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**A Price 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.
G. OGDEN PERSONS, Vica. Prat. LEWIS M. MEEKS, tac.-Traas.
Entered At Perry, Georgia Post Office 31069 As Second Class Mail Matter
Merchant’s Appreciation Day
We think the gesture by Perry’s
civic clubs Saturday was a good and
thoughtful one. Club members came in
the downtown area and set up booths
giving away cokes, hot dogs and cakes
to Perry shoppers.
They did it to show their apprecia
tion of the merchants in Perry and
Saturday was proclaimed “Merchants
Miss Central Georgia Pageant
We think the idea announced by
the Perry Area Chamber of Commerce
to sponsor a live TV special from here
is a good one.
Chamber officials announced last
week that the chamber will sponsor,
live and in color, The 1970 Miss Cen
tral Georgia Pageant.” The colorcast
from Perry will be held on August 22,
and will originate from the facilities
of WMAZ in Macon, for 90 minutes.
The idea particularly appeals to us
because all the commercial spots dur
ing the special telecast will be about
Perry, with the theme that Perry is a
good place to live and make a living.
Television officials estimate that
about a million viewers all over the
state will see Perry come alive on the
TV screen on August 22, and that’s
better coverage than even The Home
Census Wrong For Perry
We don’t think the census figures
released this week for Perry were cor
rect. According to the Census Bureau,
Perry has increased in population
since 1960 by only 1,795 persons. Per
ry had a population of 6,032 in 1960
and now has a population of 7,827,
based on the figures released by the
Census folks this week.
We hate to disagree with a power
ful Federal agency like the Census
Bureau but we just think they goofed
in Perry. We think the true population
of Perry is around 8,500 and we don’t
care what the million dollar Census
computers print out.
We just don’t think a true figure
of the population can be achieved by
asking so many of the citizens to mail
in their census forms, as was done in
this census year. People just don’t mail
things back in these days. We have
Little Story From Perry
(Editor’s note. The following letter
to the editor was published in the May
28 edition of the Washington (D. C.)
Post. The letter was written by the
parents of Martha Beasley, who has
been practice teaching at Perry Gram
mar School this quarter. A copy of
the newspaper in which the letter ap
peared was sent to The Home Journal
by Mrs. Boterweg of Perry, whose sis
ter, Mrs. L. D. Low sent it to her. Mr
and Mrs. Low live in Damascus. Mary
land. The Washington Post is one of
the more prominent newspapers in the
country. The Post called the letter "A
Gentle Story from Georgia ”)
No doubt you have read of the
strife in Perry, Ga. I’d like to tell you
a story with Perry as its setting. This
story will not be published in any pa
per, because it doesn’t concern hate,
or violence, or malice, or greed, and
it only borders on tragedy.
Our daughter Martha is practice
teaching in Pery this quarter. She be
came heir to a special education class
when the regular teacher quit because
of the forced integration. Her class
contains, among others, a lad of 8
named Willie. Willie at first was
sullen, difficult and mean. Martha was
patient, kind and • firm. After two
weeks Martha became Willie’s ‘‘Miss
Appreciation Day.”
Perry is a good place to shop and
it’s getting better all the time. We
kn(jw it’s an old kick to jump on the
“Show at Home” bandwagon but we
think it is a good practice and it pays
off. ... We urge you to shop in Per
ry. . . . You’ll be glad you did.
—B. B.
Journal can offer.
We want to commend Bill Winkis,
the man who conceived the idea and
who is puting the production together,
for the long hours of work and talent
he has put into the enthusiastic effort.
We also want to commend those hard
working Perry Jaycees who are the
people actually responsible for the
work and promotion of the pageant.
We think the directors of the Per
ry Area Chamber of Commerce have
shown good judgment in taking on the
sponsorship of such a massive project.
We believe it will pay off in ways we
won’t even realize. Getting Perry’s
name and good image before the peo
ple of Middle Georgia.
We wholeheartedly support the
project.
—B. B.
already had a number of phone calls
at the Home Journal office from peo
ple who told us they didn’t get count
ed.
We want to make it clear here and
now that our opinions on the 1970
census are no reflection on those hard
working Perry census lakers. We think
they did all they could do under some
very trying circumstances. We ap
plaud them for their efforts in carry
ing out the task put before them by
the Census Bureau.
The thing is, we want to go on
record as being a Census Bureau of
our own by saying that we believe
Perry has a population of 8.500. . . .
And PHOOEY (to borrow a term from
Lester) on what the Census computers
say. . . . Anybody want to challenge
our figures?
—B. B.
B.”
Last week Martha talked the pub
lisher of the Perry paper into allowing
her class to tour his facility. Willie
found nothing to which he could relate
except a large papercutter. He came
to Martha and said, “I sure would like
to see that thing worle. but I’m a little
black boy and he wouldn’t show it to
me.” Martha replied, ‘‘That doesn’t
matter Willie, if you ask him nice he’ll
show you how it works.” Willie went
to the publisher and said. “Miss B.
said it don't make a difference about
me being black. She said you’d show
me how that thing works.” The pub
lisher not only let Willie see, but let
him operate the machine.
The class returned to school and
each child drew a picture of what he
had seen. Willie drew a papercutter.
Martha typed a description and title
at the bottom of Willie’s work of art.
Willie said, “Miss 8., do you think I
could learn to read that writing like
you’re writing?” Martha replied,
“Why sure, Willie, if you work and
Willie’s learning to read now, and
if he’s lucky enough to find enough
“Miss B’s,” he may just learn to write,
possibly even write more than an en
dorsement on a welfare check.
WALTER G. BEASLEY.
Lavonia, Ga.
THE KINGFISH
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I’ll Share My World With You
“I’ll Share My World With You,”
offers the singer, and the offer is not
one to be taken lightly. For the world
of each individual is different, pers
onal, entirely his or hers. Sharing it
will mean revealing not only the hopes
and aspirations for the future, but the
little everyday habits and routines and
personality traits not shown in pubi c-
Sharing their two individual worlds
together is a challenge that often fa Is
because one forgets that the other is
still a person, an individual, and that
their two personalities, which original
ly drew them together, do not become
one.
For love, there must be together
ness in body and in spirit; in an un
expected letter or telephone call “just
because”; in little gifts that have spec
ial significance for just the two alone;
in special names for each other never
heard by anyone else, names that rep
resent something in their lives because
they love each other.
Sometimes love is a fantasy, a
dream of a leisurly picnic with all of
the favorite foods, flowers in her hair,
and him chasing her through a mead
ow where she doesn’t run fast at all.
And if it never really happens that
way, there is nothing to lose by shar
ing the dream. After all, there are
those with no dream at all.
For love, there must also be an
apartness for many. There are a few
who submerge their personalities so
completely together that after many
years they come to resemble each oth
er even in their physical features: but
these are few indeed. Most people who
love want to spend a lot of time to
gether, naturally. But many still must
have some time alone occasionally.
They must not be made to feel that
there will never be another moment of
privacy in their entire lives. There
must be times when they can go off
into a room or out of the house to
walk alone for a little while without
question. It does not mean that they
love less; they can love more if the
one who holds their love understands
and respects this need, and will not
try to clutch and possess every mom
ent and every act and every thought.
Real love is not a prison. It is that
open meadow.
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There’s Only One Newspaper
k* Published By And For The
* People Os Perry
And Surrounding Area ...
The Houston Home Journal
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I
Love is remaining friends. Perhaps
that is the truest test for telling the
difference between real love and in
fatuation. The latter is devoted to dis
coveries of physical attractions, of ex
citement and stimulation of sight and
sound and touch. But after the first
fever pitch of emotion has subsided,
do they really like each other? Are
their likes and dislikes irreconcilable?
If they don’t like each other’s hobbies,
are they content to say, “to each his
own” and keep their separate ones
without disparaging the other? Can
they listen to and discuss his golf
score and her poetry, or his stamp col
lection and her ceramics, without
showing boredom?
Love is taking each other “as is”
If a lover is to remain a mend, then
the definition heard many years ago
of a friend serves as well here—‘one
who knows all about you but loves you
just the same.” No one is perfect.
Everyone has little faults (or even big
ones), and they come in the package
with the loved one. If these faults can
not be accepted, then it is best to stay
out of each other’s worms. Vou can
not reform the person you love. If
they wish to change, it must be by
their own volition. lagging, or hinting
that your lover is less than perfect, is
like throwing gasoline on a fire; apt as
not they know themselves better than
you think, and confirming their own
selt-comieinnaiicn is oangeious 10 love.
Love is not all sweetness and light
—there are oitter moments Oi quarrels
and bittersweet moment of tears shar
ed in sorrow and grief. There are anx
ieties and fears, disappointments and
frustrations. Love is remembering not
to take them out on the loved one. It
is remembering to praise the good and
forgetting to condemn the bad. It is
listening to a difference in opinion
without trying to impose your own. It
is seeing the beauty inside, crediting
the loved one with a mind, and taking
on a little more of the double burden
if the loved one stumbles under the
load.
No matter how big and dark and
stormy the world around may be, shar
ing a little world for two will, in the
words of still another song, “Make the
World Go Away.”
Bobby
Branch
Getting Homesick
I get a little homesick about this time every
year. I miss the driftwood laden beaches and moss
draped oaks of the Georgia coast. I miss, too the
salty, ocean breeze creating a swishing, lonelv
sound as it blows through long, swaying reeds of
marsh grass.
All that might sound corny and dramatic to
some folks, but to anyone who has lived or spent
time on the natural part of the Georgia coast, it
has a deep meaning.
When I was growing up on the Georgia coast,
I wandered barefoot on just about every island be
tween Brunswick and Savannah that wasn’t com
mercialized. Most of the islands are cut off from
the mainland and only a handful of Georgians have
ever really seen the most natural and beautiful
places in the state. The islands, for the most part,
are privatelv owned by conservation-minded peo
pie who have maintained them in much the same
way they were when the first Indians set foot on
the islands and called them their home.
You can get a boat and head for Saint Cath
arine’s Island from the mainland of Liberty Coun
ty and be there in about 15 minutes. There’s a
small inlet on the south end of the island and you
can beach a boat there. From that point, it’s only'
about 200 feet around to the ocean side of the is
land where an 11 mile beach stretches as far as
an eye can see. There’s driftwood all along the
beach that has been carved into jutting, strange ob
jects by the ever rising and falling tides and the
sometimes brutal winds from the Atlantic.
A man could live on Saint Catharine’s or any
of the other natural Golden Isles of Georgia, on
nature alone. There’s an abundance of crabs, fish,
shrimp, clams, deer, turkey and almost any kind
of wild life indigenous to the Georgia coast.
People forget about things like the Georgia
coast svhen they get caught up in the everyday
problems of pollution, demonstrations, the war in
southeast Asia, inflation and all the other count
less problems reviewed in the newspapers and on
television everyday.
Thank goodness for the Georgia coast. 1 hope
it always remains just the way it is today. . ? . And
I’ll keep right on getting homesick for the beaches
that don’t have beer cans on them and the fresh
salt air that makes you feel alive.
Merchant’s Day
The whole thing started with a lot of enthusi
asm and came on strong. A few members of several
local civic clubs figured it was time the clubs
showed some appreciation to the merchants of Per
ry, for all the things the merchants have done for
the clubs over the years. . . . Things like merch
ants buying ads in programs, donating to club
projects ■ . . things like that.
It began last Tuesday and they called it ‘Merch
ants Appreciation Day.” I still don’t know how all
those club members planned and organized such
an event that, was held here Saturday, in less than
a week. They did. It was great. It was a success.
The Perry Jaycees served several hundred hot
dogs in the downtown area and other clubs passed
out some of the best cake you ever tasted. . . I
know, because I sampled each cake that was serv
ed ... as a public service, of course.
I doubt if there is any town anywhere just like
good ole’ Perry, Ga. People take an interest in the
community and things like “Merchants Apprecia
tion Day” Saturday, makes you proud to live in
Perry. . . . There just isn’t any better place to live-
THE HAND THAT FEEDS HIM