.

But we cannot allow that depression to stop us. We must end this horrible national nightmare.

When will the nightmare end?

When We the People end it.

Be INTENTIONAL about bridging idealogical, racial, religious, ethnic, cultural barriers. We don't have to agree but we do have to see, as best we can, others' points of view. We are a diverse republic. I can find some common ground even with conservative small-r republicans like Bill Kristol and Jennfer Rubin and Steve Schmidt and liberal small-r republicans like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich.

BUT ours IS a republic. If we can endorse the key second paragraph of the Declaration ...

(The Fifth Dimension's Declaration plus "People Gotta Be Free")

and that magnificent first sentence of the Constitution ---

-----------

We the People of the United States, in Order to...

• form a more perfect Union,

• establish Justice,

• insure domestic Tranquility,

• provide for the common defence,

• promote the general Welfare,

• and secure the Blessings of Liberty

to ourselves and our Posterity,

do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

-----------

... then, politically, I am your comrade in 2020 even if we have been opponents in the past and even if we will be opponents again in the future.

In 2020 all small-r-republicans must donate to and work for Democratic candidates whether they happen to be to your/my left or right.

We must fill Facebook and Twitter and Instagram with truth.

Vote, my friends, early, and then get at least ten other voters to the polls.

We must demolish and obliterate the stain of Trumpism.

We can resume our other battles later, but for now we must ...

Reclaim decency;

stop the chaos;

restore America.

Cruelly Treated

In my childhood my father told me about a horror he witnessed as a child. The story I remember is that my father saw a black kid murdered near Milstead, Georgia. The boy's offense? He was accused of stealing a watermelon from a field. 

My mother remembers the story differently. She remembers that Daddy said the kid was "treated cruelly" but I have believed since my childhood that he was murdered. Maybe Daddy censored what he told Mother, or maybe my childhood imagination exaggerated it, but that is my memory.

That story had a profound effect on me, as I think the experience had a profound effect on my Daddy. I did not know the word "lynch" at that point, but I knew the concept very early. 

In the last day or so a friend posted an antique postcard - A POSTCARD -- depicting a dozen corpses hanging by their necks from rough ropes. The card looks like a celebration of lynchings. Surely there is a special deluxe section of Hell awaiting those responsible for such atrocities AND those who chose to celebrate such depravity. I cannot bring myself to post such a hellish artifact on my blog. But...

In the 21st century the atrocities continue.

Michael Brown.
Trayvon Martin
The Bible Study group at Mother Emmanuel Church
and just this year, Ahmaud Arbery

and many more.

Racism is real. It infects everyone. Yes I said everyone, myself included. We must face up to the fact of the unfair racial attitudes that pervade our culture. I walk around mostly oblivious to the privilege I enjoy simply by virtue of skin color every minute of every day. That doesn't make me a bad person. That's human nature. We experience the world from our own point of view and must really work to understand the different realities that others face. No I'm not a bad person, but I owe it to myself and to those I love, and to the society of which I am part to recognize inequity and try to do my part to make things better.

-------------

I wrote the above 24 hours ago. And now we have the privileged young woman videotaped in New York blatantly using a man's skin-color as a weapon against him.

Then the terror of the nation witnessing the apparent murder of an unarmed black man by a stupid policeman for a charge of non-violent crime (I have relatives who have been/are principled officers of the law). He seemed to heartlessly, without any apparent emotion, strangle the helpless, handcuffed man with his knee.

So we add the name George Floyd to the list of unarmed black persons who have died for no good reason.

When will these atrocities end?

Perhaps things will get better when we know each other and learn to recognize the humanity of those who look different, or worship differently, or speak with a different accent. Perhaps we should be INTENTIONAL about knowing each other, about learning to see from others' points of view. And maybe we should restore moral leadership to our executive branch and our senate.

I ache for my black friends tonight, who have been reminded AGAIN that some of their fellow Americans do not see them as part of the "all men" of the Declaration or part of "We the People" of the Preamble. I ache for my country so in need of inspiration and leadership.

Gleaning Facebook: 100,000 Deaths

I fought George W. Bush tooth and nail. He and I are on different ends of mainstream American thought. 

BUT I never doubted he (or his Dad or BO, or Clinton, or Reagan, or Carter or Ford or, - even - Nixon) loves America. I would, given the power, replace the sick narcissist in the current White House with Bush43 at a moment's notice.

It is just unimaginable that ANY other US president would have been so incompetent, insecure, ignorant, self-centered as to allow America to suffer the worst outcomes of any advanced nation in this pandemic. We learned of Covid at the same time the South Koreans did. We had much more time to prepare than many countries that have done better. 100,000 deaths, nearing two million cases. I have friends who have lost their kin. I have acqaintances who have suffered debilitating bouts of it.

Donald John Trump's record on this is shameful, bordering on criminal. There were safeguards set up. He had lots of warning. He refused to listen to scientists. He refuses still.

Gleaning Facebook: Young Bards

Juliana Washington won the 2017 Debby Brown YoungTales Storytelling Competion. She will be a featured teller in the National Storytelling Network's pre-Conference Youth Spotlight Performance, Saturday May 30, 2020 at 5 p.m.
Tickets are available at www.storynet.com.

Sara Grace Abernathy won the 2018 Debby Brown YoungTales Storytelling Competion. She will be a featured teller in the National Storytelling Network's pre-Conference Youth Spotlight Performance, Saturday May 30, 2020 at 5 p.m.
Tickets are available at www.storynet.com

 

Gleaning Facebook: Mother & Starbucks

From Carol Johnston's Facebook: 

I brought my espresso machine to my mother’s and made vanilla lattes for us this morning. They were very good! I might make caramel macchiatos later.

Lori Grasso

Yummy!! We’ve been prayerfully mindful of your Mom and of your traveling to see her .God’s blessings to you both. 

Carol Shaw Johnston

Lori Grasso thank you for your prayers, Lori. Mother gave us a scare on Friday - but is doing so much better now. Only one night in the hospital. 

Lucy Gibson
Didn't know about you Mom until I read this! Love and prayers coming from us

Nancy Estes
Sounds great. How sweet.

Lynne Kelly Loveless
Enjoy your visit. Tell your Mother hello from the Kellys

Cathy Smallwood
Yummy!!!!

David WN
Looks really good. I have a French press and a mini-whisk (electric, $1 at my fav "fell off the back of a truck" store *heh*) that I use with heavy cream and either ground cinnamon or vanilla extract when I want a flavored coffee. Froths up nicely. I do it this way cos I'm too cheap to spend $$ on an espresso machine. *heh*

Jill Baird McCart
Glad to hear that Aunt Ruth is feeling better! Expresso looks yummy!

Susan S. Carter
I know y’all are having a great time!

From Janice Crouse's Facebook:

See what I mean about Carol! She is amazing.

Of course, so are Terrell Shaw, Deborah Shaw Lewis and Joan Shaw Turrentine who do the everyday work necessary to enable mother to live in her home — they are the ones who visit EVERY SINGLE DAY to provide interaction, conversation, love and relationship! Plus, they take care of hundreds of big and small issues (take trash to curb, pick up rx, fill pill boxes, take mother to shop, pick up grocery necessities, etc, etc, etc).

Because we lived nearby and she later lived with us, Gil and I did that for his mother but because we live a full-day’s-drive away, we are unable to do that for mother. I am so very grateful to my wonderful siblings who lovingly enable mother’s independence!

Sheila McCloud Ervin

Can she take care of me when I get older and need help???

Janice Shaw Crouse

Sorry. I already have dibs! 

She has breakfast on the table for mother. She cooks meals in duplicate so she can leave individual servings in freezer for mother to enjoy home cooking anytime! 

Sheila McCloud Ervin, Mother, who never drank much besides water and iced tea, now asks with a twinkle in her eye when Carol is not there, “Where’s my Starbucks?” We don’t dare tell her how much Starbucks costs! She is so frugal, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy it!!

Sandra Caruso

I totally understand ! My morning coffee is sacred because without it I cannot function !! 

Gleaning Facebook: The Boat Parade and The Chamber

(Where did the picture go?)

With my brother David about 1992. Laurie Craw do you recognize my t-shirt? And this was during the time that I was active in the Chamber of Commerce... hence the hat. The CofC and I parted ways for a couple of decades a few years later.

Howard Smith I like that Chamber hat! It brings back some memories. I remember when we passed them out to members.

Michael J. Burton Great memories

Kyle Doegg I have that hat and still wear it!

----------------

(Where did the picture go?)

With my bride.. note the Coosa River Christmas sweatshirt. I miss that event. It was an annual decorated and lighted boat parade during the Christmas season on the Oostanaula River that lasted five years or so. I think a series of weather problems on the parade date did it in.

Howard Smith
I remember the parade!

Lydia Simpson
That parade is one of my favorite childhood memories. Such a shame they stopped doing it!

Leigh Whittenburg Callan
I miss that parade. It was such a special event for the season. I think the unpredictability of river levels made it hard to plan and execute safely at night. I wish it could be tried again.

John Paul Schulz
You sure got the pretty girl

Terrell Shaw
John Paul Schulz You and I both married up.

Jim Howell
I was manger of Landing Restaurant during that period. I sponsored and decorated a Christmas Boat. Would love to see it start back up.

Trinity: Griffith Window

The Griffith window is in the front entrance to the church beneath the bell tower. These windows were part of a fairly major renovation in the 1970s I think. They replaced much simpler geometric stained glass designs.

Does anyone know the name or significance of this cross design? 

Sheila and I have been ringing the bell at Trinity every Saturday morning and evening at 7:14. We are supposed to ring it seven times, pause, then ring it an additional 14 times. This is to commeorate Second Chronicles 7:14
___
2 Chronicles 7:14 King James Version (KJV)

14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
___
These visits to an empty church building have given me an opportunity to ponder the saints of old whose names have been engraved during the last 134 years. 

I think Mr. Griffith had died by the time our family came to Rome in 1962. I remember Mrs. Griffith a little. I think she died during the first year or so that we were here. This plaque goes with the window in the front entrance to the church beneath the bell tower.

What do you remember about Mr. & Mrs. Griffith?

Comments:

Terrell Shaw

Here's Thom Holt's memory of Mrs. Griffith:

"As a 5-year-old I sat with Mrs Griffith. She always had something to keep me quiet. She kept me so my mother could sing in the choir. She lived on Avenue A past your house [728] on the left.
She had a daughter that lived with her. 
When she got in bad health Mom would go see her after church and tell her the sermon -- with me in tow as a 12- or 13-year-old “

Michelle Williamson Wilson
Terrell is there any information on our bell? Where it came from? How much it weighs?

Terrell Shaw

I don't. Michelle.

Our River Basin

From the Los Angeles Times (Click on a picture to read the full article)

Op-Ed: One of America’s great wildernesses is being destroyed, bit by bit, in a silent massacre

Hidden away in the heart of the Deep South, one of the nation’s greatest wildernesses is being destroyed, bit by bit, in a silent massacre.

You won’t find people chaining themselves to trees to protect this place, or national environmental groups using pictures of it to sign up new members, because few know it exists. And yet, here it is — the Mobile River Basin, one of the richest in the world in terms of the sheer number of species and types of habitat. The major rivers and thousands of creeks feeding into this basin together form the largest inland delta system in the United States, second only to the Mississippi in how much water it dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.

The river system, the fourth-largest in the country in terms of water flow, stretches from the northern edge of Alabama to the Gulf, draining parts of four states, and encompassing hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, from Appalachian hardwood stands to haunted cypress swamps. A dedicated band of locals know it for the incredible hunting and fishing it affords. But few know it for its greatest distinction. That’s a shame, for this is America’s Amazon, far and away the most biodiverse river network in North America... (Click on a picture to read the est of the article.)