Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
Getting ready for the Gators
The Parental Units were always diehard
Dawg fans. Raised in the shadow of Sanford
Stadium n literally - my mother tells many
a story of her associations with greatness
as childhood friends became heroes of the
Bulldog Nation. My father, meanwhile, grew
up in the shadow of the Winder
Post Office. His indoctrination into
the world of red and black came
early. His freshman class did “The
Big Apple” on the field at Sanford
Stadium in the fall of 1937. He was
one of nine who graduated from the
Pharmacy school at the University
of Georgia in the Class of 1941. My
parents lived and breathed red and
black.
The fall of 1966 marked my
first venture to call the Dawgs in
Jacksonville. The annual Georgia-
Florida pilgrimage had been elevated
to the status of rite of passage for this
little Methodist kid. Brother #3 was in school
at Georgia Southern, so the Parental Units
planned for us to drive through Statesboro en
route to the Folkston Holiday Inn where we
stayed that first year. By my freshman year
at Georgia, they had ventured to the Days
Inn that had become the Winder Chapter's
headquarters.
That first trip to the Gator Bowl was a
baptism of sorts. Steve Spurrier was a senior
at Florida. In line for the Heisman Trophy he
would win later that year. Spurrier was con
sidered by many to be invincible. Georgia's
defense proved too much for the Gators and
Spurrier managed to throw three intercep
tions in the Dawgs' 27-10 win. As the game
unwound in the fourth quarter, the third inter
ception brought the red and black to their feet
with pom-poms, programs, and scotch raining
down from all directions. The scotch wound
up on us.
You know how broadcasters often say, “And
the crowd went wild?” Well, that was coined
after my mother jumped up on the seat and
demanded, “Who threw that?” Here we were
at our very first college football game and
my prissy little pink pleated skirt had been
straightened with scotch. Nobody owned up
to the offense, but one lone guy slunk under
his seat as my father begged my mother to
settle down.
Most folks don't realize how fired up my
mother gets at a football game. A couple of
years later, Mother rather unceremoniously
demanded of a celebrating Tennessee fan sit
ting in the Georgia section, “Why don’t you
just sit down and shut up?”
That would be called “survival” when rais
ing three boys with Haase Arnold as their
pater familias.
Anyway, the Georgia-Florida game became
a tradition in the Arnold family. Having their
baby girl on the field during half time from
1972-75 was a thrill only parents in a similar
position can appreciate. When I was able
to get some folks without tick
ets into the games with the band,
you’d have thought I’d advanced
into royalty. Back then, folks took
ticketless friends, coolers, and bot
tles with colorful contents into the
Gator Bowl. Now you can hardly
take in a water bottle and a pack of
potato chips.
The Parentals looked forward to
that weekend more than having
the family home for Christmas.
With all their offspring grown and
gone, they would each take over
an empty bedroom where, for two
weeks prior, they accumulated all
their paraphernalia in anticipation of the trip
south. Between fdling prescriptions at City
Pharmacy, C.H. would call home:
“Evelyn, be sure to put my red socks on
Helen’s bed so I don't forget ‘em.”(He'd taken
over my old bedroom for his staging area.)
“Which red socks?” my mother would ask.
“All of 'em,” came the reply. The man wore
a different pair of red socks every day from
the time the team started fall practice until
they were through playing for the season.
And if you could only have seen under his
drug coat.
The Sunday night before the 1981 trip, my
phone rang. It was Daddy.
“You want me to come get your suitcases so
we’ll be ready to go?”
“Go where?” I pulled his chain.
“To the game, where else?”
“Daddy, we’re not leaving ‘til Thursday
night. Do you know what my clothes will look
like by then all packed up in the car? What if
somebody steals my stuff out of your trunk?
Besides, I’ve got to do laundry again before
Thursday — I don’t have an entire wardrobe
in red and black. I've got to wear something
to work this week.” We always wore red and
black the week before a big game. Things got
pretty threadbare by the end of the season.
He got over not having possession of my
suitcase before Thursday and we got on the
road bright and early. The Bloody Marys
made it all the way to the golf course and we
were well on our way. Those were the days.
Go Dawgs!
Helen Person is a Winder resident and col
umnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach
her at helenperson@windstream.net.
Poll: Payne verdict was wrong
Almost 70 percent of those
voting in an online poll con
ducted by the Barrow Journal
said a judge did not make the
right decision recently in mak
ing another ruling against for
mer Apalachee High School
teacher Ashley Payne.
The ongoing case, which
has gathered international
attention, involves a former
teacher who said she resigned
under pressure after meeting
with school officials concern
ing a photo on her private
Facebook page. The picture
showed Payne holding a glass
of alcohol from an overseas
trip although it was not a
school-related one. She said
her page was set to private
and she did not allow students
as “friends.”
Approximately 24 percent
said the judge made the cor
rect ruling while 7.5 percent
said they “don’t know.”
While the Payne case is
ongoing, according to her
attorney, the decision was a
setback.
A new question is listed
each week on www.barrow-
journal.com.
Dooley to speak at historical society
Vince Dooley, former ath
letic director at the University
of Georgia, will speak to the
Barrow County Historical
Society on Tuesday, Oct. 25,
at First Christian Church, locat
ed at 275 North 5th Avenue,
Winder.
Dooley will speak about
“History as an Avocation.”
Besides his accomplishments in
athletics, Dooley is also an avid
historian, an expert gardener
and an author.
After his career as head foot
ball coach of the UGA Bulldogs
from 1964-1988 and athletic
director from 1979-2004 —
during which the Bulldogs won
a national championship in 1980
and six SEC championships —
Dooley began to devote more of
his time to two of his longtime
interests, gardening and history.
Dooley holds a mas
ter's degree in history from
Auburn University. He wrote
the forward to “Crossroads of
Conflict,” a guide to Georgia
Civil War sites. Dooley has
just completed a new book,
“History and Reminiscences
of the University of Georgia.”
The book, illustrated by Steve
Penley, is currently at the print
ers and will be released soon.
In addition to his accom
plishments on the football field,
Coach Dooley is the author of
several books.
“How ‘Bout Them Dawgs!”
and “Hairy Dawg's Journey
Through the Peach State” are
two books for children featuring
Hairy Dawg, the UGA mascot.
His autobiography (writ
ten with Tony Barnhardt)
is “Dooley: My 40 Years at
UGA.” Dooley's most recent
book, “Vince Dooley's Garden:
A Horticultural Journey of a
Football Coach” illustrated by
Steve Penley is a chronicle of
Coach Dooley’s exploration of
gardens in his backyard and
around the world.
Books will be for sale at the
meeting and Dooley will be
available to personalize books
and other items.
Registration begins at 6:30
p.m. and dinner will be served
at 7 p.m.
The advance cost for mem
bers of the Barrow County
Historical Society is $10 and
non-members are $12. A lim
ited number of tickets will be
available at the door for $15 a
person.
Due to anticipated inter
est, reservations are strongly
advised, according to organiz
ers. Forms may be picked up at
the Barrow County Museum,
located at 74 West Athens
Street, Winder. Payments may
be mailed to P.O. Box 277,
Winder, GA 30680.
For more information, call
770-307-1183 or e-mail bchis-
torical@gmail.com.
Will GA’s voters go for the transportation
You would not think that poli
ticians from 159 counties would
be able to set aside their person
al differences and local biases
long enough to agree on a list of
expensive road projects, but it
seems to have happened.
The “regional roundtables” of
elected officials from 12 dis
tricts around the state have now
finalized their lists of high
way and transit projects for the
2012 referendums on whether
to impose a one-penny sales
tax, the T-SPLOST, to pay for
10
the construction work over the next
years.
“It’s been a joy for me, but I’m glad
it’s over with,” said Douglas County
Commissioner Tom Worthan after voting
with his colleagues to adopt the project
list for Metro Atlanta.
The pot of money available to each dis
trict varies widely, as does the scope of
the projects involved.
In Metro Atlanta, where you have the
largest share of population and tax rev
enues, they propose to spend more than
$6.1 billion on transportation projects,
with more than half of the money dedi
cated to bus and rail transit facilities.
In districts outside Atlanta such as the
Northeast Georgia region that includes
Clarke, Barrow, Oglethorpe, and Jackson
counties, the amount involved is about
$630 million and the money would be
spent primarily on road or bridge proj
ects.
If the tax is approved by the voters next
year, it would represent one of the largest
commitments of public funds for infra
structure ever seen in this state. It’s prob
ably the best opportunity Georgians will
have to deal with traffic congestion and
make badly needed road improvements.
We now spend less money on highways
than every other state except Tennessee,
but that ranking would change if voters
in some or all of the districts pass the
T-SPLOST.
“We are in the bottom tier of invest
ment,” said Todd Long, planning director
of the state Department of Transportation.
“This will put us in the top tier.”
Now that the political disagreements
have been resolved over which projects
will be funded, the hard work begins:
convincing voters, in the middle of an
economic downturn that seems to have no
end, to approve a sales tax increase.
The date for the tax referendums is
now set for July 31, which coincides with
the Republican and Democratic primary
elections.
That choice of dates could be
the one hurdle that supporters
of the transportation tax are not
able to clear. There is already
strong opposition developing to
the T-SPLOST among tea party
organizations and other anti-tax
groups around the state.
Holding the referendum at the
same time as a low-turnout pri
mary election in the middle of
the summer could possibly make
it easier for the anti-tax activists
to defeat it.
There was an attempt during the recent
legislative redistricting session to move
the referendum date to the Nov. 6 gen
eral election, but conservative lawmak
ers thwarted it. Another attempt to move
the date may be made during the regular
General Assembly session, but it could
also come to nothing.
Even if the July 31 date stands, business
organizations like the Georgia Chamber
of Commerce will raise and spend an
estimated $6 million to $10 million in
their efforts to persuade voters to approve
the tax.
“If you move it to November, the pros
pects for passing it increase by about 1
percent, the data shows,” Atlanta Mayor
Kasim Reed said when asked about the
impact of the election date. “We’re not
going to quit if we have a July election.”
The polls that have been conducted
on the T-SPLOST issue show only tepid
support for it. The district that appears
to have the best shot at passing the tax is
Metro Atlanta, where drivers have to deal
with some of the worst traffic congestion
in the country.
“We are losing business relocations in
all of our counties because of traffic,”
Reed contended. “There’s nobody who
can look at the traffic in Atlanta and tell
you we don’t need to fix it.”
The politicians make a valid argu
ment for a tax increase to pay for better
transportation facilities. It’s not clear, at
this point, whether their constituents will
agree with that argument - but it’s their
call.
“It’s up to the public,” said Norcross
Mayor Bucky Johnson, who chaired the
Metro Atlanta roundtable. “It’s in their
hands.”
Tom Crawford is the editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that covers govern
ment and politics in Georgia. He can be
reached at tcrawford@gareport.com.
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