Gleaning Facebook: A Tough Week

Headed off to the fourth funeral I've attended in a week.  

Last Wednesday my first cousin Benny Loyd's service, then theater/Democratic friend Mary Doster's on Saturday -- I wrote about these two folks previously.

The funeral for our church friend Lana Poss' was this morning, and this afternoon, the service for my neighbor of 26 years, Katherine Gordon, who was also the mother of Justin, a student in my very first class at McHenry in 1971.

I have never regretted attending a wake, a visitation, or a funeral. There have been several times I regretted NOT attending. Twice I had to miss funerals, of folks very important to me, because I had major roles in shows that could not have gone on without me. But I still feel lousy for missing them. 

Each of these four occasions this week were sad, yes, but each also enriched my life. My advice to anyone who will listen to this 67-year-old coot: Go to funerals. Just be there. You won't regret it. You will learn. You will grow. You will be enriched. 

And children should attend funerals. It is one of the ways we pass on to our kids the things that really matter. It's a time when folks get real, and we hear from the hearts of our friends and family the things we should, but don't say day to day.

In all four of these occasions I learned things I hadn't known about folks whom I already admired. I learned something about what was important to each of them, and also something about the values of those they left behind, and I feel closer to them for it.

Comments:

Howard Smith
Seems to me like being acquainted with you has a downside....which, causes me some personal concern.

Ricky Conaway
Terrell where did you live at I lived close to the Gordons also on Cedar Ave. right across the street from Mr. Lindsey and beside Bill Cox

Joan Shaw Turrentine
That makes for a very hard week.

Bob Doster
We're very sorry about this situation. BUT you are a great comfort to the people involved.

Wendy Ramsey
So sorry for such a sad week!

John Countryman
When it rains it pours. Comforting thoughts!

Mary Nisbet Asbury
dang!

Neal Brackett
Good Grief Terrell. you haven't been hanging out with Angela Lansbury have you?

Madelyn Collette
Good of you to show your care or these families.

Terrell Shaw
Ricky we lived at 608 directly across the street from the Coxes. The Gordons' backyard bordered ours.

Terrell Shaw
Wendy, you are the one with the rough week. I was so sorry hear of your loss. But I'm glad that y'all were able to be with your mom at the end.

Madelyn Collette
I was sick with gallstones and could not attend the funeral of one of my dearest friends Linda Stone. We did have a candle burning in her memory at our Circle of which she was a DEVOTED MEMBER. It hurts so bad when you can't attend services for those you love.

Deborah Lake Dawson
Sorry for your losses, so many at once.

Ruth Pinson
What a week! I'm so sorry.

George Barton
I don't know why, I thought of Hugh Grant and "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

Bitsy Burton
Hugs, Terrell!

Barbara J. Gale
You sang beautifully at Lana's service. Thank you.

Gleaning Facebook: Pawpaw Patch

"Way down yonder in the Pawpaw patch". Pawpaws in bloom on the new section of Armuchee Elementary's nature trail, available thanks to Captain Planet, AES's Environmental Quiz Bowl Teams, and Thomas Fitzpatrick's Eagle Scout project.

Comment:

Tracy S Lawler

I know the song, but have never seen a pawpaw and didn't know they grew in those parts!

Eastern Bluestar on the AES nature trail

Comments

John Countryman
Fabulous!

Ann Gore
Terrell, you take such beautiful photographs! Keep them coming!

Anita Stewart
What are these? They are beautiful.

Terrell Shaw
Bo, I've labeled them all now, at least with the common names.

Norma Trotter
Beautiful!

Donald Murdock
I can smell it from here.

Roger Wade
Yes, and so is the magnolia blossom. 

Katie Cauthen Francisco
Gorgeous!

Mike Bock
wow!

John Countryman
Fabulous, Terrell!

Alice Jeffries Keel
Yummy for the eyes!

Ann Gore
Are these all yours, Terrell? How beautiful!

Terrell Shaw
I wish I had crowds of each flower, Ann, but they are only kinda here and there. But they are mine, and individually they are purdy.

Sharon Barefield
For sale? 

Nora Matthews
Spring ? Do you know what month we are in uncle Terrell Shaw? lol jk

Laurie Craw
Does anyone know the story on this log cabin on Hwy. 100 near Coosa?

Terrell Shaw
I took these pics last Spring, Nora, but just took them off the SD card from our dunked camera!

Terrell Shaw
Laurie, I know nothing about the cabin.

Nora Matthews
Oh lol ok 

Annie Shields
I drove past it a couple of days ago and noticed the sag in the roof.

Terrell Shaw
I was told that this cabin was moved from another location. If this is true, I wish one of the schools, cities, or parks would purchase it and move it again to a spot where it could be persevered and used as an park "classroom" or museum or something like that. I have no idea who owns it.

Gleaning Facebook: Daddy's Picture

I have been looking for this picture of my father. It's one of my favorite studio shots of him and he used it a lot from about 1960-1970. This little halftone was cut from a revival poster from the early sixties. So, brother and sisters of mine, does anyone have a regular photographic version of this picture? Trinity is gathering pics of former pastors to display and I prefer this one to the circa 1972 picture I loaned the church.

Comments

Lyn Davis

I miss my sweet handsome granddaddy!

Terrell Shaw

He's been gone 27 years, Lyn, but I doubt a day goes by that I don't think of my Daddy several times. There were times I would have liked to wring his neck, but for my first 39 years I always knew there was one person in this world, at least, that I could call any time, from any place, and if needed, he'd, immediately, be in a car or plane and on his way to be there for me ASAP.

Julia Hilburn Dent

He was a minister at Trinity?

Terrell Shaw

Yes. 1962-67

Rome Skyline

 

Gleaning Facebook: RIP Mary Doster

Comments

Buzz Wachsteter
Mary has made her final curtain call on the stage of the Desoto, and has taken her place on the front row of the balcony. God bless a truly unique and loving person. Enjoy catching up with Cathy and Josh, Forrest, Hyman and Lilly, L.T., Dan and Edna, Gordon Elliott, and so many more. You will always be in our hearts and memories.

Laura L Adams
Just tagged the marquis photo for the Drumbeat...

Bob Doster
Thanks.

Julia Hilburn Dent
Terrell, please friend Mike Tolbert or tag him with this photo!! He is her nephew & came from N.C. to the service & all!!!

Mike Tolbert
Thanks so much. She was a dear aunt

Barbara J. Gale
Mary was one of my first friends in Rome...I will miss her.

Deb Joyner Dennemann
Terrell, dear one, tell us about her memorial service. I was so sorry to not be able to be there.......

Terrell Shaw
It was great to meet your parents, Deb.
It was a very nice service, with a reception/meal afterwards. I told a few Mary stories at the reception and several other chimed in as well. I think Mary would have approved.
I plan to put the memories folks sent me into a file to share with Bob & Bill and others soon. I have two more funerals to attend (and I'll sing at one of those) this week. It seems they come in bunches. Entirely too common these days.

Deb Joyner Dennemann
It's such a small church.. hope it was packed.. would have been much more so if folks like me could have been there. What a lovely thing to do for Bill and Bob. Sorry to hear of the other funerals you have to attend but I agree entirely too many these days.

Terrell Shaw
Had to bring in benches and chairs… it was packed.

Deb Joyner Dennemann
OH I'm so happy to hear it was such a good turnout!

 

Gleaning Facebook: He Terrell Really Graduate?

From Gil Crouse's Facebook:

Uncle Terry, we found 1969, but didn't find you?!??!?!?! Did you miss picture day?

Comments:

Terrell Shaw

Yep, I'm not there. I'm not in the yearbook either. I somehow missed picture day. Can't remember why. Dirty trick I played on ya, huh?

Gil Crouse
Hhhhmmmm, did you really go to Asbury???????? 

Terrell Shaw
I do still have the sheepskin to proved I graduated, though!

Carol Shaw Johnston
Maybe pics were taken when he was stuck in the clinic with mumps. Did you find Ron?

Terrell Shaw
Here's some photographic evidence:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1162238903523&l=132ce9bae5

Gil Crouse
Hey Aunt Carol, we didn't think to look for Uncle Ron. Was he 1969 too? I just looked at the original picture and could sort of make out faces, but but not names and didn't see one that looked familiar.

Carol Shaw Johnston
Ron and Terry graduated the same year. I tried to pick out Ron's photo in the background of your pic but couldn't do it.

 

Gleaning Facebook: On Mary Doster's Service

Harriet Kiser
Mary's service today was a very beautiful celebration of her life.  Terrell Shaw shared some hilarious memories of Mary along with several folks who had worked with her over the years in Rome LittleTheatre.  I could picture Mary and Nancy sitting there together in "their" pew.  Give Nancy my love.

Regina Reynolds Yarbrough
Thank you Harriet!! If we can ever get moved I could attend these things - so many great memories of my mom and the Marys!

Nancy Parker Self

We went to Mary's service. It was very lovely and touching . So glad she was apart of our lives.

Gleaning Facebook: Guns Everywhere Law

The NRA extremists, and they include some of my much-loved, and otherwise reasonable friends and relatives, are to blame for crazy, horribly unpopular, laws like the guns-everywhere law in Georgia. The extremists claiming folks (like the President and the rest of us who SUPPORT hunting and ordinary self-protection rights) want to "take our guns away" have passed a law that will result in more flesh and blood men, women and children losing their lives. Shame on the politicians who know better. That includes Katie Dempsey and Eddie Lumsden right here in Floyd County and Nathan Deal and others at the state level. Shame on them.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN WHERE YOU LIVE: Georgia parents shut down a children’s baseball game on Tuesday when an armed man began pacing the park saying, “Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it." Even though 22 people called 911, authorities could not arrest the man or ask him to leave the park because he had a permit. One 6-year-old asked his mother, "Mommy, did that man want to kill me?": http://bit.ly/1k2Nurv

This is not the America our children deserve. That's why mom and gun violence survivors are in Indiana this weekend during the NRA convention, talking about gun sense. If you can’t make it to Indy, please LIKE, SHARE and JOIN us here: http://momsdemandaction.org/join-us/

Comments:

Christy Davis
One guy was shot last night at a bar on Cave Spring Road. Was it from a gun that was allowed in there? Where were the other people with guns who are expected to serve as vigilantes to protect people from other shooters?

Ray Langley
A friend of my wife works for the Forsyth Parks and Rec. This park is across the street where we lived for 26 years.

Howard Smith
This is a sad result of those on the right, who include many of my friends, too, Terrell Shaw, who gleefully have pushed for their Second Amendment "freedom".

Deborah Lake Dawson
Totally agree!

Laurie Craw
If this had happened at a private school lacrosse game, do we really think this law-abiding citizen's legal rights to carry a gun would have been protected when some of those parents called the police? Permit or no permit, he would have been hauled off to jail.

Gleaning Facebook: Free-loading Criminal

 What a slimy bigot. This self-satisfied "patriot" grazing his cattle on OUR land without paying fees, drives past crowded open-doored homes and judges folks whose circumstances he knows NOTHING about. Clive is no patriot. He is a free-loading criminal.

From David Marlin Rains:

"Iconic RW Patriot. Do love the part on "they're living off government subsidies." LOL Dude hasn't paid his Land Management fees in 16 years while selling his grazed cattle for profit. Called 'make your own government subsidies,' I guess. "

From Steve Marmel's Facebook:

You may find this surprising, but Cliven Bundy has some particularly horrible things to say about race.

Via Steve Marmel <-- click to like page.

"I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?"

- Cliven Bundy, Patriot, on "The Negro"

New York Times, 4/24

I knew it. I just knew it.

To every one of you who defended him - now is the time for you to go "oops!" Start deleting those "Cliven Bundy, hero" posts because...

...AS WE'VE BEEN SAYING...

...He's everything we knew him to be.

Moocher? Yep. Deadbeat? You bet. Domestic Terrorist? Uh huh. And now you can add bigot to the pile.

So today is going to be a day of people back-pedaling - hell, Rand Paul's office is already "unavailable for comment."

Today they're going to try to make #BundyRanch about the issue, about how it's bigger than one man.

NOPE.

Today is going to be a day of pointing out - the man and the issue are inexorably linked. That little thing inside your head that said it felt a little bit like the Klan marshaling an army? You weren't wrong.

Your hero is terrible, "patriots." He always was. So today, as you have a sad face over him revealing who we knew he was all long...

...As you desperately go digging through your timelines and your twitter feed to delete those words of praise about what a great American this guy is...

...I have no sympathy for you.

You chose this monster. You picked him. You wrapped him in the flag and in doing so, soiled it.

Apologize. Turn your back on this creep.

And next time, do better.

- Steve

From the NY Times:

A Defiant Rancher Savors the Audience That Rallied to His Side

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. — Cliven Bundy stood by the Virgin River up the road from the armed checkpoint at the driveway of his ranch, signing autographs and posing for pictures. For 55 minutes, Mr. Bundy held forth to a clutch of supporters about his views on the troubled state of America — the overreaching federal government, the harassment of Western ranchers, the societal upheaval caused by abortion, even musing about whether slavery was so bad.

Most of all, Mr. Bundy, 67, who was wearing a broad-brimmed white cowboy hat against the hot afternoon sun, recounted the success of “we the people” — gesturing to the 50 supporters, some armed with handguns and rifles, standing in a semicircle before him — at chasing away Bureau of Land Management rangers who, acting on a court order, tried to confiscate 500 cattle owned by Mr. Bundy, who has been illegally grazing his herd on public land since 1993.

“They don’t have the guts enough to try to start that again for a few years,” Mr. Bundy said in an interview.

Mr. Bundy’s standoff with federal rangers — propelled into the national spotlight in part by steady coverage by Fox News — has highlighted sharp divisions over the power of the federal government and the rights of landowners in places like this desert stretch of Nevada, where resentment of Washington and its sprawling ownership of Western land has long run deep.

His cause has won support from Senator Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican from Kentucky who is likely to run for president. Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, referred to Mr. Bundy’s supporters as “patriots.” Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the Senate majority leader and has a long history of pushing for protection of public lands, denounced the rancher’s supporters as “domestic terrorists.”

The dispute spilled over this week into Texas, where Greg Abbott, the attorney general and a Republican running for governor, challenged the Bureau of Land Management on reports that it was looking to claim thousands of acres along the Red River.

For now, Mr. Bundy appears to have won, forcing the government to back down after its rangers were met with armed Bundy supporters this month.

“The gather is now over,” said Craig Leff, a deputy assistant director with the Bureau of Land Management. “Our focus is pursuing this matter administratively and judicially.”

His sympathizers include dozens of militia members, many carrying weapons. Credit Jim Urquhart/Reuters

But if the federal government has moved on, Mr. Bundy — a father of 14 and a registered Republican — has not.

He said he would continue holding a daily news conference; on Saturday, it drew one reporter and one photographer, so Mr. Bundy used the time to officiate at what was in effect a town meeting with supporters, discussing, in a long, loping discourse, the prevalence of abortion, the abuses of welfare and his views on race.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

A spokesman for Mr. Paul, informed of Mr. Bundy’s remarks, said the senator was not available for immediate comment. Chandler Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Heller, said that the senator “completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Abbott, Laura Bean, said that the letter he wrote “was regarding a dispute in Texas and is in no way related to the dispute in Nevada`.”

Paula Graves I saw this post this morning. How can people keep reading articles like this about him and still support him? It just makes me so sad that people still think this way.

Betty Smith Franklin Jesus.

Raymond Atkins Every time the RWNJs find a new hero, he or she talks and spoils the whole thing. Which leads me to my million-dollar idea. Gags.

Gleaning Facebook: Mary Doster

I just got off the phone with Bob Doster. Mary has died.

I will miss that woman. I could depend on a bear-hug from her every time I saw her. Bob and Earlene brought her up here for our Independence Day barbecue in 2012 and we had a great time.

As you can read at this picture I posted years ago, she was my fellow actor and fellow Democrat. We were officers together in the Floyd County Democratic Party for many years. She was Auntie Em to my Wizard/Marvel in the Wizard of Oz in 1993.

On her 90th birthday (in December, I think) Bob says he and Earlene took Mary to Agatha's in Atlanta for the dinner theater/murder mystery. They involve the audience there and gave Mary a line or two to say. Her eyes and ears had betrayed her by that time, but she memorized the lines and wowed the actors and audience with her performance - which included, not surprisingly, some improvisation!

Soon after that Mary came down with pneumonia and never fully recovered.

Visitation will be Friday at Transfiguration Episcopal Church and the funeral at the church on Saturday at 11.

Mary Doster has been my friend for most of my adulthood. Before that she was the mother of a friend, Bob. She has been involved with two activities close to my heart for all that time: Rome Little Theater and the Democratic Party. This is the photo sheet she used to send for prospective auditions. She has appeared in several films as well as many community plays. She was Auntie Em with my Professor Marvel/Wizard in Wizard of Oz.

Mary Louise
What a beloved Lady she was! ML

Roger Wade
R. I. P. Mary Doster..

Tim Shiflett
A great lady. I shall never forget all of the support and kindness she gave us up here, in Chattooga.

Bob Doster
All rite mighty fine. Thanks.

Beckie Gurley
Do you know what time Friday?

Wendy Davis
Thanks for sharing these photos and fond memories!