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Jane Winston
The Left Rail
JWlNSl939@aol.com
Buon giorno Ya'll
Part 11...
Breakfast on the verandah
of Villa Veronica was a daily
treat. We had our choice
of Italian caffe’ which is so
incredibly strong and deli
cious that even 1 had to add
a bit of latte’ (milk which
was served warm) to it, or
the less strong, American
Coffee. We were served the
most delicious juice that
was bright orange as it con
tained carrot juice, orange
juice other fruit juices and
slices of oranges. We then
were offered an assortment
of yogurts (none have I seen
in my local grocery store),
an assortment of crois
sants with warm fruit fill
ings, hard rolls, real butter,
salami and Swiss (go figure)
formaggio (cheese). Water
was never served, had to
be purchased and came
either “ plain or sparkly.”
The Italians preferred the
sparkly.
One side trip was to San
Gimigano, nicknamed the
Manhattan of Tuscany, as
the remaining 13 of the orig
inal 72 medieval towers give
the city a skyscraper sky
line. While there we enjoyed
the town’s local wine,
Vernaccia, which is a white
wine made from the grapes
of the area. Seemingly each
region has its own crop of
grapes; hence, its own spe
cial wine.
Another important road
trip out of Sienna was to
Florence where a tour
guide walked us through
the narrow crowded streets
sharing the history of
the Renaissance. To see
Michelangelo’s Statue of
David (unveiled in 1504) at
the Galleria dell’Accademia,
one had to have a ticket
otherwise the wait was too
long. Most of us saw only
the replica of the Statue
but Vicki, who was traveling
with us, had gotten a ticket
in advance, so she got to
stand within the Academia
and gaze at the real statue in
the rotunda of a room built
exclusively for its display.
Dinner following the trip
to Florence was at Osterria
Nonna Lucia in the coun
tryside outside of Sienna.
The 23 of us were the only
ones eating in this small,
cozy, intimate room held
together with old bricks and
wooden beams. The colorful
Italian chef wore a comi
cal hat and entertained us
all. The meal began with
16 antipastis (succulent
tidbits served before the
primo) filled with pistachio
sauce, pumpkin, artichokes,
wild mushrooms and other
delicious items I could not
identify. The primo (first
dish and traditionally pasta
with no meat) and secon
di (second dish with meat,
potatoes apd gravy) courses
were mouth-watering deli
cious. But the ultimate in
fine dining was the conclu
sion to the fine meal with
Italian caffe’ and tiramisu.
Words cannot describe the
palate-pleasing food and the
awesome ambiance of this
special dining experience!
Another side trip out of
Sienna took us through the
beautiful Tuscan country
side to Perugia the capital
city of the region of Umbria.
We rode two-levels of
See WINSTON, page 5C
SATURDAY,
JUNE 24, 2006
Climbing the familu tree
What do you know about yours?
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
HHJ Lifestyle Editor
When far-flung families get
together for big reunions, they’re
a few things that can be pre
dicted.
The food will be fabulous.
There’ll be plenty of hugs ...
And the “genies” will be get
ting together off in a corner, or on
the porch, to share what they’ve
learned about their mutual ances
tors.
What’s a genie? Well, it’s not a
sprite ready to spring up from a
golden lamp and grant you three
wishes. It’s just the short-name
for a genealogist, or someone
who has gotten fascinated with a
search for ancestors.
You can call it digging up roots,
or finding your own twig on a
broad-branched family tree. In
either case, it’s a hobby that always
has grown in popularity with the
To Go
Meeting
- The Central Georgia
Genealogical Society
meets 7 p.m. at the
Elberta Road Flint
Energies Building
each third Thursday.
All*are welcome. Call
Linda Reed Douglass
at 945-1707 or 923
2998 for more infor
mation.
Youth Genealogy
Class - The Nola
Brantley Library In
Warner Robins will_
hold a genealogy class
for middle and high
school students on
June 29th from 6-8
p.m. It will be called
"The Genes in Your
Jeans." To register,
call Jamie Harvester at
923-0128.
Ann laughed and talked, cooked
Mississippi gumbo and barbecued
Georgia ribs, caught up on family
news and showed off grandbabies,
Crews, Jordan and another cous
in, Kathleen Bailey Wall, shared
photographs and research and
talked about finding gravestones
and learning new historical tid
bits.
Iris Jordan isn’t giving out her
age, but she’ll tell you proudly
that she’s one of the very few
remaining living daughters of the
Confederacy. Her father Barnabas
and Elizabeth Ann’s son, Lewis
Gay, was a soldier in the Civil
War. His daughter Iris was born
when he was in his 80s, and he
died when she was still a child.
Linda Crews, who lives in
Jacksonville, Fla., got interested
in genealogy when, after a num
ber of moves around the country,
she found herself losing track of a
big extended family.
Command F: Maybe life should be more like computers
I wouldn’t say that I have
a love/hate relationship
with my computer. Most
days it behaves very nicely
and makes my job possible.
I would say that I have a
love/hate relationship with
my house. Most days it
does not behave nicely and
makes my life difficult.
Actually, what I wish I
could do is apply the tech
nology in my computer to
my housework.
Oh sure, I’ve read all of
the prognostications about
what life would be like in
the future. I remember as a
child looking forward to the
year 2000, and thinking we
would have flying cars and
automatic houses. I suppose
if you had enough money,
you could outfit your house
with all sorts of gadgets that
would automatically do just
about anything you want
them to.
Come to think of it, if
Lifestyle
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advent of com
puter searches
and e-mail.
That’s how
Linda Crews
and Iris Lee
Gay Jordan
met - by e-mail,
while they
were engaged
in searching
for information
about an 18th
century cou
ple: Barnabas
Chesley Gay
and his wife,
Elizabeth Ann
McNair Gay.
While
descendants
of Barnabas
(some
times called
“Barney” in
his day) and
Elizabeth
HHJ charlotte (Vrkins
Iris Lee Gay Jordan, Kathleen Bailey Wall and Linda Crews look over a scrapbook about their family’s
history while at the Gay Family Reunion, held recently at the home of Jo Gay Arnold on Marshallville
Road near Perry.
“It’s a lot of research,” she says,
“You’ll find family you didn’t
know you had, and history that
touches your heart. It’s some
thing to take pride in, and to pass
on to your children.”
One tip from all three: Before
Sherri Martin
The Front Porch
Evans Newspapers
you had enough money, you
, could hire enough people
to automatically do any of
the housework you wanted
them to do.
But for the common folk
like me, I can’t help but
dream of how nice it would
be if I could keep my house
straightened up as easily as
it is to tidy up the desktop
on my computer.
Filing is a breeze on the
computer - just drag and
drop. New files can be made
you start researching federal
archives or tracking down census
information, get all the informa
tion you can from the older mem
bers of your family, not just your
parents and grandparents, but
cousins as well.
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quickly and easily, with no
handwriting involved, a
plus if you are manuscript
challenged like I am.
Need to throw stuff away?
More clicks and drags. No
getting out trash bags or
waiting on your husband to
take the full bags to the gar
bage can. And if you acci
dentally throw something
away and have to get it back
out of the trash, it never
has any yucky, sticky mess
attached to it - no egg shells
or used tissues or half eaten
suckers.
But the technology I most
wish I could apply to my
home is the “find” function.
If I can’t remember where I
filed away a certain story in
my computer, I simply press
the command key and then
the letter “F” key. (Rather,
since I’m Southern, I mash
“command” and “F.”)
A handy little box pops
up and I type in what I’m
looking for and it shows
me right where it is, given
that I can remember what I
named it, and given that my
husband hasn’t taken out
the trash yet.
It would be so great to
be able to do that in my
house. Can’t find my keys?
No problem! Command-
F - they’re in the toy box
under the Legos. Can’t find
the remote control? (Which,
by the way, I think is one
device that should have a
“If I could just talk to my father
for five minutes,” Iris Jordan says,
“I could find out so much.”
Jordan points out that United
States Census records are invalu
able, but that until 1850, census
See GENIES, page 5C
homing device automatical
ly attached.) Command-F
- it’s on top of the bookshelf
behind the plant. Can’t find
my other shoe? Command-F
- it’s in the baby’s hands,
about to take a dip in the
toilet.
Imagine all of the appli
cations! Think of how easy
it would be to gather all of
those little bits of paper to
do your taxes. Just think
how easy it would be to
find that old picture you
have stored away. And with
out having to spend time
searching for everything
I need before leaving the
house, it’s just possible I
would never be late getting
anywhere again.
Call Steve Jobs! Call Bill
Gates! Tell them I have the
next great technological
wave of the future.
Hey, I’ll call them myself
- just as soon as I can find
my phone.
PAGE 1C