Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, January 6, 2010, The True Citizen
inions
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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* ★ ★ ★ ★
Looking back and ahead
We were excited to learn of the upcoming construc
tion of the new greenway for the City of Waynesboro.
A long time in the making, the walking/biking trail
should be ready for use by late spring or early summer.
Along with it is a planned renovation of the historic
ice house on Barron Street. Many Waynesboro residents
can remember when the old ice house was in opera
tion. It pre-dates the time when you could buy a bag of
ice at the local convenience store by many decades.
Many a churn of home-made ice cream was made by
using the big blocks of ice cut by Mr. Braswell or one
of his helpers and then “chopped” down to a useful
size.
Ice made in the building was also used in a family’s
“ice box”, the fore runner to today’s refrigerators.
The Barron Street building also houses the 75 year-
old diesel engine which once powered the city’s street
lights and water pumping station.
Before the city built the existing facility near Briar
Creek, a well at the ice house provided the city’s water,
which was pumped to the various tanks throughout the
city. The restored building will be a valuable tool for
school children and other interested visitors to learn
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RFD
how some of the city’s services got started.
Designating the historic building as the “trail head”
for the new greenway is altogether fitting. We con
gratulate those who are making it possible and look
forward to its completion.
Looking Back
10 years ago: January 5, 2000
Burke County Commission Chairman Ellis Godbee voted to
break a tie and approve pay raises for county employees totaling
2-4 percent, including merit raises. Godbee also announced that
he had changed his mind and would run for re-election in 2000.
Janice Morris opened her own real estate firm in Waynesboro
after a 16-year career in the business.
Best Office Solutions, owned by Robin Baxley and Sandi
Stewart, opened its new store on West Sixth Street.
25 years ago: January 2,1985
Georgia EMC President Jim Andrew presented the Pioneer
Award to Porter W. Carswell for his long-time service to the rural
electrification program.
Mary Cates Griffin, Julie Dawn Odom, Sheron Lynn Saxon
and Cynthia Leigh Cochran were named to the University of
Georgia fall quarter dean’s list.
Hardee’s of Waynesboro advertised regular hamburgers for $.29
each with a limit 10 per customer (cheeseburgers were $.39)
50 years ago: January 7,1960
Four hundred thousand bushels of com were spilled when a
Cotton Producers Association warehouse collapsed. Three trac
tor-trailer trucks and a tire shed were engulfed by the mountain
of grain.
Candidates announcing for election to the Burke County Com
mission included Jesse C. Palmer, J.W. Robinson, Hubert Rackley,
George Perkins, Judson Thompson, Ben Thurman and W.T.
McBride.
75 years ago: January 4,1935
Charles A. Lindbergh and his wife Anne testified in the
Flemington, N.J. trial of Bruno Hamptmann who was accused of
kidnapping the couple’s baby son.
First National Bank of Waynesboro reported assets of
$1,430,289.30 at the close of business for 1934.
“The Prescott Kid” starring Tim McCoy was playing at the
Grand Theatre.
nt (Klitsett
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
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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
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tography; Susie Barefield, classifieds and circulation;
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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
Congratulations to Judy and Leslie Padgett on their 50th wed
ding anniversary.
Fifty years is a long time. Not many marriages can boast a 50-
year milestone these days. Fortunately, the
~1 Padgetts are among those who can!
John Hamilton, who has written articles for
The True Citizen over the years sent me this
email Monday. It was sent to him by a fellow
Rotarian.
This time of year while most of us are con
templating New Year resolutions, this hand
book for 2010 is beneficial for many.
Handbook for 2010
Health:
Drink plenty of water. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a
prince, and dinner like a beggar. Eat more foods that grow on
trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
Live with the 3 E’s - Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy. Make
time to pray. Play more games. Read more books than you did in
A Southern front porch is the window to the universe if the one
sitting on it has the proper wit and imagination, and we all know
that most Southerners are abundantly
1 equipped with both those characteristics.
Folks around these parts don’t lack for the
conversational skills and debative tempera
ment necessary for the preservation of the his
tory and customs of our homeland.
In other words, put a bunch of us on a front
porch with a pitcher of lemonade and there’s
no issue that won’t be thoroughly discoursed.
I I There’s just one small problem.
A shortage of front porches.
Sadly, most houses built in the past few decades don’t have
them.
Instead, there are gazebos and decks and covered patios, all
nice places to gather, but very few front porches.
After all, dogs can’t snooze and kids can’t play under gazebos.
Decks are usually sunny, and therefore, hot.
And covered patios are normally away from the house so you
have to keep going back and forth to fill up the tea glasses or
check on supper.
The front porch is right there, just outside the front door. Shady
and inviting. Maybe partly screened in to keep the skeeters and
gnats out but always airy and cooler than inside.
Grandma Julia, Daddy’s mama, had a great front porch. Her
house sat on a hill overlooking the highway with a pasture in
between. The porch was furnished with an assortment of un
matched rocking chairs and wingbacks and, of course, a porch
swing. The front steps were huge, or at least it seemed so to me
as a child.
The family spent many evenings gathered at Grandma’s with
the kids, dozens of cousins, sitting on the porch steps telling
spooky stories or playing far flung games of hide and seek or
tag. The porch was always “base” where you couldn’t be tagged
by whoever was “it”.
Daddy and several of his brothers and brothers-in-law sat on
the porch talking about farming, hunting or politics. Mostly poli
tics. Occasionally a few of them would walk out to somebody’s
pick up truck where they would stand around for a few minutes.
Back then I had no idea what they went to the truck for.
Now I do.
Every now and then one of the men would call out to one of us.
“Don’t eat to many of those green apples. They’ll give you a
bellyache,” or "You tear a hole in them britches and your Mama’s
gonna whup your butt.”
Mama and the aunts, and Grandma, were usually somewhere
in the house talking about whatever women talk about, most likely
the bunch of heathens sitting on the front porch. Every now and
then one of them would stick their head out the screen door.
“What are yall doing out here?”
2009. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Sleep for 7
hours. Take a 10-30 minute walk each day. And while you walk,
smile.
Personality:
Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about. Don’t have negative thoughts of things you
cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present
moment. Don’t over-do. Keep your limits. Don’t take yourself
seriously. No one else does. Don’t waste your precious energy
on gossip. Dream more while you are awake. Envy is a waste of
time. You already have all you need. Forget issues of the past.
Don’t remind your partner with his/his her mistakes of the past.
That will rain your present happiness. Life is too short to waste
time hating anyone. Don’t hate others. Make peace with your
past so it won’t spoil the present. No one is in charge of your
happiness except you. Realize that life is a school and you are
here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that
appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn
will last a lifetime. Smile and laugh more. You don’t have to win
every argument. Agree to disagree.
Society:
“Just sittin’ around.” Always the same answer.
Satisfied, the designated lady would return to the inner sanc
tum.
That’s just the way it worked.
At some point, when the ladies decided that it was getting time
to go home, they would all gradually ease on out to the front
porch themselves. But instead of leaving, they’d find a chair,
join in the conversation, and a few more hours would pass.
I suspect that Grandma’s front porch was a comfortable respite
from their day to day lives. There were times when it seemed to
be the center of our family’s universe.
There’s no telling how many engagements and wedding dates
and baby announcements and all other imaginable family news
flashes were announced on that porch.
The kin were always reluctant to leave at the end of the night
but when the time finally did arrive, after the men had re-fought
The War and solved most of the world’s political difficulties, each
mother would gather her brood and herd them to the car. Often,
I’d have a new, previously predicted hole in the knee or seat of
my jeans but Mama wouldn’t whup me cause she felt sorry for
me since I’d been throwing up from eating too many green apples.
Back at home, she and Daddy would put us to bed, then slip
out to our own front porch with it’s own porch swing to enjoy a
few quiet moments alone.
To this day I can remember hearing the swings rusty chains
squeak and their quiet voices as I dropped off to sleep.
You can’t put a price on recollections like those but I'd spend
my last dollar to hear them again.
So, when my house is completed in a few weeks, it will have
porches, two of them.
And rocking chairs.
And a swing.
And memory making gatherings.
See you there.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelvcolo@aol.com
We welcome your letters
Letters to the editor of The True Citizen are welcomed and en
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Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s read
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Email Letters to the Editor to: lisaj@thetruecitizen.com.
- See RFD, Page 5
Don Lively
JUST SITTIN’ AROUND