Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Nick Names



Historical Photo:
               Hannah Stiley  was a first!


 Hannah is the very first individual to be captured on film. Reckon she ever wished she had smiled a little?


Tonight's plunder:
When I read Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry aka  Stepenfetchit’s[JD1]  name last night, I couldn’t help but think of my dad. My dad’s name on his first grade list was Frank B Darnell (the only legal record of his name). The B for Benjamin. As he got older he changed it to Benjamin Franklin, he liked it better. In his later years he was referred to as BF. I remember once someone asked him his name and he said, “My name is Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Roosevelt Darnell. It is hard to get that much name on my paychecks, so I shortened it to BF.”

Dad gave people names, Mama was “The Georgia Peach.” Shirl was, ‘Shirley Maxine the Strawberry Blonde.’  She was also his pet!

Folks loved his name for me it was: Jacktum-a-yanktum-hickstank-stankstanktum-bowlegged-knockkneed- pigeon-toed-jacktum. I added the dashes so you might could read it.

He taught Ralph, his much younger brother this: “When you look over in whirly whickum-whackum and see boney bickum backum, call Tommy tickum tackum to run boney bickum backum out of whirly whickum-whackum.”

Interpreted: “When you look over in the corn field and see the cow. Call the dog to run her out of the corn.” (Ralph had been burned badly as a child and never developed into an adult). We played together. Ralph never forgot that while he lived.


Up until I left school, nick names were popular. Bubba and Buck were popular down south. There was Red-Eye, Punky, Kiki, Reeccup, Lefty, Lanky, Butch and Stump. We had a Mortician, well liked in Belmont who was known county as Fat Myers.

Most of the nick-names were endearing not malicious.

So, do you have a nick name?

Nite Shipslog
PS: Cousin Tony sent these little known facts about the USA:
Arizona and Hawaii are now the only states that don't observe daylight savings time.
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 Cecil B deMille's 1937 Cord

Ahhhh that night time snack




Historical Photo:


 The unbroken seal of Tutankhamen untouched for 3000 years in 1922.

Who invented night time snacks?  I do not remember my mama making cookies.  She made thousands of fried pies, custards, sweet potato cobblers, lemon, egg and sweet potato pies.  I do remember eating some of those after coming in from playing and cleaning up some. We played until after dark and were forced to come in. Most evenings we would just gather around the radio and listen to programs. 

Now looking back, if we had a snack it would have been raw or parched peanuts.  Dad raised peanuts as a share cropper when he and mama were first married. He loved peanuts. (Side note, I thought the only place in the world that grew peanuts was Georgia. LOL  That is until Paula said John raised Peanuts in Texas when he was younger.)

I too love peanuts and that is one of my night time snacks. Also Almonds, pistachios, but always an apple and sometimes an orange, celery or carrot. I have to be careful or I get out the p-nut butter and crackers. 

I have just been seeing a new term (to me) pop up: Tree nuts, I am sure referring to those that are not grown underground like the peanut.   That reminds me, sometime the snack is popcorn.  LOL

What do you snack on?

Nite Shipslog

PS: Cousin Tony sent these little known facts about the USA:
There's enough concrete in the Hoover Dam to build a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York City.

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 Lincoln  Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry aka Stepnfetchit and his Cadillac Phaeton

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Remembering Quilting parties



Historical Photo: 
  The five Sullivan brothers died together on the USS Juneau in WWII.



The USN will not longer post the only siblings in a family on the same ship.

In Waterloo, Iowa, sitting at the kitchen table one brother spoke up about the bombing of Pearl Harbor where a close friend died:
George turned to his brothers and said purposefully, “Well, fellas, I guess this settles it. You know what we’ve been saying we’d do if something like this ever happened. And we’re going to do it together, and if it comes to the worst, why, we’ll be together in that, too.”


            (The quilt patterns I remember similar to mama's.)

Mama did a lot of praying and quilting during WWII.....
I know we have at least two quilters here in Blogsville. But this post:
http://lifeawayfromtheofficechair.blogspot.com/2018/01/quilt-of-memories.html
By Lisa, stirred so many childhood memories. (I didn’t know she was older than me?  LOL) The Quilt of memories.

Most of the older folk know what a quilting frame is. For years mama had one hanging from the living room ceiling. Many times there was a quilt ‘under construction’. When the frame wasn’t being used dad had fixed small ropes to pull it up to the ceiling out of the way. Back then many ceilings were 9’ high.

Many times mama would work alone but usually at least four women would work on the task over all. Alternately working on quilts for each family, At least once a year mama would make what she called a missions quilt. AS in Lisa’s quilt mama would cut 4” squares but sell them to people. Most paid a dollar for a square. Mama would stitch their names into the square by hand. Then put them all together with her sewing machine.  When all the squares were sold, everyone’s name who bought a square was put in the hat and at church one Sunday the name was drawn. The winner got the quilt. One or two years everyone buying a square agreed to an auction of the quilt. All monies went to missions.


I played under that quilt many times as mama worked on it. Also when the women worked with her. Mama and those women were praying women. I heard a lot of prayers while under that quilting frame. In the early years it was praying for an end to the war and the safe return of sons, husbands, brothers and friends. Looking up was never a ‘pretty’ sight, it was a mess of colors, hanging string and some clippings. Mama always told me that is how we saw our lives or problems, but the Lord was looking down and he saw a pretty design, ‘if we were good’.

When Sherry’s mama passed away, mama took the ribbons from all the wreaths and unknown to Sherry made a quilt of the ribbons from Susie’s grave. What a thrill to Sherry. What goes around comes around. Sherry and Shirl took care of mama in her last years.

Thanks Lisa for the memory kick!

(UPDATE: Sherry just told me mama made 4 quilts from those ribbons. One for each daughter and their daddy!)
Nite Shipslog

PS: Little known facts about the USA, from Cousin Tony:
Western Michigan is home to a giant lavender labyrinth so big you can see it on Google Earth.
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        Joan Crawford in her 38 Lincoln.