Newspaper Page Text
v THURSDAY,
JULY 10, 2003
Jackie K Cooper
The Best Is Yet To Be
jkershawcooper@aol.com
As my
daddy used
to say
Summertime always makes
me think about my South
Carolina home more than any
other season. As soon as the
weather gets hot I begin to
start reminiscing about ‘the
good old days.” It seems my rec
ollecting abilities seem to
expand in the heat and I can
remember entire conversations,
which took place, when I was
growing up.
My father was a bread sales
man for most of my youth.
Before that he was a Pepsi-Cola
salesman. Now these types of
jobs meant he got up early to
load his truck and worked late
taking the goods around to the
various stores. He was always
gone in the morning before I
woke up and he rarely got home
before dark.
His bread truck was not air
conditioned. It had a little fan
that sat on the windshield in
front of him and blew air on to
him. Like me, my Daddy was a
sweater. The perspiration
poured off him in buckets, so
this one little fan didn’t do
much good. Still I never heard
him complain - about the heat,
about the hours, about life in
general.
Daddy got one week’s vaca
tion a year. I guess he got other
days off like Christmas Day,
Thanksgiving, things like that;
but he didn’t get his birthday
off. And to my knowledge he
didn’t have a set number of sick
days. In all the time I lived at
home I never remember him
taking a single day off for being
sick.
I remember hearing him tell
my mother one week that he
was going to clear one hundred
dollars. He worked on a salary
plus a commission, based on the
amount of bread he sold. When
he earned a hundred dollars we
were really in high cotton. Still
you know I never felt poor. It
seemed like we did just about as
much with that one hundred
dollars as others did with much
more.
My family talked about every
thing. Both my brother and I
knew when Daddy made a hun
dred dollars a week, and we
knew when he didn’t. There
was none of this “let’s keep it
from the kids” in our house. We
were all a part of the family
unit and we all knew the facts
of what was facing us. If there
was a reason to celebrate we
celebrated and if there was a
reason to worry, we worried -
together.
One of the highlights of the
week was on Saturday when we
would have a spaghetti dinner.
That “dinner” was at noon. The
meal at night was supper and it
was not as major a meal as was
dinner. Anyway mother cooked
spaghetti on Saturday and we
would all be waiting for Daddy
to come in and eat.
We would sit down at the
table and eat that spaghetti like
it was manna from Heaven.
After it was gone Daddy would
look at my Mother and say,
“That was the best spaghetti
we ever had.” He said that
every week. But you know
what? He told the truth. Every
week that spaghetti dinner was
the best we ever had.
When I think back to that
house on Holland Street and
the times we had there, I don’t
think a bed ever slept better
than the one I had there. I also
See COOPER, page 8A
At the
By Judy Hall
HHJ Staff Writer
Ken Scott, a full-time chil
dren’s entertainer, began doing
magic tricks at age eight when
his parents gave him his first
book on magic.
Scott has been televised all
over the world and is scheduled
to perform at the White House
in 2003.
He is entertaining at all the
Houston County Libraries
using his “Books Ahoy Magic
Reading Show.” According to
the count taken by Children’s
Librarian Sandra French, more
than 280 children and their
parents enjoyed the show at the
Perry Library.
‘You Have the Right to Remain Dead’ opens today
By Judy Hall
HHJ Staff Writer
Warner Robins’ Little
Theatre’s production of “You
Have the Right to Remain
Dead” appears to be a serious
murder mystery set in the south
- or it does until the first words
are heard, spoken in an exag
gerated drawl by the actors and
actresses.
Then, as soon as you hear the
names of the characters, you
begin to wonder what’s going
on. Sweet Mama, Fat Daddy,
Hyacinth and Earl are not your
ideal family. Add in Earl’s wife,
Savannah and Clete, the surly
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Son Earl (Michael Taylor) snickers as Fat Daddy (Billy Thomas) speaks to his daughter-in-law
Savannah (Alison Milton) (right) while Sweet Mama (Debbie Cruse) sits and watches. Behind the
sofa are daughter Hyacinth (Leslie Morales) and hired hand Clete (Josh Burke).
It's like the blue whale - It's just the way it is!
Does it ever bother you if you
ask “why” about something
and no one can come up with a
logical answer? I remember
when my dad used to tell me to
get something done, and yes, I
dared (only once) to ask, “but
why?” I was told, “because
that’s just the way it is!”
He always said things like
that and I hated it! Couldn’t he
have said, “because your mom
needs help,” or “because it
needs to get done, and you do
such a good job at it.” When
good reasons exist, kids deserve
to hear them instead of ‘because
I said so!” or “because that’s
just the way it is!”
But... sometimes things don’t
Lifestyle
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Ken Scott delights the more than 280 children at Perry’s library.
hired hand and you’ve got a
very suspect bunch.
Both the narrator and the
director attempt to explain
what’s happening only to con
fuse the audience even more.
When the corpse of Fat Daddy
shows up, everyone wants to
know who did it.
But, wait, is it really Fat
Daddy’s corpse?
When the police arrive and
the audience begins to question
the suspects, they (the audi
ence) find themselves being
questioned.
This latest play from WRLT is
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1
Diane Gross
Ain’t Life Grand?
Harleygirl 344478@a01.c0m
make sense at all. Did you ever
hear of the blue whale? I
remember asking a close friend
directed by Jerry Reppert and is
sure to keep you both guessing
“who done it” and laughing all
the way till the end.
Play dates are July 10 - 12, 17
- 19 and 24 - 26 with all per
formances at 8 p.m. In addi
tion, two matinees are set for
July 13 and 20, both at 2:30
p.m.
Tickets are $lO for adults and
$6 for students with student ID.
Warner Robins Little Theatre
is located at 502 South Pleasant
Hill Road in Warner Robins.
Call 478-929-4579 for reserva
tions beginning July 7 from 10
a.m. to 5 p.m.
once why something had to be
the way it was - and his reply
was, “It’s like the blue whale’s
blow spout, Diane, that’s just
the way it is - no way it makes
any sense!” Hearing “ ... that’s
just the way it is” again flashed
me back to my childhood, and
don’t ask me why, but I went
straight to the internet to find
out more about the blue whale.
Everything about the blue
whale is enormous. It’s the
largest and heaviest creature
that has ever existed on earth!
It can be 100 feet long and
weigh up to 150 tons. You could
put 22 ... yea, 22 elephants on
one side of a balance scale and
the blue whale would weigh
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Leslie Morales, playing daughter Hyacinth, tries out Fat Daddy’s
gun. Will she use it?
heavier on the other side of the
scale. I had a VW Beetle once
and it is the same size as the
heart of a blue whale. That
huge heart pumps 10 tons of
blood through its massive body
and the main blood vessel alone
is large enough for a human to
crawl through (yuk)! THAT IS
HUGE!!
So here’s the kicker: This
ocean dweller is the biggest
creature in all of time ... on land
or sea ... and so how do you
explain that its blow spouts,
that can shoot air and water as
high as 30 feet in the air, are
only about 18 inches in diame
ter - the size of a turkey platter!
Do you know why? Because, it’s
PAGE 6A
just the way it is!
So when I look for reasons
why money brings greed, how
people can torture people, why
churches build enormous crys
tal cathedrals instead investing
in our poor and hungry, why
taxes and their exemptions
seem to make the rich richer
and poor poorer, why babies
born into this world are missing
some important piece, why little
toddlers suffer from incurable
diseases, or why when we are
young - we must find things out
the hard way instead of listen
ing to those who went before us
that knew there was danger
ahead? I can only say, ‘I guess
it’s like the blue whale . . . it’s
just the way it is!”
HHJ Judy Hall
