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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 any one person on our staff. Personal columns represent the opin ions of the writers whose names appear on them and are not to be considered the opinion of this newspaper, its management or own 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 a letter. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters must include 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. Chartered 1903 The Millen News is published weekly by Chalker Publishing Company, 601 E. 6th St., Waynesboro, Ga. The Millen News 856 East Cotton Ave. • Millen, Ga. 30442 Phone: (478) 982-5460 • FAX: (478) 982-1785 Periodical postage paid at Millen, Georgia. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Millen News P.O. Box 909 Millen, GA 30442 USPS No. 349-660 Walter Harrison Frank M. Edenfield Editor 1946-1985 Editor 1985-1998 Roy F. Chalker Jr Publisher Bonnie K. Taylor General Manager Deborah Bennett Editor Lavonna Drawdy Advertising Composition Subscription Rates (Includes tax): In Jenkins County $23.00 Elsewhere in Georgia $33.00 Outside of Georgia $39.00 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. 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