About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 2020)
Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | life@gainesvilletimes.com She (Times gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-November 14-15, 2020 Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Flowery Branch’s Maggie Shay dropped around 83 pounds to compete in a bodybuilding competition this past October. Shay took home the prize of overall best posing and overall women’s physique at the National Physique Committee Upstate Classic in Spartanburg, South Carolina. ‘I made a leap of faith’ First-time bodybuilder shares her journey to the stage BY KELSEY PODO kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com In August 2019, Maggie Shay of Flowery Branch said she realized she didn’t just want to just lose weight, she wanted to compete as a bodybuilder. “I made a leap of faith,” she said. “This gave me a hard-set goal that I couldn’t fall away from.” Around 83 pounds lighter and over a year later, she took the stage on Oct. 17, at the National Physique Commit tee Upstate Classic in Spartan burg, South Carolina. “It was probably the best day of my life,” she said. “It was so neat and surreal.” Going up against 40 other women in front of a panel of judges, Shay took home the prize of overall best pos ing and overall women’s physique. “You’re presenting yourself and showing off what you’ve been working on for years,” she said. “The posing is what took me by surprise. I had no idea I was going to be receiv ing it. That especially made my whole weekend. ” Shay describes the competi tion as “a giant science experi ment.” Weeks leading up to the big event, she eliminated salt from her diet and con sumed little to no carbs. She said this temporary alteration helped prepare the look of her body for the show. Although Shay followed a natural path toward reaching her goals, including exercise and diet, she said many of the men and women who compete in bodybuilding shows use ste roids to achieve a sculpted physique. “Being up on stage, you know who’s using what and who’s not,” she said. “To be able to get up there and beat them when you know you’re not taking anything is really exciting.” Before the competition, she underwent a full body spray-tan, which she said helps enhance the definition of her muscles. After getting her hair and makeup done and donning her suit, she said the entire picture came into focus. Running through a series of poses before judges, Shay gave it her all. “It was so neat to finally see it all together after over a year of working so hard and sacrificing so much,” she said with emotion. “To be able to be backstage and look the part of a bodybuilder, was so worth it in the end.” During her bodybuilding journey, Shay said she was coached by Susie Fuller, a local fitness instructor. Even with her fulltime job as Ster ling on the Lake’s activities director, she put aside time for training. Little by little, she kicked up the intensity of her workouts. She currently exer cises for three hours a day, seven days a week. One of her more challeng ing workouts involves “getting on an elliptical with sweat pants, a sweatshirt, waist trainer, sweat belt and putting in 45 minutes, and peddling and burning 450 active calo ries.” Right after that, Shay said she jumps into an intense leg workout. And if she doesn’t get enough cardio in her day, she’ll run for four miles on a trail. Tm a lot stronger than I thought I was. When I started, I didn’t think this would be what I’d look like. I did it all by myself.... It was, ‘I wanted to do it.’ When I set my mind to something, I do get there.’ ■ Please see shay, 9B Maggie Shay, bodybuilder Christmas still on in Lula and Clermont BY KELSEY PODO kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Christmas hasn’t been canceled in Lula and Clermont. Lula still intends to hold its Christmas in the Park, and Clermont’s parade will still make its way through town. Seth Weaver, organizer of the Clermont Christmas parade and town council mem ber, said because of the pandemic, the annual fall festival, Clermont Days, was called off. Not wanting to take away another spe cial event from the community, Weaver said he started looking for ways to safely hold the town’s annual parade, a tradition they’ve hosted for around 12 years. When the Christmas parade ends, Weaver said people are typically filtered into the city’s park for the tree lighting ceremony, prayer, hot chocolate and time with Santa Claus. For this year’s event on Saturday, Nov. 28, he said the normal fes tivities in the park won’t happen, but the parade will still carry on. “We wanted to have something to bring together the community in a safe way,” Amy Lomax, Clermont town clerk, said. “We’re asking people to be socially dis tanced on the sidewalk.” Lomax said the parade begins at 5:30 p.m. It will move from the Chattahoochee Lula’s Christmas in the Park What: Christmas celebration and parade in downtown Lula When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5; parade begins at 6 p.m. Where: Lula Train Depot, 5911 Wall St., Lula; parade along Main Street To participate: Call Lula City Hall at 770-869-3801 Center on 639 Main St., continue south along the road and end at the W. R. Strick land and Sons Funeral Home. Weaver said spectators can expect to see floats from local businesses, churches and individuals in the parade, as well as tractors and large trucks. “The kids love it,” he said. “It’s stuff you probably wouldn’t see in any other kind of parade in bigger cities.” Those interested in participating in the parade can call Clermont Town Hall at 770-983-7568. People are asked to line up with their vehicles and floats at 5 p.m. at 639 Main St. Lula’s Christmas in the Park will start at 4 p.m. on the greenspace at the Lula Train Depot. Teresa Heath, assistant clerk at Lula City Hall, said local churches and busi nesses will set up booths at the depot and give away free baked treats and other Annual Clermont Christmas Parade What: Christmas parade that moves through Main Street in Clermont When: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28 Where: Starts at 639 Main St. and ends at the W. R. Strickland and Sons Funeral Home To participate: Call Clermont Town Hall at 770-983-7568 types of food. “It’s Christmas, it’s time to give,” Heath said. “You’re not allowed to sell anything.” Dennis Bergin, Lula city manager, said the Christmas festivities usually take place at Lula Veterans Park, but it has been moved to the depot to create ample space for social distancing. “Ironically, the public has been asking for it (Christmas in the Park),” he said. “We canceled two festivals already with COVID. We think we can spread out the activities and allow for social distancing to take place. It’s got a great reception so far.” The holiday parade will begin at 6 p.m., starting at Spring Street and moving down Main Street in downtown Lula until it reaches the four-way intersection at Ath ens Street. “Anybody that wants to come is more than welcome,” Heath said. JOHNNY VARDEMAN vardemanl 956@att.net City directories of old contain local history You can find a lot of local history browsing through city directories of various eras. Hall County Library has in its digital col lection a number of such directories. These are not telephone directories with names, addresses and phone numbers with a Yellow Pages section for businesses. City directories of old contained a lot of information you can’t find in those of today because of privacy issues. For instance, city directories were almost like a census, telling you who people were, whether they were married, where they lived, where they worked and even listing children in the house hold. They also would list every street in a city along with residences and businesses on those streets. The 1913-14 Gainesville City Directory was compiled and published by a local citizen, Grady Gaston. It contained names of every resident at the time and a list of businesses and industries by category. In a brief intro duction that included some history, he esti mated the population of Gainesville at “about 10,000, including suburbs.” His directory listed 7,007 names. It was segregated in every way, Black resi dents designated as “col.” or just plain “c.” The same with businesses and other catego ries. Most Black women’s occupations seemed to be “cook” or “laundress.” A map of Gainesville showed how small geographically the city was. Its streets extended hardly a mile in each direction. For instance, Broad Street, today’s Jesse Jewell Parkway, ran only to about where Alta Vista Cemetery is. East Spring Street did run to New Holland, and Green Street ran north to about where it does today. But, the map didn’t show Riv erside Drive, although we know there was a road and street railway toward Riverside Drive to the park on the Chattahoochee River. Some street names were changing: Rice Street to Forrest Avenue, Gower to Ridge wood, Race Street to Boulevard and Seminary Avenue to Brenau Avenue. West Avenue at the time was Findley Street, and Industrial Boulevard was Railroad Avenue. What is now Holly Drive off Dixon Drive and Green Street was Grape Street. Gainesville City Hall and the firehouse were in the block bounded by East Broad, Church, Main and Bradford. The courthouse, which stood until the 1936 tornado, resided between Bradford and Green, and Spring and Broad. The city council contained six members, two from each of three wards. Hall County was governed by three commissioners. Many residents had livestock in their own backyards, mostly cows for milking or chick ens for eggs or Sunday dinner. Farms were near the city limits. W.H. Brock had a dairy on Rainey Street, and another that bore his name on Park Street. Adderholdt Dairy operated on Athens Street. Hotels downtown included the Arlington, Princeton, Mountain View and The Rowe. Three newspapers operated: The Eagle, Gainesville News and The Herald. The three theaters were the Alcazar and Alamo on Main Street and the Grand on East Washington. Motor vehicles were steadily appearing on the roads, and there were three car dealers for Cadillac, Maxwell and Overland. They were still making wagons and buggies at Bag- well and Gower, and at Crow, Byrd and Miles, who also sold “lap robes.” In all, five wagon makers, six blacksmiths and at least eight livery stables that sold mules and horses were in business. Frank T. Davies and Sons operated a funeral home on East Spring Street that advertised “open all night.” Gainesville Mill and New Holland textile manufacturers were among the largest industries, but there were a variety of others, including W.T. Stone’s Star Bed and Pillow, which specialized in feather beds. The banks at the time were Gainesville National, First National, State Banking and J.H. Hunt’s “private bank.” Gainesville was fortunate to be served by three railroads: Gainesville Midland, Gaines ville and Northwestern and Southern. Helen Longstreet, second wife of Confeder ate Gen. James Longstreet, was postmaster of the Gainesville Post Office, a building that still stands at the corner of Washington and Green streets. N.C. White and W.J. Ramsey were the main photographers listed in the 1913-14 City Direc tory. White’s studio was on South Main Street in the vicinity of today’s Brenau University downtown complex. Ramsey’s former studio and home remain at the corner of Park and Prior streets. Old directories can be accessed from the Hall County Library website. Johnny Vardeman is retired editor of The Times. He can be reached at 2183 Pine Tree Circle NE, Gainesville, GA 30501; phone, 770-532- 2326; email, vardeman1956@att.net or johnny. peggy1956@gmail.com. His column publishes weekly.
