Archive for June, 2014

2014-06-16 SC,Bamberg – visit with Dad and Kenny (and attend family reunion)

2014-06-21_SCBamberg,1224NorthSt-front

2014-06-21_SCBamberg,1224NorthSt-front

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I drove to Bamberg to visit Dad and Kenny, my older brother. I stayed for a week – and it was HOT and MUGGY. However, I LOVED it! That is because last January, I visited Quartzsite, Arizona and it is very DRY there.There are many rocks and the desert is all BROWN. I’ve decided that I LOVE “GREEN” – and the rain – and water – all of which is necessary for plants to grow. There were no TREES in Arizona. OK – well, every now and then a small one spaced far apart from others. I LIKE the Georgia FORESTS and the PINE Trees and shrubs, and green things. I met many people from the west who like the opposite. They like their ‘space’ and several people told me that they never plan to go “East” again. Well, I grew up in the East and got used to it, so that’s what is normal for me and I like it.
When I grew up in Bamberg, Highway 301 was a major North-South artery and there were no interstates. The one-stoplight would have traffic back-up for several blocks during snowbird migration. To support the tourist industry, my dad – with some partners, built five motels along the highway. He also had a gasoline station, car sales and repair. Other businessmen also built gasoline stations – that have morphed to present-day fruit stands or are just plain ‘closed’. On this trip, I learned that one of my Dad’s friends had decided to close his car business. He struggled with it for many years. Many changes are sad but we have to adapt to that which we cannot control.
Bamberg is a small town where everyone knows everyone else. I now live in a big city and don’t know many people at all. On my way home, I stopped at a “Hot Boiled Peanuts” shed on Highway 78 West – about 4 miles from town. I talked with the people there and in the conversation, found out that the family was connected to someone that I graduated with from high school. I waited a few minutes for him to return from running an errand and we had a great chat. We hadn’t seen each other since graduation and it was really nice to see him again – and meet his family.
I am posting some more pictures of Bamberg and hope that readers enjoy them. In my blog, I try to give readers an idea of what they will see if they visit a location. In this post, my pictures of the Ness Sports Complex turned out fuzzy and not publishable. I will try for more of them on a future trip.
Dad and I visited a cousin in Orangeburg and ate at the House of Pizza. In addition, we carried out plates from Dukes BBQ and this was our first time at the ‘drive-out’ window. I love some of the signs that they put in that restaurant!
Also, Dad and I went to B&B Meats on Main Street for lunch. We call it “Blockers” because the Blocker family owned it when I went to school there. If you like ‘soul food’, you will love eating out in Bamberg! We joke about calling things by their ‘old’ names. For example, the railroad track has been replaced by a walking-trail. It has been ‘beautified’ and looks great. But – when we give someone directions, we still say “go past the railroad tracks and turn … yada yada”.

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2014-06-22_SCBamberg,CockleburLn-OldBethesdaChurch6

The first gallery of pictures are from my tour of Bamberg. The second gallery is from my trip to the old Bethesda Church and cemetery outide of town about 10 miles. (The location is the intersection of Cocklebur Road and Broxton Bridge Road – Highway 601 South of Bamberg.) My Dad’s grandparents are buried in the cemetery as well as his younger sister, Olive, who was died on the same day that she was born. Her grandmother, Olive, is buried nearby. (The Mizpah history book has printed her name as “Olivia”. Many of the entries of the book are from memory of someone who knew the people. However, not all of the memories are precise. For example, whoever inserted the entry in the book for my family, spelled my name wrong.)
Some family history (for those interested): When I was small, our family reunion was held at the Bethesda Church. It was torn down because the building was infested with beetles and termites and the family didn’t want it to fall and hurt someone. About one-hundred feet to the south of the old church building, a six-telephone-pole with roof and concrete-pad building was constructed so that the family could have the picnic comfortably at the site. Many years ago, we didn’t have the nice riding lawnmowers that are available today. Before the reunion, someone had to go to the location and cut the weeds that had grown. Also, removing the many fallen branches and other general clean-up was required. I don’t remember attending a reunion in the ‘shed’.
My uncle Ansel and aunt Ruby owned a lake-house on Clear Pond that was only a few miles north of the Bethesda Church site. He offered to host the gathering at his lake-house. (And we would have running water and a bathroom there.) So – the reunion was moved to the lake for many years. Well – time passed and both uncle Ansel and aunt Ruby passed away. Their lake-house was sold and his son, “J”, offered to host the reunion at his house. He has hosted the reunion for many years and has – this is almost unbelievable – built a room onto his house so that we can all dine in his house addition (in comfort with air-conditioning). He also has an indoor swimming pool that many younger family members enjoy. I will post pictures that I took of the Bethesda church location and cemetery. I have refrained from posting J’s house because of privacy concerns. (Note: Clear Pond is on Highway 601 South of Bamberg about 9.5 miles. If you drive from Bamberg toward Ehrhardt and pass the Andrew Jackson Academy, you just passed the left turn for Clear Pond and you need to turn around. Also, for family members who never visited Aunt Florine’s farm and my grandmothers house, which burned many years ago – the location is about 9 miles south of Bamberg on Highway 601. (Look for paved driveway entrances. They are south of the telephone poles with transformers.) In olden days, when my family gathered at grandmothers farm on Sunday afternoon, my older cousins used to walk through the fields from grandmothers house to Clear Pond. I wasn’t old enough to cross the creek without getting wet.)
Hope that you enjoy all of the pictures and history.

In memory of : Olivia McMillan, who was born in 1841 and died in 1909.

First Gallery – many Bamberg pictures: 

Second gallery: Bethesda Church and location of where aunt Florine’s house used to exist pictures:

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 2014/06/24  Puddin-in-VannaWhite ("Puddin" in my nickname, "Vanna White" is my travel van)   1 Comment
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2014-05-17 GA,Atlanta – visit to Georgia Institute of Technology – Nanotechnology Building

2014-05-17_GAAtl,345FerstDr_Tour35

2014-05-17_GAAtl,345FerstDr_Tour35

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I am a member of a MeetUp.com group called Atlanta Science Tavern. The organizer of the group arranged for us to have a tour of the nanotechnology building. It was truly fascinating. They have two types of ‘clean rooms’ where students can design circuits. One of the areas is ‘clean’ and the other area is ‘cleaner’ – more air filtration for finer particles in the air. We also saw an electron microscope.  A couple of the graduate students told the group how different metals have different conductive properties. The graduate students and faculty answered questions at the end of the meeting and they talked about their research – which was far over my head of understanding.  They also provided us with pizza and soda at the end. As usual, I have included many pictures and hope that you enjoy seeing them.

 

<<Notes to Followers: WordPress now puts advertisements and there is no way that I control their input. When I go on a trip, I can only update the blog after I return home to a fast internet connection. As always, any comments that you have about the website would be appreciated.
I have another website. It is about my 1971 MGB (old English 2-seater convertible-top car). The url address is : http://www.PuddinInTheMGB.wordpress.com
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 2014/06/24  Puddin-in-VannaWhite ("Puddin" in my nickname, "Vanna White" is my travel van)   Leave a comment
Categories: Travel in USA

2014-06-12 GAAtl,Georgia Aquarium

2014-06-12 GA(Georgia), Atlanta  – visit to the Georgia Aquarium

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I rode MARTA (the rapid transit rail system, website = http://www.itsmarta.com) to travel downtown in order to avoid traffic and parking. On this trip, I got off at the Peachtree Center station and, after leaving the aquarium, I returned to the GWCC=(Georgia World Congress Center), Dome=(Falcons field), Philips Arena=(Hawks basketball), and CNN Center=(office tower with food court at street level) station. <The station name is a long one because the name is for many of the nearby popular buildings.> The first thing that I noticed were the tracks in the middle of Peachtree Street for the upcoming Atlanta Streetcar. I’m excited to see it and looking forward to riding it. I took a couple of pictures of a station and workers who were preparing the overhead electrical lines.

Unfortunately, many of my pictures are blurry. (I really try hard to not ‘shake’ the camera, but I failed for many of the pictures that I made on this trip.)  Fortunately, Google maps now has many pictures of areas that can fill-in for my error. I was really disappointed that my Hard Rock Cafe pictures were blurry. Also, I was disappointed at the picture of the ferris wheel.

On Peachtree Street, there used to be a retail clothing store known by the local family that started the store = Rich’s. The Rich family sold the stores to Macy’s. At this time, the store downtown is closed but mall stores remain open.  I worked for 11 years at Macy’s (not in a store but in a support office) – starting after the purchase of the Rich’s stores, and quitting after the corporation closed the downtown store. Employees were told that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York was known by many people, so many store names were changed to Macy’s.  

When the summer Olympics came to Atlanta in 1996, I volunteered for two weeks to help. I was a security guard in the green glass building that was used for International Press during the games and is now the American Cancer Society headquarters. Before the Olympic Park was created, there were many closed businesses in the area. Older car dealers had moved to the suburbs.  Old  buildings were torn down and the property purchased for the park. I moved to Atlanta in 1984 and worked downtown. During lunch, I would walk around and didn’t visit the park area because there wasn’t anything that would serve food in the area.

Today, the recent rains and clouds kept the temperature below 80 degrees and the outing was pleasant. However, walking from the rail through Olympic Park to the Aquarium is several blocks effort and I needed to gather some strength before walking a lot inside the building.  I have previously posted pictures from the Aquarium and there were crowds of people inside. So, I only took pictures outside. The pictures are arranged in a ‘gallery’ by wordpress. Viewers may mouse click on a picture to make it larger, then press the middle of the picture on the left and right arrows to move backward and forward.

<<Notes to Followers: WordPress now puts advertisements and there is no way that I control their input. When I go on a trip, I can only update the blog after I return home to a fast internet connection. As always, any comments that you have about the website would be appreciated.
If you want to receive an email after my WordPress website is updated, then click on the “subscribe” button and add your email address.>>

 

 2014/06/12  Puddin-in-VannaWhite ("Puddin" in my nickname, "Vanna White" is my travel van)   1 Comment
Categories: Travel in USA

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