Back to Birdland and Guajome

After an afternoon and evening I’ll cherish as long as I remain on Earth, I’m back to my solitary morning walks In Vista; I love ‘em. I’ll label the individual pics after my walk.

Grab Those Ruby Slippers and Hang on!

 Twice last night we unplugged electronics and took our positions in the interior-most corner of the "red" guest room. We have no windowless room in our old house so we've decided that this corner is our safest spot during tornado warnings. I ventured a few times to the porches --- when the worst of the "Dunder and Blixem" eased off --- to witness the meteorlogical wonder as the heavens doused us, sheets of water shed from the eaves, and rushing torrents coursed down the driveway and across the yard. Wow!

Today, the whirlwind has passed and the blue skies and white clouds seem almost an apology for the uproar in the night. So we take a walkabout to survey the flooding...

You can rotate this pic taken atop the levee right behind our house. The Oostanaula is feeling its oats today.

Had to take a shortcut through the grass and under the bridge to keep our feet dry. We carried our recycle glass with us for deposit in the bins on Bale St. Sheila also carried her little picker-upper stick so we could collect some litter along the way.

The new owners of the old Star House building are busy reopening all the bricked-up windows on the building. I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of this diamond-in-the-rough.

On the boardwalk under the Fifth Avenue bridge. Not a lot of clearance between the water and the boardwalk today.

Guess we won't go this way today.

We have certainly enjoyed this boardwalk the last few years...!

... I wonder if there has been any consideration of a board walk between the library and Ridge Ferry Park. If you could read the yellow sign I think it reads: "Trail Subject to Flooding".

The Riverwalk sign should read Riverwade today.

“We don’t serve Japs here.”

The children and grandchildren of the barber mentioned in this story are, I betcha, mortified today that their loved one was such a jerk.

Some of my loved ones and friends have had moments of real jerkdom during the last five years. Some even make excuses for, or downplay the depravity of, 1-6. Some support the anti-republican voting suppression efforts of the ironically-named Republican Party of 2021.

We must always remind our fellow Americans and our children that real Americans come in all skin shades, all classes, all income levels, all education levels, all religions and no religion, all sexes, all sexualities, and of all combinations of worldwide heritages. If you are a race, class, sexual orientation, or other variety of bigot you are on the wrong side of history. You might as well accommodate yourself with the future, because it's coming like it or not.

There are lots of good stories on this "Peace Page". Today is a fine day to share an old post and celebrate one of the great American heroes who happened to have been of Japanese ancestry.

On behalf of your children and grandchildren I beg you...

Don't be a jerk.

Click on the picture to read the story...

On Being the Birthday Boy on Facebook

Me in 1947

We all usually just put the good stuff on Facebook, don’t we? 

I do. I want y’all to know about my beautiful grandkids. I write about the stuff I do in my life that I think looks good whether it’s just a walk through my gorgeous hometown or a special meal or the candidate I want you to help me elect. And generally I tell you the interesting and fun parts and leave out the dumb, depressing, or boring stuff that we all deal with daily.

I certainly don’t generally itemize my faults or troubles.

Surprise Surprise!

I make mistakes daily, 

have up days and down days, 

misjudge, 

forget stuff I need to know, 

remember stuff I'd better forget, 

lose important things and hang on to things I don't really need. 

I can be lazy and I can be manic and I can be petty. 

I can get lost in details and I can be sloppy with details. 

I am, in short, a sinful, selfish, flawed man. 

And don’t get me started on arthritis.

Still I am incredibly rich in friends and loved ones.

Today I have been warmly remembered on my birthday 

• by Marty who has been my friend since sixth grade and other elementary school friends
• by Herb and several friends whom I know only through political collecting or other online activities, 
• by Rhonda and other beloved students from SIX decades, 
• by Nancy and Lester and many other teacher friends from SIX decades
• by Alvin and Wendy and Dan and Sundai and Joe and many others who have fought the political and environmental and civil rights battles alongside me,
• by Kanute and other storytelling friends from right here in Rome and from many distant states, 
• by Alice and Don and other folk from high school days, 
• by Barron and others from my days in college
• by the Burtons and Wares and other friends who are like family,
• by Janice and others who have known me since this day 74 years ago and others like Danny and Matthew that I have known all their lives. 

The friends posting today are from my church, my political circles, my family, but also some who have beliefs I absolutely reject, even in some cases deplore. 

Folks expressing friendship today are not just Methodist and Democratic and white like me, but also black, Republican, Socialist, Catholic, Baptist, Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, atheist, hispanic, gay, trans, and from many other categories of human.

I am thankful for EACH unique one of you. 

"Social media" has its pros and cons. 

Days like today are good days on social media for an old geezer retired teacher, community actor, preacher's kid, choir member, storyteller, political activist, ex-businessman, and member of a big family.

I wish I were half the guy y'all made me feel today BUT your greetings have helped me believe I may be at least a little of that guy --- and make me want to be more of that guy. 

So keep it up. Come back next March and do it again. 

It feels real good.

Old Leaves: It Will Come to Pass

Today marks twelve years since my last visit with my cousin Don Baird. I miss him. Here's the post I wrote after that visit:

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

March 20, 2008

Riding Down to Visit Don

My mother and two of my sisters, Joan and Debi, rode with me to Douglasville today to visit with our cousin Don who is in the midst of a fight against complications from cancer surgery. It was a beautiful day for a ride. (Click here to read other posts about Don.)

Don, during the WSB years.

We made a pitstop at the KFC just off I-20 where I noticed this clump of misletoe in the small tree planted by the parking lot. Have you ever seen such a lush growth of this hemiparasite?


Don and Claudia live at the end of Mockingbird Lane on a gorgeous lakefront lot. They have done wonderful things with their home including a beautiful new kitchen and a sunroom overlooking the long wooded lawn that slopes down to the small lake. Don was very lucid, pain-free he said, and in good spirits.

His illness has robbed him of the magnificent radio voice that he used so ably with his fine intellect as a newsman for WSB Radio in Atlanta, NBC Radio in Cleveland, and finally with CNN Radio, back in Atlanta. But his hoarse whisper still had the life and humor of the Don we all admire and love.
Don's friendship with Louis Brown reaches back into the fifties. It was a privilege to be there when Louis and his wife, Beth, came by and to hear the two songwriters, Louis and Don reminisce. Both have had songs recorded by well-known singers. Don's "It Will Come to Pass" was recorded by Willie Nelson and by the Anita Kerr Singers. I don't think Don will mind my posting his lyrics, they are available elsewhere online.

The turning earth will raise its wand 
and bring the seasons to their fruitful end 
... and little men and trains will crash 
and snake their way around the timeless bend
... and rivers, too, will course their way 
to find the hungry Mother Sea at last
.. and love will grow, it will come to pass...

The sun will blaze its scorching path 
across the sky a million times or more 
... and men with charts will scan the skies
in quest of life on some forgotten shore 
... and in the quiet womb the sleeping seed 
will stretch its arms and grow at last
...and love will grow, it will come to pass... 
(chorus/bridge) It will come to pass.... 

Though men and minds and times will change 
still pinioned there by fears of growing old 
...though scalpeled hands will plumb
the deepest corners none will find the soul... 
yet bearded men in sandwich boards
will tell the sinful streets, "He's Come At Last"
.. and love will grow, it will come to pass... 

words & music by Don Baird (donbaird7@aol.com)  Sony/Tree publishing...

(From Willie Nelson "My Own Peculiar Way" and other albums... and Anita Kerr Singers "Best of Country"Album abc/dot)

[2021 edit: Here's Willie Nelson singing this song. ]

After an hour's visit Mother led us in an eloquent prayer and we headed home.

Along the way back to Rome, Joan suggested we stop at the Coots Lake Trail Head on the Silver Comet Trail and take a short walk. The Silver Comet Trail is a Rails-to-Trails project that follows an old railroad bed from Atlanta to Rockmart. It is very popular for hikers, runners, bikers, and horseback riders. The area at Coots Lake is a lovely wooded walk. I hope Sheila and I can get back to bike it one of these days. Here are some pics.

Mother, Joan, and Debi begin the walk.



Redbud (Cercis canadensis) in bloom.



Mother, yours truly, and Debi.



More redbud.

Phantom Voices...

I have voices in my head much of the time these days.

 
I know that will not surprise some of my critics. 

Here's the deal: my iPhone and my hearing aids are connected via special sorcery code-named "Blue Tooth". So if I walk past you without notice or seem distracted, I may be listening to unseen phantoms like James Carville or Al Frankin or Rachel Maddow with whom I mostly agree, or it might be conservatives like the Bulwark or Lincoln Project folks challenging me in the ether.
I like to think that I have been a bit of a "moral rebel" in my 73 years. That does NOT mean I have always been right, but it does mean that, to stand for what I thought was right, I have been willing to risk being disapproved or even shunned by friends or family. 
At least once it involved a little physical danger. A few decades ago a young man stopped me to thank me for something that happened in the 1960s at West Rome High School. I really didn't remember it clearly but I recognized it and was glad to think that even as a teen I might have sometimes been that "moral rebel". The guy is two or three years younger than me and says he was being bullied by some older boys in the restroom when I came into room and saw what was going on and demanded the guys leave him alone. 
I had had some models. I had seen my Mother stick up for Martin Luther King when a conversation with some other family members turned harsh. I knew my Daddy had been willing to watch church-members move to the "Southern" off-shoot of our denomination because of our church's (actually pretty timid at the time) openness to integration. 
I had myself been called "n****r-lover" by classmates at good ol' WRHS (some of those very guys would be appalled to be reminded here fifty-odd years later!) 
During those years it became clear to me that the Democratic Party more closely matched my beliefs than the party most of my family and friends supported. Despite attending a very conservative and overwhelmingly Republican college, I helped organize a Young Democrats club and have since worked in and out of the party for moderate to progressive candidates like RFK, HHH, Carter, Gore, Clinton, Obama, Hillary, and Biden. Usually, in political terms at least, I have been in the minority among my friends and relatives. That's why I named this weblog "Alone On A Limb."
I have had no choice the last five years but to blatantly and vociferously oppose the politics of the majority of my family, school and church friends, and just every day associates here in Northwest Georgia. It has cost me several relationships. I have been dumbfounded trying to 1) understand how folks I otherwise admired could support pure evil and 2) find a way to calmly and lovingly interact with those whose beliefs I abhor, while remaining true to myself and my own beliefs. I have failed miserably at the second more than once. Staying calm and loving, I mean. 

That brings us back to the voices in my head. I listen to a lot of podcasts as I drive around, or as I work in the garden, or hike through the woods.
Since the Lincoln Project fell apart recently, former LP podcaster Ron Steslow has become a favorite. His spin-off Politicology has so far been some of the most thought provoking and actually helpful listening I've done. Two of his first guests have been Celeste Headlee (who has had the honor of interviewing me about storytelling on "On Second Thought" on GPB) and Dr. Catherine Sanderson. If you get a chance give these two sessions a listen; I think you will be glad you did. (Click on the pictures to reach the links.)

Sanderson is the chair of Psychology at Amherst College and the author of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels. She talks with Ron Steslow about why Trump was able to exert control on the Republican party, how to recognize leaders who will stand up for what’s right—and what we can do to become moral rebels. 

Headlee is a longtime public radio host and joins host Steslow to discuss the science and history behind human communication, share keys to unlock deeper conversations, and explain how critical empathy is for our ability to listen and connect. She is the author of We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter.

Who is that masked man?

Some of the hundreds of 2020 Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival
postcard-sized flyers in the recycle bin March 2020.

One year ago today I had met with my YoungTales storytelling group at Armuchee Elementary for an hour at 8 am then had driven to Arrowhead for an animal (I've forgotten which animal) and out to Garden Lakes Elementary for a kindergarten lesson, then to Johnson Elementary to talk with the YT sponsor there. Coming back through town I decided I'd drive down to Cave Spring to touch base with my YT group there. They were the first group which had finished all six sessions, and I felt I needed to check in one last time to see how they were preparing for the competition. But, I decided to stop by the house and call Arrowhead to let Vivian know what I was up to. 

That's when I got the word: Vivian said, "You don't want to go to Cave Spring today. There is at least one Coronavirus case there and parents are taking their kids home." I would soon find out that one of the Covid cases there was the principal -- an enthusiastic supporter of the YoungTales program and a great principal!

That's when I knew the world had changed. Sheila and I talked about it and it was plain to us that with Covid in one of the schools where our Big Fibbers headliners were scheduled to perform later that month, it likely was elsewhere among the schools of Rome and Floyd County and there was no way we could have a storytelling festival in just a couple of weeks. We spent that evening and the next few days sending e-mails and news releases to share the sad news that the sixth annual Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival and all our events were cancelled for 2020. That principal was seriously ill and his wife was fighting for her life in an ICU in Atlanta. 

I feared it might be weeks before I'd be able to see my YoungTales kids again. 

At 72 (now 73) I certainly wanted to be careful. 

Still I planned to try to schedule a scaled down YoungTales competition at the end of the school year so the kids could get some cloture to their hard work and enthusiasm. 

That was a pipe dream. 

Soon I began to hear of friends who were dealing with the illness, or the deaths of their parent or friend who had contracted it.  One young friend was struck by the disease with her husband and children and theirs turned into the "long-haul" variety. 

Things really hit home the first week of July when I got the crushing, bewildering, horrifying news that a beloved former student, only 23 years old, had contracted Covid and died after only a few days. As I stood at his graveside service I grew angry at the asinine response of a federal executive branch crippled by incompetence, ignorance, and mental illness and at the incredible selfishness and seemingly willful blindness of the anti-maskers.  

We have now cancelled the 2021 YoungTales and Big Fibbers activities entirely. Except for the several groups of masked Darlington students I spoke to at the Clocktower a few days ago I have not faced an in-person group of school children in 12 months. 

Shoot, I've only had one professional haircut in that time and that was last week! I have been a part of many ZOOM meetings and performances; I have recorded a couple of dozen reading/storytelling sessions to share online with school groups and children stuck at home. Masked and/or face-shielded and distanced I have performed in person for a very few folks -- (I can think of three events: Haunted on Broad, New Romans Club, and the Clocktower Tours.

Here we are a full year later and only now, after over a half-million American deaths, with an ethical and professional executive branch finally restored,  are we seeing a light at the end of the Covid tunnel.

I have now had both of my Moderna vaccine pokes and am dedicated to wearing double-masks, or singer's mask, or face-shield. 

So I hope some Floyd County teachers will begin to have me for indoor or outdoor (distanced and masked/shielded) lessons during the rest of March and early in May*. 

I am ready to lead some hikes, show off some animals, and tell some stories.

---

* I will not be available in April.

Old Leaves: Neglecting poetry again

Since elementary days I have reveled in words. A preacher's kid can hardly escape them. My Daddy liked playing with them in his sermons. Often the key points in his messages rhymed or alliterated. He snuck in bits of rhymes and poems. Miss Brown introduced us, in fourth grade, to the Mighty Casey and the fiery finish of Sam McGee. I learned to love hearing just the right words and began trying my own hand at arranging them creatively. 

But I have been wayward about that avocation.

A few years ago I happened onto an online challenge called the Poetry Stretch. When I drifted off I renewed my efforts in this old leaf from the Limb in January of 2013:

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

For a while I exercised my poetic skills frequently at the prompting of Trisha at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Most Mondays she issues a Poetry Stretch. The current Stretch challenge is to deal with home or habitat. So here is my self-conscious homecoming to the Stretch.

The Home Stretch

I haven't done my stretches, as I should.  

My verbs are wretched, stiff as wood.

My nouns are flabby with adjective fat,

wishy and washy as this and that,

gushy and gabby, fallen, flat. 

In the new year now, I highly resolve --

fervently vow -- baskets, buckets, of

rollicking, panting, working verbs,

stomping, splashing, dancing blurbs

to astound, aggrieve, prompt, perturb.

by Terrell Shaw

Gleaning Facebook: Singer's Mask

 My singer’s face mask came in today. Trying to decide if I’m ready for choir practice again.

---

March 11: We did it! Sheila and I attended choir practice last night. There were two tenors, two sopranos, two altos, one bass, one accompanist, and one director. We were spread around the sanctuary and masked. We practiced four old standbys for about 40 minutes total. Weird, but good to be singing again!. I have missed choir.

Smart Alec Comments:

David Matheny Are you Pinnochio??

Howard Smith I thought you may be headed out to trick or treat.

Jane Nelson Risdon

Bob Doster There are all kinds of remarks to be made. But in the spirit of grace and decorum, I will abstain.

Julianne Reeves Go for It!!!

Robin Holt You robbing the liquor store?

Gleaning Facebook: Voting Rights

 Remember what it took to secure voting rights for all of We the People. Call Katie Dempsey, Chuck Hufstetler, Eddie Lumsden, any other Georgia legislators. Remind them. In America we want every citizen to have an opportunity to vote securely, conveniently, easily. Voter suppression is anti-republican. (Please note the lower case ‘r’.)

John Lewis: "I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die."

Gleaning Facebook: Wildflower Guide

 Our friends Richard and Teresa Ware have made our lives richer through their photography and their dedication to botany in our area. I'm not sure Richard will ever "finish" this project but it has arrived at a very fine stage. If you like to hike and look at wildflowers in Georgia and environs you will want to bookmark this guide. Click on the Pink Lady's Slipper to visit the website.

Guide to the Wildflowers, Ferns, Trees, Shrubs & Woody Vines of Georgia and Adjacent States

Gleaning Facebook: Let's Rebuild The Middle Class

From Howard Smith:

Instead of a massive tax cut for the richest Americans which was Trump’s major legislative “achievement”, Biden begins his presidency with a massive economic relief package to help the rest of Americans. That defines the difference in governance between Republicans and Democrats. Who you vote for matters.

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

I’m willing to pay a little more to create a thriving middle class.

And we got comments:

Howard Smith
If you don't believe that Americans deserve the dignity of being paid a living wage for their labor it is not your politics that is at issue, it is your moral compass.

Terrell Shaw
Howard Smith exactly. Folks should be able to profit from innovation, invention, and industry, of course, but those who cannot recognize their debt to the society at large are selfish parasites in my humble and correct opinion. Yes to entrpreneurship; no to radical wealth accumulation by the few at the expense of those who provided the muscle and infrastructure that makes that accumulation possible.

Terrell Shaw
Maximum liberty is near the center of the capitalism-socialism scale and tyranny resides at both ends.

Howard Smith
Terrell Shaw great quote. 

Howard Smith
Terrell, as you are well aware, FDR showed us how to build the largest middle class the world has ever seen and he did it with the New Deal....legislation that invested in Americans including a minimum wage (which he called a "living wage") and an investment in America's infrastructure...spending! I think we both believe Biden is all about setting us on this same course once again.

John Carlin
I'm willing to let people who buy big macs pay more.

Terrell Shaw
How about In n Out burgers?

John Carlin
In CA they get$15 an hour starting next year I think. Not sure if in n out is going to pay them more than this but probably.

Terrell Shaw
I can't wait to have another In n Out burger --- but it'll cost me an airline ticket --- considering the little side effects absolutely worth it. 

Danny Price
Terrell - if 0.35 cents more for a burger and proportional inflation on other goods was the total marginal difference to get to this, I really doubt many would mind. It would, of course, potentially affect consumer behavior and economic spending - i.e. discretionary purchases (GDP).
Denmark, however, also has the 4th highest marginal total tax rates in the world. On average, every citizen there pays about 50% of their income in total taxes, including a flat 8% labor tax (before other taxes), and total 41-52% other taxes (federal, local, health, etc.). The cash for their system doesn’t come from a small surcharge on a Big Mac. Doubt that flies here, even in blue states.

Howard Smith
Danny Price Raising the minimum wage does not require us pay the same tax rate as Denmark although I do think we need to return to a true progressive tax structure that was at one time supported even by Republicans. You probably know that under Eisenhower the top the top tax bracket was over 90%. Since Reagan's "trickle down economics" Republicans have successfully used tax and economic policy to increase the concentration of wealth in America at the expense of the middle class and those who aspire to it. There is no greater example than Walmart which has made one family the richest in America while requiring the rest of us to subsidize their workforce with a safety net at a cost of billions of dollars. McDonald's falls in this same category. But under the RepublicanEisenhower administration the tax system was truly progressive, the minimum wage was raised, we supported the GI Bill, a thriving and growing middle class built the interstate system, dominated the world in manufacturing and had the world's best public education system and he supported unions! Eisenhower chose to invest in our future, not the few. As an aside, he also warned us against the "military industrial complex" but that is another story. Finally, it is worth noting citizens of Denmark are rated the 2nd happiest in the world. We are ranked 18th.

Danny Price
Howard Smith - not sure how it may have been misread, but nowhere in my comment do I suggest raising minimum wage “requires” a tax increase. But to make the meme’s comparison remotely valid requires the full context. I get the diatribe against wealth concentration and it is certainly something to address in our country.
A “top tax bracket” of 90% (which I am not in favor of even if it does not, and will never impact me), is quite a bit different from raising the lowest income tax bracket to 41% and making the average over half. People in Denmark may be happy - apparently they chose to contribute huge taxes in exchange for government providing their security and happiness. As I said, you won’t get that through blue states, much less nationally. Any politician who even proposed that tax structure would get run out on a rail.
And, for the record, to the extent you are suggesting it, I do not align directly with the views or agendas of either national party.

Howard Smith
Danny Price I have no doubt you are correct and we could argue why. But, it is a fact we once had a real progressive tax structure with a top tax bracket of 91% and during that time period our national debt was much less and our middle class was rapidly growing. Neither is the case now. And, I admit I am an Eisenhower Republican which makes me a Democrat today.

Beckie Gurley
It would also make the tax burden of those of us paying ridiculous high taxes to lower. Because they would not need government assistance. It would stimulate the economy. They would be able to buy homes and cars. They could afford health insurance. So maybe my health insurance premiums would also go down. It is a proven fact, when people have money, they spend money.

Tim Raley
Everyone is missing the key component of the picture... UNION! It's the union that got them the good pay. It's the union that got them the benefits and the paid time off and so forth! Try bringing a union into McDonald's! That would be a laugh. Even Amazon is fighting like hell to keep the union out. I'll just go on my knowledge and experience and say those Amazon workers are being ripped off BUT those workers don't do the quality job of the other delivery companies. They also pay around $700 biweekly for insurance. With a union in there, that would probably 700 more in their pockets biweekly!

Alvin Jackson Sr.

Gleaning Facebook: We Chose the Boy Who Stuttered

And because of that choice --- AND because of all of my friends who worked, spoke out, and voted for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the January 5 run-off --- we have passed major Covid relief for our hurting nation. If Georgia had failed to elect these men this would NOT have happened. More than two-thirds of Americans approve of our president's efforts to defeat Covid and to ease the burdens of Americans who are hurting financially because of the pandemic. Take away either of these good men and the relief package fails. Halleujah! Please remember this when Senator Warnock is up for a full term next year. He kept his promise.

Who we vote for matters. Character counts.

Comments:

Fred Noye

And the country collapsed!

Chris Goss Fred, can you explain?

Francis Ranwez Chris Goss Oh, you are an optimist to ask that.

Chris Goss Francis Yiss 

Francis Ranwez I looked at his page and I think Fred may be a confederate spy who hasn't gotten the word yet. They had drunk the cool aid then, and it took some 16 months after Appomattox before a final peace was signed. They lost then, and as everybody knows, they really lost in 2016 except for Russian help, and of course they lost yet again in 2020 to a fellow they call senile and old. Of course, having your head handed to you by a senile old man doesn't speak well for their cognitively challenged leader. And, of course, the Great Revelation or whatever Ms Green and her QAnon cohorts called the second coming of Trumps escorted by Proud Boy Angels didn't pan out on March 5 either. That leaves me with a good stock of Pop Corn and Beer that I didn't get to use. Oh well. Actually looking at the history of the guy who would be King, the only thing he really excelled at was losing. Big time. Right Fred Noye?

Fred Noye Francis Ranwez buckle up Butter cup. The ride has just begun and it isn't going to be pretty.

Francis Ranwez Fred Noye amazing repartee. Bless you sonny boy.

Fred Noye Francis Ranwez thank you.

Steven Savage I understand. I'm not a Republican anymore. I believe the nation make the right choice this time. That invasion on our Capitol was just to much.