Last Installment from the Time Capsule

Dear Family Trails readers, 

We have a short paragraph left for our last installment of Tee's article written for the Talladega County Historical Society's time capsule.

During the months after the summer crops were laid by, our father would walk about three miles to teach school and would teach until time to gather the crops in. Later in life he felt that he had been richly rewarded, for one of his pupils would write to him each Christmas, thanking him for the inspiration he had given him as a young boy. This pupil was Allen J. Moon who became Dean of Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham, Alabama. He was also Dean of Liberty College in Missouri. 


This was a short entry from the article, but it holds a great deal of information.
First, Grandfather Weaver taught school outside of Lineville, AL, yet he did not have much formal education himself. In something I have read about him, it said that since he had been born a few months before the beginning of The War Between The States, his schooling ended early in grammar school so he could help his father on the farm. C. S. Weaver's obituary states that he memorized poetry and many chapters of the Bible so he must have been a very smart man to have taken on the school in Lineville.

Second, this article mentions correspondence between Grandfather Weaver and one of his students in Lineville. Here are 2 letters from this former student on his stationary from the William Jewel College in Liberty, Missouri.

This next letter is especially interesting. Allen J. Moon is 71 years old. Think about this… a 71 year old man is still expressing his gratitude for the grammar school education he received many years before! He must have truly been so grateful for his education and did not take it for granted that he had a good teacher to help him in life. In the letter he writes, "I shall never forget how hard you toiled at your teaching job to help us poor country boys."

The letter is written in 1944. Allen Moon writes that his son is "somewhere in England as a radio operator mechanic for the 479th Fighter Group for the A. (illegible)  (8th)." Maybe the initials represent the Army Air Corps.

In the time capsule article, Tee wrote that Allen Moon was also the Dean of Howard College. Many of the Weaver family attended Howard College, which later became Samford University.

Howard College, Birmingham, Alabama

Samford Unviersity today

So readers… this ends our few weeks of examining Lora Weaver Ragsdale's time capsule article. In our next "Weaver Wednesday" we can prepare for Thanksgiving. Yum Yum!
Love,
Mariellan 

"Courtesy is a War Casualty"

Have you been honked at lately? Seen someone run a stop sign? I remember after September 11,  2001 people became kinder and more considerate as they drove past their neighbors. People were patient and more respectful to others that they passed in the grocery store. Now, it seems like drivers are falling back into the bad habits of honking and and being rude. Today I saw a truck with a trailer pull out in front of an oncoming car, and my heart stopped. 

 I think we thought it was a 21st century problem, but in reading through Grandfather Weaver's scrapbook, I found this article written during World War II that addresses the same issue. There is no reference or note telling what publication he cut this article from or any mention of the writer. The typeset resembles some of the Baptist publications he clipped from and glued into his scrapbook from the 1940's.  I think I will retype this so we will not miss a word!

But first, to paraphrase John Claypool, "Smile at others. It may be the only smile that  the person you pass by receives."

COURTESY IS A WAR CASUALTY

It is clear that courtesy has become a very conspicuous war casualty. Which is surely a great calamity. For nothing else so oils the machinery of living and lessens the sense of strain and stress as does courtesy. Especially does one miss the general presence of courtesy in the market places. 

Before the war men were treated with friendly regard and expressions of appreciation and gratitude were frequent. In the past generation business houses everywhere invariably vied with each other in extending consideration to their customers. Now people are not only ignored but are often treated as if they had given offense.

Of course, the customer is not needed now as he was needed, say, during the recent depression. Today there are too many customers and too few of those who would serve him. Rationing is an excellent thing but the time it takes and its repeated explanations are annoying procedures. Nerves are under pressure, help is inexperienced and hard to get and keep. 

These are all excuses of a sort, but they are not valid reasons for discourteous treatment. The cold but kindly truth is that it takes no more time to be pleasant than it does to be unpleasant. As a matter of fact, it takes less energy to be amiable than it does to be disagreeable. Courtesy is a creature that carries its own reward along with it. It is constructive in its nature and as helpful to the giver as it in to the recipient. 

It is worth money to be courteous and kind. Agreeableness will sell more real estate, cigars, groceries, dry goods, furniture, insurance, than any amount of argumentative salesmanship. Just be pleasant and one can walk away with a contract right under the nose of the argumentative man who knows it all. 

The courteous man is like the shade of a big tree on a hot day. He is like love when one is lonesome, a bed when one is tired, food when one is hungry, and money when one is broke. Our advice to everybody these nerve-wracking war days is to try to be pleasant and see what happens. It may teach certain lessons that will be wonderfully helpful when the next depression comes-as come it will.

The USS Sawfish and a Scrapbook Find

USS Sawfish

  Good Morning, Family Trails readers. I thought it would be nice to once again delve into some of the articles that our Grandfather Weaver glued into his scrapbook. 

Note: If you think you have seen this picture before in our family blog, you are right! I used it by mistake in the post, USS Talladega. I have now posted the correct photograph of the Talladega on that post. 

This article is about Lieutenant Commander E. T. Sands, of the USS Sawfish during WWII.  Sands mentions the Weaver family in his letter to the Talladega paper. 

Grandfather Weaver's scrapbook is a capsule full of historic events like this article. His newspaper clippings bring the history books and the movies to life. Even the parts of the articles that were cut off look interesting! I would love to have read the next article in this clipping, "Will Send Cows to Europe." That is definitely an aspect of war I have never considered! 

USS Talladega

USS Talladega

Dear Family Trails readers, 

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the infamous flag raising on Iwo Jima by the US Marines.
The photograph and the memorial of the flag being raised on the fifth day of the battle of Iwo Jima is very inspiring to Americans. This event also has a very special significance to our family's "hometown," Talladega.

The USS Talladega was one of the US ships that sailed into Japanese waters during World War II to help put an end to the war in the Pacific. Of the men that landed on the beaches of Iwo Jima, four of the five men photographed in the flag-raising had been aboard the USS Talladega.

To commemorate the ship and its crew, the city of Talladega, Alabama erected a monument on its courthouse square in 2009. The surviving crew members were invited to attend the unveiling of this monument. Our cousin, Robert Weaver, designed the monument and oversaw its completion. The monument has a relief design of the ship and of the famous photograph, its seven battle stars, a description of its service in three of America's wars, and a list of the men from the Talladega in the photograph.

A tree was also planted to the left of the memorial in honor of the crew of the USS Talladega. It was given the nickname of the ship, The "Tremblin' T."

This is a beautiful monument to the heroes who gave their all to our country. If you are traveling between Birmingham and Atlanta, this will be worth a stop to see in the city of Talladega. You will be so proud to see the work and the research that went into the monument, but most of all, you will be filled with pride and gratitude for our country's armed servicemen and women .

GOD BLESS AMERICA!