I wanted to do more, but...

I started a few more Photoshop projects this week, but I have only one completed work to show in this post.  This is, in part, because I had one fewer day to finish up this past week, due to a teacher furlough at the ABC Unified School District.  In turn, this is an unfortunate consequence of severe cuts in public education funding throughout the state of California.

What I have to share with you is a "photo" from the Barefoot-Johnston County Family Reunion, known informally as the "Handy Jam."  As I posted in this revision last week, the name comes from Handy Barefoot, a common ancestor of the attendees who lived during the 19th century and produced six proud generations of the clan, including all 13 who live in the Barefoot house.  The "Handy Jam" is a one-day event that attracts as many as 150 people, all direct descendants in some way.  Attendees are served two meals and participate in various activities, which - I promise - will be detailed later.

The setting is just before the lunch service, for which the menu includes hamburgers, hot dogs, garlic French fries, soda made with natural water (with something like the Sodastream), and fresh fruit.  The picnic basket represents the plate settings.  Also pictured is one of the activities, bunco, which - again as I wrote - Popeye is the family master.  Here, he is being challenged by his wife Annie and "niece-in-law" Jennifer.  I would have tried to finish a companion piece, set at a more formal dinner, but now that will have to wait until at least Tuesday. *sigh*

I also hope to have a "publicity photo" of BMN's newest reality star, Dillon Bowling, next week.  I introduced Bowling in this post last winter (although with a different name at the time).  His new "show," Strikin' Out, is to start next week, but he won't feel like celebrating, and for good reason.  Bowling lives in Oklahoma City, and last Sunday one of his friends lost his house (in Edmond, a suburb at which his "home bowling alley" is located) due to a tornado that was part of an outbreak.  Of course, an even larger tornado hit Moore, which is on the other side of the "OKC" area, on Monday.  It's the latest full-scale disaster to hit the United States, and it fit the same patterns as the others: huge loss of life, a town compared to a war zone, the emergence of heroes, and a symbolic logo of support as shown below.  As always, the American Red Cross is the go-to organization to turn to if you want to help the victims.

Here's a "head shot" (actually college baseball player Cody Dent), and front and back shots of what Bowling would wear while he is, well, bowling.

 

My biographies have been revised

I have changed the profiles of all 13 of the Barefoot family members, to provide for more comprehensive and accurate descriptions of them.

In future days, I will do the same thing for the descriptions of their home and family lives.

Here are the new bios:
Part 1 (Popeye, Annie, Brenda)
Part 2 (Jennifer, Bobby Ray, Ralph)
Part 3 (Harvey, Buddy Wayne, Brandy, Hambone)
Part 4 (Bunky, Belinda, Bryson)

New relatives of B.W. and some special guests

Here's the post I promised all of you last week.

One of my favorite shows on television is the "reality" series 19 Kids and Counting.  It is about Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of northwestern Arkansas and their very large number of children, one of whom is now himself a father of two (with another on the way).  It airs on the U.S. non-broadcast network TLC and season five is now underway.   Another 19-child family, the Bates' of eastern Tennessee, received a spinoff series United Bates of America which aired at the end of last calendar year.

Furthermore, I have seen several obituaries from a real-life Barefoot family in North Carolina whose parents, Willie C. and Eva, produced 17 kids.  (And they were sharecroppers, according to one of those obituaries, so that house was really crowded!)

I took all of those bases together - and my belief that, to quote one of the AT&T Mobility commercials, that if "some is good, then more is better" - to create a 20-child family, descended from one of Popeye's brothers, Labell, and his wife, "Allene the Baby Machine."  As I mentioned last week, Labell is therefore a great-uncle of Buddy Wayne's (as by the way are four brothers of theirs, including Alfred E., father of Alfred W., B.W.'s dreaded birth father).

To create the photograph, I used Photoshop to make a selection of the Duggars, taken from the opening sequence of the TV program.  I then fitted the heads I wanted in place of those of the Duggars.  The picture and caption identifying the family members are below this post.

Here's who you actually see in my latest Photoshop creation:

• As mentioned last week, Labell and Allene are played by, respectively, David Barefoot and Jill McLamb Barefoot.
• Chiropractor Billie Barefoot, whose practice is in suburban Phoenix, plays the oldest child, Benny.
• Brandy Rapp (again, see last week's madrigal entry) is Deborah, the oldest daughter.
• Another returnee, LPGA golfer Brooke Pancake, has the "role" of Peggy; however, thanks to Photoshop, I was able to turn her blonde hair brunette.
• Twins Donnie and Ronnie are Britt Barefoot, the former Southern Miss punter/placekicker.  (See my real life Barefoots list for more on him.)
• Noah Barefoot, whose family owns Barefoot's Auto Mart, plays Tony.
• Tammy is one of Brittany Ramos' two children.
• Her fraternal twin, Timmy, may or may not be Bubba Wimberly.  (I retrieved a photo of a boy playfully choked by what appears to be her sister, which I was able to isolate when I made my photo.  It has since been removed and may indeed actually have been on this page instead.)
• Brett Snowball, a youth baseball player in British Columbia, has the "role" of Terry.  (Aside: Shouldn't Snowball be playing a winter sport instead?  Then again, maybe he does and I don't know it.)
• Addison ?, who was Belinda for a few minutes in 2012 before she was replaced, picks up the "role" of Lovie.  (I also made her brunette.)
• Playing the "role" of Lollie is Harnett County, NC, schoolkid Dae Barefoot.
• Another Harnett County local, Jackson Barefoot, is my Ricky.
• Tyler Barefoot, a current high-school student and football player, is who I selected for Randy.
• The four youngest kids I can't identify, but are in a file on my hard drive called "iftheyreboundin," in turn based on a word puzzle on the 2007 game show Camouflage, in which the correct answers were hidden from left to right, sometimes on multiple lines.  More information on this puzzle can be found in this post.
• Finally, I have "cast" two of the real-life Duggars - I believe Jana and Jessa - as Ola and Vallie, respectively.

A whole mess of new pictures

Happy Mother's Day to all for which it applies!

Meanwhile, I continue to imagine what my world would be like, and I have a whole lot more coming up between now and the end of class in mid-June.  I'll explain why that's important when the time comes.  For now, here are several more "pictures" of life in and around the house:

First up is a "quilting bee" of the oldest female members of the Barefoot family.  I think I've shown them before, but there's some "news" about them; my in-house TV network would debut a new show with them this coming Sunday (yes, that's Mother's Day) which is a spinoff of the main program Goin' Barefoot.  It will be called Brenda's Brood, after the nickname of the group.

Next is a "Christmas in May" picture I completed just today.  The McLamb Madrigals are an all-girl vocal chorale group that sings everything from classical to doo-wop and even some current songs a cappella.  Here, they are singing Christmas carols.  They are LaRae (played by high-school graduate Brandy Rapp) and Rebecca (teenage girl in Baltimore area, name unknown) on the top row, and LaRetta (former contestant on The Amazing Race whose name I sadly didn't record, listed on my personal files as "Brooke Booker"), Rachel (softball player Brittany Black), and LaRayne (country singer Brittany McLamb) on the bottom row.  They are two sets of siblings (Rachel, Rebecca; LaRae, LaRetta, LaRayne) and all are second cousins of Buddy Wayne Barefoot.

Also from the last week or so is a picture of Brandy, who has just completed ballroom dancing classes.  She is here with parents Lauren and Daniel, brother Bunky, and their instructor, Rebecca Peacock.

Finally, although I don't have a Photoshop picture of Allene Young Barefoot and his "husband" Labell, here they are anyway, thanks to the stand-in work of Jill McLamb Barefoot and her husband David on Jill's Facebook page.  As I mentioned last week, they have 20 children - and I promise, next week I will show all of them to you, with help from some very special guests.  (Labell is the brother of Alonzo and therefore is also a great-uncle of B.W.)

School days won't be the same

For the last year or so, Belinda and Bryson have attended a one-room schoolhouse maintained by the neighboring Crabtree family.  While they have no doubt learned a lot and enjoyed coming to that school, even in Heaven things come to an end.

Starting next fall, they will be transferred from that school to a new one, the Barefoot Family Primary School.  All 21 students will carry the Barefoot last name, and can trace their ancestry to Handy Barefoot Sr., who lived just after the American Civil War.  For example, Belinda is Handy's great-great-great-great-granddaughter, and Bryson is Handy's great-great-great-grandson-in-law.  Other students are cousins, aunts, and uncles to Belinda and Bryson; eight of the aunts and uncles come from Labell and Allene Barefoot, who have a total of 20(!) children.  (More on them in a future post.)  As before, this will be a one-room schoolhouse for first- to eighth-grade students.

Classes will be taught by Noah Barefoot Jr., grandson of Handy and Parlia.  Noah, reset to 38 years old, was a teacher for over two decades in various schools of the Johnston County school district in North Carolina.  He also taught as a Christian missionary in Brazil.

One source of family concern is how this will be perceived to outsiders, especially since at least two of the students at the Crabtree school - Oliver "Poo Poo" Brayboy and Braylor McPatter - are African-Americans.  This, on the surface, is reminiscent of "white flight" in the 1960s, which involved white families, and even some upper-class minority ones, leaving inner city cores for suburban areas.  In response, it should be pointed out that black families have also agreed to their own family schools that they are to run themselves, and that extracurricular activities will be open to all students regardless of ethnicity.  Nonetheless, Bryson is worried about not seeing Poo Poo again on a regular basis.  "We were such good friends," he cried upon hearing about the planned change in schools.  As a loving brother, I made sure to console him by saying that Brayboy will always be welcomed in his treehouse.

Belinda is also worried that she will not get the same quality of education from the family than she got from Shirley Mae Crabtree.  "I don't want to go to a place that makes me feel dumb!" she said once she heard of the new arrangements.  Her mom Jennifer was blunt: "It's like going from Harvard to the local community college."

In response, Noah Jr. insists that the quality of education will be of the same high class, only the family atmosphere will change.  "This won't be a community college, that's for sure," he said in directly addressing Jennifer.

(Avatar: Mary ?, a cousin of D.H. in picture taken at 2012 McMillon family reunion in Atlanta)