Newspaper Page Text
The Houston Home Journal
Official Organ City Os Perry And Houston County, Georgia
BOBBY BRANCH
PRESIDENT-EDITOR-PUBLISHER
A Prize-Winning
M A Mi N Jk L | 5 Ol 1974
fW£(fWPAtPEB \ggpy Better Newspaper
“An Award Winning Georgia Weekly Newspaper”
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., OCT. 1. 1*75,
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Come Home To America
Perry Bicentennial
t *
The City of Perry officially opened
the celebration of our great nation’s
200th birthday here in ceremonies
held at the City Hall Tuesday af
ternoon. It was indeed a very im
pressive ceremony with a stirring,
patriotic speech by Dr. Leonard
Cochran, The ceremony was spon
sored by the Perry Bicentennial
Commission and the City of Perry.
With the official beginning of the
Bicentennial, we should all come
home to America. At no other time in
our history do we need to reflect on
what’s right with this great nation
even with all the problems facing us
on a local level right on up to the lop.
America is a great nation and those
who have forgotten ought to renew
A Biased Report
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The Guns Os Autumn
D,
We want to add our disapproval to
the growing list of those who love and
respect the outdoors and the sport of
hunting concerning the obviously,
biased CBS News documentary, “The
Guns of Autumn”, which was aired
over the network recently.
We feel the documentary was in
poor taste and showed only a very
small percentage of so-called hunters
that do not even have the slightest
idea of just what the sport of hunting
Ridiculous Spending
Watch The Tax Dollar
Do we have any control over our
government or is it completely out of
hand? We had Watergate. Now
Congressional hearings are bringing
out such items as the ClA’s in
volvement in disobeying the order of
a president to destroy poisons, and a
president’s inability to obtain correct
data from the Vietnam War scene.
Throw in the recent news item that
United States government spending
will reach the annual rale of a half
trillion dollars this year, and one
begins to wonder who or what has its
reins on us.
W. Allen Wallis, chairman of Tax
Foundation, Inc., said this milestone
in the cost of government depicts
corresponding growth in government
power and complexity.
The actual figure estimated by the
Tax Foundation for federal, state,
and local government expenditures
for fiscal year 1975 looks like this:
$555,100,000,000. It is twice the amount
spent as recently as 1967, and over 25
times the amount in 1940 as reported
in the first edition of the Foundation’s
authoritative handbook.
Dividing the half-trillion dollar
Says Miss America...
"Grits Ain't Groceries
What are grits?
That's what pretty Elaine Godwin,
the new Miss America, wanted to
know the other day as she visited
Augusta for the first time.
"Grits! It sounds so awful,” said
the New Yorker when offered the well
known Southern breakfast dish on a
visit to the Georgia city.
"It looks good with butter on it, but
I couldn’t bring myself t0...1 looked at
it and smelled it,” Miss America
declared.
Told that grits are made of ground
PAGE 2-A
their faith and love for this country.
We hope the citizens of Perry will
all join in to make this a great
Bicentennial year. We look forward to
a year of growth and progress for our
community and to a year when we all
come home to America. This is the
greatest land in the world in which to
live and I firmly believe Perry is the
greatest community in that land in
which to live. Let’s all come to
America in this our Bicentennial
year.
We commend all those who had a
part in Tuesday’s ceremonies. Those
who did not attend missed a program
which would stir patriotism in
anyone.
—B.B,
is all about. It appeared to us the
program was designed to condemn all
hunters by showing a few un
scrupulous men defiling the sport.
CBS News knew in advance the
documentary would cause a stir in the
country and gain for them wide
publicity. We are opposed to such
tactics by (hose in the journalism that
report the news. Unfortunately the
news is too many times reported
unfair. What a shame.
—B.B.
figure by the number of households in
the United States (estimated at
71,240,000 in January, 1975), that
works out to a startling total of
government expenditure per
household of $7,792. The per
household figure is up from the
estimated $6,915 in 1974 and is more
than double the $3,592 spent in 1965.
With this in mind, it struck me as
somewhat ironic when a federal
government publication with order
blank arrived recently offering a list
of selected consumer pamphlets.
Among these were a free six pager
entitled “Imaginative Ways with
Bathrooms’’, another free one
headed, “And Now a Word About
Your Shampoo’’, and another biggie,
free of course, on “Make Your Own
Terrarium”. There are other such
goodies as “Investing in Gold”,
“Snowmobiles", “Pocket Guide to
Babysitting”, "Seasoning with Herbs
and Spices”, “Facts About Bottled
Water”, and “Aspirin”. We might
need that last one, because someone
is going to get a headache trying to
foot the half-trillion dollar bill.
—B.B.
corn, Miss Godwin laughed and said,
“Oh, that’s harmless.”
Miss America should have been
served some tasty Georgia country
ham, a couple of fresh Georgia eggs
over light and a generous serving of
genuine red-eye gravy along with the
grits.
Then Miss Godwin would have
discovered for herself the real
meaning of that song Phil Harris is
always singing- “That’s what the
South is all about!”
The Douglas (Ga.) Enterprise
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Getting into the real spirit of the Bicentennial celebration held at the Perry
City Hall Tuesday afternoon were these members of the Deibert family of
Perry. From left, Jeanne Deibert, little Becky Deibert, Gary Deibert and Mrs.
Marjorie Deibert. They were all dressed in costumes from the 1776 era of our
great nation.
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HHJ NEWS EDITOR
Q
BY JOE HIETT
V
Since the Bicentennial has already
begun, I feel it is only fitting that this
column contribute in some small way
to returning people’s minds to those
scenes which helped mold and shape
America. You Are There.
It seems that ole General Sherman,
in the War Between the States, was
advancing upon Atlanta, when word
came to the Yank that a wounded
Rebel soldier was holed up on the
craggy face of Stone Mountain.
Sherman immediately decided to
capture the soldier and asked for a
volunteer platoon.
Five or six platoons volunteered
and Sherman selected the cream of
the crop. They set out around five that
afternoon, headed the half-mile or so
to Stone Mountain. For 12 hours,
nothing was seen of the platoon, but
from Stone Mountain could be heard
blood-curdling yells of humans in
agony.
Sherman was beside himself (that’s
a good trick) in wonderment. “What’s
taking so long,” he roared. About five
a.m. a lone Yank drug himself,
though mortally wounded, into the
Union camp and tugged on the pant
sleg of Sherman’s aide-de-camp.
Sherman was immediately sum
moned.
“What in blazes happened to you,”
the mild-mannered general thun
dered. The only reply as the soldier
croaked in dying breaths, was
“General, sir, there was a dreadful
mistake. There were two Rebs on that
mountain.”
To all yew Yanks out there who
read this heah ode, don’t fret. Whah,
ah’m a Yankee myself. Yessiree, ah
was born in NORTH Georgia.
N
Of* FIRST
P** baptist
CHURCH
jA T'a, T)fm
LITTLE JACOB They would go to the
FROM BETHEL synagogue on the eve of
Once there was a boy every Sabbath. Little
from Bethel whose name Jacob loved to smell the
was Jacob His father was incense, to watch the
Jacob, too, so he was beautiful scrolls being
known as "Little Jacob". unrolled, and to hear about
He loved to go places and the great men of God.
do things, to run, swim, "Some day,''he said, "I'm
throw rocks, play games, going to do great things
and to do other things with like Moses and David and
his friends. They liked him be remembered!"
for his sunny personality One day he took his lunch
but often teased him for and headed for the hill
being so small; "runt" country, passing vineyards
they called him. His father and groves of olive trees,
was a shepherd and was At the crest of a hill, he
very poor, but his family saw a crowd of people and
had enough love for God went to investigate. He
and tor each other to make heard a teacher talking
U P for '*• about God's love and other
By the way, that tale is definitely
not original. I borrowed it from John
Crichton, Rotary District Governor,
who told it to Monday’s Rotary Club
meeting.
Georgia Press Association
President W.H. Champion, editor of
the Dublin Courier-Herald, was guest
speaker at last week’s Kiwanis Club
meeting, and he made some most
valid points in defense of freedom of
the press.
Champion said that “newspapers
and other media, but especially the
newspaper, are the public’s guar
dian as far as the governments are
concerned.” “Champ” is so right.
Have you ever stopped to think how
some public officials would act if they
knew their actions were not being
recorded, to be under public
scrutiny? You and I both know that
more “shady deals” would occur.
Many people say the newspaper
“meddles” in governmental business.
Maybe it does, but no newspaper (or
at least only a few) do their meddling
for monetary or other personal gain.
The way I view government is quite
simple. ALL of every action un
dertaken by ANY GOVERNMENT is
paid by the general public, and ALL
ACTIONS affect in some way or
another at least some segment of the
public. As far as I am concerned, all
governmental meetings are public
and I will be there unless legally
restrained. The same goes for
governmental documents, with a very
few minute exceptions. Govern
mental documents belong to the
public, and anyone standing in my
way to get them had better be
prepared to fight. And who someone
is makes no difference to me.
things, so he sat down to
listen.
As time went on, the
teacher stopped and his
men began to seek out food
among the people and
found none. He had heard
about love, about how we
should love each other,
and offered to share his
lunch.
You just wouldn't
believe what he saw. The
teacher took the five hard,
little barley biscuits and
the two small pickled fish,
gave a prayer of thanks to
God, and began to serve
that huge crowd of people
with Little Jacob's lunch.
When he burst into the
door of his home, he
poured out his story to his
mother and the rest of the
family; they found what he
told them just a bit hard to
believe. His little friends,
too, thought he was
making it all up. Nobody
believed him - until
travelers began to come
through town on their way
back home, telling about
strange events.
God can use you, too.
f 4
OUT ON A
BRANCH y
How To Hove An
Excuse Free Sunday
For my own pastor, Elick Bullington, and the
many other ministers in Houston County who
must grow tired of the endless string of excuses
for not attending church, I submit the following
formula of “No Excuse Week” for their use. Let
me hasten to add that I am as guilty as many
others on rationalizing and making excuses about
missing church.
Some of the aids Rev. Bullington and other area
ministers may want to try for an excuse free
Sunday are:
—Blankets for those who think the sanctuary is
too cold, and fans for those who think it is too hot.
-Murine for those whose eyes are tired from
watching the late, late show Saturday night.
-Hearing aids for those who say the or®in
music is too soft, and cotton for those who thirw it
is too loud.
-A fine selection of wild flowers for those who
worship better in the out-of-doors.
-“Stamp Out Stewardship” buttons for the ones
who say the church is always asking for money.
-TV Dinners for those who can’t cook and at
tend church services too. These will be handy for
the members who have to leave during the last
hymn to get to the restaurant before the Baptists
(or, in this case, the Presbyterians).
-An isolation booth for those who cannot stand
the press of crowds.
-Free long distance telephone service for those
who have to visit relatives and attend family
reunions on Sunday.
-And lastly, hard hats for those who say, ijtlf I
go to church, the roof will surely fall in”. "
We had a business meeting at this week’s
session of the Perry Kiwanis Club and the
discussion came up that the club is only supposed
to have 2 members from any one profession or
occupation. The Kiwanis has several attorneys as
members but they come under different niem
bership categories. I asked two prominent P6rry
attorneys sitting next to me what is the difference
between them and one promptly answered:
“About sls an hour.” Enough said.
Perry street scenes; Mrs. Cater Rogers and
Mrs. Milo Medlock taking their daily walk gliding
briskly through downtown Perry—Houston
Superior Court Judge listening intently to
Superior Court Judge emeritus Phil Anderson last
Tuesday afternoon in front of the New Perry
Hotel-Countless sidewalk superintendents
standing in front of the store undergoing extensive
renovation on Carroll St. adjacent to the Coffee
Cup, giving valuable advice to the carpenters,
among them local haberdasher Billy Bledsoe and
Real Estate Broker Richard Goodroe—
Mrs. Louise Wilder is retiring as Deputy Clerk
of the Houston County Clerk of Superior Court’s
office after more than 28 years of service. She is
probably more knowledgeable about the court
records and files in the courthouse than J#yone
else.
She has helped more lawyers over the years
searching for deeds and records than can be told.
And she has also “set straight” many a young,
starry-eyed lawyer and helped to get them off on
the right foot in the Houston County Courthouse.
I thank her for keeping me straight and out of
court these past lOVfc years with the countless
newspaper, legal advertisements she has helped
prepare for The Home Journal and instructed me
on the manner in which they were to be published.
She will be sorely missed by Superior Court
Clerk Tommie Hunt and all the folks in the
courthouse. She has indeed been an outstanding
public servant of Houston County and I wish her
well in whatever endeavors she pursues in the
years ahead.
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