Newspaper Page Text
M A Prize Winning Georgia Newspaper Celebrating 100 Years of Service”
The Houston
Home Journal
BOBBY BRANCH President-Editor-Publisher
MAXINE THOMPSON Assistant Editor
WOFFORD SINYARD Production Manager
Published Every Thursdey By
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, INC.
C. OGDEN PERSONS, Vice. Pre*. LEWIS M. MEEKS, sec.-Treas.
Entered At Perry, Georgia Post Office 31069 As Second Class Mail Matter
L. C. Walker Will Retire
We think one of the most dedicated
and hard working men who ever served
the public anywhere is Mr. L. C. Walker,
chairman of the Houston County Board
of Education for the past 20 years.
Mr. Walker announced his retirement
from the board this week and although
we hate to see man of his caliber retire
from the board, we understand his rea-,
sons and we appreciate the long years of
his time he has given to public education
in this county and the State of Georgia.
L. C. (Cohen) Walker is one of those
rare men that we just don’t have enough
of in this world. He is the* kind of man
who shows his dedication to his family,
his church, his community and his coun
Get Rid Os Junk Cars
There are still too many junk ears in
some residential areas of Perry to suit
us. We think people should bike enough
pride in their community and themselves
to arrange to have junk cars and other
types of junk hauled away.
The City, under a new ordinance adop
ted recently, is authorized to haul off
junk cars from property inside the city
limits.
We think Perry is one of tin* cleanest
County’s Unity Will Be Tested
The long, hot summer of politics has
I*'gun in Houston County. The County
Democratic Executive Committee met
Monday and set rules and qualifications
for candidates and some liave already
qualified for posts open this year.
We think the races to watch in Hous
ton County this summer will lx* the runn
ing for the two posts on the County Com
mission. The posts up for re-election are
those now held by Stewart Bloodworth of
Perry and H. C. Talton Jr. of Bonaire.
This year’s election will mark the first in
recent history in which candidates run
ning for county jobs will lie elected by
the county voters at large. In the past,
there has been a dividing line in the
county for such posts (The Mossy Creek
Line) which was abolished by an act of
the Georgia General Assembly (his ses
Houston Has Drug Problem
It seems to us that drugs are fast be
coming a real threat to Houston County.
,In recent weeks and months, there have
been numerous arrests in the county on
drug charges. Those arrested have been
mostly teenagers, many lx low 1G years of
age.
Fortunately Perry lias not been hit by
hard drugs and marijuana as bully as
Warner Robins and Macon. Just this week
9 teenagers wen.' arrested at a mobile
home in Warner Robins and charged with
possession of marijuana.
No Work Is Demeaning
We read in a news story recently where
a prominent U.S. Senator hud criticized
President Nixon’s welfare proposal which
would require able-bodied persons to
work if work could be found for them to
do. The Senator blasted the President
saying that such a proposal might cause a
recipient of welfare to have to do work
that would be “demeaning” to him.
We never figured any kind of work to
be “demeaning” to a person who needs a
job and is able to work. We feel like
work is work and a job & a job. Surely
we can understand that a person may hot
like work and might get tired of working
but we don’t buy the fact that a person
shouldn’t have to work because he feels
like certain jobs are “demeaning.”
It seems to us that a man may be
“lazy” and he might confuse laziness
with “demeaning”.
We read in the Statesboro, Ga., news
try through deeds ana not just talk.
We think every citizen of Houston
County owes Mr. Walker a debt of grati
tude for the years of unselfish service
and dedication he has given while ser
ving on the Board of Education. He will
Ik* sorely missed from the board but we
know that he will always do all that is
humanely possible to lend his support to
public education.
L.C. Walker is a man who has given
much and asked nothing in return. Such
men are rare and we think he deserves to
retire from the board. . . . Thank you, Mr.
Walker, for the years of service jou have
given us all.
- - - B. B.
and finest small cities anywhere and we
don’t like to see a few “junk yards” in
the community spoil the looks of the rest
of the town.
Let’s get rid of the junk and have a
clean-up. Those who have old cars and
other junk on their property know who we
mean. We urge those people to call Harry
Griggs at City Hall and get his help in
cleaning up tlx* junk. Let’s get with it.
- - - B. B.
sion.
It is no secret, of course, that voters
in Warner Robins and that area of the
county carry more votes than does Perry
and the lower end of the county. The
Mossy Creek Line was abolished so that
the county would be more unified. Some
leaders thought it would be better to have
the county voting to get lx r for candidates
than having this southern and northern
end of the counties voting against each
other.
We hope tlx* county can become more
unified. Certainly the Cities of Perry and
Warner Robins have worked more closely
together in the past few months than ever
before and this has been a good sign.
Rut election time is coming . . . And we
shall wait and watch for the unity to take
place.
- - - B. B.
The drug problem is a very real and
dangerous problem all over tlx United
States and now it is rapidly moving into
Houston County. We must be aware of tlx
problem and do all we can to educate
youngsters on the dangers of marijuana
and other drugs.
We hope people will face tlx drug
problem in Houston County with a reali
stic approach and do all that is possible
to battle illegal drugs.
-- - B. B.
paper a few quotes recently on work and
they seem to sum up our feelings about
people who an 1 able to work and don’t.
Carlyle wrote, “Work is alone noble.”
There is a passage in the Bible that
reads, “This we commanded you, that if
any would not work, neither should he
eat.”
J.G. Holland, associated editor of the
Springfield (Mass.) Republican, wrote in
an 1849 editorial, “Man’s record upon
this wild world is the record of work, and
of work alone.”
And Lowell wrote, “No man is born
into the world whose work is not born
with him. There is always work, and
tools to work with; for those who will;
and blessed are the homey hands of
toil.”
We just don’t think work is demeaning
... No kind of work.
- - - B. B.
■ ..Jv.l: iX;
. - " .> ¥: ■
'
'.->V ' , - ' */}' S
■. ■
“You’d Better Be A Beautiful Swan By Election ...”
cM axins JuT^
Worth Repeating Hp|P^
- - ** •
Hanging on the wall of one of those
small examining rooms in the converted
dwelling that served my doctor in anoth
er town as his offices, was a motto-type
placque proclaiming: “All Things Come
To Him Who Waiteth - Provided He
Worketh Like ... - While He Waiteth!"
That sounds a lot like the story of
my life, for most of the time I’ve spent
not working has been spent waiting for
something or somebody. With three
teen-agers in the house, I spent a lot of
time waiting for my turn to use the one
bathroom, the hair curlers and dryer,
and my own car. At least I thought it
was my own car - sometimes I got so
confused in all that confusion that 1
wasn’t so sure anymore.
Even worse was the schedule I had
to follow several years ago. At that
time Wayne worked after school at a
grocery store and Dennis worked at a
drive-in ice cream and hamburger stand,
about a mile and a half apart. 1 still
get dizzy remembering the circles I ran
in then each day - deliver the boys at
high school and L\dia at junior high,
then to work for me. Dash out and pick
them all up after school, deliver Lydia
home and the boys to their separate
work places, back to work, then home to
cook supper, pick up Wayne, back home
to eat supper; later pick up Dennis, who
ate supper at work.
Usually I'd stagger off to bed mumb
lingsomething 1 saw on another placque
in many homes, “God Bless Our Mort
gaged Home!"
Probably the wall motto most vividly
remembered by anyone who was knee
high to a grasshopper during the depres
sion years was one to be found in just
TO THE
ILETTERSJhhtqb |
Editor, Home Journal:
Is it any wonder why peo
ple get into politics?
When the State Patrol
Riot Squad was in Perry
they stayed at Stanley
Smith’s motel the majority
of the time.
What a paradox!!!
Carlton C. (Rubber) Pierce
(Editor’s Note: Corporal
Smith, who wrote the fol
lowing letter, is the son of
Mr and Mrs. Gene Smith of
Perry. His father is a Perry
City Councilman. Corporal
Smith graduated from Perry
High School in 1968 and at
tended West Georgia Col
lege before entering the Ma
ring Corps last August.)
Dear Editor,
I am a Marine in Viet
Nam. One man, but my feel
ings are shared by all fight
about every store, at least in our small
town. It read, “Cosh Today - Credit
Tomorrow.” Now, that sounded like a
pretty good deal to a small girl, like all
you had to do to buy anything on credit
was to wait until the next day. It took
a lot of explaining by my mother to con
vey the fact to me that when tomorrow
arrives, it immediately becomes today,
and that you’re right back where you
started from as far as that sign was con
cerned. That was downright discourag
ing, as it was intended to be.
At the cashier’s stand in a depart
ment store there is probably still a sign
designed to take the wind out of the
sails of some people - “Blessed Are
They That Go Around In Circles, For
They Shall Be Called Big Wheels.”
These signs, like others that sim
ply read “SMILE” or “THINK” are for
public display. There are a few other
quotations that 1 have never seen in
placque form, but would like to see.
This quotation by Billiot Paul should
lx? placed near every young woman’s
mirror: “Patience Makes A Woman
Beautiful In Middle Age.” It would re
mind her that the patience must be prac
ticed now, while she is young, before
lines of discontent, cynicism, and impa
tience are firmly etched into her face.
When tempted toward a path that
might bring wealth through dishonesty, a
Psalm to look at might be a guide - “I
Had Rather Be a Doorkeeper in the
House of My God, than to Dwell in
the Tents of Wickedness.”
And I firmly believe that Somerset
Maugham knew what he was talking about
when he said, “It is a funny thing about
Life. If you refuse to accept anything
but the Best, you often get it.”
ing men over here. We don’t
get many papers over here,
but we do hear radios. We
hear about the protest dem
onstrations, riots, closing of
colleges and the tearing
down of our country. If these
people would just realize
that if they would back us,
we could end this war and
come home. But as it is
they’re creating more prob
lems and just extending it.
We want to come home,
but not until our job is com
pleted. Our job is freedom,
so when someone asks, “have
you done anything to end the
war in Viet Nam,” the an
swer will be yes, I was there,
I fought, what have you
done? Does that sign back
your country? Is it a weapon
in its defense, or is it some
thing for you to hide be
hind, because you don’t have
what it takes to make this
country.
We’ll follow our country’s
flag into battle right or
wrong, because she deals in
freedom. If it cost lives- and
pain to obtain this freedom
then this is what she’ll get.
So don’t tell us about free
dom or the price. We were
there. We fought for it in a
foreign country and we will
fight to keep it in our own
country.
L/Cpl. Stephen E. Smith
Ist Battalion, Ist Marines
Viet Nam
Editor: Home Journal,
We wish to take this means
to express our gratitude to the
very nice librarians at our Per
ry Library. We have known
many and have found few as
accommodating as ours.
Perry is a growing commun
ity and as a library is a neces
sary part of the culture of a
city or town it only follows we
should have a proper building
in which to display the ever
increasing number of books. In
most families there is at least
one member who derives bene
fit and pleasure from the use
of our library.
Here’s hoping we soon have
an adequate site which will al
so enhance our city.
MR. AND MRS. V. B. ODELL
Branch WP
I !
Newsmen Don’t Have Blues
The editor of The Daily Sun (Warner Robins)
wrote in one of his columns this week on the sub
ject of Monday morning blues. He wrote that news
papermen don’t have the so-called Monday blues
and he’s right.
Nearly everyone I know dreads Monday morn
ings. They say it’s the worst day of the week be
cause it’s always difficult to get everything going
on Monday morning. It’s not that way in the news
paper, whether daily or weekly, because in th : s
business things have to get started right on sche
dule and newspaper people just don’t have time
to get Monday morning blues.
I remember the first newspaper I edited fresh
from school and not much smarter than I am now.
I started off on the weekly paper in a South Georgia
town as advertising manager and assistant editor
and only after struggling there for two months
found myself as the editor, advertising manager,
janitor, typesetter, photographer, reporter, soc.ety
editor and anything else that came up around the
paper.
My fast rise in the newspaper came all on a
Monday morning. I came to the office and found
that the editor, who had been there for several
years and had about three ulcers, had decided
over the weekend that he would leave. Everything
was turned over to me and this other guy, who
was supposed to be a linotype operator but had
mastered drinking bad liquor better than setting
type.
That was on a Monday morning and I haven’t
had Monday morning blues since .... Just no time
to have blues around a profession that is demand
ing, ulcerating, frustrating, nerve-wracking ....
But the most rewarding.
Raindrops Keep Falling
The cool, May rain was falling heavily Monday
afternoon and this guy was walking briskly down
Highway 41 south here, paying little attention to
the dropping water.
He was maybe 40 and his hair wasn’t long and
he didn’t have a beard. He carried a one-suiter
samsonite in one hand and the other hand was
stuffed in the pocket of clean but wet pair of per
ma-press pants. A red wind-breaker kept some of
the rain off his back as he moved along at an un
wavering pace.
“Want a lift to the Interstate.”
“Yeah,” he answered, “I’d appreciate that if
you don’t mind ”
Where you headed,” I asked as we moved along
the highway toward the south interchange.
I tell you the truth, bud, I don’t know where
I’m going. It doesn’t really matter so long as I
find a place that’s peaceful and people don’t give
a damn whether you’ve got a dollar or not,” he
said in a determined tone of voice.
That sounds like Hippie philosophy,” I said.
“No, I’m no Hippie. I think all those people who
let the.r hair grow real long and get dirty and wear
dirty clothes and call themselves Hippies are a
bunch of creeps that are just too sorry to do any
thing else but wallow around in their stinking
squalor. That’s what a Hippie is and I’m not one
of them, bud,” he said.
He pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his
pocket inside the windbreaker as we approached
the interchange and stopped. He took a long pull
on the cigarett and said that he was in business in
Cleveland, Ohio, for a long number of years and
that he recently sold everything he had and took
off hitchhiking across the country. His bank in
Cleveland, had made arrangements with a bank
in Tampa, Fla., to set up his account and he said
he had just enough money on him to get to Tampa.
“Why didn’t you buy a car for the trip or catch
a bus or something like that.”
“I didn’t want to do that. I’ve always wanted to
hitch-hike my way across this country because I
think that’s the only real way you can see anything
or meet any people,” he answered.
He said his business had been insurance and
that his wife had died a year ago and that he just
wanted to pick up and leave pollution, business and
the rat-race behind.
“Why did you pick Tampa?”
“My wife and I took a vacation to Florida sever
al years ago and we came across this little place
not too far from Tampa that appealed to me as
being the greatest place in the world to get away
from it all . . . . And that’s where I’m going, he
said. .
The rain slacked off and the guy climbed ou
of the car. He shook hands and told me to send him
a copy of one of our newsppaers if I wrote anyt mg
about our conversation .1 headed the car bac'
toward the office and turned on the The
song, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head was
playing .... I got back to the office and started
working on the paper ... No raindrops in e
office.