Happy birthday, Sheila!

A selfie at the fairgrounds

Tomorrow is Sheila's birthday, so our youngest organized a fun day for her today to celebrate. We met about halfway between Decatur and Rome at a "tasting" festival at the Cobb County fairgrounds in Marietta. We walked around and tried food from several vendors somehow ending up with several Caribean dishes including a jerk chicken & rice plate, jerk chicken tacos, fried plantains, and chicken-stuffed arepas.

Then we headed to an interesting game shop. About half of the shop is lined with tables and chairs where patrons are welcomed to bring their own board games. Lillian and Jordan have a new game they wanted to teach us, Dice Forge. We had a ball with this complicated strategy game that involved dice with interchangeable faces and a variety of cards, tokens, markers, etc. It is a wonderfully designed game which keeps all players involved through each of their fellow players' turns. Jordan won; Lillian was close behind; Sheila came next; and, yes, I was dead last. But I had a great time.

Playing Dice Forge

From there we drove to the quaint downtown of Kennesaw to the Frozen Cow Creamery. Despite having to wait in a long line on this hot July day, what a treat! Sheila and I each had a big cup of "Turtle" - coffee ice cream with fudge, caramel, and pecans! The ingredients are mixed in front of you in liquid cream in a stainless steel bowl then flash frozen by super cold clouds of nitrogen.

There was a long line a Frozen Cow Creamery.

There is no way this beautiful woman is a septuagenarian!

The crew of young folks freezing and mixing the ice cream were hard a work for the whole time. 

First they mix the ingredients in a stainless steel bowl...

...then they flash freeze the cream mixture with a blast of super cold nitrogen.

The result was delicious.

Many to the homes in this area of Kennesaw have been remodeled into businesses: the ice cream shop, coffee shops, restaurants, etc. 

The Frozen Cow Creamery is in an old home.

A neighboring old home is a coffee shop.

The Nest barbecue restaurant is located in two remodeled old homes joined by a single shared long porch and a large covered patio between the two.

A old former church building has been converted to an event space. It would make a great storytelling venue! 

This picture shows the proximity of the Creamery to the church.

During our walk we found a painted rock on a public bench. We photographed ourselves with the rock to share on "Kennesaw Rocks" ... 

...then relocated the rock to a branch of a nearby tree.

After a thirty minute walk'n'talk around the neighborhood we said our goodbyes and headed home in opposite directions. A great day.

Joan Ledbetter & Peaches

 We have so enjoyed our neighbors Joan and Terry Ledbetter. We lost Terry a couple of years ago now. And soon Joan will move to Florida to take a new job as a professor at a college near Tampa. Joan has been an active member of the Kiwanis Club and for several years now we have looked forward to our annual box of peaches - a great way for us to support the programs of that civic club AND pig out on one of our favorite fruits. 

Here's this year's box of peaches.

Joan, who will bring us our peaches in 2023?!!!

To Cedartown and Cave Spring with Tess & Ali

We are blessed at Arrowhead to have the assistance of two wonderful Berry College Bonner Scholars, Ali and Tess. Today I got to spend a couple of hours with them on a ride to Cedartown and Cave Spring and back. Since neither had visited those places before we took a short break to visit the cave and spring at Cave Spring. Back at Arrowhead we met up with Vivian and got a picture of our entire "staff". 

Tess & Ali

Tess, Ali, Terrell, & Vivian

Painting the Tiger

Whatever their failures educationally and financially for the people at large, so-called "charter schools" have certainly been rewarding to the campaign coffers of Republican politicians. Denis Smith writes here about one charter school company that operated in Ohio.

Privatization of public services is a bad idea. We the People must have real control over public services like public education through our elected public servants. Yes, voters sometimes need to clean house, but our franchise gives us that power IF we will use it.

I watched, up close and personal, how a private company cut corners and put profits above its stated mission when I worked very briefly for a "privatized" social agency back in the nineties. I am all for reasonably regulated capitalism in the economy -- manufacturing and private services, certainly -- but the profit motive is destructive of the public good in education, healthcare, and other truly public services.

Old Leaves: Upstream

I think of this story every time  I drive past our wonderful firemen's memorial behind the city auditorium.

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7-6-2018

I have enjoyed walking Rome's wonderful Riverwalk since before it had that name. Back in1991 as I walked the paved walking trail that traces the old River Road along the Oostanaula from downtown Rome to Riverside, something I had not noticed before caught my eye. There, embedded in the sandy silt and brambles between the walkway and the river were some large engraved building stones. They were hidden in vegetation near the new landing created for the Roman Holiday pontoon boat at Ridge Ferry Park. I crawled all around them trying to figure out what the inscriptions were as I dodged the stinging nettle plants that surrounded them.

The first stone was a large keystone engraved "No.2" over "AIN" and a second stone had "CITY" carved on one surface. I could see no engravings on the other stones. They had to have come from some important building. Maybe I could find a picture in Battey's history, or the Illustarted History of Rome, or the Roger Aycock book.

I couldn't wait to get home to check. I was surprised to find a picture of the stones quickly, right there in an engraving pictured on a postcard Dr. C.J. Wyatt had loaned me for publication in the Northwest Georgia Genealogical & Historical Quarterly.   It was tiny but readable on the front of the handsome "new" City Hall building on Fourth Avenue between Broad Street and the river: "No.2 Mountain City." It was also visible on page 51 of the illustrated history. It turns out the Mountain City volunteer fire company was headquartered in City Hall. The older Rainbow fire company (No. 1) had its HQ farther up Broad Street.

I contacted Jim Dixon, our assistant city manager at that time and he was thrilled to know they were there. He suggested they could be used in a display there at Ridge Ferry Park, or perhaps elsewhere. Somehow the Rome News found out and I took photographer Paul O'Mara out to see them and talked with David Monroe about finding them. That resulted in the photo and story in the Rome News that accompanies this post.  Sheila found the clipping while going through a box of odds and ends this week. 

These clippings are from the June 23, 1991, Rome News-Tribune.

Later, while I was editor of the Northwest Georgia Historical and Genealogical Society Quarterly, I wrote about the find and published some pictures in that publication.

I continued to check on the stones regularly as we walked the trail. One day, a dozen years later or more,  I noticed sone brightly colored tags attached to them. Soon another article appeared in the Rome News of the stones "discovery".  I suppose Jim had retired by that time and folks had forgotten about the stones again. This time around the stones were actually extracted from the silt by the city workers. I called the city and found that they had been transferred for safe keeping to the city public works facility on North Avenue near the present Animal Control center. I drove over to the lot to see them. Plans had begun for a tribute monument to Rome firefighters and this would be a natural exhibit to include there.

Now, after three decades, it looks like the stones will finally be displayed as part of that new fire fighters memorial being built behind the city auditorium. I think that is wonderful. Here's the most recent story and pictures from the Rome News:

New Firefighter Memorial

And just for the record, I didn't really think the stones floated to Ridge Ferry Park. Everyone knows: that's upstream!

Update: The stones were erected yesterday! Yay!

Rome News July 23, 2018

Independece Day at the Levee, 2022

Our 2022 Independence Day party was a lot of fun. Thank you to our friends who showed up with delicious side dishes to go with the BBQ. We really enjoyed having you here.

Robert Bloodworth, our barbecue master.

Nolen is Bo & Qillian's great-grand. Here he tries out the Rocking Dog that my Daddy built in 1986.

Ann and Sam

Julie with Jessica & Myles

Mary, James, Virginia, and Don... RLT friends.

Jordan, JoAnn, and Tom.

Sandra and Hannah

Mike and Lynn

Bo and Alex

Ruth, Leigh, Linda & Tom

No one had more fun than Nolen. Christine tended the swing for him.

I imagine Cody and Miles visited our yard for the Independence Day BBQ
& fireworks every year of their lives. 

Cliff

Picture by Mary Asbury

Tom and Cindy posed at the arch and the pic turned out great...

...somehow our shot came our sort of blurry.

Picture by Mary Asbury

The backyard from the levee after the guests had left.

Happy Independence Day, Mr. President

[Copied from FaceBook]

President Joe Biden was inaugurated 17 months ago. There was no civil transition of power. His predecessor didn't even attend the inauguration. What he inherited was a complete debacle created by a man that was an incompetent buffoon who immediately took all of the credit for the successes of his predecessor whom he had labeled "a complete disaster".

The right embraced Mr. Biden's predecessor along with all of his lies and claims of how he alone had created a robust economy and America's strong standing and respect around the world, pretty much overnight.

They embraced his foul language, his mendacity, his vulgar attacks on anyone who dared to disagree with him, his finger pointing and his excuses, when things didn't work out.

Today, President Joe Biden is working hard to clean up the mess he has inherited. He isn't pointing fingers, making excuses, whining about how badly he is being treated or hurling insults. He is methodically working to fix our problems. He is quietly overcoming the obstacles in his path. He is ignoring the insults, the disrespect, the name calling and the bullying. He is rising above it all to get his work done.

Against formidable opposition at every turn, he is achieving his goals. He is a good man. He is my president and I support him in his endeavors. You can tell a great deal about the worth of a man by how he is perceived by his dog!

Happy independence day Mr. President! NOTHING happens overnight.