A Sweet Postscript

NOTE: Chris, the British journalist/author whose grandfather, Frank Marhoff, I wrote about after visiting Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama has named his new son Harry Peter Montgomery Hunt. Chris discovered my original post last November and we corresponded and I again wrote about this story.

I am happy to hear of the start of Frank Marhoff's great-grandson Harry's life and that his name will carry a part of his grandfather's story forward. Congrats Chris and family!

Okay, Now I Really, Really Did Win Something

Just last week with tongue in cheek, I posted about winning one of those infernal E-mail Yahoo-account-cloggin’ contests. I think y’all knew I was kidding, didn’t you?

Yesterday, the lady from the Montgomery Humane Society called me up to let me know I’d won first place in the “Through the Cat’s Eye” contest that they were putting on as a silent auction fundraiser. I had to ask her to repeat what she said for I hardly call my painting style “art.” It’s painting. But painting the bathroom is also painting and I don’t call that “art."

I’ve been doing a lot more painting of the bathroom kind lately, and “Butch,” as I dubbed my work, was actually completed a couple of years ago. What with getting ready to move and all, I thought he needed a home. When I saw the call for entries article in the local paper, I said, “I’m taking ‘Butch’ to the Humane Society.” And that dear gentle readers, is how I actually won 1st place at a juried art show.

Scotty and I walked onto the hallowed grounds of the Montgomery Country Club, my first and probably last time there, to attend the reception. Visions of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and grand parties of the Jazz Age entered my head. These icons of that decadent period met at a dance at the Montgomery Country Club while Fitzgerald was stationed at nearby Camp Sheridan. They even lived in Montgomery for a few months when they weren’t gallivanting around the world with the likes of Ernest Hemingway.

It was a pleasant evening. I collected my little check and looked at the other entries (none like my folk art) and went home with the knowledge that the old cat was good for something after all.

P.S. Butch was a real cat. Bill and I acquired him while living on 13th St. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We were University of Alabama college students at the time, and Butch became a part of us that we couldn't or wouldn't let go of even though there was no real reason to keep him around. He was too ornery to foist off onto someone else, even a cat lady.

He'd jump out and scratch Bill and hide under the bed when Bill chased him with a broom. When little Jeff tried to pet Butch, Butch gave him a scar that he still sports on his face. Butch wasn't a lap cat, didn't catch mice, ate and pooped like cats do and for the life of me, I can't imagine why we kept him around. He was too mean to die and lived until he was 19 years old. I'm convinced he's in the equivalent of where bad people go. Well, if you are sentimental, maybe all cats do go to heaven. But he had an attitude. "You pull my tail, kid, I'm gonna get you." Maybe that's why we tolerated each other.

A Mighty Fortress

“As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wonder what message the builders of the massive fence intend. Are they hoping to lock out criminals, child molesters, door-to-door solicitors, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormans? Fences either keep people or animals out or in. Rarely do they do the job with complete success. Those guys on the TV show Prison Break found a way out of Fox River State Penn (a.k.a Joliet Prison). A dog can dig under a fence or jump over a fence if he is really set on escape. Kids will climb a fence to go swimming, retrieve a baseball or just because someone wants them to stay away.

Fences are necessary to corral animals like horses, cattle and friend Stan’s two ostriches. Necessary to enclose dangerous activities, swimming pools, military bases. Fences can be small like one set up to keep rabbits out of the garden, although Peter did manage to squeeze under. Huge fences can enclose an entire town like the ones that surround Times Beach in Missouri after the environmental disaster.

I have been watching the development of this fence for several months now since I pass by it often. Even before the streets were paved and the land plotted for houses, the fence was commenced. It’s a strong fence as I would think a brick fence or rather a brick wall would be. Once the houses are built and the people come will they be safe? Will they escape crime, abuse, addictions, job troubles, head-strong kids, worrying about money? Will they be isolated, insulated, or prisoners by choice?

From the Mending Wall by Robert Frost:

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”

Self Promotion Cross-Venue Monday

Over at River City Views, al.com has a new template for my Montgomery blog. It's a nice view of a river--I seriously don't think it's the Alabama River though. Plus, they added the comments feature. I like having two blogs since I can delineate content that way although I hardly ever do so.

I imagine the world has heard enough about Alabama the last few days to do for a while with the Enterprise tornado destruction and the commemoration of Bloody Sunday. And heck, we don't even have an American Idol contestant to root for this season. So, stop by often and leave a comment so that I'll know Alabama is still on your mind.

And I did warn readers that from time to time I do engage in blatant self-promotion and why should I stop today? I haven't paid much attention to CafePress.com shops for some time, but I've noticed in my sales reports that the www.cafepress.com/hanginginthere shop is out performing the original Sheila for Kids. That's fine, because today I'm sending a donation to the charity as promised. The top sellers at Hanging in There are shown. The "Believe" design was featured as a part of October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month at CafePress. Thanks to everyone who has purchased t-shirts, mugs, clocks and other products with my designs. I value your business greatly and after I get the house on the market, I'll be creating some new work.

Heed the Warning

One of my favorite Montgomery bloggers wrote about a subject we need to heed. Alex from The Apocalypse Papers posted Competition Trick Eating where he talked about an experience at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Check his blog out and I won’t have to put in my two cents. Sex Toys and Elvis is a good post too.