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People’s Forum
BETSY HOBGOOD
Celebrating the birth of
Jesus and being with family
and friends--and eating lots
of good food.
Coweta County Exempts
Solar Energy Equipment
Coweta County has ap
parently become the first
county in Georgia to grant a
local option property tax
exemption on solar energy
equipment.
The Coweta County Com
mission, at the request of
officials from the new
community of Shenandoah,
passed a resolution Decem
ber 7 to implement a
constitutional amendment
which Georgia voters ap
proved November 2.
The statewide amendment
authorizes a county or city
government to exempt from
property taxes any solar
heating or cooling system, as
well as machinery and
equipment used directly in
the manufacture of solar
heating and cooling systems.
v thanks to one and ail.
Western Auto
Wof the Christ Child
be with you all through
this glorious holiday
and always.
Our sincere thanks.
Adams-Briscoe Seed Cos.
What Does Christmas Mean to You?
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GREG CHANDLER
Peace and serenity.
The first exemption is
intended to encourage instal
lation of solar systems on
homes, businesses, indus
tries which make solar
systems.
The exemption is effective
in Coweta County until July
1, 1986.
Shenandoah, 25 miles south
of Atlanta’s airport, is the
site of a solar house and a
Solar Recreation Center
which will be the largest
building in the world to be
heated and cooled by the sun.
The solar system on the
recreation building is sup
ported by a grant from the U.
S. Energy Research and
Development Administration
and was designed at Georgia
Tech.
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1976
’ MARY FRANCES DANIEL
Christmas carols, lights
and children and the birth of
Christ.
Wide Variety
Of Courses
Set at Gordon
The schedule of continuing
education courses for winter
quarter at Gordon Junior
College has been announced
by Gene Love, director of
.Community Services.
Courses that will be taught
on Mondays are Guitar I and
Cake Decorating I beginning
Jan. 17; and Disc Jockey’s
Delight, Interior Decoration
11, and Drugs and Society,
beginning Jan. 24.
Tuesday classes are Hand
built Pottery, Square Danc
ing 11. Conservational
Spanish, and Cake Decorat
ing 11, all of which will begin
Jan. 18. Public Speaking
begins Feb. 1. Family
Communication Skills, Our
Do-It-Yourself Tranquilizer
-- Meditation, and Anger --
Making Good on Bad
Feelings begin Feb. 8.
Divorce, - American Style
meets on 25 and Feb. 8 only.
Couples Communication be
gins Feb. 15.
Square Dancing will be
taught on Wednesdays begin
ning Jan. 19.
Thursday classes are Basic
Painting, Guitar 11, Self-De
fense, and How to Help
Children Experience Success
in the Classroom, all of which
begin Jan. 20. A workshop on
all bells on earth will
ring sounding a message
of love and joy to people
everywhere.
Our sincere gratitude.
WEBB’S
THRIFTOWN
Holly, ivy
symbolic
of holiday
For a green Christmas,
consider holly and ivy. Hol
ly is regarded by some to
bring luck to men while ivy
does the same for women.
Holly represents the home,
ivy the inn (for that Yule
cup).
Holly is also close to
Christmas symbolism with
its white flowers, red ber
ries, and thorns. Ivy can
also depict the frailty of
human nature clinging to
heavenly strength.
And if you get a kiss un
der the mistletoe, remem
ber that the Druids in Brit-
Children’s Literature and
Emotional Development will
be held for one day only on
Thursday, Feb. 3. The
Single-Parent Family begins
Feb. 10. The Ministry of
Music and Interior Decora
tion I begin Jan. 27.
Speedreading will be
taught on Jan. 18, 20, 25, and
27. Handball will meet every
Tuesday and Thursday be
ginning Jan. 25.
Detailed information on all
these courses and registra
tion procedures will be
published in area news
papers on Dec. 30. To obtain
additional information be
fore then, please call the
Office of Community Ser
vices, Gordon, 358-1700.
* *
BETTY KITCHENS
Presents, decorations, be
ing with family and friends'
and the birth of Christ.
ain believed that the para
site brought great blessings.
If the kiss is from someone
you like, perhaps the super
stition is true.
Holiday^
Tin- silvor sounds of sleigh I
hells eeho Ihrougli the I
Christinas air with a message ®
of hope and joy for all. (1
They ring out too, our thanks
for your loyal friendship. ||L
William C. Mitchell, Jr.
Is There
A Santa Claus ? |||;’ ?:^
In 1897, a young girl sent a letter to “The Sun.” a great New York Newspaper, asking whether there was a Santa.
The editors of the paper responded with the most famous editorial ever written.
IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS . . . “Virginia, your little friends are wrong when they say there is no Santa
Claus. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see.
They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether
they be men’s or children’s are little.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you
know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.. Alas! how dreary would be the world if
there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith
then, no love, no beauty. We should have no enjoyment except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which
childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus? Yoit might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve
to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees
Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that
neither children nor men can see. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and
unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen
world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could
tear apart. Only faith Can push aside that curtain and view and picture the eternal beauty and glory beyond. Is it
all real? Ah, Virginia, in all the world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay ten times
ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
carmichael insurance agency
Glaucoma Is
Leading Cause
Of Blindness
There are 40,000 Georgians
being treated for this
disease. Thousands more
may have it and not know it.
]The disease is glaucoma, the
leading cause of blindness
among young adults in this
state.
“Generally glaucoma,
(pronounced glaw-koma) af
fects people 35 and older,”
says Don Clarke, supervisor
of adult health screening for
the Georgia Department of
Human Resources (DHR).
“There are two types of
glaucoma: acute, which
\ strikes suddenly with cloudy
vision and sometimes severe
pain in and around the eyes,
and the more common,
chronic,' which progresses
slowly and painlessly.”
Medical science does not
know why but pressures
within the eye increase,
cutting off the blood supply
nourishing the nerve cells
(rods and cones) in the
retina. Side vision is gradual
ly destroyed. The longer the
person avoids treatment the
greater the damage until
front vision is also gone and
blindness results.
This needless blindness
can be prevented with proper
treatment to halt the pro
gress of glaucoma. However,
sight loss from glaucoma
cannot be restored. Treat
ment is by drugs or an
operation or both. The
operation is to reduce
pressure within the eyeball.
If drugs are prescribed they
must Be used regularly for
life. The person must not
take any other drugs or
medications without the
knowledge of the eye
physician. The glaucoma
condition must be “declar
ed” whenever any other
medical practitioner is con
tacted for other health
problems.
“Glaucoma is difficult to
detect in the first stages but
can usually be controlled if
found soon enough,” says
Clarke. “Symptoms include
frequent changes of eye
glasses without improving
vision, inability for eyes to
adjust to the dark, loss of side
vision, blurred or foggy
vision, rainbow color around
lights or difficulty in doing
close work. It must be
kfSm ce^rate
|j/ Birth of Christ,
Ij| His wondrous
|OW Blessings
Bob Taylor’s Used Cars
Bob Nita Robin
The Legend of
Christmas Tinsel
According to an old leg
end, a poor peasant woman
with many children, deco
rated a Christmas tree with
such humble trimmings a:
she was able to gather
mostly berries and nuts anc
such odds and ends as she
had managed to save up
during the year. She labored
far into the night trying tc
make her tree as beautiful
as she could.
While she was asleep,
spiders came and crawled
from branch to branch
trailing their lacy webs be
hind them. To reward the
woman for her devotion,
The Christ Child blessed
the tree and all the spider
webs were turned into
gleaming silver.
RED HOLLY BERRIES
A legend relates that on
the first Christmas night,
when the shepherds went
to the manger, a little lamb
following them was caught
by the holly thorns, and the
red berries are the drops
of its blood that froz on the
branches.
“For the lonely one even
noise is a comfort."
Friedrich Nietzsche
stressed, however that glau
coma may exist without any
of these symptoms. Only a
medical test every two years
if you are over 35 will tell for
sure if glaucoma is present.”