Notes from Down Home

I got to visit a lot of folks while I was 'down home' even though Ivan and Dennis took up most of my time. Here are some photos: and the descriptions are here in this text. The miltary people are Navy Officer Candidates at Pensacola NAS where I attended Church last week. I nearly had a flashback to my own OCS experience at Newport RI in 1970. Fortunately, with therapy, I am ok, ok, ok, o.... today (almost normal - neck still twitches). I had coffee every morning at about 5 or 6AM with the "DP" club at the Chumuckla Tom Thumb. This is where you learn how to find help to fix a barn, or get a bulldozer or how to buy tickets for the Biloxi gambling bus (for now you get tickets to Las Vegas ... or maybe Vicksburg) or explore the psychology of why land prices on the water soar after a hurricane. I went to Bonifay with Jim and Mom on my birthday and ended up with a bunch of cousins, Aunts and my Uncle Bobby presenting me with a birthday cake. Uncle Bobby (shown picking scuppernong grapes (niagara) told us the best stories of growing up in the 'canebrake' and my video batteries were dead. Later that day in Pensacola I had another cake at my sister's house. Earlier, I had gone to the "OPRY" in Chumuckla. I don't have photos of the Farmer's Opry, but I did tape some great material from the Sawmill Band that I may present on the video blogs from www.eggzono.tv . Just as I was leaving to come back to NJ I had a short visit with Marion Tidwell who was working on the Elizabeth Chapel grounds (destroyed by Ivan) to get ready for the groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday. It is his niece, Mary Jo Trenkler who writes the poems about the area that are on Chumuckla.net. I wanted to get MT videotaped in an old truck with a small child to illustrate "riding in granpa's truck" which is one of the poems MJ has now provided with audio. That will come later. I had to catch a plane back to NJ.