# have gun - will travel (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 2 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover have gun - will travel. Page: Feed: --- ## [Your Winter Or Ours?](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/08/your-winter-or-ours.html) _2026-08-25 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ How much time do we waste worrying about the way other folks do things? First of all, who cares? Birds sing and creeks babble. Why would I want to listen to some blowhard preacher or politician tell me what to do? What's right and what's wrong? Turns out that I'm an even slower learner than I thought. Most of my heroes screwed up from time to time. In fact I'll bet they screwed up regularly.… ## [Wayne Rogers Gets "The Big Kick"](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/08/wayne-rogers-gets-big-kick.html) _2026-08-23 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Back in 2020 I posted an item about the 1959 crime film Odds Against Tomorrow which has a couple of Alabama connections, one of them tenuous. The other Alabama connection appears about midway through the movie. Robert Ryan's character goes into a bar for a drink, and a soldier and his girl are horsing around. Ryan takes offense and the final result is a fight in which the soldier ends up on the… ## [Only Slightly Deficient](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/08/only-slightly-deficient.html) _2026-08-13 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ By the time I got to Paris, Man Ray was gone. Kiki, too. Long gone. Of course it's a beautiful city, just not the magic that I dream of. Key West is certainly a gem. A tropical paradise, indeed. Plenty of debauchery to go around and the fun never stops. I missed the days before waiters could no longer afford rent and Mercedes outnumbered rusty bikes, though. I love New York and the place has… ## [New Ones and Old Ones](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/08/new-ones-and-old-ones.html) _2026-08-08 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ Bing had to make way for Sinatra just like ol' blue eyes had to vacate the premises for Elvis. Old dogs get moved out for puppies. Yeah, it's a sad fact of life, especially if you're an old dog. The world doesn't really care what I think about AI. The fact that I find most new cars ugly isn't going to rattle the automobile industry. Wealth inequality? What's new? My opinions matter. They matter to… ## [Chloroform in Montevallo in 1848](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/08/chloroform-in-montevallo-in-1848.html) _2026-08-06 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ General anesthesia using gases for surgery is one of America's great nineteenth century medical achievements. In early 1845 dentist Horace Wells used nitrous oxide to painlessly extract a tooth. In October 1846 dentist William T.G. Morton successfully demonstrated ether anesthesia in Boston during an operation by John Collins Warren. The Morton/Warren event soon made it's way around the world. The… ## [The Stars Got In My Eyes](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-stars-got-in-my-eyes.html) _2026-08-01 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ Sometimes I get weary of boasting about my quality of life. I'm guessing that if you're back reading this drivel, you've had a bellyful, yourself. If I don't run short of my Crest toothpaste stash, I've got enough of everything that I could possibly want or need to last the rest of my days. While I've never learned to accept the suffering in this world, I have figured out how to embrace the beauty… ## [Don't Let Your Coffee Get Cold](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/07/dont-let-your-coffee-get-cold.html) _2026-07-29 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ It's hard to take any of it seriously, isn't it? Grownups with nuclear weapons waving their holy books, threatening annihilation of civilisations. If one of these lunatics drops the big one and ends it all, so be it. There really is nothing that I can do about any of it. None of my worrying, and I've done plenty, has ever prevented anything. Now, of course, worry and dread and fear don't always… ## [Red Hot & Lovely in Gadsden in 1941](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/07/red-hot-lovely-in-gadsden-in-1941.html) _2026-07-27 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ "A Torrid Extravaganza" the ad declares. "Daring Glamorous Beauties in Risque Dances." In Gadsden, Alabama, in 1941? Well! Let's investigate. In my wanderings through old issues of the Gadsden Times I've encountered many such advertisements for revue-type variety shows in Gadsden in the 1940s. I'll be doing future blog posts on some others. Let's take a look at the performers and other elements of… ## [Too Old To Cut The Mustard, Young Enough To Lick The Jar](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/07/too-old-to-cut-mustard-young-enough-to.html) _2026-07-21 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ What I haven't seen at this point hardly matters. I haven't been everywhere, boy, and I surely haven't seen everything. Doesn't matter. It's a perfect world when you know it is and you're lucky when you know you are. I've always shown up in the Key Wests of the world just in time to be told that I should have seen it before. I always wanted to live in Paris, but the Paris of 1930. Not this time,… ## ["Escape Into The Madness" or "So Long, Suckers"](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/07/escape-into-madness-or-so-long-suckers.html) _2026-07-17 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ It's past time to say anything and everything that I've ever wanted to say. There's really no sign that time is running out other than the calendar, the clock. The concept of Eden or heaven or some utopian fantasy is, more or less, a constant for me. The details bend, stretch and shrink, but the big picture stays pretty much true to form- everybody's kind, everybody's happy. Plenty of four-legged… ## [Trade Smarter With IBKR (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/gdhNt8qVFnWq) _2026-07-17 · **Sponsored**_ Join Interactive Brokers through a referral and start investing with low-cost global access. ## [Hospital News from Gadsden in 1944](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/07/hospital-news-from-gadsden-in-1944.html) _2026-07-16 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ In 2023 I posted an item related to my visit to Huntsville Hospital in 1958. That admission for a tonsillectomy was documented in a Huntsville Times newspaper article published on June 10, 1958. I was listed along with numerous other individuals who were admitted, born or discharged at Huntsville Hospital and Fifth Avenue General Hospital. These listings may have been common at one time and here's… ## [Loose Change, Loose Morals](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/07/loose-change-loose-morals.html) _2026-07-10 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ It occurs to me that every breath is different from the one before. Under a microscope each grain of sand is a completely unique, fascinating work of art, exquisite in its originality. Ants enslave aphids and we have no idea of the scale of the universe, this one or any other. Yet, I met Elvis. I've known all these dogs. I'll have dinner with Kate again. If this isn't nice, what is?… ## [Polio in Alabama in 1941](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/07/polio-in-alabama-in-1941.html) _2026-07-07 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ As I often do, I was perusing some old issues of the Gadsden Times recently and in July and August 1941 issues I found several articles about polio cases in the state. Effective polio vaccines did not appear in the United States until Jonas Salk's in 1955 and Albert Sabin's in 1961, so what was the state and nation's status on the eve of America's entry into World War II? Polio \[poliomyelitis\] is… ## [Ambition Has Always Been So Overrated](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/07/ambition-has-always-been-so-overrated.html) _2026-07-05 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ Oh, I live a lazy man's life. Folks back home ask if I've retired. From what? I haven't played since a house concert in Tampa, next to last visit. I picked up a guitar this morning. Felt about as familiar as if I had fondled an oboe. Now, for whatever reason, I'm thinking about writing a book. Actually, I've had this story idea for several years- I've just run out of excuses to keep from writing.… ## [That's How They All Wind Up](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/06/thats-how-they-all-wind-up.html) _2026-06-29 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ Another one of those stories that I've told you a hundred times- my mom took me to the armory in Tampa to see The Biggest Rock'n'Roll Show of '56. Biggest event in my nine year old life! Bo Diddley. Big Joe Turner. The Drifters, who happened to bring along Clyde McPhatter, home on leave in his army uniform. LaVern Baker. Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. The Platters. The Teen Queens. Great goodness!… ## [Noccalula Falls Back in the Day \[1000th post\]](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/06/noccalula-falls-back-in-day-1000th-post.html) _2026-06-28 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Well, here we are at my 1000th posting on this blog since March 2014. Scary. I thought I would devote this one to a bit of family history. In July 2016 I wrote a series of five blog posts about a cedar chest full of personal items belonging to my Dad's older sister Beulah Vee Wright. Part One gives a lengthy introduction. She died in December 1939 at the age of eighteen, so the items date from the… ## [Don't Disappoint Me](https://ronnyelliott.blogspot.com/2026/06/dont-disappoint-me.html) _2026-06-27 · ronnyelliott · ronnyelliott_ So often I feel like Charlie trying to kick the football that Lucy's holding. I fell, totally, for the peace and love thing. I find myself hopeful every time any peace agreement is announced. Oh, I'm not complaining, not really. Lose hope and you're done, I suppose. Give us peace on earth and end this dreadful, dreadful war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7dNU\_8myA ## [Johnny Mack Brown Appears in Gadsden in 1945](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/06/johnny-mack-brown-appears-in-gadsden-in.html) _2026-06-16 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I've written several pieces on this blog about football star, actor and Dothan native Johnny Mack Brown . Two of them discussed his 1928 silent films Our Dancing Daughters and A Lady of Chance . T he first paired him with Joan Crawford \[one of two he made with her\] and another Alabama native, Dorothy Sebastian . He starred with Norma Shearer in the second film, much of which is set in Alabama.… ## [Alabama Postcards: Motels (1)](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/06/i-have-sizeable-and-growing-alabama.html) _2026-06-04 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I have a sizeable and growing Alabama postcard collection, and this post highlights six that feature motels. I have many others on that topic, as well as hospitals, libraries, etc, to use for future postings. Postcards can be fascinating links to specific times, places and the minutia of life, even more so when they were actually mailed and include a message. I've already written a number of… ## [Resuming Grid Relations in 1945](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/05/resuming-grid-relations-in-1945.html) _2026-05-24 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Here we have another item from the old Gadsden Times issues I've been paging through in recent months. This brief article relates to one of the most important topics in the state's history--Alabama and Auburn football. The two schools first played each other in that sport on February 22, 1893. The game took place at Lakeview Park in Birmingham. Auburn--formally known at the time as Alabama… ## [8.1% APY Plus Free Stock (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/TojzUU8RdWBQ) _2026-05-24 · **Sponsored**_ Claim 8.1% APY and up to $1,030 in SK hynix and Nvidia stock. ## [Alabama Photo: A Barn in 1935 by Walker Evans](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/05/alabama-photo-barn-in-1935-by-walker.html) _2026-05-17 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Walker Evans is one of the most famous American documentary photographers of the 20th century. He made at least two trips to Alabama during the Great Depression as he traveled through America taking photographs. This barn photo was taken in December 1935. His best known visit to the state came in the summer of 1936 when he and writer James Agee travelled from New York to Hale County to document… ## [Alabama Actress: Joyzelle Joyner](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/04/alabama-actress-joyzelle-joyner.html) _2026-04-27 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ My brother Richard recently alerted me to this actress from Alabama; I was not familiar with her. Let's investigate. I've done a number of pieces on the blog about actresses whose careers began before 1960; some are linked from this post . Joyzelle Joyner is certainly one of those women from the state who found some success in Hollywood, although her career film career did not last very long.… ## [Columbiana Bank Robbery in 1932](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/04/columbiana-bank-robbery-in-1932.html) _2026-04-05 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Last year I wrote about two bank robberies in Shelby County in 1931 and 1932. I've also written about the infamous 1926 bank robbery in Hartselle, which has never been solved. Now it's time to take a look at another 1932 bank robbery in Shelby County. All of these posts align with a longtime interest of mine in the history of crime in Alabama and the Deep South. I've even published a book about… ## [My Son Amos Has a New Book Out, Part 3](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/03/my-son-amos-has-new-book-out-part-3.html) _2026-03-23 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Over the years members of our family have published several books. Those items include two books related to Native American history in Alabama by my father, Amos J. Wright, Jr., a book by yours truly on crime in the Deep South and several books that featured mom's art. Since 2018 my son Amos Jasper Wright IV has published three books. His first, the short story collection Nobody Knows How It Got… ## [Alabama Photo: Montgomery Bookstore in 1977](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/03/alabama-photo-montgomery-bookstore-in.html) _2026-03-16 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I've done a lot of postings about bookstores on this blog, including a few I've never visited since they are no longer around. Many of the earlier ones are listed in this post from April 2022. In 2024 I wrote pieces about Branch Books in Hartselle and Branch Books 2 in Cullman. In March 2025 I posted an item about a "bookstore tour" of Huntsville my brother Richard and I undertook one weekend.… ## [Gail Patrick & O.R. Cohen in 1933 Newspaper Ads](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/03/gail-patrick-or-cohen-in-1933-newspaper.html) _2026-03-07 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I've mentioned in several recent posts that I've been perusing numerous issues of the Gadsden Times newspaper from the 1930s and 1940s saved by my paternal grandmother Rosa Mae Wright. She also had some old issues of the Birmingham News mixed in the batch. I'm finding lots of fascinating articles and advertisements. The two items here are ads that focus on two people with strong Alabama… ## [McClendon Memorial Museum in Duck Springs](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/02/mcclendon-memorial-museum-in-duck.html) _2026-02-22 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Yes, here we are with another advertisement from the old issues of the Gadsden Times I've been going through in recent months. Saved by my paternal grandmother Rosa Mae Wright , most were from the 1930s and 1940s. She also saved a massive Etowah County centennial edition of the paper dated June 23, 1968, where I found this ad. I wasn't familiar with the McClendon Memorial Museum in Duck Springs ,… ## [Football in Gadsden in 1908](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/02/football-in-gadsden-in-1908.html) _2026-02-17 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ In recent months I've gone through numerous 1930s and 1940s issues of the Gadsden Times. My grandmother Rosa Mae Wright saved these publications, especially during World War II. I found a lot of fascinating articles \[and advertisements!\], and this blog post features one of them. I've also recently enjoyed Lars Anderson's 2007 book, Carlisle Vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner and… ## [A Trip Down Memory Lane](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/02/a-trip-down-memory-lane.html) _2026-02-09 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ In July 2024 our daughter Becca, her husband Josh, son Ezra and stepson Zach came to Pelham for a visit. One thing she wanted to do was take her kids to some places she remembered fondly from growing up in the area. So off we went! For more nostalgia about Pelham, see my post "Pelham As We Knew It in 1985". More comments below. When Becca and son Amos were kids, we spent some time in the… ## [Random Alabama (3): Alabama Hospital, Inc.](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/01/random-alabama-3-alabama-hospital-inc.html) _2026-01-27 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Last year I posted the first two pieces in this series intended to focus on random photos or ephemera that I have laying around. The first one featured a strange Auburn University figure and the second one the business card for a state senator candidate in a 1922 election. Now we come to this blank stock certificate, found for me on eBay by my son Amos. At first I thought the business operated in… ## [Privacy-first AI-native browser (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/tSQEuvMblQ1t) _2026-01-27 · **Sponsored**_ No telemetry or ads — built on Ungoogled Chromium with a built-in AI sidebar and CLI. ## [Tallulah, Gary, Cary & the Devil](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/01/tallulah-gary-cary-devil.html) _2026-01-19 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Film poster Source: Wikipedia I've written several posts on this blog about actress Tallulah Bankhead \[1902-1968\], a Huntsville native. These pieces include her films Lifeboat and Faithless , her visits to Birmingham and then around Alabama , her appearances on Lucille Ball's TV shows and her final acting role in a two-part episode of the 1960s Batman TV show as the villain, Black Widow . Now it's… ## [Alabama Bookstore: Anders in Auburn](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/01/alabama-bookstore-anders-in-auburn.html) _2026-01-11 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I've done a lot of postings about bookstores on this blog, including a few I've never visited since they are no longer around. Many of the earlier ones are listed in this post . In 2024 I wrote pieces about Branch Books in Hartselle and Branch Books 2 in Cullman. I posted an item about a "bookstore tour" of Huntsville my brother Richard and I undertook one weekend in 2025. Just recently in… ## [What's Coming to the Blog in 2026?](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2026/01/whats-coming-to-blog-in-2026.html) _2026-01-01 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Since 2015 I have started each year with a post outlining some of the pieces I'd like to write in the coming months. These posts have become a history of futility on this blog. I list some topics I'd like to cover, and over the year I might get one or two of them done. So many topics, so little time, so many new topics popping up all the time. If you have the inclination, you can read all about… ## [Talking Pictures & TV Come to Shelby County](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2025/12/talking-pictures-tv-come-to-shelby.html) _2025-12-28 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Well, not in the same year, of course. Once upon an Internet time there was a marvelous genealogical complex known as RootsWeb that offered vast resources free of charge. I know, the stuff of fairy tales. The early Internet/WWW was like that. Then Ancestry.com bought it in 2000 and has since pretty much destroyed it. But I digress... I once found on RootsWeb excerpts from the Shelby County… ## [Birmingham's Five Points South in 1987](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2025/12/birminghams-five-points-south-in-1987.html) _2025-12-15 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ The historic Five Points South area of Birmingham's Southside has been in the news over the last year or so and not in positive ways, unfortunately. In September 2024 four people were killed and 17 injured in a shooting outside the Hush Lounge. This past Halloween a fire did extensive damage to the Cobb Lane block of structures including an historic home and buildings housing many cultural and… ## [Stewart Post Office Closes in 1982](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2025/12/stewart-post-office-closes-in-1982.html) _2025-12-07 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ Since the United States Post Office Department was established in 1792, numerous post offices have opened and closed around the country. The current Postal Service maintains a state-by-state listing of open and closed facilities, but even there many discontinued offices are not listed. One post office that has come and gone in Alabama was in Stewart in Hale County. Below you can see the sign from… ## [Eve's Books in Helena](https://alabamayesterdays.blogspot.com/2025/11/eves-books-in-helena.html) _2025-11-30 · AlabamaYesterdays · Alabama Yesterdays_ I've done a lot of postings about bookstores on this blog, including a few I've never visited because they are no longer open. Many of the earlier ones are listed in this post . In 2024 I wrote pieces about Branch Books in Hartselle and Branch Books 2 in Cullman. Earlier this year I posted an item about a "bookstore tour" of Huntsville my brother Richard and I undertook one weekend. This post…