George Gifford Musselman is Born!

Congratulations to Kevin George on the birth of his beautiful grandson, George Gifford Musselman!

Following are a couple of Kevin's posts from his message board thread "Sleep Deprived but Worth It":

Sat, May 27 2006 1:09 pm

I watched my granddaughters last night while my daughter had her third - a son this time. Both maternal grandparents and great grandparents are Marion County people (Lebanon and Jessetown) so the little boy is starting out well.

Mom and George (I think a GREAT name for a little boy) are doing great. And women always want to know - 8 pounds 2 ounces and 20.5 inches long. And according to the father, he looks the part of a George too.

Now Grandpap needs a nap.

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And here is an interesting entry in which Kevin describes to us and his cousin, Dennis, on how their family settled on the surname "George":

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Dennis,

My mother's brother's name was George George. As you should know, the children took the first name of their father as their last name. So Alan's name in the old country would be Alan ibn Dennis or Alan son of Dennis. They did that because otherwise, no one could easily determine who the people were. Europeans did the same thing and that is why we have names such as "Johnson" or "Peterson" etc.

So our grandfather, Salem George, would have been the son of George Shaheen (I think). In that same way, our Uncle George became George (son of) Salem. And our parents were Elmer Salem and Eli Salem until early grade school days when the kids decided that the Americans took the father's last name as their own last name. From that point forward, they became Elmer George, Eli George, Hyleme George, Phillip George, etc. By this time, George Salem was an adult living in Mississippi and he did not change his name. In the same way, my mom's father Albert George would have been the son of George also.

So George Gifford Musselman is the great great grandson of three Georges. 

I think that Dennis already knew all of this and that I have confused all the rest of the non-Lebanese.
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New Life for Easter!

MAKENZIE ANN GORDON

4-15-06   12:27 am

6 lb 6 oz      19.5 "

Big Sister:  Addison Lee Gordon

Proud grandmother Vicky Perkins sent this photo around to announce the birth of her new granddaughter. Makenzie is pictured here with her big sister, Addison. Makenzie's mom works with me at Joe Mattingly's office here in Lebanon. She worked until 3:00 on Friday and went into labor an hour and a half later!

Alyssa, enjoy your maternity leave! You have a beautiful new baby!

A Child's Funeral - Circa 1950?

This picture was given to my family by a member of the family whose baby is pictured here. It is one of the few pictures we have of my grandfather, Hubie Mattingly, in his role as an undertaker for Mattingly Funeral Home. I am pretty sure the visitation for this little child took place in the family's home rather than at the funeral home.

Ready For School

This is a photo of me and my brother, ready to head off for a day at school at St. Francis Elementary. I guess I was probably in second grade and my brother was a first grader when this was taken. Hmmm...I am not sure why my brother is not wearing his uniform!

Play Ball!

These are my brothers, Alan and Joe, on the well-worn baseball diamond in our back yard. We had the most exciting neighborhood ball games you could ever imagine! Of course, part of that excitement was because a foul ball would often entail climbing the fence and finding the ball in the field where Jimmy Hutchins' "Mean Bull" lived. Do you remember how to choose up sides on a team by throwing the bat and fisting up to the top and then there would be that tense moment when we all eyes had to agree the winner's thumb reached completely over the top of the bat? We had strict rules back then, and we all followed them! Those were very happy days!