OPINION
PAGE 4 - HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS - JULY 15, 1999
THE HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS
), {6rh luhltcatign
Millard B. Gdmes, President
USPS 620-O40
MJI Itn
PUBLISItF'JAJ),RTI SING O IRFI'OR
JOHN Kuma,
ASSOCIATE PUBIJSHFJC/EDITOR
IUUON (TED) SMrm
MANAGING EDITORHNICAL
DW, ECrOR
WnJ3acr
BUSINESS Iq_ANAGER
J
Phone (706) 846-3188. Fax (706) 846-2206
P. O, Box 426
Hogansville, Georgia 30230
Ok.ia/ Legal OrD,1, C i O' Hogamville
Having New Eyes
"The real voyage of discov-
ery consists not in seeking new
landscapes, but in having new
eyes." - Marcel Proust
When was the last time you
felt the exhilarating rush of
pure personal freedom? The
kind of freedom the last day of
school brought when you were
a kid.
The last time I felt a true
sense of liberated exhilaration
was the summer I married Mr.
Clark, some 20 years ago now.
We were young and about to
start into a bunch of new and
exciting things.
Mr. (/lark had just graduat-
ed from college and I was about
to go back, after a rough cou-
ple of years doing other things.
We moved into a beautiful third
floor apartment in a recently
restored old house and we had
the world by the tail (or so it
seemed.) The sky was the limit
as to how great things were
going to be...
But, we wanted to take a trip,
a trip to Mexico, sort of a "last
hurrah" before we buckled
down and became adults; and,
we didn't have the funds to
finance such an event.
Mr. Clark's "real job" as a
freshty-grakmt computer
professional hadn't started yet;
and, my waitressing money
barely paid the bills. So, we
hatched a plan to net us the cash
for our much-desired trip.
Knowing that our relatives
would have no idea what to get
a silly pair of non-materialistic
Hippy newlyweds (who already
had been co-habitating for
awhile) we decided to get mar-
ried, assuming that cash wold
be the perfect gift.
We planned our wedding
quickly, after reserving airline
tickets to Cancun, of course;
and were married three weeks
later - outdoors, by a friend's
mountain pond.
I remember the excitement
of those days - planning the
wedding, arranging the flow-
ers, fixing the food (it was low
budget, do-it-yoursclf, young
Hippie kind of event) I remem-
ber the unbridles exhilaration
of it all - the end of one entire
period of life and the beginning
of the next! The wedding was
wonderful - everything I hoped
it would be - and the trip was
as freedom filled as we had
envisioned. (You have to be
young and exhilarated to have
only bliss-filled memories of a
week spent in Mexico, in
August, staying in a straw hut
by the beach in "hamacas mat-
rimonialis,"a pair of hammocks
hung side-by-side.)
We returned, tan, relaxed
and ready to face adult-life,
Lodn
Sinn-
Clark
which is pretty much what we
did. It turned out that was our
"last hurrah" in terms of any
type of personal freedom and
we have not been exhilarated
since.
But, as much as I'd like to
spend just one more day as
excited s the kids about to grad-
uate, I wouldn't exchange one
piece of my "adult" wisdom for
it. For everything there is a time
and a place.
When we planned that wed-
ding we didn't expect things to
last. Our relatives probably did-
n't either - hence the cash
prizes, rather than lasting wed-
ding gifts.
'Life surprises you, though,
and we're still here - having
made it through two kids, sev-
eral houses, a hunch of cards,
money stuff, a cross-country
move, and a lot of career and
personal change.
You have"t accept that
th/ngs rarely turn out like you
plan; a lot of times they're even
better. I never dreamed giving
up those times of exhilarated
personal freedom would net me
the truly blessed (if not exhil-
arating or freedom-filled)
"adult" life that I have.
Sometimes I hanker for a
dose of pure personal freedom.
But, you have to be careful in
my time of life. You can get
yourself in trouble - too zeal-
ously craving that and lose
some valuable things along the
way.
The best you can achieve,
once you reach a certain point,
may be a different version of
"adult" . reality. The key
becomes to gracefully accept
that itain't gonna be that good
again, then learn to look with
different eyes.
That child graduating can
be a new beginning for morn or
dait. Starting a new job may be
the rush you need. Paying off
a debt or putting money aside
can be quite exhilarating; and,
sometimes quitting a bad job
can be just the thing. There's
always vacations, Sunday
mornings and those occasional
afternoons that belong only to
you... Who knows what kind of
exhilaration tomorrow might
bring?
The key is to simply remem-
ber to consciously and enthusi-
astically savor the simplest
things.
THE HOGANSVn.I NEWS is published weekly by the Star-Mercury Publishing
Company, a division of Grin Publications. at 3051 Roosevelt Highway, Manchester,
Georgia 31816. USPS 620-0. Subscription rates by mail: $15 in Meriwether, Talbot
or Hams Counties: $20 a year elsewhere. Prices include all sales taxes. Second class
postage paid at Hogansville, G¢org 30230.
Foe suascamrmNs call (706) 846-3 ! 88 or write to Circulation Manager, Star
Mercury Publications, P. O. Box 426, Manchester. Georgia 31816.
POSTMASTEm Send address changes to P. O. Box 426. Hogansville, GA 30230.
STAW
Publisher and Advertising Director ..................................................................... Mike Hale,
Associate Publisher and Editor ....... .............. . ........................................... John Kuykendall
Managing Editor and Technical Director ...................................... '....Marion (Ted) Smith
Business Manager ....................................................................................... LeeAnn Wilben
Associate Editors .......................... Billy Bryant/Talboaon, Michael Snider/Hams County
Dan Stont/itogansville. Caroline Yeager/GreenviLle
Assistant Advertising Manager ............... :; ....................................................... Laurie Lewis
Advertising Sales .............................................................................................. Lmda Lester
Photography ................................................................................................... Michael Snider
Features ............................................................................................................... Lain A. Pike
Composing ................................................................................... Valinda lvery, Dori Green
Legals ................................................................................................................ Valmda lvery
Receptionist and Classifieds .............................................................................. Clem Young
Pressroom ....................................................................... David Soggs, Wayne Grochowski
C O'cg
President ......................................................................................................... Millard Gnmes
Vice President ........................................................................................ Charlotte S. Grimes
Secretary ................................................................................................ i.amra Grimes Corer
Treasurer .............................................................................................. Kathy Grimes Gatmtt
Legal Counsel and Assistant ..................................................... James S. Grimes
That's All It Takes
Recently, I had to go and get
my spiritual tanks topped off.
There comes a time when we
all have to "hit the pits" for a
splash of life-givlng substance
before we finish a race, or in
my case, a year.
That happens for me some-
where around the end of May
or first of June, which I have
declared vacation week.
Life in general takes a lot
out of a person, and over this
last year I not only needed the
splash of gas, but a set of new
tires, too.
It isn't enough that I'm once
again indulging my fantasies by
buying another sports car, but
I'm also getting my daughter
married and remodeling most
of my house all in the same sum-
mer.
Well, if you gotta do it you
might as well do it all at the same
time and get it over with. That's
why I needed this vacation so
badly.
Normally it takes about six
hours to reach the Georgia
coast, but the traffic was light
and my foot was a bit heavier
than usual and we made it in a
little over four.
Driving in the heat and traf-
fic doesn't always help sustain
a relationship, so my wife was
very glad when I reached the
island and my features began
to stop resembling those of
"Taz", as in Tasmanian Devil.
It helps if you already have
reservations when you do this
for Me
sort of thing, but we didn't.
It was hot, and so werre we
when I pulled in to the first
motel. Jekyll Island is usually
lazy about this time of year, but
for some reason everybody that
needed to have a convention
decided this was the time to do
it and Jekyll was the place.
I've never seen so many tour
buses in such a small area since
the Gray Line did a tour of the
interstate highways around
metro Atlanta last summer.
Our usual haunt wasn't a
consideration this year and
that's why we went without
reservations. Last time they put
us under a room that leaked air
conditioning coolant on our bal-
cony.
It's nice to have a short rain
shower every evening to remind
one that he is in the tropics, but
all day long is ridiculous. I did-
n't know those things could hold
that much freon.
Excuse me, I mean R134.
Anyway, after more tries than
I can recall right now to find
lodging, we got a little tired and
checked in at the Holiday Inn.
You cm--.'t see the ocean from
there and they don't fly the state
flag, which I'm still upset about,
but I was desperate so I followed
the instructions on the coffee
mug which sits near the back of
my desk that says, "If all else
fails, lower your standards."
I go to the islands to enjoy
peace and quiet. Now, I know
most of you have been to the
to
Jim Dale
Columnist
Florida coast and wonder if I'm
confusing peace and quiet with
tourism and the development
that follows it to the water•
The answer is no, because
some parts of the Georgia coast,
so far, are basically untouched
by that kind of overkill you see
on our neighboring state's
shores•
If you are pretty good at out-
running mosquitoes and horse-
flies, and don't mind the wind
blowing your hair in every
direction then you can walk
down a beach without having to
stel5 over someone every few
feet.
And you watch dolphins fol-
lowing the shrimp boats only a
hundred or so yards off the
shore. That's all it takes for me
to get renewed.
My wife can only take so
much of this communing with
nature before she's ready to go
inside and read a book or take
a nap.
Of course, eating is also a
renewal effort. This time I was
careful. You see, I've lost thir-
ty pounds and it's important that
Get Renewed
I don't gain it back; my
won't fit again. So,
included) tried to "cool
the chow.
I decided to be
tire in my choices of
eat, placing my F
decor instead of the
food
I have to recommend a
on St. Simons Island
Mullet Bay.
We ate on the covered
that surrounds the
is separated from the
tropical plants that make
feel like, well, you're in thel
ics. Where else?
The overhead ceiling
and trophy fish hanging
inside walls sort of
of being at one of
Hemmingway's hanl
Key West. We split a
grilled chicken sandwich.
Do you know
can make eating chicken s
wiches a romantic
So, as you can see
my spirit renewed
ready for another year.
me enou
under the checkered flag,
still have energy enough t
a few donuts." So
those sports cars,
receptions and 1:
and another year.
By the way,
of them do you say are
before I can retire and
this all the time?
Warm Springs Becomes Health Facility
(Amther in a series)
Some of Franklin
Roosevelt's friends and mem-
bers of the growing staff at
Warm Springs suggested to him
in 1927 that he concentrate on
the therapeutic part-
Warm Springs operation, and
abandon efforts to build a
Georgia "Pinehurst", or upscale
resort.
Roosevelt felt he needed the
money from the non-polio cus-
tomers, and he didn't have a
large enough medical staff to
make Warm Springs into a rec-
ognized health facility.
He had hired Dr. Leroy W.
Hubbard in 1926, who had just
retired from the New York State
Board of Health, to be the sur-
geon in chief, and Helena
Mahoney had the title of
Director of Nurses.
Both had had experience
with polio patients, but she had
a more dynamic personality
than Hubbard and for the first
few years she probably had
more to do with the develop-
ment of the after-care programs
than did Dr. Hubbard or "Dr."
Roosevelt.
Dr. Hubbard had three
years' experience as an ortho-
pedic surgeon, dealing with
after-care of polio patients; that
was important. But Warm
Springs still had difficulty get-
ting the professional accept-
ance that Roosevelt wanted.
The American Orthopedic
Association held its annual
meeting in Atlanta the spring
Roosevelt bought Warm
Springs.
He went to Atlanta and lob-
bied with orthopedists and asso-
ciation officials to get Warm
Springs in some way supported
by the association. They turned
him down.
Despite that setback, and
because of growing friction
between polios and vacationers,
Roosevelt reluctantlydecided in
1927 to make Warm Springs a
full time health spa, not a resort.
The corporation that had been
established with profit-making
as a goal was replaced by the
Georgia Warm Springs
Foundation, Inc. Roosevelt was
president, as he had been of the
initial corporation.
The trustees of the founda-
tion were all directors of the
earlier corporation: Dr.
Hubbard, George Foster
Peabody, and the two business-
men whose daughters' polio had
introduced them to Warm
Springs and Roosevelt, Henry
Pope and James Whitehead.
It was Roosevelt's belief that
wealthy individuals like
Peabody, Pope and Whitehead
would support the Warm
Springs venture as a favorite
philanthropy. But in the next
few years, Roosevelt himself
was the major - though not the
exclusive - supporter of his
dream.
It was his money, or the
guarantee of it, that made it pos-
sible for the gap between inad-
equate income and the costs of
the enterprise to be made up.
The early effort of the ven-
ture proved costly. Dr. Hubbard
and Mahoney were joined by a
physiotherapist, Helen Lauer,
then another and soon a corps
of "physics", as they were
called. These were young
female graduates in physical
education from Nashville's
Peabody College.
Their job was to work with
The
Squire
of Warm
By-00
the patients in the pool, forcing
them to move muscles they
couldn't move themselves,
teaching them to move muscles
they only thought they couldn't
move, developing strengths to
compensate for muscles that
would never regain function.
This was the central activi-
ty at Warm Springs in the first
years, before there was a hos-
pital for corrective surgery. The
polios and the physics would get
into the pools together.
The polio would sit, lie or be
strapped in some fashion,
depending on the type of afflic-
tion, to an underwater table, and
the physic would begin coerc-
ing limb movement. There were
some dozen physics by 1928.
Fred Botts had become regis-
trar.
Another polio, Arthur
Carpenter, who came down
from Connecticut for treatment
in 1927, was soon to become
business manager.
There had been only 33
• ,, " ,,
polios- or compamons as they
began to call themselves - at
Warm Springs at the end of the
1926 season, by an unofficial
count. In 1927, there were some
80 companions at an informal
Thanksgiving dinner to end the
season.
Patients then were paying
$42 a week for "room
treatment, use of the
transportation to and
same," as Mahoney put it
letter
the inn or a
was necessary, since the l
distance was too far for
all the polios, even the oneS!
could walk.
It was provided first
old touring car, then in a
the numbers increased.
bodied friends or
accompanied
tions paid $28 a week for
and board.
Neither figure
true costs of the
that time.
Roosevelt was
checks or signing notes
abandon. For example, in
1927 he wrote checks
Curtis, then
Meriwether Reserve
$4,500, $5,000, $2
$6,8oo.
That year all other
butions from friends
ning this place,
ing everything up,"
Veeder (nee Hudson),
a
1928, said years later. "The
all went to Hyde Park."
It was not just
Roosevelt was
was still "Dr."
gesting therapies to
and staff alike. He was
involved in such
sketchinga design for the]
Ford pool, designing a
chair that made it
to move in and out of it.
(Next week: Return to
tics.)
Buck Belue: Remembering Coach Bazemo00
Living legends are a rare
breed, indeed. It's not often in
life, we have the opportunity to
hang around greatness, and
observe their day to day behav-
ior. Looking back on my days
as an athlete, I "truly feel
blessed. My path led to experi-
ences with some of the great-
est coaches to ever roam the
sideline. Wright Brazemore is
at the top of the list.
Sure, I understand my days
around Coach Bazemore, were
lived during my impressionable
years. But even now, as an adult,
I feel the same way.
Paul "Bear" Bryant also
made a huge impression on me,
during my recruitment, as a
• high school senior, and anoth-
er, in the East-West Shrine
College All-Star game. The man
could make a room silent by
simply walking in. He could also
bring down the chandelier with
one of his inspirational tirades.
Memorable times, around a
great football coach, no doubt.
"Belue, I see you want to
play baseball too." Coach
Bryant asked me in his office
on the Alabama campus, dur-
ing my recruiting visit•
"Yes. sir, Coach," I said
meekly.
"Son, we've never hada foot-
ball player on scholarship play
baseball, and we sure as hell
are not going to start with you,"
the Bear growled.
Man, now that was funny,
although I did not laugh at the
time. But it was obvious to me,
Bear Bryant enjoyed the inter-
action with the young men that
Buck Belue
Columnist
.... i
crossed his path. He was spe-
cial. Not one young man that
played for Coach Bryant will
ever forget the impact he had
on their lives.
Erk Russell was cut from
the same breed. He touched
people in a special way, on and
off the field. Sure, Coach
Russell knew football, inside
and out...but it was his ability
to motivate and communicate
that completed his
status in my book.
coaches out there can
one minute, and play
with you the next.
I have so
memories of
but I must admit, my
is a no-brainer. November,
Auburn, Alabama... the ':
had just clinched the
Championship, by whipp
Tigers, one week after
Scott burned the GatorS
that 92 yard touchdown.
As we celebrated
lockeroom, Erk made
around, with a hug and
cigar for each
Coach Wright
Valdosta was a man for
