Paul From Alabama

~Guest Writer~

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 13:01:00 -0500

No, No, No ... Yes!

Hello, Mrs. Paul from Alabama here again. I hope the summer is finding all of you well and happy and like Paul, anticipating perfect garden weather so that you can get out and enjoy that which you love.

I know you have all heard the expression of someone being a ‘yes man’ and sure that you all know what that means. Well, my dear husband, Paul from Alabama is a ‘no, no, no, yes man’ and I don’t mind telling you ... sometimes it drives me nuts!

So, you are probably wondering how I’ve addressed this little bump in our otherwise smooth and happy relationship. I’ll tell you. I did what all the marriage counselors, all the self help books tell you and I simply said to Paul. “Darling, I know you probably don’t realize this, but something is bothering me.” With a look of concern, he brings us both to sit on the sofa and listens as I pour out my heart to him. He listens as I tell him that when I come to him with an idea or am excited about a new project, it hurts my feelings that his first reaction is always no, no, no ... and finally yes. I explain that I would like that he just listen to all I have to say and then if the answer is still no, then that’s fine. I then ask if he understands what I’m saying and he said ... “Well, no, because eventually I always say yes!” :-)

So on we go ... I continue to have all these great ideas about the garden and he continues to say no, no, no and then usually a yes.

Sometimes it bothers me, sometimes it doesn’t, but always it makes me smile.

This all brings me to the real reason for today’s story... :-)

Yesterday, Paul and I were in the garden. He doing some trimming and I tending the vegetables which you know from previous blogs are planted in front of his glorious rose swag. At some point during the morning I went to the kitchen side of the house for some reason and then it hit me .... Oh MY GOSH! Why did I not think of this before. My mind was crazy with ideas, the plan immediately clear and I couldn’t wait to tell Paul of my new idea.

I ran, literally, to the back yard, calling for him to come and let me show him what I was planning to do! I was so happy and then I saw his face.

He had his no, no, no face on ... but did that stop me? NO! I grabbed his hand and half pulled him through the arbor not even stopping for breath as I began to spill my thoughts.

I told him I wanted to move the vegetable garden to the kitchen side of the house ... raised beds here, raised beds there, a bit of black fencing to the street side of the house to shield the view of the working garden from the street but which would compliment the fencing going into his garden ... and an herb garden right by the kitchen door with nastutium and marigolds .... and ... and ... and ... breathlessly explaining the vision I had in my mind.

Paul stood there, quietly as I continued. Then you will have the area where the vegetables are now for larkspur and foxgloves and all the gorgeous flowers you’ve wanted to showcase your roses ... to show off the swag the way it should be shown.

Paul still stood there, quietly. I finally stopped and looked up at him .... waiting for the expected reaction. I asked, “what do you think?”

A slow grin came to his face and he said, “YES!”

Mrs. Paul from Alabama

Old Movies

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 14:20:31 -0500

I love old movies.....Good old movies, that is.....Good old movies and even not so old 'good' movies, I love'em all......And I watch'em over and over again....I bet I've seen the Maltese Falcon 300 times and that's a conservative estimate....:)...I know what you're going to say, "Paul from Alabama, don't you ever get bored watching the same movie over and over again, the ending is always the same"?....Well all I can say is, I'm never bored with a 'good' movie and the feeling the movie gave me the first time I saw it, the way it moved me emotionally, well if it gives me that same feeling the 300th time I see it, well I might watch it 301 times.....:)...I know some folks can't, I got a good friend who never ever watches a movie twice, he just finds them not interesting and frankly boring and that's fine, we're just different when it comes to watching movies....

Now what is an old movie?...Well for me over the years what's an 'old movie' has changed as I got older and I'm sure for other folks too around my age, I'm 59 now.....Years ago when I first fell in love with old movies, an old movie was anything with my favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart....'The Maltese Falcon', 'Key Largo', 'To Have and To Have Not', 'The African Queen', 'Casablanca', 'The Big Sleep' and the 'The Petrified Forest'.....I mean these are wonderful, great old movies, with great acting and great stories....I would see them on TV or at movie theaters that would have old movie screenings.....Of course then came VCR tapes and now DVD’s, even movies on demand on the TV now or shown on our computers......

Bettie Davis?.....'All About Eve'.....Every movie she was in she was mesmerizing but none as much as her part in 'All About Eve'....

W.C. Fields?....Lord I love him....'The Bank Dick' is one of the funniest things I've ever watched in my life.....The Marx Brothers?.....Absolutely insane......Some of the old screwball comedies with William Powell, like 'My Man Godfrey'....Cary Grant?.....He's made some of the funniest movies ever, 'Arsenic and Old Lace', 'The Philadelphia Story', 'His Girl Friday', 'My Favorite Wife' and of course 'Bringing Up Baby'......

Alfred Hitchcock?......"North By Northwest', 'Vertigo', 'Rear Window', 'Dial M For Murder', 'Notorious'...and 'Psycho' ...I lived in Atlanta when 'Psycho' came out in 1960, I was 11 years old then....We lived in the suburbs of Atlanta and the only way you could get downtown to see a movie when you were 11 years old by yourself was the buses or trolleys as we called them back then....A friend of mine, I even remember his name still, Henry Cline, well me and Henry slipped off from his mother's house early one evening and took the bus downtown to the old Paramount Theater in Atlanta, one of those beautiful old theaters that's gone now, big screen, ornate furnishings, looked more like a palace than a movie theater.....We saw 'Psycho', how or why they let two kids like us in is a mystery to me but back then we thought ourselves lucky until......Until that shower scene, those of you who saw 'Psycho' know what I mean, I never took a shower for weeks afterwards and I always locked the door if I was even in the bath, just in case Norman Bates tried to sneak in with that big old kitchen knife in his hands.....:)

Now one of my favorite movies of all time is Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', released in 1977.....OK, ready for this?....I saw it one day at a matinee in 1977, I went back and saw it that night again, and then went back and saw it again twice the next day!!....OK, I said I liked it......:) But now it's an 'old movie' about as old now as the 'Maltese Falcon' with Humphrey Bogart was the first time I saw it.....So you see today's movies will be the old movies of tomorrow, we just have to live long enough.......:)

Every time I ever saw Paul Newman in a movie, whether it was 'Cool Hand Luke', 'Harper', 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof', 'Long Hot Summer', 'Hud' or 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', I walked outta that theater knowing I was a little bit like Paul Newman or at least thought I was or wanted to be, which when you're young is the same thing...even when you're old too sometimes......:)

Cowboy movies, gangster movies, movies about love, sci-fi movies, horror movies, mystery movies, detective movies, period piece movies, epics....Whatever we can conjure up in our minds, somebody has made it into a movie......I know, some movies are better than others, and some movies, well they shouldn't have been made in the first place, but some......Some are amazing..........

How many times have I seen 'To Kill A Mockingbird"?.....More times than I got coneflowers and those of you who know me, know I'm a fool for coneflowers and I got over a hundred of them planted all over in drifts throughout my garden, yes I've easily seen that movie a 100 times and more I'm sure....,..And that movie, why it magically makes me 7 or 8 or 9 years old again every time I watch it......When I was a kid, about those ages I used to go visit my granny for the summer in Piedmont, Alabama and I was the new kid in town visiting for the summer, just like Dill, the little boy who had all the adventures with Scout and Jem that summer portrayed in the movie and the book..Little Dill who always exaggerated a little bit trying his best to fit in or impress his new friends, I used to do a bit of that myself.......

The scary house, the mysterious, scary boy, some mean old drunken man, eccentric old ladies in the neighborhood, we had'em all in Piedmont just like the ones Harper Lee wrote about in 'To Kill A Mockingbird'.....It was just like Harper Lee was writing about the Piedmont of my youth and it was portrayed just like it in the movie.....I think I've never felt more alive than when I watch that movie again and again, its not nostalgia, it’s more than that, it’s magical if its anything.....I can only speak for my own youth, but being a kid in a small southern town where everyone knows everyone and everyone more or less looks out for each other, well I'm prejudiced I know but I feel sorry for kids today that'll never know what that was like.....

You see old movies are sometimes more than just old movies......I can a watch'em again and again.....and I do.

Paul from Alabama

Dream Car

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:10:02 -0500

You ever had a dream car?....I mean a car that every time you saw one you followed it with your eyes till it was out of sight.....When I was a young man I had just such a car in my sights.....A brand new Corvette Stingray convertible.....Now by the time a Corvette Stingray convertible was my dream car I'd already gotten drag racing out of my system.....

I no longer thought it necessary to have a 500 horse power motor, and if some guy in the next town or my town had a faster car than me, well good for him....Somehow a car that shook the ground when you cranked it wasn't as appealing as it used to be and nobody was happier when I sold my ground shaking drag car than my next door neighbors, and the people that lived next door to my neighbors and the people that lived....OK, lets put it this way, everyone within a 1/4 mile radius of our my house were exceedingly glad when I finally sold my car....:)

Now that car cost me a lot of money, how much money? A lot, and to make the money to buy that racing motor, transmission, rear end, bubble hood and everything else you needed so your car would bring the front wheels off the ground when you rev-ed it up and put the pedal to the metal so to speak, I got me a job finishing concrete.....Sorry what was that fellow gardeners? You haven't ever owned a car that could bring the front wheels off the ground? Well my goodness, why ever not?....:)....."It sounds ridiculous, who would ever in their right mind want a car like that Paul from Alabama?".....Why me, fellow gardeners....Back in them days I couldn't understand why everyone didn't have one of those cars or at least wasn't busy getting one.......:)

Now about finishing concrete, let me put it to you the way the man who hired me put it to me that first day that concrete started slowly flowing out of that concrete truck and piling up on the ground and I was expected to take my shovel and start moving it around where it was supposed to go......Mr. Law said to me,"Paul, finishing concrete will either make a man out of you, or it'll kill you".....I started working in May, finished working in August and when I picked up my last check I told Mr. Law, "Mr.Law, I couldn't really say if you made a man outta me or not, but Lord a mercy a few days there you nearly killed me"....Mr. Law looked at me and smiled and told me I was a really good worker, that was high praise from a man like Mr.Law and I always remembered it fondly and still do today......I made really good money for a guy 19 years old back then and I worked more hours than David Copperfield ever did on his worst day over there in jolly old England back when they worked children from morning till night.......:)

Now I had about $3,000 in cash put together and I was going to borrow my parents station wagon and with a buddy of mine, Derrick, drive to Charlotte N.C. to Holman & Moody, the Ford racing capital of the South.....How can I explain what going to Holman & Moody meant to me back in them days?.... I know, think the Israelites (me) on their way to Mt. Sinai (Holman & Moody) after being released from slavery(finishing concrete) to receive the Ten Commandments (a Holman & Moody racing motor).....Got it fellow gardeners?, "Paul from Alabama, you sure that ain't blasphemy?", Blasphemy?, that ain't blasphemy, that's a Holman & Moody Ford racing motor!!!!......:) I kinda figured the Lord was on my side anyways cause I didn't die of heat exhaustion finishing concrete to make the money to buy the motor in the first place......"Paul from Alabama, we're going to give you the benefit of the doubt but no more Israelite analogies, OK?".....OK fellow gardeners, not even one more......:)

Well I pull up in the parking lot of Holman & Moody Racing Enterprises and thinking to myself, "Hey, when I tell them how much money I got to spend and how much I've dreamed of this day, how much I love Ford racing motors, what a fan I am of Holman & Moody, why they'll probably take me and Derrick on a personalized tour of the facility and let me drive Fireballl Robert's old race car once around the block.....:)

Well I walk up to the counter, tell the guy what it is I want, how much money I got, what I'm going to do with the motor when I get it home, how much I've dreamed about this day and my life story from birth.....:).....And you know what happened then fellow gardeners? "What Paul from Alabama? How are we supposed know anything, we weren't there, its you telling the story goofy"!!!.....There's no need to get testy fellow gardeners......:)

Well to make a long story short (I better not hear any applause fellow gardeners, like when I finally finished the camping story..:))...The man behind the counter had the back of my parents station wagon chock full of Ford racing motor stuff, a short block, sodium filled valves, medium riser heads and manifold, 2 Holley racing carburetors, racing pistons, a cam shaft that gave your motor that sound that made your heart feel like it was going to jump right out of your chest when you car was running straight outta the headers.....Is that too graphic? Not graphic enough?.......:) And me? I was broke and it took me exactly 22 minutes to spend what it took me nearly 4 months of hard work to earn......but I had me the motor of my dreams...:)

"But Paul from Alabama, what about the personalized tour of the facility?...Driving Fireball Robert's old racing car around the block once?", Ah maybe my next trip to Holman & Moody fellow gardeners........:) And so I'm on my way back home and into the pages of drag racing history in the little small southern town I'm from....."Paul from Alabama, exactly what does that mean?".....It means fellow gardeners I gave up a college diploma, a pocket full money and all for a car that was a ground shaking, 500 horse power,flying death trap if there was one......:)

Well times change and so did I, and I sold my ground shaker for a substantial profit......You do you believe that don't you fellow gardeners? "No we don't Paul from Alabama, we don't know much about cars that bring the wheels off the ground in first gear but we do know that no young man's passion for race cars turn a profit".....Hmmm, my fellow gardeners are smarter than I thought.....OK, I'll come clean, let me put it this way.....If I sold a race car like the one I had every year for 10 years for what I sold the one I did have, well I'd be about $40,000 dollars in the hole...Sounds like to me with money making skills like that I'd be qualified to run our economy in Washington today......:)

But back to my dream car.......Now if you're going to buy a new Corvette Stingray convertible you gotta have car insurance, my folks, much less the bank ain't going to loan no 21 year old dreamer the money to buy his dream car or drive it two feet down the road unless you got car insurance.....Now when we investigated getting car insurance for a Corvette (they're made out of fiberglass by the way) with a 21 year old driver behind the wheel, imagine my surprise when I found out it was a substantial amount....a lot of $ and it had to be paid every year.....I saw how much it was but I wanted that car of my dreams, I saw every beautiful woman in town just itching to ride around with me in my new Corvette Stingray convertible.....Yes it was going to be a dream come true, me and my Corvette Stingray convertible.....Life is sweet, its great to be young and 21 and its, well its mighty expensive to get insurance when you're young and 21 is all I got to say.......:)

"Paul from Alabama, some of the fellow gardeners want to know why those beautiful women that were going to ride around in the Corvette with you were itching? Were there lots of mosquitoes in Piedmont at that time of year? An outbreak of poison Ivy?.....Diaper rash?" Cute, my fellow gardeners, real cute.......:)

Well Daddy and me go down to the bank to see the president of the bank, Granger Latta, a man I've respected and admired all my life, and a man that was a great friend to my parents as well as my grandfather for many years.....And what did the bank president think of me getting my dream car?....The worst idea I'd ever had, in a long line of bad ideas he knew I'd had over the years, but if I wanted the car he'd loan me the money.....I thought about his words of wisdom, in full knowledge of him having my best interest at heart and what did I do? I said, "Mr. Latta, loan me the money, I gotta have that car, that brand new Corvette Stingray convertible, the car of my dreams"...Now before you ask, I guess some of you want to know how long I gave his words of wisdom some thought? About 15 seconds, could've been less......:)

Well I got the money, all I gotta do is get the insurance....Now to get the insurance I got to go to Birmingham to the insurance headquarters where you have to go if they're going to issue a policy for a fiberglass Corvette to some starry eyed 21 year old dreamer like me and my mother has to sign for me too cause I still reside at home or I didn't have enough sense to buy it myself, I never knew which......:)

But I got the insurance, but there's one catch....It'll take 3 days to clear it and for it to be activated.....THREE DAYS? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I GOT THE MONEY FOR CAR!!!........:)....Well on the way home we go by the Chevy dealership and take a gander at my new Covervette Stingray convertible......The salesman, who is a nice fellow seems, tells me he knows how much I want the car now and seeing as how its going to be 3 days till I can actually drive it, how about him driving it to my house and parking it in the driveway.....How about it?....Hey Cool.....Thanks mister.......And you know what fellow gardeners?, "What Paul from Alabama, what now?".....:) That was the worst decision I ever made, well not the worst but in the top 10 for sure....You can't imagine what its like to have the car of your dreams in your driveway and can't drive it for THREE DAYS!!!.....May I share something, something very close to my heart fellow gardeners? "Paul from Alabama, if it'll help you get to the end of this story for God's sake pour your heart out to us right now, if not sooner."........:)

Thanks fellow gardeners, I've always counted on your sympathy and understanding since May 1st when I started writing these little stories.....:) Well fellow gardeners those THREE DAYS WERE THE LONGEST DAYS OF MY YOUNG LIFE....I walked out there a 100 times a day to look at that brand new Corvette Stingray convertible sitting pretty as you please right there in my my drive way and couldn't even back it up and couldn't drive if forward either......but Daddy did let me crank it up if I swore not to put it in gear.....I don't know how much gas that car was delivered with but it was nearly empty by the time them THREE DAYS WERE UP....:) I let that thing run in neutral till my feet starting falling asleep with me sitting behind the wheel every day......:)

And finally the day came, I could drive my dream car...and drive it I did.......I drove that thing everywhere, top down, hair blowing the wind, smile on face, a song in my heart and an insurance payment that would choke a horse........:) "Paul from Alabama, what about all the beautiful women that were having skin irritation problems they were so excited about a mere chance of riding around with you and your new Corvette Stingray convertible?".....Well my fellow gardeners, that was the one thing about my dream car that never panned out really, other than that, it was the car of my dreams.....But now I did take 3 beautiful women to ride after all, but the 3 women were my mother, my granny and my sister, and 5 beautiful women if you count my 2 best friends wives....So that makes 5 beautiful women riding around town with me, I told you that brand new Corvette Stingray convertible was a 'chick magnet' even if the 'chicks' were relatives or good friends of mine that were married already.....:) My granny, I guess she rode in the car more than anybody, Lord I'd put the top down and we'd ride and ride through the country roads around Piedmont, Lord how she loved that car.....

Now one day I got to thinking how riding around in the National Forest would be a fine idea, it was spring time and well I wanted to ride in the mountains, so off I went in my Corvette Stingray convertible, top down and hair blowing in the wind, a smile on my face, a song in my heart and an insurance payment that would choke a horse........:) Now the road I was on drove through a creek, not a deep creek mind you, but one of those roads you drove across the creek and didn't need a Jeep to do it, one the Forest Service kept up, but one that maybe wasn't exactly made for a Corvette Stingray convertible but I threw caution to the wind and drove right through that creek and when I got to the other side I thought, gee that was fun, I got a great idea, another idea in long long line of great if not brilliant ideas that were sometimes great and sometimes brilliant too, and sometimes, well not so great and definitely not brilliant......If I'm going to have so much fun driving through these creeks and all through the mountains I'm going to have to get me something more suitable for driving in them....and so my fellow gardeners, the ones of you that have been reading my little stories with any regularity know the rest of the story.....

I'd had my new Corvette Stingray convertible almost one year, and when the next payment was nearly due on my insurance I decided to get me one of the new Jeeps from American Motors...The V8 Jeeps, that you could get with 8,000 lb. winches, roll bars and everything a guy my age could want in a Jeep that would go 'ANYWHERE'.....and you know what else I decided I needed, another in a long long line of brilliant ideas, I needed a Doberman Pinscher, not just any Doberman Pinscher, no an attack and recall Doberman Pinscher, a man stopper Doberman Pinscher.....Yes the smart thing and only sensible thing to do as far as I could see was to get me one of them new Jeeps, a Doberman Pinscher attack dog and go camping, go camping when it was forecast to be the coldest night in Alabama history ( http://web.mac.com/sinai/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/6/12_I_Went_Camping.html ), but first I needed to try it out that new Jeep, I think I'll take up to Seven Fords ( http://web.mac.com/sinai/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/6/14_.html ) and see what she'll do.

Yes my fellow gardeners, I've had the car of my dreams and I've had a pretty good life I think....but Lord have mercy, I don't think I'll last much longer if I have anymore 'brilliant ideas' like some of the ones I've had....."But Paul from Alabama, what are you going to do with your life if you don't have anymore 'brilliant ideas"?....Well fellow gardeners it's like this, I ain't doing nothing if I don't ask my wife first, unless it's a really really brilliant idea, like the one I had today...."Tell us Paul from Alabama, what was this brilliant idea?"......OK, you're not going to believe it, it' so good, ready? HANG GLIDING.......:)

Paul from Alabama

Aunt Bella

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:06:50 -0500

Have any of you got a legend in your family?....I don't mean a character, although my Aunt Bella was certainly that, but she is legend in these parts.....Everyone it seems I run into here in town that's over the age of 7 has an Aunt Bella story and some of them from people who say they knew Aunt Bella and saw her do some of the crazy things she was famous for even though I know that some of them weren't even born yet by the time Aunt Bella had already died, which was in 1959...She was like that, you just wanted to be able to say you saw her do some of the things she did or that you knew her or God forbid, you saw her driving down the road onetime headed straight for you.......:)

Now she was famous for a vast array of let us say, eccentric behavior, but the thing she most famous for was her driving skills or the lack there of...And included in the word "driving", I include, parking a car, closing a door when you do park it, driving on the wrong side of the road, driving in the middle of the road and one time driving on the sidewalk....Yes Aunt Bella had some funny ideas about all those activities and how to do them.....

Let me tell you just a few Aunt Bella stories off the top of my head.....The one I find the most interesting is the one I've heard from the most people over the years, how she parked her car downtown or anywhere else for that matter....Now Aunt Bella owned a clothing store,The Fair Store, right in the middle of town and she ran it with my grandfather, Isadore....Now my grandfather always opened the store and later on Aunt Bella would show up to work....and when she did she'd park right in front of the store, whether she had a parking place or not and if she did have a parking place available the car wasn't always let us say, parked...let me explain.....OK, you got a corner, on one side of the corner you got a parking place that goes right up the corner and on the other side of the same corner you got another parking place that goes right up the corner itself.....you know right angles....but in my Aunt Bella's mind she saw 3 parking places where the rest of the population of Piedmont saw only 2....She drove around the corner exactly half way and just stopped.....Where the two streets and parking places came together at the corner, my Aunt Bella saw an opportunity to park.....So there she left her car and walked into the store ready to work.....

Now other times when there was a parking place, you know a normal one, an actual one, she didn't park in it really, she aimed the front end of the car toward the curb until she hit it and then just got out with that little Pomeranian dog from Hades wrapped in her left arm.....oh, and with the back end of her car sticking out in the middle of the road!!!.....

Now Piedmont had a cracker jack police force back in them days, but bank robberies and shootouts were in short supply so they always had time to come into the store and ask Aunt Bella for her car keys and so they could move her car to a let us say, a less dangerous place.....:)

Now sometimes she closed the door to the car when she 'parked' it and sometimes she didn't, but she had an excuse I guess, well in her mind I reckon she did....You see she had this little Pomeranian dog, and it was the peskiest little beast ever put on this earth but Aunt Bella loved it and wherever Aunt Bella went, well the 'dog was sure to go'...She drove with that little dog in her left hand, the dog licking Aunt Bella's face the entire time she was behind the wheel and with her other hand she was, I wouldn't characterize it as driving really, more like with her other hand she pointed the car in the general direction she wanted to go....but never the less, she frequently left her car door open.....Grown men that were young men or even kids back then told me of seeing Aunt Bella's car door being open and them walking over and closing it, shaking their heads and grinning at the same time...........:)

Now this leaving the door open had some unintended consequences a couple of times, once a pulpwood truck swung around that corner I was telling you about and took Aunt Bella's car door clean off, which goes to show you how far out into the street she must have been parked in the first place for that big old pulpwood truck swinging around the corner to take her door off!!!
Let me say this, from what I can gather all of the cars that Aunt Bella owned over the years, all had more than one drivers side front door during their colorful and dangerous existence....:)

Now if some of you think I’m just making this up, let me tell you something, I got photographic proof!!!!.....:) You see a buddy of mine I told you about the other day, Kenny Grissom, Dot Grissom’s boy, well he gave me this CD with all these old pictures of downtown Piedmont over the years, from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.....Well one of the pictures shows my Grandaddy’s and Aunt Bella’s clothing store, The Fair Store, it’s been in our family since 1911 and in the same place for 85 years....Now take a look at the picture that goes with this little story, the one up top, imagine my surprise when I see one of Aunt Bella’s old cars, this one an Oldsmoblie or a Buick I think, parked with its back end half way in the street.....and look at the 3 old men standing on the corner, looking in utter disbelief at the way she parked the car!!!...I rest my case.......:) I can’t begin to tell you how Kenny and me laughed and laughed when we figured out what the picture was.....

My uncle told me this little story, they were paving a street in town onetime and there was a flagman in the road, well down the street comes Aunt Bella and the flag man has to jump out of the ways to keep from getting run over.....Well Aunt Bella goes wherever she's going and drives back the same way she came and nearly runs over the flag man AGAIN!!!.....I understand the flagman in question found a new and less dangerous vocation......:)

A lady friend of mine whose husband was a dentist for years here told me this about Aunt Bella and our little town back in them days....This lady was a young mother back then and in the summer time on her street all the kids played in the front yards or even in the streets, the lady told me that most of the mothers would sit on the front porches or front steps and watch their kids while they played....Now when Aunt Bella was seen coming down the street in her big old Chrysler all the young mothers would run out into the yards and gather up their kids until Aunt Bella passed, just as a precautionary measure.......:)

Now luckily nobody ever got hurt or even got a scratch during all these driving 'incidents', not Aunt Bella and not some innocent bystander, but for the life of me I don't see how....Well except the flagman and he wasn't hurt really, Aunt Bella just scared him to death......:)

Now I saved the best story for last, the story about the bicycle.......You see Aunt Bella lived on this little side street that only had a few houses on it....Her next door neighbor's little daughter had a bicycle like most little girls do and Aunt Bella ran over it.....of course she didn't even know she did it......And when the next door neighbor who really liked Aunt Bella told her the next day about her running over her daughter's bicycle, Aunt Bella said,"Well she really shouldn't leave it in the drive way" and the next door neighbor said," Aunt Bella, the bicycle wasn't in the driveway, it was in our front yard"!!!!.....That fellow gardeners was my Aunt Bella......

Addendum:

Aunt Bella had a sister, Aunt Sophie, she wasn't let us say anymore adept at driving and its related activities than Aunt Bella was.....Well about 1965 some of my buddies and me were driving to this lake where we were going swimming.....We're driving down the road and coming straight for us in the middle of the road is big old Buick, two tone, brown and beige and behind the wheel is this little silver haired old lady.....Now one of my buddies hollers out,"Who in the world is that manic driving in the middle of the road"?
I kinda swallowed hard and said,"Oh that's my Aunt Sophie"...."She doesn't uh, well she, she ah....doesn't drive that well........:)

Now after everything I've told you, all the stories, all the first hand accounts, even photographic evidence......there's just one thing that puzzles me and has puzzles me for years, there's no way, I mean NO way my Aunt Bella could have ever passed a drivers test so that leads me to my final thought about my Aunt Bella and her driving....WHO IN GOD'S NAME WAS THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER WHO GAVE AUNT BELLA A DRIVERS LICENSE IN THE FIRST PLACE?.....:)

Paul from Alabama

The Dari King

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:24:54 -0500

Now I want to tell you a little story about the Dari King, you know the Dari King, every little town has one or more, places where the kids in town gather to socialize and eat, park their cars and use them for lounge chairs, and wait on 'something to happen'.....Lord, I waited at the Dari King either inside sitting at one of the tables or outside in the parking lot for 'something to happen' for more years than I can believe now that I look back on it.....Now if 'something did happen' but didn't happen at the Dari King, you can bet that you'd hear about it at the Dari King....

You could find anything you wanted at the Dari King, talk about a full service eating establishment, you could find all your friends there about anytime you went there.....You could find your girl friend there, or if you didn't have a girlfriend it was good place to find one....If a new girl was in town, you could take a 'gander' at her cause she would probably be at the Dari King sometime or other, you just had to make sure you were there to take your 'gander' ....Hot cars, hot rods? Why even have a hot car unless you were going to take it up to the Dari King and park it , well park it after you circled the Dari King a minimum of 25 times, just so folks could hear that motor that cost you a college education to buy and see your car that you'd washed and waxed 10 times before 'going to town' (If I was 18 today and had a 425 horse power hot rod that got about 5 miles to the gallon, like I used to have and gas being about $4 a gallon, I imagine I'd park it there permanently....:))

Music? you'd find all the music you wanted at the Dari King, they had a great juke box and it was playing our favorite tunes all the time....not too loud mind you but loud enough.....You see there weren't any MP3 players back then and I could be mistaken but if my memory serves me, I never saw even one ipod with ear pods at the Dari King.....Nope, just Otis Redding singing 'Sitting By The Dock Of The Bay" or the Four Seasons or the Beach Boys or the Beatles....Lord let me get my calculator out, lets see if I'd invested every nickel I fed that juke box over the years into Microsoft stock I'd be able to have my own Dari King built right behind my palatial mansion in Beverly Hills.....:)

Now our Dari King had something that no other Dari King had or will ever have and that was the owner, Dot Grissom....Dot Grissom not only cooked and prepared hamburgers anyway you liked'em or milk shakes thick or thin, she told you that your mother was looking for ya or if you needed a ride home, she'd see you got there safely and in one piece.....Always asked you how you were doing and if you weren't doing so well she kinda knew it somehow and would string out the small talk till maybe you were feeling better.....You could tell her your troubles and she would listen to you and if she thought something would make you feel better she'd chime in with it.....and I can tell you this, she had her share of troubles herself like I guess we all do, but you'd never know it talking to her..... 
Now Dot had a bunch of sons and one daughter and most of them at one time or the other worked at the Dari King.... Dennis, who always said the same thing when you pulled up at the drive-in window they had, "What ya have?", Kenny who always said, "Paul what you up to?" ( In the interest of full disclosure, I was usually up to something:)), Dovie, who always said, "Paul Daniels are you behaving yourself?" (Lord Dovie not all the time but don't tell mother:)) and Dot herself, who wouldn't always but many times now that I think back on it, and remember fondly too, say "Paul, are you and Skeet behaving yourselves?"....You see Skeet, my buddy I told you about in a little story about Vegas the other day was Dot's son too....Now Skeet didn't actually work at the Dari King, he would for lack of a better description, 'float in and out of it'.....Me and old Skeet done a lot of 'floating around' back in them days.....:)

Now there hardly any trouble at the Dari King, oh an occasional fight but in all the years I was hanging up there you could count on one hand the fights I can remember, mostly it was just kid's bluster and you know why?....Well two reasons actually, one was Dot's husband Floyd, now Floyd was about as easy going as anybody I've ever met....kinda quiet and funny as could be if you knew Floyd, he always had something funny to say when he did speak if at all.... and he could be funny using less words than anyone I've ever run into, I think they call it dry humor, maybe English humor, but I don't think Floyd was from London, I think he was from Vigo ( a little country community I drove around and around in over the years looking for 'something to happen'....and after a 100,000, maybe 200,000 miles of riding around in and around Vigo looking for 'something to happen', I'm disappointed to have to report, not much did......:)

But like I was saying one of the reasons there weren't no 'trouble' at the Dari King was Floyd, if
he was up there he didn't put up with no real foolishness, I don't mean regular young folks foolishness, I mean when some young folks or sometimes not so young folks thought they'd kinda run rough shod over folks at the Dari King, you know bully people, that would be a sho-nuff mistake, let me put it this way, Floyd would take exception to such behavior, get my drift?......:)

But you know the main reason there weren't no trouble at the Dari King, with all them young folks with all their testosterone flowing like lava up a Volcano? Dot Grissom..... Mrs. Grissom and the respect we all had for her.....You just didn't want to cause her no trouble or aggravation cause she was so nice and was always looking out for all of us while we were up there at the Dari King or anywhere else for that matter.....I tell you in some ways, she raised every kid in town nearly, for 45 years.....

There's all kinds of places to eat today, Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's and well you name it, but for me and hundreds well I reckon thousands of kids over the years, they'll only be one Dari King and you know why? Cause there was only one Dot Grissom.......

Paul from Alabama

Addendum: Dot Grissom passed away a few years ago, but she left behind so many good memories for so many people young and old, I reckon she's gonna live forever.....One of the things she left behind was her son Kenny, now Kenny and her son Dennis ran the Dari King after Dot died, ran it until they closed the Dari King in 2006.....Kenny and his wife now own one of the 'Golden Rule BBQ' restaurants in Oxford, Alabama, he's doing really well too.. Folks come in there from all over....folks driving to or from Birmingham or Atlanta or California or Florida, folks from where Kenny's from, Piedmont.... or other small communities around here like Jacksonville or Hokes Bluff, White Plains or even Possum Trot!!!.....And you know what? Kenny is kinda like his mom, always asking how you're doing and meaning it when he asks you...doing all kinds of things for the folks in his community, raising a bunch of boys his own self now with his wife Julie, Kenny's grown up to be such a fine man, I know his mother wherever she is so proud of him, how he turned out and what all he's done, not just the business success though he's done that for sure, but what else he's done, done for all kinds of folks, just by being the kind of person he is.....I know some of that is just Kenny, but lots of it is from Dot, why even some of Floyd's humor too, thrown in there for good measure.....:)

I guess I just got one more thing I want to say, "Dot, I'm behaving down here, I know you're keeping an eye on Skeet where you are, you tell Skeet I said howdy for me...Oh, and tell him I finally hit the jackpot, I didn't break the bank at a casino in Vegas or at a stud poker game up in the mountains, nope I just married the most wonderful woman in the world I think and that's jackpot enough for me.....Dot, you'd like her too".

Paul