Mary Cooper’s Baptism

Mary Cooper Adams baptism in Rosedale, MS at Grace Episcopal Church.


Below is an image from the book that marks the baptism of Gray Waxhaw Adams (father) in Grace Church in 1976.
Below is an image from the book that marks the baptism of James Gray Adams (grandfather) in Grace Church in 1949.
Below is an image from the book that marks the baptism of Mary Edvina Kirk (Mary Kirk Adams) (great-great-grandmother) in Grace Church in 1890.
Here come Wyatt and Dyer…
(Below) The Parnell’s
Nancy Gray Adams (great grandmother)
Lee McCarty (standing)
Anne Hartmann Lewis (below)
After Church everyone went to Cleveland, MS for the reception.

Our Place

Shattuck and his father have a fun place to play within the Botanic Gardens.  It’s hard to find and is a long journey from home.  Shattuck is on his way to his Special Place.



The first part of any journey begins with gathering supplies.



You have to plenty of grass and sticks to make this long journey.

Once the supplies were gathered, it was time to head off to Shattuck’s Special Place.

Shattuck first has to go through the woods.
There is a trail for Shattuck to follow.

Which way to go?

Shattuck knows where to go.

Shattuck had to pass by the Greek God Poseidon.  Poseidon let Shattuck pass while holding back the wild swans (the swans can be very ugly).
The path the Shattuck’s Special Place took him into the land of Gooses.
Shattuck laughed… because the gooses are a silly folk.  They flap their wings to show how brave they are… as they run away.
The koi pond is full of large koi fish… some are as big as Shattuck.
Shattuck likes to throw food to the Koi fish as he crosses the big, red bridge.

Shattuck’s journey is almost done.  He must walk along the levee.

The levee holds back thousands of gallons of water that would flood Shattuck’s special place if it were to break.  It’s a solid levee, so Shattuck isn’t worried.
Finally Shattuck makes it to his Special Place.  The land between the Magnolia Trees.
He loves to play here.
It’s one
of his favorite places.
Shattuck plays and plays and plays…
…until it’s time to go home.  Shattuck enjoys his journey to his Special Place, but when it’s time to go home… he likes to ride on his Father’s shoulders.

Orpheum

Shattuck went to Shrek last night at the Orpheum.  He was so excited.
 
Lale put him in his Harod’s wool jacket and his red Woody’s Cowboy hat.  Downtown Memphis with all of the lights really excited him.  He squeeled with a smile on his face the entire way from the car to the Orpheum.
When we got in, he took it all in with quite amazement.  He was not heavy enough to really sit in the chair… it kept folding in on him.  Once the lights went down, he crawled into my lap.  The entire first Act, he sat quitely and followed every movement very carefully.
 
At intermission, he got up and ran down the isle and looked over the balcony at the orchestra pit.  You could see he was no longer apprehensive about where he was or what this was all about.

Now he was starting to understand why we were there.
 
The lights went down for the second act.  For most of the second Act, he stood on his feet… gripping the seats in front of us.  Sometimes his knuckles were white.  He danced to the musical pieces, and when Shrek would re-emerge on stage, he would point to him and turn around to us and yell ‘CAR’!!
 
He only tried to get away and run up to the stage twice… but he was too excited to fight me on that… he went back to watching carefully.  His concentration was running 100%.
 
When the actors came out after the play, everyone stood up.  I held him up.  He clapped along with the rest of the audience… BUT… when Shrek came out… both hands went up like he was at a rock concert and he yelled at the TOP of his voice… ‘C-A-R-R-R’….
Then confeti was dropped from the ceiling and fell all around him.  He was smiling from ear to ear and his eyes were so bright!

He immediately ran down to the front of the stage again to see if he could see the actors.
 
We were close to the last people to leave.  As we left, I bought him a Ginger Bread doll about 1 1/2 high and a Shrek hat.  He wore the hat all the way outside and home and held on the the doll.  He went to bed literally smiling with the doll in his arms.
 
When I left for work this morning, he was still clinging to Gingie.