Month: March 2017

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Memory submitted by Jane Lipscomb

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Morningside

Memory of Mickey
I had a difficult time narrowing my memories of Mickey down to one incident. In the 40 years I knew him there is a long stream of memories. When we met around 1975, we were having egg hunts at our house in Morningside. When we moved to Talbot County, those egg hunts became Egg Roasts at The Farm. Over the years we had over 40 people coming for the weekend before Easter to enjoy BBQ by Andy, Mickey and Al and egg hunts with over 300 eggs. Children grew up coming and then bringing their college friends and later their families.

I think of Mickey as a ‘quiet presence’. He was usually not loud or boastful, but just there. In a large group, he would often be off on the side listening or talking to someone of playing with a child.

One of the Egg Roast weekends was different. He had a new jeep from Jasper Jeep and wanted to show it off. He loudly invited folks to a ride down the dirt road. This led to several trips with a jeep load of kids and brave adults racing down the bumpy road. He broke his axle and folks, along with Sharon, always reminded him of that crazy night.

We had a prizes and trophies for the weekend. They included the BBQ and Bourbon Society and Pig’n’Puke award. That weekend we added another called 6 Flags Over Mickey. This memory was not of the ‘quiet presence’, but of the instigator of ‘fun things to do’.

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Memory submitted by Jane Lipscomb

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Morningside and Jasper

Memory of Mickey
I think of Mickey as being a ‘quiet presence’. He was not loud or boastful, but just there. In a large group, he would be off on the side listening or talking to someone or playing with a child. Unless you were the one in the corner with him, you may not have noticed him. He did make his opinions known with letters to the editor in the AJC and Pickens Progress.

Andy met Mickey around 1975 while working on the roof of our friends house in Morningside. This was a problem with his acrophobia and he wasn’t seen up high very often.

Morningside years were filled with many different memories:

  • Planning and shopping for all night pig roasts in the park with Andy and Bob
  • Cooking and preparing the food which involved picking pig eyeballs out of the stew (already shared by Mary Ann Gaunt)
  • All night in the park with stories, drinking and breakfast of Moon over Miami
  • Helping us insulate and sheetrock our upstairs room
  • Andy working on their homes on University and Rock Springs
  • Our baby sitting coop with Mickey, the favorite sitter for the kids, especially my son Adam
  • Sharon and I going back to school in architecture and nursing with our husbands blessings and support
  • Making pasta and sausage with friends at their house
  • Many shared meals and a listening ear when needed

After we moved to the farm, we kept up long distance with visits and the annual egg roasts:

  • Mickey completely rewired our first old home in Woodland – later discovering the color of the wires were crossed, but everything worked, so we always had a laugh over it
  • Their Atlanta home was always open to us and shared with our daughter-in-law, Suzannah, while she was in law school and our son, Micah, while he was working in Atlanta
  • Egg roasts involved long distance planning and he and Al along with Sharon and Mary Ann coming early to get everything ready – he was often seen sitting by the fire smoking while everyone hunted eggs
  • One particular Egg Roast he took everyone on wild rides in his jeep over the dirt roads – a more boisterous Mickey and the beginning of the award called “6 Flags over Mickey”
  • When computers came, he and Ken Cook built and kept computers working at our home and Andy’s Housing Authority office, and he wrote very simple booklets to teach you how to work with the computers
  • Later visits to Al and Mary Ann and then Sharon and Mickey in Jasper which prompted our retirement there

Jasper years:

  • Mickey in a rocker on the porch or sitting in front of his computers with a cigarette and cup of coffee
  • Interacting with my grandchildren whenever they were in town – usually having a toy or project out for them
  • BBQ’s at Grandview Lake
  • Research and excitement over his work on the Bent Tree project with Don and Bob
  • Working at Good Sam with him
  • Support in many ways when Andy was sick and after his death – Mickey sat for hours in our driveway awaiting the arrival of a hospital bed from Hospice, so Andy could come home from the hospital

Mickey was there with his medical and counseling skills wherever and whenever needed:

  • We were comfortable, as were many others, calling with personal, family or friends issues and getting advice, explanations or referrals for medical, addiction or mental health problems or whatever was bothering you
  • Andy was always relieved to talk to Mickey and get complicated things explained in laymen’s terms that he could understand – Abby mentioned in her father’s obituary his skill in “turning complex concepts into memorable vignettes”

Along with his ‘quiet presence’, my memories of Mickey are as a ‘serial hobbyist’, a term that was mentioned in one of his obituaries. With each, he may have started a novice, but delved into it and became expert, then went on to something else. A few of his skills and hobbies were:

  • Tailoring
  • Sailing
  • Building a wooden canoe in his basement – Andy and Bob helping him figure how to get it out
  • Astronomy
  • Building and finishing out pole barn structures with the 3 old men
  • Hand tying fishing flies
  • Collecting dulcimers and learning to play
  • Decorating his cabin with Inuit art
  • Blacksmithing
  • Last, and certainly not least, delving into the pharmaceutical industry and drug trials, reanalyzing data, and working with researchers over the world to publish findings

GOODNIGHT MICKEY!
Miss your quiet presence. Would love to know what you, Andy and Al are up to now.

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Memory submitted by Connie Bobbitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAF Lakenheath

Memory of Mickey
These photos were from one of our Pig Roasts (4th of July) while at RAF Lakenheath. We had one in 1972 & 1973 – both were held at Mickey & Sharons beautiful country home Lidgate Hall. I’m not certain but these may have been the beginning of Mickey’s Pig Roast career. All of the guys were stay at the house cooking the pig all night then the ladies would show up with our Aunt Zoe’s beans, cucumber-onion salad and desserts. Our British friends really enjoyed helping the “Yanks” celebrate our Independence Day! The funniest story was that Mickey & Walter Boone were in search of a grate large & sturdy enough hold the pig over the fire pit when behold they spied a perfect gate at the hospital! Naturally they decided to “borrow” it one evening – somehow the hospital commander didn’t find it at all humorous!

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Memory submitted by Tatyana Kelly

When did you meet Mickey?
1974

Where did you meet him?
Childhood father figure

Memory of Mickey
I have several memories of Mickey as a child. He was so different from my own father, who is careful in his interactions with the world.

Mickey approached things in a carefree, bold, inquisitive, demanding way; sloshing coffee along the way and not being bothered with decorum. He didn’t care what his hair looked like. He wore what was comfortable and familiar.

As something of a rule follower, I am still astounded that Atlanta City Parks allowed him and his friends to roast full animals (goat, pig and god knows what else) in a public park. Several years in a row. And encouraged us kids to camp out while they did. Pretty sure that wasn’t allowed, even back then.

He built a boat in his basement. In the city limits. I’m sure HE knew it was going to be the right size to get back out of the door, but I know I was pretty doubtful.

He challenged the status quo, knew what he wanted, and was a force of nature.

I’m glad to have known him.

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Memory submitted by Angie Bolin

Where did you meet him?
Cousin by Marriage

Memory of Mickey
I’m a cousin by marriage to Mickey, being Sharon’s cousin. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to spend much time with Mickey, but when I was with him, I appreciated his sense of humor, kindness and intelligence. He was such fun to be with! The biggest impact Mickey and Sharon had on my family was a time when, after my son-in-law, Andrew, had a terrible accident and serious brain injury and no rehab clinic would accept him. The excuse that he would always be a “vegetable,” and would cost $1,000,000.00 a year for upkeep. Sharon mentioned the problem to Mickey and he went to bat for us at Shepherd’s Clinic in Atlanta. Andrew was accepted, and Sharon and Mickey wrapped their love around my daughter, Allison, and took her into their family in Atlanta for an extended period, while Andrew was treated. Andrew is now normally functioning husband and father, thanks to Mickey!

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Memory submitted by Connie Bobbitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk England

Memory of Mickey
The first few photos are from one of our two Pig Roasts held at Mickey & Sharon’s home, Lidgate Hall. We had one in 1972 and another in 1973, then the Nardos & Bobbitts returned stateside the summer of 1974. The invitation says 4th Annual, but honestly I don’t know why. I guess we just picked up the tradition! One thing that made ours so much fun was that we invited our British friends who totally enjoyed celebrating our Independence Day!

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Memory submitted by Hunter McCreary

When did you meet Mickey?
1990

Where did you meet him?
Mickey was my godfather and very special to my family.

Memory of Mickey
When I was very little, Mickey taught me how to talk like Donald Duck. When I was in an interview trying to get accepted to a school, the interviewer came out and asked my parents if I always talked like Donald Duck? Turns out I had decided I didn’t like that school and decided to get out of it by doing the whole interview like Donald Duck.

He was always Uncle Mickey to me my entire childhood. He taught me how to blow bubbles with bubble gum, catch frogs with a pan, and always asked me how college was going, even when I was in middle school.

I remember him sitting outside on the front steps of the office building, smoking a cigarette, and asking me all kinds of questions about my life and school.

I loved him very much, and he was there for me recently during a difficult period in my life. He has always been there, and the world already seems a little less bright.

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Memory submitted by Connie

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
RAFLakenheath

Memory of Mickey
After being station together @ RAF Lakenheath for 3 years and returning home to different areas of the US, several couples decided in 1975 to have a long weekend reunion in Nashville. That weekend began a tradition of annual summer vacations each August (to accommodate Mickey’s schedule 😊) with our growing families in tow. Little did we ever imagine what wonderful trips, stories and destinations would result in the following decades. We are still taking those trips albeit back to only the original adults (with an occasional child or grandchildren showing up)! This group became dubbed TGE (Thursday Gastronome Extraordinaire) after the name we gave a dining group of 4-6 couples who ate together at restaurants within driving distance of base the last 6 months before we returned to the US for residencies.

I am going to attempt to post some photos of Mickey during this part of his life because it has meant so much to our family to have known him and shared these moments together.

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Memory submitted by Jean Gora

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
In Atlanta through mutual friends, Bob and Rosemary Wells

Memory of Mickey
I would hear stories about Mickey from time to time from Bob and Rosemary Wells, and I became a big fan of his exploits as told by them. Two come to mind. The first was his attempt to build a boat in the basement of his house on East Rock Springs Road in Atlanta. I understand that the boat was to be quite large, maybe big enough to travel on the Mississippi. To move it to Jasper, he had to take the door frame off his Atlanta house. Once in Jasper, the boat grew even larger. An edifice was built to house it. Jasper is not close to a navigable waterway. The logistics of moving it from Jasper appeared likely to be ever more complex. I was filled with admiration for someone who was willing to build a boat without caring a great deal about where it would ever reach a body of water where it would float. The task was more important than the final product. Over time, Mickey’s interest shifted in other directions. I understand that a storm finished off the boat at some point.

The other exploit of Mickey that I know about was his effort along with Mountain Stewards and others to geocode the locations of bent trees used by the native Americans as trail markers. As he geocoded the locations of more trees, he became aware that they lined up, in effect indicating trails, often trails leading toward water. This effort allowed Mountain Stewards and cooperating Indian tribes to recover parts of their history that left no written records. We were hiking the same mountains at the same time and were always on the lookout for trail trees. Maybe Mickey’s psychoanalytical mind drew him to this effort — his belief that an important reality can exist below apparently miscellaneous events. It was and is a wonderfully inspired way of looking at the world. I’ll miss him.

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Memory submitted by Mary Nell Podgorny

When did you meet Mickey?
1986

Where did you meet him?
I met Mickey at the Lipscomb farm, Shiloh, Georgia.

Memory of Mickey
Foremost in my memory is an image of Mickey and Andy and God only knows who all else at the Lipscomb farm. They would be huddled together chewing the fat, but mostly enjoying each other’s company.

One year at the annual Egg Roast there was a contest for the men to show off their legs. Their identities were shielded from view of the female judges with a large sheet of some sort. All manner of legs were competing for the top votes in various categories. Mickey won Prettiest Legs, hands-down.