Newspaper Page Text
March 19, 2008
PAGE 5A
From the outside looking in
Around the Bend
Things that
make you
wonder
W e have all heard about how
obese—fat and overweight—
we are and particularly our
children. It’s no wonder when
you go to a
Whopperdiddlydoodlyburgermac and the first
thing the cashier asks, “do you want to super
size that order?”
The other day at one of the fast food empori
ums - where I was ordering a cup of iced cof
fee - a family was ordering. The two young
sters with them insisted on getting a double
burger, a larger order of fries and a giant soda.
The father said “no” and embarrassing temper
tantrums ensued. Resulting with the mom,
obviously attempting to calm the outburst,
telling the order taker, “go ahead, give them
what they want. After all
it’s only a dollar more. Go
ahead, super size it and
give them a fried pie.” The
kids won.
What was so ironic about
the situation, the mom
ordered a salad and the
dad ordered a baked pota
to with all the
fix’ins, a bowl of
chili, an order of
fries and a milk
shake.
And then there are
our school systems,
which are attempting to change student’s eat
ing habits. They are offering more balanced
and non-fattening foods on the school cafeteria
serving lines while at the same time not
requiring PE or recess. Recess, where kids
could run and play, has been deemed a liabili
ty for the school system. What happened to
dodge ball, tag and other exercises and play
ground activities? No PE, more fat!
Of course parents don’t and won’t accept lia
bility for their kids being fat, they just want to
blame any or some body else other than them
selves.
Weigh your kids at home and do not put the
responsibility on the school system to tell you
how fat and out of shape your kids are. And
don’t super size the fast food order.
Makes you wonder.
HERE”S another that makes you wonder.
Wonder if champagne was flowing and high
fives were the salute by some residents on
Indian Springs Drive who have antagonistical
ly just about aggravated Wal-Mart from build
ing a Supercenter here. The possibility exists
that down the drain goes a bunch of jobs and
you will have to get in your SUVs (with gas at
over $3 a gallon) to take advantage of shop
ping everywhere else but at home, where
spending dollars really counts and jobs are
necessary.
Wonder why those same residents have not
been down at the entrance to Plant Scherer
over the last couple of years carrying placards,
marching and demanding the electricity com
pany do something about the pollution that
has been going on for so many years?
Just maybe, they are not breathing the same
mercury-laden and other polluted air as the
rest of us Monroe County residents have been
breathing for many years. If they had been, I
am sure they would be down at the entrance
to Scherer.
And, I wonder why they have not attempted
to stop the trains from coming down the tracks
which are less than 50 yards from their
homes. Those trains are loaded with enough
whatever to pollute all of middle Georgia if
they derailed in the middle of Forsyth and
Indian Springs Drive!
WRITING OF pollution, wonder why those
same Indian Springs Drive residents are not
complaining of “visual pollution” along 1-75?
The billboards in Monroe County are a visual
blight and we are becoming the billboard strip
of Georgia, even beating 1-75 in Lowndes
County before you get to the Florida state line.
Here’s the question of the week: from county
line to county line, how many billboards are on
1-75 in Monroe County? I haven’t counted
them, so let me know what your count is.
Nothing to give away, but you will be men
tioned in this column, if you so dare.
LAST WEEK Monroe County was featured
three times on a Macon television station. The
first was how Monroe County Hospital was
going spend the $4 plus million from the
SPLOST, the second was the Forsythia
Festival and the third was a dandy.
Here’s the dandy: Comparing the courthouse
to the pyramids of Egypt, the county commis
sioner from Forsyth made this on-air com
ment: “Something like to the Pyramids to the
residents of Monroe County because it has
been here forever.”
Wonder if any Pharaohs or a King Tut are
buried in the basement of the courthouse? Call
the History Channel and let them investigate.
Donald Jackson Daniel is the founder and
former publisher of The Reporter. He can be
contacted at tullybear@bellsouth.net.
They can move houses you know
I love the rain when I can
sleep late, but thunder
storms and heavy rain,
along with tornadoes,
strike a fear in
me that only a mother
of a teenage driver
could know.
I was alone
Saturday as poten
tial tornado-produc
ing storms rolled
across central
Georgia. Andy
was at work
and. . . despite
the warnings of
impending doom from
weatherman Ben Jones and
the evidence that yes, it can
happen here from all the
news coverage of round one
in Atlanta Friday night . . .
Larry went fishing.
I WATCHED the news all
day. When I wasn’t watching
the news, I was watching the
sky. Andy had announced
that he and a friend were
also going fishing that
evening when he got off
work. Around 8 p.m. I called
him and demanded that
those plans change.
He agreed and said they
had already changed their
minds. . . even before I laid
down the law.
I’m sorry, but I say you
can’t play around with
weather. Even the most
sophisticated equipment in
the world cannot fully pre
dict what it will do. It’s best
to be prepared.
MY FEAR of tornadoes
goes way back . . . long
before I was a
mother of teen
drivers.
In the spring of
1974,1 was a
seven-year-old kid
without a care in
the world. We lived
in Decatur, Ala.
One particular
April evening
found me and
my two little
brothers at home with the-
best-babysitter-in-the-whole-
wide-world, Susan Bradford.
My step-father, a police
man, was at work and my
mom was taking night class
es at the local community
college.
The three of us were
bouncing around in my step-
dad’s oversized t-shirts after
a bath, begging Susan to “do
tricks” with us. Doing tricks
meant balancing us on her
feet while she laid on her
back as if we were flying. We
loved it.
The phone rang, interrupt
ing our fun. Susan listened
for a minute then hung up.
The smile was gone from her
face. She was trying not to
worry us, but we knew
something was wrong.
“Hey!” she said, in her
ever-chipper voice. “We’re
going to go to my house for a
while.”
“Yea!!!” the three of us
shouted in unison and
danced around some more.
SUSAN’S HOUSE was
like a candy store, a toy fac
tory and Grandma’s house
rolled into one. Her mother
baked 24 hours a day and
always shared. She didn’t
care if we put our feet on the
sofa or ate in the living
room. Her bathroom had
those little Dixie cups for us
to drink water from. . . the
ones our mother refused to
buy because we’d “iust waste
them.”
But, Susan wanted to go
there because her house had
a basement and ours didn’t.
We later learned it was my
step-father on the phone
telling her we needed to
take cover.
With my youngest brother
in her arms and me and
David clinging to her hands,
Susan trudged across the
yard toward her house.
Wrought iron patio furniture
blew across the ground like
paper. The sky was pitch
black. We couldn’t even hear
each other crying. The tears
in my eyes were instantly
dried by the wind.
It was all the four of us
could do to walk the three or
four houses down to hers.
We made it just as the
power went off.
Looking back, I realize she
must have been as scared as
we were. After all she was
only about 14 or 15. But, if
Susan, the-best-babysitter-
in-the-whole-wide-world was
afraid, we never knew it.
She tucked us safely into
her basement. Soon we were
eating fresh-baked chocolate
chip cookies and sporting
red moustaches from drink
ing Kool-Aid (with real
sugar in it) out of little Dixie
cups.
THE NEXT day we saw
the devastation on TV.
Thirteen tornadoes had
touched down overnight.
Our house was spared, and
Susan’s house was fine, but
just down the street whole
houses had disappeared and
had been replaced by splin
tered wood and debris.
Tornadoes had ripped
through the city and made
an indelible impression on
me.
I saw what the weather
can do and I never forgot it.
So, I’m a worrier. But,
thanks to Susan’s example
that night, I am also able to
stay calm and enjoy some
chocolate chip cookies. . . as
long as everyone’s safe.
Gina Herring may be
reached at 478-994-2358 or
ginaherring@bellso uth. net.
9$
Destination Bolingbroke
Ever met Bolingbroke’s male ‘stipper’?
I f you have not had the pleasure
of getting to know Bolingbroke’s
own Harry “Red” Callaway, then
you are missing out!
Red owns and operates
The Bolingbroke Strip Shop
on Hwy. 41 in downtown
Bolingbroke and he and
Mary (his wife of 58 years)
live next door.
Red is a Bolingbroke native
and was born 80 years ago to
parents J.E. and Willie May
Callaway right across the rail
road tracks from his shop in a house
that then belonged to the railroad.
He, along with five siblings, grew up
here and he graduated from Mary
Persons High in 1944. He then joined
the U.S. Navy and served in the latter
part of WW 2 and spent time in Japan,
By Vickie
Smith
China and the Philippines. After retir
ing from a 30-year career at
Robins Air Force Base, he
and Mary returned to
Bolingbroke in 1975.
Red says he’s seen a lot
of places but there’s just
no place like “home.”
Red is one of the
best when it comes
to furniture. For
over 30 years, many
Middle Georgians
have trusted their
family heirlooms and
furniture to Red. He
says he used to build
reproduction pieces,
but now prefers to strip, refinish and
restore antique furniture. He lovingly
restores each piece and takes great
pride in his work and it shows.
Next time you are in the area,
stop in and say hello. His faithful
little assistant, Miss Daisy (a stray
that found him about six
years ago), will be the first
to come out and greet you.
Red won’t be far behind
with a big smile on his
face. He always has a
great story and is
happy to share. Thank
you Red for mak-
Red Calloway and his dog, Miss
Daisy, make Bolingbroke a nicer place
to live.
ing Bolingbroke
a nicer place!
Vicki Smith is
the Bolingbroke
columnist for the Monroe County
Reporter. Call her at 478.474.7320.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Property owner's frustration shows impatience
To the editor:
everal of my
friends have com
mented to me
about Mr. Kyte’s
remarks in the last
issue of the Reporter (“Wal-
Mart at wit’s end?,” March
12 Reporter). I tell them
there can be legitmate dif
ferences over issues.
In our democratic society,
both under the federal and
state constitutions, we have
courts to assist citizens in
sorting our their differences.
Mr. Kyte’s emotional reac
tion stems from his impa
tience with the working out
of our established, constitu
tional procedures.
Ralph Bass
Forsyth
Will Wal-Mart get corporate welfare in Forsyth?
To the editor:
ill the new
Forsyth Wal-
Mart
Supercenter
pay sales
taxes?
About one-third of the Wal-
Marts in America make a
deal with the government to
keep their sales tax to cover
the cost of the store. This tax
exempt agreement is called
tax increment financing.
Like most people I enjoy
buying Wal-Mart’s cheap
goods. However if the new
Wal-Mart
Supercenter, like
a church, is tax
exempt, I think
it’s only fair that
the other busi
nesses in Forsyth
be tax exempt
too.
Elected officials
who practice corporate
socialism for the politically
connected and market capi
talism for everybody else
should be replaced. If
Monroe County doesn’t have
enough money for our
schools, police and fire
department and other serv
ices, we have only ourselves
to blame.
David Cay Johnston’s book
“Free Lunch: How the
Wealthiest Americans
Enrich Themselves at
Government Expense (And
Stick You with the Bill)” is a
good source to learn more
about corporate welfare.
Niki Collins-Queen
High Falls
Editor’s note: Acting city
manager Janice Hall and
county commission chairman
Harold Carlisle both said
they know of no tax breaks
offered to Wal-Mart to locate
a Supercenter in Forsyth.
COLLINS-
QUEEN
Don’t let a small minority stop new Supercenter
To the editor:
T he citizens of
Monroe County
need to get behind
the effort to bring
the Wal-Mart
Supercenter to our county.
Change is coming and
change is good. The
Department of Corrections is
relocating from Atlanta to
the Tift College campus,
bringing several hundred
employees and possibly their
families. We can all benefit
from this increase to our tax
base. However, in order to
keep these dollars in Monroe
County, we must have more
choices. Wal-Mart will be
the first of many companies
that will want to be part of
this growth. The cost of driv
ing is at an all-time high
with no end in sight. People
will shop locally if given the
opportunity. People will
work locally if the jobs are
there. There are only a
select few who are trying to
stop this positive growth. As
a community that will bene
fit as a whole, we cannot
allow these few to make this
important decision for the
rest of us. Everyone should
let their thoughts be known
on this matter.
Alan T. Moore
Forsyth
Alan T. Moore is president
of Cash Liquidations, Inc. on
Indian Springs Drive in
Forsyth.