Newspaper Page Text
Page 18
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 18,1977
‘Pulpwooder 9
The lady works
with big trees
The masterminds of the
advertising world would find
Betty Lewis slightly different
from their concept of the
average American housewife.
She gets a kick out of watching
hand cream commercials and
frilly appeals to the soft and ef
feminate nature of housewives.
Betty is a “pulpwooder.” She
saws wood, downs trees, tops
trees, moves wood, loads wood
and delivers wood.
Standing at a height of Meet,
4-inches, the petit Mrs. Lewis,
who has a face befitting
feminine frills, can handle the
largest power saw her husband
has as well as anyone in his
crew. She operates a loader,
hauling 40-foot tree trunks
around shrubs, through
saplings and in between trees,
and loads them into trucks.
“I enjoy it. If I had to stay at
home all day long, I’d go
crazy,” she said. “I’ve been
working in this business since
my husband and I got married
about 9 years ago.”
When they first started, there
were only Betty and her
husband, Johnny. “In those
days we just cut pulpwood,”
said Betty. “We loaded it by
hand. That was work! Later we
rigged our own ‘stick loader’
and gradually we bought more
equipment. Now we do just
about anything that can be done
with wood.”
“When I married Johnny I
had no idea I’d wind up out here
working with him,” said the
Fayetteville native. “I started
by learning how to use the
power saw. That was rough!
Before I learned how to use it I
got a few spankings from my
husband. From the saw I
worked my way up, learning to
use each piece of equipment as
we got it. Now I love it as long as
we don’t get to fussing and
fighting.”
In the photos
Betty Lewis (top, right) with her son, “Runt,” along for
the ride, backs off after loading a tree trunk onto the
truck; (bottom, right) Betty wipes perspiration as she
climbs out of the loader; (top, left) she can handle a power
saw as well as anyone in the crew; (center) time for a
break; (bottom, left) Betty and her husband, Johnny, and
son, “Runt,” look over the situation.
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TWO
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Johnny Lewis runs a taut
crew. None of his workers are
ever in doubt about what he
wants them to do. “He tries to
go too fast sometimes,” said
Betty, “and he gets excited. The
best way to handle him is to
work around him. When he
starts yelling about being too
slow, I just work slower," she
said with a grin.
The Lewises have one son
named Lester, commonly
known as “Runt.” Like his
mother and father, the 6 and
one-half-year-old youngster
likes working with wood. He can
operate some of the machinery,
keeps the saws fueled, delivers
water and stays hot on the heels
of most of the activity.
“I imagine he’ll stay in the
business,” said Mrs. Lewis.
“He likes to operate the
machinery. He does it all except
drive the trucks and he’d
probably do that if he wasn’t too
short to reach the pedals.”
When the Lewises return to
their home on Ponderosa road
in Spalding County after a
typical day’s work, they’re all
covered with chips of wood, tree
sap and dirt. Johnny and his son
cleanup and settle down for a
good rest, but Mrs. Lewis cleans
up and then begins the task of
cooking dinner, cleaning the
house and doing the laundry.
“I don’t mind it,” she said. >
“But I don’t get any help. The
most work those two do is find
ing the coolest spot in the I
house and working to stay
there.”
Asked if she ever wished she
was in the home like most
housewives, she responded with
a quick, “No!” Then she
added, “I’ll be out here working
with my family for as long as
I’m physically able. I’m only 26
now, so that should be a long
time.”
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