Sheila's Coffee Cup

Years ago a friend gave Sheila this coffee cup with her name on it.

Then one day Sheila looked at the high shelf full of random coffee cups and decided it was time to let someone else enjoy some of the cups that we rarely, if ever, used. So she boxed up a bunch of them, including this one, and we hauled them to our favorite second hand shop. Hospitality House in Rome is a wonderful local charity that has done good work in our town for decades now. Their thrift store on Shorter Avenue is well organized, has good prices, is big enough to be interesting but not so large as to overwhelm, and supports a good cause. We go there several times a year. My Mother used to go almost every Thursday (Senior Day then).

It was only a few days or maybe weeks later that we visited my Mother and she proudly produced her latest thrift store find for her beloved daughter-in-law. Yep. Mother had bought the Sheila cup and was thrilled to give it (back) to Sheila. I never told Mother this story though I probably should have. I think she'd have gotten a kick out of it herself. 

One of the great blessings of my life is that my Mother and my wife loved each other and genuinely enjoyed each other's company.

Whatever happens to that cup physically, we can never completely lose it again; it is forever attached to a story.

Sheila and Mother share earbuds to listen while they watch a video of our grandkids.

My wife and my mother.

January 23

I knew that day, before we even started out from Wilmore, Kentucky, that I would take an unannounced side trip around Fort Mountain along the way to Atlanta. I wanted to ask a question. I wanted the right answer. I needed a little help and I thought the sound of Holly Creek splashing down the mountain, the smell of green pines, the majesty of the Cohutta...

Sheila and I parked on a dirt road and walked among the giant pines. She rested against one and I leaned in to kiss her, and asked my question.

She gave the right answer! Just one word expressed unreservedly, enthusiastically, beautifully.

.

That was 53 years ago today. I love her and admire her even more in 2024 than in 1971.

.

(We did not get a picture that day. This picture is about a year later.) 

Bedhead!

My sweet Sheila brought me a cup of coffee to the bedroom this morning and I rousted my sorry carcass from bed and joined her in the sitting area at the top of the stairs to sip coffee, text with my siblings, and peruse Facebook instead of getting ready for church as we should. We have not managed to change our sleeping patterns from our California visit yet.

Suddenly she rose from her chair grinning. She bent before me aiming her iPhone at my noggin and declared, "I've gotta get a picture of this!"

What more handsome bedhead have you ever seen? And Charity just sculpted my coiffure a few days ago.

I am an incredibly fortunate man to get to spend my retirement years with a thoughtful, beautiful, and fun-loving companion.

Sheila's Fans

 Sheila has sorta collected hand held fans since we have been hosting a party for Independence Day each year. Independence Day seems to almost always fall in July which is a hot month and hand held fans can be useful in moving the air a bit as well as shooing flies and mosquitoes. Over the 30 years since that first party in 1993 she has accumulated a pretty good basket full. Some have seen a lot of use. They represent lots of different parts of our lives over these three decades: a wedding, historical events, the olympics, businesses, politics, watermelon, theatre, school, healthcare, and more. This year they were left out and got wet from the rain. Since many were spread on a table to dry I decided to group them together for a picture.

Mother's Day 2023

Lillian and Jordan joined us for an evening at the Rome Little Theatre's production of Sister Act starring our friend Beth McCain last night... 

Lillian greets Beth out front are the show...

Sheila with Beth

It is fun to be Lillian Shaw's father when she visits RLT where she is beloved...

The blurred fellow in the background is Lillian's longtime friend Russell Evans , who nailed the role of the cop who falls for Delores/Sister Mary Clarence.

...and stayed over for Sunday morning with us. 

While Sheila and I were at church, Lil and Jordan concocted a delicious brunch of waffles with egg frittatas and fruit with a butter-cream sauce for the waffles. Yum!

Brannon and the Grandgirls FaceTimed with us in the afternoon to wish Sheila a Happy Mother's Day. I  have some screenshots from the FaceTime but they are on Sheila's iPad... watch for those pics. 

John McCutcheon at Eddie's Attic.

It was fun to treat Lillian and Jordan to supper and a John McCutcheon concert. Jordan was not familiar with John's music, and I think we've made a convert. He and Lillian had already picked up John's ancient LP The Wind That Shakes the Barley at an antique shop, adding to their growing vinyl collection. Lillian, being our daughter, has known John's music her whole life. Once about a decade or so ago she and Brannon accompanied Sheila and me to his concert in Rutherford, New Jersey where he shared a stage with two other favorites, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton. John and Tom are working on a joint album right now that should be out about Labor Day this year.

We got take-out from Siam Thai for dinner and took it with us to Eddie’s Attic.

Should have tried to get a picture of John with each instrument he played. That would have required more pictures.

He made plain with the first song -- an ancient folk song "The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird" -- that this would be a storytelling experience as well as a musical experience. As he sort of absently plucked the banjo between verses he talked of his grandson Willie, and the Voyager Golden Record, and Carl Sagan and more.

2. The second tune was his topical song about the attempted murder of 

Malala Yousafzai. 

3. Then a great old guy's song: "I'm Too Old To Die Young". The audience -- pretty long in the teeth themselves, were invited to sing along.

4. In the times of "The Troubles" about the Irish "Troubles"

5. John's song about his Cuban refugee father-in-law's first day at the Georgia steel mill and his first experience with segregated restrooms.

6. I Am Ukrainian Now. (Me too.)

He played guitar, banjo, piano, hammered dulcimer, and autoharp tonight. 

7. Hammered dulcimer: (instrumental)

8. Hammered Dulcimer: (Library Book / Silvertone guitar story) Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty (John's favorite Guthrie song) 

9. Nimrod Workman, coal miner, fought in the Battle of Blair Mountain -- learned this song from him. 

I have sorta known the union song, "Step by Step" for decades, I suppose. John invited us to sing-a-long on parts and I did BUT... I am ashamed to admit that I have never been sure of some of the words. I remember wondering at the words before. I sang the vowels but left some of the consonants sort of indeterminate in places. I pretty sure I've heard John sing this song several times, and I know I have heard Pete Seeger sing it. This time I consulted Mr. Google after the concert. What a wonderful song about cooperative striving for the common good. Here are the words which were adapted from the preamble to the 1870 constitution of the first US mineworkers union:

Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none, singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none, singly none

10. Hammered Dulcimer (imnstrumental)

11. With Kerry Newcomer "Camino De Santiago De Compostela"

Walking with ashes -- Our joys, our doubts, our trials. 

12. (request) "The Night John Print Died"

13. I'll Write You a Great Song When You're Dead

14. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- "She's got the hots for Putin."  Tom Paxton said he had to get in on this song so he wrote a verse. I hope the CDC comes up with a vaccine for Marjorie, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

15. (A palate cleanser) -- Krispy Kreme 

16. Christmas In the Trenches

17. The Great Storm is Over

18. Encore: (request) Leviathan (That Whale Song on the Dulcimer)

Eighteen numbers! An hour and a half. Fun!

We bought John's two latest albums: Bucket List and Leap. Here we got to pose with John for a picture afterwards as we have done now several times over the years.

Here are a few pictures from our history with John McCutcheon (and this is probably not half of them):

November 2011, Rutherford, NJ

In Knoxville, TN, December 2014

Red Clay Theater, Duluth GA, July 2016.

My 2018 birthday present from Sheila.

John's in here somewhere: 2019 The Craddock Center at Cherrylog, GA.

Pandemic concert in 2021-- virtually there.

Happy Birthday Vada!

 Our great niece Vada celebrates her eleventh birthday this week. Since we could not be there then we celebrated with a mini-party during our Thanksgiving visit to Tallahassee. Vada seemed genuinely pleased with everything about it. Here are a few pictures.

Sheila and I got Made a gift card and a couple of magazines- one of Christmas recipes for kids and the other about animals.

Lillian and Jordan got her a blanket and other goodies ...

from Buc-ees of all places.

Then we all headed off to The Fat Cat Cafe...

...whiuch is not actually a cafe...

...but rather a place for inter-species recreation...

...where humans and felines...

...can interact.

Lillian likes to provoke cats into mind boggling aerial displays.

The place is a non-profit which makes cats available for human adoption.

I was worried that Lillian might leave with several.

But who could choose?

Here is our entire party (L-R) Lillian, Sheila, Me, Nora, Vada, Jimmy, Sally, and Jordan.

Granny & GrandShaw Grand Adventure 2022 - 9/22

We parked at the library and took the Riverwalk toward the Town Green.

Once we arrived at the Town Green it wasn't long before the kids were in the water!

But there was always time for a snack break.

And everyone had to have sunscreen.

Clemmie and Ruthie played Queen of the Hill 

Then we noticed Ellen Axson Wilson standing there at her easel by the John Ross Bridge. We decided she needed some encouragement to finish her painting. We couldn't tell that she'd made any progress at all! So Clem went too have a talk with her.

And Ruthie followed.

They encouraged nicely, they cajoled, they scolded. To no avail. 

Over and over they ran to the bridge to talk with Ellen but she just wouldn't listen.

As far as we know that lazy woman is still standing there looking at her canvas, but making no more strokes with her brush.

Finally the girls gave up on her and had a seat on a swing with Granny.

A nice passerby agreed to let Grandshaw have a seat and took a picture of all five of us. (Brannon had left on an errand.)

By the time we got back to Avenue A we were ready to rest, but Suzie was still going strong.