Thursday, April 25, 2013

So many experiences and no time to share....

We are loving Darien and South Georgia. The absolute best feature is everything cultural...from the food, the expectations, the rules for behaviour, the sharing and the comfort and friendship extended to us by those who don't know us at all. Nothing is a secret in this county...nothing!

Here is a short story told by one neighbor and confirmed by the wife involved. A neighbor and her husband owned two grocery stores in the area. The husband has died and there is now only one operating grocery store. The husband, before he died, had a number of mistresses which everyone in the area knew about. Besides "servicing" him, this last mistress also kept his books at the grocery stores.

While the wife worked, the mistress "took care" of her husband and this continued through his decline and death. The mistress was kept very well by this man and,  he gave her many hundreds of thousands of dollars, a new home, and various cars. When he died, the mistress appeared at the funeral home, at the grave side ceremony and also came over to the wife's house for the meal after the funeral. An elderly lady, not related to either, suggested mistress lady might want to leave before  someone killed her. Met the wife last night and she is in financial distress and told me this story which I had heard but she added some flavor I hadn't heard.

I didn't know her or the husband or their names so didn't connect the dots from the story told to me earlier by another neighbor. When she indicated that before her husband's death, he gave of their property willingly to others. I thought that, "lovely" and she disagreed. This wasn't philanthropic giving but, as she explained, giving to specific people in return for "services." Her son, with a traumatic brain injury lives next door to her with his wife. He cannot work and she won't. So, the mother in law helps keep them in the home her husband built for them and gave them outright. The mom in law, using her social security benefits, is struggling. The daughter in law's parents live four houses down and though they help their sons, they won't help the daughter and her husband who has been unwilling to get disability though he will not ever "be right in the head." Why? Because it "looks bad" even though he worked for 38 of his 52 years and gave into the system. So, the old lady, who is taking care of her son is going to lose her house and her son's house soon. Tragic. I suggested maybe they could live in one home because both are quite large. Mom in law said, "never." Her son has a brain injury but at least HE has a brain! His wife...not so much.By the way...the wife knew her husband was having affairs and had hired his mistress and gave away much of their money. She said..."Men are animals and she thought he would get over it."

The daughter in law burned leaves yesterday. She waited until the wind was blowing our way and directly into the yard of our neighbor. This continued full force for 10+ hours and into this morning. They don't like each other...so she waited til the wind blew in the direction that would cause the most rift in the 'hood." She told me she had waited on purpose.
Flowers are so beautiful here but it is getting very hot and they are wilting. The good news is that the sand gnats are dying off and I was told that the team, the Sand Gnats of Savannah are just as "annoying" as the bug which is why the team was named this. Not sure about that but fun.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Darien...more

 
 
I have NO clue why the text above is underlined...cannot seem to get it to go away. Our neighbors, Willie and Phyllis have been wonderful. Today, Phyllis and I went into Darien to the library. They were having a $1 per bag book sale and I bought two bags of books...23 in total. Yup....$2.00 and they will keep us reading for the next few weeks.

Tim hasn't crabbed before and he was a bit off put when he found that Richard was cutting open a package of chicken necks to use to bait the traps. Really...can YOU find a package of chicken necks at your grocery store? Cost: $2.15 for 1.75 pounds of chicken necks.

Tim learned to shell a crab and we will have crab cakes for dinner tomorrow. We learned that IF we crabbed off the neighbor's dock across the street, that instead of capturing stone crabs, we would find blue crabs galore. The stone crabs have to have only one claw cut off and then, they are thrown back to regenerate. Blue crabs...get the whole guy. YUM

Tim was able to see our dolphins who came to play this evening. I am a horrid photographer and couldn't catch them as they surfaced...but here are their fins. We look for these guys about 100 times a day and are so excited when they come near.  

Friday, April 5, 2013

Darien....Ft. McAllister and more

 I keep thinking that I must have my photo taken because I have so many of other visitors and of the scenery and ten years from next Friday...who will believe that I was really here??

Below, find our "typical" sunset. It is tough, but we have to look at these gorgeous sunsets and often, like tonight, the dophins are out celebrating the end of the day. Hoping my photos from tonight show these guys. Another day's posting...you WILL see them.


 
This is one of the huge live oak trees at Fort McAllister. The guide said these are hundreds of years old.

 

This photo gives you a bit of perspective. The tree's knees have folded back down and are skirting the ground. Many have grown up into new tree trunks. Very unusual and very interesting.