Overheard, out and about, Mrs. Grundy sees all, tells all

Mrs. C.R. Grundy

Published Friday, February 6, 2009

Peeping through my Venetian blind, I thought of the happy birthdays that came in with February last Sunday – Victor Herbert, whose truly gorgeous music includes “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” and “Toyland”; Sidney Lanier, the Georgia poet whose “Song of the Chattahoochee” and “Marshes of Glynn” are still studied and memorized in the better schools; Felix Mendelssohn, the German composer of the wedding music often played at the end of wedding ceremonies, whose bicentennial is being celebrated in 2009; the Confederate States of America, born February 4, l86l, in Montgomery, Alabama; and Christopher Marlowe, an English playwright contemporary with Shakespeare, thought by some to have written Shakespeare’s plays, the author of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, the man who penned the immortal lines, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Illium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!”

One of my students once misquoted that line as “make me immoral with a kiss.”

Of Lanier I want to add that he was born in Macon, Georgia; and his birthplace there is now a museum. He wrote his masterpiece about the “Marshes of Glynn” while visiting friends in Brunswick, Georgia, which is in Glynn County, thus the name, “Marshes of Glynn,” referring to the waters between Brunswick and the Atlantic Ocean. Brunswick, by the way, is where Brunswick stew (campstew) was invented.

Lanier once worked as a clerk in his uncle’s hotel in Montgomery – the Exchange, now gone. Lanier High School in Montgomery bears his name because he lived there.

Today is the birthdate of Charles Dickens, perhaps the greatest novelist in the English language, known mostly for his A Christmas Carol, and Thomas More, the English statesman who refused to go along with King Henry VIII of England because More believed Henry to be in spiritual error and would not “rubber stamp” Henry’s orders. He defied Henry and was put to death for it. I admire Thomas More greatly because he is one of the few who have actually died knowingly for their beliefs. There is a book and a motion picture about his life, A Man for All Seasons. It is inspiring.

Miss Cora Covington told me that she saw that precious Jule Browder out with her Friday Friends at Tabby D.’s; the friends were Dot Brooks, Helen King, Helen Phillips, and Janie Goolsby. These sweet ladies make it a habit to eat out on Fridays. I think “Miss Jule” had just had a birthday.

I was up in Greensville last week with Mrs. Gotrocks. We ate at the Cracker Barrel at a corner table by a window.

Cracker Barrel decorates its walls with old things. I happened to notice a certificate on the wall by us, a framed document that recorded the articles of incorporation for the Justruhon Club of Youngstown, Ohio, July 26, l939. I read the purposes of the men’s club — to exercise, to discuss politics, and to socialize. I puzzled over how that document ever got to that wall and whatever became of the Justruhon Club (whatever that stood for!).

I noticed on the same wall a picture of Constance Baker Motley, a lawyer and New York State Senator. What became of her, I mused.

Then there was a picture of William Boyd as the movie cowboy, “Hopalong” Cassidy, on his white horse, Topper. “Hoppy” was every child’s hero at one time.

Excuse me, gentle reader. Here’s Miss Flora Covington at my door with a bouquet of yellow forsythia, sprigs of tea olive to perfume my parlor, camellias, pansies, violas, daffodils, and a few pear blossoms that she has rescued from the cold.

The Portly Gentleman shared more of his work-in-progress, Observations on Married Couples, Single Men and Women, and Those Living in Sin, with me. He wrote that today folks don’t just live in sin; they don’t even try to hide it. They seem shameless. They want their sin to be publicly acknowledged as “all right.” They want to come out of the closet, the Congress, the TV, the movies, you-name-it! They want to be part of the mainstream, the “norm,” to be socially accepted, to sit in the front parlor with the best of them. They don’t want sin to be called “sin.” They want to be respectable. They want to preach in the pulpits. That’s not all. They go a step beyond. They want to condemn decent folks for opposing their sin. They also want to be applauded for their sin and congratulated for their life styles — to be admired. They want sympathy, approval, praise. What next!?

Down in Fairhope last week I took breakfast at Julwin’s, the oldest restaurant in Baldwin County (l945). It was good!

I just happened to be passing through Montgomery on I-85 the day of the funeral procession of Joshuah Patrick Broadway, the young police officer who had died in an automobile wreck. Mile after mile of police cars with flashing blue lights and other vehicles went by on the way to his burial. Many of us, though on the interstate, pulled off to the side out of respect. I didn’t know there were so many police cars in all of Alabama, let alone Montgomery.

While staying recently at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, I ate at a branch of Wintzell’s Oyster House nearby. The walls, like those in the original Wintzell’s in downtown Mobile, are covered with sayings. One read, “Conscience doesn’t keep you from doing anything wrong. It just keeps you from enjoying it.”

Another went, “Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away from you, too.”

Buying gas in Bay Minette (John Beasley Country), I ran into a friendly, merry fellow by the name of Harry Shiver. When he found out I was from Andalusia, he asked if I knew Seth Hammett. I told him I had that honor, and Mr. Shiver told me that he and Seth were good friends. Mr. Shiver is in the House of Representatives of Alabama, representing the good citizens of Baldwin, Conecuh, Escambia, and Monroe counties (District 64).

I read with sadness in the Montgomery Advertiser that the Cobb Lane Restaurant in Birmingham closed at the end of January. I recall that Margie Thomasson, Mamie Wahl, and I dined there once during a state teachers’ assembly.

Cobb Lane was known for its she-crab soup, a favorite of John Givhan; so I expect him, if no one else in the “Dimple of Dixie,” to join the Portly Gentleman, others, and me in grieving over the loss of this restaurant, which was founded 6l years ago by Virginia Cobb, who once lived above her restaurant and rose each morning at 4 a.m. to begin her she-crab soup and other dishes.

Dan Shehan of Savannah has been seriously ill but now reports improved health.

I had serious illness and a death in my family last week, gentle reader. I’m sorry we had to miss our Saturday “visit.” I much rather had been at my typewriter than going through all the sorrow I saw last week, but that’s life.

As good, old Longfellow wrote, “Into each life some rain must fall. Some days must be dark and dreary.”

Here comes “Clydie” Clump with something or other; excuse me while I meet him at the door.