Before heading to the opposite end of the country last week I started the week’s report. John just posted a short thing and ignored my start. Therefore, we are including that part along with some of the latest activities. So, starting back on:
Sunday, June 17 Finished up and posted this past week’s blog, late. We’ve been very busy. I managed to unload my cameras from all the things I took on Saturday at the retirement party for the Dept. Head. I had 90 pictures on one camera and a movie for each person who spoke at the roast. It will take more than one CD for all the stuff, but it will provide nice memories and make a nice gift for the Huckabay family. I know I surely appreciated the pictures taken at my retirement celebration. Worked some on the jobs list, and Caitlin LaBar will take it over in my absence.
Monday, June 18 Busy day with deliveries in town, going to a massage for my sore shoulders/neck, and then to exercise class and for meds. I have been trying to pack and set up things for my trip. Today I did more arranging of clothes to take along, and set up my meds for the week. Paid some bills and responded to a bunch of emails. I am trying to cut back on my incoming email while I’m gone to Georgia. Found out tonight I don’t have to be at the Yakima airport to leave Thursday until an hour before. Also, found I get lunch on the plane from Seattle to Atlanta, and I get dinner on the airplane returning from Atlanta to Seattle. Nice. In addition, I can get Internet for the return two Delta flights from Savannah through Atlanta and to Seattle for $12.00 paid in advance of my trip (which I did).
Tuesday, June 19 Foot care at AAC this afternoon and The Connections was in the evening. Much of the morning was spent thinking and packing. Printed out an updated medications list. Importantly, I put my paperwork in a name tag holder for around my neck to go through security to show I have an ICD and wires from heart surgery, so I cannot be magnetized or walked through a metal detector. Last time I was X-rayed on my trip across country. Imagine that’s the case this time as well. However, I don’t know what they will do at the small airport in Yakima (they patted me down), but in the Savannah airport they had an X-ray machine.
Wednesday, June 20 Early dental cleaning appointment, done in time to play music and eat at the Soup Kitchen Food Bank; also got some free English Muffin Toasting bread and a Rosemary/Olive loaf one that John likes. They encourage us to take the day (or 2) old bread. There is a room with several tables full of boxes of bread from several different stores. Then off to fill John’s car with gas, at $3.95/gal with national avg. at $3.51. Back by the AAC to set up the music for SAIL exercise and tell them I wouldn’t stay today. Was on my way to the pharmacy for meds and on home to continue packing. Took over an hour to get my boarding passes printed and get the stuff in order. Now back to packing, and setting up something else for my music group before I leave. I think I have everything packed in. The power supply for the Toshiba laptop is bigger and clumsier than the compact laptop itself!
Thursday, June 21 We are leaving a little before 9:00 a.m. to drive to Yakima. I have to leave at 10:55 and be there an hour ahead. It takes us an hour to get there. The flight has plane changes at Seattle and Atlanta, to Savannah, where my cousin and her husband will pick me up after my plane lands at 11:11. We’ll then drive on to Guyton, GA to her mom’s house where we all will be staying. Susan was in our wedding 43 years ago, when she was 13, and her dad, Henry (my mom’s brother), gave me away. Sadly, he died in 2003.
Friday, June 22 A day of rest for me in Guyton, GA with my aunt and her family at the old farm place of my grandparents, called Hickory Hill. That evening, two couples joined us for a great dinner of Shrimp Creole, salad, and much else. It was a great evening with many stories and laughs.
Saturday, June 23 Today and tomorrow are the scheduled days for the Wilkins family reunion, held every two years, the weekend after Father’s Day. This year it was held at the Woodlawn Plantation (owned by Warren Ratchford, my cousin). You can get a small intro to the place at woodlawnplantation.com It is rented out for weddings, for three days at $2275/ (I think per day, for the facilities only. Food and entertainment are extra, and catered.) When Woodlawn Plantation was originally built in 1840, the main house was one-story (changed to two stories in 1890). The plantation served as Camp Davis, a Confederate-training facility during the American Civil War. It was actually renamed Woodlawn in honor of Warren’s grandmother, Nilla Belle Wilkins Ratchford’s old home south of Guyton. The first Wilkins family reunion was held there in 1933 at the first Woodlawn. The grounds are beautiful with old trees and numerous perennials and flowering trees. The day started with BLTs and side dishes. I was involved with giving out and writing name tags with the connection to the Wilkins family, so, e.g., I was NANCY, Frances’ Daughter. I got to know lots of people that way. The Ratchfords there were connected through Nilla Belle. We had tee shirts for the reunion. There were games outside in the sun (and heat), but I stayed inside in the a/c where the food and meetings were held. The “corn hole” game was played between rows of Scuppernong grapes. The game is like horseshoes, but there are holes in a wooden construction and little “bean bag like things” that I guess are filled with corn.
For dinner, a large pig (cooked in a pit all day) was brought in and put on the main table. Also, there was coleslaw, beans, and my favorite of all southern food, Brunswick stew. I ate more of that than anything else. After dinner, I played music with a few of my cousins in preparation for Sunday morning “worship.” We stopped to play a trivia game with families divided into 3 teams: Team Henry (I was on), Nilla Belle’s, and the Dream Team. We answered questions about the Wilkins family (my favorite and probably why we won), and sports, music, and movies (which we did worse on).
Sunday, June 24, second day of the Wilkins Family Reunion in Guyton, GA. It was a wonderful breakfast, followed by an inspirational service, starting with a few people in the yard, with Martin Wilkins (my mom’s brother Henry’s son, presenting). They tried singing hymns, but it was too far away from the piano, and I stepped out on the porch in the heat, to play violin accompaniment, and was eaten alive by gnats attacking my ears and face. Everyone returned to the parlor where we continued with music for well over an hour. My 90-yr old aunt Mary Ratchford Davis (Nilla Belle’s family) played the piano, by ear and in whatever key was needed by the two trumpet players. We’d let them start and we would join them. I am used to doing without music in all the venues I play in, so it was easy for me. I was using my second cousin’s full size violin he loaned me. He is just starting. His sister joined us on her flute for songs for which she had music. We played and sang anthems/hymns and gospel songs. Many of the other folks sat around and sang. I finally left to get a late breakfast at 11:45, because I played through the earlier one. It was biscuits, sausage, and wonderful fruit (large strawberries and cantaloupe). Then for lunch, we had chicken and ham (baked beautifully for 6 hrs by Neil Ratchford (83 yrs old) and more side dishes brought by locals. It was a great time. We ended with a family meeting to discuss plans for the future reunion in 2014, and to share family updates. We left with a handful of leftovers (including some Brunswick stew!).
Monday, June 25 Today in the morning, Susan and her John, left for North Carolina for a week in the mountains near Highlands and Cashiers, NC. Marise and I stayed home eating leftovers for lunch, and then took a trip around the county (Effingham) to
Guyton and the two cemeteries where all our kinfolk are buried (back into the 1880s): Old Providence Cemetery and the Guyton Cemetery. At both places, there is an adjacent “Black” cemetery, which was interesting. Then we went on a road trip around Guyton to see some of the old places still standing where I spent time when I went to south GA and Sullivan’s Island, SC as a young kid. Some of the structures are gone (e.g., Nilla Belle’s Boarding House), but the building that housed the old drug store is still there, and many old antebellum houses.
[John says: insofar as the term “antebellum” — when used by a Georgian — indicates the time before the War of Northern Aggression (ended in 1865) it might seem that the leading adjective “old” is unnecessary.] – and (from Nancy), most people call it the Civil War. The “War of Northern Aggression” moniker is from my friend Bill Smith in Atlanta, GA who is married to Dot (raised with me from when we were babies).
Marise and I also visited the original Woodlawn, which now is no longer in the family, but stands majestically with a surrounding Pecan tree grove. From there we visited “Whitesville Plantation,” a community of large upscale houses. It was Marise’s first time there, and she drove slowly, while I made a movie of the houses from the street view. It was cool. I also had made movies of many of the individual family stories. I took along two digital cameras, each with an 8-Gigabyte storage card. I took movies on one and photographs on the other. Later that day we drove around Springfield, the county seat. That evening she drove me in a little truck around the old Hickory Hill place where my grandmother and grandfather raised 8 children, and the residence started back with my great great grandfather (another John Wilkins). I took photos of old photos of the folks in the Wilkins family. The acreage (now 350 down from an original 600) has the Ogeehee River running along the south edge of the property. Back in 1970, John and I were there with our canoe and went on the river. She showed me all around and we saw some “Swamp” mosquitoes I have to look up on the web. They were HUGE, probably 20 times, or more, larger than a regular mosquito.
Tuesday, June 26 This morning Marise took me back to Springfield and we toured the Effingham Historical Museum. It was very nicely done. They also have restored period housing, barns, blacksmith shops, cane syrup production, and have an old
Turpentine Still on the grounds. We only viewed one house and looked down the hill on all the rest. We had to return to Hickory Hill for lunch and then drive to Savannah to get me on the airplane for home. Marise got me there a little before 4:00 in plenty of time to go through security and get to my plane (Delta to Atlanta, for the first link). The plane was delayed a LONG time, because the plane coming to get us in Savannah, was flying from Atlanta, and Obama was in Atlanta (airport), so they shut down all air and ground traffic in the vicinity. John and I do not understand why he cannot fly into an Air Force Base, rather than a commercial airport. My plane was ready to take off, but had to sit 45 minutes on the tarmac while waiting for the clearance to leave. I almost did not make my connection in Atlanta to Seattle. I got to the gate after many people had already boarded. All the rest of the trip home was fine, but late, even leaving Seattle for Yakima. John was there to pick me up after midnight, and we still had an hour’s drive home.
Wednesday, June 27 Slept in, but not long enough. Went to play music at the food bank soup kitchen and to SAIL exercise.
Thursday, June 28 Music at 2:00, and I’ll leave off the rest of the day because it is explained next.
Friday, June 29 I have been swamped since returning and trying to catch up and plan for our music venues. This morning I’m putting in the Battle Hymn of the Republic to SongWriter so I can change key for our clarinet player, and put the words next to the notes (rather than at the bottom of the page). This effort is for a 4th July patriotic songfest with BBQ at the City Library for people in the community over 50. My music group plays from noon to 1:00 on Monday, July 2. Last night I spent a couple hours struggling with God Bless America, in a different key (G) from the way it is written. On the plane to Savannah, I created Yankee Doodle Dandy (odd, considering I was going to the south to rebel country).
Anyway, the reunion was a total blast and I had the time of my life. The weather was bearable and a/c was in the car, houses and plantation eating area where the activity was. The storm off the coast also brought some light rain and cooler temps for the last two days there. I hope to get some of my experiences on paper before they are a distant memory. So much happened. I took tons of pictures and many movies, as already mentioned. I went back above to re-create the (almost) week away in south GA. Meanwhile, tonight I spent over an hour cleaning/fixing two batches of strawberries John picked this afternoon, before trying to move 80 bales that was delivered by Harobed today at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 30 Just spent some time finalizing this for John to post this blog. We are making a cherry / blueberry / walnut cobbler to take to a BBQ potluck in Roslyn this afternoon. John worked some more on weeds, watering, and hay this morning. While Nancy was in GA the dogs and I began experience encounters with aggressive deer. This is “bambi” season and the does come out of the woods to chase us away. They will go after the dogs but run from me so I have had to work though the center of the pasture and try and keep the dogs (4) away from the edges. Great fun! We had not seen any little ones until Thursday morning when mama and two spotted fawns showed up behind the house. We have had several mild winters and the local herd has grown to “problem” size. This is one of the stories of folks moving into the animal’s habitat and then complaining when nature intrudes on their idyllic setting.
Hope your week was a good one.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan