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By Quimby Melton
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And In The Words
of Tiny Tim
Who In Dicken's
Christmas Carol
Said
“God Bless Us
Everyone!”
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GRIFFIN
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CHRISTAMS
Griffarea All Set
For Big Holiday
Worship
Services
Scheduled
Although Griffinites live in a
time of last minute shopping
and artificial snow, many will
find time this Christmas Eve to
pause amid the hustle and
bustle to refect on Christ’s mass
in late services tonight.
St. George’s Episcopal
Church will celebrate Holy
Eucharist at 11 p.m. with
preludial music by the church
choir augmented by voices from
neighboring churches. “For Us
a Child is Born” and “Alleluia”
by J. S. Bach as well as several
selections from G. F. Handle’s
“Messiah” will be sung. The
Parish Hall will open at 10 p.m.
for a reception for St. George’s
college students and friends.
Also, Sacred Heart Catholic
Church will say a special mass
at midnite to celebrate the com
ing of Christ. Father Sullivan
said offerings from this services
will be used for the Abandon
Children’s Village. Addition
ally, regular 8 and 10 a.m. mass
will be said Christmas day.
As strains of “Joy to the
World” and “I’m Dreaming of a
White Christmas” ring through
downtown shoppers’ ears,
stores were packed as each and
every person searches for just
the right gifts to put a twinkle in
friends and loved ones eyes.
With Santa’s visit just a few
hours away, parents and child
ren alike were busily making
preparations for the coming of
Santa.
Many made their way toward
Griffin in droves for holiday
visits. They come ‘home’ from
colleges, jobs, Armed Services,
and all the parts of the globe.
The chances of a white Christ
mas again seem a bit remote
this year with predictions of
possible rain.
The Georgia Highway Patrol,
following a reminder that an es
timated 37 will die on Georgia
highways during the jolliest
time of year, have asked that
Griffinites remain at home,
when possible, for the holidays
because of the possibility of rain
turning to sleet and ice later
Thursday.
Trooper 0. V. Evans said all
Georgia Safety Education and
Georgia Bureau of Investi
gation cars will join with the
State Patrol in an effort to help
Georgia fall short of the pre
dicted 37 fatalities.
12-24
“A man has not been edu
cated if he still has bad
manners.”
Copyright 1969, by Frank A. Clark
Griffin, Georgia 30223, Wednesday, December 24, 1969
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tree, Santa talks with Dianne fZj
I Bunn (1) and Dodi Bunn (r),
daughters of Mr. and Mrs.
Bobby Bunn of Williamson
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TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF CHRISTMAS
By DON OAKLEY
•Last year at this time, a message of peace and hope was
beamed to mankind from beyond the earth.
In terms of the vastness of space, the message did not
come very far—from next door, really. This was the Christ
mas greeting from the three astronauts in Apollo 9 as they
circled earth’s nearest neighbor.
We have witnessed two more historic accomplishments
since then—in July, when the first men trod upon the sur
face of the moon, and again last month when two more
astronauts took the first moon “hike.” There will be other,
even more amazing feats in years to come, for man’s ad
venture in space is only beginning.
But long, long before men seriously considered traveling
beyond this planet—for some 2,000 years, in fact—the most
stupendous “space spectacular” of all time has been the
annual reappearance of the Christmas Star in the minds
and hearts of humankind.
No one can say how far the inward-seen radiance of this
Star travels, or from what distance its unchanging mes
sage comes.
It traverses the universe; yet it is as close as one hand
touching another. It is as mysterious and ineffable as the
Vol. 96 No. 302
meaning of life itself; yet it is as familiar and uncompli
cated as the expression on a child’s face as he opens a
package under the tree.
The light, and the message, dim and disappear at other
seasons of the year. Even at Christmastime, as we grow
older, we sometimes have trouble perceiving them. The
commercial din, the hectic crowds, the rush-rush and
spend-spend—all in the name of Christmas—can too easily
be allowed to obscure the meaning of Christmas.
But wonder of wonders, sometime between the buying
and the wrapping and the joyful Christmas-morn destruc
tion of all our careful and elaborate preparations, that
magic moment unfailingly returns if we but pause and
become quiet and open our hearts to it.
It comes in the dark hours of the night when all is calm
and all is still. Children, half-waking and half-dreaming,
hear Santa’s sleigh bells. Those who are no longer children
but who retain the faith and simplicity of children hear
something else—the old and ever-new singing of the angels
and the promise that echoes down the ages:
“Peace on earth, good will to men.”
That is the real miracle. That is the real Christmas.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
Inside Tip
POWs
See Page 16
No Paper
Thursday
The Griffin Daily News
will observe Thursday as
a Christmas Holiday and
will not publish on that
day. Publication will re
sume Friday.