By BONNIE BARTEL LATINO
Special to Atmore News
One imagines that perpetual Peter Pan, in the best sense of the word, Mickey Salter, just couldn’t help himself when he saw all the memes flying around social media using an already iconic photo of Senator Bernie Sanders appearing bored out of his mind and perhaps dressed more appropriately for sitting in a deer stand at a hunt than in a folding chair in the bleachers at the Inauguration of the 46th President of the United States.
So Mickey, hoping to add a little Atmore magic to the online mayhem, decided to find a photo of Linda Lumpkin Ellison or one of her childhood Atmore Brownie Troop Six friends, who were praying for her all over the U.S.
Linda and Mickey’s wife Rita, and this journalist were all members of that illustrious troop led by Susan Albert Moorhead’s famous mother, Luverne “Toad” Albert, America’s first high school football kicker in the 1940s.
You see, Linda had open-heart surgery on January 19 at Springhill Medical Center Cardiology Unit. About a dozen members of Troop Six formed an informal prayer chain and info email loop to stay updated on Linda’s surgery and post-surgery progress. Brief bits of info came from Linda’s brother Jimmy Lumpkin, who lives in Selma. He usually sent them to Susan Jansen who passed them on to this journalist, who quickly shared them via a group email loop, with the other Brownies and Honorary members of Troop Six.
The group shared prayers for Linda’s healing (and patience!) and soon were sharing pictures of Brownie uniforms and the ever-present beanie, lyrics of the Brownie Song, and memories with photos of Troop Six.
Earlier this week Honorary Troop Six member Mickey Salter had his brilliant idea to cheer up Linda. He visually scanned dozens of pictures in his virtual albums on his computer. Some snapshots were taken by him, some by others. When he found just the right pic that would work best with the Senator’s body language and seated position, I imagine Mickey let out a big Woop! Because I know the person he chose to photo bomb Senator Sanders meme is one of Mickey and Rita’s favorite people since childhood. Since before Troop Six, as a matter of fact. This could only be better if he had found a photo of Linda that would fit the scenario he had in mind. But the snap of Susan Albert Moorhead fit perfectly.
An Atmore native, Susan is well-known in the Atmore area. She served as the Escambia County High School Cheerleader Captain for the Blue Devils 1965 season / Class of ‘66 and was also voted Most Popular Girl by her fellow students.
She also taught for 39 years at A.C. Moore Elementary School in Atmore. She tried retirement, but it just didn’t suit her. For the past four years, she has been known as Mrs. Moorhead to her second-grade students at Byrneville Elementary School in nearby Byrneville, Fla.
If the stars align juuust right by mid-week, hopefully Linda will be back home in Atmore when her son Joby, who is here from Atlanta, will bring her a cup of coffee and Wednesday’s Atmore News so she can see what her fellow Brownies and honorees from New York, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Colorado, and California have been up to while she’s been recovering in Mobile.
Who knows? It might just be enough to put a great big Brownie smile on her face.
Atmore native Bonnie Latino is an award-winning novelist and former columnist for Stars and Stripes in Europe. She lives in Atmore with her little shelter dog and her husband, retired USAF Colonel Tom Latino.
BerniesMittens meme by Mickey Salter