Ninth Degrees of Each Other

JC and Jesus are concessionaires at Fort Peterpaulty. They are business partners in a shoe shine and repair concession. Although JC has that Aztec way about him and Jesus looks like he was born in Cambodia. they are related.

Here is a clue. One was born in Mexico and the other in the Philippines.

The Quarters Boat

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil rig workers have this floating hotel. It is really only a barge with a house boat built on top. The boat is anchored up a safe bayou and as close to the rigs as possible. It has a small crew, an engineer and his asst. and a cook and his asst.

In The Flood Zone

The small town of Wilmer was almost destroyed by a tornado

in the early 1970’s, thus the crude sign, and is also listed as being in a flood Zone.

Steve and Marcia Weaver

Aunt PittyPat has just returned from a trip to the heartland and will have a few news tips to report in days to come.

As is so often the case, when traveling, there are great stories to tell along the way. One in particular was the history of Snuffy Smith, which is the only reason we stopped by the the Old Hardy Hotel in down town Hardy Arkansas. It was a big surprise to all that no one seemed to remember this classic comic strip, and later it came as a bigger surprise that Snuffy was a Denison of the North Carolina hill country wherein we have been led to believe that he was devised by Fred Lasswell who took over the comic strip after the death of it’s creator Billy DeBeck, in 1942. after a 2 week visit to the Ozark mountains. It would appear that Lasswell was drawing from his experiences as a farm boy and of his relatives in Tennessee and North Carolina for ideas for his redefined ideas about old Snuffy Smith

We were in town looking for evidence of old Snuffy when we met Steve and Marcia Weaver, owners of the Old Hardy Hotel. Although they are from Orlando, they have a lot of background on the history of this region.

See their web page at http://www.oldhardyhotel.com/aboutus.htm or drop them a line at oldhardyhotelark@aol.com

Whatever happened to Estaberry McGinness?

Everyone called her "Essie". She was a traveling sales person for the "Old Indian" hardware store in Higgins Corner.

They say that she was the best automatic pea sheller sales person in all of three counties. Even sold one to 89 year old, Arky Flattes. She was last seen at a truckstop on her way to a N.O.W convention. We heard about Essie, just recently, from Babe Sweet the county farm agent.

" I wish I had a good idea about what really happened to Essie, but if you just read this journal, it may help. It's a diary by Simplemira Jones "

Simplemira or Simpy as the locals called him was a retired milk carton maker that had turned to a life of playing checkers and teaching young girls how to tap dance. He also liked to take bathes in Oxydol soap. Simpy died in his sleep, after an evening of dancing at the V.F.W.

I will get around to reading Simpy's diary and even then I get the feeling that I will not know anymore about Estaberry than anyone else.

Love Aunt PittyPat

The Antique Rose Applicant or Whereever we go, we strive for balance..

His last visit to the D.M.V. was in Las Vegas and no he was not nearly as sharp a dresser.

The Ride Attendant

There he was, setting beside the pony rides outside Wal*Mart. He agreed to pose and I made this shot. There were so many questions, I dared not ask.

Nicely’s Smelly Distraction

No one seems to want the responsibility of doing something with the rotten cabbage smelling creature that was found out on the Peckerwood route.

Jason Barber has suggested that we kill and stuff the thing and use it to attract tourists.. The sheriff opposes the idea and is leaning towards moving it across the county line or releasing it back into the swamp.

Local farmers complain that the creature has been trying to breed with their livestock. And in doing so has frightened the chickens so that they no longer lay, and the cows have gone dry. In the meantime it has been tied up behind Nicely’s Bait and Tackle Shop.

Kicking the habit

57 years. That is how long he had smoked. A year before the North Koreans thought they would take over the whole peninsular. Asbestos siding as a new building material was the latest fad, a way to make the home owner feel his home was fire proof. and Studebaker was the sharpest car on the show room floor.

He had played with smoking even before then, sneaking Lucky Strikes, Camel and Wings from relatives, but he had never learned to inhale until his brother showed him how.