Saturday in Black Mountain

Well, I'm over at the Tailgate Market of course, showing my pottery to the folks who just really have thought; "great aunt Gertie might like that and she's always got room for one more little piece of pottery"...or perhaps "that is just the thing I need for my ----!" Thinking positive this week!

I forgot to introduce you to our favorite critter visitor last week, this charming little grasshopper. She had really sticky feet, and when we tried to flick her off my finger, after she quite willingly walking on it from Amelia's arm, she held on for dear life. We finally gently put her in the bouquet of flowers that were displaying a beautiful vase.

Lake Tomahawk Canada Geese

The picnic shelter offered cool shade on Wednesday last week...and there was a great breeze off the water to increase the cooling of our 84 degrees of sunshine.

Better detail of the Canada Geese. They seem happy feeding in the grass, perhaps recently cut so there's lots of goodies. But they also are not-so-politely waiting for the folks picnicking in the shelter, as seen above in silhouette. The white ones often will waddle right into the picnic area looking for scraps.

Lake Tomahawk Dam

As of Wednesday last week, there were sprinklers working on the dam. Some of the grass looks a bit parched.

And for those thinking of fishing, it is allowed in the lake, with usual state licensing provisions, but I think kids can do so without a license.

10-30-1904 Hannah's Reef, Galveston Bay.

My grandfather, George Rogers was probably the smallest man there. And his sister Annie Lou might have been the person on the far left. I never saw my grandfather with hair, so he could perhaps have been the boatman on the far right. That gentleman isn't holding a fishing pole. But this is all conjecture, and I never bet on my own guesses. Don't they have a fine catch!

I prefer Norman Rockwell's version of fishing!

Today's quote:

When we offer nothing but excuses in our lives, we are not being honest with anybody, mostly ourselves.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week

and Eileen's Saturday Critters

The celebration continues

While I'm visiting family in FL...so glad to see them, and to be here in December (you know why!) I do want to keep posting. Why do you think I have a laptop! Here're some oldies you might enjoy.

 

Macy's Parade, 1924 with Central Park Zoo elephants

First balloon animal in Macy's Parade was Felix the Cat. "Floats" may be the theme for my post.

Macy's Parade, 1930

The last float in the Asheville Thanksgiving Parade 2023. Black Mountain had it's Christmas Parade Dec. 2 this year.

I hope all my Sepia Saturday blogging friends have a very Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year. See you in 2024! (I'll have some blogs here for the non-SS folks)

Sharing with Sepia Saturday for these 2 weeks!  

What somber people in North Carolina in 1956! Goodness!

Note the car for little boy on far left.

About 1916-17 Uncle Chauncey in the Auto, and Junior (my father, George Rogers) wearing a tin pail or such. My father had been born in 1914...So it's a guess as to dates. Chauncey was born in 1912 so they were close in age.

Today's quote:

The gift of disappointment is to bring us into reality so we don’t get stuck in the realm of how things might have been.

My father's birthday was yesterday...and

 

☞The photograph depicts the bearded & bespectacled visage of Gail Borden Jr. in an undated engraving.

On November 9, 1801, famous American inventor, publisher, surveyor, & founder of the Borden Company, Gail Borden Jr, (1801-1874), was born at the town of Norwich in Chenango County, New York.

☞Borden came to Texas in 1829 & became a surveyor for Austin’s Colony in 1830. From 1835 to 1837 the ubiquitous Borden published the second permanent newspaper in Texas, the “Telegraph & Texas Register,” prepared the first topographical map of Texas, & helped to lay out the site of town of Houston.

☞In the mid-1840s, Borden began inventing. He experimented with large-scale refrigeration as a means of preventing yellow fever. He also experimented with what he called a “terraqueous machine” -- a sort of prairie schooner that would go on land or water.

☞In 1849, he perfected a meat biscuit that was made of dehydrated meat compounded with wheat flour.

☞In 1853, he sought a patent for his most famous invention, a process for condensing milk in vacuum. After several unsuccessful attempts, he opened a condensed milk factory in Connecticut in 1858. When the War Between the States brought intensified demand for condensed milk, sales grew to the point that Borden’s success was assured. Along with Underwood’s Deviled Ham & Van Camp’s Pork & Beans, Borden’s Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk is one of the very few well-known canned food products of the 19th Century that have remained in continuous production to this very day.

☞After the War, Borden returned to Texas & founded the town of Borden in Colorado County, where he established a meat-packing plant. He died at the age of 72 in the town of Borden on January 11, 1874.

George Rogers was my father, born in 1914 in Galveston Texas. I've blogged about him before, but I do want to honor this man who was such a gentleman, and a flirt, and a respected member of the community.

My father in the rear, his father on left, George Sr., me as a 3 year old, and Dad's mother on right. No date. The senior Rogers lived in San Antonio and drove all the way to Dallas TX where we lived. Wearing summer garb, perhaps my birthday in August 1945.