Sherry before Jack

This is the fifth grade for Sherry, She is the Sexy one second from the right! (This is out of seq)

This is a Picture outside the mill house, Colette (older sister) is holding Sherry)

Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrressssssssssssssss Johnny, the baby brother.

Alone just being nice and looking good!

Did I put this one on Yesterday? I like it anyway.

A sixth grade school picture. Second from the right, next to last row!

Today's history lesson:

Sherry moved three times in the same town in her life before ME. There is an argument in the family of who saved whose life. But to continue the story if you are familiar with cotton mills, each mill owner built houses near the mill. He rented the houses to the workers for something like 25 cents a room per week. A four room house rented for $4 a month. Now you have to figure that these folks were making 10 to 25 cents per hour. It was still a good deal. They paid their own elec. bill.

If you visit the Amish country near Lancaster, PA you will pass through a town called Blue Balls, one is called Liltits, you will go through Intercourse and reach Paradise.. Those are real towns. Folks like to joke about them. Now keeping that in mind each mill is named. So the mill hill goes by that name. If your dad & Mom worked for the National Mill, when anyone asked, you were from the National. Sherry was born on the Climax, because her Mom & Dad worked at the Climax. I have been in and out of Belmont now for over 50 years, and I have yet to hear a joke about the Climax. In Belmont it was just the name of a mill. There was the Chronicle, Majestic, Climax, and Imperial Mills among many others.

When Sherry was four or five they moved to the country for a few weeks or months. I have never understood why, unless Wiley was moving to the Imperial Mill and no houses were available. During that time in the country Johnny the younger brother almost fell in the well, someone pulled him out. They all argue who was the hero; even Ed Huggins claims to have been the hero. Now living this far out would have entailed a lot of walking since it was about 8 miles to the mill, but I guess Wiley walked since he had no car. This was in the early 40’s.

When a house came available on the Imperial Mill Hill, they moved to 129 Hawthorne St. in Belmont. I know that address well, because once I met this girl I wrote her every day I had a chance. At the Imperial the Harris’s had a four room house, now there were nine people in the family. Vernon one of her older brothers ( the county volunteer entertainer, now) likes to tell that he never slept alone until he joined the service. They all liked to tell the story of saving Sherry when she fell against the coal heater. She was burned pretty badly by rocking back against the old free standing stove, in a kid’s rocker. Problem is every brother wanted the claim of being the hero to save her, we still do not know the truth. I’m just glad one did!

Thanks for coming by the Log.
Nite Shipslog

PS:

*****

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

*****

42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

****

99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

Sherry's life started at a very early age!!!!!

At a very young age she was learning to sew, this is a tredle sewing machine she is on.

Sherry and her oldest brother 'Lefty' and her youngest brother Johnny.

She was a cute kid, huh?

Always been a looker! Little sexy here I think!

Here she is before she met me, with my 'GOOD FRIEND' Sonny. LOL

Susie Hawes Harris, a beautiful and wonderful woman, She and Sherry were very close. A lot of success to our marriage goes to this lady.

This is my girl out fishing on Lake Manatee. I thought I had my pictures to upload, but they have not been reloaded on this new computer. I will try to find them.

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!! I mentioned that this was our anniversary month. Yes we were married on the 22nd of September 1956. During this month I will talk a little about our lives. Tonight I will start with Sherry, if it is not too early.
We call them Cotton Mill towns. Later they were referred to as Textile Communities. Belmont, Sherry’s home town, had over 20 mills in and around it. Folks came from Georgia, Eastern NC and Western NC and West Virginia to work in the cotton mills. Susie Hawes, Sherry’s mama was raised by her mother in a log tobacco barn. When they heard of work in The Piedmont area they moved to Belmont. Sherry’s mama went to work in the cotton mill at 12 yrs of age. Her dad, Wiley Harris went to work a little earlier.
Susie became a spinner and Wiley worked the slubbers and ropers. They were married in their early twenties and raised a family of three girls and four boys. Sherry was the youngest girl with a younger brother. Most of her young life they all lived in a three room house when I met her she lived in a four room house. Yeah that would mean wall to wall beds.
Baths were taken in a tin tub, and the toilet was on the back porch.

Her family never owned a car, neither her dad nor mother drove. They walked to and from the mill. They walked to church. A treat was to take the bus to Gastonia or Charlotte, both about ten miles away. None of the children spent their lives in the cotton mill. When we were married Sherry was working in a hosiery mill. She was a ‘looper’. She sewed the toes of socks. Sherry was on production, and most always exceeded the production amount.

Fate nearly caused me to miss her. She had a friend, Grethern, who moved to Burlington, NC. Sherry visited her and was considering quitting school and moving to Burlington to work. While she was in visiting in Burlington, I moved to Belmont.

A strange twist in our lives.
Shirl and I had lived in Burlington when I was six years old. (Shirl was much older, just kidding sis!) My best friend at 6,7 & 8years of age was Sonny Turner. Wouldn’t you know that Sherry, while visiting back and forth to Burlington dated that rascal. I still want to shoot him! Hahahahaha!
More in the continuing saga of Jack & Sherry…… Thanks for coming this way.
Nite Shipslog

PS: A day without sunshine is like ……….night

Anniversary, jobs, cows and Illegals

Thought I would drag out some old photo's. When we lived in a stable place this was Mark's boat at our pier.

This was our pier, I ran elec and water out to the pier, and placed sod over the trench, as you can see it died.

The rest of the pictures are from the Dora Canal, we lived next to it.

The canal was a mile long, some described it as the most beautiful mile in Florida.

Today's entry.....

September is a great month. This is our anniversary month. This year will be fifty-three years of mostly happiness and bliss. I think WE will write a book on marriage advice, how to make it last. It will probably be a one liner. Love each other and MAKE it last. Some marriages were not meant to be. No couple should stay together if they just CANNOT talk, love and be civil.

Okay that is enough. You will hear more of our marriage later this month. Our buddy Woody and Anna Mae had their anniversary this month. It was a good month for sailors. YEAH!!!!!
As I have said we are in Accord NY. We stopped by here on the way to try to hike the trail. We were both disappointed that we were unable to complete the trail. Sherry still reads Trail Journals and follows the folks who are still on the trail. Every day it seems she names someone who has climbed to the summit of Mt. Katahdin to complete their thru-hike. I am re reading ‘Blind Courage’ by Bill Irwin. Reading his endurance I am challenged to try it again. But it would be in two years.
Sherry will start her procedure for Osteoporosis when we get back to NC, and it requires refrigerated meds every day for 21 months. That would throw us 2011 before we could give it another try. But we do not know what the future holds; we will take it one day at a time.
Hope you all had a good labor day weekend. I know you folk that are still working appreciated the break.
We were reading our local paper over the net. Freightliner Trucks are made in Mt. Holly just five miles from Belmont. Coke put in an order for trucks and Freightliner said they would be built in Mexico. Coke said they will not. Freightliner is building them in the USA. Now Duke Energy (Our power Co.) put in an order for trucks. Freightliner said they will be built in Mexico. Duke Energy said we don’t like it but Okay. Now I am mad as fire, Why didn’t Duke not stick to their guns, move some jobs back to the states. Freightliner laid off a grunch of men, most still not working. Freightliner said they did not want to interrupt the lives of the laid off guys by calling them back for a few months. What a crock!
Take care and thanks for reading this drivel.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 20 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

Yesterday was moving and confusing day. We didd something on the trip we usually do not do. We took toll roads. (these pictures were snapped without looking through the view finder, I am just snapping)

As I said it was a confusing day. I spent most of the day reloading what I could of this system.

The pictures are out of sequence, I appologize to anyone who got a lot of notifications of this entry. I kept dropping off line and losing my entries, so I had to do it a few at the time. This was our approach to the final Toll boot, total tolls about $46. WOW!

This is my view of the tow vehicle, our 1995 Odyssey. I thought it was a nice vehicle until I started hearing about 2002 clunkers being traded in. 2002 that is NEW!

This is our view from the picture window of our home. (I think that is John & Paula hauling cows) What the heck are they doing in New York or Mass.

The Appalatchian trail crosses this Interstate here in Mass. It goes over the road on a road bridge. WE we have walked here before.

Heading into New York.

Sherry keeps her lap covered as we ride (If she is not driving.) Here She has our directions, reservatins, Map book and she is reading her Bible. If you rode with me you would become an avid Bible reader. LOL

I got this quick shot without looking as we finished crossing the Hudson River.

Yep, we took the route to New YOrk City, but we are not going that far South.

Just after we left the interstate he saw this huge corn field in Rondout Valley. I know that is not huge compared to the ones in Nebraska, Kansas etc, But it is big for here and beautiful

This is a ZIP LOCK bag. Some sandwich bag huh?

That is what this computer was returned in. I am saving it for a snack pack. HA!

Thanks I am closing. Hope I make it in time.

NIte Shipslog.

PS: bye from New YOrk

Just trying to keep the rubber on the pavement, and the home between the ditches, you do the same.

The most interesting thing I saw today was this rusty water tower. Probably the most rusty one I have ever seen.

I was curious the whole time in Bangor, are they cutting this mountain down and selling it one load at a time, or making way for some huge building project?

Today was good. But every day above the grass is good.
We drove down to Scarborough so Sherry could visit with Judy while I ran to the Computer hospital over in North Conway, New Hampshire, to pick up the repaired HP Tower. This only happens about every BLUE MOON, that Sherry and I are separated. So I had a good trip over with Jil, and we did not argue much. Once I did tell her to shut up, I was trying to listen to 'Blind Courage', the book by Bill Irwin. I cannot understand all that I hear, but when it is just me and Jil in the car I can turn the volume all the way up. Jil does not care, She never listens, She just talks. (I know more folks like that) I did start to ignore her directions once, but I then turned around and got back on the road she told me to get on. I call her Jil, because that is the name assigned to the computer generated voice on the GPS. I would use the man’s voice, but it so much more fun to argue with a female voice.
Anyway I got the computer, it was a 13 year old boy that fixed it, at least that is how old he looked. Does that ever happen to you. Shucks now it scares me to see some policemen. Have you noticed they are allowing someone who looks like a high school sophomore to carry a gun, and man it is loaded. Was I ever that young? To be honest I can’t think back that far (and use logic).

Thanks for stopping by the log, today is moving day so this is short, probably not sweet.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Don't let your worries get the best of you
Remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited,
Until you try to sit in their pews.

Poporii or something like that!

I have no idea what I have uploaded, this thing quit on me four times. So These are just some pictures. The one above is our boys in GITMO on the ferry headed to Leeward point. Jack is on #44 and Mark is buttoning his Denim jacket on the right.

This is a handsome guy on on the Greek Isle of Corfu. He made a big mistake in trading his Hat for this Greek Soldiers hat. Try explaining that when you report back aboard the ship.

Me on the left holding our first, Jack. This is one of the many picnics with friends in Biloxi Miss.

Okay, this is my friend Tuck. his mom, Rose his wife and Lilly their charge. But does Tuck look like Bobby Darin, 'Mack the Knife'

Handsome Sailor...

Nother handsome sailor, Look at that hair. WOW! in work uniform.

Mark on the left, Jack on the right. Mark did not join the service and jack, out of uniform ,did join the Navy.

This is my girl, one of the first things I noticed were the legs. But when we got married she wore them just above the ankles.

Just pictures from the past. I had an entry with pictures that had a flow, but since Blogspot and me could not get along, we got poporii.

Tomorrow is moving day. We go to Scarbourough, ME for a day. Sherry will visit Judy and I will do a cross country to pick up my computer in North Conway.

TAke care and thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Must be something about girls in September and sailors. Woody and me found our honey's in Sept. He just did it early in the month. I had the duty and had to wait longer. HAHAHAHA!

Don't marry them because you can live with them, marry the person you can't live without!

Anyone married for more than two weeks can find grounds for divorce, the trick is finding grounds to stay married.
Wade Hinson

You what? The newly wed differences!!! were there any?

Our wedding picture taken with a Brownie hawkeye and developed by Jack RAbbit.

She had to want this deliquent.

Here is the prize!!!!

Last night I was thinking how wonderful our marriage has been (over all). We have had a couple bumps in the road, but over all it has been a great ride through life. There is a lot of give and take. A lot of learning in the process of Two becoming one. I heard some one say, I hope the young couple put as much time in planning the marriage as they did planning the wedding. There is a lot of truth there.

Sherry was the youngest in her family to get married and I was the youngest person ever in our family to get married. I was 17. I had good grades in school when I went. But I gained a lot of hours in detention hall. Mostly for skipping school. I think I set a record for that number because I skipped detention hall also. Anyway I solved that problem by joining the USMC. Looking back at my short history, I did not show much promise for a girl to take as a husband. But she did.

Sherry was a stay at home wife for the first while so she done the cooking and housekeeping. Me Man, bring home the groceries. Top salary $78 a month. HA! But on a budget we made it.

What brought this all up was at breakfast one morning I finished my grits, bacon and ‘runny’ eggs. I sopped my plate clean with one of our canned biscuits. I put a hunk of butter in the center and spooned some jelly on the butter and commenced to use my fork to mix it all up.
“What are you doing?” she looked shocked.
“I’m fixing my butter and jelly to eat,” I answered in amazement. “What does it look like?”
She did not say what she thought it looked like but I could tell from the look it did not look like food. “That is not how you eat butter and jelly, you put the butter in the biscuit while it is hot so it melts then put the jelly in the biscuit. That is how we did it at home.”
“Well at our house this is the only way I have ever seen it eaten,” I said, trying to look as hurt as possible.

That is so funny. We talked about a lot of things before we got married, but never discussed butter and jelly. Ha! I salted my watermelon, apples and cantaloupe, Sherry does not.

Did you have any funny things happen because of family differences when you were first married?

Thanks for coming by the log.

Nite Shipslog

PS:
It is ten thousand times better to be single and want to marry, than to be married and want to be single.

Changing the oil in our home.

I know you were all crying when you did not get to see the complete Sinclair Oil Truck the other day, so here she is. It is about a 1936 Ford.

The Pumpkin Patch RV folks have decorated more this hear. Here is pictures of the entrance.

I love the old wagon wheels.

The guy in the red shirt, runs this Roach Coach. He was clowning for me. In another life I operated one of these. Sherry bought a diet coke off the truck, it was fifty cents! I was shocked.

I got that about thirty years ago.

This is practically like the truck we owned. It was a good job, but not one I was thrilled with. But it sure brought back a lot of memories.

The first day we took our Roach Coach out, I burned every sandwich.

This is why we were able to see the Roach Coach, We had our house in for service. Doesn't everyone take their house in for service? Sherry is talking to Shirl on the phone. And believe it or not, Shirl was having her car serviced in NC at the same time. Of course our bill was about fifteen or twenty times what hers was.

But we do not have an electric or gas bill and never pay to have the grass cut or to have the gutters cleaned. HO HO ! no that is HA HA!

We still have not figured how to get my computer from North Conway in New hampshire yet. As a matter of fact the last time we checked it was not even repaired. But We will check this evening or tomorrow. OH tomorrow is Wash our house day, hope the wind dies some.

Thanks for stopping by the log,

Nite Shipslog

PS:

I just heard from nathan Odom from the Mts of NC. He read about us meeting Bill Irwin. He has a friend who knew Bill when he was making that famous AT hike. Nathan is a surveyor. He has read the book, 'Blind Courage.' Sherry just finished re reading it and I started. I am still amazed that Bill attempted the hike and more amazed that he completed it.