In our household, we don't have holidays. We have holiweekends. Father's Day was no exception. We started on Friday with a trip to REI, dinner at Sweet Tomato's, and a trip to Borders, where we picked up A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Golden Spruce, and Animal Farm. On Saturday, we went to the art museum and to our friend Lisa's birthday dinner at Johnny Carino's ("Hey, what do you want from me?"). Today, we took a guided tour of the Cheatham Hill battlefield, had dinner at O'Charlies with Mom and Dad K, and hung up the porch swing. Well, that wasn't part of the celebration so much, but it certainly deserves celebration - that thing has been sitting on the porch (not swinging above it) for almost a year now.
Probably the most memorable thing about the weekend was the Quilts of Gee's Bend exhibition. This was probably the most important thing we've seen in a long time, in terms of historical significance, artistic merit, and human interest. Many of the women were there to sign autographs, and they were very nice. They signed a poster for us, a book for Mom, and a CD for Dad. Here is a photo of Qunnie (pronounced "Queenie") Pettway, who quilted one of our favorites in the exhibition, and here is a sample of her work.
This is a list of the women who were there: Mary Lee Bendolph, China Pettway, Mensie Lee Pettway, Qunnie Pettway, Mary L. Bennett, Marlene Bennett, Addie Pearl Nicholson, Gloria Hoppins, Geraldine Westbrook, Rita Mae Pettway, Jessie T. Pettway, Loretta Pettway, Arlonzia Pettway, Nettie Young, Mary Ann Pettway, Louisiana Bandolph, Sarah Bennett, Nancy Brown, and Ruth Kennedy. Many of them have the same name because they are descended from slaves who were "owned" by the same person. It was common for slaves to be assigned the last name of their owner. Please take the time to look at the Gee's Bend website. We think that it is a very important thing to know about.
Ironically, the other interesting thing we did was the battlefield tour. First one side of the coin, then the other, we guess. Our guide was dressed as a Confederate soldier, and he arrived (in his van, not on a horse, unfortunately) with some kind of bouncy Confederate Civil War song blaring from his radio. Before we even saw him, we knew who he was. We learned things that we have not been able to figure out for ourselves in previous visits, and it was fascinating. Here is a photo of our fearless leader, er, tour guide (his wife does laundry in the reinactments, by the way):
What's that you say? Where are the pictures of Gabriel? Well, we hear you, and America, we deliver. Here is one of him at Dairy Queen with Grammie and Pa-Pa while we were at Lisa's birthday party:
And here's one from our little hike today:
Finally, here is a video of our little slugger. His baseball skills are pretty amazing, we think, and we might need this video to lend to ESPN one day.
A few things about the video, mostly for Nancy who asks this type of question. On TV is Fantasia, hence the colors shining on Gabriel. The rattan box to the side is our diaper changing kit that usually sits on a shelf of the built-in to the right of the fireplace. The bowl has the rest of his peas from dinner in case he wanted to snack on them. And lastly, he throws his bat like a pro when he is about to run the bases (P asks him, "Do you want to run the bases?" and he nods), which entails running all the way around the wall where our family room couch sits. We are trying to change that, because this is what happened yesterday when he did that:
...and he didn't spill a drop!
If any of you saw the Braves/Red Sox game, you can see why we Atlanta residents are so frustrated this year. But still, what a great game!
*[He actually said, after sipping his bottle of Schug Chardonnay, "That'll make a man like chardonnay."]
