Newspaper Page Text
Ph
' * X ?*>' ~~*
X ■ 'kWE
' MHI w v \\aflß: w ■
Am 7 j|
t.J R/ y ... W lbk\
' :■BMBB®® ’ l ll k /SBI
A IwMI
■L Rm/Z*p«
■ KS& iSmuunVil
■-■/jB: ■< PEXflg ilrWnrt • 11 ?t VvERHBBtj /HH
Papa John: Guy Haisten gave him his nickname at a football game.
Papa John Willis
During a Griffin High football game
in the early ’3os, a spectator rose to his
feet and yelled a message to the
quarterback. It had a lasting effect on
the life of the player’s father.
“Run, George, run, Papa John is
looking for you,” yelled Guy Haisten.
Thus was born the nickname for Griffin
restauranteur John Willis, better
known as “Papa” John.
Papa John, 89, is an American suc
cess story of a Grecian immigrant who
was born in April of 1888 in Greece.
In 1907 he left his sheep-herding
family and came to the United States
for the “good life” during the
depression of the President William
Taft era.
Why educators believe elementary school is needed
>
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a
series of questions and answers about
( the school bond issue, prepared by
Education 77, a citizens committee.
Questions may be addressed to the
group at Box 711, Griffin, Ga. 30223.
‘ They should be submitted 10 days prior
to publication. The series will be
published in the Griffin Daily News on
'« Fridays until the bond issue.
Q. Do We Really Need Another
, Elementary School? If So, Why?
A. Yes, an elementary school is
definitely needed to relieve the over
crowded classroom conditions that
presently exist in the Atkinson,
Beaverbrook and Orrs Schools. The
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
Greek who made good in Griffin
“People were sleeping on the Post
Office steps; they had no money, no
jobs,” Papa John said.
But he had $9 in his pockets and at
least he had an uncle in Camden, S. C.
Upon his debarkation in New York
harbor, the 19-year-old who spoke no
English made his way from New York
to Washington, D. C., via train to
Camden.
Because he spoke no English, he had
shown the ticket to the train conductor
at every stop, even when it was to take
on coal or water.
It just so happened the one stop when
he should have asked the conductor, he
neglected to do so. When the train made
the next stop to take on coal, Papa John
State Department of Education’s
comprehensive study noted that
classroom space at these three schools
was inadequate to house the number of
children enrolled in each of them.
It was for this reason that the state
recommended that we construct an
eighteen classroom elementary school
on Cowan Road since the Board of
Education already owns this property.
Construction of this elementary school
would permit Atkinson, Beaverbrook
and Orrs to shift enough students from
their enrollment to the new school thus
providing adequate classroom space
for the children who would be enrolled
in each of these schools.
Beaverbrook has earned 4 teachers
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday, October 7, 1977
showed his ticket and the conductor let
him off the train some 10 miles past his
Camden stop.
Papa John said he just stood there
looking up and down the tracks.
Luckily for him there were laborers
in the fields near the supply station.
After having stood there for a long time
not saying anything but looking up and
down the tracks, Papa John got an offer
of help from the field foreman.
In Camden he lived with his uncle and
washed dishes in a restaurant for $3 a
week.
Later his uncle went back to Greece,
and Papa John was to fend for himself.
He moved into a room with 4 persons
who do not have individual classrooms
in which to work. Special education
teachers who travel to the elementary
schools and work with students in the
area of behavioral disorders, learning
disabilities and speech impaired have
no classroom space in which to work
because the facilities are overcrowded.
Teachers of music, art and physical
education must meet in areas such as
cafeterias and on stages in order to
conduct their programs since no rooms
are available. Construction of the
elementary school would reduce the
number of students in these three
elementary schools thus providing for a
better student-teacher ratio and in
suring an atmosphere more conducive
‘Great, growing’
The latest estimate
is 67,600 by 2010
The latest population guess for
Spalding County is 67,600 people by the
year 2010. That’ll be 33 years from now.
The population figure includes the
city of Griffin as well as Orchard Hill
and Sunny Side.
They are in a population projections
study from the state Office of Planning
and Budget.
If the estimate holds, Spalding
County would rank 23 in the state in
terms of population.
That would represent a slip from 24th
which is where the county is supposed
Soviet ships
concern
admiral
ATLANTA (AP) — Soviet warships
along the U.S. Atlantic coast are in a
position to destroy cities in a nuclear
war while their merchant vessels are
winning weapons in a continuing
economic war, high U.S. Navy officers
said Thursday.
Vice Adm. William Read, com
mander of the Atlantic Fleet’s Naval
Surface Forces, said the growing
presence of Soviet submarines,
destroyers and cruisers in the Gulf of
Mexico and off the East Coast is an
indication of the growing size, power
and aggressiveness of the Soviet navy.
In July, Read said, the Soviet navy
showed up in the Gulf with a task force
of various types of ships armed with
missiles and other weapons.
“It used to be a rare sight to see
Russian warships on the high seas,”
Read said. “Now we see them in every
part of the globe — well armed and in
large numbers.”
Read and several other officers were
attending the Southeast Seapower
Symposium here.
and spent the next 2 years there.
He then moved to Charlotte, N. C.
where he worked as a bus boy in a
restaurant for 3 months. Afterwards in
1910, Papa John bought a restaurant for
SSO which he operated for 2 years.
“I accumulated as much as S6OO in
two years,” Papa John said.
In 1912 he went into the restaurant
business with another Greek in Macon.
He spent 9 years there.
Marrying his first wife, Blanche, the
couple was blessed with a son, George
Willis, who is now a state employe at
the Stone Mountain State Park.
In 1923, he entered into half-interest
partnership with Vick Poulos in a
(Continued on page 2)
to a quality education.
Q. Why Not Construct New Buildings
Where The Eighth and Ninth Grades
Are Now Located, Use This As The
High School, and Have The Present
High School As A Junior High Instead of
Buying More Land and Building A New
High School?
A. The comprehensive study, con
ducted by The State Department of
Education, considers recom
mendations in 4 different categories;
those being organization, curriculum,
physical facilities and finance. The
comprehensive study members
recommended that our junior high
organization be on a 7-8-9 grouping
rather than the method under which we
Vol. 105 No. 238
to be by 1980 when an estimated 44,100
people will live by 1980.
The study says the G-S population
will climb to 47,200 by 1985 and to 50,400
five years later. It is supposed to reach
54,400 by the year 1995 and rise to 58,500
when the year 2000 arrives.
By 2005 the population is supposed to
be 62,900 and reach 67,600 by 2010.
The projections are subject to all
sorts of things that could affect the
present growth pattern.
The figures are based on data
available to the Budget and Planning
Office which would be the first to say
that the estimates are only good
guesses at the best.
Spalding’s population is supposed to
reach 44,100 by 1980.
The study said the community has
42,200 now which is a 6.8 percent growth
over the 1970 census figure of 39,514,
Pike County is supposed to reach
8,000 by 1980 and 10,800 by 2010.
Fayette County, if on schedule, will
reach 19,800 by 1980 and 29,700 by the
year 2010.
Henry County is supposed to reach
31,900 by 1980 and 54,900 by 2010.
Lamar will climb to 10,700 by 1980 and
14,600 by 2010.
Butts will reach 14,200 by 1980 and
24,000 by the year 2010.
People
...and things
Traffic at Hill and Taylor attempting
to avoid several large plastic sacks
filled with bags of flour and meal which
apparently fell from grocery truck this
morning.
One high school boy to another as
they walk on downtown section of South
Hill street sidewalk and try to avoid
stepping on the cracks: “I’ll bet you
used to do this when you were a kid.”
People in courthouse complimenting
female ambulance driver for refusing
male offers to help carry her end of
stretcher, which held a fat woman who
had passed out in the tag office.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
I fifßl
gw
■Ka.
“When you talk about others,
say things you’d like them to
overhear.”
presently operate. There are 2,723
students in grades 7, 8 and 9 at the
present time and if we follow the
recommendation of the comprehensive
study and have two junior high schools
(grades 7-9), we would have ap
proximately 1,360 on each campus. One
junior high school would be located at
the present Bth and 9th grade campuses
and the other at the present Griffin
High School campus.
It is impossible to place the 1939 high
school students on the present Bth and
9th grade campuses and use the
facilities at the vocational technical
school because of inadequate space and
due to Vo-Tech being a post-secondary
school built to serve students from
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Increasing cloudiness tonight with low
in the mid 50s. Good chance of thun
dershowers Saturday with highs in the
low 70s.
LOCAL WEATHER — Low this
morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit
50, high Thursday 78.
Dayan says
confidence
partly back
ATLANTA (AP) — Relaxed and
smiling, Israeli Foreign Minister
Moshe Dayan said Thursday that
Israel’s confidence in President Carter
has been at least partly restored by
U.S. agreement to a “working paper”
for new Mideast peace talks in Geneva.
Israeli leaders were jolted last
weekend by a joint American-Soviet
statement which Dayan said Israel
interpreted as “a change leaning
toward the Arabs.”
That led to a five-hour, late-night
meeting among Dayan, Carter and top
State Department officials resulting in
the working paper.
Contents of the document have not
been publicized, but Dayan said in
Atlanta that “we could go to Geneva
tomorrow” if all parties to the proposed
talks would go on the basis of the paper.
Dayan was here on a tour of several
big U.S. cities to discuss Israeli policies
with prominent American Jews.
Those meetings are private, but
Dayan told reporters he has recom
mended that the Israeli government
adopt the working paper. Earlier in the
day, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail
Fahmy said in New York that “things
are moving" concerning possible peace
talks.”
The American-Soviet statement
spoke of Palestinians’ “legitimate
rights” in the Mideast rather than
“legitimate interests,” as has been the
custom.
Israelis quickly interpreted that
change in wording as a possible step
toward giving their most bitter enemies
— the Palestine Liberation Organ
ization — more clout in the ne
gotiations.
Dayan said his current under
standing with Carter and other
American leaders is that the talks could
resume on the basis of the working
paper, “ignoring completely the
American-Soviet statement.”
He said he was disappointed in the
new public wording from the President,
but added that it wasn’t clear yet
whether it was “a shaking change.”
“I can’t really measure the
vibrations yet,” he said.
Dayan said he believes Carter is
sincerely seeking peace in the Mideast
and is not trying to hurt Israeli in
terests, “but I’m afraid some of his
views and some of his plans will be
harmiul to Israel.”
He did not elaborate beyond the
matter of the American-Soviet
statement.
Spalding and surrounding counties who
have either completed their high school
education or who seek definite skills for
the labor force.
Q. How Will New Facilities Help Our
Children Get A Better Education?
A. The new facilities which are
proposed to be constructed, if the bond
referendum passes in November, will
reduce overcrowded conditions that
exist in our schools and provide ad
ditional programs and an atmosphere
conducive to academic excellence.
Adequate classroom space will insure a
better pupil-teacher ratio thus
providing for more individual attention
for the students. On the high school
(Continued on page 10)