Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, July 21,2021, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
The Pledge Of Allegiance
1 pledge, allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
*it stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice, for all.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO-JULY 20,20ll
An emergency room doctor was killed in a plane crash
just hours after seeing patients in the Burke Medical Center.
Dr. Thomas Wilson never cleared Augusta Regional Airport
property after taking off in his single engine plane. No cause
of the crash had been confirmed.
Students at Burke County Middle School would return to
classes in the fall with a new stricter dress code. The changes
would cover everything from shirt tails to pajama pants to
distracting hair styles and jewelry.
The U.S. Postal Service announced that Waynesboro’s
outgoing mail would be sent to a Columbia, S .C. sorting facil
ity instead of the existing one in Augusta. The Waynesboro
City Council passed a resolution in opposition to the move.
25 YEARS AGO-JULY 25, 1996
Cotton scout Wesley Shaw of Waynesboro recovered a
cluster of balloons which had apparently drifted here from
Dolly wood in Pigeon forge, Tenn.
The Georgia Department of Transportation said it would
be in the spring of 1997 before a hearing could be held on
the proposed widening of U.S. Highway 25. A spokesman
said environmental impact studies would not be complete
until early that year.
Former First District Congressman Lindsay Thomas
was named President and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of
Commerce.
50 YEARS AGO-JULY 21,1971
Waynesboro native John Reese Franklin was named as an
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia.
The 1961 graduate of Waynesboro High School received
his law degree from the Walter F. George School of Law at
Mercer University.
Groundbreaking ceremonies were scheduled for Cowart
Iron Works in Midville. The new facility was expected to
initially employ 25 workers.
Gov. Jimmy Carter announced he was investigating the
loss of a rural health care program here because of a lack of
support by local physicians. The program would have pro
vided neighborhood health facilities manned by volunteers
from the Medical College of Georgia.
70 YEARS AGO-JULY26,1951
Crimmins Hankinson, a former WHS football standout,
was one of only two Clemson freshmen expected to take the
held this fall under Coach Frank Howard.
Jesse Steaphens of Waynesboro was seriously injured when
the car he was driving collided with the “Little Nancy”, a
passenger train travelling through Burke County from Au
gusta to Savannah. The accident took place at a crossing
about three miles south of Waynesboro. He was taken to the
Burke County Hospital for treatment.
Advertisers included George Perkins Motor Co., Parker-
White Motors, and Johnson’s Garage.
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Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
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ITS LIKE
CURKTM/&
IN JULY/
BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
I showed up to Monday’s
Waynesboro City Council
meeting fully expecting fire
works. I even arrived early to
ensure I’d have a seat. Council
was set to discuss and possibly
vote on a resolution that could
authorize a referendum to allow
package liquor sales in the city.
I was wrong; however, the
crowd was of usual size and
when the item’s place on the
agenda arrived, there was no
contentious discussion. Not
one citizen had showed up to
say anything.
City manager Valerie Kirk
land said citizens often ask
about the issue, so she placed
the item on the agenda to see
what council wanted to do.
City elections will take place
in November, so it’s conceiv
able the referendum’s language
could be approved in time to be
on this fall’s ballot, although
the deadline for such action
was unknown as of Monday
evening.
Waynesboro has had a liquor-
by-the-drink ordinance for over
a decade, if memory serves me
correctly, and there are two
restaurants in downtown that
possess that license.
Currently, the City of Girard
is the only place in Burke
County that allows package
sales, and it is home to the
only liquor store in the county.
Outside of that, partakers have
to travel across the county line
to get their fix.
Councilwoman Vickey Bates
voiced the only real opposition
to the proposed referendum,
stating that one liquor store in
the county was enough. Dick
Byne, who has voiced his own
disapproval of alcohol mea
sures in the past, was absent
from Monday’s meeting.
The discussion mainly cen
tered on ensuring that an or
dinance allowing such sales
was drafted properly and could
be explained to citizens prior
to the election. City attorney
Randolph Frails told council
he could have some examples
of other ordinances for the next
committee meeting for mem
bers to review.
The issue was tabled and sent
to committee for further review
by a unanimous vote of 4-0.
Speaking of the November
election, it appears the legal
issues of suspended mayor
Gregory Carswell won’t be
sorted out in time to add a pos
sible mayor’s election to the
fall ballot.
According to an email from
Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Dis
trict Attorney Daphne J. Totten,
the earliest date for Carswell’s
upcoming trial is the middle of
October.
If Carswell is found guilty or
should he reach some sort of
plea deal to avoid the trial, he
would have to fully vacate his
position with the city.
Carswell was indicted in
December of last year on four
felony counts. He abruptly an
nounced a leave of absence at
the beginning of a council meet
ing on May 17, the same day the
governor’s office was notified
of his indictment. Gov. Brian
Kemp officially suspended
Carswell 11 days later.
Carswell has a right to his
trial, and he is presumed to
be innocent until proven oth
erwise. While he is currently
barred from serving in any of
ficial capacity for the city, the
law still allows him to receive
his mayor’s salary. As it stands,
the citizens of Waynesboro are
paying Carswell $830 a month
not to show up for work. This
will continue until his legal is
sues are resolved.
In Carswell’s absence, vice
mayor James “Chick” Jones is
serving in his stead and being
paid his own mayor’s salary. So,
while we pay for two mayors,
we’re only getting work out
of one.
If Carswell goes all the way
to trial and is found guilty, the
city will then be forced to hold
a special election to fill the re
maining two years of his term.
An unplanned
r SEE
election will be
another cost to the BIRD DOG,
city for an issue its 8
Don Lively
Lewis Grizzard once told us
that it’s hard to think unpleasant
thoughts while eating a home
grown tomato.
Lewis was right.
I still miss Lewis.
And for years, I missed
homegrown tomatoes.
All of the years I lived Out
West, for all the joy that living
in the Rockies brought me,
I did experience a dearth of
garden-fresh vegetables. It’s
not that folks out there don’t
have gardens, they do, but the
growing season is so short
that you nearly have to have a
greenhouse to make it work. I
wasn’t that ambitious, so I got
by on tomatoes and lettuce and
carrots that were grown in Cali
fornia or some other foreign
country. As you can imagine,
those foods, when compared to
produce produced in the sacred
soil of the Blessed South, left a
lot to be desired.
So, a few years ago I decided
that I needed to start growing
my own tomatoes.
A little background: I am
not a gifted grower like Daddy
was or even as good as either
of my brothers are. They’ve
both grown gardens for years
and since I moved back to these
parts, I’ve gotten to enjoy the
bounty.
When I told my brothers at
some family gathering that I
was going to start a small gar
den one of the snorted. I never
found out which one. Their
snorts are very similar. They
are aware of my failure as a
farmer. They know that I fled
the farm shortly after I turned
18 and never looked back,
mostly because I knew I’d be
a spectacular failure if I tried
farming as a career.
My growing skills are pitiful,
really.
Some cousins gave me a
beautiful gardenia plant as
a housewarming gift when I
first moved onto the wooded
enclave. I love gardenias. One
of my most vivid olfactory
memories is the fragrance of
the gardenia plants that Mama
had outside the backdoors of
all three houses that she lived
in over the years. So, when I
received my very own gardenia
bush, I promptly beat a hole
into the clay hill that I live on,
filled the hole with good soil,
and planted the fragrant flower.
A month later it was dead.
I still don’t know what I did
wrong.
A few years after that I de
cided that I wanted a palm tree
on the property. My only real
GROWING MY OWN
growing success had been a
magnolia tree, also a gift, that
had flourished under my care.
So, I drove to a nursery in
Savannah, where better to get
a palm tree than on the coast,
and picked one out. A tree that
can thrive in the Sahara Desert
couldn’t be too hard to grow,
right?
Wrong.
My palm died a slow death
and ended up on the burn pile.
Perhaps my brother’s snorts
were justified.
Still, my desire to taste home
grown tomatoes overcame my
further fear of failure.
So, I went to work.
I built an eight foot by four
foot wooden box, about three
feet off the ground, and twelve
inches deep. I made sure that
the raised bed was in the sun
niest spot possible. Everybody
knows that tomatoes love the
sun. I hauled in a half ton of
good, black soil. I went to a
nursery...okay...1 went to
Walmart...and bought a few
plants of different varieties. I
carefully planted them with the
roots as deep as possible.
Well, guess what?
You’re expecting more fail
ure, right?
Wrong.
For the third year in a row, I
have more tomatoes than I can
eat and this year I even added a
couple of bell peppers that also
didn’t die.
In order to take full advantage
my labors, I’ve learned to bake
Southern style tomato pies.
That’s right Yankee friends,
Down South we make pies from
tomatoes.
The recipe wasn’t difficult.
Well, except for having to peel
the tomatoes, that took some
time. But the rest was easy. Mix
up two kinds of cheese. Drain
the tomatoes. Add a couple of
my bell peppers that also didn’t
die, and an onion, Vidalia of
course, that I didn’t grow. A
bit of Duke’s mayonnaise and
some ground pepper.
Bake to concoction for forty
minutes at 350 degrees.
As I am writing these words
I am also partaking of the most
delectable tomato pie I’ve ever
tasted.
I suspect Lewis Grizzard
would approve.
Did I mention that I grew the
tomatoes myself?
I’ve become so successful at
growing that I’m considering
renting a couple of hundred
acres and trying my hand at
cotton or peanuts.
Well, maybe I should start
smaller.
Maybe I’ll get another gar
denia bush.
Or a new palm tree.
Maybe.