Newnan-Coweta Magazine January/February 2009

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MAGAZINE

A Times-Herald Publication

Celebrating

Coweta’s Black History

January/February 2009 | $3.95

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Some say the care needs to be put back into healthcare.

At Piedmont Newnan, it never left.

For more than a century, Piedmont has been caring for patients, and truly caring about them. We’ve earned our reputation by treating patients and their loved ones the way we’d want to be treated.

By listening and genuinely hearing. By alleviating pain by also alleviating fear.

It’s what separates us from any other healthcare organization out there. It’s

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ON OUR WEBSITE www.newnancowetamagazine.com

Special Features Web extras you’ll find only online.

Look for the computer icon throughout every issue to lead you to the special content at newnancowetamagazine.com.

MAGAZINE Established 1995 A publication of The Times-Herald President

Vice President

William W. Thomasson

Marianne C. Thomasson Publisher Sam Jones Editor

Book giveaways Online Surveys Guest Book Recipe Box Podcasts Blogs Links of local interest

Angela McRae Art Director Deberah Williams Contributing Writers Carolyn Barnard, Sarah Fay Campbell, Janet Flanigan, Holly Jones, Meredith Leigh Knight, Katherine McCall, Tina Neely, Elizabeth Richardson, W. Winston Skinner, Martha A. Woodham Photography Sarah Fay Campbell, Bob Fraley, Jeffrey Leo, Tara Shellabarger Circulation Director Naomi Jackson Sales and Marketing Director Colleen D. Mitchell Advertising Manager Lamar Truitt

ON OUR COVER

Advertising Consultants Doug Cantrell, Stefanie Dowda, Candy Johnson, Jeanette Kirby, RoseMary Reid, Christine Swentor Advertising Design Debby Dye, Graphics Manager Sandy Hiser, Jonathan Melville, Sonya Studt FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION, call 770.683.6397 or e-mail colleen@newnan.com.

Newnan-Coweta Magazine is published bi-monthly by The Times-Herald, Inc., 16 Jefferson St., Newnan, GA 30263.

Subscriptions: Newnan-Coweta Magazine is distributed in home-delivery copies of The Times-Herald and at businesses and offices throughout Coweta County. Individual mailed subscriptions are also available for $23.75 in Coweta County, $30.00 outside Coweta County. To subscribe, call 770.304.3373.

Submissions: We welcome submissions. Query letters and published clips may be addressed to the Editor, Newnan-Coweta Magazine at P.O. Box 1052, Newnan, Georgia 30264.

On the Web: www.newnancowetamagazine.com © 2008 by The Newnan Times-Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Member:

Kerry Harman, a volunteer for the African American Heritage Museum and Research Center in Newnan, examines a gravestone near the museum.

– Cover photo by Jeffrey Leo 4

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contents Features January/February 2009

12 REALIZING THE DREAM Some of Coweta’s best-known black leaders say they never really believed they would live to see a black president elected. Hear their reactions to the historic election of Barack Obama.

28 A DREAM CABIN IN THE WOODS For the Almon family of Newnan, their dream home came in the form of a cabin in the woods which they designed and helped build themselves.

34 ABIGAIL’S BIG SURPRISE Abigail Miner was patiently waiting for the day her bedroom would be redecorated and arrived home from school one afternoon to find the room of her dreams awaiting.

52 MAKING HIS MARK 11 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Newnan’s Craig McMillan calls himself a painter, not an artist, 22 TYING FAMILIES TOGETHER because he says he hasn’t “made The African American Heritage Museum in Newnan assists anyone who wants to research his family history, and the museum has a special interest in helping to document and preserve local African-American history.

40 A ‘HIT AND MISS’ HOBBY John Bidne of Senoia has become an avid collector of gas engines. He owns 13 of the engines, ranging in size from 1.5 to 9 horsepower, and in conditions ranging from all original to fully restored.

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his mark” just yet. Take a look at some of his latest work and you’ll come away believing that whatever he calls himself, this is one talented young man.

66 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS This Valentine’s Day, we pay homage to some Cowetans who have been loving neighbors by sharing kindness with others, sometimes strangers, right here at home.

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Departments 44 MEET A READER

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You may know his face even if you don’t know his name. Meet a familiar figure to those in downtown Newnan, reader Danny “Boomer” Bishop.

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46 SADDLE UP Newnan horse breeder Nan Harley loves Arabians and is currently serving as president of the Georgia Arabian Horse Association, one of the largest Arabian breed organizations in the state.

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58 THE THOUGHTFUL GARDENER An old fashioned southern favorite, the winter honeysuckle offers fragrant blossoms attracting bees and overwintering hummingbirds by providing pollen and nectar when not much else is blooming.

62 LOCAL HERITAGE In the latest installment of our series celebrating the upcoming hundredth anniversary of the Newnan Reading Circle, we look at some of the current events the club has discussed over the years.

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70 COWETA COOKS

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Chef George Rasovsky of Ten East Washington in Newnan shares two of his most popular recipes, perfect for a romantic February 14 meal.

74 THE BABY FILES

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New mom Carolyn Barnard was a newlywed the first time we featured her in the magazine a few years ago.

Now, she’s a new mom with all the joys and challenges the job entails!

76 FAMILY FUN

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A trip to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta is always a magical treat, but did you know it’s also possible to schedule a behind-the-scenes tour?

In every issue 10 EDITOR’S LETTER 80 THE BOOKSHELF 82 LAST LOOK 83 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

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> FROM THE EDITOR

‘I Will Support Him 100 Percent’ he Times-Herald’s Sound-Offs filled with comments unusually quickly after the Nov. 4 election of Barack Obama as our next president.

One of our Sounders Off had this to say: “I didn’t vote for Obama, but if he can help this country, I will support him 100 percent.”

That perfectly sums up my thoughts. I voted for John McCain too, but I also agree that I am wishing our new president well, for he is certainly going to need all our help if our country is to turn the tide in 2009.

The journalist in me knew that Nov. 4 was going to be a much more interesting night if Barack Obama was elected, simply because of the historic, barrier-breaking outcome. As a conservative, I’m aware the new president will probably enact some policies I disagree with, and when that happens I will say so. He has yet to spend his first day in office, however, and if a president ever needed the good will of the people behind him, this one does.

In our focus on Black History Month, we take a look at what the election of our first black president means to some Cowetans who never thought they’d see this day. I hope you’re as moved by their stories as I was.

Although 2008 was a good year for me – my family members are all happy and healthy, and we had two sweet baby boys join the family last year – I know plenty of others who could not wait to turn the page on the sort of year Queen Elizabeth once called an annus horribilis. For them, I am hoping for a happier, healthier 2009.

When Jan. 20 rolls around, I will be tuned in every minute possible to the inaugural festivities.

I want to watch our country prove that in America, anyone can be president. I want to see Michelle Obama smiling as her husband takes the oath of office, and I can’t wait to see how excited daughters Sasha and Malia are on that day.

When the festivities conclude, I expect to say, along with millions of other Americans of every political stripe, “God bless President Obama, and God Bless America!”

Warmly,

Angela McRae, Editor angela@newnan.com

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our third annual writing contest. You’ll find the rules and entry information on page 81.

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Celebrating Cowetaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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Realizing the Dream Cowetans reflect on President-elect Barack Obama

By Alex McRae | Photos by Bob Fraley and Jennifer Riggs

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n April 3, 1968, thousands ignored storm warnings and braved torrential rains to pack the Mason Temple in Memphis as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in support of striking sanitation workers.

Near the end of his remarks, King said, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop ... I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And

recover. Instead, King’s death stirred a nation to greater heights and in the years to come, black citizens rose to positions of power and prestige previously thought unattainable.

On his last night on earth, King said he had seen the promised land. But there was another destination black Americans considered so remote even King dared not mention it: the White House.

Just over 40 years later, King’s unspoken dream was realized when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.

Josephine Rush never imagined she’d live to see the day a black man’s election as president was trumpeted on the front page of the newspaper.

I’ve seen the promised land.”

Less than 24 hours later, King lay dead on the balcony of a Memphis motel. An assassin’s bullet had dealt America’s civil rights movement a blow from which many feared it would never

Obama’s victory was front page news across America and around the world.

This February, as Black History Month is observed across the nation, Obama’s election will be remembered not as the next chapter in our nation’s black

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history, but a defining chapter in American history.

It was an occasion Josephine Rush thought she would never see trumpeted on the front page of her local paper.

“I just don’t have words for what it meant to me,”

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Rush says. “It was more than I could have ever imagined.”

When Rush – now in her 80s – was a child, her family sharecropped in south Coweta. They grew their own food and sewed their own clothes, but the family valued education and Rush was pushed to do well in school.

Her history books – used texts discarded by white students – didn’t mention black Americans or their accomplishments. Current news was even more scarce. Rush’s grandmother worked as a domestic for a white Newnan family. Every time her grandmother took the trash out, she salvaged the newspapers for her family to read.

“When she brought those papers home, we combed through them word for word,” Rush says.

“We were hungry for news and didn’t want to miss a thing.”

Rush’s academic excellence earned her a

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“After I heard Obama was elected I couldn’t sleep that night. I didn’t think that would ever happen.”

— Josephine Rush

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Robert Wood, a former Coweta County Commissioner, is shown at home, here, and at right, at the Wilbon Clay/Robert Lee Wood Community Center named in honor of Wood and his predecessor, who was Cowetaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first black commissioner.

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scholarship to Atlanta’s Spelman College, where her horizons expanded dramatically, both in class and out.

“When I went to Spelman, that was like a whole different world,” she says. “I learned a lot in the classroom, but I learned even more about black history and culture. It really opened my eyes.”

Before she finished Spelman, Rush married and moved back to Coweta to start a family. By then, she had set her sights on higher goals than a college degree.

“I didn’t finish college, but I had an education in civil rights,” she says. “And I was ready to put it to use.”

When the civil rights movement started in

As soon as Robert Wood could read, his grandmother, Mary Lou Smith Upshaw, got a newspaper subscription and he read it to her every day after school. "She wanted to know everything and so did I," Wood said.

Robert Wood took this circa 1953 family photo with his first camera. Seated are, from left, Willie J. Prather, Mary Lou Smith Upshaw (his grandmother), Buck Prather, and standing, Lula Mae Owens, Mella B. Gray and Hattie Mae McCrary (his mother).

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Eddie Heard grew up in segregated Alabama and never heard a white person call his father by anything but his first name. With the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, Sandy Heard says her husband’s father would have finally felt recognized as a man.

Memories of his father’s lifelong struggle for simple dignity convinced Eddie Heard he would never see a black man elected president in his lifetime.

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earnest in the early 1960s, Rush joined the battle. She lost count of the times she traveled to Atlanta to sit in at lunch counters or demonstrate in front of downtown buildings.

“Whenever they called, I went,” she says. “I knew it was important.”

Rush attended rallies across the south and as far away as Washington, D.C., where she heard King deliver his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.

“We were so far back in the crowd you couldn’t see much,” she says. “But we were there and that’s what counted.”

Rush started voting in the 1940s, but says she still wasn’t sure her vote was being counted until she started working at the polls.

“When I was young I saw politicians talking about how to keep from counting black votes,” she says.

“There were some bad things going on back then.”

But by the time her grandson voted for the first time on Nov. 4, 2008, Rush had no doubt his vote would be counted. After she saw the young man vote for America’s first black presidential candidate, Rush had to leave the room to regain her composure.

“I went to the restroom and cried,” she says. “I knew I was living a piece of history. After I heard Obama was elected I couldn’t sleep that night.

I didn’t think that would ever happen.”

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Coweta native Robert Wood is a generation younger than Rush, and by the time he started school, getting the news was not a problem for his family.

As soon as Wood could read, his grandmother got a newspaper subscription and Wood read it to her every day after school.

“She wanted to know everything and so did I,” he says. “It was good for both of us.”

By the time he was a teenager Wood didn’t need a newspaper to tell him that race relations still had a long way to go in Coweta.

One day as Wood was bicycling to work at a downtown Newnan store, he was stunned to see a group of Ku Klux Klansmen in white robes and hoods riding horses up West Washington Street toward the Court Square.

Wood believes the Klansmen intended to read a proclamation on the courthouse steps. Before the first one spoke, Coweta County Sheriff Lamar Potts showed up and confronted the men.

Wood said Potts fired his pistol once in the air to get their attention.

He believes Potts may have tapped a Klansman with his gun barrel.

“I’m not sure exactly what he did or said but they got out of there in a hurry,” Wood says. “I never saw the Klan in Coweta County again.”

Wood graduated from segregated Central High School in 1962 and joined the Navy. He remained in California after his discharge.

Wood returned to Coweta in the mid-1980s and in 1988, worked to help elect Wilbon Clay as Coweta’s first black county commissioner. Four years later, Wood was elected to Clay’s seat and held it for 12 years.

Wood still follows politics closely and says until Obama came along he

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Newnan High School teacher and coach LaVarrett Pearson says his students were excited about the election of Barack Obama, but he thinks it will be a while before they “understand the full significance of it.”

had doubted a black man could be elected president. But Wood says Obama represented a new kind of black politician. Obama was so new to politics he had not been buried under tons of political dirt and so young he was not closely associated with the aging civil rights lions like John Lewis and Jesse Jackson, whose work had earned them both admirers and detractors over the years.

“There was no way anybody who came up in the civil rights movement was going to make it,” Wood says. “They had too much baggage. But Obama was just right. He could talk to everybody and was also very young and attractive. That was a winning combination.”

For Eddie Heard, Obama’s victory represented more than a political breakthrough. It was a sign that, perhaps, racial equality was more than a dream in America.

Heard grew up in segregated Alabama, and never saw a white person call his father anything other than his first name. His father,

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major turning point in American life and history.

LaVarrett Pearson is a teacher and coach at Newnan High School.

During the campaign, Pearson says he detected a change of attitude and interest among all his students. After the votes were counted, their surprise and joy were evident.

“When they came back the day after the election, all the kids were excited,” Pearson says. “They knew it was a big moment, but I think it will take a while before they understand the full significance of it. Either way, they realized it was a big stepping stone.”

Robert Wood agrees. “I think the Obama election was the next big step in race relations for all Americans,” he says. “The Obama campaign showed us that the only race we really need to be concerned about is the human race.” NCM

meanwhile, was required to address whites of any age as “Mr.” or “Miss.”

Memories of his father’s lifelong struggle for simple dignity convinced Eddie Heard he would never see a black man elected president in his lifetime.

“No, to tell the truth, it never crossed my mind,” he says.

After Obama’s election, Heard’s wife Sandy’s first thoughts were of her husband’s late father. “I think that with this election he would have felt he would finally be recognized for what he was,” she says. “I think he would have felt that at last, he would be considered a man.”

Repressive Jim Crow laws, institutionalized segregation and the civil rights movement are only textbook entries for today’s students.

But they have heard enough from their parents and grandparents to know the Obama election was a

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he world took notice when Barack Obama became the first African-American elected to the U.S. presidency.

Obama was born in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and a white American mother of English, Irish and German descent. Many were surprised to learn that Obama’s eighth cousin is former Vice President Dick Cheney – an ironic fact that

Tying Families

Together Local museum seeks to preserve history of African-Americans in Coweta

By Elizabeth Richardson | Photos by Jeffrey Leo

might have gone unnoticed if Cheney’s wife, Lynn, hadn’t done genealogical research.

Similarly, people can learn the truth about their own ancestry at the Coweta County African American Heritage Museum and Research Center, located at 92 Farmer St. in Newnan.

Dianne Wood is the acting museum director, treasurer of the African-American Alliance – which was formed to collect black history – and the resident researcher.

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With computer assistance from researcher Dianne Wood, Cowetan David Smith searches for relatives while on a visit to the African American Heritage Museum and Research Center.

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Kerry Harman, one of the volunteers at the African American Heritage Museum, examines a gravestone near the museum.

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The museum opened in July 2003 and now features various exhibits detailing the black history of Coweta County. The public is also invited to do free genealogical research with Woodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expertise.

Wood came to work at the museum when the company sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d worked for closed. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s researched her own lineage and found sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;half Yankeeâ&#x20AC;? and has relatives from Finland, Denmark, Scotland and England.

Lift Her Spirit.

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Visitors to the center will use online services, such as rootsweb.com and ancestry.com. Woodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s services are free to get started, but donations are appreciated. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They needed a researcher, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my specialty,â&#x20AC;? said Wood. She describes herself as â&#x20AC;&#x153;somebody who likes a challenge and puzzlesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not to mention organized, patient and persistent. And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what it takes to spend 40 hours a week researching genealogies.

Visitors to the center will use online services, such as rootsweb.com and ancestry.com. Woodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s services are free to get started, but donations are appreciated.

When Wood doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have patrons to assist, she researches famous people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; like Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or looks in the obituaries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some of the most interesting [ancestries] have come from the obituaries,â&#x20AC;? admits Wood.

She has researched Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family tree, and Wood calls his election â&#x20AC;&#x153;a historic momentâ&#x20AC;? for the African-American community and

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Dianne Wood holds a photo of Sharon Parks, Newnan’s first female to be certified as a police officer and later a meter maid. Below, volunteer Kerry Harman checks out some of the materials on display at the African American Heritage Museum. Artifacts on display include vintage magazines featuring Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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the nation. She hopes it will prompt citizens to take an active interest in their own heritage.

When African-Americans visit the research center, Wood reminds them that the first census that includes blacks was in 1870 – meaning if an ancestor was 100 at the time, information could be gathered to 1770. The 1890 census burned, so there’s a void of information from 1881 to 1900.

“We don’t want to lose family members in that gap,” said Wood.

“We need people to tell us so we can tie families back together. At least put the general information before 1930 on Rootsweb.com so it isn’t lost.”

Wood pleads with people who’ve invested time tracing their lineage to share that information with others. “Allow others to benefit from genealogical work,” she said.

Melvin Davis, 65, of North Carolina, has been staying in the Atlanta metro area and using the heritage center to do genealogical research. He began studying his family’s history in 1986 and now travels to collect marriage licenses and birth/death certificates.

“I wanted to know who my family was, and I’m going as far as I can go,” said Davis.

Davis was shocked to learn his family members were slaves owned

by Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ cousin. He was also surprised when a great-great-grandfather turned up on a census, rather than a slave schedule, because he was a mulatto who passed as white.

“America has started to pay part of the promise it had from the beginning,” Davis said of Obama’s election.

This Black History Month, the museum will be remembering

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distinguished African-Americans in Coweta County.

The first African-Americans were brought to the county in the early 1820s as slaves.

Noteworthy African-Americans include people like Dr. John Henry Jordan, who operated the first black hospital on Pinson Street. Fannie Jenkins operated the first black funeral home in 1911. U.B. Ware was the first to register to vote in Coweta.

Phenzie Mitchell was instrumental in desegregating Newnan Hospital with sit-ins and marches, according to Wood.

The first black city cop was Moses “Mose” Martin Sr. who took his oath of office in 1964. Wilbon Clay was the first black Coweta County Commissioner, and Willie Lynch was the first black Newnan City Councilman.

Also on site at the center is a cemetery. The city determined there are 249 unmarked graves. By all accounts, it was probably a pauper cemetery, mainly for blacks – some slaves – in the early to mid-19th century, according to Wood.

Coweta is home to few remaining all-black, one-room schoolhouses. The African-American Alliance has started fundraising efforts to salvage them so that piece of history can be enjoyed for years to come.

January through March, the museum will have an exhibit on the life of the late Coach Henry Seldon, the black football coach with the most wins in the state before integration.

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A Dream Cabin in the Woods

By Janet Flanigan | Photos by Bob Fraley

ome call people who live in log cabins “companions of the forest,” and when you enter Tripp and Megan Almon’s aerie in the woods, that description fits perfectly. After staying in log cabins on mountain vacations, Tripp always wanted to build a log or rock home of their own because “they’re so cool.”

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and when Tripp’s parents, Joe and Dena Almon, deeded them a portion of their property on which to build, the project was a go.

It was probably fated that the younger Almons would meet and fall in love while living in Athens. They were following a similar path as students and gymnasts with the same moral convictions and strong Christian values. In addition to earning their degrees (Sports

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Tripp, Neely and Megan Almon live in a log cabin in Newnan. The Almons designed the house and helped build it themselves.

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Administration for Tripp, Journalism/Magazines for Megan), both taught at Classic City Gymnastics Academy owned by UGA assistant gymnastics coach Jay Allen, whom Megan credits with helping her become a member of the UGA Gymdogs, her lifelong dream. Tripp attained the highest ranking for men’s gymnastics (elite) and was honing his coaching skills for the future. He now coaches competitive gymnastics fulltime at Newnan School of Gymnastics and is setting big goals for the future.

The couple has been married 51/2 years and were blessed with a

beautiful daughter, Neely, who will be 3 in March, rounding out this trio of tumblers perfectly.

Megan and Tripp thought through every detail of their home so their personalities shine through in details large and small. They call this their “forever” home, so the concepts really need to work now and in the future.

“We basically drew out the general idea of what we wanted, and log home specialist Paul Bostwick of 30

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American General Contractors drew up the final plans,” said Tripp.

Bostwick, who specializes in log home construction, allowed Tripp to perform a lot of the work himself as a cost-saving measure. Megan said Tripp worked side-by-side with the builders each day and knows every square inch of the house, which comes in handy should home repairs ever be required.

Certainly the Almons are proud of having worked on the house from the ground up and know the hidden elements that make it special,

Megan said he’s constantly tempted to perform flying leaps in the hammock chairs “trapeze style” from the upper stair landing.

“We’re a family of

They call this their “forever” home, so the concepts really need to work now and in the future.

but even guests observe the interesting details that make their home so unique. Right off the bat, visitors exclaim about the hammock chairs suspended from beams in the great room. “We got those at Powers’ Crossroads last year and we thought they’d be perfect for our den,” said Megan. Tripp’s confidence as a gymnast let him climb right out on the high beams at the top of the Aframe ceiling where he tied the suspension ropes for the chairs.

acrobats,” she laughed, and at that moment Neely performed a tumbling routine across the floor as if to add a punctuation point to her statement.

“My grandfather, Forrest Neely, is an architect originally from Charleston, now living in Athens, and his architecture professor was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and my grandfather is also a great architect,” said Megan. “So I asked him to give us a couple of simple but exciting

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LIVE IN THE NOW.

ideas for our house.â&#x20AC;? He suggested a floating or open staircase design which makes a dramatic impact when you open the door.

Everything is very open and airy in the house. Meganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The open and airy design is a favorite feature of the Almonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; log cabin home.

At left Megan, Neely and Tripp enjoy the hammock chairs the Almons found at Powersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Crossroads.

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Tripp Almon and daughter Neely enjoy spending time in the family’s great room. At right, from top: Some of Megan’s family photos; the “outhouse” used as a china hutch; and Tripp and Megan in their kitchen.

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only stipulation was that she wanted windows everywhere, and she received her wish. The home is floodlit, sometimes with unusually shaped windows tucked into little spaces like the top of the staircase.

The home is very personal, featuring furniture handcrafted by Tripp, photographs taken by Megan on family holidays, an old sled from Trippâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boyhood adventures and even a model of an old â&#x20AC;&#x153;outhouseâ&#x20AC;? that was made by Joe Almon that now serves as a china hutch. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; of course it was never used in its original design!

The Almonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; style is simple, classic, clean and neat. They are very purposeful, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a comforting place to sit and just be. A woodstove heats the home and a comfy kitchen nearby holds a cache of intentionally mismatched china plates that, when set upon the hearty wooden table, sets a gorgeous tableau.

The house almost seems a throwback to another time, but lest you think the Almons are just too neat and perfect, they do have a basement with a separate, full-on guyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hanging out room with huge big screen TV, soundproof walls, sound system and large comfy chairs. Megan has an art studio down there too that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t completely tidy, and there is another room filled with wacky memorabilia collected from their lives together.

An adage about log cabins says it takes several seasons before the home blends into its environs, but the Almon cabin seems to have blended in just fine. Maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because they know who they are and are comfortable in their own skin. As nature changes, so will they make changes inside as their family grows.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll add photos, move things around and create special touches. But theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve dreamed their dream and found it. NCM

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Abigail’s

Big Surprise

By Tina Neely | Photos by Bob Fraley

AFTER DECORATING GOT UNDERWAY at Susan and Terry Miner’s house this past fall, daughter Abigail began to ask when it would be time to decorate her own room. “It won’t be long honey,” Susan would tell her. “Just let us finish the downstairs first, and then we’ll do the upstairs.”

A local fabric shop was featuring items in the Angel’s House Charity Auction, including a fabulous little girl’s headboard and canopy. Custom made and donated to the Angel’s House auction, it was perfect for Abigail’s room. Susan won the auction, and Abigail had no idea.

Finding out all the details important to this precious little girl helped make this a perfect room fit for a princess. The plan was to include all the minute details that are so very important to her: Her favorite Bible verse to put on the wall above her dresser; her favorite things in the whole world: frogs, frogs and more frogs, even in the toile pattern on her pink pillow; and then, of course, her name and monogram on anything and everything.

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Abigail Grace Miner of Newnan, age 7, loves frogs, and the creatures are everywhere in her new bedroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decor.

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Before

The “before” photos at left show Abigail Miner’s bedroom and bath before the recent re-do.

Sherwin Williams’ Hearts of Palm was used as the wall paint, and the fabric pattern was Buttercup English by Premiere Fabrics.

The wall art of custom name/frog canvases was by local artist Susan Hester, and the ballerina art was bought at a charity auction in Florida.

The dainty black and crystal chandelier came from the local home improvement store, and the wall scripture verse was from a local embroidery/sign store in Turin.

The hot pink chenille dots duvet cover came from a local bed and bath store.

“Where do we put the toys?”

Susan wondered. Cute dotted storage boxes from a discount retailer hold dolls of every size, and the greatest find of the whole room was a new custom covered chair found at a local close-out store to hold all the stuffed frogs, and in the exact fabric to match. The new bed frame allows

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after

The canopy used in Abigail Miner’s new bedroom came from an Angel House Charity Auction. The black scalloped wall treatment is an easy project for do-it-yourselfers to try.

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board to get the shape you want.

Cut out the cardboard to use as your template and trace it onto the wall, placing it directly under the crown molding. Trace the design with chalk, as it’s easy to see and erases easily for re-do’s. Place the template side by side to make the scallops.

Then, take a sponge brush (which gives it a smooth finish and easy coverage) to paint on the black semi-gloss wall paint. To give the design some dimension and a cute flair, wooden doll heads painted hot pink were glued to the wall with a

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plenty of storage boxes to slide right under the bed, which makes room for all Abigail’s toys and favorite things without cluttering the room.

HOW TO GET THE LOOK To tie the whole room together and make it whimsical and beautiful, a special wall paint treatment was used. It’s so easy to do and takes just a little time.

To do this treatment yourself, use something round, such as a bowl or paint can, to trace a semi-circle shape onto a piece of cardboard or poster

glue gun. They can also be attached with double sided screws.

When the panels, custom canvases, wall verses, custom pillows and lampshade were done, and the perfect frames, furniture and accessories were found, it was

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time to load in the surprise décor for Abigail. She knew the wall had been painted green but had no idea of

anything else to come. So after her mom took the children to school, the helpers got to work. The canopy was

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and pictures were hung, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fruits of the Spiritâ&#x20AC;? verse was placed in the perfect spot on the wall, and all the accessories were put in all the right places. The bed was made with a custom dust ruffle to match the stripes on the canopy, monogrammed polka dotted sheets, and the softest chenille duvet. Jerry the cat must have loved it because he slept there all day. The bed was topped off with custom monogrammed pillows.

By 3 p.m. the project was finished just in time. Abigail ran straight from the van to her room. Her mom opened the door and soon heard squeals of delight. She loved it!

What was her favorite thing in the room? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ALL my favorite!â&#x20AC;? she said.

Mission accomplished.

And can you guess what the next project is going to be in the Miner household? Well, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little brother Aidenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room of course. So from pink polka dots to blue plaid and from cute frogs to big cars and trucks, here we come! NCM

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Senoia’s John Bidne has a

Story and photos by Sarah Fay Campbell

n the early days of mechanization, before electricity and power tools, the “hit and miss” engine allowed one farmer to do the work of many.

These engines, usually mounted on a wheeled cart, could power just about any belt-driven device, and came in sizes from super portable to large, fixed machines that powered industrial looms and cement mixers.

John Bidne of Senoia inherited two hit and miss engines from his father. Since getting one of those

John Bidne of Senoia has 13 Hit and Miss engines, including this Jaeger. The original muffler has been replaced with a flashier one, fashioned from a brass tank shell.

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running, Bidne has become an avid collector. He owns 13 of the engines, ranging in size from 1.5 to 9 horsepower, and in conditions ranging from all original to fully restored.

“A lot of people have never heard of them,” Bidne said. “You tell them you’ve got a hit or miss, they think you are from planet Mars.”

But the single-piston gasoline engines, with their distinctive “putt putt putt putt POP” sound, have quite a following.

They are prized by collectors, and “gas engine” shows are held all over the country. Companies sell replica replacement parts for the engines, and some are still in practical use.

The hit and miss is one of the earliest versions of an internal combustion engine. The large, single piston turns two large flywheels, which turn belts.

The engines, which run just fine on regular unleaded, maintain a chosen speed by regulation of the “hits” and “misses.”

The hit, accompanied by the characteristic POP, is the firing of the engine. It then coasts until it’s time for the next hit. The firing is regulated by the spinning of a heavy metal governor.

The engines were used to power all manner of devices, including saws, hay balers, washing machines and

butter churns.

Bidne’s great-grandfather, John Wesley Caldwell, used a 1914 International Harvester engine.

Bidne’s grandfather bought the engine from the estate and used it to run a saw for firewood. But Bidne never saw it in action.

“By the time I came along, my granddaddy used a John Deere tractor to turn the saw,” he said. Bidne’s uncle had a Waterloo engine, and after his death, his wife gave it to Bidne’s father.

Bidne didn’t know anything about the engines. But a few days before his father died, in 1994, he called his son and told him he was giving him the two engines.

“I promised him I would never sell them,” Bidne said. He put the engines in his barn for safe keeping, but didn’t think much about them for six or seven years.

Then one day, he was talking to a fellow at work and somehow they got to talking about hit and miss engines.

The co-worker was intrigued and “said he would ride over and see what I had.” They managed to get the International running.

At that moment, he was hooked.

“I didn’t know anything about them,” Bidne said. “I had no idea.”

The engine needed some work.

“We had it running, but it wouldn’t run long,” Bidne said.

John Bidne has fully restored this 9 hp Economy, purchased in April and shown restored at top left and in its original state, near left. Because they were so heavy, the larger engines were usually sold for scrap, and are very rare.

Above, the center piston turns the fly wheels of an engine.

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And so the journey began.

The 1914 International is one of the oldest styles, and uses a battery to provide the spark of ignition. Most of Bidne’s engines use a magneto, or “mag,” while the latest models use spark plugs.

The first step was having the International’s igniter rebuilt.

“I started slowly,” Bidne said of his newfound hobby. He went to his first show in 2002. Soon after, he bought his first engine, a mid-size Economy. A few years later, he got a small Jaeger.

Things sped up from there. Two of Bidne’s biggest engines, an Economy and a Jaeger (both made, like most of Bidne’s engines, by the Hercules company), needed the most work.

Bidne’s gleaming red Economy nine horsepower engine, too big to be mounted on wheels, was a rusty mess just last spring. The larger engines are relatively rare. “They were so big and heavy, when people got through with them, they went to the scrap yard,” Bidne said. His was once used in a sawmill in northern Minnesota.

The mufflers original to the engines work great, but they’re not very pretty. Many restored engines, including Bidne’s large Jaeger, have flashier exhaust pipes, made from brass tank shells.

Bidne has an old water pump he hopes to convert, so he can demonstrate the engines in action.

But for the most part, “I just crank them up, listen to them run, and just fool with them,” Bidne said.

“Sometimes, it gets to be a good bit to keep up.”

He loves working on the engines and enjoys having “something that runs from a long time ago.”

“I just hate that I waited until I was 54 or 55 before I started fooling with them,” he said. NCM

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Meet a Newnan-Coweta Magazine

READER ...

Photos by Jeffrey Leo

DANNY “BOOMER” BISHOP If you’ve ever driven in downtown Newnan, you’ve probably seen the familiar figure of Danny “Boomer” Bishop. He can be seen walking around the Courthouse Square or up Jefferson Street and Bullsboro Drive on a daily basis, waving to his literally hundreds of friends as he covers the miles to and from home on foot. Boomer’s family has been in Newnan for generations, and he’s practically considered the unofficial mayor of Newnan, the mascot of the Newnan Cougars and Georgia Tech, and certainly he knows just about every square inch of downtown Newnan. While he lost his Grandma at age 100 not long ago and his Mama and Daddy are gone, Boomer still has uncles, aunts and cousins in Coweta County. But many of his friends are likely to consider Boomer one of the family as well. We should all be so lucky.

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Boomer, since you are sort of an “unofficial mayor” of Newnan, if you met someone new to town, where would you take them in Downtown to let them know the “real” Newnan?

Love is in the Air

Yes, I guess I am. I would first take them to the Post Office, then we’d go to the Bank of Coweta and then we’d come by the Redneck (Gourmet) for an hour or so.

Since you have been here all of your life, do you like the “old” Newnan or the “new” one with all the changes? Where did you hang out in the old days before the Redneck was here?

I actually like Newnan both ways. Back in those days we hung out at Kessler’s Department Store and of course Lee King. (Lee King Drug Store had a downtown location with a lunch counter. All the kids hung out there and could order sandwiches, fountain drinks and snacks. It was immortalized in the Alan Jackson song “Little Man.” The site of the Lee King store is now the Quizno’s on the Courthouse Square.)

How did you get your nickname Boomer?

I’ve been going to the rec center for 30 years, but when I was a kid I boomed balls into the basket and my friend Stan gave it to me.

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What is your idea of the perfect day?

Going to the Varsity and getting two hamburgers, fries and a Coke and then going to a Georgia Tech game. I go to almost all the home games with different friends.

You are a big Tech fan and we know you support Newnan football. Any other sports or hobbies?

I support Newnan football, basketball and baseball.

I used to know all the stats when I worked at All Sports (owned by Jim Johnson) on the Square (now the Gridiron Grill), but I don’t keep up with all the stats now. I go into the locker room for the games for moral support for all the teams. I also like country music, mostly Alan Jackson. I also once saw Elvis play at the Omni in the 1970s. That was great.

Any advice for people on how you make so many friends?

I just start talking to people about any old thing.

It’s easy to meet and talk to people. They like to talk and it’s nice.

living the good life at Heritage of Peachtree

1967 Highway 54 West Fayetteville, GA 30214 770-631-3461 JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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IN

WITH ARABIANS Newnan breeder Nan Harley is president of Georgia Arabian Horse Association

By Martha A. Woodham | Photos by Bob Fraley

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Nan Harley grooms her horse Top Dog in a barn at her Dreymbay Farm in Newnan.

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Nan Harley rides Top Dog at her outdoor riding arena at the farm.

Nan and Craig Harley enjoy time with their horses at their Dreymbay Farm in Newnan.

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orse breeder Nan Harley likes to mix and match. She starts with the versatile Arab, a breed known for its stamina, intelligence and versatility. Harley mates her Arab mares to stallions of other breeds in order to produce horses that excel in a variety of competitions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I like breeding half-Arabs because you can customize them,â&#x20AC;? says Harley, who is president of the Georgia Arabian Horse Association, one of the largest Arabian breed organizations in the state.

Harley competes her horses at shows for Arabians and half-Arabians. Some are shown Western style, and some English. Some know how to jump; others are good in dressage. One was even a national champion in Western sidesaddle, a class where the elegantly garbed riders perch â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not astride â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but with both legs on the same side of their mounts just as ladies rode 100 years ago. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With horses you have to find their niche, what they enjoy doing,â&#x20AC;? Harley says.

Her horse, CBS Top Dog, a handsome chestnut gelding, is a three-quarters Arab made for the show ring. He won eight national Western pleasure championships and reserve championships in the United States and Canada from 1999 to 2007, including one for Western sidesaddle. Now retired from the show circuit,

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Nan Harley shows some of the awards she’s won for her work with Arabians.

Six-month-old weanling DB Butch Cahzidy enjoys a romp.

Nan Harley and Top Dog are shown at the 2002 U.S. National show where they were champions in HalfArabian Western Pleasure AAOTR 40+ (Adult Amateur Owner to Ride). From left are Claire Boyd Drew, who bred Top Dog; Nancy’s friend Dorothy Keith on the cell phone to Harley’s husband, Craig; trainer Caralyn Schroter with her husband, Rob Bick, holding the trophy; and Top Dog's grooms.

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Top Dog will become Harley’s dressage horse – or maybe she will take him fox hunting.

Despite his success, Top Dog had a major setback along the way to the winner’s circle. His winning streak was derailed in 2004 when he began having issues with his left front foot.

“We had an MRI done – not an inexpensive test to do, by the way – and discovered that he had pedal osteitis, an inflammation of a bone in his foot brought on by poor farrier work,” she recalls. The horse was in training in North Carolina, but Harley brought him home and asked local farrier Quintin Wiseman for help.

“By spring of 2006, Top Dog was sound and healthy and went back into training,” she said. “The beginning part of the show season went well, but by the time we got to nationals in October he was lame again. So back home he came, and this time, Quintin was the only farrier to work on him during the 2007 show season.”

That meant Harley often had to trailer Top Dog from North Carolina to Newnan to have his hooves trimmed and his shoes reset every five or six weeks by Wiseman. “But it was worth it,” she says. “2007 was an amazing year for us, and I have many to thank for it. Quintin is my hero!”

Harley began riding in the 1980s when she was a student at the University of Georgia. “I met an old cowboy who was a horse trainer,” she says. “I started showing horses with him and barrel racing.” In barrel racing, Western riders circle three barrels in a pattern while going at full speed.

“That’s probably my first love – what an adrenaline rush.”

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While attending law school at Georgia State – where she met her husband, Craig, also an attorney – she began taking dressage lessons at Vogt Riding Academy in Atlanta.

“We bought our first home in 1987, and I bought my first horse about a week later at an auction sale in Atlanta at Dewey Henderson’s [auction barn],” she recalls. She had not planned to become a horse owner, but when a pregnant Arabian mare by the name of Taaskyne came on the auction block, the low price for such good bloodlines was too much to resist.

“I knew nothing about owning a horse or raising a baby,” Harley recalls. “Fortunately I was at a boarding barn where I got a lot of help.”

That mare was the beginning.

“Taaska and I learned a lot together, and she made me fall in love with Arabians,” says Harley.

Now she has eight horses, three of which are in training in North Carolina and Florida. The rest are at the Harleys’ 176-acre farm in Coweta County’s Smokey Road area, known for its horse farms.

Boomer, a German shepherd, and Dana, a German shorthair pointer, round out the menagerie.

After law school, the couple started with a small, nine-acre farm in Snellville. When their horse operation expanded, they moved south, searching for more pasture space.

“We first bought a farm in Hogansville, but one day as we were taking a mare to Chappell Farms to be bred, we thought, ‘Why can’t we live in this gorgeous horsy area?’” she says. After a search, the couple found their land in 2004. “Fortune smiled on us and we were able to have the farm. It

used to be a cow pasture.”

The Harleys have built a 10stall barn, a covered arena and a round pen. Trails snake through the woods on the property, which is an Arabian Horse Association Discovery Farm. This means that the couple often invites visitors who are interested in learning about Arabian horses.

The Harleys’ first stallion was

SA Reym, who was Craig Harley’s competitive trail horse. The Harleys had him for 11 years, until he died at age 25, and the couple still has the last foal sired by Reym. The beloved horse inspired their property’s name: Dreymbay Farm.

“It had always been a dream of mine to have a horse farm,” Harley says. “And bay is my favorite color, but don’t tell Top Dog!” NCM

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Craig McMillan making

By Janet Flanigan Photos by Bob Fraley

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F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a 1926 short story, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.â&#x20AC;? The same can be said of most artists. They see,

hear and write about the world differently than the rest of us and we are left to enjoy the hard-won sweat of their labors. Newnan artist Craig McMillan is one who visualizes the

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his mark as a painter

world in many different ways, and his work bears this out.

“I had no idea that I was going to be an artist until I took a pottery class my second year at the University of

Mobile,” says the tall, handsome McMillan, standing in paintsplattered work jeans. “I took a pottery class and suddenly I didn’t hate school,” he says in all seriousness.

Craig McMillan’s Statue of Liberty piece features an almost “pointillist” technique, in which each dot is a singular person performing an action.

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“I don’t consider myself an artist yet. I haven’t made my mark.”

— Craig McMillan

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After graduating, McMillan was hired by the prestigious Deljou Art Group, one of the leading publishers of fine art in the United States. Deljou sells high quality art to the design trade, art which is hung in corporate offices and sold to high-end collectors worldwide. McMillan signed on as a framer, determined to learn everything there was to know about fine art framing, the art of gold leaf and framing in the European tradition. Working hard for several years, he eventually became the manager of the framing department.

But he was also determined to continue to improve on his artistic styles as well, noticing what the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate clients were interested in, what worked, what didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, and eventually he was asked by Deljou to become one of their artists as well, under a pen name, as is their normal professional course.

McMillan wanted the freedom to paint under his own name, and downtown Newnanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flint Gallery displays his many different artistic styles. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

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THE AMERICAN SPIRITUAL ENSEMBLE The American Spiritual Ensemble is composed of some of the finest singers in the United States. The vocalists have thrilled audiences around the world with their dynamic renditions of classic spirituals and Broadway numbers.

Tenor Dr. Everett McCorvey founded the group in 1995, and many of its members have performed in such venues as the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Boston Opera and the Atlanta Civic Opera. They have also performed abroad in England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Scotland and Spain.

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consider myself an artist yet,â&#x20AC;? little playful touches, like when he McMillan says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t made took the entire Marilyn Monroe my mark.â&#x20AC;? character and placed her within the One of his personal favorite JFK headshot. series features different pop, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Japanese are big collectors historical or cultural icons that, from a distance, have almost a â&#x20AC;&#x153;pointillistâ&#x20AC;? look. But when viewed close, each â&#x20AC;&#x153;dotâ&#x20AC;? is a singular person performing an action, casting shadows, a whole creation unto themselves.

Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s painted the Statue of Liberty, JFK, George Washington on the Dollar Bill, Paris Hilton, Marilyn Monroe, Howard Hughes, Lincoln, Elvis and others.

Recently he was commissioned Craig McMillan used old stamps and to paint newspapers to create this artwork of a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stiletto.

President-elect Barack Obama. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I came up with the idea for of these series, especially originals,â&#x20AC;? these paintings from my motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s he says, but he also offers sixth floor balcony at the beach,â&#x20AC;? reproductions in different formats.

McMillan said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I took a photo There is a print version, prints with looking down at people on the some painting over the print, prints sand and the picture looked like with painting over the entire surface, an eyeball. The idea just went and of course, the originals. from there.â&#x20AC;? He sometimes adds McMillan is constantly trying

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new mediums and styles of work.

One project that was inspired by a woman’s stiletto involves using old stamps and newspapers. A friend finds the aged papers and stamps at

estate sales, and the color of the paper and stamps is the motivating factor in choosing where to place them on the work. “When we were in school we had to do our portraits in newspaper, and we could only use grey, white and black for our skin tones. I learned the older the paper

is, the darker it gets and that’s how I’m placing my paper on this work.

It’s all about the color of the stamp or paper.”

He’s also experimenting with watercolor portraits on board, using the wood grain as facial structure.

“I’ve found birch is the best for me – the wood grain is very subtle.”

Constantly searching, straining, learning, McMillan has paintings where he challenged himself to see what he could do in five strokes or less. He paints abstracts, nudes, imagery, portraiture and much, much more.

Always looking for different mediums with which to work, McMillan seems to be an artist who is a seeker of his own truth, and as he said, “I’m trying to make my mark.” If Craig McMillan doesn’t yet consider himself an artist, imagine what we have to look forward to. NCM

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The Th

e arden r

htful G g u o

Lonceria fragrantissima

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Winter Honeysuckle Story and artwork by Katherine McCall

e are now in the depths of winter ... my first winter at the cottage .... and the first winter I went mad.” So goes the opening line of Chapter Four in Beverley Nichols’ Down the Garden Path. And, no, this is not a drama-filled cliffhanger but “one of the most delectable and diverting garden books ever published,” as described by the Gardening Club of America. Mr. Nichols, a high profile member of the British social scene, was a prolific writer of plays, essays, novels, short stories and music. His gardening experience and writings began with his purchase of a 1520 Tudor cottage in Glatton in 1932 coinciding with the renovation and enlargement of the gardens there. His self-admitted almost nonexistent gardening knowledge, combined with his prodigious passion for flowers and droll British wit, makes his trilogy of this experience a delight to read. Flowers and people alike are subjected to his scrutiny and pen providing us with many a double entendre – wonderful gardening insights which also apply to people.

Chapter Four is a eulogy to the winter garden. After the opening line, he continues quite somberly describing the solitary winter life of the gardener and then finishes with the reason for his madness: “For suddenly I said to myself ‘I WILL HAVE FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN IN WINTER.’” Nichols goes on to relate his experiences in seeking out those courageous flowers who bravely lift their delicate heads in such an unwelcoming season. One which Nichols selects for its intense fragrance is the winter honeysuckle, a shrub that flourishes in our Southern gardens.

With his typical and engaging humor Nichols describes it thus: “It is JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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Photo courtesy of On-Line PlantGuide.com

strange that in this England of ours we should always think of honeysuckle as linked with harvest, and summer skies, and sultry lanes through which the towering hay wagons lumber. Honeysuckle makes most people recall lemonade, and country girls in bonnets, and parched grass and all the rest of it. However, I am perverse, so it makes me think of icicles. For there were long icicles dripping from the rain-gutters on the sparkling January morning when I first found my winter honeysuckle in flower. The drops fell, like truant diamonds, from the icicles on the frozen, creamy petals. Yet, the flower was not deterred. It shook off the drops, and continued to emit its fantastic sweetness. By the time the sun was high, the scent was quite overpowering.”

It seems appropriate for a British subject to introduce us to the winter honeysuckle as it was a British gentleman who first brought the winter honeysuckle from China in 1845. The great plant hunter, Robert Fortune, hunting for teas in China came upon other plants that he included in his shipments to Britain. Unpacked from the Wardian cases, the Lonceria fragrantissima immediately became popular in Britain. Botanist Carl Linnaeus had already discovered the plant and named it – the genus after Adam Lonitzer, an early German botanist, and the species, fragrantissima, is Latin for fragrant. It became established in Britain but was

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not introduced to the United States until several years later. James Cothran in Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South notes, “the first listing of winter honeysuckle in an American nursery catalogue apparently was in Prince’s 1860 Catalogue of Fruit Trees and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs.”

Many sources lovingly describe the winter honeysuckle as an old fashioned Southern favorite with many memories kindled by a single whiff of its sweet scented buds. Nichols describes it thus: “The flowers are not, of course, as large as those of the summer honeysuckle. I cannot talk learnedly about corollas, lips, lobes, and axils. I can only say that the blooms are extremely pretty, and look as if they had been quarrelling, for they are usually placed back to back.

The flowers last a fortnight if you cut them in the bud.

And they send out such a perpetual stream of fragrance that you will long to rush about the house waving

Honeysuckle makes most people recall lemonade, and country girls in bonnets, and parched grass and all the rest of it. However, I am perverse, so it makes me think of icicles.

— Beverley Nichols

scarves and doing spring songs.”

The highlight of the winter honeysuckle’s performance is the fragrant blossoms attracting bees and overwintering hummingbirds by providing pollen and nectar when not much else is blooming. Enter stage right the bright red berries which signal the entrance of the winter birds, followed quickly from stage left with

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the sprouting of blue green leaves. The denouement is the slender arching branches, reaching up to 10 feet and providing a perfect backdrop for more showy plants to take center stage throughout the spring, summer and fall. Placement in the landscape could be as a specimen plant in a woodland setting or massed as an informal hedge. Either way, be sure to place it near a pathway so the fragrance can be enjoyed and in full sun to partial shade. Plantsman Don Hastings recommends pruning about every third year to help the shrub keep its shape.

Let us finish with Mr. Beverley Nichols. He did not go mad and did have his winter garden. He continues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want my garden to go on. I cannot bear to think of it as a place that may be tenanted only in the easy months.â&#x20AC;? One wonders, is he truly speaking of his garden ... or himself? NCM

Web Extra: If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re keeping a garden journal this year, visit newnancowetamagazine.com to download a sheet on the Winter Honeysuckle.

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> LOCAL HERITAGE

Current events important to Reading Circle

by W. Winston Skinner

At left, members of the Newnan Reading Circle gather at the home of Mrs. R.B. Hubbard Jr. on Parks Avenue. The Hubbard home was the setting for a 70th Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 6, 1979.

Rosalyn McKoy, Pat Glover, Clara Berry Sanders and Ann Parrott enjoy refreshments at the 70th anniversary celebration.

Rosalyn McKoy and Genet Barron chat during the club meeting at the Hubbard home.

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t is no surprise that the Reading Circle has – over its first century – had a focus on current events.

This year, the venerable literary society’s programs are looking backward, focusing on the happenings of 1909 when the group was formally organized.

From its beginnings, however, the Reading Circle has had an interest in the here and now and in what might lie just ahead.

Perhaps the current events emphasis was inevitable given the women’s literary group’s organization just before one of the biggest events of the last century.

Halley’s Comet can now be traced to 240 BC or even earlier. The large comet, which comes near the earth every 75 years or so, was named for an English astronomer, Edmond Halley, who predicted its 1758 appearance and calculated its orbit.

Halley’s figuring led historians to trace appearances of the comet back to ancient times.

In the days before CNN and the Internet, the comet was as close to a worldwide event as could be imagined. People all over the globe could see it. In 1910, newspapers everywhere wrote about it. The 1910 visit was also the first time the comet could be photographed, which added to the fascination.

Halley’s Comet made its appearance in April 1910. The scheduled visit by the famous heavenly visitor was accented by a surprise comet, now known as the Great Daylight Comet of 1910, which made a spectacular appearance in January.

Folks given to hysteria predicted mass death when the earth was set to pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet in May, but the Reading Circle took a more circumspect

approach to the unfolding events.

The minutes for April 28 note, “The first hour was devoted to the discussion of current events, especially the comet.” On May 12, “the comet was the absorbing topic of the first hour.” The minutes note “a farewell discussion” for the glowing nighttime object at a subsequent meeting.

Most of the Reading Circle’s current events have tended to be earthbound if distant from Newnan’s city limits. In 1928, Pauline Wright, who was married to the district’s congressman of the era, spoke “in her attractive way” about a visit to Washington “by auto.” Her account touched on “the many different social customs observed in Washington society.”

International events in Italy, Turkey and China were topics in early meetings, and the sinking of

the Titanic merited discussion at a 1912 gathering. The birth of the Dionne quintuplets was a topic after their birth at a rural Canadian farmhouse generated worldwide interest in 1935.

Visits to the Century of Progress Exhibition in 1934 and the World’s Fair in 1939 added the insights and experiences of well-traveled Reading Circle members to topics already known from newspapers, magazines and radio. The visit of Madame Chiang Kai-shek to the United States, “in search of financial aid” for the Chinese government in Taiwan, was mentioned on Dec. 2, 1948.

Surely one of the Reading Circle ladies whispered to another that Mary Colley of Grantville had been Madame Chiang’s roommate at Wesleyan College years before.

Events that affected the lives of the Reading Circle members and

Dressed in honor of the Newnan Sesquicentennial in May 1978 are Reading Circle members Carrie May McElroy, Maryella Camp, Ruth Fitts, Virginia St. John and Laelius Davis.

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their families were also apt to be included for discussion. In 1910, the “garbage wagon” was mentioned.

In 1948, progress made by Georgia’s

Most of the Reading Circle’s current events have tended to be earthbound if distant from Newnan’s city limits.

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4-H clubs was a topic. New industries and the number of people they employed were chronicled in 1956.

In 1958, Ysabel Odom “opened the program by pointing out a very current current event, the new direct distant dialing telephone,” the minutes noted. “She reminded everyone that errors after Sunday will be our own.”

At a 1964 meeting, the current events time centered on “sex and crimes that were a bad influence on the youth of today.” The negative influences were coming from television programs, and the corresponding secretary was instructed to write the three major networks “condemning these programs.”

The minutes are tantalizingly silent about what programs were judged wanton or violent. The ladies

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Historic Downtown Newnanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Premier Bookseller

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could have been concerned about Peyton Place, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Danger Man. Soap operas were also in their heyday in 1964 with Another World making its debut that year.

The 1964 lineup, however, seems quaintly wholesome when compared to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s TV schedule.

Bewitched, Daniel Boone, The Munsters and Gilliganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Island were among the television classics making their first bow that year.

Scientific advances were often current events topics at Reading Circle meetings. The development of synthetic insulin for the treatment of diabetes was discussed in 1978. In our day, when alternative energy is such a hot topic, it is worth noting that a 1955 meeting related the first use of solar power to generate electricity for telephone transmissions in Americus.

Lest we conclude the literary ladies were focused solely on intellectually heavy topics, we can breathe a self-indulgent, relaxing sigh at the May 11, 1915 minutes: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The hostessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; current event was boiled custard and cake.â&#x20AC;?

As far as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m concerned, you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get more current than cake and custard. Perhaps, however, the current events chairman should make a note for a program down the road. Halleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Comet will be back on July 28, 2061. NCM

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Cowetans know how to give

T he Greatest Love of All

By Janet Flanigan

y husband and I chaperoned a church youth trip to a Braves game last summer and there was a mixup with the chaperone tickets. The game was sold out so we couldn’t buy tickets at the gate. A man overheard that we were part of a church youth group and said “You know what? Take these tickets as

my gift!” They were $60 tickets!

We tried to decline but he insisted. We all truly appreciated his kindness and thoroughly enjoyed the great seats for the Braves game. That stranger’s good deed led to a day of fun, but often acts of thoughtfulness can change people’s lives.

... and the greatest of these is love.

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Most people concede it’s difficult raising children in a single parent household. One divorced mother of two in Newnan has some additional worries.

Her son has special health concerns, and she’s been going through a rough time financially. Her son requires a doctor-ordered treatment that includes vitamins and highlypurified water which she ordered from Joe Spivey of Southern National Sparkling Water in Newnan. One month, when her finances made it impossible for her to purchase the water, she said Spivey, knowing her financial situation, simply went to her home and refilled her water cooler because he knows it is important to her son’s treatment. The next month when she had money, she called the office and told Joe’s office assistant Susie “he has to take my money.” Susie told her, “Joe says your money’s ‘no good’ here.”

The mother relayed this story about Joe and his staff with tears in

her eyes. “Some people are so good. Joe and his people are some of the kindest, most generous people you’ll ever meet.”

Another local tradesman came to this same family’s rescue when their water heater went out and there was no money to repair it. They were without water for well over a week.

Plumber Len Harper of Southern Plumbing knew of the family’s financial circumstances and of the son’s special needs since he had worked for the family before. The mother called him and told him her heater was broken and asked him to come in two weeks. Harper also came over while the mother was at work, without her knowledge, and replaced the heater. At no charge. She didn’t even know he was coming, and he has no plans to bill her.

“I still want to pay him, but he has no idea what he’s done for my family,” she said with a catch in her voice.

“Another person who I hardly know yet gave such love and security to my family.”

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Newnan’s Angel’s House provides a safe and secure environment for children while they await a home in foster care. The idea for Angel’s House came more than 10 years ago when a group of neighbors decided to pool their Christmas gift money and buy gifts for children in need instead. The friends raised $700 and expanded their efforts during the coming years, raising $8,000-$10,000 providing year-round funds for humanitarian services for needy children.

During that time, the Department of Family and Children Services experienced an extreme shortage of foster homes and something had to be done. The group mobilized and through massive community effort, fundraising and continuing support, dedicated citizens created what we now celebrate as a model temporary shelter for children. Angel’s House exists only because a group of friends were generous in their kindness toward others.

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Jay S. Berger, M.D., P.C. CertiďŹ ed American Board of Ophthalmology

The Community Welcome House is another place offering hope and love to people who really need it. Welcome House is a transitional shelter facility for mothers and children. Since 1998 Community Welcome House has been offering room, board, childcare, financial assistance and hope to families who have left abusive or threatening home situations and are trying to start afresh.

Community Welcome House Executive Director Linda Kirkpatrick said she was really surprised when her 10-year-old granddaughter, AnnaLisa Chavez, came to her with a special idea for spreading love to the residents of Welcome House during Christmas of 2007. â&#x20AC;&#x153;AnnaLisa asked her third grade classmates at Landmark Christian School if they wanted to have a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Happy Birthday Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; party for the residents at Welcome House, and they loved the idea.â&#x20AC;?

The friends got together and brought presents for the resident children and useful gifts for the facility. Kirkpatrick was touched that her granddaughter came up with this idea on her own.

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> COWETA COOKS

Cooking up a Romantic Valentine’s Meal

By Janet Flanigan | Photos by Bob Fraley

very Valentine’s Day for the past seven years, George Rasovsky, chef/owner of downtown Newnan’s Ten East Washington restaurant, has handled the special details for one customer’s Valentine’s present to his wife.

“The husband calls me every year,” Chef George chuckles, “and 70

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just tells me what time they are coming and I have it all ready … the flowers, a big bucket of champagne; I even get a card from him and sign it!” The couple loves all the attention showered on them by the chef but they do select their own entrees from the special Valentine’s menu.

Another Valentine’s Day, the chef was asked to prepare a special dessert with an engagement ring tucked inside, and he recalls the memory with a kind smile.

Chef George and his staff are now celebrating their 14th year in operation at the recently redecorated restaurant. The chef says he tries to

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treat each day like it’s the first, and “I always try to be consistent.”

Regulars know what to expect, and Rasovky says, “If I removed the filet, duck breast, penne pasta or other favorites from the menu, people would get upset.

I get creative with the nightly specials and other special events.”

Here, he shares two favorite recipes worthy of a Valentine’s Dinner menu of your own. NCM

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mcmanus@numail.org JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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Chef George Rasovsky preps ingredients for one of his special dishes.

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Give something

sweet to your sweetheart!

GEORGE’S PENNE PASTA 1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups diced ripe tomatoes 1/4 cup vodka 1 cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon 8 ounces penne pasta 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated Salt and pepper to taste Sauce: In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté garlic and olive oil about 30 seconds.

Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add vodka, cream, butter and tarragon and return to a boil. Continue to cook, stirring frequently until mixture reduces by half (about 5-7 minutes).

Pasta: Cook penne pasta according to package directions. Cook to al dente stage (tender but firm). Toss pasta with sauce and stir in parmesan cheese and garnish with fresh tarragon or fresh parsley and serve. Yields 2 servings.

PORK PICCATA 1/3 cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs 4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops, trimmed about 1/2-inch thick 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/4 cup chopped shallots 1 cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided 2 teaspoons capers 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 1/8 teaspoon black pepper Place the bread crumbs in a shallow dish. Dredge pork chops in bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the pork for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove pork from pan.

Reduce to medium. Add shallots to pan; cook 30 seconds. Stir in broth and lemon juice. Scrape pan to loosen the browned bits.

Stir in 1-1/2 tablespoons parsley, capers, rind and pepper; simmer 1 minute. Return pork to pan; cook for 3 minutes or until meat is thoroughly heated. Sprinkle pork with remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons parsley and serve. Serves four. (Serving size: 1 pork chop and 2 tablespoons sauce.)

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> THE BABY FILES

Running errands with a baby? Ha!

By Carolyn Barnard | Photos courtesy of the Barnard family

T

his time last year, I was sitting down to write an article for this magazine about a lesson learned from my first year of marriage.

Having been a parent now for almost two months, I find it hard to believe that I thought I had a Starbucks addiction then! Now, one year and one baby later, it is literally impossible for me to understand people who can function without caffeine. How any mother can make it through a morning without it (after a night of multiple feedings followed by hours of lying awake listening to their baby to make sure they aren’t asphyxiating and to their husband’s loud, train-like snoring) is beyond me. More power to the non-addicted, but every mother for herself!

I am also beginning to understand the idea that “a baby changes everything.” This is, admittedly, laughably simplistic but I feel strongly that no one ever revealed the paradoxical depth of this cliché to me. While there are obvious meanings, like the fact that you will be more obsessed and in love with your baby than you can imagine, there are other things you may not

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have thought of that will inevitably change. So, this article is for those readers who are yet to be welcomed into the world of parenthood. Let me shed some light on the way this manifests itself practically, in everyday situations.

Just yesterday, I needed to run some errands, which used to be something I enjoyed very much.

Getting out of the house, going to the store, meandering through Target, Starbucks in hand … even at my most pregnant and water-retained, this was still something I enjoyed.

(Yes, I drank Starbucks when I was pregnant!) It’s a little bit of a different experience now. Here’s what running an errand looks like when you have an infant: First, you need to feed your baby immediately before you leave your house to give yourself ample time at the store. Second, you will have a difficult time meandering through the store with a baby and a Starbucks in hand because you are going to be in a hurry and have your hands full.

The most difficult part of the shopping experience for me is the trip from the car into the store because the combined weight of Lilly and her car seat must be near 75 pounds. So, after slamming the car seat into the buggy while simultaneously trying to keep your baby asleep, holding a hot beverage and a diaper bag, you will be steering the buggy one-handed. (And someone will text or call you during this time, by the way. Good luck pushing with no hands). Steering a shopping cart with an infant car seat that you can barely see over and overflowing with merchandise while trying to casually jog through the store so you can avoid the screaming baby scenario inevitably brought on when you stop moving is anything but relaxing. By the end of my trip yesterday I was virtually shouting

“Forget the washcloths!” (which obviously needed some sort of price check since there was no tag on the stupid things) and sprinting to the car as Lilly was awakening. You can also kiss driving at a reasonable speed goodbye. Start thinking up your excuses for the kind officer now

because when that baby is hungry and screaming, you will drive like a lunatic to get home and feed her.

So, pregnant women, enjoy those leisurely trips to the store while you can because as soon as the baby comes, it’s a much more exciting experience! NCM

Aaron and Carolyn Barnard with new daughter Lilly

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> FAMILY FUN

Plan some family fun at the

By Meredith Leigh Knight | Photos courtesy of the Fox Theatre

“I can still remember coming to the Fox Theatre with my mother,” says my friend, Dawn Thomas, as we travel to Atlanta on a Sunday afternoon with our 10-year-old girls, 76

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Caroline and Ansley, who are also best friends. Both girls happen to be middle children, so an evening alone with mom is precious. And an evening at the Fox is, well, magical.

We started our night the way any good girls’ night should—with dinner. While restaurants abound, we chose nearby Gordon Biersch. This upscale brewery turned out to be the

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perfect choice for the girls. It felt like fine dining, yet the food wasn’t so fancy that the girls wouldn’t try it.

Ansley and I shared a tender rib eye steak, while the Thomases split a grilled chicken salad. For dessert, the four of us splurged on cheesecake and a double chocolate fudge cake, sure to meet any chocoholic’s approval. Ansley noted it was the first time she’d ever had dessert in a restaurant when it wasn’t someone’s birthday. From there, we made the short walk to the Fox, watching the girls’ eyes grow brighter with each step.

“Good evening, princesses,” said the greeter at the door.

The Fox makes everyone feel like royalty. The girls let out gasps as they looked up and saw moving clouds and stars in correct stellar alignment sparkling on the ceiling. The ornate décor is emblazoned with intricate plaster, bronze and painted detail, making even the ladies’ lounge aweinspiring.

“Can you believe that they almost tore this place down in 1973?” I asked.

Built in 1929 as a meeting place for the Shriners, the Fox was almost sold and demolished to make way for Southern Bell’s headquarters.

Fortunately, it was rescued through the grassroots efforts of Atlanta Landmarks, Inc., a non-profit organization. Their four-year “Save the Fox” fundraising campaign opened the hearts and purse strings of individuals and corporate donors, according to the Fox Theatre’s Web site.

The Fox is now a National Historic Landmark (the highest national ranking) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Georgia Museum Building (the most prestigious statewide ranking).

One of the shows coming to the Fox Theatre this month, “STOMP” uses everything from matchboxes to wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters and hubcaps to make magnificent rhythms.

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The sounds of “STOMP” are coming to the Fox Theatre Jan. 27-31.

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Fox T heatre Tours Tours of the Fox Theatre are conducted by the Atlanta Preservation Center.

Regularly scheduled tours take place on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10 a.m., and on Saturday at 10 and 11 a.m.

For tour information, call the Atlanta Preservation Center at 404-688-3353 or visit them online at www.preserveatlanta.com.

Through the years, the Fox has been meticulously restored, including â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mighty Mo,â&#x20AC;? the organ built specifically for the theatre. We got to hear â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mighty Moâ&#x20AC;? during our visit, but it was only later, after doing research, that I realized what a treat this was.

The Foxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crown jewel can produce sounds like a clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and all other orchestral instruments, as well as sounds like thunder, a fire bell, chimes and a steamboat whistle. The organ even contains real instruments in it such as a marimba, xylophone and glockenspiel. In 1963, it was painstakingly rewired with 36,000 feet (nearly seven miles) of new wire from the inside out by Joe Patten, the retired technical director.

Our show that night was High School Musical II, a feast for the eyes and ears. On Jan. 10 the Fox will host Paramountâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Original Laser Spectacular Featuring the Music of Pink Floyd. State Ballet Theatre of Russia presents Cinderella on Jan. 11, and showing Jan. 27-31 is STOMP, which is described as â&#x20AC;&#x153;an explosive, provocative, sophisticated international percussion sensation that appeals to audiences of all ages. The eight-member troupe uses everything but conventional percussion instruments, including matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters and hubcaps, to fill the stage with magnificent rhythms.â&#x20AC;?

But no matter what you see â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ballet, musical, drama, or a fun show like STOMP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; your family is sure never to forget its first trip to the Fox. For more information on shows and events, visit http://www.foxtheatre.org/ or for general information, call 404-881-2100. NCM

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THE BOOKSHELF

Whispers of the Bayou

By Mindy Starns Clark Harvest House, $13.99 Reviewed by Holly Jones In Whispers of the Bayou by Mindy Starns Clark, Miranda Miller has a tattoo.

She doesn’t remember getting it, doesn’t know what its shape means, and has no recollection of anything prior to getting the tattoo.

No, Miranda is not having a lost weekend. The tattoo application and past she doesn’t remember are part of her childhood – everything before the age of six. She’s not sure when or why she got the tattoo, and she’d have never known about it if she hadn’t been mugged by some strange men looking for the crossinside-a-bell mark on her head.

But she’s seen the shape before. She’s sure of it. And she was sure earlier in the day when a strange man brought a painting into the museum where Miranda works. Pretending to want information about restoring the painting, the stranger mostly seemed interested in learning what Miranda knew about the symbol on the painting – the cross-inside-a-bell.

When Miranda tells her Aunt Janet 80

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– AJ – about the attack, AJ is terrified, but not as surprised as Miranda would have thought. AJ actually shows Miranda the tattoo on her head, and she has known about the tattoo since Miranda was young, but she doesn’t know its meaning. Only Miranda’s grandmother knew, and she’s long been dead.

But there’s something else, AJ says. Letters have been coming for Miranda, letters AJ did not want Miranda to see because they involve her past – her childhood in Louisiana.

Miranda inherited her grandparents’ Louisiana estate when they died, but hasn’t seen it since she was five, the year her mother died and Miranda moved to New York to live with AJ. Miranda won’t gain control of the estate, however, until the old caretaker dies. Willy Pedreaux, the caretaker, has been given permission to live on the estate until his death.

And Willy is dying.

Before he does, he insists upon talking to Miranda. He’s been sending messages through the estate’s lawyer, and finally he gets frustrated and sends a note directly to AJ. “Please let her come,” the note says.

“It’s time.”

Time for what? Miranda doesn’t remember her past, and she’s not sure she wants to. But AJ is terrified for Miranda to go to Louisiana, telling Miranda AJ knows more than she’s saying.

So, without thinking, without knowing why, Miranda goes. And there she learns about her past, her family’s secrets and all the Whispers of the Bayou.

more than the Israelites.” Even worse, she has “an awfully hard time putting the brakes on my motoring mouth,” her memory, well, it’s sorta hit-and-run, and she’d “never use the words ‘lightnin’ speed’ to describe (her) thinking.”

But that’s OK. Gibby knows she’s NQR, because she’s been that way since the wreck that killed her parents. She’s just worried because her mother’s best friend, Miss Lydia, says Gibby’s mother isn’t at peace in heaven. And Gibby blames herself because she’s NQR. Right now Gibby helps her grandfather at his breakfast diner and has her own weekly newspaper, but she also has a plan. Accomplishing one of two tasks will prove to her mother that she’s QR (quite

Land of a Hundred Wonders

By Lesley Kagen Penguin Books, $14 Reviewed by Holly Jones

right), and then Gibby knows her mom will rest in peace.

One possible method for proving she’s QR is for Gibby to win a public Scrabble tournament. Or, she could report an awfully good story. Right now this second task seems more likely because Gibby has discovered the dead body of Buster Malloy, “the next governor of the fine state of Kentucky,” on the Browntown Beach. Buster had a broken neck and four stab wounds to the chest.

In Lesley Kagen’s Land of a Hundred Wonders, Gibson “Gibby” McGraw is NQR. In her grandpa’s language this means Not Quite Right. Gibby defines this as “words and their meanings elude me” and her mind “gets to wandering

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And Gibby has the pictures to prove it – if she can remember to get the film developed.

But a dead body and an NQR brain are not Gibby’s only problems.

Grandpa has a heart attack; Gibby’s best friend Clever is pregnant and won’t say who the father is; her old friend Billy, who has his own problems after returning from the Vietnam War, won’t look at her; and the town pervert chases her wherever she goes, making lewd suggestions.

Soon Gibby, Clever and Billy are caught up with a murder investigation, treasure hunt, law enforcement corruption, prison break-in and drugs. And Gibby’s not so sure she’ll ever be QR – or even alive.

Gibby is a sweet, funny, screwedup, extremely realistic character. She has no filter on her mouth, and her language can be crass and crude. But there’s also an innocence about her that keeps you in her corner, praying she’ll regain her memory, become QR again, and find her miracle in the Land of a Hundred Wonders.

Mona Lisa in Camelot

By Margaret Leslie Davis De Capo Press, $24.95 Reviewed by Angela McRae When the U.S. gets a new president we also get a new first lady, and throughout our nation’s history we have paid attention to the first lady’s causes and interests. From Lady Bird Johnson’s beautification efforts to Hillary Clinton’s work on healthcare and Laura Bush’s focus on at-risk youth, we are accustomed to having a first lady use her position and influence for favorite causes. Our next first lady, Michelle Obama, has two young daughters to raise in the White House and has said her primary focus will be the job of “mom in chief.” Like her predecessors, though, she will no doubt use her position to bring attention to other causes important to her.

For first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, no cause was dearer than supporting the arts, and her passion for art is brought to life in the fascinating new book Mona Lisa in Camelot: How Jacqueline Kennedy and Da Vinci’s Masterpiece Charmed and Captivated a Nation by Margaret Leslie Davis.

The story is famously told of how President Kennedy in 1961 described himself as “the man who accompanied

Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” The young, attractive president and his wife were the toast of the town during their visit to Paris that May. Jackie befriended France’s cultural minister, André Malraux, and it was hoped he and his wife would pay a visit to

the U.S. They made the visit a year later, and during the visit Jackie made a bold suggestion to Malraux: Why doesn’t your country loan America the Mona Lisa?

It may have been a bold suggestion, but it was not an impossible one.

Jackie’s old family friend and director of the National Gallery, John Walker, was adamantly opposed to the idea and feared the world’s most famous painting would accidentally be destroyed, losing forever an artistic treasure and making the U.S. the laughingstock of the world. Jackie, and others, thought his fears were overexaggerated. Walker soon had the unenviable task of seeing to the carefully orchestrated exhibit of the Mona Lisa in both Washington and New York.

The author does a terrific job of turning what could have been merely a nice magazine article into a non-fiction book that reads like a mystery novel. Will the Mona Lisa arrive safely? Does the wooden canvas warp as John Walker feared?

The book also gives a richly detailed picture of Jackie Kennedy’s passion for art, reminding us a first lady’s influence can be just as long-lasting as that of the president. NCM

Announcing the Third Annual Newnan-Coweta Magazine Writing Contest If you’ve got a story to tell, you’ll want to enter our Third Annual Writing Contest. The rules are simple: • Be a Coweta County resident.

• Include a Coweta County person, place or thing in your writing.

• Your entry may be fiction or non-fiction, but it can’t exceed 800 words. (No poetry.) On the first page, please list your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and title of entry. On the following pages, please include only the name of the entry.

• There is no age requirement, but all writing entries will be judged together. Employees and freelancers of The Times-Herald or Newnan-Coweta Magazine are not eligible.

• Mail us a printed copy of your entry postmarked no later than March 16, 2009. Please keep a copy for yourself, as entries won’t be returned. Mail entries to Newnan-Coweta Magazine Writing Contest, P.O. Box 1052, Newnan, GA 30264.

• A panel of judges will decide the winners. First place wins $100 and publication in the May/June issue of the magazine.

Second place wins $50 and publication on the magazine’s Web site. Third place wins $25 and publication on the Web site.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

2009

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> LAST LOOK

Winter Wonderland

This photo by Bob Fraley was taken near the Nature Center at the Coweta County Fairgrounds last year. If you’ve got a photo you’d like considered for “Last Look,” send a copy to Newnan-Coweta Magazine, P.O. Box 1052, Newnan, GA 30264 or e-mail it to angela@newnan.com (300 dpi JPEG format). Please send copies or digital images only, as photos will not be returned.

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NEWNAN-COWETA

MAGAZINE

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INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Advanced Aesthetics Plastic

Keep Newnan Beautiful ............................49

Surgery Center, P.C...............................56

Kemp’s Dalton West Carpets, Inc. ..........38

Archadeck ....................................................33

Kimble’s Events By Design ........................65

Artisan Jewelry Company ........................57

Lee-King and Lee-Goodrum

Ashley Park ................................................8,9 Bank of Coweta ..........................................84

Pharmacies............................................79 Legacy Too Furniture/

BB&T ............................................................61

Accessories/Antiques..........................37

Jay S. Berger, M.D., P.C. ............................69

Main Street Newnan ..................................45

Brian’s Paint and Body Shop ....................43

McManus Family &

Brown’s Pools & Spas Inc. ........................61 Cardiovascular Consultants of Georgia, P.C. ......................................27 Center For Allergy & Asthma ......................5 The Centre For Performing & Visual Arts..............................................55 Chin Chin Newnan Chinese

Cosmetic Dentistry ..............................71 Morgan Jewelers/Downtown ..................25 Newnan Academy Preschool & Child Care ..............................................79 Outpatient Imaging......................................65 Panoply Interior Design..............................55 Parks & Mottola Realtors ..........................14

Restaurant..............................................71

Phillips Dental ..............................................43

Coweta Pool & Fireplace ..............................39

Piedmont Newnan Hospital ........................2

Crescent Veterinary Hospital ....................21

Radiation Oncology Services ......................3

Crossroads Podiatry ..................................68

Roscoe Jenkins Funeral Home ................25

Downtown Church of Christ ......................33

Scott's Book Store ......................................65

Edibile Arrangements ................................73

Southern Crescent Equine Services ........49

Farm Bureau Insurance ............................43

Traditions in Tile & Stone ..........................37

Franklin Road Animal Hospital ..................51

Uniglobe McIntosh Travel..........................38

Fresh-N-Fit Cuisine ....................................68

University of West Georgia........................19

Griffin Dental Specialties ..........................21

Watts Furniture Galleries ..........................39

Heritage Retirement Homes

W. Daly Salon Spa ......................................31

of Peachtree ..........................................45 The Heritage School ..................................51 Hollberg's Fine Furniture............................37

Wedowee Marine........................................61 West Georgia Center for Plastic Surgery......................................14

March/April 2009 Advertising Deadlines Published: March 6, 2009; Contract Ads: January 28, 2009; New Ads: February 6, 2009 Call 770.683.6397 for details and advertising information. |

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From Florida to Alabama, from Tennessee to South Carolina, and of course right here in the Peach State, you can benefit from community banking at its finest with any Synovus bank. As a member of the Synovus family of 32 individually chartered banks, Bank of Coweta combines the benefits of hometown banking with folks you know and trust with the capital and security of Synovus Financial Corp., a holding company with over $34 billion in assets based in Columbus, Georgia.

Together we cover the Southeast to provide our friends and neighbors with banking services and products combined with the security and soundness you want and need in your banking relationship.

Bank of Coweta and Synovus.

Strong banking relationships and peace of mind.

Member FDIC