Grandma Tolbert

I have no idea how old I was when I first meet her. It could have been the day I was born but I'm sure it wasn't long after that but my earliest memories of her began when I was in elementary school. She lived in the country in Burke County near Rhodhiss, North Carolina. Back then it seemed like a long drive from our house to Grandma's and once one passed the airport there just didn't seem to be life on earth until one reached her house. Actually there were a few houses along the way but they were few and far apart.

My Mom drove a '52 Ford, black of course, on our visits there and that is the route she took me on back when she taught me to drive. Narrow roads, one lane bridges and no traffic. Once I had managed to maneuver the car between the two trees in the driveway I had a great sense of accomplishment, although turning the car around presented its own challenges.

Grandma's house was small and was something she built along with Junior, her youngest son, right after her husband died. Junior was ten and I believe the other children had already moved out, married and were raising families by that time. The house had a living room, pot bellied stove, a couch, and a rocker. The kitchen was the largest room in the house and held a double sink, a wood cooking stove, and the kitchen table. The pendulum clock on the wall always seemed to keep perfect time and its tick-tock echoed through the house There were two bedrooms, a front porch at ground level and a back porch that required four or five steps to get into from outside; a wood shed, a storage building, a work shop,
and an outhouse outside.

Of course the house came with the requisite tin roof and had pale green tile for siding. The house was well built but had no insulation. Water was provided via a pump in the backyard and laundry was down in an old black pot which set near the old apple tree. When Junior would catch a opossum, Grandma Tolbert would skin it and drop it into boiling water. Once all the fat was boiled off the bones, lye was added to the water, stirred thoroughly, and allowed to cool then cut into bars, or cakes of lye soap. Bath time was done in a tin tub on the back porch until the late sixties when Junior and his wife Marie added onto the house and had running water and indoor plumbing installed.

Although Mrs Tolbert had little formal education she could read and write quite well and worked a regular job at Burlington Mills in Rhodiss. She and her family lived in the big white house at the bottom of the hill until her husband died. That is when she and her youngest son built the house she lived in for the rest of her life. she had a big garden, about an acre or so and raised a pig and some chickens. By then she was no longer holding a job so she earned money by doing work for others like picking blackberries. for which she earned a dollar for a tub full. She crocheted and made quilts and worked her garden, canning what she could to insure her family had food year around.

She grew strawberries, and beans, and potatoes, and corn, okra, squash, beets, tomatoes, peanuts, and about anything else that one can imagine. She worked that garden space, by hand, until she was around ninety. It was around that time that I discovered that she had never had her hair cut. Not even once, her entire life. She could stand on the end of it when she let it hang down. Mostly she wore it up in a tight bun.

In those long ago days, family and friends used to gather at her house on Sundays after church and they would be fed in shifts, men first, then the women and children. It was a good day for me when I was invited to eat with the men. I felt grown-up. Unfortunately, that was the last of the Sunday get-togethers that I ever had the pleasure to attend.

Ralph was the oldest boy and the biggest man that any of us ever saw back then. Mary was the oldest girl, then my Mom, then Nina, and finally Junior. He had an odd name, Oie, but he was always called either Junior or Tolbert.

Grandma Tolbert was a Keller at birth and the Keller clan was famous for having more digits than most people. I think I heard once that Grandma Tolbert had an extra finger but had it removed but I can't trust my memory on that. I do remember in my pre-teen days, I didn't like sitting around the pot bellied stove with the grown-ups because they just talked about the ones that were not there and I usually didn't know the people they were talking about. But when I got older, I began to appreciate the things Grandma had to endure in order to survive and make a life for her family.

Ralph was a truck driver, Nina was a seamstress and loved by people who thought they knew her but mean to the point of almost being evil to family, Margaret was a retail store clerk, Mary worked in a hosiery mill, and Junior worked as a parts manager for Ford where he celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary and his fiftieth year on the job at the same time. For the most part, they were good people, attending church faithfully and taking care of one another.

Grandma and I grew close and it was told that her desire to see me safe home from the war kept her alive when the doctors had almost given up hope. When I was in college, she wanted to give me a present so she bought a shirt for a dollar and wrapped it up for me. It was really special for Grandma never spent her money on presents for people--money was just to hard to come by.

The shirt was a short sleeve paisley print that was perhaps the ugliest piece of clothing I have ever owned and it shrank to the size for a two year old the first time I washed it. Even so, I kept that shirt for years because it came from her.

I knew something was wrong with her when I went to visit one Sunday after church and she was upset with Junior for leaving her at home for a whole week with nothing to eat. "He went to get some chicken and just never came back." she said. "I'm going to wop him upside the head with a broom when he gets back."

She did too. "What's the matter with you, old woman?" Junior scowled after she had hit him.

I explained to him what she had told me and he told me what really happened. One of the neighbor ladies told me she caught Grandma trying to chop down a climbing rose bush, thinking it was a honeysuckle vine climbing one of her trees.

It wasn't long after that when she was put into a nursing home where she quickly seemed to forget who people were. She stayed there for about two years before she passed at 94.

I visited relatives and made a video tape out of some pictures with the family telling stores about her in the background as a present for my Mom. I keep a picture of her close by for myself. Whenever I feel discouraged or tired, I can glance at her and think back on what she endured and hear her laugh and then I am encouraged to go on. I come from good people, the type of people we should all strive to be.

I-40 incident

The Morganton police contacted me today and said that I told the cops that I didn't want to prosecute. The truth is I was never asked. hell yea I wanted to prosecute. Some mad man chases me down jumps out of his car and tries to rip my door off, tries to break my window and then starts beating on the top of my car trying to get to me and scaring me badly deserves to be disciplined for such bad behaviour.

As a result of that incident I locked my keys in my car and called AARP motor club for help. At first I was told a locksmith was on the way and later I was told I was on my own as the locksmith was in a wreck and I would have to find my own help.

AARP later admitted they handled the situation badly and told me to send them the bill for the damaged window I had to break to get into my car.

Now they are telling me they won't pay for the window because I didn't have the tire repair option.

Like what the hell does tires have to do with this incident?

Cops lying and companies acting like morons. I guess everything in back to normal.

Ballot change

I had a thought that would make me feel better and I'm sure some other people would feel better too. In the next presidential election (way to far away to suit me) I would like to see another category added. On ballots we can either vote for candidate A or Candidate B or not vote. I would like to see another line added that would allow us to vote against a candidate.

In the last election I didn't want either Obama or McCain to be President and there was no way to "write-in' a candidate. I would have loved the option to have just voted against the one I least wanted to win. Somehow I feel it unfair that I am forced to vote for someone I don't like in order to defeat someone I like even less. Give me the change to express my displeasure and I will feel a whole lot better about the election process.

two for one

The strangers who pursued Jennifer Aniston and Sandra Bullock appear to have been unable to separate them from the characters they played. Jacob Bernstein on the condition called "erotomania."

A writer who mentions Jennifer Aniston and Sandra bullock in the same sentence is, in my opinion, a great writer.

Investigated backwards

Army sergeant guilty of sex trafficking in Wash.
Published - Jul 24 2010 02:53AM EST


TACOMA, Wash. — A 27-year-old Army sergeant from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state has pleaded guilty in federal court to sex trafficking of a child and attempted sex trafficking of a child.

Prosecutors say Sterling Hospedales set up one juvenile in a Lakewood apartment to work as a prostitute and had a second juvenile flown in from Wyoming to do the same.

Prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison, but he could get life.

The Army is dishonorably discharging him.

Lakewood police began the investigation in April 2009, when officers found out about a juvenile runaway from Seattle who was posting Craigslist ads that said she was a prostitute. The federal Innocence Lost Task Force then found that juvenile and a second girl.



Normally what happens is that word gets out that a woamn or girl is prostituting herself and the police arrest her and she is prosecuted. maybe jailed, and turned back out into the streets, only to be faced with little options but to live in the streets and become a repeat offender in order to survive.

These two girls were lucky that the cops knew what was going on before the cops knew where they were.

This is why I fight against the present system but no one cares or listens, it seems.

Mooresville woman 'blessed' after surviving lightning strike

The biggest area news is a Mooresville woman who was struck by lightning. She says she feels blessed.

One would think that someone who had lived fifty years woulod have learned that holding onto a metal pole with one hand and another metal objecxt in the other hand during a thunder storm is a recipoe for disaster. I believe the truth is some people don't have fifty years of living but one years worth of leasrning fifty times.

Explain to me: how does surving doing something stupid make one blessed. It's like God slapped her upside the head and said "Wake up stupid." That does not make her blessed or lucky. If she were blessed or lucky she would not have been struck at all.. If she had been smart, she would have had the clog fixed before the storm if she knew about it, or after the storm if she just found out about it.

Now the woman is not only in the news but in a news video. It is rare for a person to be struck by lightning but unless it happened to me during a situation over which I had little or no control, I certainly wouldn't be proadcasting by facing claiming I'm blessed after committing an act of stupidity. And she claimed she learned something. Still thinks she's special. But she not.

AARP Motor Club

I'm still a member and will probably stay a member as what I have read of other clubs, they don't seem to care any more than AARP does. I just believe they were wrong in my case. Not only that, but the marganton Police Department keeps telling me they are going to get back in touch with me and yet they haven't either.


Once a man's handshake and word was all one needed. Now, having it in writting seems like it isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Sherrod gets biggest 'I'm sorry' - from Obama

No conspiracy theory here but this is a made to order situation that makes whites, especially, conservative whites look really bad. I'm not going to start a discourse
about pride or prejudice. If you want to know my views on the subject, they have been posted before so you will have to look it up yourself.

All I am going to say is that no all white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) conservative southern in dependant fundamental pre-millennial country Baptists are anything like what we are portrayed to be. I understand the point the guy was trying to make: there are racists among those you live to expose and fight racism but with the lady getting fired and apologized to and all the media attention on this mans supposedly manipulation of the truth to suit his own agenda, it looks like things have backfired on him and whites again are portrayed as the purveyors of hate.

White people are just black people with less pigmant or different pigment, whatever the case may be, thae the sooner we all recognize that in reality, we are all the same, the better off we will be.

free Cell

After winning 267 straight games, I finnaly lost one. Too cocky, I guess.

Ray Criscoe's Follies

I had a good laugh at Ray Criscoe's column this morning, his wanting to blame the cops because he got a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, and wanting to exerpt that it is his right to not wear one.

That is a really good article and attitude to put on display for the citizens to emulate. We have the right to pick and choose which laws to obey, what the cops have to do to enforce the laws is far worse than what the law breakers did, the cops should have caught someone else because I'm not the only lawbreaker out here, bad things happen to other folks, and maybe the cops should be out catching the real crooks.

Well, the cops can't catch everyone so they started with you. Yes, you can have an accident on Dixie Drive even if you haven't had one in thirty-seven years, the cops were using thier blue lights--people should have more respect for the cops and just get out of the way like they are supposed too, and as a feature writer and leading citizen, you should be setting an example, not critizing others for doing their job.

i lost a friend when a minor fender bender at less than twnty miles an hour near her home caused her head to strick the rear view mirror on the temple. she died 8 hours later after attending school that day appartntly feeling fine the whole day. it's too bad they didn't have seat belts back then.

No, I'm not sorry the cops gave you a ticket and i hope you get caught every time you drive without one. it's your duty to obey the law and if the law if wrong then petition to have it changed. Until then grow up, be responsible, and place the blame squarly on the shoulders of whom the blame lies. A policeman's job is hard enough without being critized for doing their job by everyone who gets a ticket.

I believe everyone reading this blog (I'm talking to both of you) should cut out and mail to Ray Criscoe every article in which someone is killed or injured in an accidnet in which the article states "he wasn't wearing his seat belts." maybe one day Ray Criscoe will thank the policeman who gave him a ticket. Until then, I hope he starts acting more like a responsible citizen and exercise more care about the attitudes and opinions he shares with the easily influenced through his views in the paper.

Old Age

I get mail from funeral homes wanting me to invest in my burial, from hearing aid companies wanting to help me hear better, and now from the scooter store wanting to help me get around better. I'm not ready to die and i move just fine. my hearing needs help (I do wear hearing aids but that is due to my having been a ditty chaser in the service and to loud jet engines and gun fire from Vietnam, not my age.

True, my body hurts more and things don't work as good as they once did but the truth is, I can keep up with just about anyone over thirty and many under that age.

So please, don't anyone fel sorry for me because I'm getting old. A guy at work used to make off hand comments about my age until I asked him who would die first, a young man or an old man. He said the older man woud. I asked if he was going to die when he was young or old and he said he didn't know. "Well", I said ' if you died before i do, then that would mean you are older than I am. And i intend to outlive everyone here."

That was the last I heard from him about my age.

Page 2

Did you realize this blog has two pages? "Home" and "Look it up" are the page names and can be accessed by clicking on the words on the left hand colunm. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I dont have a counter on that page so I really don;t know if anyone has used it or not.

All-Star game

Because of my work schedule and my age I just can't stay up and watch the ball game even though I really want to see the national League win one. But really this post isn't about the game but the National Anthem, or rather what it means and how it is sung.

I doubt that little fat girl from Glee has any clue what happened the night Francis Scott Key was on that British War ship. He was there to obtain the freedom of captured Americans. The British pointed out the flag over the American fort and told Mr. Key that they were about to start a bombardment against the fort. "Now if that flag is still there in the morning you and the prisoners can go free. If not, you will become one of our prisoners and will be taken back to England"

Well the flotilla of British Warships opened fire on that little fort and shelled that place all night long. Mr. Key kept watch and in the darkness he couldn't tell if the flag was still there until a bomb burst over where the flag flew. In the morning after the British quit their bombardment, Francis Scott Key looked out at the flag and it was, still flying. torn, ragged, and burned but it was still there.

Freedom was won for the prisoners.

When they went into the fort, Mr. key was curious to how that flag had managed to not be knocked down. What he saw gave him the answer and testified to the bravery of the men there and their dedication to the new republic. As one man holding the flag was killed by a British shell, another would run over to hold the flag pole to keep the flag flying high. Francis Scott Key saw a stack of American bodies, each man with their hand on that flag.

Now when that song is sung it should be sung as a testament to those men and this country. This nonsense of putting a fancy twist on the last note is a call to self glory and disrespectful to what happened during that battle. There is nothing wrong (and everything right) with singing that song as written,

I fought my war for this country gladly and as a volunteer when people were running to Canada and protesting and shaming the men and women in the Armed Forces. Once I learned what that song means, I would stand proud and salute the flag when ever I heard it played.

I firmly believe if that fat little girl and others like her that want to personalize that song had to don a military uniform and wear it into battle for this country and when all seemed lost, hearing that song played and knowing that the battle is won, would never again even think about singing the Star Spangled Banner is such a way as was done to open the All-Star game.

Fish Pond surprise

I had a problem in my upper pond so I took my goldfish and her baby out of the pond and put them into the lower pond so I could locate and fix the problem Today, while grilling some burgers, I thought I would check the pond to see if I could glimpse the little goldfish. To my surprise, I spied several bsaby koi. These are the first koi to have been born in one of my ponds.

Not to say fish haven't been born in my ponds. Two years ago I had 11 goldfish and they gave birth to over three hundred. But these are the first koi. Now I just have to figure out which is mommy.

lawmaker responsibiities

I have a question and I would like for it to generate a lot of discussion because I believe it is one that should be discussed. I vote for people to represent me at local, state, and federal levels. We have this system in place because it is too difficult if every issue was voted on with public participation.

Our system in American has evolved into mainly a two party system mainly so a voter can choose a party that more closely represents how they feel or think about an issue or set of issues.

On the national level, we actually don't vote of President but we bote for members to the elctroal college who in turn for for the President. We expect that if our state voted Democratic that the electoral college representative will vote for the Democractic candidate but by law he doesn't have to. While not legally obligated to vote for the winner, if he didn't on a consistant bases, there would be an unrising and that system would be overturned.

For argument sake, say Candidate a was elected to represent us. She is a member of the Smile party which happens to be the party you like. An issue come before the branch of congress she serves in and is an important and controversial issue.

You have strong feelings on the issue and you let a know how you feel. Most Smile
members feel as you do. However, the majority of voters from your area are not Smile members but belong to the Frown Party.

The Smile party will approve the legislation if certain changes are made to it but you are opposed to the legislation on any grounds while Frown members want the proposal passed into law as is.

Now should a vote against the legislation because, as your representative, that is what you elected her to do, should she vote along party lines, or should she vote for it because the majority of people in her district favor passage or should she ignore everyone and just vote how she personally feels about the proposal?

What, exactly, is her responibility her and what do we really expect from or representatives?

With Friends like this, who needs enemies: A perfect example

NM man set on fire after losing drinking bet
Published - Jul 10 2010 05:05PM EST


LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A 47-year-old man's friends set his prosthetic leg on fire after he lost a drinking bet, causing him to suffer severe burns to his buttocks and lower back. Dona Ana County sheriff's deputies found the man naked on the side of U.S. Route 70 with his prosthetic leg in flames. Deputies learned that the man and his friends were drinking Monday and bet that whoever drank the least would be set on fire.

The man told investigators that at six beers, he drank the least, and agreed to let his friends set him on fire.

He said his friends ignited his prosthetic leg, and the flames spread to his body.

The sheriff's office said the man took his clothes off because of the pain and his friends decided to take him to the hospital. But they got nervous and instead dropped him off on the side of the highway.

The man was taken to a Texas burn treatment center.

___

Debbie's passion

As one can tell from my blog's, my passion is things that grow, especially vegatation, and I prefer fish to other kinds of animals. Debbie's passion is things that fly, in particular, song birds and butterflies.

The blue flame

My water ponds have hatched thousands of tadpoles from eggs to frogs but everyone I have seen have been brown, except one.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Water hyacynth multiple rapidly (I started with only three and now they cover almost the entire surface of the pond. (14' x 14').

A closeup of a hyacuth bloom. The blue in the middle looks like a blue flame.

A rare picture of myself. I don't know if I have ever posted one of myself before and I may never again.

it's Hot.

Safelite Auto Glass Repair

I prefer to give Mom and Pop locals my business whenever I can but sometimes they are so way over priced I have to do business where ever I can. Recently I needed a hole nail and I checked at Lowes and they wanted $31.00. I checked a local dealer and he wanted $51.00. I lucked out and got one for free from my mother in law.

More recently, I needed a side vent replaced on my car so I checked with some local dealers. I prefer to do business via e-mail because I am hard of hearing and I can't wear my hearing aids when using a phone. i depend a great deal on seeing a person talk to determine what they are saying. Safelite was the only company that would give me a quote over the internet. Everyone else either called me or wanted me to call them. I don't amswer the phone unless i know who is calling because it is difficult for me unless i know someones speech patterns.

i did ask my wife to call some of them back yo get an estimate of the repair costs. As it turned out, Safelite ewas the least expensive plus they came to where I worked, fixed the car there, cleaned all my windows and vacuumed my car.

"Grandma" may give you a free windshield, but sure as hell can't beat great service.

Surprise.

I had no idea the Greensboro Police monitored blogs but they do. Wow!

News shorts

At Senator Byrd's funeral, one speaker, a female, told the story of the health care legislation vote when Senator Byrd said "This one is for Ted Kennedy," then she started to cry like what Senator Byrd did was so noble. Actually I might have been moved if he had said. "This vote is for the American people," but that would have meant he was voting agaisnt the bill.

One question that has been debated is how much of the oil spill has been siphoned off each day?

Actually, there isn't an oil spill in the gulf, and no oil has ever been siphoned off. "How can you say such a stupid thing?" you may ask.

Simple. It isn't a spill, it is a leak. To siphon, the discharge end of the hose, tube, pipe, whatever has to be lower than the source. That isn't the case here.

Ranking of Presidents

A list of Presidents from the best to the worst just came out and to illustrate how lame it is, two Presidents who were assassinated in office and one who died were ranked higher than Bush. It doesn't surprise me that he was ranked low on the list but in my opinion he was much perferred to Jimmy Carter. Obama was ranked 15th which is a big joke to me.

I assume that the rankings have more to do with a President's ability to get done what they set out to do than the wise decisions they made because as far as saving America or making this a better place to live, Obama falls way short of a quality President.

I saw a 1 minute poll asking who would make a better presdident, Hillary or Sarah, is a joke. Hillary win never be a candidate for President and I dout that Palin will be either.

After

(click on picture to enlarge)



This is our new shower. It is 60" x 60" or large enough for me to sneak in and steal the soap and not be caught.

If the Bates Motel had showers this large, the famous shower scene might have not happened because the lady in the shower would have had room to run away and hide.

For bargin hunters

Two web sites you need to check out if you are a bargin hunter, Ibe is Woot(the original) and the other is DODtracker.

Woot is an advertiser which offers one bargin everyday and each day the bargin is different. DODtracker is a site that lists the deal of the day from a goodly number of Woot offshoots so one doesn't have to check out fifty websites.

Be cautious and don't buy something just because its a good deal but one never knows when you will find that item you need at a great price or that perfect gift for someone on your gift giving list.

Bathfitters update

Bathfitters arrived this morning at 8:00 to begin work on our bathroom remodel. They immendiated started working to remove the old fixtures, took an hour for lunch, finished the job by just a little after five, cleaned up inside and out and were gone by 5:30.

They spread tarps over the carpet, did their cutting outside, and di an exellent job. The only things missed were two pieces of plastic about the size of a gallon freezer bag, that the wind had blown away and they didn't fasten the basement door.

I lack the time but I will send a picture of the finished work soon.

If anyone wants a bathfitter job, please give them my name.