Welcome Home to Georgia

Life is relative. Each day true joy comes from what I appreciate, not from what I have.

I've seen beautiful snow, life-giving rain falling, and summertime... it's hot. The sun is shining. There are no clouds in the sky. "Oh it's beautiful here!"

I hear for the first time this morning a sound not heard anywhere else I have lived.

Sounds of singing bugs of summer welcome me home to Georgia, takcs me back to childhood mornings of bright sunshine, warm not hot and walking barefoot in the dew still on the grass. Near our balcony  high in the trees, a strange summer symphony has begun. Something new added to the chirping of birds. Cicadas perform their warm-weather chorus. Male cicadas fill the orchestra and their drum-like membranes swiftly vibrating generate the humming sound that is the insect’s song of summer.

After an almost sleepless night I awake with an unhappy tummy which sends me dragging my feet to the coffee pot for a strong cup laced with honey, cinnamon and almond milk (eat your heart out, Starbucks). Relaxing and thinking as I check email and facebook... I'll be fine if I shower. It's an important day so I have to get better!

Irv and I pick up a magazine The EastCobber each month and he goes through it to find all the free fun stuff to do. Today is the 148th Kennesaw Mountion Battle Anniversary.

Much better now, I pack a great lunch and off we go to the "more parking" lot a quarter mile+ walk back to the Visitor Center. Irv who rides his bike at the gym 65 miles a week plus walking 2 miles at the YMCA afterward doesn't even break a sweat and... I did fine. Miracles have not ceased.

The Battle for Atlanta Began Here at Kennesaw Mountain on a sweltering, hot and clear Monday, June 27, 1864, where some of the heaviest fighting of the Atlanta Campaign occcured. It wasn't beautiful that day where confedrate and union blood mingled from over 5,350 casualties in the battle fought here from June 19 through July 2, 1864.

Irv and I were so happy we didn't miss the band... The 8th Georgia Regimental Band comprised of 15 musicians from Rome, GA portray a regimental band from the Civil War era and played a concert featuring Civil War period music. The Band has made appearances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and in the television movies The Class of '61and The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.

The Hawkinsville Dispatch, Hawkinsville, Georgia, Thursday, June 26, 1879… “ we will commence historical sketches of Co. G in the Eighth Georgia Regiment, and were led by Bartow (as in Bartow County, GA whose county seat is Rome). The regiment made a gallant and imperishable record in the war, and surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox on the memorable 26th of April, 1865 — a day sacred in the memory of every true Southron.

We met a young lady who portrays a Civil War civilian completely dressed in"hot" clothing of the era. She told us her husband who is a college professor, born in Mississippi will be in the Union  Infantry Demonstration dressed in an even hotter wool uniform. The Union Colonel is allowed to carry a Henry Repeater rifle which can shoot 13 bullets in a minute but no shooting it at Kennesaw. Soldiers had to practice the 9 steps required to load their muskets 3 times in 1 minute. That is the instructional demonstration in the picture above. They did fire their muskets... all at a time then one right after the other so as soon as the soldier fires, he's reloading while the next is firing.

After a young man was gracious enough to allow a picture, we had a chance to chat with him. He explained Baltimore was not a bastion of Yankees but sympathied with the south. He was born in Annapolis , MD and raised in Atlanta with a "Yankee" and... a "rebel" grandfather. He has his "Yankee" grandfather's journals. We were told the musket had a 300 yard accuracy. He said at 200 yards, he's dead on the bulls eye but 300 is a stretch. We thanked him and wandered over to the cloth dying demonstration and was I ever amazed... she was using (what else) beets to color her cloth pink. She was using Yellow Corn and Marigolds to dye Yellow. I told her my first experience cooking fresh beets earlier this year, the whole kitchen and... I were not pink but red!!!

Time for the artillery... Canons will roar and smoke!!We notice a man not in uniform while waiting. Couriousity got the better of us so we asked, "What's up with you?". He informed us that he was the railroad company detective. That's what this battle is for, you know. The confederates control the railroad from Altanta to Chattanooga and the Union wants it stop their supplies.   

Isn't that the greatest picture Irv took of the Confederates firing the canons? There were three canons that fired at the same time. Loud, Loud!

The canons can fired 24 different kinds of things... canon balls, canisters of bullets, I can't remember them all. The canons are very accurate also. Moving the canon involved attaching them to the ammunition wagon and being pulled by 6 horses. Speaking of the ammo wagons, I noticed how well kept and shiny all the black metal parts were as if they were recently painted. by this time I'm looking for anything to lean on and so... took my ease leaning on the axle of the ammo wagon. I am now explaining that (as anyone who has ever worked on a car or anything else with an axle knows) the axle I was leaning on wasn't painted brightly... it was axle grease and now it's all over a pair of my favorites shorts I paid good money for at the Salvations Army Store in the keys. They laughed and said I might have a chance to get it out with the grease my father used to remove grease from his hands (auto mechanic) and suggested we take a formal pictures to commemorate the occasion.

After our wonderful day at Kennesaw, we head over to Office Depot to get Irv a new mouse. He hasn't been on the computer all day and is beginning to get the shakes.,, Believe me, I would too!