Yes! Even You Can Become a Star!!!

The closest I ever came to being a star of stage and screen happened when I was nine or ten.   A friend of mine....Jeff Hightower...who I went to church with invited me along with another friend to WAGA-TV.....the forerunner of Fox Five Atlanta.....to be on the Mr. Pix Show, a popular children's show.

Back then kids dressed up to do something like that.  Jeff wore one of his spiffiest bow ties and Sunday-Go-to-Meeting jackets plus he had his crew cut standing at full attention.

I wore my favorite outfit at the time....a floral print shirt dress that had a matching hot pink knit overcoat that resembled a cape because while it had openings for my arms it also had one solitary button at the neck.  If I walked really fast and swishy the tail of the jacket/cape billowed out behind me

Seriously....it was the perfect dress to be wearing if I was to be "discovered."

If I remember correctly we were able to catch a glimpse of ourselves in the audience scenes when the episode finally aired, but I don't remember any of us getting to participate in any of the games, etc.

I guess we didn't have "it" whatever "it" happened to be.

These days, however, it's really easy to find yourself in a movie  or television show being filmed in the Atlanta area.    It seems something is going on all the time.

Not too long ago the Mister and I went to see the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting.

Nah...I'm not pregnant....very far from it, but a friend of mine....Jeff Pike.....was in the movie along with his band.....the very popular A1A.    

I was amazed at how great the city of Atlanta looked in the movie.  The article at this link has the tag line "relatable story with gorgeous scenery" and I would have to agree.

The movie makes Atlanta look fantastic!

Scenes were filmed at Piedmont Park, Inman Park, Little Five Points and the Georgia Aquarium.  Smith's Olde Bar was featured along with Fulton County Airport at Charlie Brown Field.   Atlanta's Food Truck scene was given a prominent role, too.

It's fairly easy to keep up with all the television shows and movies being filmed in Atlanta and across the state as well.   You can keep up with the happenings "in the biz" by reading Radio and TV Talk with Rodney Ho. and most certainly check out the Casting Couch from DAVE-FM.

Another great source is On Location Vacations and it might be helpful to check out How to Become a Movie Extra in Atlanta.

Let me know if you land a role!!! 

As for me........I'm still waiting for my close up......

Woodrow Wilson: Atlanta Lawyer

From time to time a friend will ask me about my writing.

Questions concerning what I'm working on, what topics I'm researching, or what to expect next on with the blogs. 

It's nice to have friends and family  who are interested.

Last week I advised I was working on Woodrow Wilson's time in Atlanta.  

My friend was surprised and immediately said, "Wilson was in Atlanta????"

Yes!  Woodrow Wilson spent a year in Atlanta after he finished law school.   In fact, he arrived in    the city without an official stamp of approval from the bar.   He soon took the bar exam though....and passed.

In a letter to CharlesTalcott, a classmate and friend at Princeton on September 22, 1881 Woodrow Wilson gave his reasons for wanting to settle in Atlanta, Georgia after school.   

Wilson said, After innumerable hesitations as to a place of settlement, I have at length fixed upon Atlanta, Georgia.   It more than any other southern city offers all the advantages of business activity and enterprise.  Its growth during late years has been wonderful…And then, too, there seem to me to be many strong reasons for remaining in the South.   I am familiar with southern life and manners for one thing – and of course a man’s mind may be expected to grow most freely in his native air.  Besides, there is much gained in growing up with the section of country in which one’s home is situate, and the South has really just begun to grow industrially.   After standing still, under slavery, for half a century, she is now becoming roused to a new work and waking to a new life.  There appear to be no limits to the possibilities of her development; and I think to grow up with a new section is no small advantage to one who seeks to gain position and influence.

Upon arriving in the city of Atlanta Wilson set up shop partnering with Edward Ireland Renick, a former classmate.  Renick already had an office at 48 Marietta Street which was then known as Concordia Hall…..later the Ivan Allen Marshall Building at the the corner of Marietta and Forsyth Streets. 

Their office was on the second floor in the back.

The building was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the First Federal Savings and Loan building.

Renick was living in the home of Mrs. J. Reid Boylston, a widow, who lived at 344 Peachtree Street……on the west side of the street a little north of Pine Street.  Wilson moved in as well and was soon attending the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, too.

In his book, Atlanta and Environs, Franklin Garrett recalls the inauguration of Governor McDaniel and Wilson's take on the whole scene advising Governor Alexander H. Stephens had died and James S. Boynton of Griffin, President of the Senate, succeeded to the office until a special election could be held.  The Democratic Party met in April.   Henry D. McDaniel, a banker, railroad director, member of the House from Walton County was nominated.    

Garrett further advised that a young Woodrow Wilson witnessed the crowd assembling for the inauguration of Governor McDaniel from his office window.    The next day Wilson wrote a friend in Berlin:

Governor McDaniel was inaugurated yesterday.   As I sat here at my desk I could see from my office windows, which look upon the principal entrance of the big, ugly building which serves near Atlanta as a temporary capitol, the mixed crowds going in to secure seats in the galleries of the House of Representatives at the inauguration ceremonies.

They were probably not much entertained though they may have been considerably diverted, for our new governor cannot talk.   He stutters most painfully, making quite astonishing struggles for utterance.  

A Tennessean wag expressed great commiseration to Georgia in her poverty of sound candidate material, and offered to send some over from Tennessee for the relief of a state which was about to replace a governor who could not walk [Stephens] with a governor who could not talk.

McDaniel is sound enough in other respects, however, not remarkable except for honesty - always remarkable in a latter-day politician - but steady and sensible, all the harder worker, perhaps because he can't talk....

Apparently Georgia didn't mind the speech issue since they elected McDaniel and re-elected him with opposition in 1884.

Wilson gave Atlanta up in 1883 and enrolled at John Hopkins, but before leaving the city Wilson wrote, Here the chief end of man is certainly to make money, and money cannot be made except by the most vulgar methods.   The studious man is pronounced impractical and is suspected as a visionary.  Atlanta students of specialties – except such practical specialties as carpentering, for instance – are classed together as mere ornamental furniture in the intellectual world – curious perhaps and pretty enough, but of very little use and no mercantile value.

Interesting thoughts from from our 28^th President.

I've written a little bit more about him and his time in Atlanta over at American Presidents Blog here.

Restaurant Review: The Farmhouse at Serenbe

Recently the Mister and I ventured down to Serenbe to eat at The Farmhouse restaurant.

I’m not going to waste a lot of your time by re-blogging things about the Serenbe Community that you might already know or that you can find out on your own by visiting the webpage for the community located in Chattahoochee Hills, but.....

To help you along a bit I will share this from the website….The settlement of Serenbe is found in the heart of Chattahoochee Hill Country.   The 40,000 acres of rural Georgia is about the size of Napa Valley, and is one of the last undeveloped stretches of land in the Atlanta area.  The founders of Serenbe realize that their largely untouched 1,000 acres presented a short window of opportunity for creating a community in a new better way.

And concerning restaurants….

At Serenbe, we believe in the power of food.  Families bond over meals, friends are made, and true communities are formed.  Serenbe founders Steve and Marie Nygren have a long history with food – Steve as a restaurateur and founder of the successful Peasant Restaurant Group; Marie as the daughter of Margaret Lupo, owner and chef of Atlanta’s famed Mary Mac’s Tea Room – and they knew that culinary arts should be at the heart of all that Serenbe has to offer.  Thus, Serenbe has become a dining destination featuring authentic restaurants and some of the best talent in the South.

Well, I have to agree.

We went to Sunday dinner at The Farmhouse which is located in the Inn at Serenbe.   

Sunday dinner resembles going to Grandma’s for  dinner after church.   There are no choices….just good food.   Well, I take that back.   We were able to choose fried chicken or the pork chop, but the sides came along as a surprise.  

Of course we chose the Fried Chicken Lunch which you can order on Saturdays or Sundays.

I was taken by the old farmhouse.   The wide porch reminded me so much of the turn-of-the-century home I grew up in down to the same type of gun-metal gray painted porch where I spent so much of my time playing and reading.

I mourn for that porch.....

I felt like I was going home to a certain extent.

Our table had a great view of the Inn's pool area......I have to come and stay here at some point.   I've put that on my "to-do" list, and hope I get around to it soon.

Once we were seated the waitress brought these lovely Sour Cream Chive Biscuits.  Later I looked for the receipe and happened to find Marie’s own recipe published on the web, so I recorded it for myself at my cooking blog here.

We started out with the Fried Green Tomatoes which were perfectly done.....

....and then the fried chicken arrived!!!!

The piece of chicken was huge…...  It was boneless and more like a huge chicken steak.   Each bite was a perfect fusion of crunch mixed with moist and tender chicken.   

The sides served up on the Sunday I happened to visit included  a cherry tomato relish type dish, potato salad, and the best zucchini casserole I’ve ever tasted.  

And of course, we had to try the Blueberry Cobbler with a little vanilla ice cream on the side for dessert because......

well, just because.

Heaven……….

All I needed afterward was a nice nap on that welcoming front porch.

You can find Marie Nygren’s blog here….and yes, I’m adding her to the blogroll. :)    

Are you friends with Georgia on My Mind on Facebook?   I hope so...but if not see the "like" box in the sidebar.   I've published a photo album there with more of my pictures I took while visiting Serenbe.

Willacoochee, Georgia

Most people had lawn ornaments of some type in their yards while they were growing up –statues, fountains, cement or wire borders around flower beds, or even the very Southern habit of using tires painted white as “lawn décor.”

I had a railroad track.  

Seriously.

Less than 500 feet from my front door was a very busy route that left Atlanta and headed towards Newnan, Grantville, etc.

No, we didn’t own it, but the track did border my yard and was a portion of my playground as the track served as my balance beam, I counted every car of every train that went by,  and allowing the train to flatten my supply of pennies was always a great way to pass the time.

For most of us the closest we will ever come to owning a railroad is the game of Monopoly.   Everyone has their favorite pieces of property to buy and hang onto.  For me…..it was the railroads.  I considered the game to be going well if I could snag all of the railroads, the utilities and of course – Park Place.

The town of Willacoochee, Georgia owns its own railroad and holds the distinction of being the first city in the state to own a railroad.   When the city received word the Georgia and Florida Railroad that ran through the city was going to be abandoned they purchased the 18 miles of track along with the right-of-way to Nashville, Georgia.

This has been a real boon to the industrial life for the little town of Willacoochee, and due in part to rail lines and a four-lane highway the town plays host to several different industries today.

Willacoochee.

Ever hear of it?    

Willacoochee…the town with the funny sounding name and the town that owns its own railroad  is located in Atkinson County.  Amazingly it’s referred to quite often in popular media by a few characters in movies and television shows.   The gym teacher featured on The Steve Harvey Show…..his mother owned land in Willacoochee while Mark Wahlberg’s character in the movie Jungle Fever was from Willacoochee.   Ossie Davis playing Wesley Snipes’ father in the movie Purify made reference to being born in Willacoochee and Mrs. Towner……a character in the movie Beauty Shop spoke of Willacoochee.

While the town’s name sounds like someone’s reference to a private body part it is thought to harken back to Indian days and means “Home of the Wildcat.”     The town has also been known as Danielsville….after a family who lived there.

The town is bordered by the Alapaha and Willacoochee Rivers.

One of the original settlers in Willacoochee was B.F. Summerlin who built a hotel where meals could be purchased of twenty-five cents.  

My….how times have changed.   Twenty-Five cents buys one piece of gum from a machine these days, doesn’t it?

During the 1930s sand was mined from the banks of the Alapaha River and shipped all over Georgia and Florida to construction sites.

Wait…..sand was shipped to Florida?     Seems kind of strange, but I guess our Georgia river sand was better for construction use than beach sand from Florida.

Getting back to those railroad tracks….

The railroad gave birth to the town of Willacoochee.   On November 12, 1889, the state legislature passed a law that provided the town’s boundaries as “one-half mile each way from the Brunswick and Western Railroad depot.”

It’s nice to know the town recognized the railroad gave them their start and they were willing to hang onto it to keep the town economy vibrant.

Vanishing South Georgia has a great picture of an old school at Willacoochee and the town’s history page can be found here.

New Blogs of the Storytelling Kind

I like a good story, don’t you?  

Growing up my sister and I would often end up hanging around the dinner table while our mother would tell us stories about growing up.  She had tales about riding her bike up and down the streets of the cotton mill village where she lived, she would tell us about spending most of her Saturdays at the movie theater in town, and there were stories focusing on the memories she had spending time on the family farm belonging to her grandmother a few miles outside of town.  

Once we grew up we talked Mother into transferring her verbal stories to paper, so that we would have a record of them after she was gone.    Today those spiral notebooks she left behind filled with her stories are gold to my sister and I.  

Storytelling is important but this article from Adweek says it far better than I can…

Stories define us.  Since early cave dwellers left their graffiti in Lascaux, listening to and telling stories have moved people.  Stories are powerful.   They give meaning and context to what would otherwise be a collection of easily forgettable facts.  Stories invoke the imagination so that listeners begin to own them almost as much as the teller.  In fact, there’s a growing body of research that points to the power of narrative not just as a way to engage people, but as the only way to change deeply entrenched views. 

All of this focus on storytelling is no accident…..

I’m adding a couple of brand new blogs to the Georgia Blogroll and both are authored by great storytellers.

Phil Hanson comes from a family of of storytellers.   He really had no choice considering Ludlow Porch was his father and Lewis Grizzard was his uncle. 

 

Can you imagine having both of those Atlanta icons in your family?

Phil has recently started a blog called Living in the Shadows of Greatness where he is already entertaining us with tales of being a Marine and what it was like growing up with Ludlow and Lewis.  His most recent tale regarding Hank the Gator is hilarious.

My second addition involves a blogger who used the dinner hour much like my own mother to fill his son’s heads with stories regarding growing up in the 1970s.  Now that his boys are grown he’s decided to use a blog to record and share his stories.   Visit Dinner Table Stories where one of my favorite stories is “Hey Preacher”.   Anyone who has tried to maintain a little decorum with their young children during church will relate to this story.

I welcome these two new Georgia bloggers to the blogroll, and I’m eagerly anticipating future stories.  

Ephraim Stiles Hopping

For the last several months it seems one of my major research topics has been various mills along the creeks and rivers of early Georgia along with the men who built them.  I didn’t begin the research due to some sort of passion I have for early mills, but in the process of my newest project researching and writing about Douglas County history at Every Now and Then……it just happened.


What is most amazing to me…..is in the early 1800s when these men first came to Georgia they seemed to get around north Georgia quite easily moving back and forth from one side of the state to the other, and they are all connected in some way.   Then again it could just be the folks I’m researching, but it is a great motivator to keep me researching what can be a boring little topic if you aren’t interested in the mills themselves.


Take the case of Ephraim Stiles Hopping.   He was born in the 1799 on August 20th or 26th depending on the source you use.  After graduating from Princeton in 1824 he headed south and the next year he was a professor at Franklin College which today is the University of Georgia in Athens.  Hopping was a language professor. He married Pamela Ann (Wray) Stewart….the daughter of Judge Philip Wray….on December 12, 1827 in Oglethorpe, Georgia.  Some sources list her name as Permelia.  No matter her name….she came from a prominent family.  Her father was Judge Philip Wray and he owned Wrayswood Plantation.
  
Over the years nine children were born to Ephraim and Pamela.


The same year Hopping married some sources state he bought Scull Shoals factory on the Oconee River.   Now when you visit the history of Scull Shoals online Hopping’s name is never used.   But what is interesting is Judge Wray’s daughter....Harriett……Hopping’s sister-in-law…. married Thomas N. Poullan – the man that the history link for Scull Shoals states figured so prominently in the history of the mill there.   So…..my original source could be mistaken or…..perhaps Hopping had a business interest or investment with Scull Shoals since my source also stated once he made a little money at Scull Shoals he went on to purchase land at High Shoals.   At any rate….he was related by marriage to Poullan.


Here’s one of the twists and makes all of this interesting for me….a name figuring prominently in Douglas County history is Ephraim Pray.   Before arriving in Douglas County he spent two years in Greene County where he used his engineering skills to build two of the mills for Poullan.  


Getting back to Hopping…..we know he was in High Shoals in 1839 because records indicate he was  the postmaster there.  The area was a well known landmark and had been since the 1790s.  High Shoals shows up on a 1794 map of the area and various treaties between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee and Creek Nations use High Shoals as a landmark regarding discussed boundary lines.  Later, during the early 19th century a road from Washington D.C. to New Orleans crossed the Apalachee River at High Shoals.  

On March 8, 1850 along with several listed business partners Hopping placed an ad in the Athens Southern Banner  He and several associates formed High Shoals Manufacturing Company – a business making cotton and woolen goods, but the application for National Register status for the High Shoals area states that the mill was founded in 1846.


Another Douglas County connection to the Hopping story is……William Ely Green.   He happened to be Hopping’s cousin and when he arrived in Georgia during the 1830s his first stop was to visit with Hopping.  The 1840 census shows Green living in Morgan County close to Hopping.   Apparently Green learned the ins and outs of owning a mill because once he moved to Douglas County he built his own mill there on Anneewakee Creek.


Hopping’s complex at the High Shoals mill was located on the south side of the Apalachee River in Morgan County and eventually contained a 3-story brick mill, machine shop, cotton warehouse, carpenter’s shop, lumber storehouse and mill company store.   Later, land would be provided for two churches – a Baptist church in 1869 and a Methodist church in 1879.


One of the most interesting and unique things about the mill was the two dams that were built along the Apalachee River.    The upper dam was masonry and 11-feet tall.   It formed a large storage pond that covered approximately 20 acres.   The pond was used to regulate the water flow during periods of drought.    The lower dam was concrete and 8-feet tall.  It formed a three acre pond and diverted water to a mill race that supplied the upper turbine of the mill. 

The dams are significant because there are very few of their type that survived.   Most were submerged or destroyed through the years.


Soon after establishing the mill Hopping built a large residence on the north side of the Apalchee River – it overlooked the river and mill operations on the opposite bank.   The home was a three-story Georgian with four principal rooms, divided by a central hall.   The property also included a formal garden, fountains and a deer park.   Other sources describe the home as large…having columns and granite fixtures brought by oxcart from Stone Mountain.     Sadly the home collapsed in the mid-1900s and no longer exists.


Today….all that remains of the mill are some foundation stones since it was destroyed by fire in 1928….along with a few mill houses…approximately one dozen that were built around the turn of the century along State Route 186 remain of the original fifty or so.


Ephraim Stiles Hopping died June 22, 1853 during a typhoid epidemic that swept through High Shoals.   One of his daughters also died.   He was buried in the gardens at his home.   The epidemic may have taken at least half of the residents of High Shoals. Sources state Hopping’s widow sold his interest in the mill and the home and moved away.


The mill continued with new ownership.   During the Civil War Union soldiers captured the mill and several people were taken prisoner.  Later a man from Virginia by the name James Frazier purchased the Hopping mansion and around 860 acres for $26,000.  He renamed the house “Hotel Ben Lomand” – after the Frazier ancestral home in Scotland.    
  
The hotel came to be known as a stage coach stop where passengers were offered meals and lodging.


Finally, here is one last quirk in the story of Scull Shoals and its mill.   Urban Baboon…one of our wonderful Georgia bloggers has an excellent article about the ruins at Scull Shoals with several pictures.   Urban Baboon advises….and on a more modern note, the post-Emancipation Scull Shoals (circa 1880) was home to a young laborer named Adam Williams, who went on to become THE Rev. Adam D. Williams, pastor of the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and grandfather to the legendary Martin Luther King, Jr.


Don’t you just love how one history nugget leads to another?

An Oakland Story: Sarah Dye

I had a lovely dinner Wednesday night with the family at Six Feet Under on Memorial Drive overlooking Oakland Cemetery.   As we dined I keep looking out across the road at the tombstones, but there was no time to go walk among dead….

As we headed home I silently told the headstones I’d be back…..

Oakland  isn’t just a resting place for Atlantans.   It’s a historical time capsule of sorts.  

It’s a lovely park and garden.

It’s a place to reflect

It’s a place with great views of the city

….and Oakland Cemetery has great stories to tell.   I think that’s my favorite part….the stories.

One of my favorite stories involves Lot 428 in the original six acres of the cemetery belonging to the Dye Family.

The rain this week has certainly been welcome even with the consequences many have had to endure due to the fierce lightning and booming thunder.

July started off breaking all sorts of temperature records with several days of one hundred plus thermometer readings, and my yard was one crusty carpet where I couldn’t tell where the dust  left off and the brown dying grass began.

I’m not sure what the temperatures  happened to be during July, 1864 around Atlanta, but for those few citizens who didn’t leave the city before  the Union lay siege it was a hot place to be as the shells flew back and forth between the Union and Confederate positions.

Sarah Dye and her young children tried to escape the shelling by digging a hole in their backyard. 

It had been rumored Sarah’s husband…..John Dye…..was one of the best carpenters in the city.   He had built a home for his family at the corner of Ivy (now Peachtree Center Avenue) and Baker Streets.  

When we think of the Civil War we tend to group everyone above the Mason-Dixon Line as falling in line with the Union while those below the line were all Confederates.

Generally, this was true, but the lines did blur occasionally.   Sarah Dye was a known Union sympathizer.   According to the book The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta:  Speaking Stones by Cathy Kaemmerlen…..the “Southern Claims Papers”, issued after the war to help reimburse Southerners for their wartime losses, Sarah was a Union woman and against the war from start to finish.   She had made it public that she thought the war would ‘bring no good’.  She was labeled a Union sympathizer, even though her husband served in the Confederate army.  

However, regardless of Sarah’s beliefs and opinions of the war she found herself in the middle of the daily shelling….not only dodging Union shells but attempting to shield her family from Confederate shells as well.

At some point during the bombardment one of the children….a two year old boy named for his father….become ill and died.   

Sarah placed his body in a box and July 10, 1864 found Sarah crawling out of  the crudely fashioned bomb shelter in her yard and she began walking to Oakland Cemetery which in those days was outside of the city of Atlanta. 

Can you picture her walking down Atlanta’s dusty desolate streets strewn with items left behind by war refugees, craters fashioned by shells and other bits of war wreckage while cradling her dead child in her arms?   


Sarah was intent on giving her child a proper burial whether a war was raging around her or not.

She was stopped and warned to get off the road.   Finally, a man in a wagon who happened to be heading her way out of town allowed her to ride so she was able to get to cemetery a little faster.  Sarah placed her baby next his sister Mintory, who had passed away years before.    At some point….so the story goes she fell asleep on the grave and upon waking made the return trip to her home to care for the other children.

Today there are fourteen graves in the Dye family plot including Sarah and her husband John.   Family lore reminds visitors to skip the first step leading into the plot because it is said another baby was buried under the step in 1849.

I’ve written about Oakland Cemetery before at Georgia on my Mind here, and I’ve recently written a review for Six Feet Under over at Cooking With Cooper.

Join the Georgia on my Mind community on Facebook by clicking the “LIKE” button on the left sidebar.  I’m publishing all of my Oakland pictures there in an album!   You can tell me what you think!