Wonders of the Internet

The wonders of the Internet are amazing. I remember when my Father was trying to put together the family tree and how he had to rely on family bibles, public archives and chatting with other family members. He put a lot of effort into the tree and I have a copy of his work.He only traced or tried to trace the ancestry on his side of the family so nothing was done on my Mother's family.

I got interested in trying to put together a complete Family tree and started researching on the internet. I am amazed at the amount of information accessable if one has the patience to look for it.

So far I have found two GGGGGrandfathers who fought in the American Revolution and as I dug deeper I found that my Father was a member of the Sons of the Revolution. I had no inkling he was a member but lo and behold there it was in black and white along with the proof that he was a direct descendent of a Revolutionay War soldier. Needless to say I was pleased to find this information since it qualifies my Granddaughter for financial assistance from the Daughters of The Revolution when she goes to college.

On my Mothers side of the family, I found that my GGGGGrandfather was killed in a battle in Burke County, Ga. in the last year of the Revolution. He is buried within a 2 hour drive of where I now live and I didn't know it. I plan to go to his grave site soon and pay my respects.

As I continued poking around in my families past, I found my Great Grandfathers pension application for Confederate Soldiers. I had no idea that Confederate Soldiers could get a pension for their service in the Civil War. The application had been approved by the state of Florida thereby confirming that he had served. The Sons of the Confederacy also provides financial assistance to direct descendents of Confederate Veterans.

All is not roses in my ancestry searches though. I have found some outlaws, cattle rustlers, a pirate and some low lifes as well. I guess every family has some skeletons in the closet.

Tracing my ancestry has been enlightning and interesting. Now I have to find a way to put it all down on a chart. It is amazing how many branches a family tree as in just a couple of generations.

Chuck

Panama City, Florida

I saw on my site meter that I had a couple of visits from Panama City. I was born in PC in 1940 and spent summers there until 1958. My grandparents lived in Millville and I used to ride the bus into town for movies and such.

While I was growning up Panama City Beach and Long Beach were great places. Sugar white sand, clear green water and out of town girls up the gazoo. There was a place at Long Beach called the HangOut right on the beach where the music never stopped and we danced until we had blisters on our bare feet. In those days beer was the big thing for teens and because the Bay County Sheriff was a close friend of my family I could buy it fairly easily as long as I didn't do anything stupid. Needless to say I made friends fast.

I used to hang around the Indian Motorcycle Dealership in Millville that also sold English Bikes. The owner was a guy named Oolie Coker. He was rough as a cob but was always looked after me. He let me ride a Vincent Black Shadow when I was 13 years old. That Black Shadow is now a collector item that sells for around $200k. Oolie had no compunction about letting me take off on whatever he had in the shop whenever I wanted.

I had a really great childhood in PC and have many fond memories of it. It isn't the same now but when I was young it was a great place.

Thanks for visiting my site.

Chuck

Joe Biden

The first day of Senator Biden's foray into Presidential politics reminds me of an old joke that I still find funny.

The owner of a down at the heels race horse stable traded one of his nags for a healthy, well muscled stallion and found that the horse could run the mile in record times. The problem with the horse was that his attention span was Zero.

The stable owner, needing money badly, decided to enter his new stallion in an upcoming race that had a large purse. He didn't have a regular jockey so he got some silks for the stable boy and sent him and the horse to the race. The stable owner didn't have the money to go so he told the stable boy to send him a telegram with the results of the race as soon as the race was over.

The day of the race came and since it wasn't brodcast the stable owner sat at the Western Union office all day waiting for the telegram. It finally came and the message read "SSFF". The stable owner jumped with glee and told everybody in town that his horse had won.

The next day the train arrived and the stable boy and the horse disembarked. The stable owner ran over and hugged the stable boy and danced around like crazy. Finally the stable boy asked " why are you so happy"? The owner said the message the boy had sent read "started slow, finished fast" meaning they had won.

The stable boy looked down at the ground and shuffeled around some then he said " No sir boss, the message said "started, stumbled, farted, fell". Meaning they came in dead last.

I think Joe Biden might have started, stumbled, farted and fell too.

Chuck