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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Beaverdam and Walden's Creek

My friend Lee Ramsey of the GHS class of 71 left a facebook post at gaffneyites about Seinnin Beaverdam Creek of 29. 29 Also runs through Winder
Walden's Creek is in the Walland community outside Pigeon Forge, Tn where my great grandfather Fox once owned 1,000 acres in the late 1800's.
My Grandfather's story is below as I desribed it for my nephew Andrew's 13th birthday back in February

Andrew, two stories; one each from from two of your Great Grandfathers.
William Dan, WD Willie Dan, "Shorty Fox" was the father of your Grandfather Billy. He was born in 1894 or 95, he always told me he wasn't sure which.
Papa had a cousin, Seaton, about the same age of his and one of Seaton's brothers was Marshall; that's the way I remember the story. But when Papa was about 14 up on Walden's Creek he and Seaton decided to pool their money and get a Sein to catch fish in the Creek. They ordered it from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.
The deal was most of the time they would use it together, but they would have it a month at a time, take it home after they were seinin or have it to use with another friend or cousin during that month.
One time they got in an argument about whose month it was to take it home and according to Papa, Seaton said I'll fix it and he cut the Sein right down the Middle with his Knife.
So the lesson there is be careful who your business partners are, even if they are in the family; and on Richland Drive I'd Day Ben is about the safest.
Or later Seaton and Papa after about ten years laughed about it the rest of their lives; at which point the lesson becomes the lesson Old Joe Kennedy told Ted: Always do the best you can and then the Hades with it.

Your Grandfather Jordan, My Momma's Dad was born in 1881 about 16 years after Lincoln was assassinated and the Civil War Ended. Like Judge Frank Johnson and one could imagine Atticus Finch; he was a Lincoln Republican. That carried a lot of baggage in the world he was raised and his times, or Glory depending on how you want to calibrate character and legacy. He ran for School board Superintendent in Dekalb County, Alabama about 1914 and was soundly defeated. That was because most of the white men--they were the only people allowed to vote--thought he was a "Nigger Lover" cause that was a Lincoln Republican was to them in those Days, Uncle James said they would pass him on the street and say you can smell it on him, can't you.
Well one of his grandchildren is your Mother, and a great grandchild is on the Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of the State of Alabama. And a lot of those folks who called him that or the people they looked up to, you can read about later in Wayne Greenhaw's book Fighting the Devil in Dixie.
And later in 1931 Dietrich Bonhoeffer rode through town.

To paraphrase Karl Childers and your Dad, for this exercise they say I need a Bible Verse and a Prayer. My Hope "prayer" is when the world is absurd you'll have the wisom of Your Uncle Dee on his best days and our mutual friend Steve Martin to laugh it off so when it is over in 60 years or like your Great Grandfathers and Hebrews 11:13 you will been persuaded of the promises and embraced them while a pilgrim on The Earth.
AhMen.

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