Newspaper Page Text
. ‘ News Briefs A _
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Names Of Prospective
Grand Jurors Released
Thirty-six residents have
been selected for possible
%rand jury duty during the
ebruary term of the Chat
tooga County Superior Court,
according to Clerk of Court
Lann Cordle.
The term begins on Mon
day, Feb. 4, angl all prospec
tive grand jurors have been
notified to report to the coun
ty courthouse at 9 a.m.
Prospective frand jurors
from Summerville are: Jessie
A. Hardeman, 205 Goodwin
Drive; Pearl Shrader, Raiiroad
Street; James F. Bagley, 110
Nixon St.; Luvenia gmit,h,
Route 3; Brenda W. Packer,
Route 4 Box 341; Loyd Tan
ner, 502 Lyerly St.; Stanley
Cummings, Route 1; Bobby
Tinney, Route 1; Roy H.
Parker, Route 1; Leonard R.
Green, Route 2; Claude
Bagley Jr., 110 Nixon St;
Robert J. Turpin, 315 Sunset
Drive; Charlotte Williams,
Route 2; Johnny Gilbreath,
Route 3; Beverly B. Jackson,
P.O. Box 461; Joe Odell
LeMasters, Route 2; Howard
Scoggins, Route 4; L. C. Love,
Route 2 Box 325; Calvin H.
McGuire, 14 Bitting St.; Mrs.
Woodrow Eleam, 8 Espy St.;
Mary F. Dawson, Route 1;
Jeanette Chadwick, Route 2;
Frank Ward, Route 4; Brenda
S. Pierce, Route 1; G.C.
Packer, Route 1; and Debbie
M. Arnold, Route 3 Box 108.
Prospective grand jurors
Tidbit
LET'S TWIST: The
Cedartown Civic
Auditorium announces
that Chubby Checker will
perform there on March
15. For more information
call 748-4364.
* * *
WRECK ROUNDUP:
The Georgia State Patrol
post in Rome says its
Lroopers investigated 262
iraffic accidents in 1979,
an average of almost 22
monthly. In all, the ac
cidents resulted in 197 in
juries and six deaths.
During the year there
were 2,839 arrests and
4,659 warnings issued.
Fines for 1979 totaled
slll,lßl.
* * *
QUOTABLE: ““A man
that studieth revenge
keeps his own wounds
green.—Francis Bacon
Rural Women Today: More Than Fresh Pie On The Windowsill
The roles and lifestyles of women in Chattooga County
are changing— a development brought on by such factors
as changing attitudes, two digit inflation, new oppor
tunities and greater political and social awareness. gaith
Dunne, writing in “IBTA Today,” in this article, takes a
look at the effects of the changes and how rural women
are coping with them.— Editor
- * *
Most city people have a clear image of the “‘typical”
rural woman. She is a matronly farm wife, always in her
apron, who can be found setting out pies on a windowsill
to cool, or making piccalilli relish according to her grand
mother’s recipe. It's a very nice image, full of old
fashioned googness (as they say on the fast food packages
that feature her beaming portrait).
The problem is, the image just doesn't happen to be
true.
Today’s rural woman leads a life that barely reflects
the storybook ideal. If she lives on a farm, she’s as apt to
be found in the barns or the fields as in the kitchen. And
her pie-baking time is curtailed by the demands of other
things, incluging newborn calves and overdue account
books.
If she isn’t a farm woman (and she probably isn’t, since
only 11 percent of rural people are classified as ‘‘farmers’’
by the U.S. Bureau of tge gensus). she’s likely to have a
job outside the home. Her ability to make her grand
mother’s piccalilli, recipe circa 1935, is restricted by one of
the many urgent needs of 1980: to get supper in tze oven
before sf:'e leaves for the office.
There are more than 25,000,000 rural women in the
United States today, and they lead lives that are
remarkably diverse.
Today, the category ‘‘rural women'' includes ranch
women in Colorado an?,fishermen's wives in Maine; tex
tile workers in Tennessee; and resort managers on the
coast of California. It would seem to many that these
women have little in common. But whether they live in
Texas, the Dakotas, or Alaska, today’s rural women share
many problems, and need similar resources if their dif
ficulties are to be resolved.
Their most basic problem, for example, is the complex
ity of their lives. Most American women— rural, urban,
and surburban— juggle multiple roles these days, and
many have difficulty keeping “‘all the balls in the air at the
same time."
For rural women, however, these multiple roles conflict
with each other more than they do for women in urban
areas. Also, rural women must face a few special problems
that are uniquely their own.
Work and the rural woman
Both urban and rural women are entering the labor
force in record numbers these days. A recent report from
the Department of Agriculture tells us that 51 percent of
from Trion are: Sarah L.
Smith, Route 2; Max B.
Wallin, 29-9th St.; Georfie L.
Helms, Route 1; Lee Kitchens,
207 Maffett St.; Kaye Angles,
310 Penn St.; Mamie V.
Staton, Route 1; and Amy Jo
Thomas, Route 2 Box 30.
Also on the prosg;ective
and juror list are: Blanche
%:)les of Menlo; Robert H.
Strawn of Route 1, Lyerly;
and Blanding B. Young of
Menlo.
Free Firewood Is
Made Available
In Chattahoochee
District Ranger Paul
Bullard recently announced
the opening of a special use
area in the Armuchee District
Of Chattahoochee National
Forest, allowing residents to
obtain free fuelwood there.
Bullard explained the
special use area is set up to
help conserve energy by pro
viding heating and cooking
fuelwood to individuals who
wish to cut their own
fuelwood. Cutting in the
special use area is limited to
?ersonal use only. No
uelwood may be cut to be
sold to other individuals or for
any commercial use.
The area is located approx
imately six miles northeast of
Trion, and is designated as
Narrows Fuelwood Gathering
Area No. 6. Public access into
this area is along the Narrows
Tower Road.
Individuals who intend to
use this area must obtain a
fiermit at the District
anger's Office, Federal
Building, 109 North Main
Street, LaFayette, or by
writing U.S. Forest Service,
P.O. Box 465, LaFayette.
Y
Red Cross
Will Elect
’ .
80 Officers
The Chattooga County
Chapter of the American Red
Cross will meet Monday night
at 7:30 p.m. in the Community
Room of the Farmers & Mer
chants Bank in Summerville.
The purpose of the meetinF
is to e?ect new chapter of
ficers. During the meeting the
chapter’s blood program for
this year will also be discuss
ed.
The public is urged to at
tend.
‘Clothes Closet’ Helps Many Residents
By PAM PURCELL
Hundreds of low-income
Chattooga residents each
month are getting second
hand clothes—free—from the
racks of the recently
organized ''Clothes Closet" in
Summerville,
The Clothes Closet is
located in the old chapel of the
county work camp behind
Chattooga County Hospital.
It is oren Monday through
Friday from 9 a.m. until noon,
and is operated through the
local D?artment of Family
and Children Services (DFCS).
“The Clothes Closet is a
wonderful service,” explains
Mrs. Juanita Ham, volunteer
coordinato}: witl:}d DFCS. "llt i?
open to the needy ple o
tfi: county, not f::t our
(DFCS) clients. It's there for
those who have emergency
' . O —— -
Bpe
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EUGENE MCGINNIS
e .
McGinnis To
Tour Orient
A local druggist will soon
be leaving on a pleasure tour
of China with a group of drug
gists from all over America.
Eugene McGinnis will
leave in late February for a
three-week tour of the Orient.
He will tour Tokyo, Peking,
Sian, Kunming, Kwangchow
(Canton) and Hong Kong with
the National Association of
Retail Druggists.
“I'm loo%(ing forward to
the trip,” McGinnis said.
“I've been to Japan and Hong
Kong, but not with this group.
I'm Fooking at it as an adven
ture. Their culture is so dif
ferent from ours. I feel like it's
a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
I think if I hadn’t plann
ed to go, I would have regret
ted it,” continued McGinnis.
“I'm also looking forward to
being with druggists from all
over the U.S. and exchanging
ideas with them. Right now
I'm not sure what all we'll
visit in each of the cities we
tour, but I'm still looking for
ward to it.”
While in the Orient McGin
nis said he wants to see
“everything there is to see.”
He said he especially wants to
visit a China pharmacy
because they use a lot of herb
medicines.
“I guess I'll have to take a
lot of American food with
me,”’ McGinnis chuckled. “I
can’t use chopsticks.”’
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urban women and 48 percent of rural women were work
ing or were lookin]g for work in 1978,
Rural women, like their counterparts elsewhere, work
for a variety of reasons: some are divorced, and need to
sul?iort their children; some have discovered that the oil
bill has tripled, and their husband’s income hasn’t; some
want a new camper or a winter vacation.
Many rural women, especially the young ones, also
look to work as a sign of intfizependence and a source of per
sonal satisfaction.
A fiveregion study— sponsored by the Women's
Educational %quit Act Program of the U.S. Office of
Education— founcf' that the majority of high school
women (in the sample) looked forward to woriing. and
wanted to get jobs whether or not their husbands alone
could afforg to support the family.
But the jobs these women wou{d like to work at are not
generally available to them. Rural communities have sim
ple economic structures. Frequently, they are one
industry places, with few occupational alternatives,
If the single industry in the area is loggi ,or fishing,
or some other traditionally male occu atxon.nt%\ere are few
jobs open to women. Andyif the singfe industry employs
primarily women, it is like to pay poorly and to offer little
to the highly skilled or educated worker.
According to a recent study, fully 25 percent of work
ing rural women are employed in nondurable manufactur
ing (for example, food-packing plants, textile factories)
The mean income for these jogs is 84,200 a year.
| The Summerville News
Thurs., Jan. 24, 1980
| Ny |
situations, such as their
homes burning, also."”
Mrs. Ham said a clothes
distribution project has been
active since %FCS went into
operation in this county
several years ago. However, it
wasn't until some two months
ago that staffers finally reach
eg their goal of having a store
type operation for
distributing the clothes.
“I've only been in the
volunteer prolgram for four
years,”" Mrs. Ham explained.
“When | started in Sne pro
fram. all we had was a closet
or the clothes. It was a tiny
closet in our office and all the
caseworkers keep a box or two
of clothes in each of their of
fices. That's all the room we
had. After we moved into our
new building, we had one
small room for the clothes.
That still wasn't large enough.
We couldn’t put the clothes in
any type oré)er. The Jackson
brothers (Harold and Alton)
were kind enough to allow us
to put the clothes in the back
of the old building we had
been in. We had more room
and were finally able to put
the clothes out so people could
see them. 1 guess we bring
luck to others. We weren’t in
the building long until they
were able to rent it, and we
had to move our clothes out.
‘““The Mental Health
Center next door has a large
old garage-shed behind their
builging they said we could
use one room of,”’ continued
Mrs. Ham. ‘lt was fairly large
and perfect for the summer
montfi‘;. We were able to
separate the clothes into
men's and women's and size
some of them. However, when
it turned cold the volunteers
couldn’t stay out there to
work because there wasn't
anf' heat. One of our
volunteers even caught
pneumonia from working out
there last winter. Soon the
Assembly Considers Overhaul Of PSC
A bill calling for an
%verhapl of the gub}:: Service
ommission and chan i
how the regulatory bomet}
utility rates has been propos
ed by a special House study
committee.
The bill’s principal author,
Rep. Bill Sise, t,o?d a joint
meeting of the Senate Public
Utilities Committee and the |
House Industry Committee
last week that the legislation
would save consumers
millions of dollars in the long
run.
But former state consumer
utility counsel Sidney Moore
of Decatur said the part of the
bill proposing new rate
setting procedures could lead
to excess rates of up to SIOO
million.
The bill would:
Mental Health Center needed
the room, and we had to move
our clothes again.”
The next stop, Mrs. Ham
said, was the office space over
McGinnis Drug Store. They
had used that area for approx
imately the rast four years for
their annual toy drives, Mrs.
Ham said.
"Eugene (McGinnis) said
we coufii use the offices all
Kdear if we wanted to,"" said
rs. Ham. ‘‘We were
delighted. There was plenty of
srace to separate all the
clothes and put them into
sizes. We had the rooms
separated for men's, women's,
boys', girls’ and even a shoe
room. %’he only problem we
had was the long flight of
stairs you had to simb."
“Most of our volunteers
who work in the Clothes
Closet are elderly,” Mrs. Ham
continued. ‘'This created a
problem with them having to
walk up and down those
stairs. Also, if someone had a
sack or box of clothes and was
going down the stairs, it was
angerous. They couldn't see
for the clothes and could easi
ly slip and fall.”
In October of last year,
Mrs. Ham said, “a dream
came true for DFCS and the
volunteers."’
“Commissioner (Wayne)
Denson generously gave us
the use of the old cf)l,apel at the
county work camp,”’ Mrs.
Ham explained. “We couldn’t
believe it. It’s what we had
always wanted. There was
heat, lights and no stairs to
climb. %‘o o from our tiny
closet to alf the space at the
chapel, you coul(f:\'t believe
how nice it is. We set up our
racks and finally are able to
have some Ly'pe of organized
distribution of the clothes like
a regular store instead of hav
ing to look through box after
box for something to fit."”’
Virginia Harris and Mr,
—lncrease the PSC staff
with an executive director,
three hearing examiners, a
public information officer and
an entirely new finance sec
tion.
—Allow utilities to include
in their rate base the cost of
all construction work in pro
gress, rather than only a por
‘tion of such costs.
—Change the “test year”
:Son which rate cases are bas
from a so-called ‘‘historical
test year’’ to a future
12-month period which would
include estimated expen
ditures.
—Force utilities to obtain a
certificate of need from the
PSC before embarking on new
construction or plant expan
sion projects.
—Set a code of ethics for
Even when compared with urban women, who earn
consistently less money than their male counterparts,
rural women fare badly in the labor market. At every
educational level, rural women earn approximately SI,OOO
a year less than their city sisters.
Thus, rural women have fewer options in employment
than urban women. And even when they do find jobs they
can accept, they must manage their lives without many of
the Jesources on which their urban counterparts can de
pend.
Rural women, for example, seldom have access to
public transportation and less often have access to
vehicles of their own. Many must depend on their
husbands or neighbors to get them to work— and back.
They don’t usually have available day-care centers or
after school programs to look after their children in a
reliable settin .%‘rhey don’t have 24-hour supermarkets,
either, where L%\e can pick up groceries on the way home
from the night sfi'ift.
Rural women do have, however, some resources that
are less available in urban settings— usually a female net
work of family and close friends who depend on one
another for aigand mutual support. But the number of
cousing and aunts and high scfiool friends ready to look
after a child or give someone a lift to work is dwindling, as
those cousins, aunts and friends move into the work t’f)rce
themselves.
Woman's proper place
The difficulties rural women face in the labor market
are comfounded bfi/ the traditional view that woman's
pro Fer place is the home. Rural women also tend to marry
earlier than their urban counterparts, and are more likely
to stay married, although urban patterns of later mar
riage and earlier divorce are beginning to creep into the
countryside.
Rural women tend to have more children too— and
sooner than do urban wives. And— in spite of the gradual
entry of young urban mothers into the work force— rural
women are more apt to stay home to rear their children, at
least until they're of school age. :
According to a 1974 Roper Poll, many more rural
women than urban women agreed that ‘“‘women should
take care of running their homes and leave running the
country up to the men.”” Also, rural women are often op
posed to ““Women's Liberation.” For example, a bare ma
ority of rural women favors the passage of the Egual
*light.a Amendment, while 75 percent of them, according
to a 1970 Gallup Poll, feel that women in this country get
as good a break as men do.
As rural sociologists Cornelia Flore and Sue Johnson
have indicated, ‘‘the majority of rural women still con
form to traditional norms concerning woman’s proper
filace: in the home, with the children, and su(rportive of
er spouse’s endeavors.
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CETA worker Bessie Brown (R) helps
Mr. and Mrs. Horace Tapp look t}())r
clothes at the Clothes Closet in Sum
merville. Clothes for the project are
donated by local residents to g\elp the
low-income families and families in
and Mrs. Horace Tapp were at
the Clothes Closet recently
leavinfi a donation of clothes,
“The Clothes Closet has
helped me with my children
who are in school,”” Ms. Harris
said. “We came here from
Mississippi and had to start
from ‘stump up.’ The Clothes
Closet is so nice. We bring
clothes here that we've
outgrown to help someone
else.”
Mrs. Ham said they still
have the use of the office
spaces over McGinnis Drugs.
“We use that space for
storage,”’ explained Mrs.
Ham. ‘“We have all the out-of
season clothes stored there,
and some extras we don't
have room for at the chapel.
When the supply at the
Clothes Closet is E)w, we come
to the storage room and re
stock it. Bessie Brown is a
PSC members.
The state Office of Plann
ing and Budget recommended
in December similar staff
revamg;ing, including the hir
ing of additional staff to
analyze utility rate increase
requests.
Moore said he agrees with
“90 percent” of the PSC
overhaul proposals but said
the changes in rate-setting
would impose a prohibitive
burden on the rate payers.
Sise, a Thomasville
Democrat, said allowing
utilities to include all their in
progress construction work in
their rate base—along with a
companion bookkeeping
change—would save rate
payers S3OO million over the
30-year amortization period
for a $3560 million power plant.
‘Shopping’ At Clothes Closet
CETA worker who keeps the
closet so well-organizeg. She
worked under the WIN pro
gram at first, then when it
was discontinued in this area,
she continued to work as a
volunteer. All of our
volunteers help out so much
with the Clothes closet. Em
mett McCamy, a volunteer,
made most of the racks we
have to hang the clothes on.”
Another bit of luck, Mrs.
Ham said, was the Mental
Health Center staffers found
they no longer needed the
room in the garage-shed and
said they 1l)l§CS) could once
again use it.
“Now we have room to
store furniture,” explained
Mrs. Ham. “We are always in
need of furniture for families
who've lost all their belong
ings. It has turned out so nice.
We finally have room to store
Moore estimated that pro-
Posal would cost Georgia
>ower Co. customers about
$560 million in incrétsed rates.
He said that the proposal
to change the test year would
cost the consumers another
SSO million.
Under current methods,
the PSC requires utilities
seeking rate increases to sub
mit financial information on
their actual experience based
on a preceding 12-month
period.
Sise's bill would permit
utilities to adjust those
figures for all estimated ex
penditures during the 12 mon
ths after the increased rates
take effect.
Such estimates would be
“gpeculative’” and costly to
the rate payer, Moore said.
These beliefs aren’t shattered necessarily when the
rural wife works outside the home. Sociof:)gist Elise
Boulding, in a study of farm women, found that some
worked as much as 90 hours a week on a combination of
household and farm labor tasks. Yet the majority of these
women didn’t want to call themselves ‘‘farmers’ nor even
“farm partners." Instead, they called themselves “'farm
wives,” proud of their contribution to family income, but
consistently perceiving themselves as subordinates, not
equals; helpmates, not partners with their men.
This traditional acceptance of roles persists among
nonfarm rural people as well.
A number of studies, including the five-region survey
of high school students mentioned earlier, ingicaues that
rural women neither expect (nor get) help from their
husbands with routine household and chilx()i-care tasks,
even if the wife works full time.
As Kathryn Clarenbach concluded, after listening to
scores of rural women talk about their lives, in many rural
areas it is “‘still regarded as unmanly or inappropriate for
husbands to help in the house.”
Work complicates a woman's life
The attempt to com?)ine traditional women's roles with
the contemporary demands of the job market makes life
very difficu?t for some rural women. Often, they feel they
ought to run their homes the way their mothers did, in
cluding the spotless kitghen and the pies on the win
dnwsilf.
In addition, many rural women try to maintain the
customary forms of supplementini rural income: garden
in%; canning and freezinq produce; keeping small numbers
of livestock for the family larder; creating crafts for gifts
or for small home luxuries.
These activities are highly satisfying enterprises for
many women, but they are incredibly time-consuming,
and mesh poorly with the requirements of multiple farm
duties or an outside job.
Rural women, at this moment in history, are working
harder, for less money, than any other residential group in
the United States. Many of them would appreciate access
to an education and jobs that would help bring an end to
this inequitable situation. But these opportunities, the
women well know, cannot be exported from the cities and
suburbs,
Besides, rural women value the life the countryside of
fers. Many of them, in fact, treasure the traditional family
life that is at the heart of rural culture. They want access
to resources that will build on rural life, not deny or
destroy it. And to provide this access is one of the many
challenges facing rural educators as we enter the Eighties.
What does a rural woman need? ;
First of all, rural women need formal education pro
grams— accessible to women with transportation pro-
Continued On Page 2-B
emergency situations. The ‘store,”
gperated through the Degartment of
amily and Children Services, is
located in the old county work camp
chapel.
clothes and furniture and our
Clothes Closet.
“When people are cleaning
out their closets, dresser
drawers or even kitchen
cabinets, they shouldn’t
throw it in the trash dump
sters,” continued Mrs. Ham.
“There are a lot of things
there that could be of use to
someone who doesn't have
anlything. We need stoves,
refrigerators, dishes and all
types of household items.
Even if a leg is broken on a
table, we have volunteers who
vn;]il!‘repair it and it can be us
ed.
In the clothes category,
Mrs. Ham said, most of what
they have are adult ladies ap
parel and ‘‘a good many
men's.”" The biggest need they
have for crothes is in
children’s sizes, especially for
babies, and large sizes for
adults.
“We urge the public to
donate their old clothes and
household items,” Mrs. Ham
said. ""We can give tax deduc
tion statements for all the
donations because we're a
non-profit organization. If
anyone is unsure that we'll
want what they have, they
should contact us at
867-3487."
Paula Arden In
v
College Pageant
Paula Arden, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Argen. will
compete in the annual Miss
Tift Pageant Jan. 25 at 8 p.m.
at Tift %ollege in Forsyth.
Paula is a sophomore at
Tift majoring in Speech and
Enf;lish. She is active in the
college drama club, having
worked with three play pro
ductions while at 'l‘il}L).