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PAGE 4A-THE MADISON COUNTY (GAf JOURNAL. THURSDAY. AUGUST 17. 2023
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”-
Henry W a i d Beeche r
Sitting by a river
Hello, neighbors. An old man once told me, “If you
have ever sat quietly by a river and listened, then there
will always be a river in your life.” I have, many times
and by many rivers, though not with that old man in
quite a while. I thought of his words as I sat upon a riv-
erbank recently, and I would like to share some of the
experience with you.
Last week marked my first visit to Pigeon Forge, Ten
nessee in nearly 41 years
of life. The drive through
Smokey Mountain Na
tional Park is one I hope
you know. If not, put it on
your list. The reason for
the trip was to celebrate
an 11th birthday with
some family by spend
ing a day riding as many
roller coasters as possi
ble at Dollywood. By my
count, we got 21 rides. A
full, sunny, happy day to
be sure. Sleep came easy
that night.
Tired though I was, the
next morning there was
no need for an alarm clock; my thoughts woke me: “Go
sit by the river.” A fork of the Little Pigeon River ran
right behind our rental house, its presence a surpris
ing respite in the midst of distractions. Clearing the
sleep from my eyes and mind a little too late as I ap
proached, I heard the frustrated cries of a blue heron
as it took wing from its fishing hole. I felt like a big,
dumb, tromping human more connected to the go-kart
tracks and putt-putt-villes than with the ribbon of na
ture flowing through the back yard. I made up for it by
sitting quietly and listening, however: scattered rain
drops vibrating the river’s mirrored surface into count
less shattered fragments; the river seemed electric. Too
bad about the heron.
Excerpts from “Memories of Our Home Town, Colbert
Georgia, 1776-1976”
All the kids had chores to do in the house before and
after school. There was no such thing as an allowance.
We did not know much about cooking or sewing, due to
lack of money. If a dress were to be made it was cut right
the first time, even if you were using flower sacks. Most
ly, the chores were preparing for and cleaning up after
a meal. For every meal, dishes were washed, dried and
put away by hand. There weren’t any paper plates. Even
today the smell of homemade lye soap makes me want
to throw up. Sweeping the kitchen with a straw broom
scattered more blossoms, dirt and dust than
it cleaned. The floor had to be scorned, not
mopped. After all, how could you mop a
floor with corn shucks?
There never was any kind of finish on
the floor. Waxing was unheard of. The only
time we used wax was to keep the finish
on the flat irons smooth. We ironed all the
clothes with heated flat irons, on a padded
board, that was suspended between two
chairs. Who ever heard of an ironing board
other than that? The flat irons, a pair, were
alternated between use and heating on the
top of the wood burning stove.
When the floors were scoured, we would
cover them over with newspaper until they
dried to keep them clean. Water had to be
brought to the house in buckets. Everybody
drank from the same dipper, which was kept in the wa
ter bucket in the kitchen. On Saturday we would fill a
large tin wash tub on the back porch with water to let
it warm up enough to take baths. Everybody used the
same water.
In the winter time we slept between cotton blankets
on feather beds. You did not sleep “on” these beds. You
slept “in” these beds since you sank down into the feath
er mattress and you did not move. Heat was from fire
places. The coals would be covered with ashes so the fire
could be more easily restarted the next morning. Some
times bricks would be heated by the fire and wrapped in
flannel to put in the bed with us to keep us warm dining
the night.
Almost everything we had to eat we grew right there at
home in our garden. Everybody had one. I don’t remem-
It is hard to believe the Madison County Fair will be
celebrating its 75th Birthday this year during fair week,
which is September 26-30, 2023.1 know a lot of us have
fond memories of the fair in our younger years and all
the good times we had with families, rides and enter
tainment.
What better way to celebrate a birthday than to get
presents and have cake, but this year we have decided
to give our presents to a great organization here in the
county that helps so many people. We will be celebrat
ing our “75 Birthday Challenge.” The Madison County
Fair Association and the Comer Lions Club would like
to challenge each one of you in our endeavor to help the
Madison County Food Bank. As we all know in inflation
and decrease of jobs, times are tough for people right
now and our food bank has served our county great.
We would like to challenge each church, civic orga
nization and club to donate either 75 items or $75.00
in honor of the fair’s 75th Birthday. You can bring your
items to the fair during the week and leave them in the
community building at the Lions Club booth or drop off
a check for $75.00 at the Lions Club booth. If you would
prefer, you can mail a check to Madison County Fair As
I continued to listen to the river, eyes closed, with no
thoughts other than an awareness of the rapids’ tremu
lous timbre, then, with more attuned ears, gentler notes
from the water meeting rocks on the bank. I opened
my eyes to see a leaf, small, adrift, caught in a calm
eddy. I almost plucked it but let it have its way instead,
watching it follow the upstream swirl, wondering when
the river would take hold of it again. It did, eventually,
and the little green speck was lost to my straining eyes
a minute after leaving port.
Have you ever watched something until you can’t see
it anymore? I have: sunset clouds, gaining a gilded tint
from white before blazing a fiery orange, eventually
recovering their gentle softness with a languid purple
glow before the nighttime curtain ends the show and
all is dark. Equally captivating was the first time I saw
the International Space Station fly overhead; it left me
in disbelief then just as it does when I happen to catch
it now—I simply cannot walk away until it flies from
sight. Finally, loved ones leaving my house, with good
byes and waves, maybe a horn honks, and I am standing
in the driveway, searching between tree branches for a
final glimpse as a muted engine slowly fades.
The old man’s words make me think about transience,
of a river’s waters, yes, but also in regards to elements
of our lives. A river runs, sometimes a hurried calamity
of bubbles rushing among rocks, other times hardly a
burble breaking the flattened flow. Still, it goes, always
towards you, then always away from you. So it is with
moments: we await them, they arrive, they pass. But, as
the old man said, the river also remains. Struggle as we
might to make our moments last, if we let them wash
over us, attending to them as they happen, they will
always be in our lives.
My hope for you is that you take the time to enjoy a
such a moment in the coming days. Thank you for mak
ing my life better, Little Pigeon.
Mindfully yours, Travis.
Travis Moak is a Madison County educator and con
tributor to The Madison County Journal.
her buying groceries. We had chickens, cows and pigs
and everything we grew we canned to last us through
the winter. Late fall was hog killing time and the smoke
house was always full of bacon and ham. We also ate a
lot of wild game back then. Fried rabbit was one of our
regular meals and it was common to see a possum in a
pen in the back yard being fattened up for a good pos
sum and sweet potato supper.
The closest thing to shopping we did was bartering and
buying milk, eggs, butter and chickens from neighbors.
We walked a mile every week to buy butter from Ms.
Fannie Eberhart. Her butter never had the taste of wild
onions in it and she had a prettier butter
mold than anybody else. I remember one
time on that walk there was a report of
a mad dog. Everybody got inside and all
the men got their guns and disposed of
the animal. I think it was much like the
scene in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
No matter what, education was the
top priority. Everybody went to school
and applied themselves. We did not have
electricity so you studied by firelight or
lamplight. Nobody had to be told to do
their homework. It was expected and it
was done. Books were well cared for and
treated with respect. My folks did not
expect an “A” grade in every subject ex
cept conduct. My father said “There were
some subjects that were just hard to learn
but you certainly know how to behave yourself, so you
had better bring home an “A” in conduct.” He never wa
vered from that position.
One year, a new family moved to town and two new
girls enrolled in our school. The first thing that we no
ticed was how nice their store-bought clothes were.
They seemed to be a little more sophisticated than our
regular high school crowd. The biggest difference was
that they wore lipstick and eye shadow. After this, we
would sneak red crepe paper to dye our lips and use burnt
matches to darken our eyebrows. I guess we thought that
would make us look more “sophisticated?”
Stay tuned next week for the wrap-up of “Things
Mama Told Me”
Columnist Charlie Snelling is an Athens resident who
grew up in Carlton.
sociation, 2810 Macedonia Church Road, Danielsville,
GA 30633. We will be displaying names of organiza
tions that make a monetary or item donation prior to the
fair and add to it each night. What a great way to show
how much we appreciate the food bank and their contri
butions to the county.
I have listed my contact information below in the
event you have questions. Feel free to give me a call
or send an email. We feel this is a great way we all can
celebrate such a great birthday with each other.
The food bank is need of dry beans, instant grits, oat
meal, canned meats like beef stew and tuna fish, canned
chicken, canned fruit, diapers and wipes and pet food
and baby food.
Don’t forget to mail in your check before the fair so
everyone can see how generous we are to help others
and make sure their needs are met. Let’s celebrate turn
ing 75 in style.
Thanks so much and may God Bless each of you,
Angie McGinnis
Comer Lions Club President
706-540-0404
Angie.McGinnis@piedmont.org
Response to
Burdette column
Dear editor,
Mallory Burdette’s well-stated letter in a recent Jour
nal pointed out aspects of our public school system that
are usually ignored by proponents of “school choice.”
Advocates of school choice describe in glowing terms
the “opportunities” presented by the reduction of edu
cation to a product for sale in an open market where
entrepreneurial types can find “success.”
They don’t talk about public schools’ increasing suc
cess in offering education’s benefits to everyone, includ
ing those with special needs.
The private sector will never be able to fill the public
one’s big shoes, will never match the public one’s stride
when it comes to steady improvements in professional
staff development.
The same is true of housing, where the private sector
has zero incentive and zero intention to build more af
fordable shelter.
There are a handful of nonprofit entities that build less
expensive dwellings, but until the public sector steps up
to the plate we will continue to see more “un-housed
residents” hunkered under bridges and camping in emp
ty woodlots.
Sincerely,
Jim Baird
Comer
PACT Act
Dear editor,
It’s now been a year that the PACT Act passed. This
law was passed to improve access to healthcare and
funding for veterans who were exposed to bum pits, the
military’s waste disposal method for everything from
tires to chemicals and jet fuel.
According to Senator Dick Durbin (D), the PACT Act
has already enabled more than 4 million veterans to be
screened for toxic exposure, more than 744,000 PACT
claims have been filed, and hundreds of thousands of
veterans have been approved for expanded benefits.
On the other side, Republican Tommy Tuberville and
his MAGA cohorts, like Rep. Mike Collins of our 10th
District continue to stand in the way of military promo
tions and the increase in pay that comes with promo
tion because Tuberville feels the greatest military in the
world, our U.S. Armed Forces, is “woke.”
BTW, Tuberville and Collins have never served a day
in the military.
Peggy Perkins
Winder
Going for the Gold
Dear Editor:
Under the terms of the Chips Act, Infrastructure Act
and Inflation Reduction Act, Georgia and Georgians cur
rently have the opportunity to benefit from billions of
dollars of federal funds, tax credits, rebates and other
benefits across a very broad spectrum of governmental,
business and individual activities and purchases. Our
members of the state legislature, representatives and
senators in Congress and local officials have vital roles
to play in making sure that Georgia and Georgians are
fully informed concerning these programs and able to
take maximum advantage of each and every one.
These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for local
and state governments, businesses, non-profits and indi
viduals to modernize and update our infrastructure and
our households, produce clean cheap energy and equip
Georgia to attract cutting edge businesses and good pay
ing jobs.
Consider just one example: Georgia can receive $1.3
billion in federal funds for broadband expansion to areas
lacking access to this essential service, a fundamental
21st century need unmet for many years.
Our elected officials, working across partisan lines,
must put Georgia and Georgians first. They must prior
itize familiarizing themselves with the long list of pro
grams available to Georgia and Georgians and facilitate
Georgia’s efforts to harvest this rich and ripe crop.
It is time to, “go for the gold.”
Sincerely,
Bruce Menke
Athens
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The Madison County Journal
Danielsville, Madison County Georgia 30633
Merged with The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News, January 2006
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THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL
PO Box 908
Jefferson, Ga. 30549
The Official Legal Organ of Madison County, Georgia-Periodicals postage paid at
Danielsville, Georgia 30633 (USPS 011-097; ISSN 1074987X)
Things Mama Told Me (The Middle Part)
By Charlie
Snelling
Let’s celebrate the 75th birthday of the county fair