Holy Crow!

02-21-07 098
Originally uploaded by c.updegrave.

Look at this! I've been looking for this shot for a long time. Perfect. I wonder if this flickr member will let me use it?

Stella's first utterances

Stella Dare, I found your list of first words tonight, so I'll start with you.

Around October of 1993 you were a year and a half old. You could say:

Bubble, Bah, Duck, dog, 'tat' for 'cat', dada, papa, bowl, Mimi, wa-wa, 'boon' for 'moon'. By the end of November 1993 you could say: 'bup' for 'burp, bag, 'dot dog' for 'hot dog', 'bommy' for 'barney', 'pi' for 'pig', 'dock' for 'sock', 'didi' for 'sissy'. On December 1993 you were jumping up and down on the bed and I was holding to your shirt for safety, you told me, 'dop mama.....dada' Once you called your mama 'didi' by mistake (sister). Around this time you saw fried chicken gizzards for the first time and called them 'doo doo'. It was January 1994 when words started coming out two at a time.....'mama bubble', 'daddy up' (pick me up), 'up didi up' (sarah pick me up!), mine (not Sarah's), Hi daddy, Hi didi, 'stop don't' (don't cry Sarah), Bye duck, 'didi buh' (sister's bus), off (mittens off), doo doo pot (potty), night night didi, 'rain' (in shower).

In February 1994: Eat pig, like like no like (tangerine), rain peas rain (please turn on the shower), bonnie bed (barney?), 'tote off' (coat off), 'mon sissy' (come on sis), 'ting' (string), 'mouf look' (look a mouse), 'nap peas' (napkin please), 'mama dipe' (mama diaper--kotex), 'mama butt mouse' (mama your barrette looks like a mouse), 'didi dool buh' (sister's school bus), 'burn hiney' (commenting on Jack be Nimble), 'tolor' (color). In March of 1994 you could say: look Barney shoes, 'mou didi dot' (sister's got a mouse), party hat on, Peas read dis, I want bobbie (bottle?), 'what?' (when we called her), dool buh tum back home, back home noon, take me mimi house (to grandpa), mama pank me, ki didi hiney, mon didi-law house ( come on sissy to grandma laura's house), wet heavy white one (pigeon).

In April of '94 you could say: do it tef ( I can do it myself ), daddy lightbulb gone, please comb my hair didi, no-baby (her answer to 'you're a big girl like didi), grandpa be here take me mimi house, (cow killer) bite me go hosp doc), didi bus my tee.

May and June: what animal got those ducks? (had heard us talking about a bush hog mishap), like daddy did (clean my nose), he might bite me (dog- Tumpy), mad you mama, I like it ---good!(weiner), big girl--me big girl, uh huh dats right daddy (we are putting the pegs in a board), I love barney, I love my budduh (brother), Me hae booboo on my leg, put right dare daddy, Tim got me pink pool take mimi house, I feel better now, And you can sing Twinkle Twinkle and the Barney Song.

In July of 94 you can say... I don't want it (meat), I ate my tereal bowl all gone, cowboy daddy, I love my dara (with a big hug).

Stella, the last date on your word list is 8/20/94.... moon not here anymore--get up. Let me see outside, dawn (gone) working outside.

It sure was fun watching and listening to you learn to talk. I love you!!!

Great-great granddaddy James Mack Pollock's little book

After Grandma died we found this book in the closet under the stairs in her house. This closet was the place where Grandma hid her treasures like silver dollars and a peg from the joinery of her daddy's house. This old book was her granddaddy's. It was published in 1854 and it is a religious instruction book for young people. I don't remember her ever showing it to me. Maybe she thought that it was special to no one but herself. I remember once she told me a story about a treasured object (I can't remember what it was) and I told her I thought it would be good for someone to write it down so it wouldn't be forgotten. She thought the idea was funny and she joked, "what good are you if you can't remember it?" Knowing how memory fails me, I think it's best that I record these things. She would forgive me, I'm sure.

doggie dental disaster

There is nothing that sets the mind to turning like finding your toothbrush wet when you know it should be dry. That is the position that I found myself in one day long ago when Sarah was little. How little? I don't know, pretty little. She told me today that she doesn't remember this incident though she has heard it spoken of a number of times.

I found my toothbrush.....WET! Yuck! It couldn't have fallen into the sink. Someone had to have handled it. But who? But why? After some reflection I thought to ask Sarah if she knew which toothbrush was hers. Yes, she did know and she showed me. I asked her if she knew why daddy's toothbrush was wet and yes, she also knew the answer to that query. "I brushed Digger's teeth with it", she stated calmly. I dug deeper, "You brushed Digger's teeth with Daddy's toothbrush?" showing her the one that I was speaking of. "Yes", she answered. I felt a little queasy and a tad violated and I said to her, "Honey, that's daddy's toothbrush, that's the one I use to brush my teeth, daddy doesn't like to put a toothbrush in his mouth after it has been in the dog's mouth, OK?" Sarah answered "OK" and as far as I know she never used my toothbrush in that way again. I don't know if she found other jobs for my toothbrush. I don't remember finding it wet again, though. It was soooo funny after I got over the initial shock of it. I didn't over-react. I didn't get angry. I just expressed calmly that I didn't like sharing my toothbrush with anyone, not even our sweet doggie. Shocking, but soooo funny. I wonder why she chose mine and not mama's or her own? I guess good sense prevailed? I hope I never forget that day.

Another bathroom story. Sarah was in the bathroom running water and entertaining herself. Children have legitimate things to do with water and bathrooms, no problem..... About that time I hear water hitting the floor, Sarah comes running out of the bathroom exclaiming, "Daddy! Daddy! The sink is UNDERFLOATIN'!!!!" I was there in a flash and sure enough the sink was overflowing or underfloatin' or something. I don't know which one makes the most sense. If you look at the words logically, when a sink is full and water is flowing over the edges.....the sink is actually somewhat UNDER water and so could be described as underfloatin'. Contrarily the word OVERFLOW might evoke a picture of a sink OVER something. But this sink was not over, it was under. Flow and Float, well they're almost the same word when you are young. It is all so confusing. And in an emergency........ well, anything will do!

I have lots of stories about my babies' speech and language development. I jotted down the words and sounds and sentences they spoke when they were very young. I kept a sheet of paper on the fridge for each one of them just for that reason. It was so much fun to do it and even more fun to share these stories with them....and you. Stella had a special word for fried chicken liver and Daniel was rather late learning the meaning of tailgate. I can tell you about that later. I've just got to dig out those crumpled, stained pieces of paper with the words scribbled beside the dates of occurrence. I've started a new one for Luke just a week or so ago. I hope I don't miss anything.

There are plenty of failures in my life and yes, a few regrets, but one thing I know is that I have savored my children. I watched them closely. I met them at their level and I saw the world fresh through the eyes of each one. This has been the ultimate experience of my life. My best and proudest accomplishment is that I was a part of their upbringing and that maybe I played some small positive role in the development of their personhood. I have very good parents. They set a high standard in parenting. I am thankful for that. I hope I have been a good one too.

The Crows at Trenton Station

Originally uploaded by crowdive.

We were lucky on the morning of our departure. The crows from a nearby rookery were dispersing for the day and we saw thousands of them perching on powerlines and trees as they moved toward their destinations. In the winter crows gather in huge flocks to socialize and to benefit from the safety found in numbers. The owl is the predator that most torments the crow family and in these huge flocks the odds are against any one particular crow being eaten. Crows have held my attention since I saw my first small flock about 30 years ago. Crows in our area had been nearly exterminated by poisons used in agriculture so that when I was small there were no crows to be seen. When I was a young teenager I saw a flock of 5 crows and several years later I saw a flock of 11. From there the numbers increased each year so that now I see crows daily and occassionally am luck enough to learn the whereabouts of a roost where many thousands of crows sleep overnight during the winter and early spring. I'll have more to say about crows and ravens later...

A Weekend with MATT! at Princeton

We're back home after visiting Matt at Princeton where he goes to school and teaches. While we were there Matt showed us around the town and the university. We saw the beautiful chapel where Matt's award winning piece, Ana Beko' Ach, was first performed. He showed us the grave of Aaron Burr and we saw some water fowl that I have not yet identified. We watched a South Park Movie and visited his synagogue. Matt cooked for us, took us out to restaurants, played the piano and sang for us. His wit and intelligence was an endless source of entertainment. Isn't that what we all want.....to be entertained? We took scads of pictures and you can see all of them at my flickr photo site. Our pictures include: the unidentified water fowl, the Princeton Chapel, the restaurants, the foods we ate, Matt's apartment, Matt's office at Princeton, the Choir College, the cemetary, the crows leaving Trenton Train Station, our train ride, the Selma train station, oh, and of course, Matt.

The mill dam repaired and working

The mill dam repaired and working
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Here is a full view of the dam and the mill house. The gates under the mill are closed and the millpond should stay full for centuries. The wildlife will return in time. People will be seen fishing here again soon. My family has already been canoeing several times. I'll never take our pond for granted again. Neither should you.

water over the dam

water over the dam
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Something worth celebrating! The millpond restoration is complete. There is brown water flowing over the dam again. We've been waiting for this since hurricane Floyd undermined the dam and left the millpond dry. Alot of folks were thinking we'd never see it back again. Some good and relentless people kept working behind the scenes and eventually it paid off. Thank you relentless people. The millpond sets my town apart as something special. The dam has been there powering the mill from the 1700's until the mill closed in the 1960's. The mill had a turbine that provided electricity to the town of Trenton in the 1930's. Someone told me that the electric lights went out at 9:00 pm nightly. With the restored dam we can expect the pond to be with us for centuries. That is comforting. Come and see it for yourself. The pond is home to beavers, otters, ducks, geese, cormorants, herons, snapping turtles, painted turtles, sliders, parula warblers, and alligators. Yes, we have alligators here. An alligator 10 feet long was run over on the road outside of Trenton not too long ago.

ATSmith

ATSmith
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

This is great granddaddy Allen Taft Smith. He died when my Granddaddy Smith was 14 years old. I showed you his grave marker in an earlier post. My dining room table was his table originally. A doctor performed some kind of operation on him on the old table. He had been injured when he was crossing a bridge. Some hogs were resting under the bridge and when grandpa was on the bridge the hogs were startled and jumped up. That in turn spooked the mule and grandpa subsequently fell and was injured. My dad engraved a metal plaque and fastened it under the table. The plaque tells us that the table was used as an operating table to repair Allen Taft Smith.

My dad has A T Smith's gold pocket watch. I used to take it out and admire it when I was a small boy. I used to make believe that one day it would be mine. I don't think about it so much any more. I expect my dad will give it directly to my son, Daniel. That would please me very much.

WW Pollock

WW Pollock
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Great grandpa, William Washington Pollock. He had 7 children with his first wife, the second wife died in childbirth, and the third had 13? No, that only adds up to 20, while I know he fathered 21. Did the baby of the second wife live? I don't think so. Someone out there correct me.

My grandma Smith was one of the last of his children and the last to die. She remembered her dad being very old and she remembered the seat of his pants sagging when she saw him using the grubbing hoe removing stumps from the cotton field.

One of grandma's first important jobs was the weekly cleaning of the kerosene lamp shades. She told me that one day she had some of them resting on the porch rail while she cleaned the others. The wind pitched up and blew one over and it broke. She was so afraid that she was going to be in terrible trouble. Her dad never said a word about it though.

Grandma remembered finding a trunk of money in the attic. She and her sister played in the trunk and tossed the paper bills and scattered them around. She never got into any trouble from that either. She said that she later thought it must have been Confederate money and it was worthless.

When the old homeplace was being torn down (it must have been in the 1970's because I remember this) grandma's heart ached. The homeplace was on the Ben Lang farm and it was Ben Lang's right to do with it as he please. There was a crew there and a bulldozer. Grandma asked one of the men if she could salvage a few pieces, maybe a brick from the foundation or something. The man in charge told her "No". Later she found one of the wooden pegs used in the joinery and she took it home and treasured it.

I can show you where the house stood if you ever want to see the spot.

Out of all the Pollock Lands in Jones County, my dad is the only descendant who owns a piece of it. His dad's farm was original Pollock land and the farm he bought near the Pollock homeplace was also some of the original lands.

Lenora Ann Meadows Pollock

Lenora Ann Meadows Pollock
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

This is a picture of my Great Grandmother Lenora Ann Meadows Pollock. She was the third wife of my Great Granddaddy, William Washington Pollock. Lenora was the mother of my paternal grandmother, Lena Rivers Pollock Smith. Grandma said that she grew alot of herbs and perennials that she used to make medicines. She had a medical book that she took with her on her visits to the sick. Grandma remembered her mom being taken in the buggy by one of the boys to make her visits.

Lenora named all of her girls with names beginning with the letter "L". Just off the top of my head.....Lena Rivers, Leora, Lydia, Lila, Lula, ? Oh, Frances was from a previous marriage, they called her Lil' Sis, she was of small stature and that name gave her an "L" name, too.

Big House

Big House
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Here is a closer view. I think it is a great house. It has a finished attic floor with plenty of headroom. The walls are plaster with hogs hair. We repaired the chimneys, replaced windows, rewired, built an addition in the back....new kitchen and bathroom with an upstairs bedroom, utility area and pantry. The window are huge and the ceilings downstairs are 10'. There are plaster medallions in the ceiling of some rooms. Original house was 2200 sq. ft. and we added another 1100 sq. ft. It's a great house. Planning and restoration occupied my mind for years.

Old House

Old House
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

This is the old McDaniel Plantation near Trenton. It was mine for less than 10 years. My mom grew up there and I bought it around 1991. It had been unoccupied for a decade prior to that. The windows were broken out and it the weeds were shoulder high.
We did alot of work there, had a great tree swing. It was hard to let it go, but I did.

using me as a crutch

using me as a crutch
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Here we are, Luke and Dad. Wendy leaves us together to entertain each other while she takes a shower in the evening. Actually, she often takes him into the bathroom with her if she thinks I'm busy or preoccupied with flickr.com or email, etc. But this was one of the nights that he appeared to be asleep on Jason's bunk. As soon as Wendy closed the bathroom door, Luke was up and looking for her. Not wanting to look like I was completely useless, I went to him and we played on the bunk until Wendy was finished in the shower.

Here you see Luke me as a crutch or enabler. He's balancing himself on his feet by propping on my forehead. He cuddled with me some, putting his face against mine. He was exceptionally affectionate. Did we sleep OK last night? I don't know.

angus cattle

angus cattle
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

While we were out watching and following the birds I stopped to take a few photos of the black angus cattle that were in the field next to the road. They were very interested in me and I in them. You can see the electric fence in this shot. Later I stepped over it and got closer to them. They kept inching closer and I kept creeping forward too. They had never seen a human lay on the ground before. They were thinking, "Is he here to feed us or is he something completely new?" I didn't feed them. I just took their pictures. Wendy and Luke waited very patiently in the car. It's funny that when I'm driving Wendy tenses up if I go close to the center line or the shoulder of the road. But she wasn't nervous at all when I was lying on the ground a few feet from the big old bull and all these cows. No picture of the bull, he was ugly, sway-backed and angular. Nothing like my granddaddy's old angus bull that won the blue ribbon at the county fair when I was a young'n. Wish I had a picture of that one.

startled cattle

startled cattle
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

I scared them....and off into the sunset they scattered.

redwinged blackbirds

redwinged blackbirds
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Wendy, Luke and I drove out to Comfort yesterday afternoon to see if we could find where the massive flock of blackbirds had chosen to roost. We saw lots of birds, but they appeared to be going deep into the Hoffman Forest and we didn't have time to follow them. We had some beef cooking in the oven and had to get back to it. Oh yeah, it was good. Watching the birds was fun too. You can see some of the red wing patches if you look closely at the birds in the lower part of the picture.

girls--annie laura and janie ruth heath

girls--annie laura and janie ruth heath
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Mom smiling, aunt Janie Ruth staring. Aunt Janie Ruth was always doing things for people as an adult. She made candy for the holidays and gave it to folks. Mom thinks her sea foam candy was perfect. I know she cooked some good gravy and biscuits and stewed potatoes. Mom always put eveybody else's needs ahead of her own. Ask anyone, they'll tell you. She was like that as a child, too. Dad's mom, Grandma Smith, told me that the children were all riding on some kind of farm equipment and something swung and hit the children and knocked some of them off. Little Annie Laura was trying to take care of everyone else, making sure that they were all OK, but Grandma said that Annie Laura was the one who was hurt, with blood running down the back of her head....and she didn't even know she was hurt. That is the way Grandma told it to me. This was Grandma Smith who told me this. She eventually became mom's mother in law. Annie Laura would find herself taking care of Grandma Smith, too. Always taking care of the needs of others, just as predicted when she was a little girl.

There he is

There he is
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Several weeks ago Wendy told me that she had seen the white turkey vulture that my dad had seen earlier that month. I was near the water tower at Comfort when I saw a flock of buzzards and there he was. Some of the other ones were diving at him as if they were trying to drive him away. I think his coloring made him to appear to be an intruder of some foreign species. But he was confident that he was a turkey vulture just like them.....well almost just like them.

Crow

Crow
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Yesterday Wendy and I saw a crow fly over the road carrying a twig while we were on the way to New Bern. If you know me, you know what that means. Crows are building nests. Sometimes they build dummy nests to confound me and predators. Did you know that you can shoot them any time of the year in every state of the US, but it's illegal to capture and raise one as a pet? Oh, by the way, they make great pets. If you get a baby crow and hand-feed it, it will stay with you for a while, maybe a summer. But like a summer romance it's over when autumn comes. He is smart enough to figure out that he's a crow and you're not. So he'll leave you to be with his own kind. You know, birds of a feather.

squash bugles and wooden spoons

squash bugles and wooden spoons
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Neil and mom--Flanner's beach

Neil and mom--Flanner's beach
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

We used to go to Flanner's beach from time to time. It's a beach on the Neuse River east of New Bern. Picnics were nice on the grass under the trees. We had to wait a half hour before we could go back into the brown water after eating our pimiento cheese or banana sandwiches. Dad made a great float out of a large innertube and some rope and plywood. It was a battleship, a submarine, a seamonster, a fishing boat....all this and more. Dad has always been a child at heart and he knew how to make things that we'd enjoy. I'll tell you more about that later.

See mom smiling at me. I'd like to think that I was a big pleasure to be around, but I think that I was shy and clingy. In spite of being timid, my life has been full of blessings and good times. I wouldn't trade my life with anyone. My head is full of sweet memories and my heart has been fed on love, trust, and security.

Flanner's Beach, on the Neuse River. Lots of clams. Sometimes dolphins or porpoises in the distance. I remember.

Will and Lena Rivers

Will and Lena Rivers
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Grandmama and Granddaddy Smith in their prime. Good, solid, strong and moral, my people.

The big caterpillars at Ek Balam Mayan Ruins

The big caterpillars at Ek Balam Mayan Ruins
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Wendy and I had a late honeymoon the summer of 2005. Here I am at "Ek Balam" or "Black Jaguar", the mayan ruins in Quintana Roo. I think that's right. The guide pointed out these huge caterpillars to us. He said, "See that tiny white butterfly over there, that's what they become".

Snapping Turtle, Art, Neil, Jackie and Keith

Snapping Turtle, Art, Neil, Jackie and Keith
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

I remember this day. The turtle appeared to be as big as a foot tub. But I was a smaller person then. It's all relative.

dogpictureheath

dogpictureheath
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Why not with a dog?

grandma and pit bull

grandma and pit bull
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

This is Grandma and Granddaddy Heath and Grandma's sister, Isabel, and her husband, Johnnie.

Heath's with babies

Heath's with babies
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Here are my granddaddy, Columbus, and grandma Heath early in their marriage. They have begun to bear fruit. They would go on to have 10 children, the first one adopted.

columbus in hat

columbus in hat
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

This is my granddaddy Heath. He loved me and I him. Mom says that he liked to sit with me because I was calm and would sit quietly with him. He would catch white-faced bumble bees (male carpenter bees) out of the air with his hand. He'd let me hold them and then I'd let them go. He used to take me with him to the mailbox to get the mail and the paper. It was a loooong way to a little boy. I held his big rough index finger as we walked. I remember his finger being as big as a flashlight. He whittled wooden spoons for me and he made a whistle or horn out of the stem of squash leaves. I don't remember how to cut them correctly. He was gentle and slow-moving and I loved him.

Pollock cemetary group

Pollock cemetary group
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Girl, 15, Marries Older Man!

Annie Laura Reynolds married Christopher Columbus Heath when he was in his 30's. I asked grandma once how she and granddaddy met. She told me.......

"Your granddaddy went to work for a man over yonder where we lived. One day he saw me and he liked me so he asked my daddy if he could marry me and my daddy said 'yes'. And that's how it happened"

Another time she told me.....

"yes, I got the itch real bad one time and they went and got some wicky and boiled it and I had to take a bath in it and that got rid of the itch"

And how did you get the itch?

"Me and your granddaddy went squirrel huntin'. There was a whiskey still out there in the woods and they would pour the mash out on the ground and the squirrels would come and eat it. We killed a mess of squirrels, but we couldn't eat 'em, they tasted so bad from eatin' that sour corn mash"

Allen Taft and Mary J. Smith

Allen Taft and Mary J. Smith
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Just thinking

Today I passed by the old cemetary where my great granddaddy, Allen Taft Smith, is buried. My infant son, Luke, was cooing at me from the back seat. My thought was, "Who will tell him where his people are buried if I'm not here to do it?" Who would tell him the stories and the important places that have meaning to our family? It's possible that they'd never get around to remembering to him this old burying ground. They could never tell him the stories that my grandparents told only to me. I know things that noone else would be able to tell.

I've thought this same thing many times in the years since I began being a father. Sarah is now 24 and married. Stella is 14 and in high school and Daniel is 13 and in the 7th grade. I've known for a long time that the responsibility is mine. I'm glad that I can start now. I'm glad that the world's technology has advanced so that I can start a blog to save some of these memories. What I write may never be important to anyone but me, and that's OK. But I believe that there are people living now who will care to know these things. And descendants that I will never know will have a way to know a little more about who they are.

It feels so good to have started.