1979 Football Farm Club Trophies

79 1128 03
November 28, 1979

Coach Gary Brooks presented to TES Principal McArthur the two trophies won by the Farm Club football teams.

Others that week: TPS Thanksgiving program, winning councilmen Bob Sanford, Jack Sweat, and Glenn Wilcher, Extension Service promoted decoration class.

1974 The First Thanksgiving

74 1127 03
November 27, 1974
Mrs. Wimbers third grade English students posted their reports on the First Thanksgiving. See how many of your friends you recognize.

Others that week: Vidalia Christmas Parade, Nursing Home, Neighborhood Service Center, Early Childhood Development Center, Basketball.

Signs from the Sign Man 11/18/09 - 11/26/09

The Way, The Truth, The Life - But By Him

I Believe

All of us have opinions. We have life stories. We observe life in general and persons in particular. We can be driven by tradition or by change. I believe that God knows us, loves us, and speaks to us for all of our lives. If life is eternal, God is with us all the time, before we are born and after we die.

For a long time I've shied away from the word Christian because it does not mean what it used to mean. The actions, words, and attitudes have changed.

I favor missions but disfavor raw evangelism. The apostle James said: "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." - James 2:14-17 (KJV)

All the kind words and sermons in the world will not compensate for ignoring the physical needs of people. Education, Bible study, preaching are important, but I have seen the results of "missions" which give feet, hands, and hearts to the gospel that is preached and lived.

With that preamble (or maybe just ambling), let's put first things first.

I believe and "believe in" the man Jesus described in the four gospels and by earlier words. I believe because I've seen Him live in people I have known. I cannot accept any other way. Jesus is not a doctrine; he is a person sent by his Father to His children. He lived among the people, high and low. He laid down his life to buy our lives. He saved us. He went to His Father and we will live with Them by and by.

I don't accept the quotation "Everybody is trying to get to the same place." It wastes time to argue about religion. Jesus told a story about a wheat field infested with tares. The workers wanted to uproot and destroy the tares, but the owner said "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

To me that suggests we are not to try to eliminate "tares" because Jesus said so. All the religious people, the agnostics, atheists, believers and non-believers are to live together peacefully in the field until by and by.

IF YOU SKIP ALL THE REST, PLEASE READ THIS:
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." - John 14:6 (KJV)

Jesus said it, and I believe it. In Acts 4, the apostles Peter and John addressed the people including the highest leaders of the Jews, telling them that Jesus is 'the stone you masons threw out, which is now the cornerstone.' Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one."

I believe it. As followers of Jesus we are to love our neighbors and our enemies - to love everybody. That's a tall order!

JESUS, JESUS IS A WAYMAKER. ONE DAY HE MADE A WAY FOR ME!

William A. Ricks

1979 Tony Thigpen's Grocery Run

79 1121 04
Nov 21, 1979

The Treutlen County ARC raffled off a Grocery Run, and Tony Thigpen was the winner. A crowd gathered at Harrell's to watch the recipient gather all the merchandise he could load in a shopping cart in one and one-half minutes. After the scramble the cashier announced the total: $269.99!

Others that week: Banquets at the Community House for the Lions Club and the Sportsmen Club, football and basketball, program at TES.

1974 The Ongoing Question of Zoning

74 1120 03

Nov 20, 1974

Kennon Peebles was one of the people surveyed about the possibility of Soperton having a Zoning ordinance. Kennon supported the idea to keep property values up. The County Commissioners passed a Zoning Ordinance a few years later and quickly abandoned it. The debate continues as whether a property owner has unlimited discretion or whether others should be allowed to have a say to protect a neighborhood, a city, or a county.

Others that week: Fowler-Lawton House, football, Charles Hazen, American Cancer Society.

Pay the Two Dollars

Have you ever heard that expression?

The meaning is a little like "You can't fight city hall." Battles come to everyone, but the question is which ones do you fight and which ones do you leave alone, or just pay the two dollars.

It comes from an old comedy sketch from the days of Vaudeville, and I saw it on TV a few years ago. I've Googled, searched YouTube, browsed many websites of movies, video, and plays. It took several days and it finally turned up. I don't know why it's not available YouTube? It would teach in a few minutes an important concept of life.

Willie and Eugene Howard played the parts in the original version from George White's "Scandals of 1931." It appears that this particular Scandal just toured the stage, but never made it onto film. The sketch idea came from Finley Peter Dunne, Jr. and Willie Howard wrote the dialogue along with Billy K. Wells.

Here's how the sketch runs, as described in a Google book:

"The sketch commences on a New York subway. Willie plays the sad, inoffensive city toiler whose instincts tell him that the safe life consists of hard work coupled with the good luck not to become known by the authorities. He is with a friend who is a lawyer. This lawyer's personality demands that he challenge authority. He is intransigent and anarchistic. An argument arises between the two. Willie, in and excess of emotion, spits on the floor. The subway conductor directs Willies attention to the sign that declares that there is a two-dollar fine for spitting on the subway. Willie wishes to pay the two dollars and withdraw into anonymity. His lawyer friend sees this as an opportunity. He must not permit his client to submit to authority. It is a matter of principle. There follows and excalation of penalties as the lawyer explores each appellate level. At every step Willie Howard pleads, "Let's pay the two dollars." He knows, with the peasant's perception, that the enforcement of the law is always in the right hands. But the lawyer is obsesses with vindication.
When Willie is sentenced finally to death, the lawyer directs his unabated energies toward obtaining a governor's pardon. Here he is successful. As they return home on the subway, Willie denounces the lawyer for destroying his life. He becomes worked up again and inadvertently spits on the subway. Blackout and curtain."

The description doesn't do justice to the actual sketch. Until there is a downloadable version, you can find it as a part of "Ziegfeld Follies of 1946." Sometimes labelled as 1945. The production started in 1944, most of the work was done in 1945, and the film was released in 1946. Not all that long, considering there was a war going on.

It can be purchased through Turner (TCM) for about 20 bucks, but I got mine from Amazon for half that, including shipping. The Technicolor film was proclaimed the "greatest production since the birth of motion pictures," quite a stretch since "Gone with the Wind" and "Wizard of Oz" had been done over 5 years earlier. But it does have some of the greatest entertainers of the time. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly together on film the first time, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Esther Williams and more.


William A. Ricks

Who Needs Herschel?

79 1114 02

Nov  14, 1979

It was probably the largest crowd to ever witness a football game in Soperton. Extra bleachers were brought in as required for a play-off. Herschel Walker showed up, but was not really needed, as the super team from Johnson County shut out the Vikings, 40-0.

Others that week: Eastside Motors, east on GA 29 at the city limit (Country Wares and Walden's Way in 2009), was selling lots of cars. Also football, Welcome Center, Carl Gillis, Sub-varsity football, Herbert burns with a beaver trap, and Jon Warnock's spotted deer.

1974 Herbert Clark's Cane Syrup

74 1113 03

Nov 13, 1974

What would the South be today if there had never been cane syrup? No tales by Jerry Clower on the Ledbetters vigorous sopping. No scene from "To Kill a Mocking Bird" of the humble worker pouring syrup over his greens. In a time of extreme hard work, biscuits and syrup were a daily staple and source of energy, and nobody got fat.
Herbert Clark and family maintained the tradition of growing cane, grinding out the juice and cooking the syrup longer than most other farm families. His relatives down toward Long Pond in 2009 have produced another cooking, and Rabun Clark's renowned syrup can be bought in Soperton at the local Crow-Mart.

Others that week: Football, I-16 construction, Mistake Beauty Pageant, Mrs. Rita Burke, TES students with Mr. Green and other students in Career Guidance.

Signs from the Sign Man 11/05/09 - 11/18/09

A little bit of socialism is not a bad thing.

When Miss Mildred Sessions was teaching government at Treutlen High School we learned about democracy, dictatorships, constitution, and theories of capitalism, socialism, and communism. I don't remember anyone taking sides on these subjects, as they were taught for our general benefit. Miss Sessions came from a family that valued education. Her mother was County School Superintendent. The closest that Miss Sessions came to pushing a personal opinion when she told a funny story about a local teenager.

The young man knew better, but he was out on the town and got ahold of some strong drink. After he had imbibed too much, he didn't have better sense than to go home in his stupor. He caught it bad when he faced his father. "What a disgrace! I've taught you better than this!" On and on he raged.

Finally, in his own defense, the young man said "Daddy, I know I done wrong  and I aim to do better, but it ain't as bad as what you done!"

"What did I do that was so bad?" the father asked.

The son answered "You voted for old Hoover!"

Today, I get the idea that some of the younger adults, those in their 50s, didn't get the education that my generation got. I don't know if it's bias in the curriculum or the particular teacher, but somehow a number of students were not taught; they were indoctrinated. They missed a lot of history.

If they had spent two hours studying Hoover and his two predecessors, they would know that excessive capitalism is a bad thing.

If they had spent two hours skimming Roosevelt's New Deal, they would know that a little bit of socialism is a good thing.

If they had spent a little time watching Reagan on TV and the Berlin Wall coming down, they would know that "giant" enemies are not so big when their beards are removed. It showed that the U.S. did not need a land base in Vietnam to fight communism. Hindsight is perfect. The current wars need lots of study, and part of the evidence should be the lessons of Vietnam.

The health care issue is divided into two main groups. One has good insurance that they are assured will never change in what it provides or it costs. Recent history has shown that the trend is set, so that 99 percent of the insured will be swallowed up, too. If there is no health care law, just wait. The other group are those who have been struggling with health care inflation. They can't pay the high insurance rates; they can't pay the inflated medical costs. Some of them are the working poor whose employers do not provide health insurance.

Some people have a fear of "government run" health care, but they ignore the known faults of "capitalist run" health care.  When excessive profits dictate the health care of America, we will never be the leader that the world is expecting us to be.

The health care solution is not either-or. It's what has always worked in America: Enough capitalism to make improvements at contained costs with reasonable profits. Enough socialism to provide preventive and emergency health care for everybody. If capitalism can't control costs, and history has already proven that it hasn't, then give socialism a shot at the problem.

William A. Ricks

1979 The Seventh Festival

79 1107 04
The Seventh Festival
When gentlemen wore suits to the festival, left to right: Lehman Lee, Slim Glisson, Bobby Lee Gillis, Leroy Gillis.

Others that week: TPS kids, football, Angie and Heather Hooks, THS Halloween, Grady Cammack's 222 pound deer.

1974 Mr. Jim and Mrs. Dicy Kate

74 1106 13
November 6, 1974
Mr. Jim and Mrs. Dicy Kate
Election Superintendent Clayton Stephens greeted Mr. Jim and Mrs. Dicy Kate Gillis as they went to the Courthouse in the General Election.

Others that week: Nursing Home, TES programs, THS students, FFA steer awards, Hugh Ricks killed a deer, the second Million Pines Festival including aerial views, football, and the festival sidewalk sale.

Signs from the Sign Man 11/04/09

Links removed, changed, and added

We're gradually updating our blog.

When we started blogging almost three years ago, we were very interested in veteran affairs, especially medical ones, radiation exposure, and polycystic kidney disease.  We are still personally interested in those topics, but we are currently concentrating on more local things.  The old photos from our negative files have high priority.  Also the Sign Man's signs. And the blog editor is adding more personal comments and essays too large to fit on facebook.

We've adjusted our Local Links to fit our new concept.  If you miss any of the old links, drop us a comment.

William A. Ricks

Eating Healthy at KFC

Ever since I went to Charleston I've been on a very strict diet of a limit of 50 grams of fat per day. That's equivalent to two spoons of mayonnaise.

When I heard about KFC's new grilled chicken I was thrilled to find a low fat option on the menu. Then I saw the TV commercial with a juicy, shiny, sizzling surface. "That's got to be oil on there," I thought and rejected KGC (Kentucky Grilled Chicken). Even ignored the free sample on Monday recently.

Today I looked up the KFC nutritional chart and found that the grilled chicken breast has just 4 grams of total fat. Now that's really great!

You see, other KFC chicken breasts are too fat for me. Well, I could eat one and do without eating anything else that day. Original Recipe: 21 grams of fat. Extra Crispy: 31 grams of fat. Hot & Spicy: 28 grams of fat. Even Popcorn Chicken for Kids contains 19 grams of fat.

Watch out with the salads, too. A pack of Creamy Parmesan Caesar Dressing has 26 grams of fat.  The lighter option is Hidden Valley fat free ranch dressing with absolutely no fat. That's what I use at home, and it is delicious!

THE BEST NEWS OF ALL ABOUT KFC:
An original recipe chicken breast with skin and breading removed contains only 2 grams of fat, half that of the grilled. That's going to be my choice!

Enjoy your KFC! Check their nutrition chart at:
http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_nutrition_sept09.pdf

William A. Ricks

INFORMATION ABOUT OTHER GRILLED CHICKEN CHOICES:
Grilled chicken sandwich with chicken, bun, lettuce, tomato, but NO mayonnaise.
Wendy's is the lightest in fat at 3.5 grams. Burger King, McDonalds, Dairy Queen are slightly fatter, but still less fat than hamburger.
Try asking for the chicken in separate container and pat dry with napkins.

Addendum posted Nov. 2, 2009
WAR