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♦ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2008
4A
EDITORIAL
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Women’s clubs making a
difference
“The service we render to others is really the
rent we pay for our room on this earth.”
Sir Winfred Grenfell who made that statement,
would undoubtedly have been impressed with
Perry, where volunteerism is part of the fabric
of the community, and some people seem to
be constantly hard at work for no pay to benefit
others - or, as Grenfell and others who have
adopted his concept would have put it - paying
their “ground rent.”
Perry’s women’s clubs are a notable example.
In some cases these are young women busy with
with homes, children and jobs. In some cases,
they are nearing retirement. Every single one of
them could find a valid excuse not to serve their
community, but instead they are forever coming
up with fund raisers to benefit the community.
Two example that come to mind are the
Balvaunuca Club, which has donated over
SIB,OOO to different community services and
charities recently with the proceeds of their
Mistletoe Market, and the Mahala Club, which is
hard at work selling tickets and gathering auction
items for their big day with Mark Ballard March 1.
That event, to be held in the Board of Education
auditorium, will benefit the Perry Library, and also
offer an opportunity for book donations for the
Friends of the Library Old Book Sale.
Perry is fortunate in having these clubs and
many others in which members are so stead
fast in their service, taking time from their busy
schedules to help raise funds for everything from
food for the hungry to Perry Volunteer Outreach
to books for the book sale.
At the same time, the events these groups plan
add to the quality of life of the community.
Thanks, ladies!
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kudos to Cary Baxter
Dear Mr. Cary Baxter,
My, Sister, Mrs. Abbie Sue Hunt Ginn, and I and
all of Daddy’s family and friends would like to express our
thanks to you for returning the plaque that identified the old
court house annex on Jernigan Street as the Tommie Hunt
building. Daddy served as Superior Court Clerk of Houston
County for 40 years. Abbie Sue recently found out that you
had restored the identifying plaque, neither of us knew it
had been removed. And for that, we thank you very much.
Daddy earned a lot of respect in the world of Court Clerks
and having his name on the Annex was and is a source of
pride for his family.
- T. Nelson Hunt, Smyrna
Cleaning up Porky’s place, then some
st I’m the “nice lady" who got a bunch of people together
I and cleaned up Rozar Park this weekend. I’m sorry to
say, Porky, that I do believe we got your collection of cans
and wrappers. In fact, I think we got a lot of folks’ collections:
we gathered 16 bags of trash, including an old box fan, a
phone book in its wrapper, the dashboard to a car, and about
20,000,000 blue fishing worm containers!
I haven’t visited Gaines Avenue yet, but I have noticed that
people seem to be storing their collections along Highway
341/Main Street, Perimeter Road and Park Avenue, as well.
We’ll be discussing Perry’s first annual Earth Day as well as
more days when we can clean up some of those collections.
I’d love to hear everybody’s ideas!
- Heather Ray, Perry Earth Day Coordinator
Taking exception to Obama comments
Dr. Dan Callahan’s Saturday Letter to the HHJ and his
criticism of Barack Obama as a socialist and “untested
black man” is absolutely hilarious! Sen. Obama is a Harvard
Law School graduate and a devout Christian. But Dan
again mistakenly states of Barack: “Once a Muslim always
a Muslim". That “He’s too valuable to al Qaeda.” That he’s a
“closet Muslim.” Barack is a member of the United Church
of Christ and a patriotic American. He has no actual Muslim
background but then we have 6 million Arab Americans
here anyway who are patriotic, often Muslim and loyal citi
zens. Dan is obsessed with Barack’s middle name which is
“Hussein”. From Dan’s imaginary Muslim Medrassas to the
Oval Office with Hilliary as his vice-president! I can hardly
wait until Jan. 8 of 2009!
- Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins
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
Nicole Crofutt
General Manager
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
The All-American on our street
There is an All-American who
lives on our street. Actually,
his house fronts on another
street, but his carport and where he
enters is on our street, so I’m claiming
him - claiming him just like I’ve done,
now, for almost 50 years.
I believe he came here in 1954, and
he must have been about 30 years old,
because he’s now 83. I remember the
first time I saw him. I thought he was
mighty big and a little intimidating.
Today, he doesn’t look so big, and he’s
unfailingly kind and polite - anything
but intimidating.
I talked to him last Saturday night,
and he told me: “Larry, I’m not doing
so good. I look better than I feel”. My
retort: “I believe most of us feel better
than we look, at least I hope so”. And,
I do.
They inducted him into the Georgia
Sports Hall of Fame last Saturday
night - he and eight others.
They talked about his record and
what he accomplished as a player and
coach. But, they didn’t really get it
right. They tried, and it was impres
sive, what they said about him, but,
only his family and five of his players
who were there, Stewart Bloodworth,
Boot Hunt, Stanley St. John, Lee St.
John, and me, knew that they didn’t
do this All-American who lives on our
street, justice.
Where it started “getting right” was
when he responded. His first words: “I
want to thank my Master ...” and it
went from there. He thanked his family
members, including his wife, Barbara,
and his children and grandchildren
and the folks doing the inducting.
His 100-year old mother-in-law, Mrs.
'Pe^BlLs,
“You just don't understand conservation... If everyone else
would stop wasting water, I could have all I want!"
Bears, alligators and the good or days
I heard from some of them bears
up at Oaky Woods that they seein’
the handwritin’ on the wall and
lookin’ for a new place to go, so I tol’ em
they oughta come on down and live in
the spec building with me and the boys
and all them possums and armadillos.
LiT Bubba Junior said if them bears
start tryin’ to cross 75, we gon’ have a
whole passle of Fair Bears, which Bo-
Diddley said was fine with him, cause
he ain’t got no use whatsoever for bears,
but it was two against one and we gon’
get ‘em a map and show’em how to go
through all them subdivisions and come
across the 96 bridge.
I got some complaints ‘bout writin’
we could have a alligator farm out at
the state park. Them Houston Lake
alligators dint like the idea one bit, so I
apologize and repent, too.
That was politically incorrect an’ I
have learnt my lesson. If I’d a knowed
them alligators was readin’ the Houston
Home Journal, I’d a never have put
that in there, ‘cause I personally have
got the greatest respect for alligators.
Plus they bite.
Me and the boys been readin’ ‘bout
what’s goin’ on up in Atlanta, and
we’re thinkin’ it’s ‘bout time to send a
Grayhoun’ bus up there and bring ‘em
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
"Kite have an All-American
living on our street. But,
it has nothing to do with
football. What it has to do
with is the important
life-lessons he taught me
and so many others..."
Grace Dubois, beamed as he spoke, as
well she should have, given his years of
kindnesses to her.
As he talked, I thought of Stewart,
Middle Georgia Player of the Year in
1957, Boot, who in 1959 went to the
University of Georgia on a football
scholarship, Stanley St. John, who was
a very good center on a good team, and
Lee St. John, an outstanding running
back, and how they must be thinking
of the old days and their great gridiron
successes.
I thought of how their experiences
differed from mine. It was different for
me, or should I say, it was different for
them. And yet, what this All-American
taught me was probably, in most ways,
the same and most important things he
Porky’s
Ponderings
porky@evansnewspapers.com
all home.
Georgia ain’t never safe now when
the assembly’s in session.
Useta be it wasn’t so bad. I don’t
wanna soun’ like I’m stuck in the way
back machine, but I miss the days
when ‘ol Larry was up there.
They’d all go up there in January and
proclaim and declare a few things and
then they’d divide up the money and
ever little town’d get somethin’ like a
fire truck or a new libary, an’ Perry’d
get twicet or three times as much as
everybody else ever time. Them was
the days.
That was called pork barrel, which
everbody knowed was a good thing as
long as you got it in your town. (Only
problem I ever had with pork barrel
was when they put that statue up out at
the fairgrounds and dint put no hog in
it, when everbody knows that all them
tenant farmers had more hogs than
"One voice can make a difference"
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A
j M
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
taught them.
I have a framed campaign brochure
of mine from 1998, and in it, this All-
American says this about me: “Larry
was one of the smallest players on the
team, but he had more heart and fight
than anyone I have ever coached ...”
He will never know how much his
words have meant to me. He will
never know how much he taught me
about never giving up, and continuing
to fight, and giving it my best. Yes, I’ll
bet he taught Stewart, Boot, Lee and
Stanley, the same things.
Coach, you are an All-American. The
Georgia Hall of Fame Program on
pages 21 and 34 says so.
They talk about your being a four
time, All-SEC guard (one of only two
UGA players to do this), and about your
pro career and what Coach Wallace
Butts had to say about you: “Built like
a fireplug and twice as durable, rugged,
aggressive, quick and intelligent”.
And that’s why they inducted you
into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame,
and that’s why they call you an All-
American. Really, they missed it.
We have an All-American living on
our street. But, it has nothing to do
with football. What it has to do with
is the important life-lessons he taught
me and so many others, and his kind
nesses to Mrs. Dubois, and his starting
his thank you remarks with, “I want
to thank my Master . . .”. These and
many others are the things that make
him an All-American.
Herb St. John is the All-American
living on our street, and Janice and
I love Barbara and him very much.
Thanks Coach, for being a real All-
American.
they had mules. )
Anyway, now they go up there and
go crazy. Like they gonna try puttin’
sales tax on everthing - like you need
a haircut, you gotta pay sales tax, like
you get your oil changed, you gotta pay
sales tax, like you gotta go see the vet,
you gotta pay sales tax and if you die
you gotta pay sales tax on bein’ funeral
ized.
You prolly think I’m zaggeratin’, but
they ain’t space here for me to list all
the things they gon’. put sales tax on.
Course they say they gon’ take away
the some of the proppity tax, but if you
ain’t got no proppity, like you rentin’ a
place, you ain’t gon’ get no prize ‘cept
payin’ more sales tax.
80-Diddley says he heard everbody’s
gonna get a gummint check from
Washington, D.C. late this spring so all
y’all can run out and buy a buncha stuff
and stop the recession.
I asked 80-Diddley “Where they gon’
get the money?” and he said, “They
gon’ borry it from China an’ let the chil
lun pay it back later.”
So maybe it’s bout time we send a bus
up to Washington, too.