New Addition to the Mangum Family

We now have a new grand dog in the Mangum family. Another rescue dog. Otis is now with his third owner, my daughter and her Winston Salem family. 

The kind of face that even a mother would find hard to like. 

Otis reminds me of Carl Spackler, the groundskeeper in Caddy Shack played by Bill Murray. 

Otis is about one and a half years old and a good companion for Sally, their other dog. 

Do You Like Bluegrass Music?

I like all types of music, but bluegrass is one of my favorites. When one of our classmates told me about a group that he knows that was to perform in Garner Thursday night, Becky and I decided to go. The name of the group was Diamond Creek and the venue was Lorraine's Coffee House and Music which happens to be about three blocks from where we lived for 30 years.

Lounge area inside Lorraine's. 

This photo showed part of the crowd of about eighty. The fellow sitting left center in the dark shirt is Elvin Johson, one of our favorite teacher's husband. He lives about two blocks away. Sorry I don't have a better picture of him. I did get a chance to speak with him and he seems to be doing fine.  

Does this classmate look like he might enjoy Bluegrass?

This is Diamond Creek. There is also a fiddle player standing to the left, a bass player and featured singer hidden by the guys up front. This is not a garage band. The music was good as you will hear anywhere. 

Lorraine's is a nice place to go if you are looking for a little something different to do. They also have good coffee (sorry, no alcohol). We picked up some former Garner neighbors and had dinner at T K Tripps before heading to Lorraine's. I think we all enjoyed the show and will likely return. 

If you like Bluegrass, you should give Lorraine's a try. You will need to check their website to see their live music schedule. 

http://www.lorrainescoffeehouse.com/

By the way, the featured singer, Emily Kirsch, is a freshman at Cambell and also attends the same Four Oaks church as Rex, Pat and Elvin. She is very good. Following is her website. 

 http://emilykirsch.com/                 

Yes, Angier has a Christmas Parade

The Anger Christmas parade was held on Saturday, December 6th. It was a typical dreary December day. Luckily, the rain held off to the very end of the parade.  Following are a few photographs .

There were two high school bands, Harnett Central and Triton. 

A few floats, most of which I would call the homemade variety.  Very nice. 

We had loud motorcycles.

Ronald McDonald.

The Dunn Clown where there. I think they were around when we were still in high school. 

I saw only one antique car. Too bad. 

One of the floats. 

Always the star attraction of the parade is Mr. and Mrs. Claus. 

Of course you always put the horses at the very end of the parade. No respectable marching band would want to follow a bunch of horses.

Another Classmate Turns 70

Friday night was Larry's time to celebrate his 70th and celebrate he did. Betty Jo had arranged a surprise birthday party for Larry at the Angier Depot. 

Larry and Betty Jo arriving. Larry claimed it was a complete surprise. 

They did a great job at decorating the Depot and setting up the tables. There were lots of people there. 

That's Larry in the center of the photograph. 

Great bluegrass band. 

You may recognize a few of the people. 

Complete with menu.  Betty Jo has set the bar very high. I'm not sure that the rest of our 69 year old classmates can live up to this standard. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LARRY,!!!  Way to go Betty Jo and friends. What a great party. 

Trimming the Tree

I got tired of fighting a real tree with its trunk that never would fit the stand. Every year we would spend hours searching for the perfect tree that was large enough to fit the space where we put our tree. Then there was the problem of getting the tree in the house and erecting it on a stand.  So when the artificial trees went on sale after Christmas, I bought this 12 foot monster for about $200. That was about eight years ago. It is beautiful and it has a perfect shape.  The only problem is that it weighs about a ton. It comes in six sections, but it is all we can do to put it together. 

Finally assembled and lights turned on. 

The only way we can put it together is to tie a rope to each section and for one person to go to the balcony and lift the section while the other stands on a 6 foot step ladder and guides each section into place. This is not something that a 69 year old should be doing. Well, we did get it up again this year and no one was injured. 

The next day we finished installing the ornaments. Not too bad for a cheap 12 foot tree.  I saw an 8 foot tree at Home Depot yesterday for $400.

Latest on the Winston Salem Grandsons

These days children have all kinds of activities that they can participate in. The latest for grandchildren Eamon and Brendan is fencing. They have always had Knerf swords and light saber toys around the house. They would take them to the beach where they would entertain us with their energetic sword fights. I  guess it was only a matter of time before they moved to the next level. 

Eamon with his equipment. Brendan refused to to put his gear on. 

I think this is called a lunge. 

Their dog Sally was not impressed.