asfoxseesit

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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Thanksgiving 2015 Random thoughts and memories

  I'm well into my 62nd year now as Thanksgiving rolls around. For the most part growing up in Gaffney SC it meant riding down to Rome Georgia to see Nanny and Papa and then on Thursday afternoon or Friday over to Collinsville Alabama to see Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill and dash back to Gaffney Sat afternoon cause my Dad was a preacher and had to preach at Bethany on Sunday morning. Now I live across the street from Uncle Bill and Aunt Jean so I go in reverse most of the way to see my Brother and Sister and their family in the Pickens County vicinity.

      I am on the verge of opening a vein and killing all the little darlings--don't take that literal, it's some literary allusion to cutting out the censor and letting it all hang out; well this library computer just chewed up a great thought so to hell with it. I'm not quite going for that today....It was a sweet memory of my departed Mother that had my eyes moist about three am last night and some reference to episodic maudliness.

   I thought about going to war with the Morgans for about the 7th time. This time over Jojo retort in the Southern Torch Facebook wall over the role his Mother played in the ouster from Collinsville Baptist Church, and free speech; but to hell with that idea, not worth it. Besides I just read a great piece in the New Yorker about North Caolina BBQ and the BBQJew.com and Jojo's brother went to Duke and sends a witty text on occasion and I haven't had time to talk with him about the BBQ piece yet.

   And then there is that ( I deleted the profanity in an edit, let's just call him abysmally disconcerting) Uncle Prentice who has been too long in this world and about to sabotage all pleasant memories of the Fox Family and grand get togethers in the past, some of which he added relish to.

   And of course there is ISIS and the reaction of right wing radio in Bham Alabama which enrages some of my days, but what the Hell can you do with either one of them. Close as I can get is Marilynne Robinson's great piece, "Memory"  in her new collection of essays The Giveness of Things. What's frustrating to put it mildly is you suggest something that sublime to a fundy and instead of reading it, they just quote another verse of Scripture they never understood in the first place and think you are a smartass if you try to explain it to them.

   And I just noticed Ana Alaru, the perfectly cast Rachel in screen version of my friend Ron Rash's Serena, has taken up the cause of the Syrian Refugee. Rachel was a refugee of sorts herself, fleeing great evil in North Carolina whose Governor now has reservations about the vetting process, for better clime of Tennessee on the way to Washington state. I've messaged Alaru to consider Robinson and Memory.

    Well Revenant comes out in Theatres in December, I read a good Robert Bly poem or got word of it back in October and the Clemson/South Carolina marching Bands are going to join together Saturday to Be South Carolina Strong in Memory of the Charleston Nine.

   Hopefully by the SC primary early next year some of the bastards in the GOP field will be honest about the legacy of Strom Thurmond and Lee Atwater. Who knows.

   God Bless America, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Pilgrims who sent us in the direction of Turkey and Family Get togethers and the words at the end of Pynchon's Inherent Vice.

   Amen

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Turkey Trot 2015 in Collinsville Alabama

     Some Random thoughts. Was pretty day, historic day as Martha and her Vandellas have moved into the bank building downtown with their History Museum. I was impressed with all they had collected, but not sure what it all means. I do hope the Historical Society will read How the South Won the Civil War in the New Yorker and have Mark Wilson's great friend in Collinsville, Jennifer Wilkins get a copy of Paul Theroux's new travel book, The Deep South, as New Yorker recommends. Then they might have some insight, some way to frame all the stuff they have collected.

   I hope to go back soon and spend more time. I don't think they have any clippings of Brett Morgen's documentary on Collinsville or the day William Moore walked through town though you woulda thought so with the standing ovation they gave the Mosaic Players when the came to the Cricket last Thursday.

     James Payton is to be commended for the great work he does with the Greased Pig contest, and Still Kickin, the Sons of Liberty and Willie Underwood do a great job with the entertainment.

     It was solid event and the tradition continues. As the Howard and Kukendall piece in the Alabama History pamphlet of 1984 reveals, the Turkey trot has a great history indeed. I think somewhere on this blog I have Rucker Agee's grand quote from 1924 or so. And the Goodyear Blimp came over in 29.

    So to paraphrase the narrator in Inherent Vice, God Bless Momma's hometown and the annual Turkey Trot.

    May have more thoughts about the hometown weekend and next day trip to Rome Ga with a reference to the Allman Brothers, later.

Friday, November 06, 2015

Notasulga Alabama and the Collinsille Cricket

  Last Night I attended the historic performance at the Cricket Theatre in Collinsville Alabama. Go to facebook and register the Auburn Mosaic Theatre Company and there are links there to a Southern Torch piece on the Cricket and a link to the Tuskegee Oral History project that was the muse for this reading last night.

      Strong performance by the student group and strong subject matter on the integration of Tuskegee High School in 63 with names like Bobby Kennedy, John Dorr and Governor Wallace sprinkled throughout. I spoke to some of the cast after the show, and the director before.

     She is from Lagrange, Ga, and the oral history project was conducted by Auburn's Mark Wilson, the chair of the search committee that brought Auburn's most recent FBC pastor to town. Auburn is one of the strongest CBF congregations in the state where Pulitzer nominee Wayue Flynt teaches an unflinching Sunday School Class. So some of the locals have some explaining to do re the Cricket Glory last night and the events of May 28, 2006 in the Collinsville Baptist Church. See Exiled Generations, UTenn Press, Carl Kell Editor.

     I was particularly impressed Tori Lewis, who was the voice of Tuskegee White Aristocrat Helen Lewis, born 191; and Daphney Portis who was the voice of Wilma Jones Scott and Marsha Sullins Slocum. I would like to meet the real Ms Sullins Slocum a woman of color in Tuskegee born in 47. Her oral history for my ticket was the apotheosis in a stellar bunch.  And I liked the detail in one voice of an Uncle "Detroit" Lee. Began ringing authentic for my ear at that early point in the show.

    Tori is a native of New Mexico and lived all over in a military household, but had one of the best Bama accents in the ensemble. I asked her later if that was natural or an affect and she said she's worked on it.

     They had a workshop atMomma's alma mater today, where just back in February some national news was gained when our county school school rupe supe denied a viewing to the history class of the movie Selma. So there is some resolution in that aspect.

     With the caveats above, all in all a grand end of the week for the local History club, Martha and her Vandellas and Collinsville High School.

    Notasulga grabbed my attention as one of the Tuskegee voices was from there. Cousin Tim Wood lived on Notasulga street in Rome, Ga and Wyche Fowler made the name famous for me in a tale he told all over Ga when he ran for for US Senate in 84 or so with a story about his days on the weekend in Atlanta as dispatcher in the constabulary.

    Now I guess it's on to Marco Rubio in Guntersville December 1 and let's win there!