The Hogansville Herald November 23, 2000: Page 4

November 23, 2000 The Hogansville Herald
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Opinions & Ideas PAGE 4 - HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS - NOVEMBER 23, 2000 THE HOGANSVILLE HOME NEWS USPS 620-040 . (rim uhliation Millard B. Grimes, President MIKE PU BLkSHER/ADVERTISING DIRFCR)R JOHN Ktrvrd ASSOC IKI'F, PUBLISHFJDITOR BRYAN GXR ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAYNE GOLDSTON BUSINESS MANAGER Phone (706) 846-3188. Fax (706) 846-2206 P. O. Box 426 Itogansville, Georgia 30230 Thanksgiving Is Time of Blessing The smell of the turkey in the oven, the gathering of fam- ily not so often seen, and the sounds of children playing in the just fallen leaves are just some of the things that make up Thanksgiving Day. As we enjoy all the blessings of such an occasion, may we be reminded of what it is all about. It began in the year 1623 when Governor William Bradford issued a Thanksgiving proclamation. Some of that proclamation said, "Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abun- dant harvest...and has granted unto us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience...do gather at ye meeting house on ye hill between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime on Thursday, November ye 29...there to lis- ten to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye almighty God." These folks did meet, they did enjoy a bountiful meal and they did render thanks to Almighty God. ........ When wg meal °fellowship, and eat;"/na'W remember to give thanks to Almighty God. Psalm 100:4 says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be ye thankful unto him, and bless his name." We live in such an hour when much trial and tribulation is upon us, but we can always give thanks. Paul said in I Thessalonians 5:18, "In every- thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus con- cerning you." It is easy to give thanks for the good things that take place in our lives, but according to the Bible, we can give thanks for the not so good things that hap- pen in our lives. As I look back in my life, there is an abundance of things that command my thanksgiving to Almighty God. These feeble words would fall woefully short, not only in naming those things which com- pel me to be thankful, but the words can in no way adequate- ly do the job. But for now there are three that I feel like must be men- tioned here. First, my salvation compels me to be thankful. If not for the offering on Calvary's tree, this human being would find himself in hell. Second, my family compels me to be thankful. Thirty months ago, I told them we were moving to Hogansville, Georgia. My wife was settled, my boys had friends, and my pal< ents had grandchildren rela- tively close by, but God had moved us. They offered no complaints, only support. Finally, the wonderful church God gave me to pastor commands my thanksgiving. Upon moving to town, we were treated as if we had been born and raised here. I am thankful for Antioch Baptist Church. Upon close examination, all are compelled to offer thanks: giving to the loving Heavenly Father. On this great day in the life of our country, may I extend to you, Antioch Baptist Church and to the citizens of Hogansville, the sincerest of Thanksgiving wishes. HAPPY THANKSGIVING. • Offer a solution... • Praise someone... • Share an idea.., • Get it off your chest... We gladly welcome letters to the editor! When Jets Nearly Buzzed Moreland (written in 1990) Now here's my little home- town of Moreland, 40 miles south and 50 years from Atlanta. It is still a village of maybe 400, and it still doesn't have a traffic light and it doesn't want one. Oh, there's been a little progress since I left dear Moreland nearly 30 years ago. There's a new brick post office, for instance, that succeeds the old wooden one. Somebody even built a couple of tennis courts in Moreland and there actually is a Moreland exit sign on Interstate 85, which missed my hometown by three miles to the north. Still, after all these years, Moreland has remained a quiet little blip on the map, a haven for those who have no use for city lights. SO YOU CAN imagine just how shocked I was after reading a letter I received from Alan E. Thomas, who works in Atlanta. Alan E. Thomas wrote to tell me that he and his wife have spent the last three years constructing a new farm home in Moreland. "Like so many others," he wrote, "we're leaving city life and beginning to experience the won- ders of the country. "At night we can step out on the deck and actually see stars again and hear the crickets, frogs and whippoorwills and spot herds of deer crossing from one tree cluster to another." Ah, such splendor. Such peace. But Alan E. Thomas and his wife and other Moreland citizens suddenly are faced with a prob- lem I never thought could hap- pen there. Jet noise. I can recall the noise of freight trains rumbling through Moreland nights during my child- hood, and once a local turkey farmer got upset because he said the Baptist church's chimes made his turkeys nervous. But jet noise? Alan E. Thomas writes that the Coweta County Airport Authority wants to expand its lit- tle facility, which sits just on the outskirts of Moreland, so it can accommodate corporate jets. Corporate jets? I doubt any cor- porate jets would land there to do any business in Moreland. There is the expanding county seat of Newnan nearby, but any corpo- rate jets with business in Newnan simply could land at Hartsfield. It's only 25 miles away. ALAN E. THOMAS wants to be able to continue hearing the rural night sounds and not have them drowned out by the menac- "Governmental red tape and bureaucrat- ic bumfuzzle strikes again." ing roar of a jet engine. He and others have suggest- ed a new airport be built some- where else. But the airport authority has explained that the Federal Aviation Administration will grant funds for a runway exten- sion but not for a completely new airport. Governmental red tape and bureaucratic bumfuzzle strike:. again. Mr. Thomas has suggested I become an ally in the fight against jet noise in Moreland, and I assure him he now can count me on his side. Moreland and Newnan need a place for jets to take off land like they need a subwaYl tion, and rural nights should! belong to the crickets, whippoorwills. Fight like hell, my quiet. Once that's lost, God a traffic light is sure to BY SPECIAL WITH HIS WIDOW, ED COLUMNS BY GRIZZARD, WHO GREW NEARBY MORELAND, GEORGIA WRITER OF HIS GRIZZARD TO AMERICA BUT BELONGED TO THIS GEORGIA, OF WHICH HE SOOFrEN, OF 1-85 FROM NEWNAN HOGANSVILLE HONOR. THE LEWIS MUSEUM WAS MORELAND IN ING AND EDITING LAB DEDICATED TO HIS HIS BELOVED TAPES ARE STILL AVAILABI SALE THROUGH BAD PRODUCTIONS, P.O. BOX ATLANTA, GA 31118-1266 BOOK AND MUSIC NATIONWIDE. Remembering Mama and Thanksgiving (Editor's note: The foUowing column first appeared in The Opelika-Auburn News on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1973. It won first place for Best Column in the Alabama Press Association contest, which should make it worth a rerun 27 years later) ' My grandmother was born 100 years ago this autumn, in the October before Thanksgiving Day, 1873. Just 10 years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln officially pro- claimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of "thanksgiving, and praise to our beneficent Father." Before Lincoln's proclama- tion -- which may be one of his lesser known legacies -- Thanksgiving was observed only in certain states, the cus- tom having spread from its tra- ditional roots in Massachusetts and New England. The southern states, which were among the earliest to adopt Christmas as an official holiday (Alabama was the first), were slower to recognize Thanksgiving. Lincoln's first Day of Thanksgiving came in the depths of the Civil War, and there were few homes in the nation which did not have more cause for sorrow than thanks- giving in 1863. Ten years later when my grandmother was a newborn baby in the small village of Welcome near Newnan, Ga., there was still little reason for thanksgiving in most southern homes. The bitter war was over but the harsh aftermath was still raging, and the south's econo- my was shattered. Even today the scars are not completely healed over. PONDERING THE PROB- LEMS and tribulations of Thanksgiving, 1973, I thought back to that year my grand- mother was born, and wondered what southerners eouldllave been thankful for as her:il0 life began. She lived through the 84 most tumultuous and important years of mankind's history. But in that bleak November, her par- ent must have worried if their newborn would even survive the coming winter. They faced a fuel shortage, just as we do. But the differ- ence was monumental. It was not a question of being able to put up with a room temperature of 68 degrees. It was a matter of keeping the drafty houses from being as cold as the below- freezing temperature outside. There was no worry about gas rationing because there were no ,cars; no paved road to the nearest town; no TV to bring the bad news, and only an occa- sional newspaper which might tell of wars in Europe and scan- dals in Washington. Yes, in that year of 1873, U.S. Grant was in the first year of his second term, and revela- tions of unparalleled corruption in federal government were coming to light. SO, I'M THANKFUL to be celebrating Thanksgiving in the year of Our Lord 1973, the best of years in the best of possible worlds, in the best section of the best nation. I'm thankful that folks like my grandmother and her gen- eration became glad to be Americans and that they refused to let the bitterness, deprivation and disaipoint- ments of the "late unpleasant- ness" keep them from achiev- ing the dream that was their destiny... I'm thankful today for the chance to stay cool instead of cold; to be able to ride instead of walk; to have your loved ones a moment away through the magic of the telephone; to be able to turn on a light instead of light a .candle; to be able to cure a little girl's virus with a small- pill; I'm thankful that the American dream is possible today for more people than ever before; I'm thankful that the roses are,within reach even if there are still thorns that must be risked to pluck them; I'm thankful this Thanksgiving that for the first time in many years that no , Americans are on battlefields which could become their graves... But I'm also thankful that America is strong enough to be a peacemaker as well as a warmaker... I'm thankful that I haven't yet heard the sweetest song, or seen the loveliest valley, or wit- nessed the perfect performance by an artist. I'm thankful to still be looking... I'm thankful for which can be fondled in memory, which helpfully the chaff from the wheat.. thankful for today, which i compelling opportunity and I'm thankful for promise and hope I'm thankful for the that provide shade and and newsprint, and I'm ful for newspapers reflection of the world them, and thus include along with the facts. with the compassion, and ocrity with magnificence .... are quiet and considerate your privacy... I'm thankful as always wife who is prettier today in any of the other 20 46) we've belonged to other, and for our three dren, which are the tant achievements bring to pass, whatever station in life... AND I'M that grandmother, years ago in a world by 1973 standards, quite likely thankful adult Thanksgiving the same essentials her son deems important... In her 84 years, she travelled more than 100 from the place of in life, like raising grandchildren, cooking, sewing, and she never many of the less things such as how to type, or earn a living outside her home. She taught me not live, but the way I should I hope my g remember me as fondly. ThE HOGANSVIlJ HOME NEWS is published weekly by the Star-Mercury Publishing Company, a division of C-rimes Publications, at 3051 Roovelt Highway, Manchester, Georgia 31816. USPS 620-040. Subscription rates by mail: $16 in Troup, Heard or Meriwether Counties; $20 a year elwhere. Prices include all sMes taxes. Periodical postage paid at Hogansville. Georgia 30230, FoR soNs call (706) 846-3188 or write to Circulation Manager, Star Mercury Publications, E O. Box 426, Manchester, Georgia 31816. Pra'1MS'R: Send address changes to P. O. Box 426. Hogansville, GA 30230. . STAFF Publisher and Advertising Director .................................................................... Mike Hale Associate Publisher and Editor ................................................................. John Kuykendall Associate Fxlitor ................................................................................................... Bryan Geter Assistant Editor ........................................................................................... Rob Richardson Business Manager ....................................................................................... Jayne Goldslon Staff Writers ....... ............................................................... Michael C. Snider, Billy Bryant • Assistant Advertising Manager ................. ...................................................... Laurie Lewis Advertising Sales ................................................................................................. Loft Camp Assistant Editor ........................................................................................... Rob Richardson Composing ..................................................... Valinda Ivery, Deborah Smith, Lauren King Legals ............................................................................................................ Jayn¢ Goldston Receptionist and Classifieds .............................................................................. Cleta Young Production Manager .............................................................................................. Todd Laird Pressroom .............................................. . .................. David Boggs and Wayne Grochowsld T Omcsgs President .................................................................................................... MAllard B. Grimes Vice President ........................................................................................ Charlotte S. Grimes Secretary ................................................................................................ Laura Grimes Cofer Treasurer .............................................................................................. Kathy Grimes Garrett Holiday Favorite Food for Thought I never ate a sweet potato I didn't like. Turkey and green beans (my children's favorites) are foods from the Americas. My own Thanksgiving favorite, the sweet potato--or as some call it, the yam-is another New World food. Growing up with the great- est cook in the world, we learned early to eat pretty much every- thing. In the blending of French, Italian, Creole and Cajun, though, there was always true "Southern cooking," which involved sweet potatoes. Mama fixed them french fried for breakfast with cinna- mon and brown sugar. For other meals, she baked, boiled or can- died them with marshmallows, made mouth-watering pies and also sweet-potato chips. We also ate many cold sweet potatoes as a snack after getting in from school. My favorites, however, were the sweet-potato surprises. They were made from baked sweet potatoes that Mama mashed with spices and rolled into golf-ball- size pieces. A depression with her thumb into the ball gave the right amount of space to insert one or two miniature marshmal- lows. Mama then reformed the ball, rolled it in fresh-grated coconut and chopped pecans and baked it until the outside was crusty and the marshmallow melted inside. We called our sweetpotatoes yams because the variety we grew was the Puerto Rican type that was moist-fleshed and very sweet. The name "sweet potato" and "yam" has been used inter- changeably over the years. Actually, the African word nyami, referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea genus of plants, was adopted in its English form, yam. This plant has ' non-sweet tuber moist fleshed sweet National Societ3 Science now refers to as sweetpotato-one dictionaries still list it words). The sweet potato is carbohydrates and has an abundance of cook the leaves like besides eating wonderful we them into people. As you enjoy dinner, just think of the sweet potatoes have lives over the globe.