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TheTrue Citizen, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 — Page 5
Dixie Divas
ENJOYING THE LAUGHTER
By Ronda Rich
You know how it happens.
You go to the funeral home to
pay respects and run into people
you
haven’t
seen in
ages.
Many
years
have
passed
but yet
y’all be
gin tell
ing stories - always the funny
ones - and. there in the midst
of grief, you begin to laugh.
When Debbie’s grandmother,
age 93. passed away, I walked
into the state room of the fu
neral home to see three friends
that I had not seen since my
cheeks were dewy with youth.
It started out as all these con
versations do, a bit awkward,
us trying to find the common
ground in lives now different
in scope and experience. Gradu
ally. though, we got there and
one said, laughing between
words. “Hey. do you remember
when?”
And that began it all for us.
There were many “remember
when’s”, all wrapped in giggles
and smiles, for no one ever
seems to recall the dreary times
or the moments that were, at
best, mundane. Slowly, twenty-
five years melted away.
“I was just thinking of y’all
the other day.” I said, starting
to laugh at the memory I was
about to recollect.
My friend. Poet, had been vis
iting and we had been to din
ner. Poet, as I always write, is a
gentleman of the highest order
so when we started to leave a
restaurant, I stepped back and
waited for him to open the door.
He obliged, of course. As he
pulled the handle, my mind
flashed back to that evening
when those three friends - two
men and a woman - and I had
been to dinner. The guys de
cided that they would play a
trick on me. It was a rustic res
taurant and they knew the door
knob had a tendency to come
off. So. they rigged it and glee
fully plotted for the moment that
it would come off in my hand
and they would laugh uproari
ously.
Sharon folded her arms and
shook her head. “You’re wast
ing your time. She will never
open the door for herself.”
She was right. I stepped back
and waited while the guys just
stood there and looked at me. I
waited some more.
“I told you,” Sharon finally
said then told me what they had
done. We were already laugh
ing about that when this moun
tain of a man came from the
dining room, his arms loaded
with take-out boxes and before
anyone could warn him - if we
had wanted to - he grabbed the
knob, gave it a tug and when it
came off. went stumbling back
wards with take-out boxes fly
ing hither and yon. We
scrambled to grab them but got
so choked with laughter that we
weren’t a lot of help.
We were convulsed in laugh
ter, bent over double. Every
time we took a break and
thought we could stop, we
started laughing again. He was
big enough to take on all four
of us and, for a minute, it
looked like that’s what would
happen.
“Boy, we just about got our
you-know-whats beat that
night,” Tony said, all of us hold
ing our sides as we laughed.
As that laughter died down, I
smiled wistfully and said, "Gee,
I wish I could laugh like that
again.” Wishful small smiles
crossed their faces and they nod
ded silently.
On the drive home that night,
I thought about it and realized
that we can get too serious about
life, scarred by the sadness,
marked by the worry. As years
pass, if we’re not careful, we’ll
lose a lightness of heart and gain
a shadow, either pale or heavy,
over our souls.
When we are young, the bub
bling of happiness escapes our
lips almost effortlessly. It
reaches for us. When we grow
older, it is up to us to reach for
it.
That night at the funeral
home, I realized that, even in
the midst of sorrow, laughter
can be found. You just have to
look for it.
Ronda Rich is the best-sell
ing author of What Southern
Women Know (That Every
Woman Should). Visit
www.rondarich.com to sign up
for her weekly newsletter.
Jim Shumard
LOVE, LISTEN AND LEARN
Okay I wanted to move on to
something a bit more light and
humorous this week since I have
written about some serious top
ics the last
two weeks.
However
the news
will not al
low me to
do that.
The recent
demon
strations at
Wall
Street and around the country
regarding the Great Divide be
tween those who have a lot and
those who do not, has got me
wondering. According to the
statistics of Jeffrey Sachs, there
is an ever-widening divide be
tween the wealthy and the
middle class/poor in the USA
and this is dangerous for stabil
ity in a Democracy. However I
believe there is an even more
important gap and that is the
ever-widening generation gap.
After all, most of the people
demonstrating on Wall Street
and those who brought about
The Arab Spring appear to be
under the age of thirty and they
have used modern technology
for lightening fast communica
tion in order to organize.
Change is coming at us at ex
ponential rates and how often
do I hear my generation and
those generations above me say.
“Well I never acted or spoke
like that when I was their age.”
“This new generation is rude and
speaks a different language.”
“They have different values.”
There is no doubt in my mind
that what they say is all-true but
rather than discount them I be
lieve we should love them, lis
ten to them and learn from
them.
Our children are growing up
in a world so alien to the one
we grew up in and they are
growing up in the world we
have helped create. I say we.
meaning boomers who have
helped mold and create the
world we live in. One only need
look at Steve Jobs and Bill
Gates, two boomers who trans
formed technology which has
transformed our world. I was
amazed to read on Facebook the
outpouring of thoughts and feel
ings about Steve Jobs. I have
read more quotes from his
Stanford address on Facebook
than I have seen of spiritual
Other Voices
WAR FOR WHAT ?
For the next four years we
will be seeing and hearing much
about the “Civil War”. We are
entering the 150 th Anniversary
(Sesquicentennialjof the begin
ning of the war.
My title is borrowed from Mr.
Francis W. Springer (1899-
1991), who wrote a book of the
same title. I will not attempt to
delve as deep as Mr. Springer
into the causes, as I am not as
qualified as he (he was a gradu
ate of Columbia University with
degrees in English and Law).
What I intend to do is put for
ward information I have found
and encourage people to learn
more for themselves. With
internet capabilities the infor
mation is limitless.
What most people say are
causes for the war are really the
causes of the secession of the
first seven states. Secession and
the war are two entirely sepa
rate events and should be treated
as such. The issue of slavery was
an important issue in states de
cision to secede, but, even
Abraham Lincoln said, in pub
lic speeches and private letters.
that the war was not about sla
very. In the third paragraph of
his First Inaugural Address
(Mar. 4,1861) he states"... I have
no purpose, directly or indi
rectly, to interfere with the in
stitution of slavery where it ex
ists. I believe I have no lawful
right to do so, and I have no
inclination to do so.” In the
twenty- eighth paragraph he
states “.. .1 understand a proposed
amendment to the Constitution,
which amendment, however. I
have not seen, has passed Con
gress, to the effect that the fed
eral government shall never in
terfere with the domestic insti
tutions of the States, including
that of persons held to service.
To avoid misconstruction of
what I have said, I depart from
my purpose not to speak of par
ticular amendments, so far as to
say that holding such a provi
sion to now be implied consti
tutional law, I have no objec
tion to it’s being made express
and irrevocable.” These are the
words of Mr. Lincoln himself.
How could it be made more
clear that he did not enter the
war to bring about the end of
slavery? If the Union was not
fighting to end slavery, logic
would tell you the South was
not fighting to keep it.
Here, I must say, I nor any of
the Sons of Confederate Veter
ans believe slavery to be mor
ally right. None of us believe
any person has the right to own
another human being. What we
do say is, slavery was Constitu
tionally legal in 1860 and we
should not judge people of the
eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
Other Voices
DAR
Edmund Burke Chapter NSDAR will meet 10 a.m. Saturday,
Oct. 15, at the home of Katy Lively Powell on Highway 23.
Members are asked to wear pink for Breast Cancer Awareness
Month. For more information or directions, call Sara Carter at
706-554-3560. The program will be on emergency prepared
ness.
Travel Ball Teams
Burke County Heat coaches are looking for girls to fill some
positions on their travel ball teams. Girls ages 9-13 years old
interested in playing are encouraged to request a tryout. For
more information, call Jerry Scholtes at 706-871-6925.
Canned food drive
Free Indeed Ministries will hold a canned food drive at Harveys
Supermarket in Waynesboro today, Wednesday, Oct. 12. Pro
ceeds will benefit the Free Indeed Crisis Center. Paper products,
detergent and other home essentials are also needed. Representa
tives will be on hand to accept donations from 9 a.m. -5 p.m.
For more information about the ministry, call Lexie TenHussein
at 706-554-0618.
NAACP
The Burke Black Churches Benevolent, Burke County Im
provement Association and Burke County Branch NAACP will
meet 6 p.m,. Thursday, Oct. 13, at Mt. Olive AME Church.
The public is invited.
quotes.
Let us remember than we are
passing the baton on to these
next generations and each one
will grow up in a world differ
ent not only from their parents
but probably from their older
siblings, since we are moving
so fast. My suggestion is that
we take the time to listen to
what they are saying and try to
learn something from them.
And by the way, let us love
them!
For what its worth.
Dr. Jim
“For now we see through a
glass darkly; but then face to
face.” I Corinthians 13.12 KJV.
You may contact Rev.
Shumard at jshumie@aol.com
or at stmichaelswaynesboro.org
tury by twentieth and twenty-
first century values. Slavery was
a hot issue of the times and I
will explore that in a later is
sue, if I am permitted.
Lincoln’s First Inaugural
Speech can be found on line in
“Speeches of Abraham Lincoln”
and in “ The Collected Works
of Abraham Lincoln”
Please direct any comments to
me at ndickey@yahoo.com .
Neil Dickey, Commander
5th Brigade GA. Division
Sons of Confederate
Veterans
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HARD TIMES
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Email Letters to the Editor to: lisaj@thetruecitizen.com.
By F. Leslie Jenkins Jr.
Burke Banter Boy
As agile as an alley cat, as
graceful as a gliding swan, the
eight year old boy leaped upon
the back of the Banana Truck
as it was driving away from the
store. In a matter of seconds, he
jumped off holding a golden
ripe banana in his hand. It was
mid afternoon. As he wolfed
down the delicious fruit, it was
apparent that it was his first
morsel of food that day. Thief?
Maybe, but to me, the four year
old boy who watched him, he
will always be a hero. This
boy’s Mother was dead, his Fa
ther had been unemployed for
two years. He, his Dad and five
other brothers and sisters lived
in a rambled shack shack. Times
were hard.
She was a very young girl, 8
or 9 at the most. She lived in an
old weatherbeaten two story
house with three brothers and
her jobless old Dad. Her Mother
was dead, so she was the keeper
of the home. The store next
door to their house was broken
into. The police searched their
house and found items taken
from the store. It was mostly
food stuff to feed this starving
family. The girl had sewn two
mens handkerchiefs together to
make herself a pair of panties.
Times were hard.
They loaded everything they
had on the old truck tied to
gether with hay wire. Oklahoma
had turned into a dust bowl. The
land was blowing away. The
‘Okies’ were on their way to
California. They had no idea
what they would find there, but
anything would beat this God
forsaken land. They were on the
verge of starvation. Times were
hard.
Men from all parts of the na
tion left their home seekingjobs,
seeking some way to make
money to send back to their
families.Young unmarried men
did the same. They ‘rode the
rails’. They were ‘Hobos’.
They lived and slept and ate
when they had food in camps
near the railroads. ‘Hobo’ camps
sprang up in most cities. One
Georgia friend said he traveled
the nation wide only to return
home empty handed. Another
Son of Georgia went to Texas.
At harvest time he joined the
wheat reapers and traveled with
them all the way to North Da
kota. It was in this Northern
land that he met and courted a
lovely young girl. They mar
ried. She came to Georgia with
him. Back in Georgia they
found that Times were still
hard.
If a family had a pot of peas
with a small morsel of meat to
season the peas and rice to
spread the peas upon, they were
rich-a well fed family. Turnip
or collard greens and corned
bread kept many half starved
families alive. In some sections
polk weeds were gathered,
cooked and eaten, though many
claimed they were poison. The
weeds known as ‘Polk Salad’
were boiled. The water was
poured off and they were boiled
again. Maybe not a great gormet
dish, but they kept people alive.
Times were hard.
Even though times were hard
- See Other Voices,
Page 6