The Hogansville Herald May 13, 2004: Page 4

May 13, 2004 The Hogansville Herald
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Opinions & Ideas PAGE 4-A - HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS - THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2004 THE HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS USPS 620-040 JOHN KUYKEYqDALL PtBI JSHER/EDrrOR LAURIE LL-,~I'~ AI)VERTISIN(; D IREtSI'OR CLLNrF CLAYBROOK A,%'g( K'I ATE EI)ITOI¢, ROB RICHARI'X~)N As~H IS'DX.NT EI)I'IX )R .~. 0~riu~:i ]Juldiratiau Millard B. Grimes. President Phone (7(10) 846-3188. Fax (706) 846-2206 P O. Box 426 t togansville, Georgia 30230 The Party Season Is Here: Don't Drink About this time every year millions of American teenagers are going to their high school prom, going on a senior class trip, graduating from high school or possibly all three. This is a time of year when teenagers start getting excited about the summer and maybe even a little anxious about the life ahead of them. For many of these occa- sions alcohol is often preva- lent, whether it's pre- or post- graduation parties, trips to warm sunny beaches or stay- ing in hotels after the big dance. Unfortunately the alcohol adds more than just hangovers to the mix. During a conversation recently with Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley, we dis- cussed the number of teenagers involved in traffic accidents and how many times drugs or alcohol may have played a part in the acci- dent. Jolley explained that a number of teens had been involved in parties in Harris County recently where alco- hol was involved. He also talked about the dangers of drinking and driving. The same concerns of teen parties involving alco- hol have been expressed by both Sheriff Steve Whitlock of Meriwether County and Sheriff Donny Turner of 1?oup County. AFTER REALIZING that local law enforcement is con- cerned about the issue, I decided to look into the mat- ter a little more. Here is what I found out. According to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY), approxi- mately 7.2 million young peo- ple between the ages of 12 and 20 are binge drinkers (consuming five or more alcoholic beverages), increasing more than 50% over the last eight years. That number is the equiv- alent to roughly 4 billion drinks per year, or about 16% of the total U.S. alcohol m~r- ket. ,~ What's worse is that the', National Highway Traffic Safety, Administration (NHTSA) reports close to 60% of traffic fatalities dur- ing this time of year have been alcohol-related. Some may say that the teenagers are being targeted by alcohol ads. I'm not so sure that is the case, but that is a topic for a column another day. The fact is, underage drinking usually leads to worse things, like drug use. According to law enforce- ment agencies, they have learned that many young peo- ple that moved onto other drugs tried their first illicit drug while they were intoxi- cated, whether it was cocaine, ecstasy, etc. Manchester Police Chief A1 Ganus told me that he has worked several case~ of teen drinking over the years where the alcohol was pro- vided by either an adult that was supposed to be supervis- ing the teens during a party or by a parent of one of the teenagers. Adults who provide alco- hol to teens do not realize that by doing so they may be con- tributing to a teen who will become an alcoholic later in life, move on to drugs or even die in a car accident. Most often, as an adult, we think that one drink can't be that bad. We are wrong! ONE OTHER thing to remember, is that the adult whot does provide alcohol con be arrested and face jail time for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I wish to extend a plea to adults and ask that you do not provide alcohol for teens dur- ing this, as we all know to be, a party season for teens. I would also like to encourage teenagers not to drink, but if you do, please don't drink and drive. You can call a parent or a friend for a ride home. It's better to have a parent a little upset than to die in a car crash. I would also like to warn everyone that law enforce- ment agencies in the area will be stepping up highway stops during this s~ason in an atte~hpt to stop drivers that are drinking from being on our highways. They will also keep their eyes and ears open for any parties that might be serving alcohol to teenagers. Let's play it safe during this, the party" season, grad- uating seniors. After all, you have just completed one important phase of your life. You are now ready to move on to bigger and better things. Don't cut it short or never find out what life has in store for you by taking a chance on drinking and driving. Just say no, to drugs and alcohol. Show how smart you are. THE HO(JANS~. II,LE HOME NEWS is published weekly by the Star-MercuD Publi,,hing Company, a division of Grimes Publications. at 3051 Roo~velt Highv, a',, Manchester, Georgia 31816. LSPS 620-040. Subscription rates by mail: $20 in Tmup. Harris or Meriwether Counties: $24 a year elsewhere. Prices include all sales taxes. Periodical postage paid at Hogaus~ille, Geo~ia 30230.Single cop? 50¢. FoR sl I~,nRu-ru)~s call (706) 846-3188 tn- v, rite to Circulation Managel, Star Me)vuu Publications. P. O. Box 42b, Manchester. Gco~ia 31816. Pos rXI*STER: Send address changes to P. O. Box 426. Hogansville. GA 30230, St:.w~ Publisher and F.ditor ............................................................................ John Kukyendall Achertising Director .................................................................................. Laurie ILewis Associate Editor. .................................................................................. Clint Cl.',ybff~k Assistant Editor .............................. ." ...................................................... Rob Riehmdson Staff Writers ......................................................................... BDan Geler, Billy Bo:am Composition .............................. IX",', a3ne Flov. ers. Ro ,'rt Weems, Gad Youngblo(xi Circulation Mmmger. .......................................................................... Tracy Lsnn W) att Prc~s Manager: ................................................................................ Vvhyne G~ho~vski Pressroom As,,ismnt~, ..................... L~ulw Colleges. Zaddie Dixon.Darnell McCauley Mailr~xm~ Dislrilmtion .................................................................... , .......... David Boggs CORIX)RATE OEFICERS Presideut ............................................................................................. Millard B. Grimes Vice l~-csident .................................................................................. Charlotte S. Grimes Executix e Vice ~vsidem and S~'retmT ........................................ Laura Grimes Corer IYeasurer. ...................................................................................... Kathy Grimes Gan~tt Ixgal Coun~l and Assisumt Secretary, ............................................. James S. Grimes Remembering the Heat of the From Lewis Grizzard's collection "If Love Were Oil, I'd Be About a Quart Low', Written in 1979 I worried about going to hell a lot in my childhood, and here again it was my God- fearing grandmother who instilled that concern in me. We burned our garbage out in a distant field. It was usu- ally my job to help my grand- mother carry the family refuse out to the burning site. One day, as we stood together watching the fire melt away the eggshells and the cantaloupe rinds and whatever else had been dis- carded, she said to me, "Go put your hands next to the fire and feel how hot it is." I did that~ and then she said, 'The fires in hell will be a million times hotter. You remember that the next time you tell me you didn't eat the banana pudding when you did." She was wise, this woman, and I was careful after that always to tell her the truth. The incident had another last- ing effect on me, too. To this day, whenever I see a garbage truck or smell burning eggshells or cantaloupe rinds, I feel the hot breath of the devil on my neck. I do not wish to imply my grandmother was without tenderness or affection, how- ever. She simply was the fam- ily enforcer. But she was also quick to listen to my prob- lems, and as quick to praise me when I was good as she was to switch the tar out of me when I was bad. My grandmother also enjoyed kissing her grand- children, which wouldn't have been all that much of a problem, had it not been for her aforementioned taste for snuff. Snuff has a pungent aroma that will burn your nose and eyes. When one is kissed by a person who is dip- ping snuff, it causes the kissee to sneeze and cough and want to rtm outside for a whiff of fresh air. I really don't know how my grandfa- ther stood it all those years, for he must have led the league in getting snuff- kissed. I don't recall ever hav- ing to kiss any other woman with her mouth full of snuff besides my grandmother, but I did later meet a man whose wife chewed tobacco. BY THE TIME I began fifth grade, I had begun to feel some sense of security again. I had my mother and my grandmother and my grandfather and we all lived together in that tiny house near the cemetery, and I had firmly entrenched myself in the little community. I was a Cub Scout, and attended Methodist Youth Fellowship on Sunday nights, and rode bikes, and threw rocks at road signs with my friends, and had a good dog, and one of the Garfields had moved on to high school in Newnan, which cut down my odds of being brutalized on the school grounds. My mother, as well, had settled into the routine of life in Moreland. We still heard from my father every now and then, and once we slipped away to meet him for a week- end in Atlanta. Daddy Bun and Mama Willie were not at all anxious to see their daugh- ter take up with the man who had hurt her so much. My mother said we were merely going to visit some of her old friends. Occasional visits with my father were marvelous. Despite his problems, he could still laugh a lot and still find ways to make those around him do the same. He still told the stories, still found an old piano to tear apart occa- sionally, and, perhaps out of guilt, he sent me home after each visit loaded with toys and gifts. I HAD TROUBLE keep- ing up with his whereabouts, however. He had problems holding a job. He borrowed money from friends, he wrote bad checks, he moved in to one place, and then he moved out one night and never left a forwarding address. So be it, I said to myself. He will turn up again sooner or later, and in the meantime, I had my mother. She would never have to go away again, and we were growing ever more close. She was honest with me. Except for a brie grossly overestimating abilities by enrolling me piano lessons until my teacher threw hands up in disgust and gested I couldn't beat a bourine because it took hands - something I knew from my rhythm days) my understand me. But there I had failed to about her. She was cally a young woman, the needs and desires same. Although she had not yet officially divorced my father, she, too, knew there was hope for reconciliation. stuck in small-town Georgi~ a first-grade with a 10-year-old son, with her parents, she obVi- ously yearned for compan° ionship. And when it finally was offered to her, I did that the intruder out. ...to be c~ntinued rte# week BY SPECIAL WITH HIS WIDOW, DEDRA, HOME NEWS IS CARRYING SELEC'q" ED COLUMNS BY GRIZZARD, ~TIO GREW UT LN NT, AB" BY MORELAND, AND MOST WIDELY READ GEORGL~ ~T, ITER OF HIS TIME. GRIZZARD~j BOOKS AND TAPES ARE STILL AVAIIr ABLEFORSALETHROUGH BAD BOOr PRODUCTIONS, P.O. BOX ATLANTA, GA 31118-1266 AND AI" BOOK AND MUSIC STORES NATION" WIDE. iii A $50 Loan, Kindling and 1 ckets to a UGA Many moons ago I was chief financial officer of Manchester Veneer Company, w.here~ it was my respons~ility to take care of the company's financial needs. Such a situation arose back in the middle sixties where I needed $10,000 to buy a tract of timber from Noel Haskins of Great Southern Paper Company. Our local policy back in those days was to rotate our business with the two com- mercial banks in Manchester at that time. That is how I hap- pened to be uptown present- ing my case to the late, great Claude Bray, Sr. As we discussed collater- al for the loan, Mr. Bray told me of a "bad loan" he had made years ago. He did not mention any names, but it was evident the experience was still deep in his memory. It seems back in the early history of the bank, Claude St. not only looked after reg- ular banking business, but during the winter it was his duty to arrive early to build a fire in the pot bellied stove before Eloise Howard and Martha Ely reported to work. This particular morning it was damp and cold and Claude could not get the fire going. A potential customer waiting to see the banker, apparently restless and tired of waiting, said, "Mr. Bray, I've got the very thing out in my truck to start that fire." This man went to his truck and returned with a big bun- dle of kindling. Soon the pot bellied stove was red hot. NATURALLY, Mr. Bray offered to pay for the kin- dling, but the potential cus- tomer would except no pay- ment, and told Mr. Bray, "You can do a little favor with a fifty dollar loan to buy spring planting seed." This was about all the information he gave me, other than the bank was forced to charge off the loan. Bryant "...Everybody in Bulldog-land was happy, including Claude Bray, St." I was relieved when he hand- ed me loan papers to sign. LATER THAT fall, we saw Claude and Fay at the high school football game. He told me something had come up and he needed two more tickets to the Georgia- Alabama football game Athens the next day. It just so happened our girls had just told me they did not want go to the game, that left with two tickets. After the game, came by to pick uI ets. He insisted he pay me, but pany tickets and not for WH_EN HE me a final time mone~ him straight in the eye said, "Mr. Bray, these tickets as a bundle kindling." You could tell I touched a tender spot Claude's past, but we laughed, but I'm not sure reminder was funny to him. All's well that ends Georgia beat Alabama next day, 21-0 and in Bulldog-land was happy, including Claude Bray, St. 5O OII I!I m the Hogansville Herald • READY FOR GOLF - "The invitational golf tour- nament to be held at the Hogansville Golf Club links next Sunday is going to draw a good number of play- era from small towns as well as a big town." • CREATURE COMFORTS - The May 13, 1954 Hogansville Herald carried Presentments from the 'Troup County Grand Jury. On the subject of the Hogansville City Jail, the Grand Jury suggested better heating and ventilation, and "also recommend addi- tional toilets be installed immediately." • MODERN MARVELS- The dawn of the riding mower: a large ad for Western Auto touted the won-" ders of the power lawn mower "...that pulls itself as it cuts your grass...or you can have one that you can ride as you cut. A woman or a small boy can use these fine mowers without getting tired." The ad showed nine- year-old Pepper Amold apparently having a good time while he cut a two-acre lawn in less than two hours." • CINEMA TIME- The Royal Theatre advertised a wide assortment of movies including "99 River Street," "Combat Squad," "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest," "The Bigamist," and the ever-provocative "She Couldn't Say No!" -CARS OF THE PAST - Hines Motor Company offered a 1951 Studebaker for $495, a 1941 Chevrolet Tudor for $75 and a 1947 Hudson for $2. *WANT AD WONDERS - "Lost or stolen: Brown terrier named Doodle, belonging to two-year-old child who is crying for her dog."