Newspaper Page Text
WHISKEY ECONOMICS
One of my occasional duties as a teenager was to drive
for my father when he needed to go somewhere after work,
especially when he had taken his evening Canadian Club and
tap water cocktail. Frequently, that meant a trip out into the
country to collect an account owed our family store, where
my father functioned as the bookkeeper and business man
ager, with copious amounts of two-finger typing and Camel
cigarettes.
I always enjoyed any opportunity to pilot the Ford flathead
V-8, especially since I was not old enough to drive on my own,
and I relished the challenge of negotiating the unpaved coun
try roads as my father urged me to pick up the speed because
supper was waiting at home.
I did not enjoy the collection calls, nor, L could tell, did my
father. He would mix an extra drink to take along as we rode
(no open container laws then) and would direct me down rut
ted routes I couldn't have got home on by myself. The whiskey
worked its magic, helping him to be more outspoken than he
usually was, more than I liked to hear him, especially on our
house calls.
The protocol was to drive up into the front yard of the
debtor and blow the horn, whereupon my father would roll
down his passenger-side window as the customer-in arrears
approached. We would not be there if the account were not
already far into the red zone, as our customer knew. We were
basically participating in an elaborate theater piece, with my
father and our customer following familiar scripts.
"John, you promised me you'd come see me Saturday,
but you didn't come. Why did you lie to me?"
"I did sure enough promise to come see you on
Saturday, but the baby got sick, and I had to get her
prescription and that took all my money."
"Well, I'm going to have to come take all that furni
ture if you can't do any better than that."
"Yessir. I believe that. I'm going to see you Saturday
for sure. You not going to have to come get this furni
ture. No sir."
The thing I hated most about it was all the little faces
peeking out the door and windows, watching the exchange,
with my father talking loudly for effect and them hearing him
calling their father sorry. And I always hated the denouement,
when my father would snap his fingers and tell me "Let's go,"
when I cranked the Ford and tried a friendly smile toward the
customer while cringing as my father remarked, still loudly,
ostensibly to me, that the lying son-of-a-bitch wasn't going to
show up this Saturday, either.
I think it was his way of showing that he was serious this
time. He would never say something like that to the man's
face, but he would say it to mine, within earshot of the man
and probably his children and perhaps his wife, standing out of
sight in the dark house.
Thus did a small businessman try to support his own fam
ily by selling furniture to people with dubious credit living a
hardscrabble life. That customer was no blip on a computer
screen. My father knew him personally and knew where he lived
and knew when he sold him the furniture on credit that it was
going to take a lot of Camels and Canadian Club to collect it,
but by such after-hours exertions he usually did collect it and
kept his customers, too.
I thought those economic scenarios were confined to our
time and place, but they're back, and the baby's prescription
and her medical care and medical care for the whole family are
still driving the push toward poverty for more and more of our
people. I wish Paul Broun, Jr. and Johnny Isakson and Saxby
Chambliss could have been sitting in the back seat of the Ford
with us out there in the country. That might have helped them
see how health care costs impinge on families and small busi
nesses alike.
My father saw firsthand how government form programs,
public works, old-age assistance and medical care helped his
customers immeasurably during that other Depression and
thereby helped his small business survive. He saw the govern
ment not as his enemy but as his partner. He would expect our
congressman and our senators to look at government that way,
too.
Pete McCommons editor@flagpole.com
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE:
NEWS & FEATURES
City Dope .-vs —., 5
Athens News and Views
News at Morris, more thoughts on SPLOST bucks, a new PAC in town and the Tree That Owns Itself, too.
Kiva 11
A Hand Up, Not a Hand-Out
The social-networking site Kiva allows us to give with humility and grace.
AIMTS cis EVEMTS
Cal Clements 15
So Long for Now...
Local artist Cal Clements has left Athens for NYC, but takes a lot of Athens inspiration with him.
The Reader 17
On Eating Brains and Other Uncivil Behaviours
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies reinvents the Jane Austen classic to include a plague of the undead.
MUSIC
Dopesmoker Controversy 19
From the Bedroom to the Stadium with Wawes
Promising a stronger, more sober set than that infamous Primavera slot.
Colour Revolt 21
The Complexity of Scaling Back
This Mississippi rock band learns that sometimes less is more.
LETTERS
4
THE READER
17
CITY DOPE
5
THREATS & PROMISES
18
CITY PAGES
6
WAWES
19
CAPITOL IMPACT
7
THE RIALTO ROOM
20
ATHENS RISING
8
COLOUR REVOLT.
21
WORLDVIEW
8
RECORD REVIEWS
23
COMMENT
9
THE CALENDAR!
24
COMMENT
10
BULLETIN BOARD
32
KIVA
11
ART AROUND TOWN
33
MOVIE DOPE
12,
COMICS
34
MOVIE PICKS
14
REALITY CHECK
35
CAL CLEMENTS
15
CLASSIFIEDS
36
GRUB NOTES
16
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
39
COVER DESIGN by Kelly Ruberto
featuring artwork by Carissa Pfeiffer on
display at the Lamar Dodd School of Art
EDITOR & PUBUSHER Pete McCommons
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR 1. PUBLISHER Alicia Nickles
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Larry Tenner
MANAGING EDITOR Christina Cotter
ADVERTISING SALES Anita Aubrey, Melinda Edwards. Jessica Pritchard
MUSIC EDITOR Michelle Gilzenrat
CITY EDITOR Ben Emanuel
CLASSIFIEDS, DISTRIBUTION l OFFICE MANAGER Paul Karjian
AD DESIGNERS Ian Rickert, Kelly Ruberto .. if*
CARTOONISTS James Allen, Cameron Bogue, Ryan Hall, Joe Havasy, Missy Kulik, Jeremy Long, Clint McElroy,
Michael Stephens ^ > ■.
ADOPT ME Special Agent Cindy Jerrell •
CONTRIBUTORS Darin Beasley, Christopher Benton, Hillary Brown, Adam Clair, Rebecca Corey, Tom Crawford,
Austin Darnell, Gwynne Dyer, Tony Floyd, Jeff Gore, John Huie, Annie Kelley, Gordon Lamb, Bao Le-Huu, Cathy Mong,
John G. Nettles, Matt Pulver, Deirdre Sayre, Jordan Stepp, Jeff Tobias, Drew Wheeler, Kevan Williams
CIRCULATION Charles Greenleaf, Harper Bridgers, Jimmy Courson, Swen Froemke, Anthony Gentilies
WES DESIGNER Ian Rickert
ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Maggie Summers
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Erin Cork ''
EDITORIAL INTERN Fabian Poth
MUSIC INTERN Charlie Stafford
ADVERTISING INTERNS Melanie Foster. Teresa Tambureilo
CONTACT US:
STREET ADDRESS: 112 S. Foundry St., Athens, GA 30601
MAILING ADDRESS: P.0. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603
EDITORIAL-(706) 549-9523
ADVERTISING: (706) 549-0301
FAX: (706) 548-8981
V* • ' ■ y- „ ■ r , *.
ADVERTISING: ads@flagpole.com
CALENDAR: calendar@flagpole.com
COMICS: comics@fiagpole.com
EDITORIAL ed tor@flagpole.com
LETTERS: letters@flagpole.com
MUSIC: music@flagpole.com
WEB SITE: web@fIagpoie.com
VOLUME 23
ISSUE NUMBER 39
Flagpole, Inc. publishes Flagpole Magazine weekly and distributes 17,000 copies
free at over 275 locations around Athens, Georgia. Subscriptions cost $55 a year,
$35 for six months. O 2009 Flagpole, Inc. All rights reserved.
@ ® 0
Auocittion of Uttnutivt UnnmUia
SEPTEMBER 30,2009 • FLAGP0LE.COM 3