About The Jenkins County times. (Millen, Ga.) 2023-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2023)
Page 4 - Wednesday, July 5, 2023 The Jenkins County Times thej enkinscountytimes .com Just off the Paved Road Carmen Bennett, Columnist for The Times By Joe Brady, Editor for The Times One year ago this month, my parents celebrated their 51 st anniversary. They planned a big hurrah. A hootenanny if you will. In case you didn’t grow up with people like I did, who use funny words like “hootenanny”, let me explain. Originally the word hootenanny referred to something whose name you couldn’t recall, sort of like “thingamajig”. But my ancestors, the tough Scots Irish of Appalachia, eventually changed the meaning to describe an informal gathering where everyone danced and folk music was played. Now, we mostly use it to describe a good time with friends and family. So, growing up my mama was a good hootenanny organizer. The days leading up to the hootenanny nearly worked us all to death. The house had to look like Garden and Gun and the yards like Southern Living. As all you folks out there who were privileged enough to grow up on a farm know- a farm ain’t always pretty. My poor daddy had to move every piece of farm machinery, relocate every pile of random farm implements, touch up all the paint on the porch rails and scrub every inch of the barn. My mama even insisted that the cattle smile as people drove down our driveway. She would run around for weeks armed with a can of spray paint and polyurethane. I can remember daddy having a stroke when mama polyurethaned right over the door locks in the house leading up to my wedding. We had the reception in my daddy’s big barn, complete with a bluegrass band. It was a hootenanny to remember. Although my mama was an impeccable hootenanny organizer, it was often my daddy who bore the brunt of mama’s “projects”. She volunteered him for everything. Ladies needing something built for a bible school prop. A1 can do that! Cattleman’s association needs a replica of Tara from Gone with the Wind at the fair? Oh no problem! A1 can do that! And bless his heart he could, and he did for many many years growing up. There is a kind of comfort you have when you are a little girl living in a house with a daddy who can just about do anything. So, while my mama is a hootenanny planner extraordinaire, this week’s trophy goes to my daddy for giving life to all our crazy dreams. I’ll tell you what else deserves a trophy- my daddy’s homemade pineapple cherry ice cream. It was a favorite of my grandfather’s and I guess I inherited it because it is by far my favorite homemade ice cream. Daddy makes it for me on my birthday every year. I’m sharing the recipe here because I want you to have it in case you plan any of your own summer hootenannies. 2 cans sweetened condensed milk 1 Jar of maraschino cherries quartered with juice 1 Can of crushed pineapple with juice 2 cups of sugar 1 teaspoon of vanilla Enough milk to fill the churn Daddy also added, “now this ain’t a recipe for no pansy little plastic ice cream chum. You gonna need a 6-quart churn and if you got some grand younguns to turn it, then that’d be even better!” It’s a simple recipe but it is so delicious and delightful in this summer heat. Ideal for a hootenanny. A word from Rep. Rick Allen Protecting American's retirement savings Last week, I proudly re introduced the Ensuring Sound Guidance Act with my friend and colleague. Representative Andy Barr (KY-06), to protect retail investors’ retirement and investment accounts from asset managers who put environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors ahead of returns. Retirement plan sponsors have a duty to invest their clients’ hard-earned money in a manner that maximizes returns and minimizes risk. Yet, President Biden’s DOL is desperately clinging to its flawed mle that would allow financial advisors to invest Americans’ retirement savings in climate-related ESG funds, which are proven to carry higher risk and charge steeper fees. This critical legislation not only ensures advisors are making sound investment decisions based on monetary factors, but also empowers participants to decide how their money is invested. I also re-introduced the Truth in Employment Act, which would protect small businesses and their employees from a coercive tactic used by large unions known as “salting,” which makes small businesses, especially, targets of harassment campaigns designed to increase forced unionization. The Truth in Employment Act is necessary to ensure employers are not required to hire an employee who enters the hiring process for the purpose of unionizing a workplace or to put the nonunion company out of business. Access to a reliable workforce is often the number one issue facing employers, and this legislation is an important step to ensuring job creators are free to use their valuable time and resources to hire workers who actually want to work. I supported House passage of H.R. 3799, the CHOICE Arrangement Act, a legislative package that aims to enhance the flexibility and affordability of healthcare options for small businesses. Included in H.R. 3799 was the Association Health Plans Act, which I co introduced, that would give small businesses and employers the ability to band together to improve their bargaining position to reduce healthcare costs for employees. Jessica Wilson 1677 N Hwy 25 FOR SALE Millen, GA 30442 Beautifully renovated all brick home. Sits on almost 3 acres. Open concept kitchen/living/dining area. New stainless steel appliances, new granite countertops, brick fireplace, new HVAC, fresh paint and new flooring, throughout. Fenced in - Inground pool with new liner. Large metal shop in back. Approximately 30 miles from Plant Vogtle, 2 miles from Jenkins County Schools So, I always get myself in a pickle. I mean, if there is trouble anywhere around. I’m gonna get into it. Last week I had a great idea! I would sample Jenkins and Screven County and send newspapers out to random addresses. Well, I got so excited clicking all those buttons; y’all I thought I was playing Pac-man, that before I knew it I was sending out 1500 extra papers in Jenkins and 2500 in Screven. I thought, no big deal, we can do it. Oh my sweet Jesus, y’all I ain’t never seen so many papers in the back of an SUV in all my days! I mean, they were in the front seat, back seat, rear, I think they were even up top in the cargo area! I had the first inkling of doubt as the guys were stacking them up in the back room. Now, let’s suffice it to say, we started putting labels on papers at 11 a.m. and by 5 p.m. we still weren’t finished. We had already made two loads to the post office and had four more to do. The staff were grumbling. And why does your staff think you should buy them lunch when they are working is beyond me! Anyway, I ordered pizza and slushies, still they grumbled and complained how tired they were. I kept telling them, “y’all you ain’t digging ditches, you’re sticking labels to papers, I mean really?” The trouble started however when the post office received the finished product. You would have thought I had committed murder. Every post office between here and Macon started grumbling, “what is this? What do we do with it?” And then my phone started ringing off the hook. Y’all, I think one of the calls was from the Postmaster General, you know, that one that was given the job during the previous presidency. Everybody asking, “what are you doing? For the love of God, why?” All I was trying to do was mail newspapers, I pinky swear! I don’t think all the papers have yet to be delivered. Now, the customers laughed when I confessed it was my mistake. Of course, one customer told me her mail carrier told her that I was untrainable, ‘we tell him how to sort the mail and he just won’t do it correctly.” Y’all know that must be how they talk about us at Walmart while we are working the self checkout line. Of course, once everybody knew they could blame me, one of my employees, Bam, wore my name out throwing me under the bus. That’s all for now, take care! Letters To The EDITOR Letters to the editor of The Jenkins County Times are welcomed and encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Jenkins County Times reserves the right to edit any and all portions ofa letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters must include the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be limited to 400 words and should be typewritten and double-spaced or neatly printed by hand. Deadline for letters to the editor is noon on Wednesday. Email Letters to the Editor to: thejenkinscountytimes@gmail.com Paul Hearn, Superintendant Jenkins County School System The first official day of summer occurs each year in late June. But something about July the fourth just seems to be the official mark that summer is here. That is the day we celebrate our country’s independence and when many people gather with friends and family to grill out, make homemade ice cream, and shoot some fireworks. Summer is also a time when many families strike out on an adventure together. In today’s time, that generally means getting on the internet, making reservations at your planned destination, and then searching for things to do while you are there. Then when it’s time to go you just put the address in your phone and hit start and your phone will take you turn by turn to your destination. Vacation trips were much different when I was growing up. Back in the June of 1989, the annual conference for the Southern Baptist Convention was in Las Vegas. My dad, mom, sister, and I loaded up in our car and headed out west. There was no such thing as a GPS, cell phone, or the internet. All we had was a road atlas and what we had researched in books and magazines. The only reservations we had were for the few nights we were staying in Las Vegas. If you have ever seen the 1983 movie National Lampoons Vacation where Clark Griswold drives his family across the USA to visit Wally World, then you have a pretty good idea of our experience. On our first leg of the trip, we drove 31 hours nonstop to Flagstaff, Arizona. Upon waking up the next morning and looking out the hotel window I realized I was not in rural South Georgia anymore. It was sand as far as the eye could see. To this day, I still say this was the trip of a lifetime. After Las Vegas, we continued to California for a stop in Hollywood, LA, and San Francisco. We also ventured up the west coast to see an uncle that lived in Washington. The trip lasted 19 days and we covered 7500 miles. We visited several national parks along the way. Even woke up to a fresh blanket of snow in late June at Yellowstone National Park. Now on about day 16-17 my dad threatened to sell the car and buy everybody an airline ticket home on different airplanes. Even with the challenges of being together in a car for those miles and days, it was a time I’ll never forget. We took this trip with very little forward planning and almost no type of reservations anywhere. Something most would never do today. There were a whole lot of unknowns during that time. That’s sort of like change. Many times, people are weary of any type of change because of that very reason. The unknown. Had my family not taken that trip in 1989 we would have missed out on memories that we still sit around and have absolute belly laughs about what happened. I would not have seen the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, or Old Faithful. There is another reason this trip as well as any vacation is important and should be a protected time. Dr. Stephen Covey's 7th Habit is "Sharpen the Saw." He’s not referencing an actual saw but the greatest asset each of us has - ourselves. Dr. Covey says each of us must take care of our physical, social/ emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being so that we can be effective at what we are called to do. Vacations are not just about the things we do and see. They are about us taking the time to replenish ourselves and “Sharpen our Saw.” We must be at our best to be effective, and we can only be that way by taking care of ourselves. Abraham Lincoln put it this way, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” .Jenkins County Times Proudly covering Jenkins County’s news, sports, and community events Sam Eades Publisher Joe Brady Editor Sam Eades Advertising Sales Debbie Heam Admin/Layout and Design Executive Sarah Saxon Admin/Legals/AP Correspondent Brad Asbury Sports Editor Jake Gay Reporter Tyler Busch Podcast Director/Reporter THE JENKINS COUNTY TIMES issue 17 June 2023 is published weekly by on Wednesday for $35 per year by THE JENKINS COUNTY TIMES, 425 Hwy 25 S • Millen, Ga. 30442. Periodical postage pending at Millen, GA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE JENKINS COUNTY TIMES, Millen GA 30442 Phone: (478) 401-5007 Subscription Rates (Includes tax): 1 Year in Jenkins County $19.95 1 Year Online Only $18.00 2 Years In Jenkins County $49.95 1 Year Outside of County $19.95 1 Year Outside of Georgia $42.00 1 day online pass $1.99
