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Page 4 - The Wiregrass Farmer, November 22,2017
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
Chuck Bobo, Sales Director • Robin Tillman, Office Manager
OUR GOAL
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proud of. We will reach that goal through hard work, teamwork, loy
alty and a strong dedication toward printing the truth.
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LEGAL NOTICES is Monday NOON before Wednesday’s publication.
Holiday deadlines will be announced at least one week in advance.
A trying Thanksgiving Day Dayle
Letters
Thank you veterans
Dear Editor,
General VoNguyen Giap was a brilliant & highly respected
leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from
his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in
Hanoi: “What we still don’t understand is why you Americans
stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you
had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were
ready to surrender!! It was the same at the battle of TET. You de
feated us! We knew it & we thought you knew it. But, we were
elated to notice your media was helping us. They were causing
more dismption in America than we could on the battlefields. We
were ready to surrender. You had won!”
General Giap has published his memoirs & confirmed what
most Americans knew. The Vietnam War was not lost in Viet
nam—it was lost at home. The same slippery slope, sponsored
by the U.S. media, is currently underway. It exposes the enor
mous power of a Biased Media to cut out the heart & will of the
American public.
A truism worthy of note: Do not fear the Enemy for they can
only take your Life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy
your honor. Oh, by the way, The enemy failed to abide by the
Geneva Convention in their treatment of all POW’S & that
seemed to be such an important issue to the media. Oh, I am
sorry, that only applies to how we treat them, not how they treated
us —My Mistake !!
There’s a saying that Combat Veterans have —”To those who
fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.”
I just wish the protected could use a little more judgement & de
cency in their lives. If you can’t stand behind our Military— then
you should get in front of them !!!! The Media should stay out of
our wars & conflicts & do their jobs or get out of this country as
you are really stirring up a “Hornet’s Nest” that you are not going
to like!! The Patriot’s of America are getting tired of all your
“CRAP” & LIES & Your Payday Could definitely be on it’s way.
To all Veterans Everywhere; WELCOME HOME & THANK
YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY &
“HAPPY VETERANS DAY” !!!!
Clyde Ellerbee, Jr.
We’d like to hear your opinion. Letters to the editor wel
come. Letters must be signed and have a phone number
so we can contact the writer. Phone numbers will not be
published or released, wiregrassfarmer@yahoo.com
The Wiregrass Farmer, 109 N. Gordon St., Ashburn, GA
31714
Stepping Back In Time
with David Baldwin
1940- Captained by Lion
Arthur Smith, a team of coura
geous Lions will ride forth
upon trained Rocky Mountain
Burros to compete with like
wise mounted businessmen in
a game of Burro Basketball to
be played at the Ashburn High
School Basketball Stadium
next Wednesday night, Dec. 4.
Plans to arm the State
Home Defense Corps with
4,000 .30-caliber Army rifles
and bayonets and 1,000 .45-
caliber automatic pistols, were
revealed Friday. The state now
has 4,628 men in the state
guard. The request for arma
ments is being made from the
Federal government.
1950- The new Ashburn
Drive-In has been named Your
Joy Auto Theatre. Although
rain threatened early in the af
ternoon, the opening was a
huge success.
Lt. Com. Julian Shingler of
Ashburn received his bachelor
of law degree from George
Washington University.
1960- The "Dream Team"
is pictured. They lost to Patter
son by the penetration rule
since the score was 0-0. They
went undefeated winning 11
games and tying two.
Since it was Thanksgiving,
Austin Saxon had some
Thanksgiving remarks as fol
lows: I am thankful for the day
Ken Cooper and Jim Spurlin
came to Turner County. I am
thankful for the mothers and
fathers who agreed for their
sons to play football, hiding
the fear in their hearts. I am
thankful that Bill Hardin
taught Speight to dribble and
that Wayne and Jerry Cooper
took a thankless job of scout
ing for their brother. I am
thankful for BM and
Inaha...for Ellis who made up
for lack of weight with two
tons of courage, and McKenzie
who loved the game so much.
I am thankful for Ewing and
Folsom at the flanks, for
Akridge who did his job so
quietly and so well, for Perry,
the kind you can't replace, for
Strickland and Lloyd Ewing
and Davison...for Gorday who
came back better than ever and
Lane who never missed a day
of practice. We can be grateful
The November sunlight lay
in golden patches along the
quiet neighborhood street
where Dayle sat on the front
stoop watching handful of
leaves dance to the rhythm of
an early morning breeze. The
family had gathered at her sis
ter’s house to celebrate
Thanksgiving but Dayle was
not sure that she had a grateful
bone in her body.
The year had been a bad
one that was filled with loss
and pain. In fact Dayle had
dubbed it the “year of tears.”
From January until Thanksgiv
ing Day she could not recall a
single day that tears had not
rushed to her eyes. It made her
wonder if she might spend the
rest of her life straggling with
her grief and nursing the ache
in her heart.
It was unusual for her to be
so wrapped up in sorrow be
cause she had lived through
troubling times before and was
able to come through with a
song in her heart. Even now
there had been brief periods of
enjoyment but they seemed to
be vanishing as quickly as they
came.
As Dayle wrestled with her
thoughts that autumn morning
she suddenly remembered one
day when her daughter came to
her and carefully handed her
four small pieces of hardened
clay. “Mom, my world has
fallen apart,” she said. Dayle
did not understand at first but
on closer inspection she could
see that her daughter had fash
ioned a world out of the blue
to those men who made more
yardage along the sidelines
than the team on the field and
to that bunch of loyalist who
were there when we were los
ing in previous years 54-0 and
were there this year when we
were winning 25-0. I'm thank
ful for those years past when
Frank Carter and Dr. Royce
Hobby held us together with
adhesive and Band-Aids and
when Bubba Stevens paid his
way in to announce the games.
I'm grateful to all those fresh
men who never once got a mo
ment of glory for all their hard
work but whose day is yet to
come. Thanks to the Athletic
Club (Alton Ellis, president)
From Where
I Sit
and green mixture of clay that
now lay broken in her hands.
Acting like the typical fix it
all mother she gently led Anna
into her office and with a few
pieces of tape put her clay
world back together again.
"But Mom, it still has holes
and cracks all in it,” Anna said
and most certainly it did.
For years Dayle kept that
cracked ball of clay in her desk
drawer unable to forget her
child’s disappointment when
her world fell apart. How ap
propriate it was that she
thought about it on Thanksgiv
ing Day.
Later in the afternoon the
family gathered around a
splendid Thanksgiving table
and joined hands with the ones
next to them. With a voice soft
and low her father said, “Chil
dren we have so much to be
thankful for today.” That sim
ple sentence had a very large
impact on Dayle. As she
looked around the table at each
member of her family all that
had burdens of their own, yet
there they sat all smiling at
and the county board for the
field house, for the donations
that paid for the insurance, and
to those boys who never com
plained when a reporter's er
rors cheated them out of credit
due. I'm glad that I was here to
see it, this Rebel team of 1960.
There could never be another
team like it. For those boys
knew what it meant to be
beaten, defeated, trampled in
the dust, and they knew what it
meant to score, to win, to rise
to glory. There could never be
another team quite the same.
The 1960 Dream Team (pic
tured) Quarterback Jim
McKenzie, Left Half, Richard
Ellis, Full back, Ralph "Freight
each other and nodding in
agreement.
It was then that Dayle real
ized that at some point during
her years of tears that she had
lost touch with something vital
to her. Deep inside her heart
she had been crying for the
One who could bind up the
fractured pieces of her world
and could fill the cracks with
lasting peace. And God had
been there all the time but she
had been so consumed with
her personal sorrow that she
had lost focus.
Then suddenly from some
where deep down a feeling of
thanksgiving rose up in Dayle
and she knew at that moment
that everything would be okay.
As the family bowed their
heads the prayer found in the
Bible’s third chapter of
Habakkuk became her own
prayer that day, “Though the
fig tree does not bud and there
are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and
the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in
the pen and no cattle in the
stalls, yet I will rejoice in the
Lord. I will be joyful in God
my Savior. The Lord God is
my strength.”
No matter what our losses
may be this Thanksgiving sea
son we need to find the
courage to look around our
selves and give thanks to God
for all the good things that He
continues to bless us with.
May you have a wonderful
Thanksgiving Day with your
family and friends!
Train" Speight, Right Half
back, Phil Gibbs. On the line,
left to right, John Ewing, Jr.,
Right tackle, Larry Williams,
Right Guard, Charles Perry,
Center, Robert Smith, Left
Guard, Paul Akridge, Left
tackle, Bobby Bobo, Left End,
Randy Folsom. Not pictured
tackle and punter Bobby Zorn,
guards George Gorday and Bill
Davison, ends Bill Griffith and
Ray Bass, and halfbacks David
Moore and Henry Smith, and
full back Pete Strickland, who
were standouts.
1970- Injury-ridden Turner
County falls to Wilcox County
21-6 in Region Championship
game. Larry Walker, James
Wynn, and Lewis Crockett
went to the bench in the first
quarter with injuries. Randy
Spradley, Eddie Gammage and
Darryl Sumner stepped up to
fill the gaps.
Emmett Reynolds will
head the Georgia Farm Bureau
for the coming year. The Crisp
County farmer has been active
in the Farm Bureau for 17
years.
Baker’s Dozen
Wrong kind
of jelly
For more than two years I
lived a few hundred yards from
the beach on the Florida Gulf
Coast. Every day the weather
was good and I was not work
ing, I was on the beach and in
the water fishing.
Apalachicola Bay and I be
came good friends. Particu
larly, I liked to wade into the
bay with my cast net to catch
fish. Caught mullet, skipjack
(ladyfish), black dram, reds,
trout, croakers and flounder. I
also caught jellyfish.
Did I ever catch jellyfish.
The first time a jelly zapped
me, I thought a bee stung me.
But, how the heck did the bee
get underwater and why was it
under water? I chalked it up to
one that fell during a flight
over the water and it got caught
in my shorts.
Zapped again. WTH?
Then I saw all the jellyfish
around me.
I made a hasty exit from the
water. It was not the last time
jellyfish would zap me.
One night on the causeway
casting for fish, I pulled up the
net and noticed it was twin
kling in the fading light. I
thought nothing of it and con
tinued to cast. Then my arms
started burning. In a just a few
seconds I went from burning to
the centerpiece of a Guy
Fawkes celebration.
The twinkling in the net was
shredded jellyfish. I was lit up
by jellyfish stings.
You may have heard that
peeing on jellyfish stings takes
the pain away. It did not. The
only thing that killed the stings
was really hot water. It breaks
down the poison in the stings.
You can use meat tenderizer
too, but the hot water is a lot
faster.
Living less than 1,000 yards
from the shore (calling it a
beach is accurate, but it ain't
what most people call a beach),
I spent a lot of time physically
in Apalachicola Bay with my
dogs, a cast net and a fishing
gear. Cast nets are fun.
One day I waded out, not
catching anything but having a
grand time just being on and in
the water. I came on a school
of mullet. I cast the net and
mullet went everywhere, in
cluding over the net. I do not
remember how many I caught
because the next thing I saw
panicked me.
A fin. A big fin. A BIG
curved fin. (whew) Dolphins.
DOLPHINS!
I was in water not much
over my knee. To see dolphins
meant I was close to the Inter
coastal Waterway channel in
the bay, which also meant I
was - MORE THAN A MILE
FROM SHORE WITH THE
TIDE COMING IN!
I did not walk on water get
ting back to "the hill" as the
commercial fishermen called
it. But I sure was moving.
In all my time in the water,
I only found one Portuguese
Man-O-War. That’s one of the
bad ones. It was tiny, but I gave
it a wide berth.
Fishing on the east pass in
the state park, I saw jellies the
size of a track bed laying dry
ing in the sand. These were
stunning. How did jellyfish
that big get swept onto the
beach?
The 1960-61 Dream Team