National Gallery Of Art East Building Re Opens

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/press/2016/eastbuilding.html

 Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hahn/Cock

Here is the blue rooster in Trafalgar Square in London.
 It now sits on top of the National Gallery Of Art East Building.

That is the Alexander Calder Room(new)at the National Gallery Of Art East Building.
All the way up near the top. Below I am standing in the room. One of The Last Of The Mobile Hotshots is standing in a room full of mobiles.

Lorelei Stewart And Bobby McGhee Mobile Alabama 1972 Photo By Bhob Stewart

Click on the picture to enlarge it. Notice the mailbox name is Bobby McGhee. Me and Bobby McGhee was a big song around that time. So Bhob posed Lorelei next to that mailbox for sure.

Rachel Stewart And Lorelei Stewart And Paula Clark Mobile Alabama 1972 Photo By Bhob Stewart

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Bare Bottom Blues Pictures From Mobile Alabama And Dauphin Island 1971 By Bhob Stewart

Click on these pictures to enlarge them.

Joe B. Mobile 1971

Click to enlarge this picture. Taken in Mobile, Alabama in 1971. Notice the tall pine trees.

EUGENE WALTER: 30 SECOND SPOT

I have much more on this blog about Eugene Walter. Click in the label box below
on the name eugene walter.

Click on the link below to see Eugene Walter's grave in the old Church Street Cemetery
in Mobile, Alabama.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12693188

The CHEVY II /Nova Became Just The Chevy Nova In 1969

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevy_II_/_Nova

Here is picture of me standing in the back of our Chevy Nova in 1971 in Mobile, Alabama
Notice the tall pine trees in the background. This was taken where we lived near the University of South Alabama.

Forrest Gump Rides Again

I have met quite a few famous people in my life and written about them on this blog.  Blogger Eddie
Hunter(who has a blog named Chicken Fat. You can find him at blogspot.com Chicken Fat) wrote to me that I was like Forrest Gump. I was everywhere and I had met everybody.
Little did he know that Winston Groom who wrote Forrest Gump is from Mobile, Alabama and that Winston's mother Ruth Groom taught English at Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama when I was a student there from 1955 to 1958. Its a small world after all.

I also met a man here in Arlington, Va. who told me he had a fight with Winston Groom at a cocktail party in Alexandria, Va. I think one of them threw a drink on the other and then they grabbed each other and fell into some bushes. The man was a notorious book thief. He was convicted of stealing books and pages from books from the Library of Congress. Or maybe it was valuable maps he tore out of  books. In any event he was convicted and served time for being a book thief.
I suspect the fight has something to do with the stealing of maps and papers from the Library Of Congress.

 He also owned and ran a bookshop in Alexandria, Va. 

He was shunned by all the other book people. Other book dealers and book sellers would not even speak to him after his conviction. I used to see him at estate sales. While we waited I noticed no one would talk with or to him.  One of his ancestors was a famous Confederate General.
I finally did talk to him. He seemed like a nice man to me. Stealing books and papers from the LOC(Library Of Congress) was just one part of his personality.
I often like to make friends with people no one else will talk to.

Later this man told me he had a history of Oktibbeha County Mississippi which is the county my father's family settled back in 1830.  I bought this rare book from him. He gave me a low price on the book. It was written by a judge about 100 years ago.
My family is mentioned in the book.
My family got 1000 acres in Oktibbeha and Noxubee Counties after the US govt. took the land from Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians in the treatry called The treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek  around 1830.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Dancing_Rabbit_Creek

View Larger ImageThis is the name of the book.TThis

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF OKTIBBEHA COUNTY (MISSISSIPPI). [Local history for Oktibbeha County and Starkville, Mississippi.]

Carroll, Thomas Battle.

About the Book

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump_(novel)

Meeting Mickey Mantle In 1956 And Now A Gift Arrives In 2013 From Our Son

Click on the above picture to enlarge it. This was a gift from our son. He knows I was a fan of Mickey Mantle and the Yankees back in 1956.
Fine audio intervew with Mantle on the link below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/04/29/bob-wolffs-d-c-sports-audio-treasures-head-to-library-of-congress/

See below for more fine baseball cards of Mickey Mantle and my first person account of meeting the living legend in Mobile, Alabama in the spring of 1956 as the Yankees headed north from spring training. They used to stop in many towns all along the way to play exhibition games against other major league clubs. See my eye witness first hand report below these cards.












 

In the spring of 1956 I was about to turn 16 years old that year. I got a job as a ball boy after school at the baseball stadium in Mobile, Alabama just at the time the major league teams were heading north for the new baseball season. Several top teams came through Mobile that spring and played each other. I remember the Dodgers came through and I remember watching Gil Hodges clowning around during infield practice throwing the ball behind his back with his glove. I got to play catch with catcher Smokey Burgess who was with the Cincinatti Redlegs that year.
I rememeber hearing Don Drysdale who was rookie that year telling other Dodgers how many beers he had drank the night before. The Dodgers traveled on their own train so as not to have any problems in the still segregated south. The Braves came through as did the Phillies and of course my beloved New York Yankees. I got to the stadium early that day and I went in the clubhouse dressing room that was for the Yankees. I was surprised to find that only Elston Howard was there. No one else was around. I engaged him in conversation all the while wondering why he was there alone. I asked him how Mantle's leg was and he said it was getting better. It was only later that I figured out that Howard had come to the stadium alone because he had not stayed with the rest of the team wherever they were staying.
Soon the rest of team did show up and I got to see some of my baseball heroes up close down on the field. Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel,Billy Martin, and all the rest of the Yankees of the year 1956.
I happened to see Mantle walk by. I said, "Hi Mickey". He kept right on walking and did not say a word. But I had my ace in the hole. I had seen his twin brothers Ray and Roy play outfield in the Class C Cotton States League. They played left and right field for the Monroe,La. team. I had seen them play the Meridian Millers in Meridian Miss. the year before. So I called out to Mantle's back as he walked away,"I saw your brothers Ray and Roy play in the Cotton States League". He turned around and came back. I told him I had seen Ray or Roy(whichever one was in right field that night)drop a fly ball in the 9th inning that cost Monroe the ball game and that Ray or Roy turned around and threw his glove over the fence. I don't remember any more except he turned around again and walked off. He had a great year that year.

Monroe Sports
From BR Bullpen

Location: Monroe, LA
League: Cotton States League 1950-1955; Evangeline League 1956
Affiliation: Shreveport Sports 1953; New York Yankees 1955-1956
Ballpark:
The 1955 Sports featured twins Roy Mantle and Ray Mantle - brothers of Mickey Mantle. Roy made the all-star team in the OF.

In Gay Old Mobile...Two Gay Encounters In Mobile Alabama

When I was driving a taxi in Mobile Alabama in 1964 I had what you might call two gay encounters. Actually they encountered me.

The first was in the basement men's room of the Battle House Hotel. This was considered one of the very best hotels in Mobile.
  There was a taxi stand outside and I had run in to use the bathroom to take a leak.
As I was coming out of the stall a short old black man who was the bathroom attendant asked me, "Do you want a blowjob?"  I told him no. I am not sure if he meant himself or if he was pimping for someone else.
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/mobbr-the-battle-house-a-renaissance-hotel/

The second incident happened when I stopped at a restaurant out Springhill Avenue to go in and get something to eat.   As I was eating a young man kept staring at me.  Finally he got up and came over to my table and asked me if I wanted a blowjob. I told him no. He kept asking and was somewhat insistent.
  He said "Come on we can just go around the corner." I kept telling him no.
   I asked him what made him like he was. He said, "God made me this way".

When I was young I had several other experiences with gays following me. Once in Edinburgh Scotland in the summer of 1964. I walked all over the city and noticed a guy following me through the Princess Street Gardens.  Finally he gave up.

And again the same thing happened in New Orleans in the French Quarter. I was walking all over the French Quarter taking  photographs. Slowly I noticed a guy was following me at a distance.  I kept taking pictures and eventually he disappeared.

That Cold Day in the Park (1969) 1/7

You can watch this whole movie by going to youtube. It is in seven parts. This is part one. Click on Youtube and you will find the other 6 parts.

I first saw this movie at a drive in movie theater in Mobile Alabama. It was on a double or triple feature. I had bought a six pack of beer and sat in the car not knowing what this movie was about.
I was quietly sitting in the car slowing drinking the beers when I got hit by this movie.

I was quickly drawn in and it seemed to get better and better. I am not going to give any of it away but to say I was freaked out would be putting it lightly.

Eugene Walter-1921-1998

Portrait Of The Artist In A Petting Zoo Mobile Alabama 1971

Click to enlarge this picture.
Portrait of the Artist in a Petting Zoo. Mobile, Alabama 1971.
Photograph by Bhob Stewart

Helping Out A Merchant Seaman Get Through The Bankhead Tunnel In Mobile Alabama Fall 1964

The picture above is of Admiral Semmes. Click to enlarge. You can read about him down below. His statue is in Mobile right above Bankhead Tunnel.

Click to enlarge these photos of the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile,Alabama.

In the picture above you can see the statue of Admiral Semmes in the background.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Semmes
The picture above shows the tunnel heading east out onto the causeway.
The picture below is coming from the east heading west.


Click on the picture above to enlarge the old postcard.
Here is information on the Bankhead Tunnel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankhead_Tunnel

I was driving a taxi cab in Mobile Alabama in the Fall of 1964 while waiting to go in the Peace Corps. I was 24 years old.

One night a merchant seaman approached me and asked me if I would take him back to his ship. He said he had no money but would pay me when we got to his ship. Several other taxi drivers had turned him down. He told me I could hold his watch as security.

I was nearby the Bankhead Tunnel and we would have to go through the tunnel to get to the pier where his ship was docked. I said OK.
Once we got through the tunnel he directed me to where his merchant ship was docked. I parked the cab. He told me to follow him onto the ship to so he could get the taxi fare for me.

It was dark and we made out way onto the ship and down to the galley. There were several seamen sitting around a table playing cards.
The seaman got some money from one of them and paid me the taxi fare. I gave him back his watch.

He then offered me something to eat and drink. So we sat down and watched the men play cards. One of them explained to me that the only reason he shipped out on a merchant ship was so he could play cards and gamble.

After some period of time I decided to go on back to the cab.
When I got back to the cab(it had been maybe an hour since I got out of the cab to go on the ship) I could hear the radio calling me.
The dispatcher asked me where I had been. I told him the story.
He said "You are not supposed to leave the cab". I had not told him where I was going.
I drove on back into Mobile through the Bankhead Tunnel coming out on Government Street. It had been a nice little adventure in a boring evening.