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4B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, September 11,2019
FROM 1B
Volleyball
our girls were a bit emotion
al,” Head Coach Tanya Porter
said. “I am hoping that White
County is in the same situa
tion, and we catch them at a
motivational low point.”
Facing the Warriors for the
third time this season, the
Lady Tigers started strong, as
junior Hayley Selzer rose to
the challenge, driving the ball
over the net for a handful of
points, as well as sparking a
5-point run from the service
line giving Dawson County
the first set win.
White County rallied in the
second set, as they found gaps
in the back of the Dawson
defense and accurately placed
the ball in the corners to tie
the match at one apiece.
Led by senior Chloe
Bennett with 13 kills and a
powerful serve, along with
staunch front line play from
fellow senior Marlie Townley,
the Lady Tigers did something
they had not done yet this sea
son, despite taking seven
opponents to the third set (too
including two previous match
es with White County); they
rebounded from the second
set loss to win the match by a
final score of 2 - 1.
The win moved Dawson
County to just under .500 in
non-regional play with an
overall record of 12 -13 as the
Lady Tigers readied for their
first pair of regional match
ups on Sept. 10 when they
hosted the East Hall Vikings
and the Fannin County
Rebels. Results were unavail
able at press time.
Bob Christian Dawson County News
The Dawson County Lady Tigers gather around Head Coach Tanya Porter on Sep. 5 during a
time-out in their game with White County.
Who is a Southern writer?
For many years I have
been on the mailing lists of
top New York publishing
houses to receive books that
deal with Southern life or its
people.
Each sealed envelope
offers a moment of excite
ment before I open it. In
those first seconds when I read the return
label that has the name of the publishing
house and the location of New York City,
I anticipate that I am about to discover a
new, wonderful work of Southern litera
ture or nonfiction, a tale that I will fall
into and savor to sweet satisfaction
Too often, though, I am sorely disap
pointed. Sometimes the book is written
by someone who lives in the South but
wasn’t born here to Southern-bred peo
ple. To write it authentically, I hold to the
belief that you should have inherited it
like blue eyes or dark hair. A true
Southern writer should rise up from
unforgiving dirt that, sometime in the last
hundred or two hundred
years, threatened to starve
your people, or you were
raised in the unique gen
tility of a town immersed
in Southern culture and
character.
Fike Yazoo City from
which cometh the beloved
Willie Morris and a town
that was home for many
years to Grand Ole Opry
star and legendary story
teller, Jerry Clower. With
reverence, I have driven
by Mr. Morris’ childhood
home as well as the nice,
modem brick ranch home
of Mr. Clower. I’ve visited
the grave of Willie
Morris, too. Nearby in the same cemetery
is the burial site of the Witch of Yazoo, a
character made infamous by Morris’
retelling of a legend.
Only in the South could the character
born of a writer’s imagination be given a
grave, a monument, and a chain to keep
her in (she is said to have once burned
down Yazoo). This is how genuine a
story written by a true Southerner feels.
Here’s another bothersome nag about
the somewhat Southern books that come
these days: They’re overly dark and
despairing. Flannery O’Connor of
Milledgeville, Georgia, was known for
the Southern Gothic tales she expertly
spun. It takes wit, expertise, and a deep
understanding of Southern characters and
way of life to write as did
Miss O’Connor and Eudora
Welty. Despite the deep,
darkly tinted stories they
intricately wove - A Good
Man Is Hard To
Find and The Petrified
Man - they presented them
with an air of humor. That
isn’t easy to do.
A couple of years ago, an Atlanta-
based magazine featured a story on
“Southern” writers. Only two of the
seven had grown up anywhere within
Southern borders. The other five had
moved there, all in adulthood. It’s hard to
leam our brand of storytelling past the
age of 12. With respect to their talents
and craft, these people aren’t Southern
writers. They are, instead, people who
write about the South.
Take Terry Kay of rural Georgia, for
instance. One of his earlier books, To
Dance With the White Dog, is still con
sidered one of the most outstanding
Hallmark Hall of Fame CBS presenta
tions. It starred the hus
band-wife team of Jessica
Tandy and Hume Cronyn
and won an Emmy. Terry,
a true Southern gentle
man, is one of the South’s
modern literary authors.
Only someone who lived
it as a small child could
have written so effectively
and movingly of the
moment that electricity
first sparked in a country
community: The Year The
Lights Came On.
Ferrol Sams was a ste
reotypical small town
doctor in Fayette County,
south of Atlanta, carrying
a black satchel and mak
ing house calls when he first put pen to
paper and delivered memorable, power
ful characters while North Carolina’s
Clyde Edgerton crafts authentic dialogue
and humor in works such as Walking
Across Egypt (one of my favorites).
“Memory believes before knowing
remembers,” opined Mississippi’s
William Faulkner.
Yes and therein lies the secret:
Memory of childhood, of place, of char
acters and dialogue create true Southern
writers. Much more than knowing does.
Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of Let
Me Tell You Something. Visit www.rondar-
ich.com and sign up for herfree weekly
newsletter.
RONDA RICH
Columnist
'Sometimes the
book is written by
someone who lives
in the South but
wasn't born hereto
Southern-bred peo
ple. To write it
authentically, I hold
to the belief that
you should have
inherited it like blue
eyes or dark hair.'
Dawson FFA starts year with new officers
The Dawson FFA is off and running with a new school year. This year’s
FFA Officers are: Fuke Wilkie, president; Fexis Kimbrell, vice president; Cort
Shelnutt, secretary; Devin Chambers, treasurer; Justin Pass, reporter;
Bridgette Nichols, sentinel; Abby Baker, parliamentarian; and Jacob Rider,
chaplain. The officers have been engaged in livestock shows, community ser
vice and running local chapter duties. Dawson FFA advisor, Keith Pankey,
states that he looks forward to a great school year with a fabulous group of
officers.
Photo for the Dawson County News
King Crossword
ACROSS
50
Existed
16
Historic boy
1
Old love boat
51
Tangelo trade
king
4
Cattle com
mark
20
Listener
ments
52
Do some firing
21
Lummox
8
Dispatch
56
Sandwich
22
Ethereal
12
Luau side dish
cookie
23
Dine on
13
Reed instru
57
Great Lake
27
Has permis
ment
58
Londoner's
sion
14
Inlet
letter
29
Of natural
15
Small
59
Cut, as logs
dimensions
17
Enthusiastic
60
Tear to bits
30
State with cer
18
Eviscerate
61
Type measures
tainty
19
Soon
31
Some ever
21
Rook
DOWN
greens
24
Potential syrup
1
Smartphone
33
Speech
25
Roman 52
download
35
Mandible
26
Thanksgiving
2
Marseilles
38
Agent
veggie
monarch
40
Hocked
28
Pass along
3
Huge
43
Church leader
32
Ricelike pasta
4
Pretty much
45
Petrol
34
— Mahal
5
Japanese sash
46
Twosomes
36
Cannonball,
6
Leak slowly
47
City in India
maybe
7
Prophets
48
Ball of yarn
37
Color workers
8
Resold for big
49
Angry
39
High-pitched
profits
53
Triumph
bark
9
Corporate
54
Buddhist sect
41
A mere handful
symbol
55
Wood and
42
Mimic
10
Shakespeare's
Wynn
44
Bets
river
46
Poetic feet
11
Safecracker
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