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Quote of the Week - “I’ve been completely fascinated with history because it tells everything about what’s
going to happen next because it’s cyclical, everything repeats in general.”
- Emile Autumn
• Opinions
• Community
Views
• Good Old
Common Sense
The Progress
Editorial
June 24,2021
From the Staff
Historic sites don’t
run themselves
By Dan Pool, Editor
The county has indicated it will allo
cate up to $200,000 to complete renova
tions on the Tate Depot from the COVID
relief money they expect to receive. The
exterior of the building looks really nice,
but the inside is a hollow shell, lacking
insulation and the property has no bath
room.
There are certainly worse uses of fed
eral money and having an active histori
cal tourism site in the heart of the county
is a worthwhile goal.
In this case, however, the good inten
tions of the commissioners have the ca
boose in front of the train engine - so to
speak.
Drawing on two of the non-profit en
deavours where I have been involved, I
see a glaring problem with pouring
money into the depot.
When I began my year as chair of the
Chamber of Commerce board in 2001,
work had been recently completed on
creating a marble museum in a room of
the chamber building. Not long after
opening, I had the chamber director on
the phone saying she had a tour bus full
of tourists in the museum and needed to
go to a meeting. What to do? That sce
nario played out several more times. It
quickly became apparent the well-mean
ing effort of establishing a marble mu
seum had created a burden on the
chamber. An office of two (at that time)
couldn’t take time to discuss county lore
whenever visitors showed up.
Luckily, the city of Nelson agreed to
take the museum and now hosts the mu
seum and I suspect city hall staff also
can’t drop what they are doing and give
tours.
Currently, I am the treasurer of the
Pickens Historical Society, which has
made strides in developing the Old Jail
on Main Street into a bona fide historic
site. We have spent roughly $40,000 in
funds over the past couple of years
($25,000 raised by the society; $7,500
from the county; and $7,500 from the
city of Jasper) repairing leaks, painting,
installing handrails, outdoor lights,
adding heating and AC and, most notice
ably, a series of historic panels curated
and installed by Kennesaw State Univer
sity.
It’s a great way to preserve our area’s
history and make use of the unique and
eye-catching Old Jail building.
Here is the problem - like the Marble
Museum, and I predict the Tate Depot
later, historic sites don’t run themselves.
You need, at a minimum, a base of vol
unteers (and preferably someone at least
part-time) to be sure the doors are open.
At the Old Jail, we first set out to get
the building in shape to welcome visitors.
I hope you will visit us on July 3rd, be
fore or after the Independence Day pa
rade, to see our work thus far.
Secondly, and more challenging, is de
veloping a plan to see that the historic jail
is open as many hours as possible.
What’s the point in spending a good
chunk of donated funds, plus a lot of vol
unteer hours creating a legitimate
tourist/historic site, if the doors are al
ways locked?
We know that the Old Jail is a viable
tourist draw. I regularly see people peer
ing in the windows when I go in-and-out
of the newspaper office. Unfortunately,
most of the our historical society volun
teers work regular jobs. We manage to
open most Saturday afternoons and for
special events, but no chance we can
offer weekday hours at this point.
If the county chooses to make the
depot a historic site, it will be a hit -
trains are as popular as jails. To the cliche
of “if you build it, they will come” - I
would reply, “Not if the doors are
locked.”
Unless the county finds a way to staff
the depot enough hours to justify the ren
ovation, they should look for another use
for the building or the $200,000.
[If you are interested in local history
or want to get out and meet people, the
Pickens Historical Society would love to
discuss volunteering at the jail with you.
E-mail the society at pickenshistori-
cal@gmail.com or find us on Facebook, 1
Pickens Historical Society.]
Tell us your thoughts with a letter to the editor. E-mail to news@pickensprogress.com
See letter submission guidelines on the Letters to the Editor page or call us 706-253-2457.
H • j
Ponderings of a Simple Man
Py Caleb Smith
The Simple Man’s
Guide to Life
Lately it seems most of
my articles are just me com
plaining about things without
offering any solution to the
problem.
While I would like to
think that I could solve all of
society’s ills by simply dis
pensing homespun southern
wisdom from my front porch
rocking chair, I know that
simply isn’t the case. I have
learned a few things in my
life, however, that I think
most people could take and
use in their own. I’m not
going to solve inflation or the
political divide, but maybe I
can add some value to the
world. So, without further
ado, let me present to you
The Simple Man’s Guide to
Life.
1: Go grocery shopping
hungry. Think about it, we
don’t eat when we’re not
hungry (unless you’re me on
Sunday afternoon and you’re
just bored). If you shop hun
gry, you’ll only buy the
things you’ll eat. (Simple
Man’s Wife Disclaimer; do
not do this. If you take your
hungry husband to the store
you’ll come home with 20
bags of potato chips and a
truck-bed full of Nutter But
ters.)
2: Go to bed angry.
When the inevitable occa
sional argument with your
spouse arises, not everything
has to be resolved right away.
Stew on it. The amount of
time you spend thinking of
witty quips and comebacks
will be appreciated by your
significant other the first
thing the following morning.
I can speak from experience,
wives love nothing more than
to be greeted by their hus
bands as soon as they awak
ened with a ‘and another
thing!’
3: Don’t read the in
structions. Instructions are
written by authors who have
the process explained to them
by engineers who think they
know best. I don’t need some
hippie college kid telling me
how to put together a chair.
Worst case scenario, duct
tape and Super Glue can fix
any mistakes you make along
the way and ultimately gives
your furniture a ‘home made’
vibe. It adds character. At
least, that’s what I tell visitors
that want to know why our
interior color scheme re
volves around ‘duct tape sil
ver’.
And there we go. Just a
few short rides to begin ap
plying to improve your life
and relationships. Depending
on feedback, I may release
the rest in installments over
the summer. Currently I have
87 rales, so who knows, I
may even release an entire
book. Self improvement
books are a big seller and I
can’t help but to imagine the
hillbilly market is vastly un
derrepresented in this field. I
look forward to hearing how
these rales have benefited the
people of Pickens County.
Oh, and one more thing. I
almost forgot the most im
portant rale of all: Don’t take
advice from humor colum
nists.
[Caleb Smith is a long
time, award-winning, colum
nist for the Progress.]
(USPS 431-820)
Published by Pickens County Progress, Inc.
94 North Main Street, Jasper, GA 30143
(706) 253-2457
www.pickensprogressonline.com
DAN POOL
Publisher/Editor
Published each Thursday at Jasper, Pickens County, Georgia. Entered
at the Post Office at Jasper, Georgia. 30143 as Mail Matter of Second
Class. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PICKENS COUNTY
PROGRESS, 94 N. Main St., Jasper, GA 30143.
One Year’s Subscription: $39.59 in Pickens County and in Gilmer,
Cherokee, Dawson and Gordon counties; $50.29 in all other Georgia
counties; $59.92 out of state.
dMbe is>d)ooI
OTHER VOICES
How real is reality TV?
By Mary Migliaro
An insatiable hunger for
reality TV shows has grown
over the years and now pretty
much consumes program
ming on TV. The question is,
just how real is reality TV, re
ally? Spoiler Alert - Reality
TV is actually not, well ...
real!
According to Wikipedia:
Reality television is a genre
of television programming
that documents purportedly
unscripted real-life situations,
often starring unknown indi
viduals rather than profes
sional actors.
Reality television first
emerged as a distinct genre in
the early 1990s with shows
such as The Real World, then
achieved prominence in the
early 2000s with the success
of the series Survivor, Idol,
and Big Brother, all of which
became global franchises.
Reality TV is a lot like
dessert - you know it’s bad
for you, but you can’t help
but to consume it. At some
point, we’ve all wondered
whether our favorite reality
show is as “real” as the pro
ducers make it seem.
These are some of the
popular reality TV shows that
are more scripted than spon
taneous: The Voice, Dancing
with the Stars, The Bachelor,
The Bachelorette, The Real
Housewives, Master Chef,
and American Pickers.
Most of these “reality”
shows are scripted to a cer
tain extent and participants
sign contracts stating they are
not allowed to share any de
tails about the show or be
hind the scenes of their show.
Contestants are encouraged
to play to the drama and in
some cases, alcohol is pro
vided to ramp up the antics.
There are other shows that
most of us believe are more
based in reality such as those
on the home improvement
channels or cooking chan
nels. We should not, how
ever, because many of them
are scripted as well or editing
is used to create a more dra
matic outcome. An example
of this is the popular HGTV
show Love it or List it.
Producers actually shoot
both endings with the couple
saying they will “love” their
home as well as the “list it”
option. They will then decide
which has a more dramatic
effect. In follow-up shows
visiting couples a year or two
later, we find out they actu
ally “loved” their home when
the episode showed they
“listed” it.
In most competition
shows, a clause in the con
tract says the producer—not
the judges—has the final say
in who’s eliminated. The
judges usually make the
picks, but producers do step
in occasionally and say,
“This person is really good
for the show; I don’t want
him kicked off just yet.”
On Dancing with the Stars
for example, comments are
sometimes edited and taken
out of context to create a nar
rative and fabricate animosity
between contestants. Wendy
Williams says she was
dropped from the show for
refusing to stick to the script
producers had written for her.
Some reality shows are
heavily staged. On House
Hunters, some of the houses
toured on camera were re
portedly friends’ homes that
weren’t even on the market.
And for day-in-the-life
shows about different occu
pations, many producers fake
scenarios like a tree falling
on a logger to add drama.
(Say it isn’t so!)
In 2018, statistics showed
the perspectives on whether
or not reality television
shows are mostly based on a
script according to adults in
the United States. The find
ings revealed that 61 percent
of surveyed adults in the U.S.
believed that what actors say
in reality TV shows is mostly
based on a script, with just 18
percent saying that they
thought most of the spoken
content in such shows was
largely unscripted.
So, in an effort not to burst
your bubble, just remember
that reality TV is not real.
Look at it as a guilty pleasure
and try not to get sucked into
the drama. Then again, per
haps you should because
after all, isn’t that why we
watch in the first place?
Happy viewing.
[Mary Migliaro, M.Ed.
Educator and Parent Mentor
maiymigliaro@aol.com.]
If you spot a
mistake,
Contact our editor
dpool@
pickensprogress.com
706-253-2457
WEATHER
By
William Dilbeck
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