Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Stronger and blacker than the heart of Satan? Or do you prefer ninny water?
Everyone who drinks coffee wants it prepared just so. Sandy Williams and Mark Manning from Parkview High School brewed triple-strength dark roasted Starbucks. When you think of black coffee, it will NEVER be as black as that. Their coffee was stronger and blacker than the heart of Satan. They called my coffee, “Ninny Water”. I admit my coffee it isn’t as strong as theirs, but you don't have to chew mine. The spoon in mine will not actually dissolve. It does pit the spoon pretty badly. Snell’s cousin Charles will sometimes drink a cup of my coffee. When he does, he adds water to it. I don’t understand. This is a man that craved coffee as he was recovering from cancer surgery. He was on a feeding tube and the only thing he wanted was coffee…
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
“[Humphrey Bogart] was endowed with the greatest gift a person can have: talent. The whole world came to recognize it.” -John Huston
Happy New Year, y’all! I recently read a biography of Humphrey Bogart, who has always been one of my favorite actors. I don’t know what made him appeal to so many people, but he did. In real life, he was charismatic as a tough guy with a funny sense of humor and a magnetic personality. "Casablanca" is one of my favorite movies. Bogart is the bad guy/hero who is as clearly defined as a person with integrity and conscience. These attributes might serve each of us well as we go into 2013. This is a new year and I was thinking of things that one does at the beginning of a year. Last year was a hard year for my family. What should I do for this New Year? Should I set goals, resolutions? What do I want to accomplish? I certainly don't want…
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
And it takes the hair elf to get him ready!
Meet Sheila Lentz, Hair Elf to the brightest star of them all -- Saint Nick! Sheila has been a hair dresser for 34 years. When Santa saw her beautiful work on the hair of so many people in Snellville, he knew he had found his Hair Elf. Slipping in and out of chimneys in the dark of night, I bet he sees a lot of things, but he appreciated Sheila’s talents with hair. Santa must be fluffed and puffed each day before he meets his public, and Sheila is the master Fluffer-Puffer for the area. Santa Claus and his magic elf meet early in the morning to get him ready to face the day. The man has a lot on his mind. He can’t worry about his hair. Trained as a cosmetologist at Dale Strepple’s on North Highland Avenue in Atlanta, Sheila has a true …
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
An ode to dark spaces and the ones who call them home.
There is a grave disturbance in the atmosphere around my house. It is time to change the closets over from summer wear to winter clothes. Don’t you hate it? I hate it more than changing to Daylight Savings Time. Do y’all remember Agatha Tarantula and Mavis Merry Widow who help to protect all my furniture and finery with lovely detailed spider webs? Let me now introduce you to Agatha’s second cousin, Ariadne, a lovely young thing new to our abode. Ariadne has moved into my shoe cupboard. I say “cupboard,” but it is actually a very old “kitchen safe.” For those of you who are not blessed with southern heritage, or who are too young to appreciate it if you are, let me explain. A safe is where people would place food that needed protecting. …
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
I first met Angelica Chun and her husband Daniel about twenty years ago when they opened their business, Nail Hero, in Snellville.
I first met Angelica Chun and her husband Daniel about twenty years ago when they opened their business, Nail Hero, in Snellville. Their sons were then small children who came to work with Mommy and Daddy. She is such an impressive and amazing woman. You would never dream of the experiences she has had. Angelica and Daniel had the opportunity to join the staff at Designing Hair in Snellville. She is truly an artist. Her station is sanitized and immaculate. She does every kind of natural and artificial nail available and her prices are much more reasonable than those of most nail technicians. A manicure and pedicure is $23.00. How can you beat that? Angelica’s client list includes men and women. I have never heard of an unhappy customer. …
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
It has been a year since Marlene Buchanan's ordeal with cancer began; now, she reflects on the good that has come out of it.
You know, we make friends under the strangest circumstances and in the most trying situations. It is part of the resilience of the human spirit, I think. Nearly a year ago my ordeal with cancer began, and it has been a terrible year, but a couple of great things have come out of it. I met some terrific people at the radiation clinic, and I am recovered...mostly. Marquetta Ryan, Barbara Foster, another woman I shall call Sheila, and I met and became friends sitting in the reception area of Georgia Radiation Center. We shared our tears and fears and knew the true meaning of exhaustion. I don’t care how prepared you think you are when you enter a treatment center, you always have trepidation. Dr. Gargus and his staff are the kindest of people…
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Celebrate the 35th anniversary of Aloha from Hawaii with Mark Pitt’s Tribute to Elvis Saturday, Aug 11, at New Dawn Theater.
I taught Elvis in high school. Mark Pitt was one of my most promising artists. He drew, painted and sculpted with immense talent. Mark was this shy young man in the ninth grade at Duluth when I started teaching. He would often be humming or singing under his breath. Back then, everyone was into the Beatles and Elvis was touring around the county to sell out crowds. A quiet young man who listened intently and had a very observant eye. Mark had a dry sense of humor. He was one those students that I claim as my oldest children. Granted, these favorite young’uns were only a few years younger than I, but I lied about my age then, too. I added ten years when the kids asked me how old I was. I couldn’t tell them that I was only a few …
marlene buchanan
7:49 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Thank you all. I will greatly miss writing for the patch. I have met some really wonderful people. And Brenda, I think I still have a few of those biscuits around if you need any landscaping stones. more ›