Bob Jackson of Jackson's Cafeteria RIP

This is Bob Jackson....... A fine man The folks of Gastonia and the surrounding area will miss him.

Moving Day again. We are back in Belmont and Shirl’s back yard. We got a call from the Gazette reporter saying our story may run this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing what she has done.
There is a local restaurant, a cafeteria actually, called Jackson’s Cafeteria in Gastonia. Bob passed away last night. He was a very nice man who has fed the public good food at a reasonable price for 35 years. I sure hated to hear that. He was a man who kept his finger on the pulse of his businesses. At one time he owned 10 restaurants, he was down to three.
A few weeks ago as was his habit he was going from table to table visiting. They came to our table. He did not know me but he knew Vernon (Sherry’s bro). Vernon has had him appear as a guest entertaining seniors. Bob was an accomplished musician and singer. Anyway Mrs. Jackson commented on my hat while the others were visiting. I asked Sherry to find out the size. That night I ordered him one from a website that sells the original handmade Greek fisherman’s hats, size 7. The next week I took it in when we went to eat, The Jacksons were not in that night. I left the hat with his son.
Shirl saw Bob and he said he was thrilled with the hat and told Vernon the same. I am glad I did that for a warm sweet man, loved by his customers and staff. RIP Bob Jackson, 86.
Hope you are enjoying Spring, I am trying not to fuss about the rain considering the drought we were in.
Thanks for coming this way.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
Money can't buy happiness - but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than in a Kia
No one knows when their end will come, the idea is to have the ticket bought , paid for and kept up to date.

Robby Cook took my Girl friend!

Robbie folded the dollars and gave them to us. He says he does this and then staples them to his business cards, Stop by Valdese and go to His accounting office and ask for his card. (It might work! No guarantees!)

This is me and my first sweet heart, and she never knew it. She was the prettiest thing around until I came across my Sherry.

This is the bunch that got together to talk over old times in Valdese. L-R.. Jim Page, me, Robbie, Peggy and Linda, Jim's little sister. inda was working and had to get back to work.

Today's revealing entry!!!!!

Robbie Cook took my girlfriend! Well she never knew she was my first girl friend because she never asked me. Ha! She was for sure one of the prettiest girls around. I am sure Jim or Bub might have thought the same. I didn’t know Robbie was in the running, yet he got her, probably for being older and wiser. Plus he probably at some point told her he wanted to be her sweetheart. She was Betty Carswell.
They are a wonderful couple and have been married over 50 years. While we sat at the table Robbie folded some one dollar bills. The pictures are above of a shirt and pants. That is two dollars. He has an accounting business. He said he would do that and staple them to his business cards, novel idea. I took the $2, he gave Sherry $2 also. Jim bought the meal, man we made out!!!!! Thanks guys. I did ask Jim what time supper was, he never did answer. LOL

Okay so yesterday was the meeting,we got together with my old friend Jim Page in Valdese at Myra’s Ice Cream and Sandwich place. Jim had gotten Robbie and his beautiful wife Betty to come down also. We had a wonderful time. I forgave Robbie because I had found another beautiful girl, but this one I told her she was my sweetheart, if she would have me.….LOL.!
I would tell you I ate a foot long hotdog, ‘all the way’, but then Shirl would bitch at me about the cholesterol. But mainly she would bitch because she did not have one. LOL.

There are a lot of memories in the few years I lived in Valdese. We get to talk over a lot of them. I have good friends still living who are real sick. I asked about an Algebra Teacher, Mrs. Brevard. She is not well. I remember her very well, she was one of those folks who are natural teachers, or work at it so hard that they actually teach. I had Algebra I under her and got a B+. My next school in Algebra II the teacher was teaching the same thing Mrs. Brevard taught; when she gave a test she had bonus questions. At the year’s end I had a 110 average or an A+.

Valdese is a town in the edge of the South Mountains, the school was relatively small. The High School is run down, empty and windows are broken, and it is a sad testimony to the many students who learned there.
Thanks for coming this way,
Nite Shipslog
PS:
******. No one ever says 'It's only a game' when their team's winning.
******. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

****** Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it

Sewing Machines and Spool tractors

This is my girl Sherry sitting on her mothers sewing machine. It always amazed me how the machine folded into the cabinet. I thought it was sort of magic.

This was like Mama's singer that dad put a motot on later.

These are something like the spool tractors we made to play with.

Today's entry.................

I miss folks sewing. Mama was real tolerant of me when she was sewing. There were times she would let me peddle as she sewed. The best things of the sewing was the wooden spools the thread came on. You could play for hours with those things. Daddy only once showed me how to make a spool tractor, and I made many of them after that. Mama was good about saving the spools for me. She used more thread when she loaded the bobbin, you could see the end coming on a spool.
We had a corner shelf stand, made by gluing spools together in three stacks and inserting a triangular shelf about every five of six spools. After that was done dad shellacked it. I thought it was beautiful. But it collected dust along with the knick knacks set on it. Daddy also used them for drawer knobs.
Mama could adapt to change better than anyone I knew. In Burlington, NC dad converted the old wood stove to kerosene. If mama burned the biscuits or ruined a cake because of the difference in heating, I never knew it. It was there that he had someone add an electric motor to mama’s sewing machine and she did not have to peddle anymore. She could make that thing hummmmm.
I never knew her to make a man’s coat, but I believe she could have. Now if you have never tried to sew you don’t know how to appreciate a real seamstress. You try to get a bunch of yards through and under the machine as you turn around and start back down a long seam. Mama could do it without missing a beat, and the side- by-side stitches looked perfectly alike.
In our early marriage we had a sewing machine in the house. Sherry’s mama had sewed also. We used the machine to patch mostly. Sherry did some light sewing with patterns. Once in North Missouri I decided to make Sherry a dress. I bought the cheapest material I could find (that is probably not being sure of one’s self). She picked the pattern. I did great until it came to the zipper in the back. It was a long zipper. No way could I sew a seam straight that far, and I didn’t. So I added a large ‘kite’ on the back to cover the zipper. I used three small snaps one in the top center and one on each shoulder, the bottom was loose so if the wind caught it you could see the lining. I was proud of the dress, but that was the first and last garment I made.

Tomorrow: Robbie took my Sweetheart.

Thanks for coming by the log.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
**** Scratch a dog and you'll find you have a permanent job.

*****. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who anxiously awaits his 16th birthday.

******* There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.

****** There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM: It could be a right number.

Aren't weeds grass too?

This is our parking spot behind Shirl, we are not there. The Motor home hook ups are hidden in the little well house.

Shirl added tulips last year, they came back again this year. Once we made a trip to Holland Michigan, just after the tulip festival. The Tulips were still beautiful. I love Tulips.

This is a small section of Shirl's GRASS. She still lets dandelions grow so I can blow the parachutes and make more next year. LOL

Today's exciting entry (I know you are just chomping at the bits!!!! LOL)... ...

On the trail we run across Daisy’s and Brown-eyed Susans, when I was a kid we always played the game of ’She love me, she loves me not!’ Remember that? I was thinking of that the other day when I got a straw with my meal. Plastic straws are no fun. I remember the waxed paper straws, I could play she loves me, she loves me not by compressing thumb and finger, flattening the straw at 90 degree angles every other squeeze, did you do that? Somehow I could always make that come out right. On the daisy I would pull two sometime to make it right. The end result is what I wanted. And the straw, I would always work it out so I had at least a small section to end with a ‘She loves me.” That was not cheating, 'She' always loved me!!!!!

I see perfect yards now, just one kind of grass in the whole yard. When I was growing up yards that were green were great, not matter what kind of green it was. And what would a yard have been without Dandy Lion’s to blow on and send little parachutes flying in the wind. I loved to do that. My dad showed me how to split the stem and make a noise maker out of it.

Yes and I could look for a long time in the clover for a four leaf one. If I could not find a four leaf clover, I would take a big clover and pull one leaf off, then split the other two, voila, four leafs. It seldom fooled anyone. Now most folks know that a four leaf clove is a mutation, abnormal. Sherry and I used to eat our lunch on the hill overlooking the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. Seldom did a day go by that we did not find a four leaf clover. What does that tell you? The Mutation or Abnormal is normal in the D.C. area. LOL

I remember the little weed with a head on it, the Foxtail. IF you knew how, you could double the stem over itself and pull the weed fast and shoot the little head. It never went over three or four feet, but it would shoot. You could use the stems to fish for doodle bugs in the yard. I could sit for hours saying ‘Doodle bug, doodle bug your house is on fire.’ (was there anymore to that little ditty?”) With the stem in the hole you could see it wiggle then pull you up a doodle bug.
What was fun for me as a child now has become the enemy. Everyone wants to eradicate them.

Thanks for coming this way,
Nite Shipslog
PS:
***** How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?
***** Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.

***** Why is it that, at class reunions, you feel younger than everyone else looks?

A photographer took these pictures and sold them to a Paris Newsaper. The first printing SOLD OUT. It took me awhile, not know ing how to put this back together, but I wanted you to see it, if you had not.............Jack

Swallows in Love and Sorrow . . . Swallows: Here his mate is injured and her condition is fatal.She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.




Here he brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.

He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead. He tried to move her, a rarely-seen effort for swallows

Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again, he cries with adoring love.

He stood beside her, saddened of her death.

Finally aware she would never return to him, hestood vigil beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

I thought this was such a great story of love in pictures.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Millions of people cried after seeing these photos in America, Europe, Australia , and even India . The photographersold these pictures for a nominal fee to the most famousnewspaper in France . All copies of that edition weresold out on the day these pictures were published.And many people think animals don't have brains or feelings!!You have just witnessed the Love and Sorrow

A 1955 Chevrolet IN CHURCH!

Speaking of OLD cars, this one is in Bennington, VT, the home of Hemmings Motor news, the Antique car buff's friend. They still have a 'service station' that fills you up, checks the oil and cleans the windows. Amazing huh?

This is Sherry on a Rock ledge in Virginia

This is my steady, recooperating from 'heel' problems in Virginia. This was a GREAT campsite to recooperate, beautiful mountain stream. Here we also had the motor home.

Sunday at a new church.

Sunday and we attended a new church today. But the pastor was not new to us, We have known him for years. He was once a member of our church when I thought I was a preacher. He is now Dr. Ken Hensley. He was called out of retirement to Shepherd this new flock. Ah, there was Betty. I have known her since 1942, what a surprise to see D.J. Brooks oldest daughter. Such memories. Of course she asked about Shirl.

As I was speaking to the pastor after church a lady passed by, “I remember you!” She said, “I was in your art classes when I was a little girl!” (That one I did not believe, because she looked older than I. (maybe, LOL))!
Of course I recognized ‘Dude’ Carswell, he sang bass in the church quartet. He has sung bass in a few Gospel Quartets. Folks kept coming up and saying they knew my family, my sister Kat was married to a minister, and he had been a pastor to some of these folk. My Dad also was a minister and had pastored fifteen miles down the road at Valdese. He had also been at Shelby, where DJ’s family was from.

Priscilla Hensley asked how was Jack Jr. doing, it had been along time sience seeing him.

Lastly Frank Effler was there. Frank is a brother to a niece-in-law. He is a great guy and retired Military, so we still have that in common.

Is this church unique or what? Sherry says you have got to see in the Childrens’s church area. So the pastor took me back. WOW! There was a 1955 red and white Chevrolet Bel-aire completely restored, right beside a ’58 restored Plymouth. In front of those was a 1932 Ford Road Rod. In Church? Yep. The church is being leased, it is at a giveaway price so the man that owns the building can continue his hobby of restoring cars and the kids can see the progress each week and learn also. I love that.

It is rainy here in the mountains, but I am happy. What a unique day. I would have never thought we would meet so many folks we were acquainted with, and we have never lived here before.

Thanks for coming this way…….
Nite Shipslog
PS:
********* The nicest thing about the future is it always starts tomorrow.
********Money will buy a fine dog but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
******* If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.

****** A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water

Watch out for Bears in the Smokies

Here I am feeding some horses along the trail. The trail sometimes goes right through a pasture with livestock.

My steady beside the ever present white blaze of the AT

This is the stuff in our packs when we started. We did cut back some, but I still had over 50 pounds and Sherry over 30.

Today's insightful entry..... LOL

Just a little more on hiking and I will have to digress to the Smokies again. We stopped at Spence Field Shelter for the night. I was pretty scruffy, after about four days in the woods. I sat on a Rock in front of the shelter. I looked up and here was a neat young couple coming up the trail, they were not hikers and were dressed very lightly. The girl walked up to me and said, “Excuse me, but do you live here?”

I explained it was a hiker’s shelter and my wife and I were there for the night. We passed the time of day and they went on past the shelter on a side trail. I thought they would get lost, I did not hear any more about them, so they must have made it. They were staying at Cades Cove, and the trail they took did not go there.

Sherry just hates to hike without a bath. So just as soon as we stop for the day she heads off into the woods or the privy, and using ‘handi-wipes’ gives herself a bath. She never gets stinky like most hikers. LOL

The one reason I mention Spence Field Shelter is an incident that happened a few days later. We hike slow so the hikers behind us catch up and pass. One night we spent the night over looking a beautiful valley and a young hiker came in late. Everyone swaps trail stories but he had a good one. He stayed at Spence shelter a couple nights after us. In the morning he was preparing to leave, but took a run down to the privy, leaving his pack. He heard a growl and saw a bear dragging his pack off. He said he actually ran and did a tug of war with the bear for the pack, but lost. The bear dragged it off a piece and started going through the pack. He ate what food he could find along with his trail meds, Ibuprophen, salve etc. Then he left the pack. That was the only ‘bad bear’ encounter we heard of.

At night most hikers throw a rope over a tree limb and pull their packs up in the air away from animals, especially bears. You hang it after you have eaten and leave all food in the pack. You don’t want to invite the bear into your tent with the smell of chocolate or peanut butter.

God Bless America and God Bless all allied troops who are in harms way.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
'Those who hammer their guns into plows will
plow for those who do not.' ~ Thomas Jefferson

***** The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.

***** Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.

***** Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

***** The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

Alligators and our Day Trip

(click to enlarge the photos)


We took a day trip, picked up Don & Evelyn and drove down to Morven, NC to visit the Tuckers at their farm and see their new Yacht . Now Tuck can find a deal, he kept bidding on boats in Houston until he got more than he wanted at less than he expected to pay, (his words). It is a 30 footer with head, kitchen and bed room. It has radar, sonar, depth finder, fish finder etc. A beautiful boat.

He has the finances to do all this. We do not begrudge them the ability to swing deals that we could only dream of. What Tuck has they have earned; he should have inherited, but did not. He stood aside when a greedy step mother took the family money, etc. But like I said, he has earned what he has by the sweat of his back and the intelligence and guts he possesses. I admire his ability. When I was able to retire and hit the road, he was just hitting his stride. He is a great guy, BUT HE CANNOT TALK LOUD! Lol Not his problem, mine.

The Tuckers used to have more horses, this is the only one left, I thought it was beautiful. Tuck wants it gone, Rose wants more company for the horse because it is lonely. What will happen? Who knows. But that is one pretty horse.
We needed just a little reminder of Florida. (This is close to where Rose, of 'Roses are Read' lives.)

Once many years ago we drove what is called ‘Alligator Alley’ which is a highway across South Florida, East and West. While in a Car you could not see down the slopes on the side of the road, BUT when we crossed it in the Motor home, looking down into the ditches, WOW it was wall to wall Black Alligators. There must have been at least 100,000 gators on that road. I was wondering what they ate, a gators appetite is pretty large, because he is a big reptile, how do they all eat? Now I know they will eat dogs, cats and folks if they get close. Everyone in Lower Florida especially is familiar with gators in about any body of water.
When Sherry first started seeing them she said let me drive, you have got to see this, there are hundreds of gators here, and they were for the next hundred miles. I told her if the motor home ran hot and we needed water, it would be her job to take the bucket down to get the water. The look I got was “In your dreams cowboy!”.

Beauty… Don’t you just love the beauty of spring. As we have been driving around the different colors of azaleas have caught my attention. People who know how to put colors together have created even more beauty. The right color of red with a purple surrounded by white is gorgeous. I did not have the camera.

Thanks for your attention,
Nite Shipslog
PS:
****** The original point and click interface was a Smith and Wesson.

***** I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on.