About Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2023)
THURSDAY. DECEMBER 21.2023 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 5A 0'N€ILL OUTDOORS By CTNeiLL WILLIAMS Personal Commentary Christmas - a reminder to not take time or people for granted 2023 Year Ending Guide for Outdoors Men and Women Couldn't resist the oppor tunity to offer a listing of rec ommendations for safety and enjoyment within plans to gather at Christmas and New Years' time to which you can refer for all of 2024; fishing, hunting and simply camping with your family. Qualifications - Started fishing on Lake Lanier in 1957 just after it filled and I was 13 years old. During my youth, I fished and caught everything and anything catchable with my two grandfathers in the lakes, streams and ponds since the age of eight, 72 years ago. Started with cane poll and braided nylon line and used grass hoppers for bait caught in the weeds on the way to the pond. Later won the 1979 Georgia Bass Angler's Championship, hosted 'O'Neill Outside" television nationally for 42 years and radio on WSB covering 38 states for 32 years. 1. Have three really good 'lifetime' knives, one for the boat, truck and person. The one in the boat should be at tached to a big float. What do I mean 'lifetime'? You'll keep them that long. 2. If you visit a major or even minor city with your family, NY, Chicago, LA, even Atlanta, legally carry a side arm and know how to use it. That means practicing at a range. I hope you never need it. Also have a home de fense plan in place. 3. When boating, ALCO HOL AND BOAT FUEL DO NOT MIX... EVER. 4. Always wear your PFD when boating and have a rope on the deck secured to a cleat. Also have a throwable life preserver, just in case. All these are on the deck, not in a storage locker on board. 5. Write formal re deemable coupons for fish ing and hunting trips and give them to your children or little kids in the neighbor hood without a dad at home, they can use them for you to be required to take them fish ing and hunting. 6. Have youngsters in your family? Be extra firm informing them that firearms are not to be touched or in spected under any and all cir cumstances. 7. Camping with your family in the summer on a creek? Children ALWAYS wear a comfortable PFD all day. If they test the flowing waters without one, they can be gone in a second. 8. All too often, a deer hunt is not a hunt, it's target shooting practice. Make sure your sons and daughters un derstand the deer season, the rut, when it starts and why. Those understandings will make your time together, quietly whispering in the stand, much more meaning ful. 9. I believe the Eastern Wild Turkey is the #1 big game animal in the US, basi cally because a successful hunt requires a greater prac ticed combination of talents than for any other single game animal; sighting, sound, movement, stealth, calling and shot placement. Too lengthy to go into it now but trust me on this. OK, enough from O'Neill. These things you already know and hopefully are prac ticing. This little piece was just a reminder. However, do know that outdoors men and women, actual participants, pay for the establishment and maintenance of wildlife in this country via voluntary ex cise taxes on their gear pur chases. We pay our own way. O'Neill Williams -Gradu ate of Emory University, 42 nationwide years on "O'Neill Outside" television and 32 years on WSB Radio. Hall of Fames: Legends of the Out doors, National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, Geor gia Hunting and Fishing Hall of Fame, Georgia Out door Writers Hall of Fame, National Outdoor Media Hall of Fame. Born in At lanta in 1943. Married to high school friend for 58 years. By Keith Petty One of my favorite short stories, James Joyce’s The Dead is set in Dublin, Ireland in the early twentieth century. It is January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, a celebration of the Magi’s visit to wel come the Christ child; and Gabriel Conroy, a teacher and book reviewer, and his wife Gretta attend a lavish annual dinner party given by Gabriel’s aunts Kate and Julia Morkan. Seemingly quite lackluster throughout much of its unfolding, care ful analysis of the story re veals pertinent depth regarding the human condi tion and our own lives. Gabriel is middle-aged and going through the mo tion of life, attending what he believes is important. He fo cuses upon his career, drab politics, pointless alle giances, and trite banter. He believes his world is intact and as it should be. What Gabriel does not understand, however, is that he is essen tially a dead man inside and that his wife, for whom he cares in a financial and mate rial sense and by reminding her to wear her galoshes in the snow, is miserable within their marriage. Revelation of his condi tion begins as Gabriel watches Gretta on the stair well landing as they are leav ing the party. She has stopped for a moment and is listening as the song The Lass of Aughrim is being sung upstairs by another party guest. Gabriel is suddenly taken in by Gretta’s beauty and feels amorous toward her. Upon their return to their hotel room, Gabriel ex presses these feelings only to have Gretta break down and cry. Gretta tells her husband that The Lass of Aughrim re minds her of her first love, Michael Furey, who died at a very early age. Furey was a romantic and courted Gretta with much attention and with simple gestures such as going for walks with her and bring ing her flowers. On the night before Gretta was to leave for convent school, Furey stood in the damp and cold beneath her window to confess his love for her. Subsequently, he be came ill and passed. As Gabriel listens to Gretta, he is suddenly aware that she is still much in love with Michael Furey and that their marriage is primarily a legal arrangement. After Gretta drifts off to sleep, Gabriel stands at the window, watching the falling snow and contemplating the scope of his life. He feels that he is a failure. He thinks of Michael Furey, dead and buried in the graveyard, and thinking of those in his life, his mind turns to his aunts Longarm Quilting Services for all Quilts Computer guided edge to edge quilting Amelia Broussard Phone: 706-692-5663 or e-mail: broussardcol@msn.com and the fact that, soon, they will be nothing but “shades.” In fact, in the vast scheme of time, soon, he, too, will be a “shade.” Thus, it is with Gabriel’s two epiphanies that connec tion to our own lives is rele vant. First of all, how many times have we taken some one for granted? How many times have we neglected a re lationship? How many times have we let our priorities shift so that the world and so ciety takes precedence over our investment in others? How many times have we let our wants push others to the backseat only to realize too late that this is what we have done? How many times have we let others, even fam ily members, slip from our lives? Such is Gabriel’s lot concerning his daily exis tence and concerning Gretta, for though he has given her practicality, he has never given her his time and atten tion. Additionally, Gabriel real izes, as if he had never thought of it before, the brevity of life, as he ac knowledges Michael Furey’s untimely death and his aunts’ impending passings. How often do we, as well, dismiss the brevity of life, foolishly thinking that we and those we love have plenty of time left? Now in my sixth decade, I often think of the brevity of life and how quickly time has gone by. In particular, as I drive along Whitestone Road and pass Talking Rock Bap tist and its large cemetery on either side of the road, I am astounded by the number of people from my life who are now gone. Both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, numerous cousins, friends, and, most recently, my dad rest there. In addition, I’ve lost a dear friend to prostate cancer and another to suicide; and on an ongoing basis, the local obit uaries list the departure of many community members of whom I’ve know or known personally all of my life; and I have witnessed former students who have been cut down in their youth lowered into graves all too suddenly. Most every day, I think of these people, but Christmas time accentuates their ab sence in our world. I remember them all from the Christmases when they were alive and healthy and happy. I remember them from fam ily Christmas dinners filled with delicious foods, conver sation, and laughter. I re member them from church or just seeing them downtown. I remember them from my childhood and high school days and from my own class room. Now, they are “shades,” and like Gabriel Conroy in his middle-age, in the vast scheme of time, it won’t be all that long before I, too, am a “shade.” Perhaps, then, this Christ mas (and all year), the best that we can give to one an other and ourselves is to not take anything for granted, es pecially the sacred gift of life. Instead, we should pay at tention to each other and offer love and comfort while those around us are here to receive it. Isn’t that enough to bring forth joy and cele bration this Christmas sea son? We should take note of such grand fortune, for as Gabriel Conroy is aware at the conclusion of James Joyce’s poignant literary work, time does not stand still and the snow falls “on all the living and the dead.” Keith Petty is a currently- retired educator who taught in Pickens County schools for 28 years. Aside from his writing for the Pickens Progress, he has written sev eral stories for Georgia Backroads, the most recent in the current issue. His future plans include terminating re tirement to return to full-time teaching. 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Marine Corps' Toys for 20. Evergreen illumination, x-mas parade kick-off Down 2. Night of Lights' 'main' route 3. Festival of Trees host, loans books locally 4. Jesus' birth, by actors in church 5. Sheriffs 'Shop with a ', (not cop) 6. Southerners' go-to holiday ham 8. This week's ad w/winking Santa 11. Holiday dessert, loved to hate 13. Pickens community's x-mas tree locale, lawn 16. Clothes co. commercial feat./ local 'rugged Santa' The Pickens Puzzler is proudly sponsored by: M, State Farm Alan Horne, Jr., Agent 95 Whitfield Drive, Suite F Jasper, GA 30143 Bus: 706-692-2888
