The Little Town of Darien, Georgia

 

In April of this year, The Colonel and I took a little vacation. We visited Savannah, GA, Daufuskie Island, SC (more on Daufuskie Island later) and the little town of Darien, GA.

We had been through Darien back in 2011 when we visited Fort King George but this time we wanted to stay overnight. We booked a room at the lovely Open Gates Bed & Breakfast.

Zach, owner and chef (he had fresh chocolate chip cookies waiting for us) of the B&B, welcomed us to the beautiful house built in 1876. He told us that we were his only guests during our stay there (there are five guest rooms available). Zach gave us a tour of the house (to include the kitchen) and told us that we had full run of the place (just turn out lights and lock the front door before we went to bed). We had booked the Island Room.

The Colonel and I dropped our things off in our room and then went for a walk in town. Darien is on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River and is about 50 miles south of Savannah. It is the second oldest (Savannah is the first) planned city in Georgia and was originally called New Inverness.

Darien was founded in 1736 by Scottish Highlanders who were recruited by General James Oglethorpe (he founded the Georgia Colony in 1733 with 114 colonists in Savannah) to act as settler-soldiers to protect the Georgia Colony from the Spanish in Florida.

General Oglethorpe visited New Inverness (Darien) in 1736 and the marker below marks the spot where he had his shelter beneath the oak tree (just a stump remains) while visiting.

We walked in the little town of Darien and had a nice dinner in a restaurant along the Altamaha River. There was a baby gator in the river outside the restaurant. There were also boats moored along the river.

I took some photographs of some of the pretty houses in Darien as we walked after our dinner.

As well as some old ones.

Below is the old jail in Darien and some very old tabby ruins along the waterfront. These used to be the warehouses for the cotton exchange and the naval stores from 1815-1830. The final photograph is of the Adam-Strain building built around 1813. It was a mercantile store and a ship's chandlery.

It was getting late and looked like rain, so we headed back to our B&B. On our way back, we saw this little fountain near the B&B.

Before we locked up the house and went to bed, we took pictures of the house (we did not take any of the empty guests rooms, although Zach did allow us to see each room....lovely. You can see them on the B&B's website). We also spent some time in the den, relaxing with a book and looking out the huge picture window.

We had a nice, peaceful sleep that evening and awoke to the smell of Zach cooking our breakfast. The delicious aromas of coffee, bacon and sweet stuffed crepe cigars (a Zach specialty) wafted into our room. The crepes were delicious but the bacon was the bomb. I forgot to take a photo of our breakfast (blame it on the bacon), so the image below is from the internet. 

We enjoyed our overnight stay in Darien and liked the B&B. We want to go back again one day. I forgot to say that the tasty, handmade chocolates that were on our pillows upon arrival, came from the chocolatier across the street from the B&B. It happens to be an old, beautiful house too. We shopped for some goodies there.

Throwback Thursday

The smiling baby is me. I look to be about two to three months old so this photograph would have been taken in November or December of 1961.

My maternal grandmother, Lelah Belle Wray Abel is holding me and we are in her kitchen. The boys standing near my grandma and I are my uncles Jim and Chris. Jim is in the white shirt and Chris is in the blue jacket. Chris is only about 2 years older than my oldest sister. My grandmother was giving birth to Chris when my mom was graduating from high school. My parents married about a year out of high school and began their family after a year of marriage. 

I was Grandma Abel's sixth granddaughter. Numbers one through five consisted of my sisters Lucinda, Kathleen and Lori and two cousins Annette and Sarah Jo. It would be three years and another granddaughter before my grandma would have her first (but not last) grandson.

You can see my birthmark on my forehead. It would fade a bit over time. I can still see it on occasion. I passed along the same birthmark to Yam and Spud. Yam's was more pronounced than Spud's. I have seen that same birthmark repeated on a couple of my cousins on my mom's side. Must be an Abel or Wray thing.

Making Good on a 9-Year Old Promise

 

The Colonel and I finally (I am a bit ashamed to admit) made good on a 9-year old promise (actually, The Colonel made the promise, not me) to an old friend of ours who passed away in 2012. 

Our friend's name was Henry Woodward but everyone called her (yes, I said her...her father wanted a boy) Smiley. She was a classy lady. Always dressed nicely. She loved her sparkly ball caps.

The Colonel and I met Smiley shortly after we retired. She would always come to the events at the little museum we volunteer for (and bring along a little bottle of Asti Spumante to share) . We would sit and talk with her and listen to her stories about growing up in Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island which is not far from Ft. Myers and Sanibel Island.

Her mother was the cook/housekeeper of Mrs. Crowninshield (famous, rich, American family who married into the DuPont family...Mrs. Crowninshield's maiden name was DuPont). When Smiley was about four years old, she would often be the go-between for Mrs. Crowninshield and Mrs. Dupont while they were vacationing in Boca Grande. Mrs. Crowninshield would pin a little note on Smiley's dress and send her along to Mrs. Dupont's house. When Smiley arrived with the note, Mrs. Dupont would take the note and have Smiley sit at the kitchen table and give her some milk and cookies as she wrote her reply for Smiley to take back to Mrs. Crowninshield. 

One story goes that Mrs. Crowninshield learned from Smiley's mother that the people of color could not watch movies in the theater in Boca Grande. Mrs. Crowninshield was not pleased with that report and soon purchased the theater and added more seating so that Smiley and those like her could now enjoy the movies too.

Smiley was born in Clewiston, FL on November 8, 1931. She was a lung cancer survivor. She would battle dementia and Alzheimer's disease before she passed away. As stated earlier, she grew up in Boca Grande, FL and when she grew up she moved to Los Angeles, CA where she lived for over 40 years. Upon retiring from Xerox after 20 years, she moved back to Florida to Punta Gorda. Smiley was active with historical projects in Boca Grande when she returned and was later recognized as a historian. She was also active in many community organizations in Punta Gorda.

Smiley would invite The Colonel and I to her home where she would promptly feed us. We sat in her small kitchen as she warmed up the most delicious and spicy barbequed ribs. 

One day, The Colonel met Smiley out at the cemetery where some of her relatives were buried and where she would be buried too when the time came. He, at her request, was painting her family's grave markers. She asked The Colonel to promise to paint her grave marker when it was her time to be buried. He said of course he would. 

Smiley passed away in August of 2012, at the age of 80. The Colonel and I went to the cemetery in March of 2021 to make good on his promise to paint her grave marker (we had made visits to the cemetery during the 9-year span but we never had the paint and supplies with us until then). 

Smiley liked blue, so we painted her grave marker a pretty, light blue.

She also liked her beer and would enjoy one, especially on a hot afternoon. We brought along her favorite...cold...so that we could pour it near the head of her grave in her honor. 

Better late than never...rest in peace Smiley.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Long Overdue or The Consequences of Watching Home Improvement Shows During a Pandemic

Have you visited your local home improvement store lately? Ours is swarming with people (and I do not think it is just because we are currently in Snowbird Season). I guess we are not the only ones looking to change things up a bit around the old homestead. This pandemic has every homebound person critically eyeballing their walls, floors, bathrooms, kitchens, gardens...you name it and binge watching shows on HGTV is just adding fuel to the fire.

The Colonel was eyeballing our kitchen one day. "I think we should paint the kitchen cabinets a different color. They have been the same color for almost 15 years now. Be thinking what color you would like to paint them".

To be honest, I was kind of dragging my heels about starting a "paint the kitchen cabinets campaign". I had been doing research on line about what it entailed. First the cleaning of the cabinets, then the removal of doors, actual painting, re-attachment of said doors, changing the hardware out...you get the idea. It was the cleaning of the cabinets I was dreading most.

I decided to go with chalk paint on my cabinets. I have used it on many other projects and it is a very forgiving paint. I visited the Dixie Belle Paint website and was pleased to see that I did not have to wax or seal my cabinets if I chose not to (if I get splatters or finger marks on them, I still have plenty of paint left for touch ups). That would be a step I would not have to take. Yay! The Dixie Belle company had a product for cleaning the cabinets. It was a degreaser and de-duster all-in-one. I just mixed the powder in some hot water, wiped down my cabinets and then rinsed them with warm water. It worked as advertised. As I cleaned cabinets, The Colonel dusted and cleaned the tops of the uppers (now we know why people take their cabinets all the way to the ceiling). 

I wanted to have a two-toned kitchen this time around. I chose to paint the upper cabinets white and the lower cabinets a Jadeite green color (surprise, surprise). Once I had the paint colors for the cabinets, I looked for new knobs. I wanted the old timey, glass knobs. I bought white ones for the upper cabinets and Jadeite colored ones for the lower cabinets. 

I wanted to change the wall color of the kitchen too. I was a light green color and I wanted to paint it white. I tried to find a white that would be close to the white of the subway tile backsplash and ended up with something called Fresh Popcorn. There are sooooo many shades of white out there, picking one is harder than one would guess. 

This is what our kitchen looked like for nearly 15 years.

After all of the cabinets were cleaned, The Colonel and I began painting the walls first. 

When the walls were painted and dry, we rehung everything.

Our ceilings are 9'4" high and the white paint made them appear so much higher. I felt like I was in the clouds. I was eager to see what the white cabinets would look like against the walls. Time to tackle the cabinets.

We wanted to see how the white uppers and Jadeite lowers would look together, so we painted the first two cabinets, one in each color.

I loved the look already! The white uppers would make the kitchen brighter and more spacious looking and the green lowers would make the granite pop.

We decided to first paint the cabinets that were on the wall opposite the sink. The Colonel removed the doors and we began painting. We had doors drying in the kitchen and hallway.

The white paint took three coats and the green only two. Once everything was painted and dry, The Colonel rehung the doors (not as easy as removing them). Then The Colonel put the new glass knobs on the cabinets. He had to cut down each screw that came with the knobs (there were 36 of them). We were very happy with the new look of the cabinets.

Now it was time to tackle the other side of the kitchen. This time we opted not to remove the doors. This did not hamper the painting job much and we did not have to maneuver around drying door (we would have to move the refrigerator around a bit). In keeping with the old timey feel of the kitchen redo, The Colonel added some shelves to the upper cabinets flanking the window.

I concentrated on the lower cabinets and The Colonel on the upper cabinets. 

It took us about two weeks to complete the kitchen make-over. We are very pleased with the way it turned out. I was correct in my assumption that the white upper cabinets would make the kitchen brighter and look larger and the green lowers would make the brown granite really pop. I love the new look of our kitchen but I am also happy that all of the work is now behind us.

My Monument

How does the saying go? Oh yeah...no one gets out of this life alive.

The Colonel is a planner who comes from a family of planners (since joining the family, nearly 35 years ago, I have learned and appreciate the fine art of planning too).

Well, a few years ago, The Colonel and I purchased our burial plots (and yes, I have danced on my own plot). 

As you know, we have had to bury The Colonel's sister and parents in recent years and each one had their funeral/burial plans in order. Their pre-planning made it much easier on us and it ensured that they received the funeral/burial they wished for.  

We had the plots, now it was time to complete our pre-planning needs. 

The driving force to start the completion of our pre-planning needs was my desire, while still on this side of the grass, to see a headstone of my own design, sitting on my plot.

So, The Colonel and I made an appointment at a local funeral home. I had the sketches of my headstone in my hand when we met with Timothy, the advanced planning representative for the funeral home. He was very knowledgeable, professional and friendly (he gave us a top-notch tour of the establishment). Our initial visit was to get my stone order placed and we would make another visit to plan, finalize and purchase our funeral/burial wishes.

I looked through a granite company's catalog. I chose the color of my stone, a Celtic cross design and the lettering font (I also gave Timothy the bronze DAR plaque, more about that later). Now that Timothy had my choices (and plaque), he would be able to submit my design to the granite company in Georgia.

It took about four months and a couple of  design tweaks before my headstone was complete and ready for delivery.  

Timothy called me to let me know my headstone was ready to be placed on my plot. The placement was scheduled for the afternoon of February the 15th. The Colonel and I arrived at the cemetery a little early so that I could take a few photographs.

The base of my headstone was already in place and the headstone was dangling in heavy-duty straps from the tractor's bucket.

The cemetery workers arrived shortly after we did. They soon began the work of placing the headstone onto the base.

 

It did not take long to place my headstone. The workers had me walk around it and give my okay of the placement before they removed the straps. 

Seeing my self-designed headstone finally set on my burial plot was very satisfying to me (I have blurred out my name, birth date and birth location in some of the photos to maintain privacy). The photo below is of the front of my headstone. The Celtic birds (Yam helped to tweak my design via her computer) are a nod to my Irish ancestry and my nickname of Bird. The bronze plaque is the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) emblem. I became a DAR member in March of 2016. I found the plaque at an antique store in Mr. Dora, FL (it was on the ground, covered in dust and dirt). I knew when I found it, that I wanted to eventually have it placed on my headstone.

This is the back of my headstone.

My last name has been blurred out on the photo above but you can see the Celtic cross, again a nod to my ancestry and my Christian faith. I also have my DAR member number on the back.

Once the stone was set, Timothy arrived (he had been running late). He was just about as excited as I was. This was the first stone he helped to work on. He liked my stone and said he was proud to have helped work on it and will use it as an example, when showing others what kind of stones his funeral home can provide.

Below you can see my headstone as it sits on my plot. The empty space to the right is where The Colonel's military headstone will be placed. He is unable to pre-order his stone, as it will come via the Veteran's Administration and they do not give stones until the veteran's death has occurred. When planning my headstone, I had a black, granite vase made and justified the stone to the left side of the base so that the vase would eventually be between our two headstones. Yam and Spud could then put flowers in it for both of us. The Colonel and I came back later and cemented the vase to the base (I thought the cemetery workers would have done that but they did not).

Our plots are located in the newer section of the cemetery and currently my headstone sits all by itself. It looks kind of lonely but we have been seeing more and more burials making their way towards our plots.

 

I guess you could say this is another pandemic project finished. It feels good to have our final needs completed (I still owe Timothy an obit and photos for a video). 

The Colonel and I often have lunch in the cemetery and now we can have it next to my headstone.

I am crouching, not standing behind my headstone.

 

Happy New Year!