About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2022)
thesylvaniatimes.com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, April 6, 2022 - Page 3 Editorial From the Editor’s Desk -Joe Brady The Sylvania Times, Editor I am 52 years old, and I have never had a cavity. I have never had a tooth abscess or even a toothache. Even though grow ing up I could have eaten briers through a fence, yes, my teeth were beyond bucked, I have never been affected by tooth decay. Now, I did wear braces for 8 solid years of my life and went to the dentist once a month for every one of those 8 years. So last week as we were eating with the kids, I was a bit shocked when I took a bite of my salad to feel something not quite right. Having never had a toothache, I was confused. Oh my gosh, that is like the worst pain! Everybody thought I was angry because I stopped talking and stopped eating. That night in the bed, I was in complete agony. Sleep was not coming to me, and my jaw throbbed with an unmistakable pain. I used an ice pack, took Tylenol, a warm rag. Oh, for some relief. The next morning, I don’t mind telling y’all, I looked like that boy on Mask in that movie Cher made back in the 80’s. Now, if you didn’t know this, Em vain. Let’s don’t forget that Mary Mons was my grandmother, Miss Jenkins County of 1940, and buyer of age-defying makeup at the ripe old age of 81. This was Friday night y’all, I can’t go to the auction house looking like that. I had heard about abscessed teeth; I had never seen one and I refuse to doctor myself over the internet. I called our local dentist. “We can see you March 30th, but all of our emergency appointments are taken.” Ok, maybe she didn’t understand, I need help like right now! I could be dead by March 30th, and we won’t even talk about pre-booked emergency appointments. So, who do I call? Y’all one of my favorite doc’s is always good for either a laugh or a prescription. Dr. Gay calls me in some “bug killers”, his description, not mine. Well, penicillin doesn’t work fast enough but at least the pain began subsiding as the auction started. I felt like everyone was staring at my goose egg, had I had a veil, I would have worn it, looking like Jackie Kennedy and all. Of course, one of my employees, Becky, could be counted on to remind me just how horrible I looked. Slowly but surely the pain subsided, and the swelling went down. As I left the dentist Tuesday, I reflected on the question they asked me, “Mr. Joe, the tooth has to come out, do you want to keep it?” Well let me tell you, I re member Granny’s gall stones sitting in a little glass bottle on her dresser my entire life. This tooth, while not a cavity, had decided to abandon me and on its way out, it has caused me agony. Do I want it? Grind that sucker up in the garbage disposal was my suggestion. My other suggestion to the dentist, “don’t mess with my smile, you know I’m vain!” That’s all for now, take care! to the Letters to the editor of The Sylvania Times are wel comed and encouraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours.Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. The Sylvania Times reserves the right to edit any and all portions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters mwust 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: thesylvaniatimes@gmail.com Larry’s Lenten Journey Fifth Week of Lent “When will I be good enough?” One of the practices of Lent is to examine our selves and to contemplate how we go about living our daily lives. Do I truly live up to the example that Christ has set for us? What do I need to do in order to do so? What obstacles in my life prevent me from doing so? What do I need to do to get back on track? When I was raised up in my small neighborhood church, I was very much instilled with the sense that if I didn’t live a sin-free life, if I was a back slider, if I let God down, there would be no salvation for me as I was not good enough. Consequently, I believed that I was failing nearly every day due to my sins. I grew up in a home where there was physical abuse and alcoholism on my father’s part and un diagnosed mental illness on my mother’s. My par ents were estranged from one another when I was 12 years old. My father, a tool and die maker for the automobile industry, began to travel for his job, often being gone for weeks at a time. He was never in the picture, and he did not participate in support ing the family. As a child, I thought that this was in some way my fault. Was I a good son? What did I do wrong? Why was I not good enough? As I grew older, my par ents divorced, leaving me as the teenaged and sole financial provider for my mother, my sister, and my self. Our church turned its back on my family when we were most in need. As a result of that, I turned from God and the church. It wasn’t until much later in life that I found my way back to faith and to the church. My second wife and I began to explore our faith together. We church shopped a broad spectrum of Christian denomina tions. During this time in our lives, I heard a sermon that changed my life. One Sun day morning, the pastor said that he had a seminary professor who had lost his wife to illness; this profes sor confessed to his class that he no longer had faith. But, he said, he would continue to act like he had faith. He prayed and par ticipated in chapel with the students. He continued to prepare and preach ser mons. Eventually, through God’s grace and mercy, he rediscovered his faith. This story served as a focal point for my prayer life. “Lord, help me to find my faith and to finally be good enough,” I prayed. God answered my prayers. My wife and I found our church home, and during a retreat weekend I found my faith. I had been praying that I might find just a small kernel of faith, but God had other things in mind. I felt as though a truckload of faith kernels had been dumped on me. The certain knowledge that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was real, that I was forgiven, that I was loved, filled me that day. I came to realize there was nothing I could do to make God love me any more than He al ready does. I learned it is only through God’s grace, forgiveness, and love, that I would find salvation. By the grace of God, I am finally good enough! Ogeechee Ramblings Scotty Scott 1 Eastern Woodland Indians in Screven County Several years ago, when I was President of the Georgia Salzburger Society, there were 23 boxes of “relics” in the Old Parsonage at Eb- enezer. I was told they were from the Silk Fac tory Dig from the early 1990s. As these boxes were poked under tables, and being used by rats, mice, and cockroaches, I obviously wanted to find another home for them. I talked to archaeolo gist Billy Brant, the son of Lisa Johnson Guidos, who in turn, put me in touch with one of his collegeaues. This lady come over to Ebenezer to start explor ing these boxes and the paperwork in them. Af ter an hour or so of pok ing around, she informed me that these were not from the Silk Factory Dig, but from the Thal- man Line Cut, a 50,000 volt powerline which goes through Screven County. After much re search and phone calls I discovered yet another archaelogist, Dan Elliot. This dig was the first Dan supervised, and the one in which he’d met his wife, Rita. The El liotts involved Georgia Southern University and the university is now in possession of not only those 23 boxes, but 42 more from the same dig. The Chair of the Ar- chaelogy Department at GSU informed me that one of the most pristine areas in the Eastern U.S. for Indian artifacts are on both sides of Brier and Beaverdam Creeks. From research by vari ous people over the years, Screven County was pretty much in the center of the Muskogean Creek Empire, and it was thanks to one of their main tribes, the Yuchi or Uchee Indians, that our early German set tlers were able to make it here. I’d always won dered about the strange ness of the name “Haga Slaga” and remember wondering if it was Ger man or Danish for “safe slough”, but nope! It’s a Creek word meaning “place of manufacture”, where the Creeks, Yu- chis, etc. and neighbor ing tribes would come to chip mica and slate into arrowheads, while en gaging in trade with one another. Though the GSU Ar- chaelogy Department is now in possession of those boxes of arti facts, they are still the property of the Geor gia Salzburger Soci ety, and they can be loaned out as needed to various historical organizations in our area. So, if the Brier Creek Battlefield ever achieves National Park status, and a mu seum is erected, then they have a plethora of Native American ar tifacts to start with. I know that I’d go look and see them again. - Btjs/n&ss G&rcfs - fn\s/t3tions - L.&tt&r - - F?&C&ffDtS ©SDL, Sylvania Times Printing Services SHADY LANE Tree Services. LLC Tree & Slump Removal - Storm Cleaiip - Pnrii| Dustin McMillan Call Today! (912) 682-8166 CAR REPAIR A -1 AUTO TECH Nf( ifjrice ?ll tttit iirfmollpls lit Did CfttfcSuri !,t< ‘ 47I.7I7.I723 Mtblle Adding Sinicii Avdlibl* liiama ®imrs Proudly covering Screven County’s news, sports, and community events since 2022 thesylvaniatimes.com Sam Eades Publisher Joe Brady Editor Sam Eades Advertising Sales Debbie Heam Layout and Design Sarah Saxon Administration/Legals Burton Kemp Sports Editor Jake Gay Staff Writer Scotty Scott Staff Writer Subscription Rates (Includes tax): 6 Months Delivered In Screven County $ 18.00 1 Year In Screven County $30.00 1 Year Online Only $20.00 2 Years In Screven County $55.00 1 Year Outside of County $40.00 1 Year Outside of Georgia $45.00 The Sylvania Times is published weekly by The Sylvania Times 117 N. Main • Sylvania, Ga. 30467 Phone: (912) 451-NEWS (6397)
