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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
I 1 !!-* 1 *
An evening with Ruby
Dee at Fort Valley State
Famed actor and outspo
ken civil rights advocate
Ruby Dee will be the third
in the Fort Valley State
University John V Davison
Lecture Series at 7 p.m.
Friday night. Ossie Davis
was originally to appear
also, but has had a change
The event will be in the
Pettigrew Center. There is
no admission charge, but
early arrival is recommend
ed to be assured of a seat.
Georgia IMatkmal
Fair Concerts
Jupiter Coyote, the
Kinchafoonee Cowboys and
the Laney Strickland Band
will perform at Reaves Arena
on Friday night. Tickets are
$lO at the door.
Hootie & the Blowfish will
perform at Saturday night
starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets
are $24.50 at the door.
Call (800) 987-3247 for
details.
Oklahoma!
The Middle Georgia College
music and drama club, will
perform the musical,
“Oklahoma” tonight through
Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and in
a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday.
Tickets are free for current
students, $6 for adults, and
$4 for students, children and
seniors. Reservations are not
required. For more informa
tion, call David Shamburger
at 934-3348.
Choral Extravaganza
The fourth annual Houston
County Choral Extravaganza
will be presented at 7 p.m., on
Thursday, Oct. 16, at the
Warner Robins Civic Center.
The concert is free and open
to the public. Approximately
973 students from five middle
schools and three high
schools will perform.
Participating schools are:
Bonaire Middle, Perry
Middle, Tabor Middle, Feagin
Mill Middle, Warner Robins
Middle, Northside High,
Warner Robins High, and
Houston County High.
Three days only
Macon Little Theatre has
announced that the theatre
will present “Lewis and
Clark,” a musical about the
famous duo’s travels. The
musical celebrates the 200th
anniversary of the Lewis and
Clark expedition, and will be
performed by the professional
theatre troop from GMT pro
ductions and will run October
23 - 25 at 8 p.m. with an addi
tional 2 o’clock matinee on
Sunday.
HOUSTON
NIGHT UFE
(To submit your event for the Night Life
listings, fax the details to 988-1181, e-mail
to hhj§evansnewspapers.com or mail to
Houston Home Journal, PO. Box 1910,
Perry, GA 31069.)
Thursday, Oct. 9
• karaoke, Our Place, 2132 U.S. 41 N„
Perry
• Tony Elmore and Friends,
Shenanigan’s Cafe, 1291 S. Houston
Lake Road, Warner Robins
Friday, Oct. 10
• A.D.D. Band, The Ville Cafe, 2607
Moody Road, Warner Robins
• Cold Feat, Shenanigan’s Cafe, 1291
S. Houston Lake Road, Warner Robins
• ShagdaddVs Beach Bop & Swing
Club (2 nd /4 (h Fridays), VFW Post
6605,1011 Corder Road, Warner
Robins
• Skeeters (classic/Southern rock), Our
Place, 2132 U.S. 41 N., Perry
Saturday, Oct. 11
• A.D.D. Band, The Ville Cafe, 2607
Moody Road, Warner Robins
• NASCAR Saturday Night, Our Place,
2132 U.S. 41 N„ Perry
• TBA, Shenanigan’s Cafe, 1291 S.
Houston Lake Road, Warner Robins
Wednesday, Oct. 15
• Rock and roll with Rick Frank, Our
Place, 2132 U.S. 41 N„ Perry
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Rep. Larry Walker and his grandchildren gather around the mule sculpture. In front,
from left: Wade Walker, Walker Way and Gray Way. In back, Ben Walker, Cody Walker,
Haley Way and Savanna Walker. The bronze tribute to Georgia’s tenant farmers was
Walker’s idea and he sought and obtained the funding for it.
Rock Springs - Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth?
Something beckoned me
back to the ‘jungles’ of
Florida for a new adventure
- but this time I had hoped
to avoid another 16-foot
long grandpappy alligator!
On this expedition, the plan
was to camp, canoe, and
snorkel at Kelly Park which
is flanked by Rock Springs
Run and the Wekiva River,
so I could experience the
springs for myself. This
campground draws wild
turkey, deer, raccoon, pan
thers, bobcat and black bear
by the hundreds - some
quite hungry. We did it all in
addition to meeting “Big
Bad Jon” the biggest, hun
griest Florida Black Bear I
have ever seen (but that’s
another story)!
For me, it seems that all
the unique natural beauty of
this world is in Florida, and
I have loved going there all
my life. In my youth, it was
the power and majesty of
the ocean, and the peace and
white sands of the gulf that
kept me going back but
springs are a new thing for
me.
Springs are classified by
the amount of water they
produce. At Rock Springs
the crystal blue sapphire
sparkling water gushes from
ENTERTAINMENT
ppr ' . ■- ■ -r>
II Jill 1 '
Diane Gross
Ain’t Life Grand?
Harleygirl34447B@aol.com
«
a cave and out of the base of
a 17-foot limestone crust at
the rate of 26,000 gallons of
water a minute while main
taining a year-round water
temperature of 68 degrees.
That’s a mouthful!
Ponce de Leon was on the
right track when he hit the
shores of Florida in search
of his “Fountain of Youth.”
I don’t know if this Lady Di
was in Sir Ponce’s undiscov
ered fantasy or not, but I
know it was fun, something
I had never done before, and
I was as exhilarated as a kid
discovering Disneyland for
the first time!
Now there is no way that
this water was a mere 68
degrees - I thought I would
Photo by ('indy Gambill
'To a large extent the
economy of this state
prior to 1950 was built
on the backs of the
tenant farmer and
the mule/
- Rep. Larry Walker
have heart failure when I
tested it with my big toe!
Even though I hate cold
water, I had to make the
plunge or for me the trip
would not be complete!
It took 20 minutes to con
vince myself to jump but I
did (contact lenses and all)
right into the surging water
- only to be spit right back
to the surface and swiftly
hurled downstream 3/4 of a
mile with the current before
I could stand up to look
back! What I didn’t know
then was what rested
beneath me . . .and I could
n’t stand that. So, I dressed
and drove 20 miles to the
nearest Wal-Mart for flip
pers, a mask and snorkel.
Two hours later I jumped in
again and I couldn’t believe
what I had missed. The
rocks I had slivered over ini
tially were actually massive
and mushroom shaped with
long slender moss-covered
necks. Fish of all kinds were
hiding along the way
watching all of us rude, silly
people pass by not stopping
long enough to say “hello!’
“In less than 10 minutes we
had victoriously traveled
from the spring down the
run and into the park’s fish
infested “swimming hole” . .
Art Commentary
les and men
By Charlotte Perkins
HHJ Lifestyle Editor
Last Friday, two men from
Georgia’s agricultural heart
land finished making their
speeches and began the
clumsy work of unveiling a
work of art.
The mule was unveiled a
few second before the rest of
the bronze sculpture group
ing.
A sturdy, plodding beast of
burden, in sharp contrast to
the prancing steeds of most
equestrian statues around
the world, it wears a harness
and pulls a plow.
The man at the plow,
unlike most men who have
been immortalized in
bronze, wears overalls and a
battered hat. He is African-
American. The boy with car
rying the water pail is white.
The two men doing the
unveiling were both Middle
Georgians of note.
One was former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter,
who grew up on a farm in
Sumter County, and was the
inspiration for the boy in the
sculture, according to its cre
ators, Don Haugen and
Teena Stern.
The other was Rep. Larry
Walker of Perry, who had the
idea of a permanent tribute
to Georgia’s sharecroppers,
pushed the bill through the
Georgia General Assembly
and got the funding to have
the sculpture created by
Georgia artists, cast in
bronze at a Georgia foundry
and placed at the Georgia
National Fairgrounds and
Agricenter.
It was a project that
brought its own controversy
and criticism, but one dear
to the veteran legislator’s
heart because of his own
childhood experiences on his
grandfather’s farm, and his
awareness of the role played
by both the hard working
mule and the hardworking
farmers honored in the stat
uary.
”1 feel that we owe a debt
Isaac Kilgore, a custodian at Rainbow Elementary School in
Decatur, was the model for the tenant farmer in the sculp
ture grouping Kilgore, who was in Perry for the dedication
of the work, said that it was his first experience with mod
eling. He dressed in overalls for many photos to be taken,
and was thoroughly “measured” by the sculptors.
. . each time more anxious
than the last to start all over
again as though we were on
a newly featured water slide
at Six Flags!
I thought I had died and
gone to heaven a few
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2003
of gratitude to the Georgia
mule and the Georgia tenant
farmer,” Walker said. “To a
large extent the economy of
this state prior to 1950 was
built on the backs of the ten
ant farmer and the mule.”
From the moment of the
unveiling, the sculpture has
attracted a steady stream of
viewers of all ages, with
many older Georgians tak
ing a few moments to talk
about old times, and to
remember mules they have
known and the hard work of
plowing fields.
The sculpture is life-sized
and realistic in its detail. It
is also a rarity in civic sculp
ture, which most often cele
brates war heroes and elect
ed officials, because it cele
brates ordinary people and
their extraordinary efforts to
wrest a living from Georgia’s
dirt and red clay.
The last generation that
plowed with a mule will pass
away knowing that their
hard work has been recog
nized.
Hundreds of photographs
have already been taken of
children and whole family
groups standing by the
mule.
Arguments are already
underway about how the
harness is represented and
whether the mule’s ears are
too small or too large, but
these are like family argu
ments. The sculpture
belongs to those who are
viewing it, and it’s already
on its way to being a region
al icon. Even curious
teenagers can be seen walk
ing around it, reaching out
to touch the cool bronze, get
ting a three-dimensional les
son in “the way it was” long
years ago.
The partisan bickering
about the Larry Walker’s
“brass mule” will be forgot
ten, and so will the $120,000
price tag.
Middle Georgia has a work
of art.
- v : ' * -v
months earlier when I had
fished the Little Wekiva
River - but now Rock
Springs was clearly running
neck and neck with the river
for the “Best Adventure”
gold medal.
Wed. Thru Sal
Performing
October Bth-11th
‘To The Max”
9A