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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 Thursday By THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, INC. C. OGDEN PERSONS, Vice. Pres. LEWIS M. MEEKS, see.-Treas. Entered At Perry, Georgia Post Office 31069 As Second Class Mail Matter We Don’t Need Special Session Governor Lester Maddox seems to be determined to call a special session of the General Assembly this summer, or at least he acts like he wants the session held. We hope the special session never comes about. It would be an added burden to the taxpayers of Georgia, and besides this is a political year when all the legislators are up for re election in the fall and we have doubts as to just how much they would ac complish in a summer session just be fore election time. The Governor’s reasons for calling the special session are for the estab lishment of a state bonding commis sion which he says will save the state around 35 to 40 million dollars on in Rock Music Festival Coming We can’t get too excited about the prospect of a rock music festival be ing held near Perry. Plans now call for the festival, which is supposed to attract between 100,000 and 300,000 young people, to be held on the Fourth of July weekend at the Middle Georgia Raceway near Byron. We think it’s fine for young peo ple to enjoy their type of music and we don’t even see anything wrong with them “doing their thing” as long as they stay peaceful. But we have seen already what has happened at similar rock festivals in other areas of the rTerrepf; TO THE] i UETTERS)|ditoR i Dear Mr. Branch 1 thank God for young men like our own L. Cpl. Stephen Smith now overseas His letter to the editor lat week renew my faith in our young genera tion. To me he is a true “Young American" standing up for our flag and our America, Let’s all write to him and say a sincere "(hank you" and a prayer to God to keep him safe. From a 100% American Dear Mr. Editor: 1 would like to take this opportunity to thank WPG A and it’s sponsors for spon soring the Atlanta Braves baseball games. I am almost 13 and am an avid Braves fan and listen to all the games. It has helped hearing the games, since 1 have trou ble in receiving Macon or Atlanta during the night. Even though the Braves games are not broadcast dur ing the day, I don’t mind since T can get Macon during the day. Thank you WPGA and your sponsors for sponsoring the games. Keep up the good work! Sincerely yours, JOE NADEAU Editor. Home Journal The dictionary defines "Volunteer" as ‘one who en ters into or offers himself for, any service of his own free will.’ What Webster leaves out of the above des cription is that he or she is also a as any par ticipant in the recently-or ganized VOLUNTEER SER VICES PROGRAM in Geor gia can testify. Conducted locally by the Houston Coun ty Department of Family and Children Services. This program is part of a state wide effort to help solve the problems generating and perpetuating welfare depen ■ terest rates in a 2 year period. We think it would be fine for the state to have such a commission and we feel that Georgia taxpayers certainly de serve any savings they can get. But the thing that worries us is the fact that the whole special session idea smells too political. We just don’t think the legislators and Governor Maddox (who is already knocking heads with Lt. Gov. George T. Smith) can really get anything ac complished in a special session this summer. We hope the special session idea fades away. There’s enough going in the state during this hot summer with out an added attraction. —B. B. country. Some of the things disturb us deeply, such as the prevalence of hard drugs and marijuana at the festi vals. No doubt the festival will be held and there will be thousands of young music fans coming into this area from all over the country. We just hope the rock music fans conduct themselves in a proper manner. We feel for the police enforcement agencies on that weekend Besides all the holiday traf fic and accidents they’ll have to watch over all the cats “doing their thing” at the rock festival. B. B. doncy. The 1967 Amend ments to the Social Security Act. authorizing recruitment ol outsiders to participate in organized social services to the poor, have made such a volunteer program possible tor the first time in the his tory of tlic Federal ■ State Welfare program. It is part ol the growing recognition within welfare circles that money alone is not enough to cure poverty and that in terested community non-pro fessionals can provide many services that overburdened caseworkers cannot Although only a few months in existence, the lo cal program has already produced tangible contribu tions from groups and indi viduals. Twenty-two women are each currently donating a minimum four hours per week into r ing elementary school children who need "catch-up" help in Warner Robins and Perry schools. Principals and teachers re port pupil progress as a re sult. and it is hoped that the fall program will involve more tutors and reach more schools and children. Other phases of the volun teer program include trans portation, home counseling, and "friendly visits" to local nursing homes. Several peo pic have become involved in the much • needed task of making home calls to wel fare families, attempting to help these people manage money and households bet ter while encouraging them to take advantage of local services and educational pro grams available. After years of a self perpetuating pover ty cycle, finding a job or obtaining an education are often out of reach without this personalized attention. Some volunteers provide transportation to welfare re cipients, insuring that they are able to get to medical or other appointments. Mil- eage is paid for such serv ices by the State though jnany Volunteers do not re quest it. One man gives of his time and carpentry skills to help complete home re pairs. A popular aspect of the program is the “friend ly visitor" who calls on one or more persons in a local nursing home, again bring ing that important aspect of individual attention to the forgotten elderly. Several church, social, and military groups have be come interested in setting up various recreational and ser vice projects in nursing homes; these range from a monthly birthday celebra tion to a bingo game and "shampoo and set” services. Mrs. Connette Gayle, local coordinator of the Volunteer Services program, states that many more projects and needs can be met through this program with the only limits being time, talents, and imagination. Any group of any size or age or any individual desiring to parti cipate in this growing com munity effort is urged to call her at the Department of Family and Children Serv ices. 9872373, Proud of Houston County’s response so lar. she hopes that many more volunteers will join the cl toil to fill these tre mendous needs. As the dictionary says, a volunteer is one who gives of his own free will, but we add that he is also one who receives much in return. Xew friends and contacts, a sense of satisfaction from knowing you are useful, and a feeling of community in volvement are but a few of the rewards to a volunteer. With welfare services being spot-lighted both nationally and locally, this program provides a unique opportun ity for the ordinary citizen to learn more about poverty and welfare while contribu ting to the solution of its problems. ALICE A. MACK \ olunteer Worker, Dept, of Family and Children Services Watch Perry grow. " WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING f I J\K axinz What Would You Have Done Some years back a couple of young Perry men who are now well known pillars of the community were making some summer money measuring land for a government agency. For the ben efit of the uniniated, under the crop allotment program, if a farmer was allowed to plant 30 acres of peanuts or cotton, for example, and planted 31 acres, when his land was measured and the overage was discovered it had to be plowed up. The two, who had been good friends for a long time, talked and joked their way across one field after another, tallying their findings. The sun was hot and their spirits had cool ed down a bit and they had remained silent for a while, when the tall fel low, walking steadily along with his head down looking at the ground, heard his short friend snickering. Knowing what a joker he was, he did n’t pay any special attention but kept on walking. Moments later, he realized that some sort of structure lay in his path. He stood up straight right at the open doorway, minus even the croaker sack curtain often used, of an outhouse in which a farmer’s wife sat enthroned. “Good morning, Mrs. he said, completely unabashed, and walk ed on as if this were an everyday oc curance .while his friend nearly roll ed on the ground in hysterical laugh ter from a safe distance. The wife of an elderly gentleman who is semi-retired and known to be quite witty unost of the jokes he tells are on himself) recently cooked some sausage for breakfast and decided it didn't smell just right. She set it aside and fixed something else for the meal. Later, she added some dog food to the sausage, stirred the mixture together This Newspaper values our local institutions more than any other publication in the world... That’s Us! -You and Your ** * Houston Home Journal ** * well, and left it on the stove in a pan. After a while her husband wandered throught the kitchen, saw the pan full of food, still warm and with a delight ful aroma, and spooned himself out a dish full and ate it. Just as he was fin ishing, his wife came in, saw what he was eating, and in a horrified voice said, “That was the dog’s food!” He sat there quietly a minute. “All right,” he said, “call the dog in and I’ll apologize to him!” A lady walked down the street to her neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. When it was opened, the liv ing room drapes were drawn and no lights were on, so she could just make out what appeared to be a big bath towel wrapped around the lady’s head. “Oh, I’m sorry. I'll come back lat er. I didn’t know you were shampoo ing your hair.” “I happen,” was the icy reply, “to be trying on my new Easter bonnet.” Quite a few years back, a young man finally got a date with a young lady who didn’t seem too impressed with him in the first place, and he was very shy in the second place. They went to a movie, and he kept shifting around trying to get settled comfort ably in his seat. Somehow, the toe of his shoe got caught in the crack of the seat ahead, and when he tried to yank it out, an excruciating pain shot up the calf of his leg and he fainted dead away. The usher brought wet cloths and revived him. and helped him out to the' car. He felt about two feet tall the girl had to drive them to his broth er's house, who in turn had to drive both of them home. He never dared ask her for another date. I \ Bobby Branch PERRY CITY COUNCIL has decided to set a referendum and let the people make up their minds whether or not the city should get completely into the library business. The Council hasn’t set a date yet but things are going to have to move along fast for the library because the County Commis sioners need the basement space now being used by the library. I hope Perry voters decide in favor of the city building a library. We already have a fine library here and if the folks that run the library had big ger and better facilities, we can have an even bet ter library. A good library is an important facet of a com munity and I want to go on record here as support ing the move underway to build a library we can all be proud to own. MAYOR MALCOLM REESE has a busy sche dule to say the least. Between running Security Federal and the City during the day, his nights are taken up with regular council meetings, called coun cil meetings, civic club meetings and other meet ings. And besides all that, he usually comes back down to City Hall at about 11 o’clock at night to check on everything ... A man could turn gray under those conditions. Mayor. TOM WILLIAMS, former baseball player for the University of Georgia and now a Bassett Furni ture Industries Representative in the state, can show anyone how to jog a mile on the beach. Wil liams, now known as the Perry Flash, came up with a jogging secret last weekend that I have never thought about before . . • WALK and breathe a lot. RICHARD GOODROE, Perry realtor and insur ance man, is a true believer in Home Journal ad vertising. He ran an advertisement a couple of weeks for 200 acres of land and a man on the Island of Guam in the South Pacific saw the ad and bought the property. It’s a true story ... I wouldn’t put you on . . . Just ask Richard. COUNCILMAN GENE SMITH hangs right in there when it comes to saving a buck for the city. At the Council meeting the other night, Council man John Barton recommended the City sell a used tractor to the Perry-Fort Valley Airport for S3OO. All the Councilmen voted to sell the tractor at that price except Smith. He had gotten an ap praisal on the tractor for $305 and that was the amount he wanted the City to get for the tractor . . . . Everyone figured old Gene would come off the five bucks, but he didn’t. SCHOOL’S OUT this weekend and all the kids are going to be everywhere .... So watch out for them when you’re driving . . . They forget some times that the street is primarily for cars. Dateline ! Washington By Congressman Jack Brinkley i Charles Dickens in A TALE OF TWO CITIES wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Can it be that our country is like that?—A land of plenty borrowing upon the future; a Christ ian nation with more crime than any country in the world; symbolized by strident minorities hav ing more knowledge than wisdom. While pondering these perplexing anomalies, during a Sunday morning drive in Georgia on Mother’s Day, I heard Paul Harvey’s radio com ment on his version of what ails our young peo ple. First pf all, he was careful to correctly point out that only some are ailing. He compared youth to guided missiles or rockets with miles and miles of complicated wiring. He observed that should a missile guidance system fail, the rocket would self destruct, and that the same thing eventually hap pens to a young person with a faulty guidance sys tem. And, in response to claims that parents were always responsible for what their children became, he said that while this must be substantially true such a complicated guidance system developed in young people must be grounded on a Higher Being in order to successfully perform His concluding re mark was that parents must set the example and. as he put it. “at the risk of sounding corny, there must be in this Nation a return to God. This admonition also commends itself to the guidance system of the Nation. The teachings o the Book of Proverbs, in combination with a little sweat and backbone, would go a long way towar s curing that which ails our country. m i 1 ■. M* ML HI MVk