The Curse of Lorenzo Dow

In the early 1800s, Jacksonboro (Jacksonborough) was a promising little town and county seat in rural southeast Georgia. Today, nothing remains of the place at all except one old tree lined lane…

And one single house.

This one.

It was the home of Seaborn Goodall.

He built the home in 1815.  

 

It stands as the lone survivor of a town which fell,

according to local lore,

to the curse of Lorenzo Dow

Lorenzo Dow was a fiery Methodist minister.  He lived the life of the itinerant preacher, saving lost souls up and down the eastern seaboard.

Around 1820, he traveled through Jacksonboro,

but he stayed there less than one day.

You see, while Jacksonboro was a promising settlement, it bore more resemblance to a lawless frontier town of the Wild West than a quaint God- fearing village. There are no records of an established church, but the faithful met in the local meeting house. There were, however, established saloons. “They” say that there were as many saloons as other businesses combined.

Into this setting came Lorenzo Dow.

Now, by this time, his fame was well known in Georgia. He had ignited crowds of thousands…

…which ignited

 an entirely different fire

 in the Jacksonboro underbelly
if you know what I mean...

While he prepared the meeting house, local saloon owners tanked up the town rowdies for an evening of mischief. As the story goes, Dow had barely stood to speak when the place was surrounded by drunkards shooting off pistols and hurling rocks through the windows. They closed the shutters, but the noise from the outside finally succeeded in closing the service as well.

The faithful returned to their homes,

and the rowdies returned to the saloons…

…followed by Lorenzo Dow.

Did I mention that he was a fiery old fellow?

He barged into a saloon and broke open and overturned barrels of whiskey. The rowdies reacted just as you might suspect. He would likely have been lynched had Seaborn Goodall not followed Dow to the saloon as well.

Goodall stood up to the rowdies,

broke up the crowd,

and brought Dow to his home

to nurse his wounds

and keep him safe for the night.

Dow tried to leave the town peacefully the next morning, but he was roughed up by a bunch of hooligans with hangovers along the way. They finally let him go, but they chased him out of town pelting him with rotten eggs and produce as he went.

On the bridge at the town’s edge,

 Dow stopped.

And  as the story goes,

he shook the dust of the town
 from his feet,

raised his hands toward Heaven,

and called a curse

 on the town of Jacksonboro
but 

 a blessing

 on the home of Seaborn Goodall.

Well, over the next twenty years, one natural disaster after another claimed the buildings of the little town. People began to move away, and the town began to crumble. The final nail in the coffin came in the form of a railroad which was routed not through Jacksonboro, but six miles south in another quiet Georgia town. That little town became the county seat and my hometown.

By 1847, Jacksonboro was a desolate piece of landscape, barely reaching the status of ghost town.

Today, it's all gone.

All except that one old house.

Years ago, it was given to my chapter of the DAR to restore and preserve. 

I’ll yak all about her restoration 

 and the facelift that she’s getting this year

another time. 

Today, I just wanted to share the story behind

 one of my favorite old places.

Locals love to yak about the demise of Jacksonboro.

They like to focus on  

the Curse 

that Lorenzo Dow called down on 

one unworthy town. 

Me?

I'm the oddball.

I like to think instead of

the blessing

that Lorenzo Dow called down on 

one worthy house.

...but if a house be worthy, let your peace rest upon it...
Matthew 10:13

Simply Parking

This week's simple pleasure is going to be uncharacteristically brief.  For reasons which will remain unyakked, I have found myself eyebrow deep in an "assignment" which has consumed most of my waking hours since Monday morning. I could use your prayers.

I'm feeling tired
and drained
and a bit anxious because it's not finished yet.

And in the middle of it all, I had the need to go to
that place...

You know the one.
The place that steals my giggle.

But when I pulled Ebenezer into the very crowded parking lot, I had cause to smile. Right there... waiting for me as if it had my name on it was the coveted parking position. You know the one... It's the one right in front of the main door and just beyond all of the reserved signs.  I could hardly believe it. I breathed a word of thanksgiving.

 I pulled in,
 parked the car,
and I had *the moment*.

(That's as good as my parking gets.)

Now, if you're thinking that  my simple pleasure this week was finding the perfect spot at Walmart, on a day when both Walmart and Debbie were busy, you would be wrong. That's pretty pleasurable all right, but that parking space is actually not my simple pleasure.

I'm busy.

I'm tired.

And I'm 48.

So this week's simple pleasure was knowing that
on top of it all...

 I wasn't  parking in this one.

Sharing this with Dayle at A Collection of This and That

Please join me to read other 

simple pleasures.

Another Luncheon Club Adventure

Last week, I mentioned that my sister would be hosting our luncheon club for our next tablescapade.  I'm sure you all remember that and have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for this, right?

Right?

yeah...that's what I was afraid of...

I’ve yakked about our luncheon club before. Basically, we’re six old friends who gather every month or so to enjoy a luncheon in full feminine fashion. You can read all about it HERE.

So this week’s table is a little different.

No invisible food...

 No invisible drink...

  No invisible people...

At least that’s what I thought.

Not so, said the Sister. She reminded me that in addition to our luncheon ladies, we had invited some invisible guests as well. She calls them...

The Porch People.

You know...
The invisible people peeking in the windows

 between naps on Susan’s Porch.

You know who you are…

So first, she set the table with the Porch People in mind. Later, she did some creative subtraction for our friends.

Here's a peek from the porch.

OK...Come on in...
You know you want to...

Just about everything on the table is from

The Great Wedding Adventure of 1982.

Her china is Colburn by Noritake.

It’s a subtle dusty blue design…

So subtle that it allows the centerpiece to take center stage.

She bought a variety of flowers and let

 the Newlywed Niece arrange to her heart’s desire.

She used two Revere bowls for height.

During lunch, she removed the inverted one for better conversation.

Let’s face it… Only invisible people like those

view blocking centerpieces.

Out came the crystal…

some, just for the porch people.

Her pattern is Montclair by Lenox.

The little silver chargers under the sherbet dish
 belong to the Duchess

and came from a local antique store.
They were removed until dessert.

The large chargers came from World Market.
Flatware is Dover by Oneida

Fleur- de- lis place cards were

nestled in patch of blue fabric in the center of the table.

I felt the need to light all of her candles

 even though the morning sun was streaming through the window.

We left the table like that until our dish- loving friends arrived...because with real friends, you can do silly things like that.  After they admired it, they retreated to another room for chatter. The faithful little sister (that would be I…) stayed behind for some creative subtraction.

A little more subtraction, and we were ready.

It was still lovely.

Lovely enough for the six of us to linger and laugh
 until 4:00.

So there you have it.
The Great Luncheon Club Adventure.

I highly recommend it.

*****
Sharing with the The Porch People
You know who you are...

L is for...

Any guesses? 

Did anyone guess...

Laundry?

Loads of laundry...

Pink laundry

Yes, those little bags of laundry traveled  home
from college this weekend
all by themselves...

without the two college daughters.

I didn't mind.
It was my idea...
Sometimes, you just want to do a Mom Thing.

Super Dad will deliver them back to Macon today.

Unfortunately, I used up every ounce of laundry detegent in the washing of them. When I needed to wash more clothes for the husband before he left to go out of town, I found myself a little short.

Oops.

So I took the opportunity to do something that I've wanted to do for a while. I made some of my own. I had the ingredients because  I had been planning procrastinating this. For whatever reason, I thought it was going to be a major science experiment.

It wasn't. 

Just take two bars of ivory soap (or that Fels Naptha stuff but I didn't have that...)

and grate it with the cheese grater.

Then measure a cup each of Borax and Washing Soda.

Stir it all together...

and blend it in the blender in small amounts until it looks like laundry detergent.

That's it.

Just use 2 tablespoons per large load.

It took less time than it takes to make a batch of muffins.

Probably tastes better than my muffins, too.

I wanted mine to have a little fragrance

so I added a few drops of lavender to it.

I tried it, and really...

The clothes came out just fine.

The husband was impressed.

So what if he'll walk around smelling like a flower all week.

So what if  his green smoothie at breakfast
 was a little bit  frothier
 than it should have been...

The man loves to save a buck,

and this little recipe saved a bundle.

I realize that I'm the last blogger in blogland to jump on the homemade detergent band wagon, but I'm still passing it along... just in case someone else thinks it's not worth the effort.

It is.

And while I was being all Pioneer Woman,
 I made up some dishwasher detergent as well.
I mixed equal amounts of
 Borax and the Washing Detergent.

But...
The glasses came out with a
white film.

Blech.
Guess I'm on the pass/fail system 
 I had to rewash them all by hand.
This was not the goal here, people...
So, I'm dinking with this one a bit.

Any suggestions?

The Great Scarecrow Adventure

And my head I’d be scratching

 while my thoughts were busy hatching

If I only had a brain…

I love my little hometown. It’s a quaint little piece of the south, and a pretty good place to visit or live. One of my favorite things about it is the creativity of the downtown area. This is largely due to the wonderful woman who runs the Downtown Development Authority.

I like her.
She’s a hard worker, and what’s more… she’s fun.
Not only does she dream up ideas to promote the downtown, she rallies others to join her. The Duchess is her friend and, generally speaking, her right hand in downtown endeavors.

This fall, they asked local businesses to celebrate autumn by creating scarecrows to go along with the theme of their businesses. Yesterday afternoon, we took a stroll downtown to see the scare people which have been put up so far.

Thought you might like to tag along.

The first one that you’ll see upon entering the downtown area is the Scare Mayor. Yep. That’s literally a picture of her face attached to the head of the scarecrow in front of City Hall.

And her little dog too…

Actually, she’s a wonderful lady who jumped into the project with great delight. She even donated her own clothes for the effort.

Next up is this giant sack head scarecrow at the Chamber of Commerce. This one makes me giggle because of the hand on the hip.  Looks like a scarecrow with attitude.

Rounding the corner, you see this ...

Why, it’s the Newlywed Niece!

This was made by the employees from her bank and is supposed to look like her.  I probably would have suggested a little sassy hip action here too. Of course, I don’t work there…

Now, this one looked creepy to me from a distance until I realized what this female lawyer in town was trying to do. Can you tell?

It’s Lady Justice, of course.

Smiling pumpkin head Lady Justice,

 but the old gal nonetheless.

This local wilderness supply store used a big old bucket for a head. This is particularly funny if you knew the actual store owner…a bucket head if I’ve ever met one.

This is another one of my favorites. It’s in front of a little antique shop owned by a retired English teacher whose uniform of choice is a denim jumper and sneakers. It looks exactly like her. She used her own clothes because she’s a jolly woman who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

The Duchess helped her make it.

 She’s even reading her favorite book.

The Downtown Lady and The Duchess made this one for a local timber buyer as well. He vetoed their plan to have him hugging a tree. He lounges in front of the building instead. Party pooper.

They also made this bench sitting Muppet just for giggles.

And a starving artist for the art gallery that I yakked about in THIS post.

A few more spotted on my tour…

This odd fellow was made by a local dance and drama studio, hence the drama mask. Ok…a bit creepy… but civic pride nonetheless.

Mr. Moats is a ninety-something year old grocer who still comes in to his little IGA every day. I think their display is cute as well.

No... this is not the Duchess. But this Scare Beauty from the local thrift store gives a mean queen wave as we head out of town.

I can’t wait to see the ones which go up next.

I hope you enjoyed this stroll through
Straw Town, USA.

And I hope you discovered that small towns have a lot

of character ...

Really...
We're so much more than just

 a bunch of  dummies.  

*****
Sharing this at Outdoor Wednesday
at A Southern Daydreamer