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10A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, July 10,2019
The bows that bind
A little girl, about eight,
danced up to me, fiddling
with the satin sash on her
dress of organza. She
twisted her mouth as she
tugged, pulled and tied the
bow.
As Mama would say,
“She tied it haphazardly.”
There is an art to tying a
bow. I knelt down and
said, “Here, let me show
you how to tie a bow. A
pretty dress like that needs
a pretty bow.”
As I did it, I explained
and when I got to a critical
part, I said, “Now, watch
this real careful because
this is the important part.”
That’s what Mama said to
me when I was seven and
she taught me to tie the
bow on my dress of lace
and ruffles.
“Pull this piece over the
top,” she said. “That’s
what makes the pretty
loop. Then you pull it
through like this. Look
what a pretty bow this is!”
I remember that the
dress was a pale mint
green with lace of beige
and I never forgot what
she taught me that day.
From that moment for
ward, I could tie the pretti
est bows even though I
still put my petticoat on
backwards as often as not.
This little girl, though,
wasn’t interested. She
shrugged her shoulders
and ran off to play.
“You just wait,” I called
after her. “One day you’ll
wish you knew how to tie
a pretty bow.”
At least once a day, I
think of something Mama
taught me - like how to
match checks and stripes
when I sewed. There’s an
art to that, too. The pattern
has to be positioned with
the notches on the tissue
lined up in the same spot
on every check, plaid, or
stripe. Then, when it’s
stitched up, it will align
perfectly. I will not wear
anything that doesn’t not
have the plaids or stripes
that match. My mama
taught me better than that.
Once, I decided to have
some chair cushions re
covered in cheerful ging
ham. It would have been
cheaper to buy new cush
ions but they had
belonged to link’s father
so I was maudlin and sen
timental about them. I
wanted the very cushions
that Grant Tinker had sat
on every day of his later
life. The first person I took
RONDARICH
Columnist
them to quit me after
doing one cushion
because, as was pointed
out, I kept “insisting that I
do them right." ’ When I
saw that the checks on
that one cushion did not
line up, I was glad I got
quit.
So, I packed them up
and sent them to my
friend, Kim Watson, in
Lexington, NC. I have
never met a more talented
seamstress in my life. She
has designed and made
every bed covering and
window treatment in our
house. True to my experi
ence, she sent back the
most beautiful, perfectly
done cushions. Each
check aligned even
though she had used rich
red piping so it wouldn’t
have been much notice
able if they didn’t match.
And, she added big, wide
ties.
“You need to have big,
beautiful bows on these,”
she said. “It will make it
gorgeous.”
I unpacked the box,
took the cushions out and
put them on the heavy
captain chairs. Then, I sat
in the floor and spent thir
ty minutes tying the bow. I
pulled. I tugged. I fluffed.
While I tied, I thought of
Mama and how grateful I
am for her instruction on
things like bows, checks,
combread, “poke salad”
that has to be washed
repeatedly so it won’t poi
son, and the necessity of
backstitching a seam so it
won’t unravel.
When, at last, I finished,
I admired the cushions for
both the job that Kim had
done in matching the
checks and the beauty of
the perfectly tied bows.
I could hear Mama say
ing, “Now, look how good
that looks. Nothin’ looks
better than a pretty bow
tied right.”
Nothing that is except
for checks that match.
Ronda Rich is the best-sell
ing author of Mark My
Words-A Memoir of
Mama. Visit www.rondar-
ich.com to sign up for her
free weekly newsletter.
Dawson County business,
residence hit with graffiti
By Joshua Demarest
jdemarest@dawsonnews.com
When Magnum
Contracting employees
arrived at work last
Monday, they found a
colorful welcome —
sometime over the week
end, several pieces of
their equipment had been
tagged with graffiti.
The vandalism
occurred sometime over
the weekend, between
June 28 at 6 p.m. and July
1 at 8 a.m.
According to a release
issued by the Dawson
County Sheriff’s Office,
“the damage is estimated
to be in excess of $300 to
repair.”
Around the same time,
a garage at a private resi
dence located at 922 Hwy
53 East was targeted as
Joshua Demarest Dawson County News
Vandals did more than $300 in damage with their graffiti.
well. The Sheriff’s Office
believes the acts were
committed by the same
perpetrators.
There is not a current
estimate on what the cost
of repair will be for the
second location.
The Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office is asking
for any information relat
ed to this incident.
FROM 1A
Sheriff
“I promise to bring effec
tive leadership, employee
accountability and fiscal
responsibility to the office
of Sheriff,” Perry stated.
In Perry’s announcement,
he said he plans to initiate a
fierce anti-drug campaign
through education and
enforcement, and has a high
priority of working with the
accountability courts such
as Drug Court, DUI Court
and Family Court.
He also plans to set aside
one day a month for citi
zens, if elected. Citizens
Day will be an opportunity
for members of the com
munity to meet with the
sheriff without needing an
appointment. Perry said he
would be in the office from
7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to meet
with citizens. He would
also like to conduct quarter
ly meetings or town hall
meetings with the citizens.
Dawson County resident
Marcus Sewell is also run
ning for sheriff. Sewell pre
viously endorsed Tony
Wooten for sheriff in 2016.
Campaign signs for
Sewell have been spotted
on social media, but an offi
cial campaign page for
Sewell has not been
launched. The Dawson
FROM 1A
Deputy
Couch praised Dixon’s service and
courage in a Monday press conference.
Dixon is survived by a wife and two
children.
“He was an outstanding deputy,”
Couch said.
Dixon is the second officer to be
killed by gunfire while on duty in 2019,
according to the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation.
One of the suspects arrested after the
shooting has been identified as Hector
Garcia Solis, 19, according to Couch
and the GBI. Garcia was shot multiple
times by deputies. Couch said the sus
pects involved in the shooting are local
and have connections in the area.
Garcia was also taken Northeast
Georgia Medical Center. Investigators
believe he is the shooter, and he is in
critical condition.
The incident began when officers
attempted to pull over a car suspected to
have been used in several home and
vehicle burglaries over the weekend,
including a “large number of firearms,”
Couch said. The car fled, crashed and its
occupants fled on foot and were pursued
by deputies.
“After refusing to follow Deputy
Dixon’s verbal commands to show his
hands, the offender disappeared briefly
back behind the residence and did sudden
ly reappear and open fire. Deputy Dixon
was struck by one round below his ballis
tic vest as he returned fire,” Couch said.
Dixon was taken by patrol car to
Northeast Georgia Medical Center,
where he died. Another deputy was
involved in the shooting but was unin
jured. He has been placed on adminis
trative leave, Couch said, which is rou
tine for officer-involved shootings. The
GBI is investigating the incident.
A second suspect was tracked by dogs
to another residence in the area and
taken into custody.
Sheriff’s Office investigators, the
Gainesville Police Department, Gwinnett
County Police and the Georgia State
Patrol are searching for the remaining
suspects. Couch did not release any fur
ther information on the suspects.
Descriptions aren’t available for the
remaining suspects and it’s not clear
how many fled the vehicle on Sunday.
Anyone with information should contact
the Sheriff’s Office at 770-533-7693.
When Denise Chamberlain, who was
with her sister on Highland Avenue,
woke up around 6 a.m. Monday, she saw
police officers all over the neighborhood.
“I told my sister before I (went) to
bed, ‘Oh my God, they started back
again with the firecrackers,”’ she said
describing what she heard after 11 p.m.
Sunday.
Around 7 a.m., sheriff’s office spokes
man Derreck Booth said the department
and other law enforcement agencies
were continuing “an active search for
the remaining suspects.”
“Persons of interest and other parties
are in the process of being interviewed,”
Booth said.
Ret. Gainesville Police Department
Capt. Chad White said this was the first
Hall County deputy shot and killed on
duty in almost a century.
William Jefferson Dorsey was dis
patched to Feb. 25, 1920 to the
Gainesville Mill to break up a fight.
After finding the two men on Dean
Street, Dorsey attempted to arrest them.
“While he was trying to make the
arrest, the other (man) there pulled a
handgun out and shot him,” White pre
viously told The Times.
Dorsey was shot in the stomach and
died the next day. He was buried at
Lebanon United Methodist Church in
Hall County.
Both men, John Brown and Otis
Darnell, were convicted of murder.
Brown was sentenced to 15-20 years,
while triggerman Darnell was given a
life sentence.
This report has been updated from its orig
inal version. Times staff Nick Bowman
contributed to this report.
County News reached out
to Sewell for more informa
tion on his campaign plans,
but he was unavailable as of
press time. More informa
tion will be posted on daw-
sonnews.com later this
week.
Both men seek to chal
lenge current sheriff Jeff
Johnson, who was elected
to his first term in 2016.
Prior to his election,
Johnson served as the com
mander of the Dawson
County jail and has 26
years of law enforcement
experience.
During Johnson’s time as
sheriff, he has been met
with positive and negative
response.
He has come under fire
for his unsuccessful lawsuit
against the Dawson County
Board of Commissioners in
which he sued for addition
al funds, an incident in
which all on-duty deputies
were discovered playing
badminton and leaving the
county unprotected during a
late-night training session
and most recently bad press
surrounding an officer
allegedly refusing to
respond to a call at
Nimblewill Gap Road.
He has also established a
special weapons and tactics
(SWAT) team for the first
time in Dawson County in
10 years, served on the
Dawson Substance Abuse
Coalition task force, facili
tated the acquirement of a
bomb detection dog for the
county and installed a train
ing simulator to provide
additional training for offi
cers without additional
costs for fuel and ammuni
tion.
Johnson said in a state
ment that in the past two
and a half years, the sher
iff’s office has also
increased school safety,
implemented greater patrol
operations, obtained State
Law Enforcement
Certification and Medical
Association of Georgia
Accreditation, “all in order
to better serve our commu
nity.”
“Although we are excited
about past accomplish
ments, we are not content,”
Johnson said. “We know
that our community con
stantly changes and we
must always strive to
address these ever changing
times. We are an office with
proven results.”
Johnson said putting all
political rhetoric aside, he is
confident the community
will make an informed and
educated decision.
“It has been our honor to
serve our people and we
remain committed to our
community, now more than
ever,” Johnson said. “We
will be launching a re-elec
tion campaign in the com
ing months.”
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