Category: Morningside

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Memory submitted by Victor Hoye

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
In Morningside

Link

Memory of Mickey
Dear Sharon and Abby, I have tried several times to write an entry that reflects my best memories of Mickey and each time I have tried, I have been totally incapable of coming up with something that is worthy of reflecting what Mickey was like and what he has meant to me over the last 40+ years. There are many stories that make up 40 years of friendship and if I could capture and share every one of them perfectly, a reader still would not nearly know what Mickey has meant to me over the years. I guess it is the old Gestalt proposition that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The real message here is that I feel totally incapable of making a worthy entry here, one that does not understate what your husband / father has meant to me over the years. I have known a lot of people in my life and I have liked and admired only a few as much as Mickey. He was one of a kind for sure and I mean that in the most positive way. I already miss him dearly.

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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 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 Chris Carlsten

When did you meet Mickey?
1976

Where did you meet him?
Pig Roast/coop

Memory of Mickey
Mickey was our computer mentor. He built his own pc when you couldn’t buy one affordably and he seemed to know everything about them. If it hadn’t been for Mickey and Sharon Carlsten Associates would never have entered the computer age. He suggested we get our first home computer, a compaq. I wrote a novel on that thing, taking it with me on a retreat at pine mountain to finish it. That would never have happened without him.

He also mentored our parenting. When we were stumped, we called Mickey for advice. When Broek, at 10, hated Girl Scout camp and begged for us to pick her up and bring her home, we called Mickey. He said, “Don’t rescue her.” So she stayed, the weather cleared and she rode horses and made friends.

I think he was that witty and wise counsel for so many people. He made himself available and was both patient and unfailingly kind.

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Memory submitted by Martha Porter Hall

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
We met him through the Lipscombs

Memory of Mickey
Our son, Beau Hall, took his first son Justin to the Lipscombs’ Easter Egg Hunt at Flint Hill in 1988. His wife, Laura, couldn’t come. Palm Sunday that year was March 27. Justin was born on December 2, 1987, so he was three and a half months old. On Palm Sunday morning, Beau had run out of formula. I suggested that he fix Justin a bottle with tap water and instant nonfat dry milk, which was what I supplemented my breast milk with for Beau and his sister Adelaide when they were babies. Beau fixed a bottle and gave it to Justin, who promptly turned red and developed a rash and started crying. We were so lucky; the party included Mickey, Vern, and Jane. Mickey gave Justin Benadryl, that made quick work of the allergic response, and I guarantee we’ve had Benadryl in our house ever since. Mickey gave loving, quick and effective care to Justin, Beau and – for the lord’s sake – me.

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Memory submitted by Jack Senterfitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Babysitting coop

Memory of Mickey
After their University Ave. house, Mickey and Sharon moved to a house on Rock Springs Rd., basically right behind our house. Their house sat right on top of a hill and in a curve, a surefire recipe for traffic accidents. One day Mickey and Sharon were sitting out on their screened in porch relaxing, when there was a pretty serious accident on the road in front of their house. Mickey, dressed in his “weekend finest”, his ponytail protruding from a do rag on his head, his earth shoes, and shorts, I think, immediately went out to offer first aid and assistance to a woman who was injured. By the time he got out to the road, some other onlookers had gathered, but Mickey went right to the woman and started assisting. Apparently one of the onlookers was a bit taken aback at the sight and said something like “Hey get out of the way, she needs a doctor.” When Mickey said he was a doctor, the woman looked at him incredulously and said: “You CAN’T be a doctor!” What a hoot!

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Memory submitted by Jack Senterfitt

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Babysitting coop

Memory of Mickey
Here are some more random memories of Mickey:

Mickey the Mathematician: Before he decided to become a doctor, Mickey was a mathematician–and this knowledge and expertise never left him. When Jeremy was at Grady High School, I undertook the job of rebuilding the signboard by the entrance to the parking lot on 10th St. It was a Saturday afternoon and I had this long board on sawhorses in our driveway, trying to duplicate the curved arch that was on the top of the sign. Not being possessed of any king of artistic ability, I was struggling to make both ends of the curved arch appear at least somewhat symmetrical. About that time, Mickey and Sharon drove up to drop something off for Trisha and when I expressed my frustration to Mickey, he said: “Here, let me have your pencil and your ruler.” He proceeded to do some quick calculations and measurements, and came up with a formula to exactly copy one end to the other–voila, a perfect match!

Mickey the Artist: Lots of folks have posted about Mickey’s coloring, or making dolls, etc., but he was also quite a talented artist. I remember when Clint Deveaux was running for a judgeship in Fulton County, he did not have any yard signs. So Mickey got some signboard material and drew an incredible head shot of Deveaux, turned it into a yard sign and posted it in their front yard!

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Memory submitted by Micah Lipscomb

When did you meet Mickey?
1975

Where did you meet him?
Morningside

Memory of Mickey
At my father’s memorial service, Mickey shared a deeply moving account about my father. I went back and listened to this to hear my dear friend Mickey’s voice. Mickey shared a story about something his mom taught him.

Mickey said: “I was about five and I was planning my life and telling her [Mickey’s mom] all these things I was going to be. And I asked her what she thought. And she said, ‘I think I just want you to be a kind person.’ I thought about that for about five years and then I went back and asked her what that meant. Because I thought she meant be good, and I couldn’t bring it off. She said, You know where you treat everyone like they’re the same kind you are, that’s what kind is.”

Mickey attributed this kindness to my father, but I think his mother was proud of Mickey because he too was a kind and good person. This trait of Mickey was best shown in his magic with children. He had a special gift to relate to children on their level and make them feel special. I think this was rooted in his profound empathy for others. He accepted who people were and could relate to them. When you were talking with Mickey, you knew he cared about you. I have warm memories of playing with Mickey as a child, and it was always a treat to bring my son to visit with Mickey. We often left his house with some toy that Mickey gave Owen. Mickey lived in the moment with others. What better thing can we ever do with one another?

Mickey was fun. At the annual Egg Roast our family hosted, an award was given out every year called “the Six Flags over Mickey award.” This was started after Mickey gave rides on the dirt road though our farm in his jeep. It was a rutted out muddy road and Mickey broke an axel on his jeep. Sure it was probably reckless, but damn it was fun to be a passenger as his jeep careened through the mud.

After my father passed away, I realized I never learned all my dad knew about bar-b-que. Despite sitting around the fire every year with my dad, Al, Mickey and others, there was a lot I didn’t know. I was thankful that Mickey could share some of his wisdom with me. He will always be on my mind whenever I bar-b-que. The most important thing I learned from Mickey is to be yourself. Mickey was unique and did not conform to other people’s expectations of him. I loved him for that.

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Memory submitted by MaryAnne Gaunt

When did you meet Mickey?
1974

Where did you meet him?
Morningside/Atlanta

Memory of Mickey
I’ve known the Nardos since the 70s when we were neighbors and in the same babysitting co-op. Some time around the late 70s or early 80s, Mickey and Sharon hosted a work party to prepare for the annual Pig Roast for the Morningside-Lenox Park neighborhood (MLPA). Mickey and Andy Lipscomb were a couple of the “old guys” who conceived of and implemented the event which required sleeping out all night in a neighborhood park where the pig was roasting in a hole and the men enjoyed the company of their kids, beverages and probably a cigar or two.

So at the work party, while others shredded the cabbage for slaw, or prepared beans, or BBQ sauces, Mickey and I were given the job of adding the best ingredient of the Brunswick Stew. We were charged with separating the “edibles” from the rest of the pig head that just came out of the pressure cooker. Andy, who was almost overcome by the odor after opening the cooker, stood in the background to watch. The smell was outrageous. The many undefinables that we dug out of the pot certainly were nasty, but when I pulled out a well formed pig ear, that almost was my undoing. In the middle of one of those uncontrollable, involuntary shudders, that often comes with a gag reflex, I looked up at Mickey. His look of steadfast resolve and calm demeanor, despite the gasp from Andy far behind in the shadows, stifled any negative response on my part. And so we both carried on without words until the pot was cleared with morsels and stuff divided.

I remember that look, that even hinted of his own revulsion; which helped me move on in spite of all my desire to do otherwise. I know that look has calmed me many times, over the years, when I might have preferred a different response besides steadfast resolve. That look changed my makeup forever. Thank you Mickey. It was an honor to know you.