Newspaper Page Text
4A
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008
OPINION
My favorite favorites column
I requested, and they responded:
“You pose the questions, and I
will furnish my answers”. Here
are their questions and my answers.
My real estate assistant, Terrie H.
Bowser: “Which was your favorite all
time dog?”
My first dog, Blackie, stands out.
Then there’s UGA. But, I’d have to
say that my favorite was/is my present
canine friend, Hershey Walker. She
must be the sweetest dog in the world!
What year in your life stands out the
most?
In 19651 graduated from law school,
passed the bar exam, took my first law
job, Janice and I bought our first house
and had our first child, Larry, 111. It all
happened in June of that year!
Chuck Byrd wanted to know: “Who
was your favorite Sunday School teach
er?”’
I remember Mrs. Marie Marshall.
Then there was “Miss” Carolyn
Smith, but mostly she was involved
with MYF. But, I like the ones I have
now: Joel Anderson, Ann Gregory,
Peggy Jerles, Wayne Morris, George
Nunn, Joe Posey, and Foster
Rhodes.
This was my son-in-law, Bob Way’s
question: “What’s your favorite book
of the Bible?”
Psalms. If the Bible was a song, this
would be the chorus.
My great friend, Ray Goff, asked
the next two: “Who is your favorite all
time UGA football player?”
Trick question, I’d say. He knew
my answer would be that 1976 SEC
Player of the Year, and the quarterback
who scored five touchdowns against
the Florida Gators, Ray Goff! At least,
Ray ties as my favorite with my high
zsn' £\
Women's bathrooms - ’don't go into the Ighf
I walked by and I saw a light.
A blinding light.
“Is that heaven,” I asked.
“Is it Iowa?”
No, the person exiting said - giving
me that: “Are you stupid” look - just
the women’s bathroom at the Houston
Home Journal.
What is it with women and their
bathrooms? Flowery patterns. Mirrors
everywhere. Little soaps in the shapes
. of hearts and clovers. Smelly fra
grances. Home and Garden magazines.
Fireman of the Month calendar on the
wall. (Don’t lie HHJ ladies. I saw it...
While casually walking by, of course.)
Contrast that to our bathroom here
at the office. No mirror. Tiles the same
color as dirt. Or maybe it’s dirt the
same color as tiles. Ink hand prints on
the walls ... light switch ... sink ... toilet
... (those guys who work in the press
room would do good not to take up
bank robbing as a second profession).
We have a paper towel holder but it
hasn’t held any in the five or so years
I’ve been here.
It’s plain. It’s simple. It’s functional.
Just the way we like it.
Oh, but we do have a “stick-up”.
I love the smell of dried up river bed
(that’s what it looks like) in the morn
ing.
I am reminded of a gas station my
dad used to work at back I guess
Larry
Walker
Columnist
lwalker@whgb-law.com
school coach and friend, that 1946
All-American guard/center, Herb St.
John.
“What day stands out in your life?”
It was June 12,1963, when Jerry
Wilson, Jerry Horton, Bobby Jones
and I took off for Ft. Worth, Texas
in my loaded down white and tur
quoise Corvair to work in the steel
mill. It was the same day that George
Wallace stood in the school house door
in Alabama and the same day Medgar
Evers was shot and killed by Byron
DeLa Beckwith in Meridian, Miss.
My son, John Gray Walker, wanted
to know: “What was your favorite UGA
football game, regardless of whether
you attended?”
Well, I attended both of my favorites:
The first was the “ Washington to
Appelby” game, and the second was
the “Run Lindsey Run” game. The
Dawgs won both against the Gators
in the closing minutes. And, I really
enjoyed last year’s Georgia victory over
the Gators! I’m not yet prepared to talk
about this year’s fiasco.
“What was your funniest moment in
politics?”
“Moments”, not “moment”. They
took place every morning for years dur
ing the legislative sessions at Marcus
Collins’ room (the 292 Club) in the
Sheraton Hotel, where a group ate
breakfast. ‘Hilarious’ is not too strong
a word. ‘Clever’ also comes to mind.
Don
Moncrief
Managing Editor
donm@evansnewspapers.com
around the late 60s, on the corner of
Gunn Road and Houston Lake Blvd.
I am reminded because it often didn’t
have toilet paper, either. True incident
- or not: “Dad, there’s no toilet paper
in here and I’ve really got to go to the
potty!” I was only like 9 at the time.
(That part is true.) “Just use one of
those Home and Garden magazines
from the women’s bathroom son.”
“Eew” if you want to ladies but we’re
not there to socialize. Or be primp and
proper.
It’s in and out for us. Uh, out and in
I’m forced to say.
For about two or three years my wife
and I were part-time custodians for
Northside Baptist Church. I always
got the bathrooms. She hated clean
ing bathrooms. (Something about: “I
always have to clean them at home.”
Go figure.)
Every week it was the same thing.
I would clean the men’s restroom. I
would clean the women’s restroom.
Hr
John Hulbert, my nephew and law
associate, asked these: “What is your
favorite modern convenience?”
Hands down, or should I say ‘lid
down’, it would be the commode. Did I
ever have to go outside? No, and I don’t
want to start now!
“What is your favorite “sports
month” of the year?”
If Georgia is winning, it’s the bowl
month of January. If they’re not, it’s
September when the season starts and
we Dawgs have lots of hope.
Now, my own “quick takes”:
Favorite car(s): 1956 Ford
Thunderbird or 1957 Chevrolet.
Dates me, doesn’t it?
Favorite movie: How about the 1940’s
“Song of The South” or that power
ful, “Apocalypse Now”? Then there’s
“To Kill A Mockingbird”. “To Kill A
Mockingbird” wins.
Ice Cream: Vanilla
Person: Janice Walker.
Girlfriend other than Janice: my
Mother, Hilda Walker (safe and
true!).
Color: Blue.
Dessert: Strawberry short-cake or
egg custard pie. And I love a choco
late milkshake.
President: Harry Truman.
Hunting Companion: Clark Fain
(good shooter of birds and bull).
Fishing Companion: tie between
Billy Bledsoe and Foster Rhodes.
Adviser: Connell Stafford. He’s
See WALKER, page fA
I would clean the women’s restroom,
again. ,
“Yes, wicked stepmother. Now that
you’ve place the magnifying glass in
my hand, I do see that speck of dirt.”
The Bible says the streets in heaven
will be paved in gold. That means the
women’s bathroom better be made of
diamond. (And there are going to be a
lot of ladies who think they’ve gone to
the “other” place when they find out
God doesn’t allow mirrors.)
Yes ladies, we’ve got our faults. (“Ya
think,” my wife will say. That’s become
one of her favorite phrases for me.)
There’s that toilet lid thing, which I
keep finding out the hard way I still
haven’t figured out. But the love of
bathrooms is not one of our downfalls.
And believe me, this writing has
nothing to do with the fact my wife and
I just redecorated my mother-in-law’s
bathroom.
OK, maybe this has everything to
do with the fact we just redecorated
my mother-in-law’s bathroom. And the
fact one section bubbled up and had
to be redone (this is not exactly our
speciality) and then had to be redone,
again.
But it now looks mighty purty. It has
“the light”.
Oh wait. That’s just where I tripped
on her Persian rug and hit my head on
the chandelier.
"One voice can make a difference"
Best for kids, best for retirees;
Centerville residents No. 1; the
facts about WRs’ merit raises
It shouldn’t be long now before somebody sug
gests they move the Statue of Liberty to Warner
Robins. What with the International City being
named by Business Week as the “best place to
raise your kids” (best for Georgia).
The magazine, working with Onßoard
Informatics, a New York-based provider of real
estate analysis, first selected towns with at least
50,000 residents and a median family income
between $40,000 and SIOO,OOO. They then,
according to the release, narrowed the list down
using the following weighted criteria: School per
formance, number of schools, household expen
ditures, crime rates, air quality, job growth, fam
ily income, museums, parks, theaters and other
amenities, and diversity. *
School performance and safety weighed most
heavily, according to their release, but “strong
weight” was given to amenities and affordability.
And of course when all was said and done,
Warner Robins was at the top, paving the way for
more families to move here, and of course, afford
the Statue of Liberty comment.
And it should also be noted, or at least it was
by Perry Mayor Jim Worrall during Wednesday’s
Houston County Development Authority meeting,
that the City of Perry has in the past two years
been named to the Top 10 list of great places to
retire.
Or as he put it a bit tongue-in-cheek: “Once
they finish raising their kids in Warner Robins,
they can retire to Perry.”
• ••
What impressed us most about recent events
in Centerville, the public hearings regarding a
millage increase, was not the fact the council
men reversed their decision. Not to do so at that
point and time might have been the equivalent of
political suicide.
No, what impressed us most were the people
themselves. You only read fiery comments but
that was the nature of the beast itself. What we
saw during those four-plus hours in addition were
glimpses of something else.
One was the fact everybody appeared more
concerned with the “timing” than the actual three
mill proposal itself. Many added to that by saying
things like: “If you can just get through this year,”
or, “just let us get through the rough spots.”
And then some, believing this was about the
city being in the red, asked how far in the hole
it was, and continued by questioning just how
much it would take to get back in black.
In other words, if you watched, if you listened,
you heard a people who cared about their city
very, very much. In fact, we believe had the
city actually been in the red - “needed” money
versus “wanted” it as many put it - and had
See BEST, page $A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Seek the truth regerding global warming
My good friend Larry Walker, in his always entertain
ing weekly newspaper column, recently noted the
friendly disagreement that he and I have had concerning
global warming.
While I am not arguing that our weather has not
gotten warmer, particularly over the last half-century,
See LETTER, page 6A
Ptfusimt plrnne itfuntal
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