Sometimes, you run across a headline that is just too amazing to not check out. I saw one today:
"Last Civil War Widow Dies"
Jesus wept! This girl must be at least 160 years old! I followed the link, and found out she was born in 1908. Alberta Martin grew up in a sharecropping family in Danley's Crossroads, Alabammy. She had a normal marriage in 1924, but that fellow ended up taking a dirt nap in 1926. She was poor and desperate.
She soon met William Jasper Martin, a Confederate vet living off his $50 a month Reb pension(I wonder what other pensions are out there for criminals. Manson Family Pension? Sons of the Unabomber?). She married him, basically for a place to live. He was 81, she was 21...gotta love the South.
The best part? He had a child by her! A guy who could have babysat Woodrow Wilson had a kid in his 80s. No wonder the South fought so well...sheer, wanton vitality. Remember, this was 75 years before Viagra. Momma didn't raise no punks...
He went to that great Land of Cotton in the sky around 1931 or so, and she collected that pension until her death today- despite the fact that William Martin may have been a deserter. She was a living symbol of times past, and was often trotted out for rallies and parades. She outlived the last Union widow- a lady who had married a runaway slave who had joined the Union Army. When William Martin died, she married his grandson- which, I believe, makes Alberta her own grand-daughter. Gotta love the South...
To tie this in to the world of Sport, I can only mention the quote offered by some college football coach. I hope someone here can offer some information on this. He was asked if he was confident bout the upcoming season. His reply:
"I'm as confident as an 80 year old man who marries a 18 year old girl, and buys a 4 bedroom house next to the high school".
Keep this in mind if you are ever in Danley's Crossraod, Alabama and see a gentleman with 11 toes and front teeth that protrude like those of a camel. It just might be some guy who is his own grandfather.
"Come here, puddin'....Poppa needs some sugar"
3 comments:
This ole guy just wanted a live in cook and housecleaner with a dab of daughter in there somewhere! This is purely crazy!!!
http://journals.aol.com/carolhehe/GypsyPaths
I still admire him, though. He was 80, he'd be dead in 3 years or so,,,,and the last thing he decided to do was to get a teenage wife. How tremendous is that?
And as for dying before the kid can talk and leaving him with this shiftless prostitutional woman, keep in mind she has that Confederate pension to fall back on.
Valuable resource of widow news summaries: http://ng2000.com/ng2000bb/YaBB.pl?num=1221635138
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