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The Houston Home Journal
MEMBER
Bobby Branch, President-Editor-Publisher HkMAWLWNJkL
NeWpAper
Official Organ City Os Perry And Houston County. Georgia
MAXINE THOMPSON PHIL BYRD JOE HIETT
Associate Editor Sports Ed.tor Advert.s.nq Mgr |cf(RDr|
JIMMY CHAPMAN JEANIE JOHNSON JANICE COLWELL
Production Mgr. Class Adv Mgr. Bookkeeper
EMILY MONTGOMERY DORIS RAFFIELD
Society Editor Computer Opr / ( I
newspaper / /
........ „
"An Award Winning Georgia Weekly Newspaper
PAGE 4-A
PERRY, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1972
We Salute Farmers
Along with your regular Home
Journal this week, you will receive a
special “Salute to Houston County
Farmers” edition. The 20 page edition
by no stretch of the imagination tells
the entire story of farming in Houston
County but we believe it gives an
insight into the importance of the
farming community and tells the
story of many of our important crops
that a great many readers are not
aware of abound in Houston County.
We extend a real tip of the hat to our
many farmers and farm families in
Houston County that contribute so
much to our way of life and to the
economy of our County, State and
Nation. Farming operations in
Houston mean more than sl2 million
Perry Motorcycle
The Perry City Council voted into
law a new ordinance recently
requiring motorcyclists riding their
bikes in the city limits to have their
headlight on at all times while in
motion. It disturbs us somewhat that
we have observed some riders in our
city not obeying the law. Perhaps it is
because they are not aware of it at
this time. But a motorcycle is a lot
easier to spot in the daytime with the
lights on and we urge riders in Perry
to obey the new law.
An insurance company recently
conducted a study on motorcycles
that more clearly points out the
danger involved with cycles and
automobiles. The report in part
stated, “To get a clear un
derstanding, hold a pencil at arm’s
length. That pencil will now com
pletely obscure a motorcycle ap
proaching at a distance of 120 feet. A
Honeymoon ?
A reader sent us a clipping of Hugh
Park's column that appeared in
Sunday, October 21, 1954 edition of
The Atlanta Journal. The column was
concerned with why so many
honeymooners make Perry the first
night stop on their honeymoon to
Florida. The Column was written 18
years ago but the same rule seems to
apply. Here is what Hugh Park had to
say about it and we still wonder why.
“A gentleman, who has nothing else
much to do except think about things
like this, is greatly puzzled by a habit
of honey mooners.
if ■" ■
BACKWARD^
5 Y’EARS AGO - Mayor Richard B.
Ray of Perry was elected first vice
president of the Georgia Municipal
Association at its annual meeting ...
Thomas Mayo has been named Perry
civitan of the Year ... Jim Agerton
was installed as president of the
Perry Civitan Club.
10 YEARS AGO - Two power mower
accidents were reported in Perry last
week, emphasizing the need for ex
treme care in handling of these
dangerous machines ... The highway
bridge over the Southern Railway at
Clinchfield will be eliminated and a
new bridge built ... Perry will vote
to our economy each year. It’s big
business and vitally important
business to us all.
In these days of inflation and high
food costs, too many consumers
hastily blame the increases solely on
the farmer. But let us remind you that
farmers are getting much the same
prices for their products as they did
years ago. The food, beef, and swine
costs result from increased costs
after the products are purchased
from the farmer.
We salute you, Houston County
farmers and farm families, we could
not get along without you. Keep up the
good work.
-8.8.
motorcycle traveling 30 miles per
hour will take 2.7 seconds to cover 120
feet.”
The most common type of
automobile-motorcycle accident
occurs when the two vehicles are
traveling in opposite directions on the
same road. The autoist turns left at an
intersection or into a shopping center,
moving across the lane of the cyclist.
The driver of the car does not see the
cyclist in time to react and one more
tragic highway statistic results.
A motorcycle, according to
statistics, is at least 65 per cent more
easy to spot with the headlight bur
ning. That’s why we think it is so
important for cyclists in this area to
obey the new city law for their own
safety as well as the safety of auto
drivers.
-8.8.
“He says it is the almost invariable
custom of Atlanta newlyweds - those
destined for Florida - to spend their
first night in Perry. “Why?” he
asks.”
“He has pursued the question to the
point of asking several honeymoon
couples. They usually reply with an
enigmatic smile: ‘Because it’s half
way.”’
“But, as he points out, so is Macon
and Fort Valley, which lie within a
few miles of Perry. Anybody know
the real answer? There must be some
secret lure.”
1
Tuesday on a $250,000 bond issue ...
Mrs. H. J. Stefanini is new president
of the Perry Home Demonstration
Club.
20 YEARS AGO • Last Saturday, June
28, was the hottest day on record here
with the official reading at 105.1
degrees. A 39 year old hitch hiker
collapsed on the street here and died
of apparent heat stroke after being
rushed to the Dublin Veterans
Hospital. Crops and gardens are
burned to a crisp ... It is thought that
Perry has more air conditioners than
any other city of its size in Georgia.
THE TEMPTER
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The View From Here Mr"" «W
Almost a century ago DDT was
discovered by a German chemist
named Zeidler. It was virtually
forgotten until two Swiss scientists,
Dr. Paul Muller and Dr. Paul Lauger,
rediscovered it during World War 11,
It was credited with saving the lives
of thousands of Allied soldiers and
civilians in pest ridden foreign
countries.
When these two scientists came to
America, they warned that DDT
could be a mixed blessing. They said
that with the proper control, the in
secticide could entirely eliminate
flies, mosquitoes and other insects
from this country.
But along with these insects, they
warned, would go our pollen-carrying
insects, bees, and other beneficial
friends of mankind, perhaps in
cluding our birds and fish.
Gone also, they pointed out, would
be many plants and trees that depend
on insects for pollination. DDT was
something to be controlled by en
tomoligists, not laymen, they warned.
The warnings fell on deaf ears as
DDT was hailed as a miracle in
secticide. It was made so readily
available to the public that the
average citizen could spray, dust or
paint all of his home or any portions of
it with DDT. County health depart
ments kept up regular free home
spraying programs for a number of
years in some areas. This proved to
be very popular in rural locations
plagued by flies from barnyards.
It was touted as a killer of bedbugs
by applying as a five percent spray or
a ten percent powder to both sides of
a mattress and to bedsprings. Door
and window screens were painted
with a five per cent solution in
kerosene or water that would kill
every fly, mosquito or other insect
lighting there for months. It was
supposed to be sure death to
cockroaches, brown dog ticks, and
fleas.
It never seemed to occur to anyone
that the insects would build up an
immunity to the insecticide, or that
the remedy might some day be
regarded as worse than the disease
for which it was developed.
After reviewing the results of an
Army study, Lt. Col. A. L. Ahnfeldt,
U.S. Surgeon General’s office, said
The Houston Home Journal
Keeps Perry Citizens Informed
“In peace time DDT may well change
the destiny of the earth’s population.”
Prophetic words? But he didn’t
foresee in the early 1940 s the present
turn of events, for he added, “Our
postwar world will no longer be
scourged by typhus and malaria and
other insect-borne diseases. DDT is
not a cure-all, but in the perpetual
war between humans and disease,
DDT is one of the most effective
weapons yet discovered by man.
“DDT will be to preventive
medicine what Lister’s discovery of
antiseptic was to surgery and shoud
close the door forever on those
diseases which are companions of
death-dealing insects.”
In some respects he was correct;
however, some scientists now feel
that DDT has almost closed the door
forever on some of our beneficial
plants and animals. They say that
DDT remains with us in a deadly
cycle; that it is dusted on crops to kill
insects, soil is washed into streams
where it is absorbed into the bodies of
fish, which in turn are eaten by birds,
animals - and humans.
It causes the egg shells of some
birds to be so soft that they won’t
hatch, and this is considered by some
to be the cause of the near extinction
of the bluebird formerly so commonly
seen and now a rarity.
While some hailed DDT as a
medical miracle, farmers considered
it an agricultural miracle. The U.S.
Dept, of Agriculture reported that
“DDT insecticides were found ex
perimentally to be difinitely more
effective than those currently used
for control of some 30 pests that
attact field crops, man, livestock and
trees. ”
Now it seems the miracle panacea
has become the attacker of man and
of the things in nature he holds dear.
Some cry out to have it banned, while
others defend it just as strongly.
Dr. Muller and Dr. Paul warned
more than a quarter-century ago
exactly what would happen if DDT
were used indiscriminately. But
patience is not one of the virtues of a
people who greedily reach and grasp
for anything new that holds a promise
of more and more of everything
money can buy.
bobby rm
BRANCH Iii
OUT ON A
BRANCH T
A YOUNGSTER of some friends of ours in
Perry wrote a letter to his parents from camp
recently. The letter was simply addressed “To
Mother and Dad”, with the name of the street and
Perry, Ga.
I DON’T appreciate what an editor friend of
mine wrote about me in his newspaper last week.
After seeing me at the Georgia Press Convention
on Jekyll Island, he wrote: “It was nice seeing a
lot of our editor friends again and we saw one who
has gained so much weight since we saw him last
that he is wearing “Hang Twenty” shirts, in
stead of Hang Ten.
DOWNTOWN PERRY, in my opinion, will be
going into a real “revitalizing” program before
too long. Things are fixing to happen and some of
the merchants are going to remodel and new
stores are rumored to be going into the downtown
section. While others have said the old downtown
is fading, I have maintained it will become even a
better shopping area. And, of course, many of the
merchants downtown, have never believed their
future wasn’t bright.
Keep your eye on downtown Perry.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON has become one of the
biggest shopping days in Perry for those stores
that open on Sundays. A clerk in one of the stores
told me last Sunday that one of the reasons for the
big Sunday business is the fact that a lot of folks
that work all week long, including Saturdays,
don’t have a chance to get out and shop except on
Sunday.
Predictions are that in five years Sunday will be
the biggest single business day in the week for
most retail businesses. That’s difficult to believe,
but who in Perry would have thought five years
ago that Sunday would be a big shopping day here.
Times are changing. Perhaps too fast.
THIS IS one of those short weeks for the
newspaper. What with the July 4th holiday and all,
folks just didn’t do much to create news and a lot
of merchants didn’t feel inclined to advertise. Our
office was open all day Tuesday so that we could
get the paper out but we will be closed Friday for a
long week-end. We will all be back at the same
stand next week on a regular routine.
THE FOOD AND DRUG Administration has
broken a 61 year old precedent in making
available to the public its guidelines on how much
filth it considers unavoidable and tolerable in the
food we eat. Some of things I noticed is the
government can tolerate one rat or mouse pellet
in each pint of wheat, up to 100 million bacteria in
a gram of dried eggs and 2,500 aphids per 10
grams of hops. The old grovernment might not
care and might take the attitude that what folks
don’t know can’t hurt them, but that’s not
necessarily true... Just let someone at home drop
a band aid in the tossed salad and listen to the
screams ... Ticky, ticky, ticky.
THAT OLD SAYING about death and taxes
being certain is true but there is one big difference
between the two: Death isn’t any worse than it
ever was, but taxes get worse as time wears on.
Income taxes are the worse and most unfair taxes
of all. County and City taxes we all can half way
understand and determine what services we are
getting for the money. What burns me is us hard
working folks have to dig up the federal taxes,
which mostly goes to bureaucracy and govern
ment waste, and also to support parasites who are
too lazy to work... By gosh.
~7~
I Suppose You’re An Uncommitted Delegate...