Bang You're Dead- repost

I'm reposting this one because we have had another mass shooting. I agree with the father of one of the victims. When will it stop? When will we have the will to do something? He doesn't want any other parent to go through what he is going through. It has to stop. We have to do whatever it takes to make it stop. No more Sandy Hooks, Virginia Techs, Columbines. No more crazy guys with lots of guns and ammo. No more. None. 

The picture above is of the glasses John Lennon was wearing the night he was shot to death. The number at the top is stunning. Over a million. Not all of them murdered but all killed in some manner by a gun. In comparison it is slightly more than the entire population of San Jose,California. Everyone in San Jose. Every man, every woman, every boy, every girl. Everyone. We would have to go to the suburbs to get the rest to get an equal number to the one noted above. Simply stated there are not enough people in San Jose. A city completed emptied of its population. A large city, but still not enough. About 4,000 were killed on 9/11 and we have fought two wars as a result. One million over a 22 year period and we go on as if it is business as usual. One million dreams- ended.

I have blogged about gun control before. I will howl at the moon again today for a bit. I own guns. Yes that is plural. Guns. I never point a gun at anything I don't intend to shoot. I treat it as if it is loaded every time I pick it up. I don't store them loaded. I don't own anything that is so valuable that I would shoot you to keep it. I have insurance. My pride does not require me to kill you to maintain or retain my self respect. I understand that death is forever. I want you to have time to make peace with what you have done and that means I cannot shoot you. If that causes my death I am okay with that outcome. I understand the second amendment allows citizens to keep and bear arms. Like freedom of speech the right is not unlimited. You cannot say whatever you want whenever you want. Clearly the rules say you cannot go into a crowded theater and yell fire. You cannot own any weapon you want. Most citizens cannot own a fully automatic machine gun, or a tank, or a mortar, or a howitzer. So our right to bear arms can be legally limited. I don't know where to draw the line. I don't know what weapons should be restricted or eliminated from private ownership. What I do know is that over a million people cannot participate in that conversation. They have no voice in the discussion. A discussion we need to have in a civilized manner. Stop the grandstanding and name calling. I understand criminals are still going to have guns. If universal background checks were supported by the NRA 20 years ago why the opposition now? If we keep guns out of the hands of one idiot who intends harm isn't it worth the effort?

John Lennon sang the lyrics "All you need is love, Love, love is all you need." He doesn't sing that anymore or anything else for that matter. Would gun control have saved him? Probably not. It does not mean that we shouldn't have the conversation. Let's talk about the issues. Not yelling crap like "From my cold dead hands". One million corpses ask us to talk. Maybe nothing changes. Talk. You hold your guns proudly and proclaim your right to keep them while you shout and deny me my right to freedom of speech. Lower the rhetoric and the volume. We are adults. Let's talk like adults. Debate like adults. Make decisions like adults. Live with the results like adults. Whatever the final decision is on guns I will live with the outcome. I will feel like I have been heard. I will abide by the law.



We Must Make it Right

I was watching 60 minutes last night and a World War II veteran was talking to a Vietnam veteran about D-Day. On the 6th of June it will be 70 years since the D-Day invasion. This veteran after almost 70 years had to stop several times because the memories were too much for him to bear. He would break down and tell the other veteran, "you know, you've been there in war". I haven't been and I don't know. I cannot fathom the horror of it. The sights, the smells, the sounds, the chaos. It is beyond my ability to comprehend. I shared something on Facebook the other day regarding the Republican blocking of a bill to provide more money for veterans medical care, jobs and training. I look back at it now and feel it wasn't completely fair. Both sides deserve blame here. They need to sit in a room and not be given food or water until they are dead or reach an agreement that provides veterans with the benefits they have so bravely earned. The legislation should have nothing in it that does anything but provide for the needs of our veterans and their families. No side issues at all. No talk about how it will be paid for or how much it costs. Those were issues that seemed to have no relevance when we sent our soldiers off to war. They sacrificed their youth, their limbs, eyes, emotions, and in many cases their lives because we asked them to do so. When they return it is our obligation to see they receive the care they were promised and are owed. Whatever care that might be at whatever cost. No excuses, no delays, no secret waiting lists. In his second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln stated it clearly. He looked ahead and saw our obligation to those who served and sacrificed.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace  among ourselves and with all nations."

It is almost 150 years since Lincoln spoke those words. We still have not managed to keep the promise he made to our veterans and their families. It is wrong and shameful. Both parties in Congress should be ashamed of what they have done and continue to do. When you look at a veteran who is clearly suffering 70 years after his experiences in combat you develop a new appreciation for the sacrifice these citizen soldiers made and the debt we owe but can never fully repay. Their medical care, pensions, job training and education are a just and fair beginning. The expression of a grateful nation in honoring those who served. We can and must do better.

Amusement

 This confuses me because this picture doesn't seem old enough for this kid to have met my Dad. He was the master of blunt and you never wondered what he was thinking. I can hear his voice in my head saying that.

 Has anyone tried that with a cat? How do we know it wouldn't work? I think it would have to be a big cat.

 I think George has a point here. My questions are the following. Do we kill them because they are nonviolent and we know they won't fight back? Is it because we know they are unarmed? Does peace scare us that much?

Why aren't people protesting and yelling about this? We raise all kinds of hell about food stamps and welfare and medicade but way more money is given away to corporations every year. They are finding new and better ways to avoid paying taxes while making more and more profit. Something is seriously wrong here. I will admit to serious doubts about the accuracy of these numbers however having said that they do make a case for a conversation about how our tax dollars are spent. 

Who Has Regrets

It seems as we go through life we all do things that we consider later and wish that life had a rewind button. It doesn't. So we somehow have to find a way to move on and do things differently or better. I was reading an article the other day written by a nurse who provided palliative care. The patients she had worked with had been sent home to die. People on their deathbeds tend to look back with a clarity that most of us lack in our day to day lives. We put off thinking about things because we think there will be time later and frankly it is often just to painful to look back at our shortcomings. She would ask them if they had anything they would have done differently if they had the opportunity. She related these as the top five.

1. I wish I had led a life that was true to myself and less of what others expected of me. People wish they had dreams of doing things and just never did them. They lay on their deathbeds knowing that they had not fulfilled those dreams based on things they had chosen to do and things they had not chosen. The lesson here is when you can take a chance and honor those things you dream about. They won't always work out but at least you won't lay on your deathbed someday and wonder, what if.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard. Sometimes we get so busy earning a living that we fail to make a life. We miss our children's baseball games, concerts, first words, first steps, maybe just the opportunity to talk with them about their hopes and dreams. We get so caught up on the treadmill of life. Up in the morning, off to work, home to do the yard work and household stuff, off to bed and do it again tomorrow. We work like crazy to have stuff we don't really need for a happy and complete life. Isn't life more about relationships than about things? We've all heard the saying "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." Well dumb ass what does it matter, you are dead.

3. I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. We spend a lot of time and effort suppressing our feelings to keep peace with others. We don't want to make them mad or hurt their feelings. We end up bitter and resentful. We cannot control how others feel but we can express our feelings honestly and fairly. It changes our relationships with others. If the communication improves the relationship that  is great. If it ends the relationship then it releases you from an unhealthy relationship. Seems like you are better off no matter how it goes.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. The value of long term friendships is often unappreciated until we are faced with death or a crisis. Once again we allow our lives to get too busy, caught up in the daily grind of work and ignore the relationships that provide a richer and fuller life than the things we buy. At the end of life we see what is really important. It is love and relationships. The things we have become more and more meaningless.

5. I wish I had let myself be happier. We often lose sight of the fact that happiness is a choice. We get stuck in habits and patterns and forget to break out of those and choose happiness. We live a life of comfortable familiarity. We fear change. We are satisfied with feeling content. So when you get a chance do something silly. Have some fun.

Just some things to think about. As you get older you tend to look back and wonder about the what ifs. Time to set that aside and enjoy life. So take a little time today, enjoy a relationship, forget about work, turn the TV off and have some fun.

Back To Colonial Park Cemetery

Today we are going to spend a bit of time with another one of the notables who resides in Colonial Park Cemetery. He is once again a person of importance in American history who slipped through the ever widening gaps in my college education.

Hugh McCall was born in 1767 in Mecklenburg County North Carolina the second of James and Elizabeth McCall's eight children. James McCall was born in Pennsylvania in 1741 and moved to North Carolina where he was involved in the Regulator Movement against British taxation practices in the 1760's. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary war eventually rising to the rank of Colonel. He led troops in 17 engagements during the war until his death from smallpox and a war wound in April 1781. This family history may explain why Hugh McCall felt his life calling was writing the first history of Georgia. It is a two volume set with the first volume published in 1811 and the second in 1816. He is known as Georgia's first historian.

Nothing is none of Hugh McCall's early years and the history of the man is spotty at best. While he was interested in recording the history of Georgia he had little interest in sharing the details of his own life. It is not known when he moved to Georgia. The first mention of him in historical records is 1794 when he is 27 years of age. U.S. Army records list him as an ensign. He was able to advance through the ranks becoming a captain in 1800 and a brevet major in 1812. He left military service in 1815. His first recorded notation with Savannah is 1806 when he became the city jailor. He held this position until 1823.

Hugh McCall's early histories of Georgia are impressive for a number of reasons. At the time he was writing there were no archival collections of documents or correspondence which modern historians rely on to create a historical record of the sort he wrote. McCall relied on informal and scattered materials he had to gather himself and on interviews with Revolutionary War veterans. The veterans were interviewed decades after the events and were getting up in age. As a result his history is marked by some inaccuracies which were corrected by the works of later historians.

Hugh McCall remained a bachelor throughout his life and died in Savannah in 1824. In 1994 the Georgia Association of Historians created the Hugh McCall Award which is given every third year to a historian in recognition of scholarly attainment, excellence in teaching and/or encouragement of the study of history.

Mike and I were talking after our visit last weekend about death. I think he and I are both in agreement that you do not truly die until there is no one remaining who remembers you. Hugh McCall continues to live on because his contributions to our history and knowledge of our country's founding make us recall his work. Here is a picture of Hugh McCall.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day from Tybee Island, Georgia. The lighthouse has never looked better.

Confusion

I'm a simple man and many things confuse me. I went to Savannah today to take more pictures of the squares. Why do squares confuse me? There is a square named for Revolutionary War Hero Nathanael Greene. There is a monument to him as well in one of the squares. He is buried in one of the squares. You would think he would be buried in Greene Square and his monument would be there. His body initially lay in Colonial Park Cemetery. He was moved to Johnson Square and placed with the monument to his memory that stands in that square. Casmir Pulaski has a square named in his honor. He was originally buried in South Carolina. His body was moved and placed near the monument to his memory that stands in Madison Square. Why aren't the bodies and the monuments in the squares named to honor the men? I have no answer.

Next confusion. We were driving down Butler Ave. this evening and a couple of folks on bicycles rode up to a stop sign. All the crosswalks are marked telling you to stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk. The riders moved over and rode across the street in the crosswalk. Do you yield because they are in the crosswalk? My opinion is that traffic laws apply to them since they are a moving vehicle and in traffic they are entitled to a lane and required to obey traffic laws. If I have to yield to them as pedestrians in the crosswalk would traffic have to yield to me if I drove my car across in the crosswalk. Technically to me they were as much a vehicle as me when they rode across in the crosswalk. Since I didn't hit them I guess there is no way to know the answer at this point.

Final confusion for today. I have many more but this is going to be enough for now. Rap music and hip hop music. I personally don't know the difference. They sound like the same thing to me. I'm an old white guy so rap is something you do when you want someone to answer their door and hip hop is something Peter Rabbit did on the bunny trail. What I do think is that whatever they are they must be a dying form. Why? Well I was watching Ellen yesterday. (Feel free to schedule a vote to revoke my man card) Who says everything  about retirement is great. Anyway there were two very pale British teenagers performing rap or hip hop since I can't tell them apart. The true doom for this musical style will come when an Irish ginger does rap or hip hop. I mean really can you get any paler than that?

Wishing Doesn't Make it True

Tuesday was primary election day in Georgia and Kentucky. The political pundits have spoken and declared that the establishment Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have dealt the  Tea Party wing a serious blow. It is once again the problem with our current news coverage and our collective gnat like attention span. It seems that the coverage of an incident involving a couple of celebrities in an elevator got more news coverage than what happens in elections that potentially will affect all of us. The notion that the Tea Party folks were somehow weakened by these election results fails to consider what has actually happened. The folks who vote in primary elections are the hardcore true believers of the political right and left. The majority of voters and in the area of Georgia where I live now, about 80% don't vote in primary elections. Politicians are therefore required to pander to the party faithful. In this case the fundamentalist Christians and Tea Party nutbags who go vote in the primary. They have managed to move the conversation to the far right extreme. What used to happen was Republicans could take a more centrist position and be able to compromise in order to do what was best for the American people and the country. The Tea Party folks spend lots of time keeping score. If you don't follow thru with what you professed then you are labeled a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and in the next election someone to the political right will run against you. I am going to give you one example of how this has impacted our fellow Americans and workers.

When you go to a restaurant with wait staff those workers are paid less than the federal minimum wage because they get tips. So the waiters and waitresses get less money and tips are intended to make up the difference. Republican lawmakers have managed to pass bills in some states that require wait staff to pool their tips including busboys and dishwashers in the tip pool. Since they are now tipped employees the owner is no longer required to pay them the federal minimum wage. It seems fair right. Those wait staff getting tips were making the big bucks. The other staff should share in the wealth. Isn't that the income redistribution Republicans are constantly railing against? Taking money from one group and giving it to another? The truth of the matter is that the poverty rate among wait staff in the food service industry is 250% higher than the general work force. In other states laws have been passed which allow the employer to pocket all the tips. Why shouldn't they? According to Republican dogma they are the job creators. They then pass through to employees the potion of tips they deem appropriate. So next time you lay that tip on the table remember that you had enough money to enjoy a meal out on the town. Make sure the person who waited on you gets a tip that allows them to put food on their table at home.

So to those pundits who declared the Tea Party dead, maybe you should look a bit closer at the laws being enacted. Wishing won't make the Tea Party go away, maybe voting and paying attention to what laws are passed will.

Edward Greene Malbone

Today we go back to Colonial Park Cemetery to learn about one of the honored dead who is buried within its walls. Prior to going to Colonial Park I had never heard of Edward Greene Malbone. It is just another example of how rich American history is and how lacking even a college education can be in teaching us its fundamentals.

Edward Greene Malbone was born in August 1777 in Newport, Rhode Island the illegitimate son of John Malbone who went by his mother's name of Greene until an act of the legislature allowed him to assume his father's name. He watched scene painters at the theater in Newport and after painting a landscape scene for the theater he was able to devote all his time to art. In 1794 he became a portrait painter in Providence, Rhode Island. He then moved on to Boston, New York and Philadelphia till 1800 when he went with his friend Washington Allston to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1801 he went to Europe returning in December and taking up residence in Charleston. He made visits north painting miniatures in various cities but his art was undermined by his poor health. He traveled to the West Indies in 1806 but the trip did not improve his health.. He died in Savannah, Georgia on Mary 7, 1897 at the age of 29 of tuberculosis. His friend Washington Allston said of him: "had the happy talent of elevating the character without impairing the likeness. This was remarkable in male heads, and no woman ever lost her beauty under his hand. To this he added a grace of execution all his own." It is over 200 years later and Malbone is considered the greatest artist of miniatures ever produced by the United States. Here are some examples of his beautiful work.

Self portrait

Death is Timeless

We all share a few common human experiences. One of those we will all have sooner or later is dying. Where do we go from here? Today we are going to stop by a place that welcomed about 9,000 residents of Savannah from about 1750 to 1853 or so. It is Colonial Park Cemetery. Many of the South's and early America's notables take the dirt nap.

 This is the gateway to Colonial Park Cemetery placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

When you do research on Colonial Park Cemetery you find some disagreement on how many are buried here. The numbers I have seen vary from 8,000 to over 10,000. Part of the problem may be that all the graves are not contained within the gates of the cemetery. The original cemetery extends out into Abercorn Street so when you drive down the street or walk down the sidewalk you are traversing the graves of some buried in Colonial Park Cemetery. Savannah claims to be the most haunted city in America and it may have something to do with the city's willingness to pave over graveyards without moving the bodies. Yes, I said graveyards, plural. This is not the only one that has been partially or completely paved over.

In future posts we will meet a few of the notable buried here. Today I will share a couple. The first was Nathanael Greene. He was laid to rest in Colonial Cemetery after his death in 1786. When they decided to move his body to Johnson Square at the Greene Monument there was some confusion about where his body was actually located in Colonial Cemetery. It was found in the Graham family vault. It just goes to show you even when you are a famous war hero sometimes the sands of time create confusion. One of the most notable burials is Button Gwinnett. You may remember from the post on Leopold's that the shop was originally located on Gwinnett Street. Now you will know how the street was named. Mr. Gwinnett was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He died on May 19, 1777 as the result of a duel with Mr. Lachlan McIntosh. The two men were involved in an argument about who was right regarding an invasion into Florida. A couple of things come to mind. First, I am glad we no longer take our politics quite so seriously. Second, it would seem kind of tough to stand a few feet apart and shoot at another person. Sometime in the future I hope to relay a story of duelists in the Savannah area who took four attempts before one participant was struck in the heart and killed. One would think at two or three rationale thought would kick in and they would give up the effort. It is not like you fired quickly. Shoot, wadding, powder, shot, tamp, cock hammer, pull trigger. The process would take 15 seconds or so between shots.

Yellow fever is part of the reason there is some confustion over the number of burials in Colonial Park Cemetery. The disease from time to time ravaged the population of the area with one of the worst outbreaks occurring in 1820. The northern end of Colonial Cemetery holds a mass grave of almost 700 who died during that epidemic. The exact number is rumored to be 666 which is a delight to the ghost tour companies. As a side note yellow fever has a family connection for me. My great-great-great-great grandfather Hosea Parsons died of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1803.

Savannah was the final stop during the Civil War for General Sherman's march to the sea. Many of the cities along the way were destroyed and burned to the ground. Savannah did not suffer that fate. General Sherman gifted the city to President Lincoln in 1864 to celebrate Christmas. Colonial Cemetery did suffer some damage from the Union troops as they used it as a camping area. A few of the headstones had dates altered showing some people lived over 1,000 years. Some were altered to show the person died before they were born. It was simply bored soldiers looking for something to occupy their time.

The cemetery stones here are generally made of a softer stone and the years have worn away much of what is written on them. There a many brass plaques throughout the cemetery to assist in recognizing the famous folks who were laid to rest within its gates. In future posts we will walk the path of early American history and learn a bit about these honored dead.

Eye Problems

I use this blog from time to time as a health education platform. Today's health lesson has to do with vision and eye health. A couple of years ago I had cataract surgery on both my eyes. For those who have not experienced this both eyes are not done at the same time. You have surgery on one eye and after about six weeks then surgery is done on the other eye if necessary. Since cataracts, at least in my case develop slowly, I had no idea how bad my eyesight had gotten. I had once again noticed my vision in my right eye had gotten blurry and my eye has become increasingly sensitive to bright light. Reading has become a chore. Yesterday I had enough and called to make an appointment with the opthalmologist. The nurse related that based on my symptoms it sounded like I had developed what is commonly and incorrectly referred to as a secondary cataract. The correct name for the problem is a surgical complication called posterior capsule opacity or posterior capsule opacification.

A cataract is a clouding of the natural lens in your eye. When cataract surgery is performed the doctor removes the natural lens from your eye and replaces it with an intraocular lens. Since this is an artificial lens it cannot cloud like the natural lens in your eye so the development of a second cataract is not possible. When cataract surgery is performed the surgeon opens the capsule that contains your lens and removes the lens. The capsule is left intact and the intraocular lens is implanted within the capsule. In about 20% of cataract patients the posterior portion of the capsule becomes hazy causing posterior capsule opacity. This occurs because some of the lens epithelial cells remained in the capsule following surgery and have grown in the capsule. These cells lay on the surface of the lens and act as a connective and protective tissue.

Treatment of posterior capsule opacification is done with a YAG laser. I was going to spend some time here explaining YAG lasers but after reading about them I have determined that my level of understanding is lacking. I will simply state that it is a focus bright light in the infrared and what happens in your eye is a magical miracle. The procedure is as follows. The eye is usually dilated before the procedure. The laser, without touching the eye or making an incision, removes the hazy posterior capsule from your line of sight. The entire procedure takes only a few minutes and is entirely painless with no post-operative discomfort. Normal activities may be resumed immediately following the procedure. The patient may experience some floaters afterward but these normally go away in a few weeks.

Risks are minimal with the major one being a detached retina. The lifetime risk of a detached retina due to cataract surgery is 1%. This risk rises to 2% after YAG laser capsulotomy. The literature does a good job of not scaring the hell out of you here. The could have easily said your risk of a detached retina doubles if you have the YAG laser procedure.

What does all this mean for me? Well I have a doctor's appointment in Galesburg on May 29th. It means that Carol, Lily, Teddi and I will head north on the 28th. It means Budde's pizza. Craft beer. The smell of dirt. A chance to see emerging corn. Getting a laser shot in my eye. You know for someone who grew up in the 50's, 60's and 70's when lasers were used to blow up space ships and kill Godzilla it is strange to know they can do things like restore your sight. This will be a short trip north as my intent, baring any complications, will be to head south again on the 30th. That concludes today's health bulletin. Please take good care of your eyes because when I see you I want you to be able to see me.

They Don't Build Them Like This Now

There are a couple of buildings on Oglethorpe Square that deserve some of your time and attention. The first is the The Owens-Thomas House is located on the northeast corner of Oglethorpe Square and is operated as a historic house museum by the Telfair Museum of Art. The house was begun in 1816 and designed by English architect William Jay. It was orginally called the Richardson House named after its first owner and builder. It is the finest example of English Regency architecture in the United States. The house was built between 1816 and 1819 for Richard Richardson a wealthy cotton merchant and banker and his wife Francis Bolton. Mr. Richardson's brother-in-law was married to Ann Jay the sister of the architect. Three years after its completion Mr. Richardson suffered financial losses and had to sell the house. It came into possession of the Bank of the United States and for several years was a boarding house run by Mary Maxwell. On March 19, 1825 Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette was a guest of the city of Savannah, stayed at the house and addressed the citizens from an iron veranda on the south facade. George Welshman Owens purchased the house for $10,000 in 1830. Mr. Owens was a planter, congressman, lawyer and mayor of Savannah during his lifetime. The home remained in the Owens family until 1951 when Mr. Owens granddaughter Miss Margret Thomas bequeathed it to the Telfair Museum of Art. It contains period furniture dating from 1750 to 1830, a decorative arts collection, an English parterre garden and an original carriage house thay contains one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the South.

Tabby was used in the construction of the house. It is a combination of lime, sand, water and crushed oyster shells. It was used in this area because Savannah lacked stone to build the house and bricks were rare and expensive due to the lack of local clay. It is a labor intensive process that required the use of slave labor to crush and burn the oyster shells to provide lime. That was combined with water and sand, placed in wood forms until it hardened.

This is some ornamental iron work below the area where the Marquis de Lafayette spoke. The detail and beauty are breathtaking.

This is a view of the rear of the house showing the parterre garden. A parterre garden is a formal garden constructed on a level surface with symmetrical planting beds separated and connected by gravel pathways.

 

Another view of the house from the front. You can see the iron work pictured above and the veranda where Marquis de Lafayette spoke. The is a must see when you visit Savannah.

 

The other building I want to briefly mention is the Presidents' Quarters Inn. It is a bed and breakfast so if you want to stay in the historic district in a beautiful building here is a picture of it.

The building was originally constructed in 1855 as twin federal style mansions. It was renovated into a bed and breakfast in 2007 and features 16 suites. Each suite is named for a United States President who has visited the city of Savannah. Bring a big wallet as rooms run $250 per night and up. If it makes you feel better for the past six years it has been voted the best of the best in Savannah Bed and Breakfast. As you see some rooms do feature a private balcony. 









Square 3

Today's square in our ongoing series of Savannah squares is Oglethorpe Square. The first four squares laid out were Johnson, Wright, Ellis and Telfair. The "New Squares" were Reynolds and Oglethorpe. It was originally named Upper New Square and was laid out in 1742. It was later renamed in honor of Georgia founder General James Oglethorpe. The home of Georgia's first Royal Governor John Reynolds was located on the southeast trust lot in what is now the parking lot for the President's Quarters Inn. The residences of the Royal Surveyors of Georgia and South Carolina were located in the northeast trust lots site of the Owens-Thomas House. The square has a pedestal honoring Moravian missionaries who arrived at the same time as John Wesley and settled in Savannah from 1735 to 1740 before resettling in Pennsylvania. A veterans group proposted erecting a memorial to World War II veterans in Oglethorpe Square but they were unsuccessful and it was placed on River Street.

 This picture is included simply to show you the tourist industry is alive and well in Savannah. You may choose a horse drawn tour of the historic area or one of the many tour buses. There are also bicycle and walking tours available. It is a great way to get acquainted with the area before setting out on your own. The guides are very well informed and provide great background information.

The squares are very park like and cooler than the surrounding urban area. It is not unusual to walk into a square and feel 10 degrees cooler and enjoy a respite from the intense southern heat and sun. Come back tomorrow for a post about buildings around the square.

Good Move

I have written couple of times about things I have missed from back home. Today is more about why this has been a good move. The weather so far has been a plus. It is great to be near the ocean. The best thing about Tybee Island is the people. Our dear friends Mike and Nancy were here for the weekend. We went to the beach on Friday afternoon and walked around. We stayed on the north end and had lunch at North Beach Grill. It was a great lunch and gave us time to relax and visit. It  always amazes me how you can sit with old friends and talk like no time has passed since you saw them. We finished lunch and Mike and I decided to climb to the top of the lighthouse. There is nothing that will tell you that you are out of shape like climbing up close to 200 steps. Looking down from that height you see very fees houses. Tybee island is covered with trees. It was ocean, a few houses and a sea of green trees. We left there and went to Benny's for a beer and to recover from the climb. It was also the day of the Beach Bum Parade. The parade is billed as the largest water fight in the south. There were pickup trucks along the main road with tarps lining the beds so they would hold water. The parade route is basically a three mile long moving water fight. It was something to see. It also marks the opening of tourist season here. The key to Tybee Island is the people. You never seem to meet a stranger. So far we have watched as they welcomed college students on spring break, gays showing their pride and anyone who wanted in a water fight.

You might ask, where are the pictures? Mike was here on vacation and he has a blog. If you want to see the lighthouse and its views or the Beach Bum Parade start following his blog. Go to existinginbfe.blogspot.com. It will be worth the stop to read Mike's musings.

They Are Always with Us

I saw this the other day and thought about how all of us know someone or several someones like this. You know, the mentally challenged. Knuckle dragging, helmet wearing, short bus riding, crayon eating, window lickers.

The next one gets more true every day.

Lily can really destroy a yard with just her paws. She wanted one of these for her birthday on Thursday. She got some toys and a chew bone instead.

Breakfast of Champions

There is a truth here that I will confess. I hate breakfast. I've never been a fan of breakfast. I think it has a great deal to do with traditional breakfast food. Don't like cereal. Eggs and sausage on occasion. Bacon, well bacon makes every meal better but why not wait till later in the day when your taste buds are fully awake and able to appreciate its magic. Carol always wanted our children to eat a normal breakfast. John, our youngest, was the only one who took my feelings to heart. Breakfast is the meal you eat in the morning. If you get up and want beef stew for breakfast then have beef stew. John would get up in the morning and open a can of Dinty Moore beef stew, heat it up and eat it for breakfast. We would drive to Sams to buy beef stew in bulk. This morning I got up and had a couple of cups of coffee. I looked over and Carol was having a breakfast bar. I decided I wanted something so I opened the refrigerator and got out some Taco Bell Queso cheese dip and spread it on a slice of rye bread. She saw what I had and asked why. I said there was just enough left for this and I was cleaning out the refrigerator. Doing my husband duties and helping out.

Carol had a quilt class scheduled at 11:00 am in Savannah. It got cancelled at the last minute and she asked what I had planned for when she was in class. Being honest I said I had no idea since it was scheduled to rain and that would not allow picture taking in the parks. We decided to go to Savannah and do something. I  decided along the way that since breakfast had been an issue I would add insult to injury and have an unusual lunch. So we went here.

Leopold's is a Savannah institution. There are all kinds of things going around that it has been judged the third or fifth best ice cream in the world. I don't know anything about that. All I can say after today is that it is the best ice cream I ever ate. EVER!

Leopold's was founded in 1919 by three immigrant brothers from Greece: George, Peter and Basil Leopold. They opened their ice cream parlor on the corner of Gwinnett and Habersham streets in Savannah where two streetcar lines intersected. It became a Savannah institution. Famed lyricist Johnny Mercer grew up a block away from Leopold's and was a faithful customer when he was in Savannah as an adult. He told Peter Leopold he would write a song about Leopold's famous "Tutti Frutti" ice cream. Now you know the rest of that story. The original location closed in 1969. Stratton Leopold, the youngest child of Peter Leopold kept many of the original fixtures while he pursued his dreams of being a Hollywood producer. He and his wife Mary reopened Leopold's in August 2004 on Broughton Street in downtown Savannah. The original fixtures Stratton saved were installed giving the shop an old fashioned flair. The shop is also decorated with posters and props from Stratton's work in Hollywood.

This is the counter at Leopold's. The fine young "soda jerks" behind the counter generously hand dip your selection in one of the paper cups if you want it to go, or into a glass container if you are dining in.

In front of me is the hot fudge sundae I had for lunch. The one in the foreground is Carol's. It was the lunch of champions. We followed it up with a walk up Broughton Street winding up at World of Beer for an after lunch brew. Some days you have to look healthy eating right in the eye and heartily say "FUCK YOU!"

Lily is 2

Today is Lily Lu's second birthday. When Carol and Nate picked her out I really didn't want another dog. Candy Mae has died earlier in the year and I wasn't sure I ever wanted another dog. She had been my companion, my buddy, the best dog I had ever known. Smart, gentle, obedient. I did my best not to make friends will Lily. I called her Carol's dog. She wouldn't let me get away with any of that. She worked her magic and became a vital part of our family. Now I can't imagine life without her. She isn't as well behaved as Candy, maybe not as smart, certainly lacks something in obedience. She does, however, love us with a reckless puppy abandon. She knows when we are going to leave and always wants to go. She is at the door excited to see us when we get home. She shamelessly begs food at the table. She has the nerve to be picky. A potato chip without dip? She's not eating that. Bread without butter? Never takes a bite of that either. Cheese? Sometimes but not those shitty Kraft singles. We tell her from time to time the rest of her siblings live outdoors in kennels. They chase raccoons in the woods. They eat, brace yourself, dog food. It has no impact on her picky diet or conduct. The one thing we read about coonhounds is they can be frightened until they get about a year old. Then the fear goes away and they are brave. Lily is not scared of anything, she is scared of EVERYTHING!

 She just a young pup here.

 Back in Illinois for a while we had the paper delivered. Lily loved walking down to the box at the road and carrying the paper back in her mouth.

 I think I've posted this picture before with the caption "Why are all the big bones black?"

 Lily likes to stand on the couch in Illinois and look over the wall to see what is on the counter. In this picture she is eyeing a pound of hamburger.

She decided one day that my bathrobe was a chew toy. Here she poses with her efforts. 

I'm not normally a fan of having my picture taken but if they all turned out as well as this one I would be get photographed more. Lily is clearly the star in this picture. Ears at the alert, paw up, with the intense stare of a hunter. She is a beautiful young lady. I am proud to say that she is not our dog, she has kindly allowed us to be her people. Happy birthday Lily!

Full Circle

The last couple of days I have written about the squares of Savannah. I was going to do that today but something has been eating away at me. It is Spring so I know it is planting time back home. The measure of time for me, until this year, has been marked by certain things. Spring, in my mind, isn't about warmer weather and flowers in bloom. It is the dust in the air. The smell of freshly turned dirt as a piece of farm machinery moves through the black soil of home. Tybee Island has its signature smells. The salty scent of the ocean being number one. It is always here. It doesn't mark the passing of seasons. Spring is the smell of dirt. A sweet heady smell that touches me to the depths of my soul. It has always marked Spring. The fall is marked by the smell of harvest. The roar of the corn dryer signals to me the smell of warm corn that goes with it. The dust of soybean harvest has its own smell. Once the crop is in the ground the next marker of time for me is when corn begins to peek through the ground. It spikes up and I always enjoyed the day I could drive by in the car and sees the rows ripple as a drove down the road. It seems like a day or two later the corn is knee high. It happens way before the old farmer saying that it would happen by the 4th of July. We will be back in Illinois in mid June. By then the corn will be head high and the smell of fresh dirt will have long ago faded. It has been replaced for me by the salty sea. While I enjoy both the dirt will always be my favorite.

Square 2

Today's square is Greene Square named after the Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene. It is at Houston and York Streets. As a quick side note 124 Houston Street is a home built by Isaiah Davenport who figured prominently in yesterday's post. I have said from time to time that I was a history major in college. It is amazing to me to be in Savannah, Georgia and find out how little I know of American History. A fair portion of today's post will be spent explaining who Nathanael Greene was.

Nathanael Greene was born August 7, 1742 in Warwick Township, Rhode Island. In August 1774 Greene helped organize a local militia which became chartered as the Kentish Guards. He had a pronounced limp and his participation in the militia was challenged. He began to collect and study books on military tactics and teach himself the art of war. His zeal in fighting the British and organizing the militia resulted in him being expelled from the pacifist Quakers. On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Major General of the Rhode Island Army of Observation formed in response to the siege of Boston. He was appointed brigadier of the Continental Army on June 22, 1775 and George Washington assigned him the command of the city of Boston after it was evacuated by the British in March 1776. On August 9, 1776 he was promoted to major general and put in command of the Continental Army on Long Island. The Revolutionary War in the south had not gone well. Robert Howe had been in command of the Continental Army in the south and had lost Savannah. Benjamin Lincoln was given command and lost Charleston. On August 16, 1780 the British attacked Horatio Gates' army near Camden, South Carolina. They broke and ran in confusion effectively ending the southern army as a fighting force. British General Cornwallis had a goal of gathering southern loyalists and taking the war into Virginia. He planned on using the southern ports to move men and material to the north. The choice of General Gates successor was left to General Washington. He appointed Greene and he was given command of all troops from Delaware and Georgia. Greene took command at Charlotte, North Carolina on December 2, 1780. The army was weak, poorly equipped and opposed by the superior forces of Cornwallis. Greene decided to divide his troops which forced the British to divide theirs as well. He retreated and at the Battle of Kings Mountain the campaign in the south changed. The entire British force was captured or killed. On January 17, 1781 the victory at Cowpens resulted in the killing or capturing of 90% of that British force. Greene would continue to battle Cornwallis across the south. By the time the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war British forces controlled a couple of southern coastal cities and Geene's forces controlled the remainder of  the south. Greene was given grants of land and money in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia following the war. He settled on his Mulberry Grove estate in Chatham County, Georgia about 14 miles from Savannah in 1785. On June 19, 1786 he died on that estate from sunstroke. During the Revolutionary War General  Greene was second in command to General Washington and other than Washington and Henry Knox the only generals to serve the entire 8 years of the war. In an interesting turn of events Nathanael Greene is buried in Savannah. He is buried in Johnson Square which was Savannah's first square.

Greene Square is home to the Second Baptist Church. The marker above reads: "Second Baptist Church on Greene Square was founded December 26, 1802 by Rev. Henry Cunningham and twenty-five other baptists. General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with the negroes of this city and the newly freed slaves at Second Baptist Church when Savannah surrendered to General Sherman in December 1864."

 A view of  Greene Square.

 This building on the corner of Houston and York is made from handmade bricks made at the Hermitage Plantation in 1840.

This is a view of that building.

"I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt."
Nathanael Greene

Square One

Some time ago I promised you a series of posts on the squares in Savannah. Today is the first of those posts. They will not appear in any special order. The order is determined by where I happen to end up in the car and where I can find a parking space. I then wander about and take some pictures, read up on some history and share my love of these Savannah gems with you.

We begin with Columbia Square. It is somehow fitting and proper we do so as something very significant happened here and it changed Savannah in ways no one understood at the time. Columbia Square is located on Habersham street between State and York streets. It was named after Columbia the poetic personification of American. This square was laid out in 1799. 

This is the Wormsloe Fountain that sits in the center of Columbia Square. The base of the fountain features many themes from nature. It was originally at the Wormsloe Plantation and was moved to Columbia Square in 1970 to honor Augusta and Wymberly DeRenne. Wormsloe was the estate of one of Savannah's first settlers Noble Jones and the DeRennes are his descendants. 

This sign stands in Columbia Square and addresses the Davenport House. I apologize for the picture, it was a sunny day and the square is filled with Southern Live Oaks. I tried several things to adjust the picture but it just won't come out clear enough it read. It says the following.

"Colonial Town Gate; Davenport House. In 1737, during the administration of royal Governor Henry Ellis, a line of earthwork defenses, including a palisade, was erected around Savannah. Immediately west of this marker was located Bethesda Gate, one of the six entrances into  the town. Through Bethesda Gate passed the Sea Island Road connecting Savannah and the tidewater settlements to the east.and southeast. This square, know as Columbia Square was laid out in 1799. Facing it on the north is the Davenport House one of the handsomest examples of Georgian architecture in the South. This finely proportioned dwelling, completed in 1820, was designed and built by its owner, Isaiah Davenport (1784-1827), one of Savannah's outstanding builder architects. In 1956 the Davenport House was restored by Historic Savannah Foundation as the first preservation project of that organization. It is open to the public at certain times during the week." 

The significant thing that is mentioned in passing of the sign is the work of the Historic Savannah Foundation. The year was 1955. The Davenport House had fallen into disrepair. It had over the years become a rundown rooming house in a seedy part of town. It was scheduled for demolition. A group of Savannah women got together, raised the funds, bought the house and had it restored. It is an amazing story. Think of the times. It is the South, 1955 and these are women. The Historic Savannah Foundation has gone on to save hundreds of buildings in Savannah and has been one of the driving forces behind the huge Savannah Historic District we enjoy today. This is the Davenport House as it appears today.

If you go back and look at the sign shown earlier you will notice this house in the background. It is the Kehoe House. 

The Kehoe House was built in 1893 for William Kehoe. It is now a highly regarded bed and breakfast. It is also reputed to be one of the most haunted homes in Savannah. 

The tree featured in this picture is a Southern Live Oak. Note the tremendous spread of the tree and the meandering nature of its limbs. The blue car in the background is mine and now you know why Columbia Square was first. 

As a final word. I'm not a huge fan of government. There are things it does and should do, like law enforcement. Sometimes, like in the case of the Davenport House, private citizens see a need, step in, and do the right thing. Savannah and in all reality the Nation owe a debt of gratitude to the ladies who saw in Davenport House something the rest of us didn't. Rather than sit back and figure it was someone else's problem, they created a solution. An effort that continues to the present day and a revolving fund and other preservation activities that have saved hundreds of buildings. Well done ladies!

Rainbow Fest Parade Final

Well today will be the completion of my series on the Rainbow Festival here on Tybee Island. You wonder sometimes if you have chosen the right place to live. So much of what is on television right now is political advertising. I'm tired of hearing about the "liberal nightmare created by Obama" or the ongoing claims that he is attacking religious freedoms and is going to confiscate everyones guns. No facts to back up either claim but it sells well with the conservative Bible thumping crowd down in the south. It is one reason the parade surprised me. It would have been just as easy for the city council to deny the request. They could have gone somewhere else. They chose to come to Tybee and Tybee residents chose to be welcoming and supportive. It restored some of my faith that the south may yet become a different place. It leads to the first picture for today.

 I know it is hard to read but the sign says It's Time South, for marriage equality. I feel like I have done this woman somewhat of a disservice. There was another lady who was walking with her and carrying the same sign. They appeared to be a couple. When I got home and got a chance to look at my pictures I realized I had not captured an image of both.

 I don't know the name of the man who was the creative force behind this float but he is a local celebrity based on his parade creations. This is his rendition of the original Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701. Yes I'm geek enough to know the call letters. It seems appropriate the show would be honored in a gay pride parade as George Takei is gay and an outspoken supporter of gay causes. If you do not follow him on Facebook I encourage you to do so. He is well into his 70's and continues to be active and extremely interesting. Part of his childhood was spent in an interment camp during WWII due to his family's Japanese heritage. He has written a play called Allegiance which is currently playing in New York shining a light on a bit of American history many would like to forget.

This lady was the last participant in the parade. I apologize for not getting a better picture of her. She kept moving and I kept taking pictures. These are the best two of the 15 or so I took. She had that strange, I'm an individual vibe that I love and the I don't need your approval to be me attitude. It is a rare combination you really should acknowledge and appreciate when you see it.