Chickenfat

Powder Springs, Georgia, Cemetery

My ancestor Jesse Bookout lived in Powder Springs in the 1800a before he moved to Murray County. Some of his off spring stayed.

Jeannet Phillips and Leonard Francis Petty, my mother's brother and sister-in-law

Labels: Petty

Calvary Baptist Church Cemetery, Crandall, Ga

Crandallm Georgia, near Chattsworth, in Murray, County, Georgia. These are all kin on my mother's side.

This is a Petty descendant. He died at a young age, he fell of his grandfather's lap while he was cutting grass on a riding lawnmower

My great grandparents

My mother's single uncle and aunts who lived in the same original Petty house. Wesley died when their house burned up, with Wesley in it. I think the two sisters died in a nursing home.

My grandparents

Labels: killian, Petty

Spring Camp, Carmel, NY

click to enlarge

One Spring weekend in the 1960s a few Navy buddies and me left our Navy base and spent the weekend in Carmel, New York, visiting my uncle Roy Petty and his sons. We did this several times over a two-year period..

In this picture we are playing cowboys and Indians with my cousins. Standing over to the left is my cousin Rodney, for some reason, standing at attention. In front of Rodney is their dog. I forgot the dog’s name. You may can see the dog has a very short tail. On another visit, on a cold morning we were walking a very curvy road near their house by a huge lake that is New York City’s Water Reservoir. A car speeding came blindly around the corner and we scattered, all but the dog. The dog not nicked, it cut his tail off. That is me with the Indian chief’s head feathers, lurking around the edge of the tent. Joe Rexroad, a Navy buddy, is sitting in front of me with his arms folded. Standing beside Joe is my other cousin Billy. The picture was probably taken by Navy buddy Don Lash, he was playing with black and white developing then.

The last I heard Billy has a large family and owns a construction in Colorado. I am not sure where Rodney is.

Labels: Navy, Petty

Varnell, Return

This is Varnell, Whitfield County, Georgia. Varnell is abot ten or so miles north of Dalton. As an adolescent I visited this little town many times. To see my grandmother (my ma’s ma) and close by kin.

The top two pictures are of the preacher's house. The preacher had a little girl about my age. On the other side of the preacher was a railroad track with a water tank. One time the little girl and I climbed u p the ladder and into the water tank. Both families had a fit.

The preachers house is abandoned now.

This was my grandmother's house. Yes, that is a used car lot behind it . Since I took this picture on another trip I saw that the house was bulldozed away.

Across the street from Grandma's house was a little country store, which has been replaced by a big convenience store ran by an Indian (Far East) family. Used to, when I was a kid that was the only place I knew you good buy frozen ice cream cones.

Behind my grandmother's house is this spring. Even it has changed. The horseshoe shape rock formation is for people dipping their containers to get water. The water is very clean because of the little black shell creatures on the floor of the spring. They are periwinkles, which keeps the water clean. My grandmother did not have running water. They had an outhouse and this was their water supply, that and a barrel to .catch rainwater.

By what I can tell the town now has modern home occupied by commuters to Dalton and Chattanooga. It used to be all farmers and a fish cannery.

History wise, not much has happened here. One thing that happened, is two Mormons came to town handing out pamphlets of their religion. The town's men folks took the Mormons down by the spring, which was surrounded by trees then, and shot them. dead. So much for religious tolerance in this small town.

Labels: Petty

After Jeannette's Funeral 2004

Jeannette in the nursing home a few weeks before she died. I'm not sure she knew who I am, I think she lost her ability to talk, but she was glad to see me, whoever I was.