THE HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS
USPS 62OO4O
Millard S. Gdmes, Pmeideflt
MIKE HE
PUBUSHEADvE']NG DIRECTOR
JOHN KUYKENDALL
ASSOCTE PtmUSHER/EDrrOR
BRYAN GET
ASSOCIATE EvrroR
JA
BUSINESS IvmaNAG]
mere
Phone (706) 846-3188. Fax (706) 846-2206
P. O. Box 426
Hoemsvi Georgia 30230
Convention
Stirs Memory
As I watched the GOP con-
vention Monday night as it was
broadcast live from the "City of
Brotherly Love," childhood mem-
ories floated through my mind.
As a boy growing up in west-
ern Meriwether County on a
farm, we didn't have a color tele-
vision. As a matter of fact, no one
in our community did.
Our TV worked sometimes
and sometimes it would go on
strike. - you had to "strike" it for
it to work.
EVERY FOUR YEARS dur-
ing the Democratic Presidential
Convention, my mother's great
cousins, Cousin Mary Lou
Trammeil and Cousin Mable
TrammeU, would come to our
house at night - since they just
lived a mile away - to watch the
convention.
Mary Lou was a rich lady who
owned a 800 acre plantation at
White Sulphur Springs, but she
didn't own a television. She said
she didn't believe in them.
The little pt'lte lady never
married and split the time living
in Washington D.C. and
Meriwether County.
Cousin Mary Lou taught
school in D.C.
Cousin Mable, her younger
sister, was a short lady, yet a lit-
fie heavy, with a sweet personal-
ity. She never married, either.
Mary Lou lived to be 102 years
old and Mable was in her nineties
when she passed away.
They were both staunch
Democrates.
THEY HAD a brother we
called Uncle Bill who was right
the opposite. He was a
Republican. He visited with our
family almost daffy.
They all shared an large ante-
bellum house.
When Mary Lou called, she
let it be known it was not a social
visit but a political one.
It was backin the early 1960's,
but I still remember John F.
Kennedy being nominated. I
remember Jimmy Carter in the
1970's, Richard Nixon and Ronald
Reagan later on.
I remember Bill Clinton and
Bob Dole most recently.
I vote not for the party but
for the man.
Monday night it listened with
intensity since I'm not sure which
candidate I will vote for in
November.
Colin Powell made a great
speech Monday night as he said,
"it is time totmild children and
g:jas." He said jails
are just a temporary fix.
He said ff we stop crime on
our streets, it must began with
US.
He said we need mentors, fos-
ter parents and listeners if homes
are broken.
"CIKldren are gifts to us - It
is ALL our responsibility, " he
said.
He said we need to teach our
children to give back- let them
be a part of the solution." He said
George W. Bush wants quality
education for all children. "We
can't leave any child behind."
IN TWO WEEKS, I'll watch
the Democratic Conventioa
Hopefully, then I can make a
decision on whom I will vote for
in November. Until then I, guess
John Rocker is still in the Iead!
Get out and
Ne00Tuesday
...It's Your Duty
Tlm HOC, A'RLg Hob[z NEws is published weekly by the Sti-Mercta'y Publishing
Company, a division of Grimes Publications, at 3051 Roosevelt Highway, Manchester,
Georgia 31816. USPS 620-040. Subscfiptioa rates by mail: $16in Tmup, Hea of Mefiwether
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Hogansville. Geoa 30230.
FoR call (706) 846-3188 or write to Circulation Manage, Star Mercury
Publications, P. O. Box 426, Manches, Geoq 31816.
POSZMAS'T: Send address changes to R O. Box 426, Hogansville, GA 30230.
S
Publisher and Advertisin 8 Director .................................................................... Mike Hale
Associate Publisher and Editor .................. : ............................................. .J Kuykendall
Associate Editor ................................................................................................. .Bryan Gctr
Assistant Editor ....................................... : .................................................. .Rob Richardson
Business Manager ....................................................................................... Jayne Goldsn
Staff Writers ...................................................................... .Michael C. Snida-, Billy Bryant
Assistant Advertising Manager ...................................................................... .Laurie Lewis
Advertising Sales ................................................................................................ Camp
of Photogmy ........................................................................ .Michael C. Snide*
Assistant Editor .......................................................................................... Richards
Composing ................................................... Wmda Vcbomh Sm Lmrm rang
Legals ............................................................................................................ Jaym Gol&ton
Receptionist and Classifieds .................................................. . ......................... Cl Young
Pmducm Mn ........................................................................................ Zmd res
......... .................................................................... Dmdd Boggs md Wmmm Hill
Com, ct Ommm
Presider .................................................................................................. A4illffid B. Csin
Vice President ........................................................................................ Chmtotte S. Grimes
Secretary .......................................................................................... Lmm Odmm C.d
Treasurer ................................................................................ _....Ahy Cmm
L Coumd md Ammm Sec ................................................... S. C.
OPINION
PAGE 4 - HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS - AUG. 3, 2000
Prayers Helped Me
@
(Written in mki-1993)
While I was recuperating
from my most recent operation,
it wasn't always pleasant being
around me. I wasn't always nice
to Dedra. Or Jordan. Or Steve. Or
James. Or Catfish.
"Depression is normal," they
told Dedra.
Didn't make it any easier. I
need to get her a T-shirt that says,
"I survived Lewis Grizzard's third
heart surgery."
Survival.
There is that word again.
How did I manage it?
It was the skill of the doctors,
of course. It was the skill and the
great care of all the medical per-
sonnel involved in my case. It had
to do with the wonderful technol-
ogy of today. Oh, the magic they
can weave in medicine.
THEY RAISED me back from
near-dead. I was a gone goose. My
heart wouldn't beat, for crying
out loud. I had thirty hours' worth
of operations in thirty-six. The
only way I stayed alive after that
was because somebody once
invented the heart-lung machine.
And when I had come off that
thing, Dr. Mark Connelly of the
transplant team at Emory sug-
gested those roller pumps, and I
held on with those somehow.
I nearly bled to death what
was it, three times? There were
those experimental drugs again.
Because I was out of it the
whole time, I would have given
all the credit to the doctors ff
nobody had told me any differ-
ently after the crisis.
They came to my bedside and
said things I never thought I
would hear such people of science
say.
One said, "A higher power
was looking after you. I still don't
know how you made it."
Another said, "I now believe
in miracles." ......
Dr. Randolph Martin said,
"My friend, if you don't believe
in the power of prayer now, you
never will. I certainly do."
OF COURSE I remembered
then. In the last column before I
entered Emory, I had asked read-
ers to pray for me.
But does anybody take any-
thing like that seriously in 1993?
They do. Yes, indeed, they do.
They said they'd never seen
anything like it at Emory. The
switchboard, they told me, never
stopped raging during my most
critical times. And the messages
were always the same:
"Tell Lewis we,re praying for
hire."
My newspaper syndicate, the
Atlanta papers, and the hospital
received fifty thousand pieces of
mail.
"Get well," the cards said.
'Tee're praying for you."
When the news broke that I
was on the transplant list, some-
body said the hospital got a call
from a convent in Kentucky. A
nun was dying of a brain tumor.
The sisters offered me the dying
nun's heart.
A man is said to have called
and offered his own heart.
"I don,t have anything left to
live for," he is said to have said.
"Maybe Lewis does."
Every day I have been out in
public since my surgery, some
body has come up to me and said
something like "Glad to see
you're doing better. My Sunday
school class really prayed hard
for you."
A man wrote, "My prayer
group met at my house, and we
did nothing for two hours but pray
for you."
That has not stopped since I
was out of the hospital.
OVER AT LAKE Oconee, I
was having dinner at a local
restaurant. An older man came
................. ::iiii00i00iii00!!!iiiiiiii!i!ii!ili00i!!!i!i0000i!!
to my table, took my hand, and
said, "Young man, we're sure glad
you're still with us. My wife and
I never gave up on you or stopped
praying for you. As long as there
is somebody to pray, there is a
chance that things will work out.
Don't ever forget that."
There were tears in the old
man's eyes as he walked away
from me. There were tears in
mine, too.
An entire family drove all the
way from Louisiana to be at
Emory to pray for me.
Reverend Gilbert Steadham,
whom I asked Dedra to get to pray
at my funeral, was with me and
the family at Emory. I know he
must have kept the prayer lines
busy.
I even heard tzat former
Atlanta mayor,Andy-'-oung said
he prayed for me. And I try not
to be very nice to politicians in
my column.
Once I became aware Of the
efforts and the prayers of all who
were involved, I began to wonder
"how on earth will I ever let there
people know how much I appre-
ciate it? They had to have had
something to do with the fact that
I was still alive. Too many med-
ical folk had said it wasn't all their
work.
First, I am trying to answer
each card, each letter, with a sim-
ple "Thank you."
Second, I decided I would try
to get a permit to hold a large
meeting in the parking lot at
Atlanta Stadium. What I was
going to do was invite everybody
who prayed forme to Colile. Then,
one by one, I was
their blessed necks
"From the very
heart, I want you to
n't have made it without'
I couldn't get a
Politicians.
SO, what I did
write my first
a thank you note. I
people read it
I feel.
better here: For
be asked this question:
are you feeling
And it's an
I just say, "Loved.
feeling loved."
BY SPECIAL
MENT WITH HIS
DEDRA, THE
CARRYING
COLUMNS BY
LEWIS GRIZZARD
UP IN NEARBY
AND BECAME THE
WIDELY READ
WRITER OF HIS
GRIZZARD
ALL AMERICA BUT
TICULARLY
THIS AREA OF
WHICH
AND
85 FROM
HOGANSVILLE IS
HIS HONOR. THE
GRIZZARD MUSEUM
IN 1996, AND
EDITING LAB IS
ICATED TO HIS
HIS BELOVED
OF
BOOKS
AVAILABLE FOR
THROUGH BAD
191266,
Road To Polio Vaccine Diffic
The first Birthday Ball was so
successful that President
RooseveR decided to "donate" his
birthday to the cause every year.
The following November, at morn-
ing press conference in the Little
White House, Roosevelt explained
the decision.
It was very informal, as usual.
"Drape yourselves around," he
began. "Sit on the sofa, Russell
[Young, a reporter]. Fred [Storm,
another reporter] does not have
to sit down today... Well, I asked
the Trustees [of the Foundation]
to come here today because we
have been working on this thing
for a couple of weeks now, on the
subject of a Birthday Ball... Henry
L. Doherty suggested another
Birthday Ball and we put it up to
the Trustees and the Trustees
made a recommendationL"
That recommendation, in a let-
ter to Roosevelt, which he read to
the reporters, was for another ball
in 1935, but this time the money
would not be for Warm Springs.
About 70% of it, he read, would
be used to provide care and treat-
ment in the community where it
was raised, and 30% would be used
for medical research to develop
prevention and immunization for
polio.
Then he read a letter from him
to Doherty saying he agreed.
ROOSEVELT TOLD reporters
off the record: "I think this will be
a great thing because it means that
a great many communities - and
this is not for quotes at all - have
no facilities, and now will be able
to start their own."
The January celebrations that
followed in 1935, 1936, and 1937
were similar to the 1934 effort, but
they had less than the desired
results. Not as much money was
raised in any year as had been in
1934. O'Connor and other suspect-
ed this was partly due to
Roosevelt's increasing unpopular-
ity with the well-to-do who could
afford the larger donations and
the higher priced bails.
SOME OTHERS seemed to
feel that the polio fight was too
partisan. They lumped together
the President, the President's
Commission and Warm Springs.
An even less desirable result of
the new effort was that a research
project seeking a vaccine pro-
duced one that was not only inef-
fective for thatpurpose, but result-
ed in a death; then another effort
produced six deaths.
The problem, as the scientists
who later Produced successful
vaccines saw it, was that the effort
was not focused, as it should have
"..But this time
the money would
not be for Warm
Springs."
been, on basic research into a way
to prevent it. There were some
successes, but the consensus view
on the research done for the
Birthday Balls Commission was
that it was "a minus", as Dr.
Thomas M. Rivers, the great virol-
ogist and advisor to the National
Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
later put it.
(Of course, the money and the
research eventually led to the Salk
vaccine, and a
of polio.)
THE
FOUNDATION was
the 1937
emphasized
of that
include Warm S
"among man
fairness to m
bilities, I cannot at
a very active part in the
broader work that will be
out by
hold any official
Basil O'Connor
dent.
(Next week: Better
raise money.)
rHE SQUIRE OF qI
OFWARM:
AT THE GIFT SHOF
TAINS ALL
REPRINTED IN
PER DURING THE
PROCEEDS FROM TH
SALE ALL GO TO
SEVELT
CENTER.
Following Directions: It Makes S
There have been countless
times parents, especially dada,
have struggled with the assem-
bly of a child's new toy. On
Christmas Eve many a frustrat-
ing night has been spend trying
to determine which piece goes
where and with what fastener.
Then, after a couple of hours of
little success, the frustrated
father picks up the instructions
to see what themanufacturer has
to say. Finally after following the
directions, the toy is complete.
Not following the directions in
the assembly of a toy may not
have serious consequences, but
not following the directions in the
training of a child can and will be
disastrous.
If it is wise to consult the man-
ufacturer in the assembly of a toy,
would it not be just as wise to con-
stilt the manufacturer of our chil-
dren?
The other night my son Jason
and I were invited by another fel-
low to go see the Atlanta Braves
play. We all had an enjoyable time
and even experiences something
that very few in the state of
Georgia have experienced this
summer, rain.
As we waited for the rain to
stop and play to resume, I noticed
something disturbing.
The young people that were
there simply ran loose without
any supervision at all. The behav-
ior of one particular group caught
my attention.
Their behavior wasn't such to
cause the field officials to eject
them from the stadium, but their
behavior was such that some par-
ent ought to have taken action.
But, no parents were to be found.
Many times we hear after a child
has gotten into serious trouble,
"Where did I go wrong?" My ques-
tion is, "Did you follow the direc-
tions?"
There are young people today
who have come under serious
attack. This attack has been lev-
eled because of teen smoking,
teen alcohol and drug abuse, teen
sexual misconduct and
of other things.
actions are
blame is not all to
the young people.
The responsibility
instruction and
dren lies with the
cially the father.
in Epheslans 6:4, "And,
provoke not your
wrath: but brin
nurture and
Lord," If we are
change in the
nations youth,
directions.
But as parents who
care for the heritage
blessed us with, let us
up by following the
God has given us.
