Time Machine: 1992 Clinton Gore Campaign

 

In 1992 Brannon and I campaigned for Clinton & Gore. Here we are at Rome’s Democratic HQ with Senator & Mrs. Al Gore Sr. He spoke at the Floyd County Jefferson Jackson Dinner that year. I will correct to the actual date when I can.

Time Machine: Father's Day 1992

 

Christmas 1991 Shaw Family

 

Lillian: Some Spots

 A very deliberate artwork she entitled "Some Spots" and presented to her Papa (me).

Time Machine: "My Family" by Lillian

 

Christmas 1990

 

Time Machine: Brannon writes from Tallahassee

 

Brannon spent a few days on her own with her grandparents in Tallahassee just before her seventh birthday. Here is her letter home.

Charmaine & Jack's Wedding

 Under construction

Charmaine wore the same dress that many of our family members used, beginning with her mother, Janice in 1961.

Chubbtown

Democrat of the Year

Rome News-Tribune, Sunday, April 1, 1990, page 1

Newspaper Archive: Democrat of the Year

The date of publication is only a coincidence, I promise. I have the framed award to prove it!

Tony Pope, my fellow McHenry School faulty alumnus and also Rome History Center worker, found this old clipping and sent it to me on Dec. 10, 2022, and I put it in the time machine and returned it here to 1990. In 2022 the Floyd County Democratic Association will have been incorporated into a single Floyd County Democratic Party organization and the Jefferson Jackson Dinner will have been replaced by the Georgia Giants Dinner. And 32 more years will have passed.

 

Happy Sixth Birthday Brannon!

 

Time Machine: Dear Family...

This date is a guess. I wish there were a date on this letter I found among my Mother's correspondence. I suspect Brannon dictated this to me when she was 4-6 years old. It was written before she totally gave up calling me "Papa" under the influence of her "Kid's Stop" and McHenry kindergarten friends who called their fathers "Daddy".

One of the things she describes is what she and I called "acrobatics". It began with her cousin Larisa in the early eighties and has continued to the present (2023) with any 5-7 year-olds in the family. The child runs across the yard toward me from the side as I project both forearms before me . The child grabs my left arm, swings his/her legs up and over my right arm to swing by the knees till I bring him/her back upright and she/he dismounts with a grand smile and a shouted "Ta-dah!" Clemmie, Ruth, and I have just recently given it a try.

Those dance positions were an obsession for a while.

Brannon also mentions our stories. I used to invent impromptu and at least partly plagiarized stories usually starring Brannon and/or Lillian and other friends and relatives. I had totally forgotten "Terry and the Dinosaur" -- I have no idea of the plot. I vaguely remember a whole series of stories inspired by C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. On the spur of the moment I named our fantasyland Tanzania. Later, as new episodes were demanded, I tried to slightly alter the name so that it wouldn't share a name with a real location! I remember that instead of a wardrobe entry our first and most frequent door to "Tanzintennia" (or something like that) was a bottomless tide pool at the beach. Under certain conditions when we jumped into the pool we'd just pass right out of its bottom into a new land. But sometimes we made our imaginary way through the crawlspace behind the wall of the girls attic bedrooms and other surprise fantastic portals. 

I don't remember "the Sad Part". 

I suspect the stories were pretty lame but Brannon and Lillian loved them. 

Jackson Irvin Baird

 

Jack Baird and Porterdale friends in Atlanta

Jack Baird, one of my mother's older brothers.

Jack Baird and his wife Georgia

Time Machine: Trinity Kids c. 1989

Copied from Carol Payne's Facebook, February 9, 2017

That's my baby on the left and little Lisette next to her.

Time Machine: Brannon's Art at Five

The caption I wrote for Brannon on this kindergarten masterpiece: "Lillian pulling up holding Papa's fingers - 1-29-89
6 mos. 2 days old - by Brannon"

Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger was a story I often told Brannon. Here she drew "Obie Yoyo" chasing her cousin Amanda.

Another of her favorite storybooks was The Hungry Thing. Here she illustrates that story.

 

Lillian & Lillian

 This picture is labeled:

Lillian Matthews Shaw (5 most.)

Lillian Wilkerson Shaw (87)

Christmas 1988

My grandmother and her namesake on about this date. This is taken at the Shaw house on Main Street in Milstead, Georgia. I now (2024) have one or two of those doves for our Christmas Tree though they are a little worse for many years wear and tear.

Time Machine: Democratic County Committee

An election I actually won! 

 

Time Machine: Laurie's Gift for Lillian

On about this date, Laurie Craw painted this watercolor to commemorate the birth of Lillian Matthews Shaw. Thanks, Laurie! 

Time Machine: Lillian Matthews Shaw

(Comments are from 2019)

On this day in 1988 a great blessing entered my life. Lillian Shaw you were and are a great joy to your ol’ man. I am so happy for the person you have become. You are thoughtful, talented, kind, and loving. You are wonderful writer, an amazing actress and singer, and, dadgum it, a doggone good dancer too!

I learned that day that the human heart is greatly expandable. My heart was bulging with love for he bookends in this picture just a few minutes before, then like magic it expanded to love the bundle in the middle no less than the other two.

On the phone with Granny and Granddaddy.

 

I was so proud of yo' Mama! Lordy that beautiful woman worked to get you here. Labor ain't called that for no reason.

Brannon was so sleepy, and so happy to have a little sister! BUT she did sneeze right in your face to introduce herself.

How I love this photo.

I love you, yes I do, I love you… beyond words.

This delivery room nurse was wonderful. She had also been on duty five years before for the birth of our elder daughter Brannon Shaw! We were glad to see a familiar face.

Lillian Matthews Shaw

 

Time Machine: Washington June 1988

Facebook Comments from 2009:

Erskine Thompson
Ah, yes...the trip to Washington that I didn't get to take. Oh, well. At least that means I'm not in this picture. 

Terrell Shaw
Was this your year to go? I'm sorry you missed it.

Erskine Thompson
Yes, this was my group. Not sure why, exactly, I didn't get to go - I can only assume that we didn't have the money for the trip. Oh, well. I got to go the next year with the high school band, so at least I can say I've been to DC.

Terrell Shaw
I went with the West Rome Band in '63, I think.

Terrell Shaw
Tag some of the folks for me if you get the chance.

Erskine Thompson
Oh, that could be fun.

Terrell Shaw
Can you find Stacy?

Erskine Thompson
I think I see her, but I'd have to find her copy of this picture to be sure. She has one that's in color, but it's been a while since I've seen it.

Burt McCollum
Heh. Wow. I'd completely forgotten about this trip.
I remember a huge sculpture of a man rising up from the ground, as if from a grave...

Terrell Shaw
It was called "The Awakening" down past the Jefferson Memorial at the tip of Potomac Park. Here is a recent picture taken from the web:

This is a photo off the web of "The Awakening" that Burt mentioned and that we always veiwed when we took groups to DC. It has since been moved.

Here's the website: http://dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001120.htm

Kimberly Horn commented on this picture: I remember going to see it, & a couple was getting wedding pictures taken there! To where did they move it?

Terrell Shaw
So which one is Burt?

Shawn Davis
I just tagged Burt. That is the coolest picture. Notice the girls with the big 80's hair and the guys with the blue jean jackets!

John Houston Moore
Yes!!! Butt-cut!!

Mary K Boggs
Oh my stars!!! The style of my hair, or lack of style, is HIDEOUS!! What great memories!!! And I loved that sculpture too!

John Houston Moore
Shane has been tagged...

Time Machine: Rachel Jones, Our New Choir Director/Organist

 Today was Rachel Jones first Sunday as choir director and accompanist at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Time Machine: Mexico Beach August 1987

We had been here the summer before with Daddy. Now he was gone and we came again. It was bittersweet to be there without him. I am adding these pictures in 2023; they were in a box of pictures that have been stored for several years.  I would welcome more pictures from this trip (and any other family pictures!) from my siblings. 

I love this picture of my youngest sister, Sharlyn Beth Shaw with her daughter Amanda Ruth Hearn. It is so hard to accept (in 2023) that Beth is gone. 

Steven Dow Turrentine with his girlfriend, LaDonna Raburn, hunting shells.

I took advantage of Joey's predicament to attach horns to his noggin. Joseph Thomas Johnston and Charles Terrell Shaw.

My sister Joan with her son Steve. Lynda Joan Shaw (Turrentine) with Steven Dow Turrentine)

Jessica Ruthanne Shaw  (Is that Benjamin Allan Lewis behind her?) 

Steve and LaDonna outside the Windsong condos at Mexico Beach.

Vicki Brown Shaw caught smiling with Jessica Ruthanne Shaw on a seafront balcony of Windsong condos. 

L-R: Deborah Ruth (Debi) Shaw (Lewis, Vicki Brown (Shaw), Jessica Ruthanne Shaw, Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson (Shaw), Sarah Ruth Baird (Shaw) This is on the oceanfront balcony at Windsong condos.

James Edward Shaw. 

I think Uncle James may have been feeding the gulls.

LaDonna and Larisa Carron Johnston (Feathersone)  -- I think.

Carol with Lisette

Steve with Amanda

L-R: Debi, Joan, Vicki, Jessica