About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2017)
Friday, September 29, 2017 Lake Oconee News Page A7 Opportunity to make money welding abounds The opportunity to learn how to become a welder is one of the things being touted by Greene County’s College and Career Academy. The Greene C&CA is going to partner with Athens Tech, which has a state-of-the-art welding facility. During my misspent youth, I tried to learn how to arc weld, and I still have the scar to prove it. Welcome once again, dear readers, to this teen-tiny spot in your favorite community-based Dave Brown Staff Writer newspaper where we enjoy my flammable efforts at welding before we bring on a sage voice. Arc welding, also called stick welding, is considered the easiest type of welding, as opposed to mig and tig. Please don’t ask me about mig and tig welding. Arc welding is used for manufacturing and repairs using thinner pieces of metal. To get on with the story, I struck an arc and was laying a bead during a learn-to-weld session. I had on abig welder’s helmet and protective gloves. I felt a bit of heat and looked down at my ankle. I could see a bit of glow. However, when I took off the helmet (you’ve heard objects may look closer in your mirror) the little glow was actually a three-alarm fire on the frayed cuff on one leg of my blue jeans. You get the picture: I ran around like a chicken with one leg in the hot grease. They threw me down and stomped out the fire, and for good measure, I got a few good boots in the back pockets to reflect upon. I talked with Barry Richardson of Boiler and Steam Performance in Greensboro about welding the other day. BSP is going to partner with the Greene County C&CA to offer lucrative careers to area students. “You don’t have any idea how hard it is for us to find welders. Just like most of the trades these days, welding is a dying breed,” said Richardson. “We’re a nationwide company, but we can’t find anybody locally to hire. We usually bring in welders from Jacksonville.” Richardson said he ap proached the school system about 15 years ago, but his suggestion to train welders never came to fruition. He’s glad there’s finally going to be some home grown welders, thanks to the C&CA. Richardson said welding is a good-paying profession with opportunities for ad vancement. “We usually start welders around $16 an hour, but if they work at it, a welder can make $35 an hour. It’s really up to them,” he said. My advice to area young sters is to consider welding and try to avoid running around with one of your pants legs on fire. Smith Continued from A4 Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans” make you realize that life is truly worth living. Sitting on the dock of the bay, might mean San Fran cisco or Stockholm or Singa pore. Or Coos Bay, Oregon. Of course, nothing will ever outrank “America the Beautiful,” my No. 1 hit in the shower. The capitol building in Madison is worth a serious tour. When you travel, make the effort to see the domed state capitols across our land, all of which remind you of what was finished in 1826 by the Potomac. My favorite state capitol to date is Jefferson City, Missouri where the paintings of Thomas Harte Benton give this state capitol a touch of class not found elsewhere. Wisconsin is, as you know, the dairy state. Have you ever wondered how Wisconsin became the dairy state? Had to do with a man named W. A. Hoard who discovered that Wisconsin had the perfect climate for growing alfalfa. Cows take to alfalfa like deer to your garden. Milk and milk products account for $43.4 billion dollars of the state’s economy each year. However, after two trips to this state this calendar year, there seems to be a plethora of empty silos in the countryside. Does this mean that the little dairy farms have been merged into the big farms, corporations and coopera tives? The 30th state admitted into the union, Wisconsin is also the cheese state. And the badger state and the Green Bay Packer state. The Packers! The smallest franchise town in America, where the community owns the team (at least in theory). The man who is credited with saving the franchise is Bob Harland, whose granddaughter, Olivia, is a graduate of UGA’s Grady College. You see her doing a lot of college football on ESPN in the fall. Her star is rising. It would be a serious omission not to mention Heritage Tavern, near the Capitol, operated by a chef-farmer named Dan Fox. His restaurant has a res onating dining atmosphere and a menu that is about as fulfilling as one could find and delightfully enhanced if you are fortunate to have Emily Loveland wait your table. She has an undergradu ate degree and has spent time teaching in Vietnam but wants a masters before choosing to settle down. Over at Camp Randall Stadium, you walk by Athletic Director Barry Alvarez,’ statue when you enter the office complex where you can see the storied football field from his office. Here, in the opening game, a grandson returned an interception to for a touchdown earlier in the fall. A high-five time in his life, ranking that moment right up by coaching Badger teams to four Rose Bowl ap pearances. The stadium was empty, but I paused and could hear the band playing “On Wis consin,” one of college foot ball’s most uplifting fight songs. Nothing like spending time on a college campus, even if it is not your alma mater’s. Find us on Facebook! Just search for Lake Oconee News We know Water Filtration IT’S ALL WE DO! • Proudly serving the Lake Area for over 25 years • Widest range of quality products to meet any budget • Service plans available to meet YOUR needs • Let us inspect/service your existing system Household WATER SPECIALIST • WATER FILTRATION • % 706-453-1151 /a* householdwater.com ® WE FIX BAD WATER! Rich Continued from A5 to desist. “No,” he said. “This is going to get ugly. I’ll just wait out here.” He has learned that it is difficult to separate a Scotch-Irish woman from a hard-earned dollar. It makes him uncom fortable to watch the process. We sat down and began to negotiate. The salesman insisted my husband wanted the bigger car. I shrugged. “He can have whatever he wants.” I’m comfortable in saying this because I know he doesn’t want much. “He wants you to say it’s the one you want.” “My husband and I both have a little bit of OCD,” I replied. “And it bothers us that the gear shifter is scratched.” He held out his hands, palms up. “It’s a used car!” I mimicked his gesture. “It bothers us.” And so we were off. A while later, Tink stuck only his head around the corner. “Are you through yet?” The salesman rolled his eyes and shook his head in mock exasperation. “I’ll come back,” Tink said. He never returned. I had to hunt him down to give him the keys. “I’m glad that’s over,” he said. I laughed. “If you’d actually been there, you’d be even gladder.” Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should). Visit www.rond- arich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter. Yarbough Continued from A4 Classic City of the South and home to the Univer sity of Georgia, the oldest state-chartered university in the nation. No word on whether or not he has been pre-ap- proved for admittance; but if so, he would like for it to be on a crisp, bright Saturday after noon in the fall while the Dawgs are wearing out some unfortunate invaders between the hedges and the Redcoat band is playing, ‘Glory, Glory to Old Georgia.’ If that isn’t heaven, what is? “Along with an uncanny ability to put commas where they don’t belong and omitting them where they do, Dick Yarbrough was best known as a unifier of otherwise dis parate groups of people. From loud-talking, know- it-all Yankees to Baptists who think toting a gun to church is a ‘sanctity-of-life’ issue (‘Thou Shalt Not Kill Except After the Love Offering and Before the Closing Hymn’), to su percilious liberals who consider Bill Clinton the God of Love to politicians who suck up to public school teachers when running for re-election and then spend the rest of their time undermining public education — all share a similar opinion of the man, which probably doesn’t belong in an obituary in a family news paper. “To his adoring public, he bequeaths his exten sive collection of Bolivian postage stamps, a rare ly-heard eight-track tape of ‘Lawrence Welk’s Hip-Hop Classics’ and a copy of his soon-to-be Get breaking news online! www.lakeoconeenews.us released book, Fifty Ways to Hate Broccoli.” OK, that’s about all I can think of that I would like included in my obituary. You may ask why I didn’t list my Nobel Peace Prize, Heisman Trophy and the fact that people are always confusing me for actor Brad Pitt. (I’m a couple of inches taller.) That would sound like bragging and, as you know, one of my redeeming qual ities is my reluctance to brag. I’m extremely proud of that. However, if you think it is important to add these items to my obituary, please do so. It’s your call. After all, what do I care? I plan to be in Athens on a crisp, bright eternal Saturday after noon singing “Glory, glory.” You can reach Dick Yar brough at dick@dickyar- brough.com; at P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ dickyarb. When you’re selling a property... You need to be seen online. roperty Details LAKE COUNTRY Colli will Banker COMMERCIAL 92% of Buyers search online — so Coldwell Banker syndicates your listing to over 900 websites for maximum exposure. COLDUJQU. BANKSR □ COLDUIPLL GLOBAL LUXURY. 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