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Page 4 — Wednesday, October 21,2009, The Millen News
Opinions, yours and ours
The Chatter Box I
"Thought it might give us some ideas on the budget!"
Don Lively
AMONG THE TREES
By Deborah Bennett
An article in last week’s copy of The True Citizen calls attention to
the fact that dog fighting remains a source of concern for this area.
A Midville woman’s pit bull went missing and then later found its
way back home with numerous cuts, bruises and bite marks on him.
The flesh had been ripped from the dog’s face and he was in critical
condition. It was believed that he had been stolen and used as a “bait”
dog.
In organized dog fighting two dogs, usually pit bulls, fight until one
or both can’t continue. The dogs suffer serious injuries or death in the
fight. The owner of the losing dog will often shoot or abandon the
injured dog to die slowly. This is a horrific, inhumane activity that
needs to be stopped. If you believe someone is participating in dog
fighting, please contact local law enforcement.
If the humane treatment of all God’s creatures and moral aspects
are not enough to prompt you to act, consider this: the Humane Soci
ety of the United States offers a $5,000 reward for information lead
ing to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in dog fighting.
Here’s another one from an e-mail buddy. Hope you enjoy it.
Great truths about growing old: growing old is mandatory; grow
ing up is optional; forget the health food -1 need all the preservatives
I can get; when you fall down, you wonder what else you can do
while you’re down there; you’re getting old when you get the same
sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster;
it’s frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to
ask you the questions; time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy
beautician; and wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes
alone.
Happy birthday this week to: Rodney Smith, Morah Johnson, Cindy
Linder, Annakate Waters, Bill Wilson, Mandy Weathersby, Jeremy
McBride, Caleb Chance, Harriett Lewis, Deirdre Edenfield, Chad
Brown, Angie Wilkerson, Allistair Campbell and Carrie Cook.
Celebrating wedding anniversaries are: Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Bolton,
Mr. and Mrs. Donnie Saxon, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Chance Sr., Mr. and
Mrs. Glen Wilkerson and Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Walker.
Military Active Duty List: PV2 Brianna Joiner, U.S. Army Na
tional Guard, Ft. Leonardwood, MO; PV2 Jeremy Johnson, U.S.
Army, 59 th Quartermaster Company, Ft. Carson, Colorado; Ronnie
Perryman, Charlie Troop, 108 th Calvary Division, 4 th Platoon, Af
ghanistan; Lance Cpl. Adam Lanier, U.S. Marines, 8 th & I Marine
Barracks, Washington, D.C.; E-4 Sr. Airman Roy Davis, U.S. Air
Force, RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom; Lance Cpl. Patrick
Barnette, U.S. Marines, Baharia, Iraq; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th
Signal Battalion, Baghdad, Iraq; Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, Camp
Pendleton, CA; E5 Petty Officer 2 nd Class Eric B. Kelsey, U.S. Navy,
NSA Naples, Italy; Senior Airman Charles F. Woods, Moody Air
Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, OsanAFB,
Korea; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1 st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas;
Capt. Donald Slade Burke, 735th Air Mobility Squadron Detach
ment 1 Commander, Richmond Royal Australian AFB, Richmond,
Australia; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard HI, 48th Brigade, 118th
Field Artillery, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Jamie A. Yager, U.S.
Navy, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Petty Chief Officer Andy D.
Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; Stephanie Crosby,
R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army
National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf;
1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Divi
sion, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18thMEDCOM, 121 GeneralHospi-
tal, Seoul, Korea; Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3
59/E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark,
U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune,
N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Per
sian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville,
Ga., Mission Kuwait; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force,
Randolph AFB, Texas; and Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air
Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and SPC Charles “C.J.” Amerson,
U.S. Army, Camp Adder, Iraq.
Letters policy
Letters to the editor of The Millen News are welcomed and en
couraged. These are pages of opinions, yours and ours.
The unsigned editorials generally appealing on the left side of the
editorial page represent the opinion of the newspaper and not that of
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ions of the writers whose names appear on them and are not to be
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ers. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s read
ers.
The Millen News reserves the right to edit any and all portions of
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the signature, address and phone number of the writer to allow our
staff to authenticate its origin. Letters should be limited to 400 words.
The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters to
themillennews@yahoo.com.
The Woods.
That’s what we called the thousands of acres of forest that sur
rounded our homeplace.
There were plenty of fields of course and, over time, Daddy
persuaded many hundreds of new acres of trees to become fer
tile planting grounds with the help of three strong sons toting,
piling and burning stumps.
But there were still plenty of places to roam where the stream
beds and ridges were swaddled with trees of all
kinds. Oak. Pine. Maple. Cypress. God certainly exalted the
Blessed South when He flung down the forested mix, along with
plenty of sweetgums, hickories and hollies added for good mea
sure.
Thus, The Woods, and all the adventures that Southern coun
try boys could possibly dream up.
Out in the woods near where I live there was once a huge saw
dust pile. One particular day the massive heap of wood chips
was serving as the final citadel in our continuing make believe
war against the Yankee hordes. None of us would suspend our
dignity and volunteer to be northerners though, so we resorted to
just throwing bark and sawdust at each other. Somebody found
an old Indian grinding stone that had been dredged up during the
milling. The smooth rock made a tolerable cannon ball so some
body hurled it up the side of the pile. Unfortunately, cousin Davy
was directly in the line of fire and caught the missile squarely in
the family jewels. He was in considerable pain, but miraculously,
he went on to father several kids later in life.
Most of our woods games involved warfare of some sort, after
all we are of Scottish descent, and pine thickets provided the
perfect place and an abundance of weaponry. Pines cones by the
thousands. Many Sunday afternoons sides were chosen, battle
lines were drawn and screechy, pre-pubescent Rebel Yells emit
ted from a dozen boy kids and one tomboy girl. It was all great
fun till somebody got hit in the eye. A scratched cornea. Cousin
Davy again, poor kid. Individual family whuppings occurred with
the Daddies doing the honors because, of course, we’d been told
repeatedly not to throw pine cones.
Vines flourish all over the South and were utilized in our wood
land escapades. We all idolized Tarzan so we’d create our own
bows and spears, make up our own jungle names and spend hours
swinging through the trees and over gullies on the thick natural
ropes. Even back then it seemed almost surreal to watch TiLi
The Jungle Boy with his flaming red hair and wearing Bermuda
shorts and paisley surfer shirt riding a vine over a gorge shriek
ing his best ape call.
An abundance of fallen trees, not yet rotten and still sturdy,
provided walls for our forts. The structures became The Alamo
against Santa Anna. Fort Apache against the flaming arrows of
the attacking Indians. Fort Sumter against, once again, Yankee
interlopers.
Woods activities were unlimited.
We crossed snake infested swamps wearing nothing but cut off
blue jeans and never gave a thought to the copperheads or
cottonmouths. Until we actually saw one slither by. Then we
became log walkers, timbermen of the Mighty Mississippi, until
we reached dry land again.
Hide and Seek contests lasted all day long and some hiding
places were never located and never revealed.
We wouldn’t come home till the Mamas yelled out the back
doors or the Daddies sounded the horns on the old tracks.
Later in life, in the teen years, the woods served a new pur
pose, though with considerably less success. Having no clue
where the local lover’s lane was located, driving a few hundred
feet into the darkness of the trees provided somewhere to attempt
to sneak a smooch and risk a slap. Of course my nervousness
during those forays, something akin to a cat after ten espressos,
and the girl’s inevitable, or maybe feigned, fear of the dark, ren
dered those fleeting moments calamitous at best.
I learned I was better at playing Davy Crockett as a ten year
old in the woods than I was at playing Don Juan as a teenager.
Over the years I made sure that my own kids got to experience
life in the family woods. They have built their own camps and
have hiked over every acre. My son has cooked and eaten squir
rels on a spit over an open fire. All three of them know the local
trails as well as I do.
And at some point each of them has disappeared into the trees
on the four-wheeler or on foot with a sweetheart in tow and didn’t
come out until I yelled out the back door or sounded the horn on
my truck.
Some things never change.
In The Woods.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelycolo @ aol. com.
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Jenkins County Schools
Vacancy Announcement
TITLE
■ Cafeteria Manager
LOCATION
■ Jenkins County Elementary School Cafeteria
MINIMUM OLALIHCATIOMS
High School Diploma or Equivalent
■ Prior Experience in Nutrition Field
■ Computer Knowledge Required
j Such alternatives to the above qualifications as
the Board may find appropriate and acceptable.
REPORTS TO
■ Food Nutrition Director
APPLICATION DEADLINE
- Until Position is Filled
Interested applicant should reply lo:
Dcbm Neumann, Food Nutrition Director
Jenkins County Board of Education
1152 Last Wiiiihrope Avenue Millen. Georgia 30442
(478) 982-6000
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