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Page 4 — Wednesday, December 23, 2009, The Millen News Opinions, yours and ours The Chatter Box By Deborah Bennett On Friday of this week we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I hope we all will take the time to reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas. The real reason we celebrate Christmas is simply stated in one of the most well-known verses of the Bible. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who ever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life - John 3:16.) In one incredible moment God left heaven and put on human flesh to come live among us as a baby. And that baby grew up to be the crucified and living Savior. Merry Christmas to all! The Millen News will be closed noon, Wednesday, Dec. 23, through Friday, Dec. 26, for Christmas. We will reopen 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 28. The newspaper office will also be closed Thursday, Dec. 31, and Friday, Jan. 1, for the New Year holiday. Items for inclu sion in the Jan. 6 edition should be submitted by 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. Happy birthday to: Mandy Weathersby, Jeremy McBride, Caleb Chance, Deirdre Edenfield, Chad Brown, Angie Wilkerson, Carrie Cook, Alistair Campbell, Wally Sasser Sr., Rev. Charlie Davis Jr., Charlie Davis Sr., Hud McTeer, Mary Hydrick, Horace Weathersby III and Megan Johnson. Celebrating wedding anniversaries are: Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Wayne, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Bolton, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Chance Sr., Mr. and Mrs. Donnie Saxon, Mr. and Mrs. Glen Wilkerson and Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Walker. Military Active Duty List: PV2 Jeremy Johnson, U.S. Army, 59 th Quartermaster Company, Ft. Carson, Colorado; Ronnie Perryman, Charlie Troop, 108 th Calvary Division, 4 th Platoon, Afghanistan; 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, NS A Naples, Italy; Senior Airman Charles F. Woods, Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, Osan AFB, Ko rea; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas; Capt. Donald Slade Burke, 735th Air Mobility Squad ron Detachment 1 Commander, Richmond Royal Australian AFB, Richmond, Australia; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 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 De stroyer, 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 Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18thMEDCOM, 121 Gen eral Hospital, 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 Expedi tionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Ku wait; 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 encouraged. These are pages of opinions, yours and ours. The unsigned editorials generally appearing 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 opinions of the writers whose names appear on them and are not to be considered the opinion of this newspaper, its manage ment or owners. Letters to the editor voice the opinions of the newspaper’s readers. 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 lim ited to 400 words. The deadline for letters is Friday at noon. You can email letters to themillennews@yahoo.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 Editor 1946-1985 Frank M. Edenfield 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 Don Lively THE SOUTHERN SAINT NICK There’s a little known tale about Christmas in the South that has been lost to history. Through exhaustive research I am able to share it with you as we celebrate the Season once again. As World War II drew to a close millions of American servicemen returned to civilian life. The Baby Boom occurred. We know all about that. 1946 saw more American couples get married than in any other year before or since and the result was millions of babies born in the next few years. That’s documented history. What’s not so well known is the calamity that the birth explo sion caused. The Catastrophic Christmas Crisis. In the years following The War, the jolly old man at the North Pole suddenly found himself so far behind that he was forced to hire subcontractor Santas all over the world. The man chosen for the job in the Blessed South, a trusted distant cousin of the true Santa, was born on the floodplains between two great rivers in South Carolina. His parents were proud Low Country natives of Germanic origins so they named their firstborn son accordingly. Santee Cooper Claus. When Santee was first approached by the real Santa to take on the enormous task, he was skeptical. There were no reindeer in the South. No snow. No sleighs. How could he possibly get the job done? Santa, impatient to get back to the North Pole, bestowed on Santee, for a period of one year, all the magic that he would need to carry out his mission. So, he set forth. For transportation, instead of eight tiny reindeer he tried eight huge whitetail bucks but before the Christmas Season arrived, many of the deer had been served up in steaks and roasts. He tried Thoroughbred horses from Kentucky but they proved to be too prissy. He settled on eight Mississippi mules, ornery but reliable, just like the folks from the state where they were bred. He finally located an old sleigh at an auction barn in Ludowici but the runners kept getting stuck in the red clay, so he settled for a flat bottomed pirogue boat from the Louisiana Cajun country. Utilizing the famed Dixie ingenuity he rigged the boat, which had endured only a few gator chomps, behind the mules and took a test flight. Brannen competes in Charlotte marathon On Saturday, Dec. 12, local runner and Millen Miler Jimmy Brannen competed in his first marathon in Charlotte, N.C. The Thunder Road Marathon, Half Mara- thon and 5K had a to tal of 5,861 competi tors. In the marathon di vision, Brannen fin ished 379th of the 1,409 runners who completed the course, with a chip time of 3 hours, 49 minutes and 20 seconds. The 26.2 mile race took com- petitors through beau tiful, scenic neighbor hoods and amongst the towering skyscrapers of downtown Char lotte. The chilly 28 degrees weather at the start didn’t hamper compe tition or dampen runner’s spirits to conquer the hilly and challenging course which contained 2,349 feet of elevation changes, of which 1,168 feet was uphill climbs. When asked what completing his first marathon felt like, Jimmy said, "The first 20 miles were smooth, but the last 6.2 got progres sively more difficult as the conclusion neared!” He added, “I am happy to have accomplished a longtime dream to complete a mara thon, and now I can mark that item off my “Bucket List!” It actually worked. There being a shortage of elves in the South, Santee hired Geor gia Tech engineers to design the new toys. Skilled craftsmen from the University of Georgia built the toys. South Carolina grads mapped out the routes and planned Santee’s schedule. Clemson and Auburn folks were brought in to clean up after the mules. To carry all of the gifts to the millions of homes throughout Dixie, Santee, once again called on the magic of Christmas. He turned a common Piggly Wiggly grocery bag into a sack big enough to accomplish the task. The cute little pig logo could be seen for miles. The enormous sack was secured to the pirogue boat with a thousand rolls of duct tape. Possessing not one shred of red clothing, Santee convinced his wife, Peggy Jo Claus, who he’d met at a Cracker Barrel in Ten nessee, to dye his best pair of Sears and Roebuck overalls crim son. It made a passable Santa suit if you didn’t look too close. When the big night arrived Santee kissed Peggy Jo and boarded his boat. On command the mules rose into the air and the South ern leg of that memorable Christmas was underway. The only problem occurred when the mules tried to fly over a stand of exceptionally tall Georgia pines. The weight of the toys was too much. Santee had anticipated such a possibility. He immediately tossed out three Claxton fruit cakes which light ened the load by approximately half a ton. The rest of the trip was uneventful as Santee delivered mil lions of presents down thousands of chimneys, mostly Daisy BB guns and Barbie dolls. After all this was still the South when boys were still boys and girls were still girls. At every home, instead of finding cookies and milk left by the kids, Santee found barbecue sandwiches from North Carolina, pralines from Charleston or Savannah and homemade sweet tea. How the Southern folks knew that something was different that Christmas remains a mystery for the ages. After that year the true Santa was able to catch up and Santee Claus went back to his real job driving a Coca Cola truck, but to this day, many folks remember that year as the one when they heard the call from the skies on Christmas Eve: “Merry Christmas to all o’ yall, and to all o’ yall a good night.” My sentiments exactly, from my house to yours. Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelycolo @ aol. com. edition should be submitted no later than 10AM. Wed.. Dec. 23. Items for inclusion in the Jan. 6 edition should be submitted no later than 10AM. Wed.. Dec. 30. Wht dHtUen ioltoap geabltneg The Millen News will be closed for the Christmas Holidays Wed., Dec. 23, Noon-Fri., Dec. 25 and for New Years Thurs., Dec. 31,2009 thru Fri., Jan. 1,2010 Items for inclusion in the Dec. 30