Newspaper Page Text
BELIEF
miTORUI L
♦ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2007
4A
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Softball support
Fair’s fair. No, we’re not talking about the
recently completely and highly successful fair
- extended kudos for them once again - we’re
talking here about fair treatment.
Remember how we all got on board and sup
ported our World Champion Warner Robins
American Little Leaguers - something we still
continue to do until this very day?
Well, it’s time we all stood up and took notice
of another group
we have headed
into competition:
Northside, Warner
Robins and
Houston County
High schools and
the Westfield
Schools’ softball
teams. The Lady
Hornets have
earned a Final
Four berth and will
try to bring home
their second
straight champion
ship this weekend
in LaGrange. The
Lady Eagles won
their first-ever region championship recently,
while both the Lady Bears and Demonettes ,
would probably both be region champions, if
not for the fact they had to play each other in
the region tournament. As it stands, Houston
County won that honor but not before having to
win five straight games and beat Warner Robins
twice. Regardless, both are so good they had
already earned a state tournament berth even
before they went to the region tournament.
Those three, Houston County, Warner Robins
and Northside will be playing in Lovejoy in the
Sectionals. If they advance from there, and
here’s hoping they will, then they will be head
ed to Columbus for the finale(s).
The bottom line is our softball teams for at
least the past handful of years have been sec
ond to none - proof is the fact that some of our
girls actually played in the same Little League
World Series as our boys (in the realm of soft
ball, obviously).
No, this weekend will not be about interna
tional competition, but you can bet there are
going to be some world-class competitors.
Among them will be ours.
Fair is fair. It’s time we showed them our
utmost support!
Letters to the editor
Where’s Perry’s bowling alley
Why does Perry not have a bowling alley? When I
moved to Perry in 1944 there was a bowling alley
at Houston Lake and it was well attended. I know, because
I bowled there. The sport is suitable for young and old,
and those in between. Bowling is good exercise as well
as being lots of fun. Perry has plenty of citizens who could
support bowling at home rather than driving to Warner
Robins to enjoy the sport.
Pauline Lewis, Perry
An endorsement for Oglesby
I have known Thomas Oglesby and his family for most
of the 50 years I have lived in Warner Robins. Tommy
and his wife Pat have been married for 40 years and have
lived in the same home all this time. He is not a politician;
just a hard working Christian man who loves his home town
See LETTER, page 6L4
HOW TO SUBMIT:
There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to
hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to Houston Home Journal at
1210 Washington St., Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at the same
location between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Letters
should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name,
address and telephone number (the last two not printed). The
newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of
grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity.
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
"WOII, it's time we
all stood up and took
notice ot another
group we have
headed into
competition:
Northside, Warner
Robins and Houston
County High schools
and the Westtield
Schools' softball
teams.”
Just what's on my mind
It was gorgeous in Houston County
this past weekend. Westfield beat
First Presbyterian 29 to 28 in one
of the most thrilling football games I
have seen in quite some time. Perry High
won in the last few seconds in what had
to be an exciting game. Georgia defeat
ed Vanderbilt. Tech topped Miami.
Northside soundly drubbed Baldwin in
what USA Today dubbed the “national
high school game of the week” (how do
you like that - drubbed and dubbed in
the same sentence?).
Janice and I went to a barbeque/fall
festival on Saturday afternoon, and it
was great. Our Sunday morning church
services at the Periy United Methodist
Church were excellent (I hope and trust
that yours were, too). The fair was
in fine-form with outstanding atten
dance. Last Saturday’s attendance of
over 80,000 was the largest single-day
crowd in the fair’s history. All-in-all, a
wonderful weekend.
| Fair In fine form. It’s hard for
me to realize it has been 20 years since
we got the word that Perry would be
the site of the Georgia National Fair
and Agri-Center. Foster Rhodes and I
brought the news to a cheering crowd
at the Holiday Inn in Perry. It has been
better than either Foster or I could
have imagined.
Now, we have had 18 fairs to come
and go, and each fair seems better than
the previous one. There seems to be
more excitement, and that’s no bull
(back to “no bull” in a moment!).
| Pat Reithoffer. Reithoffer Rides
has had the carnival part of the fair
Missing deadline but not what's going on in the world
I have been writing columns for
newspapers since I was a teen.
Last Wednesday is the first time
that I have failed to meet a deadline.
As hard as I tried early this week, I
could not bring my thoughts together
sufficiently to write a column in time
to meet the deadline for Wednesday’s
newspaper. I was disappointed.
Three weeks ago yesterday I woke up
blind in my left eye. It was a detached
retina. I have known many people with
detached retinas, including a friend
who had the problem recently.
You have no idea what an ailment
is until you become a victim. Now I
know. I probably never will know if it
was the operation, the medication or
me, but for a couple of weeks I have
slept almost around the clock, serious
concentration has been difficult, and
it feels great to finally feel like I am
returning to normal.
Of course, I still am hoping that my
eyesight returns, but the mental and
physical inertia that gripped me for
so long finally is going away gradually
and maybe soon I can get back to the
things I want to do.
As I look at some news items of the
recent past, here are my reactions:
0 I have read that the mayor of
Macon plans to run against Jim
Marshall in the Democratic Primary
for representative in the Bth congres
sional district. The mayor announced
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
ever since we had the first one. Mr. Pat
Reithoffer, the owner of the Reithoffer
rides, died earlier this year. His grand
father started this business in 1896.
Foster Rhodes gave a wonderful tribute
to “Mr. Pat” at the opening ceremony
on Oct. 4.
Then, last week, the fair got what
I consider the biggest compliment it
was ever paid. Mr. Reithoffer’s ashes
were scattered from the air over the Ag
Center.
This was Mr. Pat’s request, and it was
carried out by his family. Considering
that Mr. Pat did fairs all over the
United States (many larger than the
Georgia National), you have to be hum
bled and appreciative of his request as
carried out by his family.
| No bull, some bull. It’s no bull
that a big Angus Bull got loose at the
fair. And, it’s no bull that the Perry
Police shot the bull. And, it’s no bull
that the big bull didn’t die. And, it’s
no bull that the bull got loaded up and
taken off to be put out to pasture to do
what bulls are wont to do.
, But, it’s some bull as to exactly what
happened, and why. Lots of funny
things being told about the big bull and
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
early this year that he has become a
Muslim and changed his name.
I wonder if he plans to run as “Hakim
Mansour Ellis” or as “C. Jack Ellis”?
% A school teacher in Cobb County
taped shut the mouth of a disorderly
student. The teacher was taken to
court. The judge ruled that while the
teacher’s action was bad judgment it
was “not a criminal act.” I imagine
that many teachers would like to do
the same thing.
0 Hillary Clinton has come out with
a string of costly new programs that
she says she would like to adopt if she
becomes president. Most are being shot
down.
However, she was quoted last week
as saying, “I have hundreds of ideas,
but the country can’t afford them.”
She knows how to get the money. Raise
taxes. And she will if she becomes
president.
• President Bush did the right thing
when he vetoed the SCHIP bill, which
was supposed to provide health insur-
1 1
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
what happened. Aren’t we glad no one
was hurt, and we can laugh about the
incident? That’s no bull.
■ SEC parity? I mentioned
Georgia’s defeating Vandy. Well, the
Dawgs did it with a field goal on the last
play of the game. I was nervous. Little
did I think I could ever get that excited
about Georgia’s beating Vanderbilt, but
I did. It’s been said before, but now it’s
true: Any SEC team can beat any other
team on any Saturday.
Who has the best team in the confer
ence? Could it be Kentucky? Hard to
believe, but it might be true. Georgia
has five games left to play: Florida,
Troy, Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia
Tech. Georgia should beat Troy (who
defeated Oklahoma State out there),
but could lose all the rest. On the other
hand, they could win them all (I doubt
it). I wrote earlier that Georgia would
win nine games this year, including
the bowl game. They have five, so far.
Where will they get the other four?
| Back to compliments.
Apparently, I have a distinctive voice.
To me, my voice is pretty typical of
how people used to talk who grew up
in the Piedmont Plateau of Georgia.
Still, it must be more southern
than most. Evidence of this is that
I have been the voice for General
Robert E. Lee and the voice of General
John Bell Hood (the commander
who unsuccessfully defended Atlanta
against General Billy Sherman at the
Battle of Atlanta) on public television.
Now, I have made a commercial
See WALKER, page 6A
ance for underprivileged children.
Congressional Democrats went too far.
They wrote a bill that would provide
free health insurance for families (2
children) with income of $83,000 a
year (hardly low income).
sUso a child is defined as anyone
up to 25 years old. They ought to get
real and write a bill that will help the
truly poor children instead of including
people who obviously should not get
free health insurance.
Since Hawkinsville made wearing
baggy pants that expose underwear
and much more illegal I have heard
some interesting comments.
The comment heard most often says
that baggy pants are a good thing
because anyone wearing them can’t
outrun the police. My favorite com
ment came from a young man, who
said, “I will stop exposing my rear end
when they force Britney Spears and
Lindsay Lohan to stop exposing theirs
from another direction.”
0 I was in a local restaurant one day
this week where a young woman had
eyes popping. She was wearing a dress
that would make Britney jealous and
that would be hard to do. If the pur
pose of wearing that dress was to get
attention she succeeded.
0 Overheard: “I sure appreciate
the police announcing on the radio
every morning where they are goipg to
enforce the speed limit that day.”