Today in Newnan...

Today I had a photo assignment in town. So as I wandered around taking the pictures I was brought on to provide, I also snapped random shots that caught my eye. Newnan is known as "The city of homes" and there are some lovely places around here. Houses that date back to pre-civil war litter the old streets, along with quaint little places that have been fixed up and sold for way more than they are worth, now housing transplants and the like around the city. The stately old manor homes are very beautiful. But as you walk around town or drive through, there are often little patches that you just never see... So I looked at the town from a slightly different angle...




































Of course being near the trains I had to put a quarter and nickel on the track to give to Patrick and James... I remember doing this with my dad when I was little... I still get a kick out of it..

Halloween...

Halloween was a bit rainy this year, but it was still fun. The day started with a blow out breakfast with the family.. A cheeseburger with an egg, who'd have thought... We ran a few errands then headed home.. In the early evening we went for dinner in town and then trick or treated at several homes nearby. Then we went to my brothers place to pass out candy to all the good little children...

We each carved a pumpkin..

Julie, James, and Patrick..

James was ready to get some candy

She went as Barbara Eden..

I was Mad Eye Moody..

I think Patrick was more interested in tricks.

I was lucky enough to run into Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall

James was in awe over the Pirate ship...

I had to get a picture of this....

James had a great time trick or treating and then playing with all the kids while flying on a sugar buzz.. When we got home he sleepily asked from the back seat, "Can I just stay here?" I carried him in the house and tucked him in, he looked so peaceful wrapped in his blanket.. still clutching his candy bag... After everything was said and done, I spent the rest of the evening reading Dracula... a tradition that I began few years ago. When I noted that the time change had taken place, I walked out onto the porch and watched as the pumpkins flickered their last bit of light and listened to to the wind moving through the trees. The moon was casting some weird shadows and I distinctly thought I saw something slipping around in the woods, so I promptly went in for a warm cup of coffee as I listened to the night sounds of home... it was a good day.

How did that happen?

**repost from last year**

The festival of Samhain was celebrated in ancient Irish, or Gaelic culture as the end of the harvest season and a time to put up stores for the winter. Celebrations were scheduled for this festival that marked the end of Summer and observed a time in which lore dictated that the lines between the world of the dead and the world of the living were blurred.

Bonfires were used to help keep any evil spirits away and light the parties that would go on all night as cattle were slaughtered for meat to see them through the winter. Costumes were used to make sure any roaming spirits couldn't differentiate their own kind from real people, ensuring the safety of mortal souls. Turnips were used to ward off any evil spirits or bad occurrences due to superstitious beliefs. As it was thought that the head of a living thing contained the power and spirit of life, faces were carved into the turnips and candles sometimes used to light them in accordance with the legend of Stingy Jack, who once trapped the Devil in a tree. Jack paid for his actions by being cursed to roam the world at night with his only source of light being a carved out turnip with a candle inside. Giving birth to the Jack O' Lantern...

During the time of Pope Gregory the fourth, the observance of All Saints Day was moved from the Spring to November first. This day is traditionally observed to celebrate the dead who have had the beatific vision, or have seen and are with God. All Souls Day follows on November the second, celebrating those that have died, yet not attained their place in Heaven.

There are many theories as to why this move was made, the most popular is the belief that the church attempted to usurp pagan celebrations and eventually turn them into Christian times of worship. It was thought that this would eventually lead to the diminishing of pagan belief and practices, replacing it with Christian ethos and ensuring the salvation of future peoples.... A fairly successful plan if you think about it, well, maybe as far as diminishing pagan beliefs. See Christmas and Easter... instead of winter and spring solstice... Let alone the imagery stolen from non Christian religions used to place faces and symbols upon what was considered to be evil. It's a shame that most of these symbols predate Christianity as a whole. The term pagan was originally used as we would use the term "redneck" today. It has morphed over time to include anyone that follows a religious theology or belief structure that does not place the shared God of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam at the head of spiritual thought. (yes, yes.. I know you don't worship no Allah... so don't send me any hate mail, maybe you should read something other than people or penthouse magazine)

With popular beliefs and traditions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Pagans mingling world wide, the use of readily available and easier to use items, such as pumpkins instead of turnips, modern media images promoted since the mid 1800's, and the ever present desire to turn a profit, we have thus given birth to Halloween.

Jack O Lantern

This past weekend saw a family reunion. This was the family that we spent every holiday with until the past few years after my grandmother passed away.... Hmmm... my grandmother... Zeddie Perry.. damn... I do miss her. She and her husband, H.C. "Doc" Perry, lived at the end of Doc Perry Rd. here in Newnan. The house they called home was built by my grandfather for his wife and three sons, Delmos(my dad), and his brothers, Thomas and Donald. It's a small four room home that I have seen filled with more laughter and love than you can begin to imagine. Every time I was around them tales and laughter seemed to pour from everywhere, it was infectious and a pure delight to behold. They were simple folk, God fearing and hard working. My grandfather bought his land from a mill owner that he worked for running a company store. He saw how the store kept the employees in debt to the company and vowed that he wouldn't fall into that trap. So he raised what food he could and made a monthly trip to the farmers market in Atlanta (in the early days they traveled by wagon) to get what they needed that they couldn't provide for themselves, in this way he saved his money and bought his land. My grandmother told me the story about how proud he was after he had made the deal. They walked the property line and crisscrossed over the land taking it all in. She confided in me that it made her tired and she wasn't really interested in walking every bit of it but, "It was what Doc wanted and I wanted to make him happy... he was so proud that he had something."

Timeless and plentiful were the stories that my grandparents told me. I would sit in awe during hot summer afternoons on their porch as my grandfather would whittle and my grandmother would run in and out of the house "fetching drinks". Doc, or Daddy Doc as we all called him would tell me about things like a turtle that would bite you and not let go until it thundered. The snake that you could cut up and watch as it joined itself back together was another favorite of mine. On one memorable occasion we followed him through the woods on a long walk until he came to an old stump. We stood transfixed as we watched him reach into the stump and pull honeycomb out and fill several jars with it. He was covered with bees but didn't get stung... It was amazing to see. Without a doubt that was the sweetest honey I have ever tasted.

For years some of the stories he told that held my attention the most were about jack o lanterns. They were the ghostly lights that you would see floating around in the woods late at night. He told me that he would be working at night about the place and often would stop and watch as balls of fire would float around in the trees. I would ask him what they were and he would kick his hat back on his head and say, "I don't rightly know... some folks say they are ghosts, some say swamp gas... but whatever they are, they look scary... but peaceful.." On one occasion he told me about being in a boat out on the pond down behind his house. He was having a good time fishing on a Saturday evening and the fish were biting pretty good, so he stayed out there as night came on.

"It was gettin' late... but I was catchin' fish pretty good and didn't want to quit.. I knew Zeddie knew where I was at so I didn't worry much about it, and stayed on..."

I knew this was going to be good so I settled at his feet on the porch step and tuned in for the tale...

"Well.. as it got dark I started hearing the beavers wakin' up.. They come out of their houses and started splashin' and playin'.. whomping their tails calling to each other.. then it got real quiet.. I knew they were going out to work on trees for their dams so I listened and sure enough I heard 'em chewin' and cutting after a while... I was at peace.. it was calm and quiet and the fish just kept on bitin'..."

He leaned over and spit his usual Bruton snuff into a Styrofoam cup he always had near at hand. Then he leaned back in his rocking chair and wiped his head with a handkerchief.

"Long about the time I heard the whippoorwills start up I got this funny feelin' like somebody was lookin' at me.... I kept tryin' to ignore it but it just kept creepin' back in on me... then all of a sudden I saw it...."

He paused for effect as the blood ran cold in my veins... Then I jumped as my grandmother came out of the door with, "Doc you ought not scare that child that way.."

He looked at her sideways and kept on... "It was the biggest jack o lantern I had ever seen in my life.. It came floatin' up over the dam out of the swamp and headed straight out over the pond right toward me.. There was just something about that light that wasn't right... Without thinkin' about it I tucked in and rowed that boat right back to the shore and walked home through the fog as fast as I could.. left that whole mess of fish laying there too... and it was good bunch of bream.."

"Were you scared?"

"No.. just wasn't comfortable with it, the colors were all wrong, like something sick.."

That was the day I had gone over there to spend the night with them. The summer of 1975, so I was eight years old... Later that evening we went into town, on the way back I started asking him questions about the jack o lanterns. My grandmother assured me that they were nothing to worry about, but I was afraid of sleeping out in the woods in that little house... All sorts of visions of sick looking green lights making their way through the woods up from the pond were running through my head.... About half way down the road to their house he slowed the car down, and then came to a stop. He opened the car door and stepped out, calling to me, "Come out here and look at this.." My grandmother and I both got out and he pointed up into the pines growing on the bank next to the road. And there it was.. A silent ball of fire about the size of a basketball slowly moving around close to the tops of the trees... I watched as it moved around for a few minutes then seemed to slowly fade away. He shook his head and looked down at me, "They're something to watch ain't they?" Indeed they were...

As I was sitting there Saturday watching my cousins talking and the kids running around I thought about all of these things at one time... Like a flood gate opening. I could hear them all.. the people that have gone on.. Woodson, Irene, Reba, Donald, Shirley, David, Daddy Doc, Grannie, and my Dad.. It was a hard thing to hear, their laughter. I thought back to the days when that little house would be packed with people and hotter than you could imagine, tables laden with food, Christmas trees piled high with gifts and laughter.... the laughter of wisdom and age.. of knowing, caring and love...

My cousin had brought pictures with her and as I flipped through them I was stopped cold at a picture of my grandfather laying on a bed with a baby.. I turned it over and saw "1967" written on the back of it.. I almost couldn't breathe.. I handed it to my mother and asked, "Who is this?"... She looked at it and without a beat she said, "That's you and Daddy Doc right after you were born.. taking a nap on his bed.." She handed it back to me.. It was all I could do to hold the tears in as I took my camera in hand and snapped a shot of the photo... I had never seen it before...

A few minutes later my sister and I stood next to the table, laden with almost everything I could remember from my childhood.. My uncle Thomas walked by on the other side from us and said, "What have you got on?.... Your mind?" He sounded so much like my Dad that I stopped cold and all my blood drained from me completely... I turned around and looked at my sister for a second and we both knew what each other were thinking... for that brief moment it was as if my dad had indeed walked right by us.. I turned away from her and teared up a bit.. Then headed for the dressing.. and damn.. it was as good as I remembered it..