Erstwhile Okie on St. Mark's Place. "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
Bit of burn-out and discouragement and also annoyed to have to go to bed early during the very rare occasion of having Sammy all week, so I skipped the gym this morning. Will get back tomorrow...
@justpaddles it goes by even faster than the video makes it seem. The weekend's moral is that our fathers and baseball teams might lose more than they win but there's plenty of folks that keep rooting for them because they're ours. #weekenddad #letsgomets ♬ original sound - Lina
Got to introduce the boys to Hot Pot at a Northwestern Chinese place just a couple of doors down.
Monopoly over dinner.
Christmas card photo shoot after church.
Looked online for batting cages and was fortunate to find a place called Costa's in Hawley, Penn. Super reasonable day pass included water slides, mini golf, driving range, go karts, and more!
A fun day including a day of Central Park sporting, and a photo op at Tompkins Square Park with my visiting mom, a Tompkins.
Fun times on all the rides at Coney Island with my little adrenaline junkie.
Reunited and getting him the fried chicken from Blue Ribbon for which he had apparently longed while at summer camp.
Last time I'll see him before he's back from Summer Camp in Maine.
Once in awhile I'll Google old forebears to see if any new information has been digitized. Today I found a notice in the February 23, 1906 issue of The Newnan News announcing that my 4x-great-grandfather Thomas A. McCullough had been nominated for treasurer of Coweta County, Georgia. He would have been eighty.
· 1 min read
3 years ago
First day really back in the swing of things. Re: New Year's Resolutions, ran 1 mile at 7mph on the treadmill. Possible McSweeney's idea inspired by my eight-year-old gifting me a mug for Christmas with a picture of a grinning donut inscribed "Donut Know What I'd Do Without My Dad". Overly earnest thank-you note from estranged father reflecting on his own father's murder. "I too might once have thought I donut know what I'd do".
· 1 min read
4 years ago
Sundays in the Park with Sammy 👦
Being that he is just like his dad, my younger son is exhausting. But I savored the opportunity to have a weekend in NYC just the two of us. It involved Macy's, street pretzels, a touristy theater-district Italian restaurant, trains & automobiles, a Christmas Sherlock/Scrooge crossover play, breakfast pastries, Grant's Tomb, and the picnic game for the drives to and from upstate.
I'm going to a picnic and I'm bringing an anaconda, butt crackers, a cow turd, a big basket of dog butt juice, an eagle feather, a fertility clinic, a gun, a Hiroshima bomb, an imbecile, a judge, a kangaroo, a little book about your mom, a marshmallow, a nifty eyebrow, an oopsie-doopsie, a pro man pro go-go man, a queen bee, a rat zit, a stupid man, tighty-whiteys (sic), an under the porcelain throne camera, a vaccine for your-mom-aphobia, a wicked butt rash, an x-ray that is funny from "Daddy's Home" that means he won't get much privacy, your mom's balls, and Zachary Legend tenticle-punched your mom in the balls so hard she got thrown into a galaxy far, far away [sing Universal intro theme], Fox Production.
· 1 min read
4 years ago
With a forecast for a sunny, 70° weekend, I decided to bring the boys down to NYC. Hit up a sushi place for dinner and a creperie for breakfast (both of which are on my block, neither of which I'd tried...), visited my classroom where Sammy explained my notes to me, and enjoyed Italian ices in Tompkins Square Park. 10/10.
I always mean to get a picture of the boys after the service before they tear out of their church clothes.
· 1 min read
4 years ago
Happy belated birthday. Felt strange posting birthday wishes while we weren't together, you at summer camp out west, me back here. But you don't visit this site anyway. Like the Mona Lisa you are inscrutable and very expensive. The fact that you are just like me is alarming but also makes me love you all the more, always. Thanks for being the Sammy I never knew I needed so badly.
I don't usually go out and do cute New York City things, but my son wrote me from summer camp asking if I could send along a cookie and I figured I'd do one better than a roll of Oreos and had fun running down to this sweet little bakery around the corner from my office.
Younger son decided to open a medical practice in his bedroom. Also offers dental and hair styling services and will put deodorant on you upon request.
Got to take a weekend trip to Morristown, just Sammy and me, over the weekend. Stayed in a hotel, always a thrill for a kid, then toured the Morristown Revolutionary War encampment (Sammy pictured in one of the "hutts" that housed 12 troops), as well as Washington's Headquarters and the Jabez Campfield House.
Kenneth Glenn McCullough was a great guy and worth remembering. A great dad. Would have been 63 today.
My great-uncle Roy.
· 1 min read
5 years ago
Long been a fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, so when I recently learned he'd made a kid's movie that slipped under my radar (The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet), I watched it with my sons. Sammy was delighted by a scene in which the title character evades capture by posing as a cardboard cutout, and he now constantly mimics it.
My girls.
Heir.
Happy 9th birthday. I love you more every day.
i hop mi dad liks you
· 1 min read
7 years ago
Hi all--my son's artwork (pictured) was on display at @[315158555299219:274:Peck's Market] in Callicoon over the weekend for Artwalk. Apparently, a gentleman came in to inquire about the pieces contributed by Sullivan West students, and thinking they were available to take, took this one. It was in a black frame. If you took it, no hard feelings--you have excellent taste!--I can understand that there was obviously just some confusion. But please return it to Peck's or shoot me a message. I really want to get it back.
What in the hell have you been telling my son? If I stole all that land, would I be living on a dang eighth of an acre?
AVERILL: When I have a son, I'm going to name him Sam Houston E. Lee McCullough
SAM: I'm going to name my son Fire Squat.
"Hank, Bobby and me have decided he's gonna stick vegetables up his nose. He's not gonna take over the family gas station."
Belated Averill birthday Woodloch getaway, Day 1.
Trying to clean out an old binder and found this picture of my granddad Glendon McCullough hanging with Jimmy and Gerald.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a dad who had the car packed and running fifteen minutes ago pacing around and grumbling while the wife and kids drag themselves out of bed.
Boompa teaching Averill how to mount and paint the soldiers he got for Christmas. Both Averill's grandfathers were army officers who grew up playing with soldiers.
· 3 min read
8 years ago
85 years ago today, my great-great grandfather was a day away from his appointment with the electric chair in Milledgeville, Georgia. He had been convicted of a murder he committed shortly after his release from a twenty-year stint for manslaughter. He had not seen one of his youngest sons, Roy, since he had been a toddler, but Roy, a prominent member of the Dixie Mafia known as "the Candy Kid", happened to be an inmate in the same prison where his father was to be executed, and officials permitted them a visit.
*****************************
MCCULLOUGH SOBS IN DEATH CELL AS FATHER, SON MEET AFTER 21 YEARS
STATE PRISON FARM, MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., Aug 24.--(AP)--An old man, slightly bent, with haggard features and tear-dimmed eyes, looked through the bars of the death cell here this afternoon to say "hello and good-bye" to a son he had not seen in 21 years.
He was Andrew McCullough, Fayette county man who is to die in the electric chair tomorrow, and the son was Roy. The meeting was brief; they clasped hands, a few words were spoken, and then they were separated. Roy himself is a prisoner, serving a short sentence for a misdemeanor.
But the meeting broke down the restraint of the father. He sobbed, and when he spoke of the meeting afterwards he said "it meant a lot to me."
"It meant my children love me," he continued. "I thought they'd turned against me. But now I understand. We all understand."
The condemned man appeared to realize that there was no hope of a stay of the execution and he fought against it, sometimes excitedly inquiring whether there was any point of law in his case that could be again reviewed by the courts, and at other times weeping silently and praying for mercy.
He said he had been given the best of food but could not eat. He had a good bed, but could not sleep. He had prayed but could find no comfort.
"I want to find Christ. I want to have courage to face that ordeal tomorrow," he moaned, "but it seems that I can't."
"I feel all right about everything and everybody, but there's one thing worrying me.
"I wonder if in the eyes of God, a man is as guilty if he kills a man unintentionally as he would be if he did it intentionally?
"I know I didn't kill the man they charge me with doing. It was impossible. I shot from the front and he was hit in the side. But if the bullet hit a rock or something and glanced and hit him, I wonder if the Great Judge would call me a murderer?"
It was a dramatic moment this afternoon when Roy McCullough was taken to the death house.
As he stepped to the iron inclosure where his father sat, there was a tense, anxious expression on his face. The father did not move, but he looked closely at the stalwart young man appeared in front of him. "Roy?" he inquired.
"Yes, papa," the young man replied.
Then he grasped the old man's hand. He cried out or whispered something in reply to words his father had spoken.
In a few minutes they said good bye.
"I was so glad for a moment or two I couldn't think of nothing to say," McCullough related afterward. "I hadn't seen Roy in 21 years--and it took this (he motioned to the small gray door that led to the chamber where the electric chair awaits him) to bring us together again."
McCullough has been sentenced to death for the slaying of William B. Baker, former president of the Atlantic Ice and Coal Corporation, of Atlanta. The shooting occurred in Fayette county in September, last year. Alvin McCullough, one of the condemned man's sons, is serving a life sentence for participation in the same murder.
The Wayne County Fair is one of the things I look forward to the most every year. The most deliriously happy I ever see the boys.
Giddy Sammy rolling down the hill during Averill's tball practice.
I've never been short on Tobias Funke moments, but felt particularly mortified by last night's when fighting to get Sammy in his diaper.
SAMMY: YOU'RE TOUCHING MY PRIVATES!
ME: DADDIES CAN TOUCH THEIR KIDS' PRIVATES ALL THEY WANT!
AVERILL: (Encouragingly from the peanut gallery) BECAUSE DADDIES ARE UNSTOPPABLE!
Saying goodnight to a five-year-old Averill for the last time. You made a lot of amazing strides this year and I couldn't be prouder to be your dad.
Seems like in my day, the most egregious offense in all of kid-dom was to leave an unfinished soda can lying about. This morning, I found the orange soda I'd bought for Sammy only about a quarter consumed and thought "thank Goodness he didn't drink the whole thing."
Sammy really took to the ice!
--What will happen if I run into the road?
--You'll get squished like a pancake and die.
--Then what?
--You'll meet your grandfather and say "Hello, I'm Samuel Glendon McCullough."
--No I won't.
--Why not?
--Because I'll be in the ground in a cemetery.
--Not your soul.
--What about my privates and my bottom?
--Eh... in the ground, yeah.
--Good night, Sammy. I love you.
--I'm Spiderman.
--Good night, Spiderman. I love you.
--I love you, too.
If you went to the funeral of a loved one, and the person officiating said the deceased left a DVD that he wished to have played at the service, and it turned out just to be SPACE JAM, would you sit through the whole thing?
Cousins
Averill and his cousin Gemma.
Averill bought me a hat that says #1 Dad
Dapper Sam, ready for Sunday School.
Took the boys to a 1.5' pool with a slide on a beautiful sunny day. Thought it would be years before I could sit in a deck chair reading a novel, but it happened today!
Averill's last TBall game of the year. I like how you can see the tee moving and the ball staying in place.
Backyard camp out
Grandma reading a bedtime book and Uncle Roger in the background.
Averill has been on a Davy Crockett kick and found a way to involve Sammy in the game, since the villain of the Alamo was Santa.
Mother's Day Pancake Breakfast
Averill's feeling better. Sammy's turn!😂😂😬😐😕😢😴
Church, then playing ball in the yard. Over-the-top Murica.
Inside (watching Sammy's recent favorite: Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
Passive aggressive bedtime prayer wars.
-Dear Lord, thank you for taking Averill's fever away so he can go back to school in the morning.
-Dear Lord, thank you for the fever and coughs I still have so I have to stay home again tomorrow.
Mim reading a pre-bed book to Sammy.
When Vivi and Averill commandeer my iPod and take a picture of me.
Leila and Sam playing a game at the Callicoon Center Greek Festival
· 1 min read
10 years ago
My cousin was kind enough to send me some Coweta County earth before Averill was born so I could have it under the bed he was born on to technically avoid him being the first McCullough born on northern soul. It's been in a jar for those many years and I took off the lid today after noticing something growing. Crazy how endurant life is.
Last TBall game of the season, Averill got his medal.
Boompa Reading his beloved Happy Hollisters to Averill. Back to New York in the morning!
Been interested in the Mayflower of late as I (as self-appointed family genealogist) have been proofing all of the missus' descent from Elder Brewster, so I picked up a book on the Mayflower for my vacation reading and was struck by this direct admonition to my sons, here addressed by Bradford. A latter day testament.
Averill introducing his great-grandfather to Thomas the Tank Engine.
$4.50 popcorn with Gemma as we wait for Shamu to appear
RIP to my GGGG-grandfather, dead 108 years today.
Mom looks a lot like her mom.
Averill didn't want to leave the cape Sunday and said he would only get in the car if I let him do a face swap. So it's not my fault.
We don't need mommy or big brother to enjoy our Saturday night.
Averill loved his first horseback ride at the #Jeffersonville #maplefest
Told Averill I had to go to a job and found this when I came downstairs. Sobbed when I told him he couldn't come and actually ran after the car dragging his suitcase behind.
Happy Birthday, Dad. On the radio the other day I heard someone say that most children who wish on the first star they see at twilight are actually wishing on Venus. It's the smallest object in the sky, but its nearness outshines everything. Most lost men look for stars to get them home--I'm glad I'll always have you.
The missus took her monthly trip to Target (an hour away in the neighboring county) so it's men's night for the McCulloughs.
Time finally claimed what the Imperial Army of Japan and 76 years of chain-smoking never could--the life of Eugene Tompkins. Wrote a little tribute to my Granddad at http://p.mccullo.ug/h/
Cousins getting breakfast at Dutton's
Cousins!
Averill's schoolwork. His coon ass forebears would be ashamed.
Averill's PreK drop offs are literal.
Present in the mail from Boompa
After I said grace at dinner, Averill said we should pray for the boy in his class who "cried even more than [Averill] did".
--(from bed) Daddy, can I have some lemonade?
--Of course not, go to sleep.
--Can I have some lemonade, please?
--You can have some water.
--With a little bit of lemonade mixed in?
--Just water.
--Okay. But will you pour it in my mouth while I sleep?
Just happened upon Dad's bible and noticed verses on the flyleaf. I can't help but be grateful for the countless lessons he left me, even 20 years on. Our father's voice is never any more distant than we want it to be.
Averill is yelling "BE QUIET!" in his most authoritative voice at a whiny Sam. I want to tell him to stop... but it's working. So conflicted...
Visiting Aunt Kathy in Memphis
Dad's old boss
Post-church pic. Love getting to do with my kids what my dad with his and his dad with his and back ever since St. Paddy got his hooks in us.
Happy 56th Birthday to the best dad ever. If I have a long life I still won't be able to instill half as much in my kids as he managed in not much time.
· 1 min read
11 years ago
Came home to find Averill playing in his playroom and asked where his mom was. "She went to her friend's house," he said. Rather than realize that this was a preposterous statement from a completely unreliable source, I actually had a brief freak out in the second it took for the missus to walk in from the next room. Now I don't know what to think about his UVA fraternity stories.
Every night at bedtime for the past week, without fail, right after I turn off the lights, Averill says "Well, we sure had a big day."
It's my boy in a box
Averill & Sam meet their cousin in Brooklyn
Averill & Sam at 4 months. I think they're related.
Happy 1000th day of life, Averill!
McCullough boys
It used to be called a Jumpoline until your mother tried it.
McCulloughs in neckties.
Reunited
Just in case you don't have any baby pictures in your feed on this lovely morning
A decade?!