Esther Williams, my favorite actress, died this week (June 6, 2013) at the age of 91. She was born on August 8, 1921 to Louis Stanton Williams and Bula Myrtle Gilpin Williams in Utah. She was their fifth and youngest child. Her acting ability included swimming, which I fell in love with at the young age of 6. I had started taking swimming lessons that summer and saw one of her movies. I was smitten. I couldn't believe how someone could do all of those things in the water. It was like a ballet. Since I lived close to the Desota Theater in Rome, Georgia, I would walk to see every movie that starred her when it was in town. I even watched it twice when I could talk the usher into letting me stay longer. They even showed them at the drive-ins and I could talk my daddy into taking me again. I tried to copy everything that she did in the water. She made it look so easy, but I found out that it was harder that I ever thought. You have to practice and I mean alot of practice. I started doing extra chores around the house and even went throughout the neighborhood collecting Coca Cola bottles to return for deposit just so I would have enough money to go swimming everyday in the summer. My favorite pool was in Celanese. You could pay one price and swim for a long time. But I would have to have bus fare. The city pool costs a quarter and was open from 2-5 and from 7-9 at night. I could walk to this pool. It was about 6 blocks from my house. It wasn't as big as Celanese but it still had two diving boards.  The day I was brave enough to climb the high dive, I thought I had accomplished my goal. Boy, was I fooled. I was so scared that I climbed back down the latter and stayed away from that board for two years.

     When I got older, my swimming techniques improved but only for my benefit. I would watch other people swim and it would be choppy and they would slap the water. I didn't think this was swimming. It should be smooth and you just glide through the water like a fish. This is how I taught my children.
     I still watch Esther's movies when they are on T.V. They still take my breath away because of her style. Dancing in the water is the most beautiful thing on earth.
Esther was a National AAU champion in the 100 meter freestyle. She won 3 US National championships for breaststroke and freestyle. She learned the butterfly stroke which was considered for "male" only swimmers. She broke many records with this stroke. She had plans to enter the 1940 Summer Olympics but it was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II.

PICKLED GREEN TOMATOES AND A BLUE PIANO

     Along about 1972, we lived close to Tolbert School in Resaca. Jimmy and Jeff  Burns were in school but the other 3 were not , they stayed at home with me. Sandra Franks, Marvin's cousin, would visit quite often. She wasn't married and loved the kids. She came by our house as she didn't work and I think she was lonesome. She brought me some material and I made us some dresses to wear to church. She taught me more advanced crocheting and we made an afghan.
     Now Marvin Burns had a cousin named Harlan Patton. Harlan bought a double wide trailer on the Cline Road. If anyone knows about trailers, you have probably guessed that a trailer floor will not hold much weight. Recently, he had lost his mother-in-law and inherited an old piano. This was the ugliest piano that I had ever seen. Someone had painted it "blue." Harlan was trying to sell the piano for $25.00 because he couldn't put it in his trailer and but needless to say, I didn't have any money. Now I wanted that piano and I wanted it bad. I tried everything to get that piano So here is what transpired. I traded him a can of pickled green tomatoes for the piano. Crazy huh..... Ruby's garden was gone except for a few tomatoes. It was nearly frost, so we gathered all the green tomatoes along with some hot peppers and preserved them. I had never eaten a green tomato from a jar until I tasted Ruby's. We had alot of the preserves in 1/2 gallon jars. Ruby did not waste anything. So because of the big families, canning was done in quarts and 1/2 gallons. No pints used except for jams and jellies.
Well anyway, Harlan wanted some green tomatoes so we traded plus I would have to sing for him when I could play again. I think I got the better end of the deal. I had taken piano lessons in my youth but I had forgotten just about everything. Sandra Franks brought me an old hymnal from her home. I found middle "c" and I knew that an old song called "There is a Fountain" was in the key of "c" with no sharps or flats. My aunt Lillian taught me the song when I was about 8 years old. F A C E are the names of the space notes for the treble and E G B D F are the line notes. Hey, I was getting the hang of it again. Now to learn the bass cleft. Sandra taught me about playing cords with the left hand. Hey, playing cords was alot easier than playing all the notes with your left hand. Now to get the timing right. 3/4 time and 6/8 time were the easiest. ONE two three, ONE two three- I could do this, but the song I was learning was in 4/4 time. one two three four- one two three four. Just had to keep practicing and practicing and practicing. Yip-eee I learned a song. I practiced it until I could play it from memory. Then on Sunday morning at church, Sandra's sister, Phyllis asked me to sing the song. So I sat down on the piano bench and froze. I couldn't remember a note much less sing. Finally, Phyllis said she would play for me. Then she told me not to look at the crowd but up at the ceiling. I held the book and looked at the ceiling and sang to God. How much simpler it became when I sang to the one the song was written for and all His majesty. He gave me strength and I never faltered again.
     Sandra is no longer with us but I know she is singing to our Lord and Savior that she loved enough to share with me. I miss her.
     What happened to the blue piano? That I could not tell-a short time later, we moved up close to my children's grandmother(Ruby) and into a trailer. The trailer floor would not hold the piano so we had to sell it. After that, I went to work and did not have much time to play.

Lost Honey

     When Jeff was a baby, in 1966, Marvin and I lived across the road from the "Dean's Trading Post" on 41 Highway. Esco Dean, Marvin's step dad, had rented an old house to store his furniture that he bought at auction sales. This was the old home place called the Tom B. David house. It was a five room house with a bath. Marvin and I used the living room, bedroom and kitchen and the other two rooms contained furniture. The thing that I loved most about the house was the big front porch. Just off the living room was a smaller area that used to be a pantry. I used this for the baby bed since it had access from the bedroom. The kitchen did not have built in cabinets so we had one of the older cabinets that contained a flour container with a sifter on the bottom of the box. I don't remember what they called it but there was a roll door in the middle with 2 doors above. It had 2 doors on the bottom where we stored pots and pans. There was no double sink here just a single one. I learned very quickly that dishpans come in handy.
It was getting further into Spring and every night when we went to bed, we heard a buzz saw. Buzzz-Buzzz- This noise kept us awake for many weeks. We could not figure out where it was coming from so I asked the next door neighbor, Ann Hall, if she could hear it. Her bedroom was on the other end of the house so it didn't bother her or her girls. Ruby couldn't hear it either as it was too far away. No one could hear it but us. I finally walked around the yard one day and I heard something coming from inside the house. As I looked closer, their was a small hole in the side of the house just beneath a window sash. I noticed a few bees crawling around and then a couple disappeared. Now I am deathly afraid of bees of any kind. I didn't know if they were wasps or hornets or whatever. All I knew was that they had stingers. So I went back in the house and stayed away from that area. When Ruby came in from work, I told her about the bees in the side of the house. She called her brother, Claude, to come down and check it out. He told us that they were honey bees and he would come by on Saturday and salvage the honey. I had never seen this happen. I was raised in the city. I knew that people kept boxes for hives of bees, I just never expected any hives to be in a house.
     On Saturday, Claude drove to our house and got out with some things that looked like some kind of costume. The hat had net hanging down to his shoulders and he wore gloves as well as an extra thick shirt. He had something similar to a lantern that he lit and all of a sudden, smoke came out the end if it. He sprayed smoke all up and down the side of the house. Then he took a crow bar and removed a board from under the window. I never saw so many bees flying around. I high tailed it away from that area and made a bee line for the house. I decided that looking through the window was close enough for me. By the time I got in the house, he had removed the comb with a shovel. It was covered with honey. He hurried and filled up about 3 five-gallon buckets with the comb and honey. He then brought it in the house to be put in jars. I don't remember how much honey we put in pint fruit jars, but we had honey for the next two winters. It had the taste of rose blossoms. Ruby told me later that it was because of the rose bushes in the yard. This city girl learned a valuable lesson that Spring. You don't always go to the store for food.
     I still don't know how Claude removed those bees to his house but by the next summer, he was still harvesting honey for all the family. H built some boxes for the bees and I think he finally had 5 boxes as the swarm kept growing. I still try to get honey that comes from Gordon County. I just don't think I have found any that tastes as good as that honey from the old Tom B. David house.

Mystery of Judge Josiah Beall's wife

I have been searching for the wife of Josiah Beall (1715-1768) to no avail. With so many people with the same name, it is hard to match everyone up. Their is a Josiah Beall (1725-1808)
(of John, of James, of Alex 1625). who married Millicent Bradley (daughter of Robert Bradley) but it is not through my line.These two Josiah's were born 10 years apart. Judge Josiah Beall had a brother named Col. Samuel Beall and his daughter (Amelia Beall) married Thaddeus.
Thaddeus Beall 1741 - 1808 was son of Josiah (of John, of Alexander 1644)Beall.
According to the will of Judge Josiah Beall, Thaddeus Beall was the said administrator. An inventory and appraisal of the "Goods and Chattel's" of Josiah Beall was made on December 1, 1768 and recorded in Sept. 1769. This inventory details hundreds of items of personal property along with a list of seven slaves. These items were left to the seven children of Josiah.
None of the documents give any clue to the identity of Josiah's wife with the possible exception of the monogram "IMB." appearing on 1/2 dozen old teaspoons. "Engraving authorities identify the "I" as an early day capitol "J". This could have been for Josiah Magruder Beall or it could have been her initials after marriage. Either way, in those days, the women had things like silverware,dishes, and stemware monogramed along with sheets, pillowcases and napkins. Why it was done this way, I don't know.
In all my searching, I have not found any documents stating who was the mother of Thaddeus. There is one clue in that he (Thaddeus) named a daughter Maezah. Most of the children were named for previous family members. First daughter after father's grandmother, second daughter after mother's grandmother, third daughter after father's mother and so on down the line. The third daughter is Maezah Beall who married Thomas Dent. This name has not shown up in the family before this time. Each generation after has a daughter named Maezah/Mazie/Maxa. I would like some opinion's on this theory. How can I found out for sure- what is the name of the wife of Judge Josiah Beall?

SANCTITY OF LIFE STORY

     I read a story on facebook today by my niece about her children. I hope she doesn't mind that I copy it to my blog for I want alot of people to read it. So many people get in a situation and make the wrong decision about their lives. Young girls need to realize that children are a gift from GOD and not to be destroyed. They have a purpose in this world. GOD doesn't make mistakes and each and every one who survives birth will go on to be a blessing to the Lord.
     I wish there was some way to let the young people know how to head in the right direction. I know that going to church helps but all parents don't go to church and don't care if the children go. We can't teach them in school anymore about GOD. When I was growing up, we had a pledge of alligence to the flag and then a morning devotional. Then we had a prayer. Why can't people understand that we need GOD in our lives. If we go back to the constitution, and learn about the people who wrote it, then we see that religion was worshiping GOD. Our country was based on God, and not religion. We came to this country to worship God. God was in the old countries and each one worshiped a different way. We were almost ordered how to worship GOD and this country is getting back to that same concept of telling us who we can worship or who is not allowed. I don't understand how people can misconstrue that religion is not God. Sometimes I think that the constitution should have been worded a little different. GOD should be in it. Unfortunately, there was only a reference to GOD by using the word, "religion". Where would this county be if GOD hadn't shown the people how to establish it. Lets get back to GOD.

     The following is the story by Kimberley Dudley Harrison,(my niece). I am so glad of her choices in life and I hope other girls follow her examples.
　
      "In January 2000 I was a 17 year-old senior, just beginning my final semester of high school. I was shocked and saddened to learn that I was pregnant. Pregnant? Me? I had already been accepted to the University of West Georgia the month before, and was in the process of filling out the paper work to begin classes that Fall. Everything had changed. All of my well-laid plans were gone. As me, Joe, and my family dealt with this unexpected hurdle, we began to sort out all of the "what next" questions? Though I knew 100% what I had to do, and WANTED to do, I was not at all surprised when, at my first doctor's appointment, I was asked the question: "Do you want to continue the pregnancy?" Of course I did, but I wasn't at all surprised at the question. I was 17 and unmarried. I knew I had to own up to my responsibilities, but even at such a young age I couldn't help but think about how many girls before me and how many after me would have said no thanks. With a swift decision, my college dreams could continue, life could "go on" , and my well-laid plans could still play out. The "blob", or "mass of tissue", as so many believe, could disappear, just like that! BUT, HIS mercy is unfailing! It SURE wasn't easy, but with love and support from our friends and family, Joe and I had our baby boy nine months later. My handsome Joseph Alexander. Countless people sacrificed as Joe worked and I went to school to earn my degree. Our path took a detour, but ALL things work together for the good of those who Love Him.

Fast forward 4 years and 3 months...


So, yes, I will tell you LOUDLY and without hesitation that I am 100% pro-life! My life hasn't been easy, and it hasn't been all that I imagined it to be. It has been more. My children were NEVER blobs or tissue, they are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made! They have a story to tell. There is a plan for their lives. I am humbled to be their mom. I certainly don't deserve them, but I so thankful that God's ways are better than mine, even when he takes me on a detour!

Psalm 139:13-16
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.