Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, December 9, 2009, TheTrue Citizen
inions
★ ★★ * ★ ★
The Pledge Of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
jit stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
★ -A'’*’*- Ir* ★ ★ ★ ★
"Don't worry, 6lenn, were still behind you!"
RFD
Time to get serious
It looks like the economic impact of new construc
tion at Plant Vogtle is already becoming a reality. Burke
County Commissioners were able to hold their millage
rate steady partly because of a slight increase, rather
than the expected decrease, in the utilities digest.
Not much, but some of that was due to new construc
tion, which already involves some 600 workers. We
also learned this week that the county’s tax digest will
be impacted as the project moves ahead over the next
several years, culminating in 2017.
Coupling that with the fact that contractors have
pledged to make a concerted effort to do business lo
cally means that our local economy could receive a
much needed boost over the next few years.
In the past we have urged community leaders to plan
for the increased activity, traffic and employment in
the Plant Vogtle area. Near the top of our priorities has
always been a simplified and improved route connect
ing the plant to the City of Waynesboro, which is clearly
the economic and political hub of the county. That
would take some planning and some money, but would
certainly be eligible for state funding. It would make it
much easier for employees to commute to and from
work and for vendors from the city to go to the plant.
We have already seen controversy arise over the con
struction of a concrete plant near the site. If a stricter
property use plan not implemented soon, there will be
many more property owner conflicts in that part of the
county.
We can either make a plan and implement it now or
spend the next few decades wondering what “might
have been” if we had.
Looking Back
10 years ago: December 8,1999
Waynesboro Primary School received a special $132,000 grant
under the state’s “Pay for Performance” program. Principal Linda
Bailey said the staff “did a super job. They all feel they have a
part in our children’s education.” WPS reached 13 of 15 goals,
equal to an 86 percent success rate.
Mike Huddle, CEO of the Burke County Hospital, said the fa
cility was “ready for Y2K. We have done all we are supposed to
do to be in compliance.”
25 years ago: December 5,1984
Theron’s Maryland Fried Chicken opened for business in its
new building on East Sixth Street.
The City of Waynesboro received a $127,000 state grant for
renovations on the 100 block of West Seventh Street.
Jackson Elliott Cox was selected to represent Edmund Burke
Academy at the Georgia Youth Leadership Seminar in Atlanta.
The Waynesboro Country Club opened the last holes of its
newly constructed “back nine.”
50 years ago: December 10,1959
Holder Watson was elected Mayor of Waynesboro, defeating
Winston Borom by 158 votes out of the more than 1,000 cast.
Charles Economos, Bates Haygood and Ben Wardlow were
elected to council posts.
Ben Thurman was elected to his third term as Mayor of Midville.
Advertisers included Allen’s Drug Store, W.G. Harrell Jewel
ers, Powell’s Flower Shop, Burke Drug Co., White Columns
Antiques and Daitch’s Department Store.
75 years ago: December 7,1934
Waynesboro City Council voted to install Christmas lights on
Liberty Street between Sixth and Seventh streets.
Dr. Everett Bargeron opened an office for the general practice
of medicine in the Waynesboro Drug Co. building.
G.A. Lewis of Lewis Undertakers announced that the U.S.
Government would pay for tombstones for veterans of the Civil
War, the Spanish American War and the World War.
nt (Klitsutt
P.O. Box 948 • 601 E. 6th Street
Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Telephone: (706) 554-2111 • Fax: (706) 554-2437
Published every Wednesday by TheTrue Citizen, Inc. Pe
riodical Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Georgia (USPS
642-300)
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The True
Citizen, P.O. Box 948, Waynesboro, GA 30830.
Roy F. Chalker
1915-1994
Roy F. Chalker Jr. Bonnie K. Taylor
Editor & Publisher General Manager
Elizabeth Billips
Associate Editor
Jill DuMars, advertising composition and computer pho
tography; Susie Barefield, classifieds and circulation;
Betty Belk, accounting and bookkeeping; Lavonna
Drawdy, advertising composition and design and adver
tising sales; Lisa J. Chance, page designer; Anne Marie
Kyzer, staff writer; and Tres Bragg, staff writer and ad
vertising composition..
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By Bonnie K. Taylor
General Manager The True Citizen
Our home was on the Town and Country Woman’s Club Christ
mas Tour of Homes along with six other local home owners.
We had 173 persons sign the guest register at our home. I be
lieve it was an awesome turnout.
We had the esteemed honor of having as hosts Burke County
I 1 Clerk of Court Sherri Cochran, my dear friend
Sue Edenfield and my son and daughter-in-
law, Kim and Eddie Taylor.
Sherri's family lived in our home for about
25 years when it was a duplex.
Sherri said her family would like the changes
we’ve made in their old homeplace. Most of
the moving of walls and the increase in room
sizes was to accommodate large family gath
erings. She said her mother would be pleased
I 1 as family and their get-togethers were very im
portant to her. I did not know Sherri's mother well, but knew of
her seamstress talents.
All who toured our home were complimetary and we were
proud to show it off. We saved the home from being demolished.
The Old South.
Depending on who‘s pontificating, the term Old South is ei
ther revered or reviled.
Not much middle ground.
Even though the true Old South was gone
with the wind decades before Daddy and
Mama were twinkles in the eyes of Grandma
Julia and Grandma Freddie respectively, I can
understand why there are differing opinions
about life in our homeland as it was all those
years ago.
No era in any part of history, in any part of
the world, is without it’s share of glory and of
shame.
But by the time I made my grand entrance into Dixieland, the
South was an easy paced, uncomplicated place to be a dirt farm
boy.
I’m certain that some will disagree, but to me, a barefoot kid
ignorant of and unconcerned about politics and world affairs, the
South was the smack dab center of the universe.
Later in life I contracted a deadly case of wanderlust that I still
suffer from today. But as a youngster a few thousand country
acres and perhaps a weekly trip to the one screen picture show in
town was all I needed to be content.
Life in my neck of the woods was interesting. Sometimes fun,
sometimes eccentric.
Never boring.
I skipped kindergarten, we lived too far out in the country, but
I got a fine start on my education by listening to men telling
stories, some true, some not so much, while sitting on upturned
Coca Cola crates at Mister Scott’s store. The men seemed old
and wise but in reality were probably considerably younger than
I am now. I learned many lessons sitting at the feet of those fel
lows on that hard wood plank floor.
That was my South.
My knowledge of other parts of the world began in bed late at
night when I would hide under the covers and listen to faraway
radio stations on my transistor radio. WBT in Charlotte. WLS in
Chicago. WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
And my favorite, WWL, “ way down yonder on New Orleans”.
The bayou accents of the deejays on that powerhouse channel
sounded just as foreign, though not nearly as harsh, as the North
ern parlance I heard from Yankee acquaintances.
Those stations could be heard all over the South and in many
parts of America until the government decided that there was
something unfair about that.
These days I can’t pick up AM stations that are thirty miles
away.
The South of my youth was roamed by root doctors, rock doc
tors, mineral doctors, and all other manner of hucksters plying
their supposedly medicinal wares. And for every peddler trying
It was listed on the City of Waynesboro’s dilapidated list and was
soon to be bulldozed before we purchased it.
Much of the materials used in the remodeling by our contrac
tor, C&H Services, was purchased locally at McKinney Do-It-
Best Center and Salter Building Supply.
Many do-it-yourselfers who attended did not know the local
hardware stores carried some of the materials we used.
Did you know McKinney’s has a good selection of decorative
mouldings? Did you know Salter has unfinished 4x8 sheets of
headboard?
We used a lot of the mouldings and headboard in the renova
tion of our home and two other homes we restored on Academy
Avenue.
I want to say thank you to Lillian Richbourg and Gail Voyles
of the Town Country Woman’s Club for greeting guests at our
home. Another great big thank you to the other homeowners on
the tour, Jean and Ken Stanford, Val Crawford, June and David
Jones, Nina and Don Springer, Linda and Jerry Jenkins and Laura
and Randy Hensley.
If you are in the market for a new home, you may want to
consider restoring ... it’s a lot of work, but it can save you big
bucks and it’s very rewarding!
to convince his customers that a hunk of limestone could cure
rheumatism there were plenty of folks, some of them my kin,
willing to hand over their sawmill dollars to give it a try.
In rural Southern America back then there were fewer teeth.
Fewer real ones anyway. I was often amused at some of my older
relatives who, once their few remaining teeth surrendered, tried
dentures for a while only to decide that they were too much trouble
and that a good set of gums was all that was required to eat most
Southern food anyway.
Thank the Lord for the fluoride introduction to the drinking
water back then. My generation is much too vain to walk around
toothless.
We had a grand total of three TV stations, all part time and all
black and white. Locally produced shows kept me rapt for hours.
Sheriff John enforcing the law and hosting a kids show at the
same time Trooper Terry fighting bad guys on another station.
Bwana John leading expeditions into darkest Africa with a Geor
gia accent and silly turtle shell hat. Sometimes Mama would have
to make me go out to play if the “fuss box", Daddy's epithet for
the RCA, was too addicting.
Today I have five hundred channels and sometimes go for days
without switching on the set.
To be sure, my young South was a different place.
It was a world where you could leave a dime in the mailbox on
top of an unstamped letter. Later you’d find your change, a nickel,
in the mailbox and the letter gone.
Where clothes were hung on lines in backyards to dry. The
smell of clean sheets softened by the sun and the Southern breezes
will never be duplicated by anything found in a bottle of Downy.
Where we put peanuts in our Cokes long before Tim McGraw,
who by the way I doubt ever actually consumed the crunchy deli
cacy, sang about it.
A different world, yes, but today’s South ain’t bad either.
I like it here.
I think I’ll stay a while.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelycolo@aol.com
We welcome your letters
Letters to the editor of The True Citizen are welcomed and en
couraged. These are pages of opinion, yours and ours.
Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s read
ers. The True Citizen reserves the right to edit any and all por
tions of a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters
must include the signature, address and phone number of the
writer to allow our staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should
be limited to 400 words and should be typewritten and double
spaced or neatly printed by hand. Deadline for letters to the edi
tor is Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Email Letters to the Editor to: lisaj@thetruecitizen.com.
Don Lively
MY YOUNG SOUTH