The wiregrass farmer. (Ashburn, Ga.) 1984-current, January 07, 2015, Image 4

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The wiregrass farmer., January 07, 2015, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextPage 4 - The Wiregrass Farmer, January 7,2015 Editorial & Opinion The WIREGRASS FARMER - Established 1902 Official Legal Organ of Turner County 109 Gordon Street • P.O. Box 309 • Ashburn, GA 31714 Telephone 229-567-3655 email wiregrassfarmer@yahoo.com THE WIREGRASS FARMER (USPS 687-460) is published every Wednesday by Ashburn Newspapers, Inc., 109 N. Gordon St, Ashburn, Georgia. Periodicals Postage Paid at Ashburn, Geor gia. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Wiregrass Farmer, 109 N. Gordon St., Ashburn, GA 31714 STAFF Bob Tribble, President • Ben Baker, General Manager Linda Sellars, Sales Director • Robin Tillman, Office Manager OUR GOAL The Wiregrass Farmer is published proudly for the citizens of Turner County by Cook Publishing Co. Inc. Our goal is to produce quality, profitable, community-oriented newspapers that you, our readers, are proud of. We will reach that goal through hard work, teamwork, loy alty and a strong dedication toward printing the truth. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Senior Citizen discount in county only $20.00 Inside Turner County, $24.00 • Elsewhere in Georgia, $32.00 Outside Georgia, $40.00 • Internet $24 a year. Signed letters to the editor are welcomed. Please limit letters to 500 words and include a name, an address and phone number where the writer may be reached during the day. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. All letters become property of the newspaper. Liability for an error will not exceed the cost of the space occupied by the error. We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or materials un less a self-addressed stamped envelope is included. The deadline for LEGAL NOTICES is Monday NOON before Wednesday’s publication. Holiday deadlines will be announced at least one week in advance. Lost in translation Change This week brings much change to Turner County and in particular the City of Ashburn. Newly elected officials will take office. They will bring new ideas, new concepts and a different way of thinking. Some of their ideas will become reality. Some of these ideas will be good. Some will be bad. Some will be a lateral change, neither good nor bad, just different. Regardless of what changes are made, voters of Turner County and Ashburn got what they asked for. The problem in getting what you asked for, is you sometimes later find out it’s not what you really wanted and it’s definitely not what you needed. We hope the residents of Turner County are going to get what’s needed, regardless of what they asked for. We hope the change is for the better. Speaking of that The incoming Ashburn City Council has made it beyond clear they wanted new leadership in the Ashburn Police Department. They will get it and then some. Chief Joe Saxon has stepped down. Several other officers who knew what was coming following the elections have also left. The incoming Council will do well to heed the words from some years ago from then-officer Dezi Tabor. Mr. Tabor said the Ashburn City Council was a problem for the police department. Council inter ference was a major reason the department was hav ing problems hiring qualified officers, he said. The City Council needs to hire a good chief and get out of the way. Let the Ashburn Police and the court system to their jobs. Meantime, we wish Chief Saxon and other offi cers well and thank them for the work performed here. V / A circus elephant named Bozo was very popular with children in the 19th century in England. They loved to crowd around his cage and throw peanuts to him. Then all of a sudden Bozo’s personality changed dramatically. When the children came near him in his cage he would charge to wards them as if he wanted to trample them. After he tried to kill his keeper the circus owner knew that he had to be destroyed. Rather than do it quietly the owner decided to do away with Bozo at a public execution. He sold tickets so he could recoup some of the money he spent to ship Bozo from India. Bozo was surrounded by men with high powered rifles who were waiting for a signal from the owner to shoot him. Suddenly a short inconspicu ous man in a brown derby hat walked out of the crowd and confronted the owner. “There is no need to do this,” he said. “He is a bad elephant and he must die before he kills some one,” the owner said. “Give me two minutes in the cage with him and I will prove you are wrong,” the man said. “If you get in that cage with Bozo you will be killed and then your family will sue me,” the circus owner growled. “I will sign a release absolving the circus of all re sponsibility if I am hurt,” the man promised. From Where I Sit The man signed the agree ment and a hush went over the crowd when he walked into the elephant’s cage. At the sight of the stranger in his cage the ele phant threw back his trunk let out a mighty roar and bent his head preparing to charge. The man stood still with a faint smile on his face as he began to talk to Bozo. Slowly as the man contin ued to talk the elephant raised his head and then the crowd heard an almost piteous cry from the elephant as his enor mous head began to sway gen tly from side to side. Smiling the man walked confidently up to the animal and began to stroke his long trunk. All ag gression seemed to suddenly have been drained from the elephant and Bozo wound his trunk around the man’s waist and the two walked slowly around the ring. After a while the man bid farewell to Bozo and left the cage. “He will be all right now. You see he is an Indian ele phant and none of you spoke his language which is Hindus tani. I would advise you to get someone around here who speaks his language because he was just homesick,” the man said. WORDS OF WISDOM • Do not walk behind me for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either just pretty much leave me alone. • The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and ends with a leaky tire. • It is always darkest before dawn so if you are going to steal your neighbor’s newspa per that is the time to do it. • Do not be irreplaceable. If you cannot be replaced you cannot be promoted. • Always remember that you are unique just like every one else. • Never test the depth of the water with both feet. • If you think that nobody cares if you are alive try miss ing a couple of car payments. • Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them you are a mile away and you have their shoes. • If at first you do not suc ceed skydiving is not for you. • Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. / 3/ nm '■ tboo pgr/fJSYSi'4 *J‘A -f ve. ' A .. , j//A£ /*/ 'pA YAS7A is J ( WAo iVfW P f/exr Mjjc A -75"~ ^ tPM&Jj t,,t> v'T ? Wo —' ■7 f'dvSTrfWl ^ /CC 'A / ('7%KeTlf?-TSeZ-aiZJtT /£> l -7AA/?. ssrt ? ~Tt> All- OuA <sS-oi> Ad jtau'P 7 AMP&cA » V'A^U 'f * A'A Letters to the editor welcome! Your opinion is important! Write: Editor, P.O. Box 309, Ashburn GA 31714 or email <wiregrassfarmer@yahoo,com> We do not charge to publish letters to the ed itor and we do not edit them. Your letter must meet our publication requirements. Letters must be signed. We must have a phone number to call to verify the number. (Your phone number will not be published). Letters which do not meet our publishing requirements won’t be printed. Call 567-3655 for more information. Stepping Back In Time 1925- KUDZU-The great est of all legumes; produces more high class pasture and hay than anything known. Kudzu does not have to be planted but once. All kinds of livestock thrive and do better on it than any other one feed. For full information address ROCK GFENN FARM, Hampton, Ga. 1935-The many little friends of Andrew Davis Ault- man, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Aultman of Warwick, were sorry to hear of his acci dent during the holidays. He lost three fingers by a gunshot wound. While walking along with a number of friends, his gun accidentally discharged. He is improving at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany. According to Superintend ent W.D. Hawkes the large Sycamore Consolidated School opened last Monday with four hundred and fifty students. B.F. Jones (Colored) Dead. One of Turner County’s good colored citizens, B. Fee Jones, died at his home here on Christmas Day. He served his race as a minister of the Gospel of the Baptist denomi nation for over forty years, doing much good for better ing the lives of his race. He owned one of the best farms in this section and other prop erty, making an honest name for himself by meeting all ob ligations. He was a faithful subscriber to The Wiregrass Farmer and never let his sub scription lapse. Mr. and Mrs. H.C. Williams, and daughter, Birdie, spent Saturday in St. Augustine, Florida. Mr. J.F. Evans died Thursday evening, December 6 th , 1934. The members of the Methodist church express their regret for this loss as he served as their superintendent of Sunday school. Mr. Berrien Willis Hobby, son of Mr. and Mrs. B. A. Hobby of Ashburn died December 28 after a brief ill ness. He was bom and reared near Ashburn and a young man of splendid character and ability. He has been located at Flintside in charge of the large pecan farm located there. Interment was at the Poulan cemetery. 1945- Sgt. Harris Perry, son of Judge and Mrs. F.W. Perry, has been wounded in action on November 26. The vehicle in which he was rid ing hit a land mine and the explosion blew him about 15 feet. He was wounded in the back left hip and leg. The ve hicle burned and with it all his belongings. Sgt. Perry is John Harris Perry Chief of Section or Gun Com mander of two aircraft guns in the Second Armored Division better known as “Hell on Wheels”. Nine of the ten boys that left England with him have received Purple Hearts from being wounded. He is out of the hospital now and back on duty. Mr. P.D. Whiddon has been notified that his son, Pfc. Benjamin F. Whiddon, has been wounded in action on December 12 in Germany. Sgt. George Barfield, who lives at 410 McFendon Street, Ashburn, Georgia, has been promoted to Staff Sergeant with the Fifth Army in Italy. Your war bond purchased bought 1,800,000 tracks, 68,000 tanks, 2,800,000 big and medium guns, 15,000,000 machine guns and rifles, 43 billion rounds of ammuni tions, 43,400,000 bombs, and 196,000,000 uniforms. Mr. F.B. Shealy, Sr. and Mr. F.B. Shealy, Jr. have purchased Henderson Fumber Co., in Ocilla, Georgia. Mr. Wm. Cohen and Mr. Jack Cohen with David Baldwin gave the Jaco Pants Co. em ployees a barbeque on Thurs day evening, Dec. 21. Mr. Jack Cohen explained that all his plants have been enlarged and that he has enjoyed splen did business during the past year. Mr. J.C. Holland will serve as Chairman of the Turner County Board of Roads and Revenues this coming year. Mr. Judge New ton Coker, age 71, died of a heart attack Tuesday morning. He was born in Cherokee County, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Erastus Coker. He and his family came to Turner County in 1908. He was a farmer, served on the County Commission, and later as Tax Collector of Turner County. He was a good man and loved by all who knew him. He had a smile and friendly work for young and old and will be missed. Mr. and Mrs. F.H. Wardlow of Ashburn an nounce the marriage of their daughter, Nancy Mildred, to Capt. Robert G. Heiserman of Sarasota, Fla., and West Union, Iowa. Baker’s Dozen Fish Findin’ We could have stayed you know," I said. "Shuddup," snapped Farry "Hawgin 1 " Fishbreath from the driver's seat of StumpJumper, Hawgin's eco-friendly giant pickup. When I say eco friendly, I mostly refer to the compost heap in the bed and the tons of aluminum cans in the rear seat which have yet to make it to a landfill or recy cling center. "Seriously. We had every thing we needed to fish. It ain't like we GOT to have some thing like that. Neither one of us remembers how many times you and me just hauled off with a canoe, some cane poles and two cans of crickets and loaded the boat," I said. "Shuddup," he fired back at me. "All that work, is all I'm saying, we could have stayed and tried Spring Creek. I betcha we could have caught a mess of shellcrackers," I said. Hawgin' snatched a glance at me. You may have heard of someone giving the "evil eye." He gave me a pair of evil eyes, a wicked nose, a diabolical chin, malicious eyebrows and cheeks of perfidiousness. Hawgin' took his foot off the accelerator and saved a few gallons of fuel as he got to a sane driving speed. "Well. You'd think they ex plain things like that to people. It ain't everybody what that is walking around with an ad vanced degree in computers and things like that," he said. To say Hawgin' doesn't have a good understanding of computers is like saying Bill Gates has a few dollars in his pocket. Hawgin’ still thinks Bill Gates is some yankee fish erman who can't fish well enough to place in the Bass- Masters tournament, but keeps trying. Despite that, Hawgin' does have an encyclopdiac knowledge of all things hunt ing and fishing. Earlier that morning he pulled up at the house with the Titanic II in tow, I knew we were going fishing. "Baker, I'm telling you this thing is gonna blow your mind" he said. A few years ago, Hawgin' bought an under water video camera system. This allowed us to see, in black and white with poor resolution, the fish we couldn't catch. I'll admit to wondering what the giant flat screen was doing in the boat, but I kept my mouth shut. "Aaaight," Hawgin' said. "Gotta let it warm up. Might as well see if can catch anything in the meantime." After about 10 minutes, he yelled. "YEEHAA! BAKER! Come look at this!" There on the big screen were fish, all kinds of fish. Huge fish. Monster fish. All kinds of structure. In full color nonetheless. I shook my head. I walked back to my seat in the front. I resumed fishing, chuckling quietly to myself. "Impressive ain't it Baker. Fook at all them fish down there. Wonder why we can't catch 'em?" Hawgin' said. I told him why we couldn't catch the fish. Seconds later I was nearly blown off my seat as Hawgin' took the Titanic II from a dead stop to supersonic as he headed back to the boat ramp. On the drive home a tear rolled down his cheek. I looked over at him and said, "Hawgin 1 , it ain't yer fault. You didn't know it was a computer screen saver."