Make a donation Button... NOT

Readers.. The make a donation button are not sponsored by me, When I Install a gadget such as the ball clock, which I like so much, or the Cat or the Bumper stickers. The creator of that gadget will sneak in like a thief in the night and install the donation button.

The reader thinks he is donating to Rojo's Ramblings but it goes to the creator of the gadget. I try to catch and delete as soon as I can but if I miss one feel free to let me know. I WILL NEVER ASK MY READERS FOR DONATIONS. It would be more fun to borrow Jeanie's wheelchair and go set on a street corner in my grubby ole work clothes and maybe smear a little camo make up on for good measure.

Rojo

SO PEACEFUL

Today is another one of those "Do you know where this is" days. Let me be honest, actually it is a filler because I am really short on time today.Some days my can do, cant keep up with my want to,and today is one of those days.

The pictures you see  were taken late in the afternoon and show a nice peaceful and laid back environment, That has not always been the case. In 1965, I was just barely 22, this was a place of suffering and pain for many.I was still living in the protected environment in which I had grown up.
  In 1985 OR 86 several of my High School friends and I had a little get together in Lewisville,Texas. Attending that get together was a dear friend, Sharon Worsham Cobb who said  "We were raised in such a protected envioroment that we had no idea what the real world was like".

  It was true, I had no idea. Reflecting back I wish I had been here in 1965, I should have been. You know, the old hind sight thing.On March 7th 20?? Jeanie and I will return to this location to  honor those  who did know what the real world was like.

 

I plan to have a great day, I hope you will join me.

Rojo

A TAD DISAPPOINTED

When we got to the Tukegee Airmen National Historic site, here is what we found, 3 portable class rooms.Inside we found less information than you are going to get in this post.

 

We did find out that beyond that tall grass and trees was the old original hanger and that is where the official site was going to be.

Ok now, let me see if I have all of this right. In 1998 the U.S. Congress authorized $29 million to develop the TUSKEGEE AIRMAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, here it is November of 2006 and this is it. I am told ,you are correct, the official site won't open until 2008.

  Something about this just dont set well with me. Here we have over 1000 Black men ,who didnt have the right to vote or set at the counter at woolworth, volunteering to fight for the U.S. and we can't get a memorial put together between 1945 and 2006. Not to mention that 66 died  in combat.

The facts below were provided by Tuskegee AIRMEN INC. AND TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY.

• The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who volunteered to become America's first Black military airmen
• Those who possessed the physical and mental qualifications and were accepted for aviation cadet training were trained initially to be pilots, and later to be either pilots, navigators, or bombardiers.
• Tuskegee University was awarded the U.S. Army Air Corps contract to help train America's first Black military aviators because it had already invested in the development of an airfield, had a proven civilian pilot training program and its graduates performed highest on flight aptitude exams.
• Moton Field is named for Tuskegee University's second President, Dr. Robert R. Moton who served with distinction from 1915-1935. The Airmen were delpoyed during the presidential administration of Dr. Frederick Douglas Patterson (1935-1953).
• The all-Black, 332nd Fighter Group consisted originally of four fighter squadrons, the 99th, the 100th, the 301st and the 302nd.
• From 1940-1946, some 1,000 Black pilots were trained at Tuskegee.
• The Airmen's success during World War II – not losing a single bomber to enemy fire in more than 200 combat missions – is a record unmatched by any other fighter group.
• The 99th Squadron distinguished itself by being awarded two Presidential Unit Citations (June-July 1943 and May 1944) for outstanding tactical air support and aerial combat in the 12th Air Force in Italy, before joining the 332nd Fighter Group.
• The 332nd Fighter Group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its longest bomber escort mission to Berlin, Germany, March 24, 1945. It destroyed three German ME-262 Jet fighters and damaged five additional jet fighters without losing any of the bombers or any of its own fighter aircraft to enemy fighters.
• The 332nd Fighter Group had also distinguished itself in June 1944 when two of its pilots flying P-47 Thunderbolts discovered a German destroyer in the harbor of Trieste, Italy.
• The tenacious bomber escort cover provided by the 332nd "Red Tail" fighters often discouraged enemy fighter pilots from attacking bombers escorted by the 332nd Fighter Group.
• C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson earned his pilot's license in 1929 and became the first Black American to receive a commercial pilot's certificate in 1932, and, subsequently, to make a transcontinental flight.
• Anderson is also well known as the pilot who flew Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, convincing her to encourage her husband to authorize military flight training at Tuskegee.
• In 1948, President Harry Truman enacted Executive Order No. 9981 - directing equality of treatment and opportunity in all of the United States Armed Forces, which in time led to the end of racial segregation in the U.S. military forces.

The TUSKEGEE AIRMAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE OFFICIALLY OPEN ON OCTOBER 10,2008

I plan to have a great day, I hope you will join me
Rojo

 

Good bye Crawford County

In the words of my friend AL from the Bayfield Bunch...The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.http://thebayfieldbunch.com/ 

Today is our last day in Crawford county, I hope you have enjoyed reading  about it as much as I have enjoyed the memories of Crawford County and the good folks there.That is what Jeanie and I love the most about full time RVing,you never know what is just around the curve in the road or in this case at the top of the hill. Thanks again Crawford County ,GA. and all of its wonderful people for the memories that will last a lifetime.

On January 8, 1831 John Stith Pemberton (1831-1888) was born in Knoxville,Crawford County GA.  He invented coca-cola in 1886.

And now we leave Crawford County  with one last glance in the rear view mirror.http://www.photoshow.com/watch/Ju8xP5ng


I plan on having a great day, I hope you will join me 
Rojo

 

BEFORE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

Maybe I should say BEFORE THE CLAY MEETS THE WHEEL.
Georgia is famed for its bountiful clay but not the red clay. The more localized KAOLIN clay, which is so important to Georgia folk pottery and stoneware. The pottery is made from this fine grained pure clay that is tough enough to withstand rough usage.

Deposits of Kaolin occurred in Georgia about 100 million to 45 million years ago along a band extending from Augusta to Macon to Columbus, called The fall line. Georgia is by far the leading clay producing state in America and Kaolin is Georgia's largest natural resource

Pioneer potters, including the Merritt's forefathers, settled along along the Fall line in what now is Crawford County where the relative pure clay is concentrated.The potters established 8 pottery centers which became known as "Jugtowns". Each Jugtown developed its own styles and passes the style and shapes on to the next generation.

In the 1800's salt was thrown in the kiln to glaze the pottery. About 1815  alkaline glazes were developed by Dr. Abner Landrum. These glazes depend on an alkaline substance such as lime or wood ashes to help melt the other ingredients of clay and sand to form the glaze. The glaze turns either green or brown when its iron content reacts to the Kiln.

 

Jeanie holding her origional signed Mark R. Merritt Crawford County Jug

  

Mark Merritt's plant... thats a full size tractor setting on that pile of clay

More of the mixing and batching plant.

  

Mark R. Merritt 6th generation Jug maker and Jeanie

Crawford county Jugs

 I think a couple of the 10's I woke up with back in my drinking days posed for the jugs below.

  I will have one more surprise for you from Crawford County GA tomorrow before we move on to Tuskegee.AL

THANK YOU

I just want to say thank you to the readers who help make the first month of my new blog a success. I had 1,313 hits in January. I fell a tad short of my goal of posting each day and it may happen again sometime but I promise you I will do my best to give you something to come hear for everyday.

Thank you so much
Rojo

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.

 

Not a single nail 

Stay tuned,tomorrow what I promised

CRAWFORD COUNTY POTTERY

On the note of staying tuned, for years now our XM radio is tuned to OLD TIME RADIO 24/7. We never turn  the TV on unless we have a big fire or shaker.Jeanie has a pillow speaker and I am deaf as a board so it works out great. This morning when I woke up and rolled over to Jeanie to give her the usual morning hug, my ear landed on the pillow speaker... Lum and Abbner was on. My morning started with a chuckle, hug and now a chat with Juan Valdez....Life is good.

I plan to have a Great day, I hope you will join me

Rojo