Cecelia's Dig

                                       *****************                                                                  ***************                         Last night, I posted an entry about my Santa Claus, Odell Bradshaw. A great, fun-loving, joyful man, who was really my 1st cousin 2x removed. Due to "Technical Difficulties, Maybe", I removed it. Here's the Low Down. But first, a smile from Uncle Odell........                                                                        After a few hours of sleep, I opened my blog to check who read it, and also to read it with fresh eyes. Well, I pressed a button to move a line of type.....and I messed up my whole blog entry. I attempted to fix it, but ended up deleting the original post. I don't think it was a "mistake", for too much weird stuff was happening. The thought suddenly hit me.... "Uncle Odell's hexing me!! He doesn't want his business in the Universe". My first

                               My Bigmama's baby brother was a faceless, nameless entity. I never knew his given name until I gained access to the U.S. Census Collection, back in 1998. When he died in 1977, my sisters and I knew him only as "Uncle Gray Ghost"..... the man who knocked on our grandmother's front door in the dead of night. It was the ONLY time he visited.                                 I once asked my grandmother why she called her brother "Gray Ghost". She said it was because he only came out at night. I remember the way he knocked verrrrry softly, so as not to wake up the house. He'd loudly whisper "Ernest...Ernest, it's ME!", between his knocks. Bigmama would call back to him, "Aw, Brotha! You only come around when you WANT something! Now, go on before you wake these kids."  I was awake by then, listening to her open her door to him, and listening to their "grown folks" conversation. Bigmama would ask

                                                 I met up with COOK family who were descendants of Louis Cook, born abt. 1830 in Missouri, (we think), and Mary Bryant, born abt. 1835 in Mississippi. Louis and Mary had a few children. Their son Henry Cook and wife Martha Abercrombie Johnson spawned a few children, and it was from those children that my cousin Karen's backyard filled.                                                  Walking into her back yard, I shook hands with the first men who greeted me. I went back to my car and grabbed my contribution to the festivities. When I ambled back into the yard, I had a folding chair in my left hand, my purse AND computer bag hanging from my right shoulder, and a 24 Pack box of Big Red Cola balanced atop my right shoulder. A couple of men scrambled towards me to help, but I was already in full stride..HANDLING it. I yelled out, "I got it! Thanks! I'm a COOK!!"...and they yelled back, "Aha ha! Yeah, you ARE, alright,

                                             Obese classmates. There may have been a total of five that I knew personally, during my whole childhood. We walked and ran EVERYWHERE, and fat didn't have a chance to hang around. If you couldn't catch up...wellllllll.                                              Fast Food was a treat during my childhood, not the staple of our diet today. My mother, Juanita Olivia Chappell ( b. May 10, 1931 San Antonio, Bexar , Texas -March 10, 1975 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California), treated my sisters and I to Fast Food on Fridays. Man.....we couldn't WAIT until she came home from work (as a Masseuse @ The Beverly Hills Health Club for Women), so that we could walk to a neighborhood joint. A "You Buy We Fry" storefront was right off S.Hoover Avenue and 50 something Street.                                              Mom usually grabbed a Fried Catfish Dinner, fried with Cornmeal batter, and the fish with Tail ON...had to be o