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November 9, 2000 Houston County's Legal Organ Since 1870 Section C. 6 Pages
Just Visitin’
Joan Dorsett
912-987-5272
I always did like to talk about
our boy Rad, and I always will.
But he died November 13, 1993,
when the car in which he was
riding went out of control and
Rad was thrown out. You see, he
had not fastened his seat belt.
He never thought such a thing
could happen to him—he was
carefree, having the time of his
life.
Of the total involved in Geor
gia traffic accidents of all types
in 1999, 27,828 were not wear
ing seat belts.
Be RADical, Buckle Up!
P P p
The above public service an
nouncement was made in 1994
with students at Perry High
School by Peachstate Produc
tions. You can see it on Sun Tel
Communications channels CNN,
USA, TNT, ESPN, DISCOVERY,
A&E, TNN, TBS.
P P p
Meals on Wheels volunteers
will have homemade Thanksgiv
ing breads, cakes, pies and cook
ies for sale again this year for
your holiday feasting. Saturday,
November 18, in front of Kroger.
All donations go to feed Meals on
Wheels patrons who can no
longer prepare food for them
selves. Some of Perry’s best cooks
will be sharing their tastiest of
ferings for this good cause. Dibs
on Ketus Cawthon’s biscotti!.
P P P
Last week “Flop” and Sybil
Smith of Rome visited their
former Woodland Circle neigh
bors and Perry friends. They en
joyed a New Perry Hotel brunch
with Bill Chapman and Claire
Chapman, Margie Daniel and
Martin and Pansy Gordon.
They’re all happy Martin is up
and about and they paid a visit
to Lawton Daniel in hospital. He
is now at home.
P P P
Lucky Lezlee Johnson spent
the past year living and working
for the business management
company Robbins Gioia in New
York City. She has recently re
turned to her home off Feagin
Mill Road and is back working
the contract on Robins Air Force
Base.
P P P
Brian Nash placed fifth in the
ReMax World Long Drive Com
petition held October 18-22 in
Mesquite, Nevada. Winner was
Victor Johanson of Sweden.
Brian’s wife Lindsey, young son
Hunter and mother Lanie Nash
traveled with him. Lindsey’s par
ents Mark and Phyllis Jones of
Midland, Texas joined the fam
ily in Las Vegas for a few days
before the competition. This is an
annual event for Brian for which
he is always practicing. He is ever
hopeful to come out on top.
P P P
Harold and Joyce Green spent
last week in St. Peters, Missouri
which is right outside St. Louis.
This was their annual Halloween
visit with Joyce’s daughter Joy
and Jerry Oder and their chil
dren Dustin, 16, Tiffany, 15,
Kristin, 7, and Amber, 5.
P P P
Newlyweds Pat and Michelle
Muse were honored the evening
of October 28 with a cocktail
party at the Northside Road
home of Jim and Paula Geiger.
Co-hosting the event were Dr.
Wayne and Charlotte Bohanan,
Pat Buice, Tina Hunter, Larry
and Linda Johnson, Joe and
Jimmilu Leverett, Doug and Sue
Lott, Ted and Jane Perfect, Allen
and Anna Pritchett, Jack and
Gloria Ragland, Allen and Donna
Tabor, Tom and Billie Sue
Thomson.
The dining room buffet fea
tured barbecue in cocktail buns
and an array of foods from the
See Joan Dorsett
Continued on Page 4C
(Illje plmtst an plume Journal
Life Styles
Seeing red at Perry Primary
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Close encounters of the weird kind
Houston Countian chronicles
By Charlotte Perkins
Staff Writer
Flying Saucers darting
through the night skies. Mon
key Men from Mars. Foot
prints 18 inches long. Chairs,
shoes and clothing tumbling
about for no apparent reason.
Killer Peacocks. Spontaneous
Human Combustion. Great
Balls of Fire!
Perhaps you’ve been think
ing that if such things happen
at all, they happen in far-away
places.
Well, if you read Jim Miles’
“Weird Georgia,” you’ll think
again.
A high school history teacher
and established Civil War his
torian, with a number of books
already to his credit, Miles has
taken a vacation from serious
ness and put together
C- _ E.T.? - this is a
ufo
researcher’s
' drawing of an
Xf7 “alien”
described by
woman who
claimed to have
\ encountered
extraterrestials
+ „ while driving
j, through Henry
a— County.
One dollar for chance at beautiful tree
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• jjfliPHfc fat* tßifat fIHHH
iyM MnWff 1 j mm
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Photo by Emily Johnstone
Pictured with the tree are Pilot Club members Beverly King, left, and
zlizabeth Bonner.
Georgia’s own “X-Files”: a col
lection of “weird” reports about
everything from UFO’s over
Warner Robins to poltergeists
down by the coast.
How much of it is true?
That will be for the reader to
decide - but both skeptics and
true believers are likely to en
joy Miles’ good natured ac
counts, which are based in
large part on newspaper ac
counts from the past, and in
many case on interviews he
conducted himself.
In some cases, there’s a
weird explanation for a weird
discovery.
Miles recounts the saga of
three Cobb County practical
jokers who created their own
UFO landing sight by burning
a patch of highway with a blow
torch and leaving a hairless
two-foot tall corpse
there. Policemen
fell for it, until a
professor at Emory
University pointed
out that the corpse
was a monkey, not
an alien. (The mon
key, by the way, is at
the GBl’s State
Crime Lab in
Decatur, preserved
forever in formal
dehyde.)
In other cases,
there may be a
natural explana-
Georgia’s strangest stories
PRICE SI.OO
LULU HURST
(THE GEORGIA WONDER)
Writes her Autobiography and for the first time
EXPLAINS v*o DFMONSIRAirS
The Great Secret
OF HER MARVELOUS POWER.
Published and far Sale by PSYCH ft Ki SEARCH CO.
Who R«,!iK the Rn.tk ran Aconirp t|w I’nw.
Girl Wonder - Lula Hurst,
born outside of
Cedartown, credited her
powers to having been
struck by lightning. Her
story is included in “Weird
Georgia”, under the
heading “Unique People.”
tion. That unexplained light
in the sky that President
Jimmy Carter reported seeing
in Leary, Georgia, could have
been the Planet Venus, or an
illuminated water tank, or
even a weather balloon.
But, the man from Plains
wasn’t the first or the last
Georgian to see a UFO. Geor
gia Senator Richard Russell
also once reported seeing one
from a train in the Soviet
Union, and sightings in Geor-
This beautiful
Christmas tree
that is now on dis
play at the Bank of
Perry could be
E laced in your
ome! For a one
dollar donation to
the Pilot Club,
your name will go
into a box for the
drawing for the
tree that will be
held Nov. 16 dur
ing the Club’s an
nual Fashion Show
and Dessert.
Stanley Furniture
will deliver the tree
to the lucky win
ner. The Show and
Dessert will be
held at RozarPark
in the Community
Room beginning at
7:30 p.m. For tick
ets for the Show or
to enter the draw
ing, go by the Bank
of Perry or call
Polly Coleman at
987-9304 or Eliza
beth Bonner at
987-6027.
During the celebration of Red Ribbon Week at Perry
Primary Ms. Hunt and Mrs. Ray’s class had fun during
reddest day.
Students and teachers alike dressed in red in celebration
of Reddest Day at Perry Primary
<* • jjßsjPyL,.. ™
gia have tended to come in
waves.
According to Miles, “UFO’s
have always been with us but
in different guises which hap
pen to match the next logial ad
vancement of human transpor
tation. This age-old phenom
enon mutates as society devel
ops.”
There were reported
sightings of UFO’s in Georgia
as early as 1897, when the At
lanta Journal reported that an
airship - “a most novel and
striking sight” was seen by “a
number of well known citi
zens” flying gracefully over
Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Rashes of “flying saucer”
sightings came in the 1940’5,
again in the 50’s and 60’s and
then set a record in early Au
gust, 1973, with still-unex
plained reports of intensely
bright flying objects sweeping
across southwest Georgia,
“flashing like neon signs gone
mad” and terrifying motorists.
But UFO’s are only part of
Miles’ “weird” reports. He also
includes reports on Georgia’s
only electrical spiritualist, Lula
Hurst; Georgia’s own version
of the Loch Ness Monster -
”Altama-Ha-Ha”, Big Foot and
Swamp Thing sightings, the
haunting of Surrency House
near Brunswick, some archeo
logical mysteries (and frauds),
and all manner of odd natural
phenomenon - such as ball
lightning, atmospheric booms
and fiery tornados.
He tells of 50,000 birds fall
ing from the sky in Warner
Robins, an endless string that
descended from the sky over
Elberton, and - coming up to
contemporary times - the much
publicized image of Jesus’ face
that appeared on the side of a
Wheeler County home earlier
this year, attracting thousands
of viewers. (The remarkable
image was cast by a security
light shining through the
branches of a chinaberry tree.)
Written in a rambling, story
teller style, with plenty of great
excerpts from weekly and daily
newspapers, “Weird Georgia”
will have readers wondering at
times, laughing at times and
turning pages steadily.
The pointy-eared Inhabitants of this UFO were said to have
immobilized a man near Pelham, Georgia. Jim Miles tells several
“abduction stories” in his new book.
1 See Page 4C
About the Author:
WARNER ROBINS—Jim
Miles
started
writ
i n g
about
weird
things
when
h e
was
just a
kid.
I n
third
grade,
/’ *
i |Sg||
Jim Miles
when he wrote his first story, it
was a tale about a wood-dwelling
monster, later, when he was a stu
dent at Northside High School, he
sold a true story of a table-tapping
seance to Fate Magazine.
Later, he became an educator
and historical travel writer, spe
cializing in the Civil War. He has
taught history and social studies
at Peach County High School for
26 years, and has published hun
dreds of articles and several books
on Southern history, archaelogy
and the Civil War.
He has completed six volumes
of his Civil War Campaigns Series,
which have been featured by the
History Book Club.
Still, he has never lost his in
terest in the odd, the unexplained
and the mysterious.
A self-confessed packrat, Miles
has been saving clippings and
notes for years, and on his trav
els around the state, he has fol
lowed up on many strange tales.
Does he believe that aliens have
been visiting Georgia since the
late 1800’s, or that there is a
monster in the Altamaha River?
The amiable schoolteacher
grins as he explains, “Miles’ Uni
fied Theory of Weirdness.”
“I don’t believe there are aliens
in UFO’s. I don’t believe in Big
Foot or in ghosts,” he says, “But I
believe people who tell these sto
ries are telling the truth,” he says.
“There’s something out there,
and it’s been there forever...and
it plays with us.”
“Weird Georgia”, published by
Cumberland House, is hot off the
press. A 452 page paperback with
numerous illustrations, it may be
purchased for $16.95 at area book
stores.