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The Houston Home Journal
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Bobby Branch, President-Editor-Publisher NeMpApep
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Official Organ City Os Perry And Houston County, Georgia
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PAGE 4-A
PERRY, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1972
Perry Is Changing
PERRY IS A changing community.
Look at the past 10 years. Perry’s
population has sky-rocketed and new
and bigger retail stores are locating
here all the time to better serve the
shoppers of the area.
Industrial growth has been a real
success story in the past decade and
indications are that industry will
continue to expand and locate in
Perry.
Many observers estimate that
Perry’s population will reach 25,000
by the end of the seventies. That’s a
breath-taking estimation but we
believe it will happen.
Perry’s growth and progress is a
real success story but other towns,
not many, have experienced similar
growth and have grown right into
chaos. Thankfully, Perry’s growth
over the past decade has been orderly
and sane and because we have a
comprehensive planning and zoning
ordinance we can look forward to
future years of orderly growth.
Britton Takes Over
MAYOR MALCOLM REESE
presided over his last City Council
meeting Tuesday night He has
resigned his office effective March 31,
because of pressing business
obligations and because there is no
way of knowing how long the con
tested city election case is going to
take in the court of appeals. Indeed it
may be even months before we know
the status of Mayor-elect John Barton
and Councilman-elect H. H. Hack
worth, although most observers agree
the courts will eventually allow them
to take office on their elections of
December 7.
Mayor pro tern Dan Britton will
step into the Mayor's seat until the
election case is settled. We have
complete confidence in Councilman
Britton’s ability to wield a strong
Easter In Perry
It is almost the time of year to once
again color Easter eggs. The fresh,
new Spring season will usher in
Easter Sunday which falls this year
on April 2. Christians everywhere will
mark the resurrection of Christ
Easter bonnets and Easter parades
will lend their annual enchantment to
the special time of the year when
Spring blossoms with fresh blooms
and a disappearance of what has
been a mild winter.
The freshness of the new Spring
season seems to symbolize the bright
hope and faith that came into being
We read recently a story about a
triumphant feast that was to be held
in a village many years ago. And to
insure plenty of liquid refreshment at
the feast, each villager agreed to pour
one bottle of his very best wine into a
gigantic cask. “If I fill my bottle with
water,” reasoned one villager, “the
Do Your Bit
Planning and zoning is often times
taken for granted but it is certainly
one of the most important aspects of a
growing city. We note that Perry has
long taken planning and zoning as a
serious matter and both the planning
and zoning board and the City Council
have used good sense in maintaining
a firm hand in the areas of planning.
The City is now working on a
“master plan” for Perry to span the
next years of growth. We endorse
such a move in the firm conviction
that Perry must have a master plan
to take care of the projected growth
we will certainly experience.
It is everyone’s business to take
planning and zoning seriously. It is a
vital segment of the future growth
and progress of this City and we
commend all those who have
dedicated their time and efforts to
make planning and zoning a reality in
Perry. We have only to look close
around us to see what improper
planning zoning can do to a city.
-8.8.
hand in the operation of this City. The
Council has done remarkably well in
the past months since January under
the trying circumstances of finding
themselves a more or less "lame
duck Council” in that all the members
were not sworn in because of the court
battles over whether or not the city
election should have been conducted
on a majority or plurality basis.
The Council is now in the midst of
approving a budget for the year and a
true spirit of cooperation must
prevail. We trust Council will con
tinue to do as they have done in the
past and improvise until such time as
this City gets the full and rightful
governing body we need and must
have. In the meantime, we are fully
confident in Mayor Britton’s ability
and experience.
-8.8.
with the birth of Christianity. The new
sounds of Spring are even brighter
and more accentuated on Easter
Sunday morning. The birds sing a
little more pleasantly. ..or at least it
seems. And in between the cool April
showers, the sun has a special warm
th that we have not felt in many
months. What it all adds up to is the
fact that Easter is a very special day
which we believe is meant to
celebrate the coming of new hope and
salvation to all mankind. We pray it
will be that way this year.
—B.B.
dilution will be so slight, who will
notice?” When the feast began and
the cask was tapped, nothing but
water poured out. Everybody in the
village had figured alike...“My bit
won’t be missed”... The moral of this
story, is Do your bit, because every
little bit helps.
—B.B.
Our Most
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The View From Here Mlk
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The summer tourist rush has begun
in earnest now, and Perry is ready to
welcome those who choose to stop
here along the way to Florida or back
home. Some of the nicest people with
whom I’ve had contact, from my
former years with Holiday Inns until
the present, have been Canadians.
They are friendly and polite, and
singularly undemanding. They are
happy to receive good service, of
course, which is their due. But I never
saw a Canadian give a desk clerk,
waitress, or store clerk a hard time
just because he was the “customer
who is always right.’’ Some of my own
countrymen did just that, and still do,
but thank goodness they are in the
minority. Just one of them can ruin a
whole day.
If prizes were awarded to the
restaurant customer who was the best
sport, I think it would have to be the
man who got a “hot seat” at a local
restaurant when a coffee pot cracked
just as the waitress was reaching
from behind him to pour his coffee.
Os course the poor scalded man
jumped up, and the waitress was
scared half to death, but instead of
storming at her he tried to calm her
fears and assured her he wasn’t badly
burned.
The manager insisted on calling a
doctor, for the protection of the guest
and of the restaurant, and the doctor
decided the burns weren’t serious.
The customer just laughed and joked
,
LOOme BACKWARD
5 \ KARS AGO ■ Gale Weems was
crowned the new Miss Perry of 1967 at
the Junior High auditorium last
Saturday night ... The Houston
County Board of Education has
proposed a bond issue of $400,000 for
school buildings and $1,000,000 for
sports activities and set the election
for April 25 ... The Houston County
Commissioners Tuesday donated
$5,800 to the Warner Robins
Recreation Dept, and asked that
city’s recreation director, Claude
Lewis, to look into the feasibility of a
countywide recreation program ...
The State Highway Dept has com
pleted its survey of the Swift Street
widening project here and maps are
being prepared.
10 YEARS AGO - Mayor Milton
Beckham said yesterday that the city
has selected a “tentative site” for a
all the time, putting everyone at ease,
and the incident was ended.
People forget the most unexpected
things when they pack for a trip. Last
Saturday a Canadian family stopped
at a local drug store and bought about
twenty dollars worth of makeup for
the lady of the family. She said she
had forgotten all of her makeup and
left it at home. Evidently Perry was
their last stop before Florida, and she
didn’t care how she looked riding
through the country but she had to get
all prettied up for her sightseeing
down there.
Speaking of restaurants (back
there somewhere), a young man took
his best girl out to a fancy restaurant
He studied up some on his etiquette,
and thought he had everything down
pretty pat. After a while he looked
around and saw the girl scratching
her back with her fork, and it shook
him up so bad he dropped his handful
of mashed potatoes.
A lady was fishing for newspaper
change when our Friendly Un
dertaker handed her a nickel.
“No, no, I’ve got it here
somewhere,” she kept digging.
“That’s all right, take it - I’ll put it
on your tab,” he said with a wicked
grin.
Oh, the look on her face when she
realized what he meant! Incidentally,
I understand he pulls that one fairly
often.
i
municipal building and discussion is
continuing whether to build a com
plete city hall now or to build a fire
and police department on a lot which
would accommodate an addition later
... Eighteen scouts and leaders of
Kiwanis-sponsored Boy Scout Troop
96 left early this morning for a canoe
trip deep into the heart of the
Okefenokee Swamp...
20 YEARS AGO • Hugh Beatty,
president of the Perry Lions Club, is
pictured presenting a Massachusetts
Vision Testing machine to Mrs. Edith
Bossier, county health nurse, to use in
the Houston county health program ..
Five Houston County men were in
ducted into the U.S. Army at Fort
Benning Monday ... Fourteen
members of the eighth grade Girl
Scout Troop will be out this week
selling Girl Scout cookies.
BOBBY '£%
BRANCH I £jj
OUT ON A a
BRANCH K
I went home for the last time this weekend. That
is, back home, where I grew up on the Georgia
coast. My father sold his marina and commercial
fishing business last week and visited the old
place for the last time as far as it being in the
family.
After being in the business for more than two
decades and building the place into one of the
biggest and finest marinas on the Georgia coast,
he decided to take it easy at the ripe old age of 50
years old. He and my mother won’t leave the coast
though, they have already began plans to build a
house and stay on the coast. That’s the way it
goes. After you live on the coast that long, it is
difficult to ever leave. It was hard for me to leave
when I left and I still miss the coast every day that
goes by. But the folks will still live there and we
will have a place to go to when we get the urge to
get away from it all and relax on the coast.
I walked around the old place Saturday and
recalled the good memories as well as a few bad
ones. There was the house I had lived in from the
fourth grade until I got out of high school and went
off to school. There was the old jeep that I used to
get to drive back and forth on the drive way long
before I had a driver’s license. Then when I turned
16, my cousin and I used to carry it into the woods
hunting every chance we got.
I walked around on the original dock that was
there when we first moved to Colonel’s Island. In
the spring and summer, I used to dive off the dock
every morning for a swim before eating break
fast. Now there are hundreds of feet of dock space
with big sailboats and yachts paying dock rental
to tie up there for the season and use the marina
as a base for their pleasure boats.
I remember the good times of water skiing,
fishing and just “messing” around in the river on
warm spring and hot summer days. I also recall
the weekends of having to get up about 4 in the
morning and help out around the place with the
customers. When things would slack off, I would
ease around out of sight and go to sleep.
There is something about the Georgia coast that
grows on anyone who has ever lived there. It
becomes a part of you and you never outgrow your
love and respect for the coast. The coast of
Georgia, where I grew up, is still much the way it
was when God created it. Os course, the homes
and weekend cottages are there, but there are still
many areas as yet untouched by bulldozers and
real estate agents.
Saturday was indeed a day of nostalgia for me
as I walked around the big, old, moss-draped oak
trees and swatted the ever present sand gnats.
There is nothing quite like standing on the river
bank in the late afternoon on the Georgia coast
with the salt air from the ocean blowing in your
face. And you can smell the aroma of someone
boiling crabs down the bluff. It all makes for a
clear thinking head and a time of nostalgia.
I am going to spend some time at the coast this
summer on weekends and I hope to take my boys
to places like Saint Catherines, Blackbeard and
Sapelo Islands so that they can walk and play on
the untouched, driftwood decorated beaches,
much the way I did when I was a boy. There are
far too few natural places left to where a boy can
walk on ground that has not been touched by
developers.
There is a spot on the southern most tip of Saint
Catharines Island, just off the coast, where we
used to camp out as boys. After reaching the
island by boat, we would pull up into a small creek
running into the beach and set up camp under
some trees near the beach. Even now, in that
same creek, you can catch fish, crabs and shrimp
and dig out clams along the banks of the creek.
I recall how I felt about the caretakers of the
islands and their families in those days. I thought
how terrible it must be to live on the islands off the
coast away from civilization. I thought at times
we were really too far from civilization but
Colonel’s Island is linked to the mainland by a
highway. Now, I don’t think it’s so bad to live on
one of those islands off the coast. That life is in
deed very appealing to many men now who long to
get away from everything and give up the eternal
drive to try and make as much or more money
than the other guy.
The old place may be sold and gone but thank
goodness I will always have a place to visit on the
Georgia coast and at least let my children get a
small dose of what it means to appreciate the
coast for all the natural beauty and abundance
that remains there ... And hopefully will always
remain there.
★ ★★★★★★★★★★★★ ★★
SUPPORT
PERRY
★ ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★