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Opinions
The Houston Home Journal
“Georgie’s Number One Weekly Newspaper’ 1
BOBBY BRANCH
PRESIDENT - EDITOR - PUBLISHER
PHIL BYRD .Production Director
JOEL FERGUSON News Editor
JANICE COLWELL Office Manager
JANET McELMURRAY Advertising
DONNA BRYAN Computer Operator
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., MAR It, 1978,
4 Year Terms
All in all we believe the 1978
session of the Georgia General
Assembly was a good session in
which most of our legislators
worked hard in the best interest of
the folks back home.
We want to go on record,
however, as being opposed to the
proposal that came out of the
session to extend terms of
legislators from two years to four
year terms. In our opinion, this is a
politician’s bill not a people’s
bill.
The constitutional amendment to
double the terms will be voted on in
November’s General Election, but
the citizens of Georgia really
shouldn’t have any difficulty in
reaching a decision on how they
will vote on the proposal right now.
A Sad Comment
After reviewing the theft and
vandalism report released during
the Houston County Board of
Education meeting Tuesday, we
think it’s time for members of the
board to confer with county and
city law enforcement agencies
about improving the security for
county schools.
It’s serious business when
thieves can break into local schools
and steal typewriters valued at
$1,222 in January, and visual aids
equipment valued at $1,970 in
February.
And any way you view the
situation, it is a sad comment on
the discipline of our youngsters
when they vandalize our schools
Perry Women
A front page story in last week’s
Home Journal recognized some of
Perry’s leading women. They were
singled out and honored for their
contributions to the community by
the Perry Pilot Club.
We believe Perry has some of the
most outstanding women in
leadership roles in the state. We
Do Lak We Done
Too often we lose sight of relative
values and it takes something like
this story to put us back on the right
track.
The newly hired traveling
salesman wrote his first sales
report to the home office. It
stunned the brass in the sales
department, for here’s what he had
written:
“I seen this outfit which ain’t
never brought a dimes worth of
nothing from us and I sole thme a
cuple hundred thousand dollars of
guds. I am now going to
Chicawgo.”
But before the illiterate itinerate
could be given the heaveho by the
sales manager, along came
PAGE 4-A
We say vote “NO”. Why? Well,
because the bill simply offers
security for the politician and less
responsive representation for the
people. It is as simple as that, in
our opinion.
The legislator is the key tie
between the folks at home and the
state government in Atlanta. It is
the area where most sensitive
response is required, much more so
than in administrative offices. It is
also the area where the citizen
should have most rapid recourse to
a change, if required.
Our own State Representative,
Larry Walker, of Perry, is not in
favor of the extended term. Rep.
Walker feels, as we do, two year
terms keep the legislator close to
the people he represents.
—B.B.
and inflict damage amounting to
$784 in January, and $745 in
February.
It would be easy to dismiss this
stealing and vandalism as un
pleasant events created by the
anxious age in which we live. But
these events should not be
dismissed so lightly.
Citizens who work long hours to
buy groceries and pay taxes should
insist on better security for county
schools.
They should also impress on their
children the importance of
respecting public property, and
inform them that they will be
punished if they violate this
respect.
J.F.
are fortunate to have women who
have taken their rightful place here
in Perry in business, government,
politics, civic work and church
work.
We appreciate the efforts and
dedication of so many Perry
women.
—B.B.
another letter:
“I cum hear un sole them haff a
millyon.”
Fearful if he did, and fearful if he
didn’t fire the illiterate peddler, the
sales manager decided to dump the
problem in the lap of the President.
The following morning, the
members of Ivory Tower were
flabbergasted to see the two letters
posted on the bulletin board and
this letter from the president
tacked up:
“We ben spending two much time
trying two spel instid of trying to
sel. Let’s wach those sales, I want
everbudy should read these letters
from Gooch who is on the rode
doing a grate job for us, un you
shud go out and do lak he done.”
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MOONSHOT 1978
\
HHJ NEWS EDITOR
By Joel Ferguson
\ >
The old familiar dreams are
persistent, unrelenting, comforting
-- and they die hard.
As a matter of fact, our editorial
crew here at The Houston Home
Journal has numbered these
familiar dreams as dream number
one, dream number two and dream
number three. We numbered them
so they would be easy to identify.
Dream number one is very
elusive, and it is the daydream of
almost every editor and reporter
on a big city newspaper.
Dream number one is to “retire”
in a nice small town like Perry and
operate the weekly newspaper. If
you visit some of the bars located
across the street from the Los
Angeles Times, The Chicago
Tribune and The New York Times,
you won’t be there very long before
some old news codger issues forth
with a familiar refrain.
“Man, I’m really fed up with this
rat race,” the old newsman will
say. “I wish I could retire in a nice
small town somewhere and operate
the local weekly newspaper.”
And, who knows, maybe some of
the big city newspaper folks would
enjoy publishing a weekly. They
should not take the task lightly,
however, and they should not be
prepared to “retire.”
The first thing a big city editor
has to know about operating a
weekly newspaper is that there are
no copy boys to fetch coffee, no
reporters for assignment to fast
breaking news events, no
photographers to send with the
reporters, no darkroom
technicians to develop film and
print pictures, no headline writers,
no big department to sell ad
vertising and nobody to mail and
distribute the paper.
These are only a few of the
chores the big city editor will have
to do for himself when he “retires”
to operate his weekly newspaper.
After writing hard-hitting
editorials and news stories, the
editor will usually find himself in
the backroom stuffing his papers in
mailbags for a journey to the post
office, and subsequent delivery U
his subscribers.
What do editors and publishers of
Letters To The Editor
Are Welcome - - - Write Us!
weekly newspapers dream about?
That brings us around to dream
number two. Dream number two
is to own about 600 acres of prime
Middle Georgia land planted in
coastal bermuda grass. If dream
number two were to come true, the
owner of the 600 acres would also
own about 100 Hereford cows and
have a comfortable mansion
located smack in the middle of the
big ranch.
Under the provisions and fan
tasies of dream number two, the
100 cows would produce 100 calves
annually to support the owner’s
every whim. And there wouldn’t be
too much work involved in dream
number two. All you’d have to do
would be to keep your fences
mended, deliver blocks of salt to
your cattle in the pasture every
now and then, and feed them a few
bales of hay in winter.
Dream number two held up for a
long time. It held up until last
summer when we talked to a
rancher in Houston County who had
more than 100 Hereford cows and
more than 600 acres in coastal
bermuda. With the prevailing low
market price for cattle at the time,
and the high property taxes, the
rancher said he would realize more
income if he had invested his
money in the bank to draw five
percent interest.
If low profits weren’t enough, the
rancher said operating such a
spread usually required the owner
to work from dawn until dark.
So much for dream number two.
Dream number three is to own a
shrimp boat that plies the
crystaline waters off the Georgia
coast. Frequent voyages to off
shore waters -- with seagulls on the
wing -- following in your wake -
would keep the old skipper healthy
and happy. In time, he would
develop a bone-deep suntan and
deposit vast sums in his savings
account.
We have purposefully avoided
talking to a shrimpboat captain.
He’d probably tell us all of the
discouraging and depressing things
about his profession.
And that would be terrible. After
all, everyone is entitled to at least
one dream.
r
BJobby
BJ/icmcfi f* '
OUT ON A
BRANCH
I J
I received the following letter this week from a
local man, who shall remain nameless at this
time. His wife asked him to submit the letter to
the paper and I believe it is worth re-printing in
this corner:
“Some feminists shout for equal pay for equal
work, others want abortion on demand. All I am
asking is that women be treated like men on the
obituary page.
When a man fades away, he gets a write-up
about all the things he has achieved and all the
places he has been. When a housewife dies, if she
gets even a line or two, the obituary is still about
all the things her husband has achieved and all
the places he has been.
As a suggestion I would like to present the
following obituary for a housewife that is pat
terned after the hundreds of eulogies I have read
for prominent men. This is an obituary for a
prominent housewife:
Mrs. Ima Martar died following a brief illness
of botulism poisoning contracted after eating
some of her own home canning.
Those who knew her will recall that during the
past twenty-five years, Mrs. Martar cooked
three meals a day, plus snacks. Her laundry was
always sunshine bright, and she will be
remembered as an innovator since she was the
first on her street to add a fabric softener to her
wash. Never in her entire life did she scorch a
garment while she ironed. No one excelled her
when it came to mopping floors.
Before her death, Mrs. Martar was a national
holder of the award that goes to the woman who
for seven years never missed a single episode of
As the World Turns. Mrs. Martar often
remarked how thrilled she was the time she was
approached to do a free testimonial for a
detergent company.
Mrs. Martar’s most admirable qualities were
that she took a leading vitamin regularly so that
her husband “would keep her,” and she chose
the brand of coffee that would repel her nosy
neighbor, Mrs. Olsen. Thanks to hair coloring,
there was not a single gray hair in Mrs. Martar’s
head, and one of the most welcome breaks in her
day was when the traveling cosmetic woman
came around.
Mrs. Martar is survived by two sons, both of
whom are grown with wives of their own. They
will barely notice that she is no longer here
except when vacation time rolls around and they
realize there is no free place to leave the kids.
She will be sorely missed by her husband until
a respectable time has passed so that he can
marry one of his former secretaries whom he
has been supporting for years.
Mrs. Martar’s final words, whispered into the
ears of a nearby nurse, were that in lieu of
flowers would her friends, please, send donations
to a local, state, or national Women’s Liberation
group.”
The Florida literacy test published in The
Home Journal last week has prompted con
siderable discussion among many of our
readers. The first phase of the test was published
last week and part two appears on page 2-B this
week along with last week’s correct answers.
Part three of the test, which is verbal, will be
published next week.
The test is given to every high school senior in
Florida, and in order to get their diploma,
seniors must pass the test in a given amount of
time.
The test deals with things that confront us all
in everyday life. I urge you to take the test and
give it to your children of all ages. See how you
do and let us hear from you about what you think
about the test.
The Perry police believe in “shaking doors,” I
work late on Tuesday nights here at the office
and I can hear the police shaking the doors two
or three times during the hours before midnight.
It makes no difference whether it is raining and
cold, they are on the job and that’s a good
feeling. We really have a super police force in
Perry and I am proud of the work they do and the
protection they give us all .... 24 hours a day, 7
days a week.
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