Newspaper Page Text
♦ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2008
4A
OPINION
Cold weather, warm memories
I like cold weather alright. That is,
as long as I’m not cold. I know
people who seem to relish being
cold. They’ll go out at 5:30 in the morn
ing, hang in a tree trying to kill a deer,
and with it’s being below freezing. They
love it. Like to talk about how cold
they got. Wear it like a Boy Scout merit
badge. That’s not for me.
Given a choice or having to make a
choice, I’ll take hot. I don’t mind get
ting on my tractor to mow when it’s 90
degrees-plus, or fishing when it’s white
hot, but I don’t even enjoy being at a
football game when I’m too cold.
I do think cold is important - global
warming, you know. My friend, Bob
Messer, and I have a little disagree
ment about this subject. He says global
warming is not “man-made”, and he
thinks the world is now trending colder.
He could be right. For everyone’s sake
and polar bears, too, I hope so.
It does seem to me that the latter part
of October was a little colder than it has
been for the last several years. This is
right after I had a discussion with Bob,
where I tried to make my point with:
“It used to be really cold in October
when as a child and a young person,
we went to the Georgia State Fair in
Macon, but it has rarely ever been cold
at the Georgia National Fair in Perry.”
Then, October 2008 nights turned out
rather cold.
Well, I was cold one day last week,
and I got to thinking about all of this.
Then, I started thinking about some of
my “cold experiences” and how much
fun they were. Actually, one or two of
them were “hot-cold experiences”, but
they ended as cold experiences.
Let me share some cold experiences
with you.
I’ve written extensively about how
much I loved my time spent as a child
with my Walker grandparents at their
modest country home in Washington
County, Georgia. Let me tell you, it was
cold in that house in the winter (actu
ally, it was also hot in the summer, but
this is a “cold” article).
There was a big stove in the main
<J§£)
for keeping %Lj3f M
the light / Mm
98 and driving home a point
Anna Baker is 98! Ninety-eight!
Not only that, but she, a fel
low Northside Baptist Church
member, lives the lifestyle of a woman
half her age. Or at least that’s what
I’ve been told from the most reliable of
reliable sources (my mother-in-law).
She still drives, and in addition I’m
also told, she goes from Warner Robins
to Macon frequently to get her hair
done at the beauty parlor.
That’s a story - her story - I hope
to tell another day, but for now ... Her
daughter, Nan Mays (also a member of
NBC ... and I’m going to keep secret
what she puts in her homemade bread
to make it so intoxicatingly good),
came across a phone bill of her mom’s
lying around, one day.
She noted a charge of sls and a
phone number. The phone number was
the phone number for when her mom
lived in Macon ... eight years ago.
So for eight years she has paid sls a
month for a phone number she hasn’t
used since. Doing the math on a calcu
lator, if I’m correct that comes out to
her having paid $1,440.
Nan upon discovering this called the
phone company and told a represen
tative what had transpired. Can you
believe what the phone company asked
in response? Did she still have the
phone? Could she turn it in?
The answer - eight years later: No.
Their response/action: They’re now
Larry
Walkar
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
room (combination living room and
bedroom) and that’s where we gathered
at Christmas when Papa cut holes in
oranges and we all sucked and talked.
Periodically, Papa or I would go across
the dirt road to the wood pile for fuel
replenishments. When it was cold, we
never got warm but on one side. Then,
when you got in bed that night, you
couldn’t turn over because of the thick
quilts on the bed. Good, cold memories.
Another Washington County mem
ory: Uncle Jewell May had two bird
'clilllk it fUj ip .<«■
Pictured from left is: Russell Walker, old Larry Walker, Wendy Walker Way
and Larry Walker 111, enjoying the 14 inches of snow that fell on Perry Feb.
10, 1973.
Don
Moncrief
Managing Editor
donm@evansnewspapers.com
putting a one-time charge of $27 on
her phone bill for the phone ...
... I know a man who retired from the
Air Force after 20 years of honorable
service. That was back in 2000. When
he got out - he, his wife, and they
had four children - were struggling.
They had no real savings to fall back
on. They had a mortgage payment in
Warner Robins wher§ they were mov
ing to and one in Valdosta on a house
they were trying to sell.
Amd so as it happened, when the elec
tricity came due one particular month
down the road, he didn’t have the
money - was forced to wait until his
end of month retirement pay came in.
The company of course turned off his
electricity until he paid the bill. Then
they turned it back on.
The next month he was faced with
the same. Food or electricity? He chose
food. They chose to pull the plug. As
fate would have it, a new job had begun
to reverse his fortunes - begun but he
wasn’t there yet - so the future looked
so much better.
iBIr '
dogs, and we had guns. So, on one
Thanksgiving day during the 19505, we
(Uncle Jewell, Daddy, Uncle Jim and I)
went quail hunting. It was too hot (near
90 degrees) for the dogs to do well what
bird dogs do. By Saturday night, it was
seven degrees! Most of the pipes froze
and burst.
This is a hot-cold memory. I liked hot
the best, even with the thick quilts to
ward off the cold that night.
From Washington County to South
Dakota. This was about 10 years ago. A
group of us were pheasant hunting in
shirt-sleeves when a “noreaster” with
sleeting rain suddenly moved in.
Within 30 minutes, the temperature
must have fallen 40 degrees. I thought I
would freeze to death as we made the 15
to 20 minutes trip in the back of a pick
up truck to the hunting lodge.
A Sam Nunn story: When Sam
See WALKER, page fA
Only on his next month’s bill, he
found an additional charge of S2OO, or
maybe it was $250. The letter said they
had increased his security deposit. So
not only did he have the burden of the
electric bill itself to worry about, he
now had an additional weight piled on
his shoulders.
He communicated with them - tried
to buy a little time - but found them
unwavering...
... I don’t know if you remember a
few months back when I wrote that
someone had broken into my truck and
stolen my toolbox, but as I was speak
ing to the investigator and he was ask
ing me informatidn, he came up with
this one: “And do you have a job?”
Suddenly I no longer felt like the
victim. I hesitated ever telling anybody
that because I support our police. I
believe in them. I have faith in them.
But to this day that still nags at me
- hurts - every time I think of it.
These three stories, and we could all
no doubt recite similar, all have one
thing in common: The customer was
thought of - dealt with - as less than a
real life, flesh-and-blood, God-created,
person. A precious human being.
They were the familiar: A “number”,
not a “name”.
I know there’s a flipside. The tele
phone person probably never hears
anything but complaints.
See MONCRIEF, page 6A
"One voice can make a difference"
Santa, Scrooge on a budget;
Centerville’s tax proposal
If Santa Clause and Scrooge were at the coun
ty commissioners meeting Tuesday, we suspect
one particular vote might have been volleyed
between them like this.
Santa, when the commission approved pur
chasing 705 Christmas/Holiday gift certificates at
a cost of $10,046.25 would have responded: “Oh
my. How nice! Those are such deserving folks
(which we at the Houston Home Journal would
agree). I had already allowed to put extra good
ies in their stockings on Christmas night. This is
just like icing on the fruitcake ... if fruitcakes had
icing that is.”
Scrooge on the other hand would have said:
“What! Are you kidding me? Nobody in my
company’s getting a sls gift certificate to Kroger.
Nobody’s just handing me money to give them
one, either! Where’s this money coming from?
The Fiscal Year 2009 budget? Is this coming out
of the taxpayers - my - pocket? Bah. Humbug.”
Santa, after further hearing Commissioner Jay
Walker say he would like to raise it to a S2O gift
certificate next year - he also added he gave
his to charity - would respond: “Christmas is
saved!”
Scrooge on the other hand would faint, wake up
and probably say: “Balderdash! Now it’s going to
be about $15,000 of my money? That makes my
bones go c0a1... er, ‘cold’.”
Santa would then turn to Scrooge and say:
“You do realize they have public hearings on
the budget every year don’t you? Always have,
always wi11... past, present and future. If you had
or have a problem with what my little elves (no
pun intended Commissioner Sanders) are doing,
you have an opportunity to be represented. All
you have to do is spend a tiny bit of your time
- 30 minutes - to get involved. Put up or stop rat
tling your chains. Give them feedback that they’re
doing the right thing or the wrong thing in your
opinion.
“Did you take that first step? Did you even show
up for those public hearings?”
Scrooge could only respond, caught in a new
take on the classic Christmas Carol: “Shades of
Tiny Tim. I missed it.”
On a sidenote: “And they say the Grinch’s brain
grew three sizes bigger that day.”
... Yes, we’re being silly but there is a message
here: Decisions by our commissioners and coun
cilmen should not be like Christmas presents ...
You never know what you’re going to get.
Peek beyond the wrapping paper. Attend the
meetings!
• ••
What a predicament the council for the city of
Centerville is in.
On the one hand they want to increase prop
erty taxes to generate funds to replenish the
Enterprise Fund, a fund they said they have been
borrowing off of for 11 years. A fund one council
man said they will probably have to dip into again
this year, and if they do, it could leave the balance
near zero. Plus, of the three mills proposed, they
want to get their Downtown Development under
way using one of them.
On the other hand they have literally stirred up
a hornets nest among residents and developers
in regard to their proposal.
If you sat through the entire three hours - two
in the morning and one in the afternoon - worth
See PROPOSAL, page 6A
Contributed
Snusian Pame Kauntal
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