Local Characters

Just Thinking Local Character(s) Aunt Albie

By Lorie Thompson

One of the things I want to do each month is share stories about local people who may not be famous but should be. One of my favorite local characters was Mountain Man’s Great Aunt, Albie Eller. Not too long after Mountain Man began courting me, he invited me to go with him to visit his Aunt Albie and Uncle Isaac. They lived just over the mountain in Towns County on Upper Hightower Creek. When we arrived, there was a car in the carport, but no one was home. We decided to enjoy the porch swing and the view and wait a bit to see if anyone would return. In just a few minutes, Mountain Man pointed up the valley, and I could see Albie coming our way. She was tall and slim with an easy gait as she worked her way through the edge of the woods, skirting through the brambles. She was wearing a hunting coat, carrying a shotgun under her arm, and had a game bag across her back. Aunt Albie had been up the mountain hunting and had a sack full of squirrels. Mountain Man helped her clean them. She started them cooking in preparation for a pan of squirrel and gravy for their supper. She showed me around her home. She had beautiful flower gardens and a vast vegetable garden with her Fall greens still growing. The highlight of my visit was a trip to her root cellar to pick out anything I wanted from her shelves of home-canned goods. I was mesmerized. There were floor-to-ceiling shelves in a walledoff room in the root cellar. Each shelf had neatly arranged jars full of colorful vegetables, soup mixes, jellies, jams, canned meat, fermented pickled beans and corn, sweet pickles, dill pickles, and tomatoes! It was glorious! Aunt Albie and I became firm and fast friends. Mountain Man was rising in my estimation. A man with such great women to raise him had to be a keeper! By that time, I had started getting to know Mountain Man’s Mother and Grandmother. I loved them and will tell you more about them another time. Both were genuine mountain women. They were born and raised on Upper Hightower, and their travel outside of the area was minimal. I just assumed the same was true of guntoting, fish-catching, Albie.

My next visit to Aunt Albie’s was similar to the first. Mountain Man and I dropped by her home one afternoon to pop in and say hello. (The truth is, I had run out of the divine pickles she had given me and wanted a second jar.) Uncle Isaac was at home, but Aunt Albie was not. He invited us to sit on the porch with him and wait on Albie to return. He didn’t volunteer any information as to where she was, but we were enjoying our visit with him. While looking across the valley, I saw Albie pop up over the creek bank. She had a fly rod under her arm and a creel full of trout across her back. In my eyes, Albie was the epitome of a true mountain woman. She could hunt and fish and was a fantastic gardener and cook. She was quiet and self-possessed and always laughing. We often visited with Albie and Isaac. She hosted family lunches, and by that time, Mountain Man and I were always together. Her home was small but always in perfect order. I enjoyed some of the best food I have ever had sitting at her Formica kitchen table. Their home was built in the late 1950s and decorated in the typical style of area homes. I noticed there was a substantial amount of oriental art in her home. It was inconsistent with the rest of the

Lorie Thompson is a REALTOR at Poss Realty in Clayton, Georgia. Her expertise in her industry is second only to her culinary talents. Lorie is a dynamo in the kitchen. Honestly if she prepares it, it will likely be the best you’ve ever had! Lorie and her husband, Anthony (Peanut), make their home in the Persimmon Community. She is the proud mother of Joe Thompson and Kendall Thompson.

furnishings. When I asked Aunt Albie about the Oriental pieces, she told me she had lived in Occupied Japan just after WWII. This hunting, fishing, gardening, canning, mountain woman had traveled all over the World! Japan! No wonder she was so confident and self-possessed!

Aunt Albie and Uncle Isaac had lived an exciting life. Isaac was a Warrant Officer in the US Air Force and served in Tokyo just after World War II. Albie lived there with him during his deployment. Just making the trip alone to Tokyo was an adventure. She flew Delta Airlines for one stint of the travel and then was transported via ship for 13 days to reach Tokyo. She loved the Japanese people she came into contact with, and there are photos of her with Japanese families she encountered. Albie lived in Japan as the wife of an officer of an occupying force during a period of unrest. It had to be quite an experience! Her albums include photographs of the Bloody May Day riots in Tokyo that happened just outside her door. I am sure this was a scary time for her. Albie and Isaac lived and traveled all over the World, but when Isaac retired, they could not wait to get home to the mountains. Their little brick bungalow, with the big garden and the view of the green valley, seemed like Heaven to them.

Isaac passed away not long after Mountain Man and I married. Albie adored him, and she took his loss hard. They had lived a remarkable life together! Albie shared many of her canning skills with me. My Mother had always preserved food, but hers was more mundane—lots of green beans, tomatoes, and jelly. Albie and my Mother in law, Carrie, were bold! Their hot banana peppers, green tomatoes, and onions pickled in sugar and vinegar are still one of my Summer canning staples. Albie was a unique person. She was a mix of her remote mountain upbringing, paired with the confidence learned while living and traveling around the World. Above all, she was always having fun. I can hear in my mind her laughter and see her sparkling eyes. I surely do miss her. She should have been famous.

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”

Muhammad Ali