OPINION
PAGE 4 - HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2, 1999
THE HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS
USPS 62---"----0
: MInE HALZ
JSHEtffADVERTIShNG
DIRECTOR
ASS(K:IA'I: PU BLISIJt/EDITOR
" _, L::, WnET
A (grime uhliatim,
Mlllard B. Grimes, President
Phone (7() 846-3188. Fax (706) 846-2205
R O. Box 426
1 toansville, (orgia .tl)230
( )€] c ! l ',,, ' (hX, dr ( ¢; .l / ,,, ,' ,vd/c
Acts of Kindness
"'Kindness is loving people
more than they deserve." -
Joseph Joubert.
One of the best parts of my
job is the mail I get. And one
of the most delightful things
about having my particular
job in the South, which is the
land of thank you notes, is that
I get a lot of mail.
One of the things that
Southerners probably don't
realize is the power of those
profuse thank you prose.
You take it for granted that
this simple yet time- and
stamp-consuming gesture will
be made. Elsewhere that is not
necessarily the case.
Having started into a new
profession relatively late in
life - a profession that
demands one lay one's heart,
soul, and reputation on the line
week after week- I can tell
you every single thank you
note, gesture, or word I get is
deeply appreciated.
I wrestle with tendencies.
towards anger, depression and
obsession on an almost dally
basis.
I am high-strung and
stress-prone to start with, and
newspaper work compounds
that - exponentially some
days.
It's amazing how, in a pre-
dictable, almost miraculous
way, a thank you note, kind
letter or word of encourage-
ment arrives, just when I need
it the most.
And that pool of anger, self-
pity, self-righteousness or
doubt I was wallowing in melts
away.
The other day (and it was
a wallowing kind of day), I got
just such a note from a woman
who said she liked my column
about wanting some tiny
hands to hold on the first day
of school because, at 79, she
still feels the same way.
Imagine that!
After all those first days
of school, she still feels that
way.
On another particularly
rough day, a woman appeared
with two of her famiy's prized
pound cake recipes.
I had mentioned in a col-
umn months before that I was
becoming increasingly fond
of the South and that I knew
I'd finally feel like I "belong"
when someone gives me a
family pound cake recipe.
How did that delightful
woman know how much I
needed to feel like I
"belonged" on that very day?
One of my personal news-
paper heroes, Celestine
Sibley, died recently.
Lodn
Sinn-
Clark
Columnist
She too had the fortune to
work in newspaper, but on a
much grander scale than I.
She too touched lives with
her column, but with much
more talent than I. And she
too, I judge from reading the
coverage her newspaper has
honored her with since her
death, got lots of mail, bags
and bags, of course, more than
I.
In reading about the way
Celestine's readers treated
her during the 55 years of her
column writing career, I was
touched by how similarly my
readers treat me.
With that realization, I was
humbled and impressed.
Reading about the simple
kindnesses Celestine received
during her long and success-
ful career made me realize
how greatly I've been blessed,
because in your acts of kind-
ness, praise and encourage-
ment, my "realness" in this
profession is expressed.
Ma)*be, someday if I keep
at it, I will be as well-loved
(of course on a much smaller
scale) as Celestine was - by
people she'd never even met.
The ability to write is a gift,
a blessing and in my case, a
surprise.
Acknowledging it is
frightening enough, but to
exercise it publicly day after
day, as it gradually comes to
dominate your life, takes more
than courage.
It takes encouragement,
And that is what those thank
you notes, kind letters, gifts
and acts of appreciation pro-
vide.
For people to take time out
of their busy lives, to let a
writer know that some of the
words he or she strung togeth-
er touched them, is so kind.
And for them to do that as
often as they do, as genuine-
ly as they do, profoundly
inspires me.
So thank you kind readers,
for all that you do.
I don't know how column
writers get started in the rest
of the country, but I'm glad
my start came here in the land
of thank you notes.
Maybe that's why so many
good writers come from the
South.
TIlE Htx;assvu,i,: HomL N:vs is published weekly by the Star-Mercury Publishing
Company, a division of Grimes Publications, a! 3051 Roosevelt Highway, Manchester,
Georgia 31816. USPS 620-040. Subscnption rates by mail: $15 in Meriwether, Talbot
or Harris Counties; $20 a year elsewhere. Prices include all ,sales taxes. Second class
postage paid at Hogansville, Georgia "0230,
FOR SUaSt'RIPTIONS call (706) 846-3188 or write to Circulation Manager, Star
Mercury Publications, P. O. Box 426, Manchester, Georgia 31816.
POSl"MAS'IXR: Send address chmlges to E O. Box 426, Hogansville, GA 30230.
STAFF
Publisher and Advertising Director .................................................................... Mike Hale
Associate Publisher and Fzlitor ................................................................. John Kuykendatl
Managing Editor and Technic',d Director ........................................... Marion (Ted) Smith
Business Manager ....................................................................................... LeeAnn Wflbert
Associate Editors .......................... Billy Bant/Talbotton, Michael Snider/Hams County
Bryan Geter/ltogansville. Camhne Yeager/Greenville, Lee N. Howell
Staff Writer ........................................................................................................ J. Daa Stout
Assistant Advertising Manager ....................................................................... Laurie Lewis
Advertising Sales ............................................................................................. l.Anda Lester
Photography ............................................................................................... Michael Snider
Composing ................................................................................ Valinda lvery, Dori Green
Legals ................................................................................................................ Valinda lvery
Receptionist and Classifieds .............................................................................. Cleta Young
Pressroom ..................................................................... David Boggs, Wayne Grochowski
CORI )RA'I'F OFFICERS
President ......................................................................................................... Millard C__aimes
Vice President ........................................................................................ Charlotte S. Cain,s
Secretary ................................................................................................ Laura Grimes Cofer
Treasurer .............................................................................................. Kathy Gan
Legal Counsel and Assistant Secretary .................................................... James S. C_aimes
Nothing Like Friday Night Football
Without a doubt, the fall of dium on a nice fall Saturday years about football. Let
the year is most definitely my afternoon watching your share a few of them with
favorite time. The trees begin favorite team is a real treat. Tfibble At a high school
to turn, the weather begins to The tailgate gatherings, either game some years ago,
cool (thank goodness) and foot- before or after the game, adds home team was F
bails begin to fill the air. After another area of enjoyment, teen yards for a late hit.
a long hot summer, these things Then there is professional coach didn't like it at all
football. There was a time Former hollered at the referee
are much looked forward to.
In my book, there is no bet-
ter place to spend a Friday
night thaw at a high school foot-
ball game. It seems that our
town, and most of those towns
where we publish newspapers,
revolve around their high
school football team. The
atmosphere at these games is
one of excitement as the band
plays, the cheerleaders get
everyone into the right spirit
and the team takes the field.
There is nothing like high
school football on a Friday
night.
Next in my book is college
football. Sitting in a large sta-
You Get It
when I thought that if profes-
sional football was on televi-
sion, it was a sin not to watch
the game. Those thoughts have
changed though over the years
with so many games now on
television during prime time.
High school football rank-
ings came out last week for
Georgia, and Manchester is the
third place pick (AP) in Class
AA. The number one team is
Carrollton, last year's AA state
champions. Mitchell-Baker,
whom Manchester slid by in
last yea's state playoffs, is the
number two team. Washington
County, Class AA state cham-
PuNisher
pions in 1996 and 1997, is in the
number five spot, and Brooks
County, who beat Manchester
for the Class A state title in
1994, is ranked number seven
in the pre-season picks.
In the AAA rankings, Peach
County is in the number nine
spot, while in Class A, Dooley
County was picked as the
number five team. Twiggs
County tied with Bowdon for
the tenth slot.
There have been many
funny stories told over the
By Ray King
hFTgI00, t00tDtttfilh'l", Bu-00
a; sHo00,' DO NEED SoME
c00gAN 14
L l, tozlc."
REMF-MBEP, You
"You stink. You stink." The
eree marched off another
teen yards, turned around
the coach and asked,
I smell from here?"
The Dean at the
of Georgia told the head
that he wasn't takin
football players unless
interviewed them first. It
n't long before the coach
in with a 259-pound
seven-inch player. The
asked him to add seven
two. The big fellow
"Seven and two equals
The coach said
another chance
anther chance."
Someone once asked
Phillips, head coach
Houston, why his team
beaten so badly one
afternoon. Bum said, "It
mixup. We started playing
three and the kickoff was
two."
And finally, this high
team had the football on
own two-yard line.
t.he quarterback to run
quarterback sneaks and
kick. On the first play,
terback sneak
five yards.
sneak, he went for
yards. Then the
dropped back and kicked
ball plum out of the
The coach called the
back over to the sideline
asked "What in the
you thinking about?'
The quarterback
just wanted the
sorry plays you called."
Most high school
teams, will be-.iteet4on
Friday night and there is
better place to spend a
of hours.
What Roosevelt Learned from Polio
(Another in a series.)
Elliott Roosevelt said in
later years he never saw his
father depressed. James
wrote that he saw him display
a lack of self-confidence once
and only once. That was the
night he was elected
President. James helped him
into bed on 65th Street.
Roosevelt said he'd never
been afraid of anything till
then. "I'm of raid I may not
have the strength to do the
job." He prayed for strength.
In the White House
Roosevelt's emotional equilib-
rium never failed him.
"Sometimes he would revolt
against his wheelchair and the
fate that had put him there,"
wrote White House seam-
stress and maid Lillian Park
Rogers. "Then he would com-
plain and become irritable. At
such times there was only one
thing to do--give him a rub-
down to soothe his weary,
wasted muscles and relax his
mind." Miss Rogers was one
of the two polios on the White
House staff. She had been
there when Hoover was
President. Antoinette
Bachelder, a Warm Springs
acquaintance of Roosevelt's,
came after Roosevelt moved
in.
The President's rare
moody revolts were never
seen by the public, or even
suspected, it appears. He
knew the importance of a
leader's displaying his sunny
side in a dark era. Either by
force of will or simple chem-
istry of personality, the moods
passed quickly, anyway.
Walter Trohan, the White
House correspondent for the
Chicago Tribune, understood
how Roosevelt's leadership
qualities were obvious at a
glance. "Although he could
not walk, he had the face of a
marching man. His chin was
tilted high in confidence, his
eyes were bright with pur-
pose, and his spirits were
gay."
James Farley, Roosevelt's
campaign manager in 1932,
wrote letter that "he was the
most alive man I had ever
met...when he talked, he
emphasized his points with
sharp gestures and constant
changes of facial expressions.
He would have been a great
actor."
Such qualities, and espe-
cially such behavior, tended
to distract audiences and inti-
mates from Roosevelt's hand-
icap. As newspaper reporter
Ernest K. Lindley put it, "The
thing about Roosevelt that
necessarily strikes you when
you see him walking the first
time is the thing about him of
which you first become
unconscious."
He mesmerized people, to
the extent that they thought
of him as a physically sound
man. "Don't get up," Madame
Chiang Kai-shek said,without
thinking, on leaving the White
House one evening.
There is another school of
thought to the effect that
polios with useless legs com-
pensate for inability to move
about normally with exagger-
ated motions of hands, arms,
shoulders, face.
But Dr. Stuart Raper, an
orthopedic surgeon who came
to Warm Springs in the 1930s
and got to know Roosevelt,
says that is not an automatic
reaction. It was not natural
for Roosevelt to so project
himself.
He learned it. It was prob-
ably quite a complicated
learning task.
Edward Herrmann, the
actor who portrayed
Roosevelt in two television
dramas in the 1970s, studied
many old newsreels and home
movies to learn dozens of
Roosevelt's different ges-
tures.
Not one was a "natural"
way to express an emotion or
a point. Roosevelt had devel-
oped a repertoire and was
careful not to overwork any
single gesture. That jutted
jaw and clenched cigarette
The
Squire
of Warm
Springs
By Theo
holder came to be regarded
as a clich6, but otherwise
Roosevelt was a careful,
thoughtful actor who knew
how not to bore his audience
with predictable bits of "busi-
ness" or cause his audience to
mistrust his gestures and pos-
tures.
Did Roosevelt learn other
things from his polio? Eleanor
Roosevelt believed he learned
"the greatest of all lessons
infinite patience and never-
ending persistence." She said
his illness gave him "strength
and courage he had not had
before" and made him "more
aware of the feelings of peo-
ple."
People who had known him
less well, before and after, and
people who had not known him
at all before, observed what
they took to be benefits fro
his illness.
Colonel Edmund Starling,
chief of the White House
Secret Service detail in 1932,
said of Roosevelt after watch-
ing him on Inauguration Day,
"I realized he had somehow
overcome more than a physi-
cal illness.
He had somehow acquired
a vigor, an optimism, a feel-
ing of sureness in himself
which hehad never before
possessed."
Starling had had no expe-
rience with Roosevelt, but he
had had experience with
another crippled President,
Woodrow Wilson, who suf-
fered a stroke in the White
House.
Wilson, Starling wrote,
reacted with bad temper and
pettiness to his
marked contrast t(
In a profile of
for the New York Times
March 1933, Anne
McCormack wrote, "A
of Hoover, an
men who ha
since the days of the
administration,
on the change in the
President. 'Two years
saw Roosevelt after a
interval. Today I saw
again.
He is no more like the
who was here in Wilson's
than the capital is like the
it was then. He has
in all directions, far
what seemed his
capacity.
I attribute the chan
his physical
overcome that
of anything.
Franklin Roosevelt
tions smoothly because he
learned to function
chains.'"
In other, lesser
Roosevelt's affliction
have been a blessing to
The New York
said of him once that
sity has lifted him aboVe
bickering." He seemed
how ungrasping
unselfish.
Contrast that
would have been
1924 and 1928 if
been the handsome,
wealthy, unmarked ,
Yorker he was before he
tracted polio.
He would still have
an imposing figure;
hardly what he became'
might even
party
in 1924 and again in 1925.
if he had? No
have been elected
in either of those yearS.
Roosevelt would s$
have lost, and in 1932
the party
time loser? Probably
(Next week: "A
region. ")
