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Viewpoints Our Views Consider Walker s tax efforts Editor: Maybe the citizens and the property owners of Houston County should really consider Mayor Walk er’s proposal to eliminate the Houston County Com missioners and its chair-: Letters to the Editor p.o. Drawer M Perru Be. man. With all the construction going on in Houston County, I’m sure the tax base had increased tremendously. While the state gave us a tax break by increasing the homestead exemption, the county increased the millage rate; there fore, eliminating any tax break that the state has tried to give us. The cities of Warner Robins and Perry have lowered their millage rate, why not the county? With Warner Robins annex ing so many acres, the county should have less to take care of. Why the need for additional employees in the county? For several years Mr. Stafford politick on making four lanes for Houston Lake Road. Have you driven from Russell Park- See LETTERS, Page 5A Simple pleasures become memories of a lifetime Last week was National School Lunch Week. I hope many of you enjoyed a meal with your children at school. 1 enjoyed a few meals during the week with my grandson. Dylan. First, 1 have to say the food was good and tasty. 1 don’t remember school food being that good when I was a child. And from the looks of the cleaned trays of the children, they agree with me. I took the time to spent a lunch period (all of 30 minutes) with Dylan. The sparkle in his eyes when he saw me arrive in the lunch room could only mirror mine. We enjoyed our time together. Dylan instructed me in the art of lunch room tech nique. First, the milk choice - plain or chocolate. Of course, being an adult, 1 could have chosen ice tea or cof fee; however. I st uck with plain milk Torey Jolley Home Journal Staff and Dylan chose chocolate. Next, we navigated through the lunch line-picking out our silverware and food trays. Then we went to the check-out. What a deal! My lunch was only $2.50! Dylan mentioned that the school sells ice cream. "Does it?” I asked. Of course, those lovely hazel-green eyes were looking hopefully into my eyes and those little dimples - well, 1 melted and he got the ice cream. I have forgotten how much joy it is to sit and watch someone enjoy their food. Dylan ate all his regular lunch and then he started on the ice cream. Slowly, he ate the ice cream - relishing each bite. His eyes would close as he con sumed the ice cream, bite by bite, and then licking the stick clean. The look of pure pleasure engulfed his face - like the chocolate which coated his little face and hands. We talked about his morning which was spent coloring, writing, and learning. We spent the remainder of the lunch peri od chatting until it was time to clear our trays and for Dylan to line up for his return to class. We kissed and hugged. He asked me to come to lunch again. And I know I will. Where else could I enjoy a tasty meal for $2.50 and a visit with my grandson? It is a small gesture that will be remember by both of us forever. Houston Home Journal P.O Drawer M • 807 Carroll St. Perry, Ga. 31069 email homeJrnaham.net (912) 987-1823 (voice) (912) 988 1181 (fax) Bob Tribble President JJ .Johnson ...Editor and General Manager Ellen T. Green Advertising Director Phil Clark Sports Joan Dorsett Lifestyles Torey Jolley News Alllne Kent Sports 7\ — £ Pauline Lewis Lifestyles Rob Mead News and Circulation Charlotte Perkins.. News and Composition Andy Stuckey Classified Susan K. Thomas Bookkeeping Paula Zimmerman Bookkeeping Our Policies Unsigned editorials appearlpg In larger type on this page under the label Our Views reflect the position of the Houston Home Journal. Signed columns and letters on this page (and elsewhere In this newspaper) reflect the opinions of the writers and not necessarily those of this newspaper. Thoughts on life in the middle of October ’99 Some odds and ends: Daylight Saving Time is about to end. The final hours of the grand experiment in saving daylight ends at 2 a.m. Oct. 31. Thus, children in Perry who take advantage of the city request to trick or treat Oct. 28 from 6-8 p.m. will have only one hour of dark along their walk. Those who trick or treat in other communities Sunday night will be in darkness before they head out the door to ter rorize their neighbors. Meanwhile, mommies and daddies will now arise in the dark, drive to work in the dark, drive home in the dark, and see daylight Saturday and Sunday. Maybe we need to conserve Tmt p&wvr rZZZZZZTh THIS 16 Hl6 TIME OF | ./, | TEAR. WHEN BASEBALL, fial I j'/tv I fn, FOOTBALL,BASKETBALL, m i i'l I 1 SOCCER OVERLAP. oMum 99 raytoongffhom.net ] Poking ribs for fun with Mets fan Braves Country Early Monday morning - after watching that inter minable game on Sunday night - I walked into the Concoo sta tion on Sam Nunn Blvd. to pay for some gas. and there was a man from New Jersey wearing a Mets t-shirt. He was also get ting a more good-natured reception in Braves Country than somebody from Georgia wearing a Braves t-shirt would have gotten in New York City last week. Book Signing Bill Boyd will be at the Perry Bookstore in downtown Perry from 1 to 3 this Saturday (Octo ber 23) to sell and autograph his new book - “Fat, Dumb and Happy Down in Georgia." Cut that Ribbon! In a community with the eco nomic growth that Perry enjoys, you can count on a ribbon cut ting almost every week, and there are three people you can always count on to show up and help at those milestone events - whether it’s the open ing of a small retail business of a big financial institution. One, of course, is Mayor Jim Worrall. The other two are Steve Rodgers, Chairman of the Board of the Perry Area Cham ber of Commerce, and Chris Kinnas, Chamber exec. These three do a lot to ribbon cuttings Page 4A Wed., Oct. 20, 1099 JJ Johnson Home Journal Editor daylight during the winter instead of the summer. • •• Both the Mossy Creek Barn yard Festival and the Georgia National Fair benefitted from fabulous weather during the past weekend. Instead of getting a deluge of rain from Hurricane Irene we Charlotte Perkins Home Journal Staff memorable and their efforts are appreciated. Notes from nearby For those who haven’t been to enough fall festivals yet, here’s another: the Beaver Creek Festival in Montezuma on Oct. 30. This is a festival that got started five years ago as a fund-raiser for the flooded out downtown merchants, and it’s kept right on going. They'll have arts and crafts, great food and - of course - the Great Beaver Creek Duck Race, with WMAZ TV’s Frank Malloy as Quackmaster, and a grand prize of SIOOS. Yes, that’s One Thousand and Five Dollars. The duck race is fun to see because they drop all the ducks (plastic, of course) off one bridge and the race continues until the next bridge. It’s a delightful sight to see all those thousands of multi-colored ducks careen ing around the bend in the creek, heading for the finish line. Signed letters to the editor are wel comed. Please limit letters to 300 words and Include addresses and a telephone number for verification purposes. Letters are not published without verification let ters should be sent to P.O. Drawer M. Perry, Ga., 31069 or brought to the news paper office at 807 Carroll St., Perry. Our liability for an error will not exceed the cost of space occupied by the error. We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or submitted materials unless a stamped, return address envelope is Included Our Goal .. . *' For women only When it comes to cancer, most of us would rather not think about it at all, but the truth is that early detection remains our best protection. The American Cancer Society estimates that 750,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,700 will die of the disease during 1999. That’s the bad news The good news is that detect ing breast cancer in its early stages offers a better than 96 percent of survival. That’s a pretty good survival rate! What’s the best way to maxi mize your chances for early detection. Have regularly scheduled mammograms, practice month ly breast self-examination and have an annual exam by a doc tor. Sure it’s scarey even to think about it, and to imagine finding a lump, but there are women all over our community - among our friends and families - who are alive and enjoying life today because of early detection of breast cancer. (1 know five or six myself, and I know even more women who found lumps that turned out to be benign.) October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. If you haven't had a mammogram in a while, make that appoint ment soon! And if you haven’t had a mammogram ever, it doesn’t hurt! Go!! The Houston Home Journal Is pub lished proudly for the citizens of Houston and adjoining counties by Houston Publi cations Inc., Perry. Ga. Our goal is to pro duce quality, profitable, community-orient ed newspapers that you, our readers, are proud of. We will reach this goal through hard work, teamwork, loyalty and a strong dedication toward printing the truth. Member of Georgia Press Association and National Newspaper Association. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the Houston Home Journal received a gift of beautiful, fall like weather. Wow, what a treat. Even my friend who is a fore caster for the Weather Channel was delighted with what hap pened instead of what was pre dicted. • •• Wonder if it’s safe to go to Savannah yet on a pleasure trip? Or would the reception be somewhat like what the Boston Red Sox fans had for umpires and the New York Yankees dur ing their playoff game Sunday night. I hope by the time you read this, you will have learned the Braves won their game in a rea sonable time frame Tuesday night. If not, most of us are probably still asleep. What’s wrong with day games any more, especially when it’s so cold in New England? ••• Friday night is a big event at Perry High School. A new homecoming queen will be crowned. The Panthers will be trying for their second win of the season against Southeast of Macon. I hope Panther fans will flock to the Pit to show their support of the Panthers and the Home coming Court. While the Panthers haven’t won as many games this year as hoped, the team has contin ued to play hard despite the lack of wins. These hard-work ing guys are due a win. Be there to celebrate. Bob Tribble Home Journal President This is day the Lord has made The mountains Eire a beauti ful place during the month of October. In fact, the mountains are a beautiful place anytime of the year, and much of that beauty is brought about by the folks who live there. Recently, I was in Burnsville, N.C. on a business trip. When 1 left Burnsville heading for Lan drum. S.C., I stopped at a gas station just inside Yancey County towards Asheville. As I was paying the station attendant for the gas, a local gentleman walked up to the counter, looked me in the eye and said. “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." I must admit I was set back a bit by his friendliness, but he was exactly right so I said, amen! That amen struck up a brief conversation between the three of us that gave us all the opportunity to let each other know that we were Christians. Yes. it was a beautiful day that the Lord had made! As the local gentleman asked for change for a dollar bill, the station attendant, who appar ently knew him, told him to be sure and give 10 percent of that dollar to his church. He assured the attendant he had already given his tithe, and as he turned to walk away he said once again, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Some days as we rush through life on a busy schedule we tend to forget that “this is the day the Lord has made.” We often confront and try to solve rather big problems that pop up without first praying about them. We try to rely on our own strengths too often without realizing where those strengths come from. Sometimes we act in haste, and over react towards other people, while in conversations with them about touchy sub jects. Then we have to apolo gize for those wrong words we said. We simply forgot that “this is the day the Lord has made." Sometimes we get like old Slim. The preacher told Slim once, “You and the Lord have a beautiful garden here." To which Slim replied, “You should have seen it when the Lord had it by himself." See TRIBBLE, Page 5A right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Your right to read this newspaper Is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitu tion. The Houston Home Journal (USPS 000471) is published weekly for $21.40 per year (including sales tax) by Houston Publications Inc., 807 Carroll St., Perry, Ga.. 31069. Periodicals Class Postage paid at Perry, Ga. POSTMASTER : Send address changes to the Houston Home Journal, P.O. Drawer M. Perry. Ga. 31069. ISSN: 1071M874. Ik