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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.”