Volume 7 Issue 1 Kitchen Drawer Illustrated by Kitchen Drawer Illustrated

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JAN/FEB Calendar

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Movie Review

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ENTREPRENEUR FOCUS

2015

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STUDENT-ATHLETES IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE ISSUE OF COMPENSATION

Street Art

RESTAURANT REVIEW

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Lucky's Italian

Oak Hill Farms Keller Williams Realty

BIOGRAPHY: Campbell’s Custom Cars

James & Mandy Campbell

ARTIST PROFILE

Joyce Perdue Smith 21

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ENTREPRENEURFOCUS TOM AND ANN WEATHERFORD Tom Weatherford has always been a farmer. He gets it honest. The farm he now owns was his father’s before him. Working with his hands comes naturally to Tom, but his wife Ann is the one with the green thumb. You can see evidence of both their talents on every inch of their property at Oak Hill Farms, a wedding venue in The Rock, GA. The couple built their dream home on the family farm, and over the years they’ve worked hard to turn the property into a masterpiece. In 2012, the couple caved to peer pressure from friends and decided to rent the space as a wedding venue. By that time, all three of their children – two daughters and a son – had either held their wedding ceremony, reception, or both on the property. Now with over 50 weddings under their belts in just over two years, and with the help of Event Coordinator Lynn Carter and Wedding Director Jo Baxter, Tom and Ann look forward to hosting many more weddings. Tom, a cattle farmer by trade, is also quite a talented woodworker and all-around craftsman. “I piddle,” he says humbly. In 1999, Tom and Ann had an 1800s log cabin moved to the property from Indiana. Tom rebuilt and finished out the interior of the cabin himself. Decorated with vintage and antique furniture, the cabin now serves as the venue’s Bridal Suite. Retired from the Thomaston Post Office, Ann now volunteers part time in the Upson Regional Medical Center’s gift shop. But the time she values most is her time spent gardening. “I’ve always loved working in the yard and being outside,” she says. “If I can’t get outside, I’m not very happy.” A multi-tiered cast-iron fountain, recovered from a Florida farm Tom’s father bought in the early 1950s, serves as the centerpiece of the back yard. Now back in working order, the fountain is surrounded by boxwoods and container gardens. Combined with the sweeping pastures behind it, the scene makes the perfect backdrop for a ceremony. Unique bits of history like this can be found all over the sprawling 32-acre farm. Each structure, each feature, even the trees on the property all have a story behind them. Together Tom and Ann built a magical place over many years, and now they’ve opened it up to share with young couples getting ready to start their own lifelong journey together.

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TOMMY ALLEN One thing that all entrepreneurs seem to be imbued with is a never-ending desire to succeed and to make a difference, even in the face of challenges. Tommy Allen, a local realtor and business owner, is a perfect example of that quality. Even as a child, Tommy was a self-starter and a young businessman. When he was 12, he began doing lawn maintenance and pressure washing in his neighborhood. By the time he was 16 and could drive, he had turned that into a full-service lawn company. Tommy faced a lot of scrutiny when he got his real estate license at the age of 18 – fresh out of high school. “Because of my age everyone said, ‘You can’t make it in this business. You’re too young.’” Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case. A member of the Heart of Georgia Board of Realtors’ Million Dollar Club for five years running, Tommy is proud of his success. He sold more than 50 homes in 2014, and he says has no plans to slow down. Tommy is an agent for Keller Williams Realty, which he says is a real benefit to his clients. “Keller Williams is the number one real estate company in North America, so sellers can know they’re listing with an agency that has all the resources and experience to get it done.” When he’s not showing homes or at the closing table, Tommy might be found helping his wife Michelle at The Cookie Jar, a bakery and gift shop in downtown Griffin. The couple bought the business in mid-2014. “It’s really cool to have a place here in one of these old historic buildings,” he says. “It’s always been a dream of ours. We love downtown and really hope to see it flourish.” Tommy says his future plans are to keep growing professionally and continue giving back to the community he loves. One project that he’s particularly proud of is the Homes for Heroes program, of which he is an affiliate. Homes for Heroes provides discounted real estate services for firefighters, EMTs, active military, veterans, law enforcement, teachers, and healthcare workers. Tommy says, “That’s really cool to me. To be able to give back to the folks who have served all of us.”

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James and Mandy Campbell of

By Rachel Scoggins Photos by Steve Smyly James and Mandy Campbell have been in the car restoration business for over 25 years. They own Campbell’s Custom Cars, a custom paint and restoration shop located in Hampton. James Campbell has cars in his blood. In the seventh grade, he paid $50 for a pickup truck that he saw and just had to have. He read every magazine he could, took the truck apart, and learned how to work on a vehicle. But he couldn’t quite get that truck together, so at 16, he bought another truck and learned how to assemble a motor from hot rod magazines. “It took forever,” James said. “I made lots of mistakes but got it done. I love trucks.” He’s been building cars since the early ‘80s. Originally from Panama City, Florida, James was expected to become a mill worker—something he absolutely did not want to do. Instead, he followed his dream and pursued cars. He found it too difficult to receive parts in Panama City, so he moved to Atlanta for convenience. When he opened his first shop in Riverdale, he only worked on Corvettes. Slowly, he made his way towards working on all hot rods—eventually migrating to Spalding County. Now, at his shop on Highway 19/41, they work on everything from classic cars to new Mustangs to motorcycles to a custom ‘51 Studebaker.

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About a year ago, the shop collaborated with a local cable channel to produce a television show called Hot Rods and Rust. “It’s a good marketing tool,” James stated. “It lets people who don’t know what we do see and trust us because they’ve seen the TV show.” The program airs on SCBTV, which reaches Spalding, Henry, Fayette, and Pike counties, but every episode can also be found on Vimeo and YouTube. James has

Hot Rods & Rust

also written a book entitled Hot Rods and Rust, which tells about his love of cars and lets people see how he got where he is today. Campbell’s Custom Cars is a family-owned business. James works with both his wife, Mandy, and his daughter, Emma. Mandy is the office manager and runs the front office, which helps James be able to keep his focus on the cars. “I couldn’t do it without my wife,” he admitted. Daughter Emma is in charge of marketing. The business also has a group of professionals who do interiors, paint, and other body work. “I can’t do anything without my guys,” James said. “They’re like my family.”

FAMILY OWNED Paint job transmissions motor interior stereo everything else

Some people just drop the cars off and let Campbellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Customs do their magic; others participate in the restoration project.

CUSTOM CARS

Those who work at Campbell’s pride themselves on building cars to fit the individual person and his or her needs. They sit down with the customers and plan out the job. “It doesn’t have to be my dream,” James said. “I try to take the time with my customers to help them figure out their dream and make that real.” He stays budget minded, outlining the job so the owners get no unwanted surprises when they receive the bill. He spends hours and sometimes days with a client to plan a build so he or she can know how much the work will cost. “I want people to know you don’t have to be wealthy to have a cool collector car.” The shop encourages owners to stay involved in the process if they wish. Some people just drop the cars off and let Campbell’s Customs do their magic; others participate in the restoration project. Some car owners order needed parts online, which saves both time and labor. Other owners do certain installation jobs themselves, like taillights and headlights. All the jobs are customer-centric. “It’s the thrill of building it, designing it, and figuring out the puzzle,” James said. Car owners can come to Campbell’s for as little as a paint job, but the shop also does all types of auto work—transmission, motor, interior, stereo, and everything else. They can fix a dent, add stripes, or take an entire car apart and rebuild it. Many of the techniques they use are considered “old school.” For example, when painting stripes on a car, they use a paint brush, not a sticker. “You can’t get the look with modern stuff that you can with the old pearls and gold flakes,” James said. The amount of time required for each job varies. A paint job can take as little as two weeks, while a restoration can last up to a year. The types of jobs that the shop does are extremely varied. Past projects include painting an American flag on a

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motorcycle for a veteran, a Zombie Slayer motorcycle, and a motorcycle for the Coyote Ugly bar in Las Vegas. They have made classic cars more drivable for the owners. They also build projects for charity, such as a motorcycle for ABATE (American Bikers Active Toward Education) to auction and a command vehicle and handicap golf cart for Warrior Golf Camps of America. Their customers come not just from Georgia, but from all over the world—New York, Arizona, and even Germany and Australia. Cars, trucks, and other vehicles are just part of who the Campbells are. James drives antique cars and owns three trucks and seven motorcycles. One of his trucks is The Beast, a ‘54 Ford which includes pieces of that truck he bought back in the seventh grade, and he has built cars with both his daughter and his son. Mandy rides a ‘67 Harley. “I remember going on dates in cars, showing off in cars,” James said. “Cars are no different than accessories. Everyone personalizes their cars. They define who we are, definitely define who I am.” James considers himself extremely blessed now, but it has not been all good times. For a while, the shop did mostly collision repair, but now they can take jobs they want. “I’ll fool with cars until they drag me to the cemetery,” James said. “It’s in my blood; it’s what I’ve always done.” If a custom car has been a dream you’ve never thought possible, go check out “Hampton’s best little secret” for friendly, customer-centric service from top professionals. Campbell’s Custom Cars is located at 4129 Hwy 19/41 in Hampton. You can also find them on Facebook or at their website: campbellscustomcars.com. As James said, “It’s wide open what you can do—if you can dream it, we can do it.”

or a small city with a population of less than 24,000, Griffin boasts an impressive variety of excellent performing arts groups. Established in 2007 by Dr. Stephen J. Mulder and Jan Whalen, Griffin Choral Arts is a local favorite that has grown to become a well-respected 55-member community choir featuring some of the best singers in the region and drawing concert audiences as large as 750 people.

When the choir was first formed, Steve Mulder had modest goals in mind: “If I can find 24 voices, I’ll be really happy; if there are six on a part, I think I can make it work.” That was Steve’s immediate objective. “As far as the expectations artistically, I really wanted the choir to perform more serious choral music—music written for choirs, rather than choral arrangements of popular music.” Another goal Steve and Jan had for Griffin Choral Arts was to recruit a strong, wellqualified president for the first board of directors. Elaine Bolton was chosen and filled that role perfectly. That was the beginning of many successful seasons for the choir, now well into its eighth season.

“We started GCA in the summer of 2007…that we were able to not just survive but absolutely thrive during that difficult financial time is a testament to the strength of our mission and quality of our singers,” said Steve. “The product is something that the community is willing to support. We strive to be innovative in our programming. We are constantly pushing the envelope and trying things that are a little less familiar, and so far our audience has responded positively.”

Steve and the Griffin Choral Arts singers recently pushed the envelope by performing The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass with Monroe Crossing, a nationally acclaimed bluegrass band. The concept of a classical choir performing with a bluegrass band proved to be such an intriguing draw that the audience packed the sanctuary of Griffin First United Methodist Church. Other bold and innovative programming involved collaborations with the Griffin Ballet, including The Armed Man during the choral arts group’s third season and A Mother’s Tears in March of 2014. According to Steve, the group’s spring concert is always a highlight. “Every year we have

By Elaine Krugman with Betsy Harris

GRIFFIN CHORAL ARTS

made our March concert the biggest concert, with bigger orchestras and more challenging music. The commissioned work (You Were the Wind, by David Childs) that we did at the end of Season Five was a bit of a stretch. That commission was the cherry on the top.” This year’s concert, planned for March 12 at the Griffin Auditorium, will follow the Griffin Choral Arts tradition of being the grandest concert of the season. Performing with an orchestra, the choir will feature Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor, one of the composer’s most performed and popular but also most mysterious works. Season Eight will conclude on May 7 at First Baptist of Griffin with music inspired by Celtic lands and traditions. “Celtic Blessings” will feature choral classics, folk songs, and crossover repertoire. Steve said, “I try to provide the singers and the audience with the experience of a variety of cultures and styles.” He also strives to be creative in his selections. He said, “I love that the choir comes back to rehearsal on the Monday night after a performance and they open up their folders and have no idea what’s going to be there.” He added, “I try very hard to not program anything that I myself am not enthusiastic about. If I can’t sell it to the choir, then I can’t sell it to the audience. If I can’t enjoy it myself, how can I expect someone else to appreciate it?” Griffin Choral Arts’ mission is “Bringing the best choral music to the community,” and the group remains very passionate and focused on doing just that. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.griffinchoralarts.org.

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By Ronnie Garrison The new year always brings hope that things will somehow be better. The beginning of a new year offers new possibilities, and every year I hope for some changes and improvements over the past. The news does not lead one to believe there is any chance for some things to change, but one can hope. I wish people would stop blaming others for their problems and start taking responsibility for their own actions that are the cause of the problems, but it is human nature to blame bad things on someone else. Individuals can make some small changes and efforts to improve things. Taking kids hunting and fishing can give them something to depend on for the rest of their lives. Don’t give them a fish; teach them to fish. Fishing at a young age shows kids the wonders of nature and that they do have some control over what happens. They learn the habits of the fish and see that if they make the right decisions on baits and places to fish, they can catch more fish. They also learn that if they make bad decisions the outcome will not be what they want. Adults can share their knowledge of fishing and hunting. Learning from the experience of others can help kids avoid mistakes and improve their skills. It also teaches them to pay attention to others’ knowledge. Nowadays, it seems kids, especially teenagers, don’t want to learn from adults, but if you start when they are young they learn to accept guidance, and that may spill over into other parts of their lives. I hope all kids have parents who care about them and who provide a warm place to live and enough food. Some parents, through no fault of their own, are trying but just can’t do this, and I hope others help them in any way they can. And I hope that kids who don’t have parents, just adults who birthed them, find someone to take the role of a parent. I wish every kid could experience the excitement of watching a cork floating on the water and the anticipation of it going under. For some reason, watching a cork disappear is a huge thrill. The patience learned while watching a cork can serve kids in everything from future jobs to their personal lives. I hope every preteen gets a BB gun and spends time shooting it. A BB gun will teach a young person gun safety and shooting skills without much danger. If a kid accidentally shoots himself with a BB gun it will sting but is not likely to do permanent damage.

Shooting the wrong thing with a BB gun does some damage. Most of us accidentally shot a window when we were kids. It is irritating to have to replace it, but no permanent damage is done. A BB gun can teach young people to be careful about where a gun is pointed, make sure of their target, and be careful about what is behind it. Stalking birds with a BB gun teaches hunting skills. Graduating to a .22 or .410 when they are ready then hunting small game like squirrels and rabbits teaches kids stalking skills and how to learn the habits of their quarry. Too many kids think hunting is sitting in a stand waiting on a deer to walk into a food plot or a pile of corn, then shooting it. That is not hunting; it is harvesting. There is nothing wrong with planting food or putting out bait then shooting deer over it where legal, as in south Georgia, but it is not hunting. Easing through the woods looking for squirrels is a great way to learn stalking skills and patience. You learn how to ease along without much movement or noise to get close to your quarry. You also learn shot placement and that if you don’t take careful aim to hit where you want, you will not be successful. Small game hunting teaches youth to find the game they shot. Learning to clean, cook, and eat squirrels and rabbits teaches youth to enjoy the food they harvest but also that there is work involved in the enjoyment, as in all things in life. Catching, cleaning, and eating fish teaches the same things. Cleaning their catch or kill teaches young people how amazing internal organs really are and where they are located. This can help with everything from school science classes to first aid. Teaching kids also helps adults hone their skills. I hope all adults spend some time teaching kids this year. Above all, I hope 2015 brings us all what we need.

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BY ELAINE KRUGMAN WITH BETSY HARRIS Joyce Perdue Smith’s paintings portray what life in Griffin was like in the textile mill town during “the good ol’ days” of the 1950s and 1960s. Painting historically accurate scenes of her hometown’s past is Joyce’s passion. “I have lived in Griffin most of my life, and it is just home to me,” she said. “I love doing the narrative, historical paint-

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ings of Griffin when it really was much smaller, and life was at a slow pace. Griffin was very peaceful, and we all knew just about everyone in this town.” Telling stories of Griffin is what Joyce enjoys most about her art, although she also likes to paint flowers and other subjects. Most of the people in her paintings are real people she

knew from back in the 1950s and 1960s, and they show up in scenes from her memories of the day. Joyce’s painting of the old Imperial Theatre on Solomon Street depicts a day in April 1957 when she went to see Giant. For all these years, she has kept the small brochure she received at the door advertising the coming attractions. She referred to pictures in that brochure to accurately paint the poster advertising a Jayne Mansfield flick in the glass case next to the ticket window. Who is the boy driving that hot red Chevy? Well, that’s Pee Wee Brooks cruising the theatre to see and be seen. Joyce has also captured scenes from other local theatres, including the Iris Drive-In, a favorite place for a date for those who had cars, and the Rex Theatre, where you could pick up popcorn and catch a triple feature for 25 cents. We can learn many other stories about Griffin and other nearby small towns through Joyce’s work. Joyce has painted the old Sixth Street Bridge, as well as depot scenes from the 1950s, when passenger trains still rolled through town. One of her Christmas scenes shows the neon Dundee Towels sign. Another painting features East Griffin Elementary School, which was constructed by Dundee Mills for their employees’ children. Her painting of a scene from Fred’s Footlong Hot Dogs will surely bring a smile to longtime Griffin residents who enjoyed a hot dog or two back then.

paint with her when they come from Fayetteville for a visit. Although Joyce did not receive a great deal of formal art training during her younger years, after graduating from Middle Georgia College she studied art, concentrating on watercolor with Ben Shute, at the Atlanta College of Art (now merged with SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design). Joyce also maintained studio space at the Atelier of Atlanta and studied there with its founder and director, renowned artist Ouida Canaday. Over the years, Joyce has studied with many other nationally known teachers, including Roman and Constantin Chatov. Although Joyce prefers painting to teaching, she does pass on the skills she has learned by co-teaching a class at Griffin’s First United Methodist Church with Beverly Edwards. While Joyce and Beverly paint, their students observe and paint along with them, emulating their strokes and techniques. Joyce offers advice for those wishing to pursue a career in art: “I really think people should have an education in art, because you need to know the principles of good art and the basics. I attended the Atlanta College of Art to make sure I was producing good art—even though I might have gone back and painted the way I wanted.”

Of the city today Joyce says, “Griffin is still community-minded enough to feel like a small town, yet we are close enough to Atlanta and Macon to enjoy the big-city life whenever we want to.”

The paintings of Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent most inspire Joyce, and perhaps it is this inspiration that comes through in her work. She does commissioned work on a regular basis. To see Joyce’s art locally, go to Iris City Art & Framing, where she often leaves her paintings to be framed, and Gigi’s Antique Griffin.

Painting has been a lifelong love for Joyce. Thanks to the encouragement of her grandmother, an artist, and her mother, an art lover, Joyce has been painting since the first grade. She has passed this love on to her granddaughters, who

Though Joyce primarily worked with watercolor when she first studied art, she now enjoys variety. “Watercolors, pastels, oils, acrylics—I love them all,” she says. “The medium I like is the one I’m doing at that particular time.”

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HEART HEALTHY TIPS There are four lifestyle habits you should adopt to help take care of your heart and, just like a table needs four legs to maintain proper balance, not adhering to one or two of these habits can quickly throw off your equilibrium and increase your risk for heart disease. To help keep your heart healthy, you should make sure to:

1. Eat a nutritious diet 2. Exercise regularly 3. Maintain a healthy weight 4. Do not smoke A NUTRITIOUS DIET Your heart needs nutritious foods to stay healthy. Start with plenty of fruits and vegetables, and add a variety of whole grains and high-fiber cereals. Opt for lean meat, poultry and fish, low-fat dairy products, and egg whites or egg substitutes. Don’t forget to include legumes, such as beans, peas, and lentils. These are good sources of protein that also have less fat and no cholesterol, making them good alternatives to meat. Try to limit sodium, which can contribute to high blood pressure, and avoid saturated and trans fats that can be found in butter or margarine. These can add to a buildup of plaque in the arteries, a condition called atherosclerosis, which could increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

EXERCISE The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise (or a combination of both).You should aim for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Physical activity is anything that involves moving your body, and burning calories. Aerobic exercises that are good for your heart include walking, jogging, swimming, or riding a bicycle. But don’t forget strength and stretching exercises that are beneficial for stamina and flexibility. Being active can help prevent and control both high blood pressure and diabetes, and maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

MAINTAIN HEALTHY WEIGHT Obesity increases your risk for health problems such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and elevated blood cholesterol. Losing even a small amount of weight can help lower these risks, but remember, there is no quick way to lose weight and keep it off. Successful, long-term weight loss requires a change in lifestyle. 22

If you are obese, set a goal to lose one-half to two pounds per week. Combining a reduced calorie diet of 500 to 1,000 calories less than your current diet and regular physical activity can help you shed pounds and stay trim for lasting weight loss.

STOP SMOKING TODAY Quitting smoking has immediate health benefits for your heart. Twenty minutes after quitting, your heart rate and blood pressure drops. In 12 hours the carbon monoxide level in your blood returns to normal. In two weeks to three months, circulation improves and lung function increases. One year later the excess risk for coronary heart disease is half that of someone who still smokes.

REMEMBER: Regardless of how long you have smoked, quitting can reduce your risk of developing heart disease. THE BOTTOM LINE? Adopting a heart healthy lifestyle can make all the difference when it comes to reducing your risk for heart disease.” Dr. James Day, Griffin Cardiologist suggests, “In addition to making the four lifestyle ( 7 7 0) 412 - 0 4 41

habits above a priority, you should also get regular cholesterol checkups. In general, most people should get their cholesterol checked about once every three years. Preventing and managing stress can help reduce your risk of both heart disease and high blood pressure.â&#x20AC;?

For more heart healthy tips, read Taking Charge: An Action Plan for Heart Health available on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute website at www.nhlbi.nih.gov.

WOMEN AND HEART DISEASE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Many women may not know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women.

ARE YOU AWARE THAT:

Heart disease accounts for one in every four female deaths. Nearly two-thirds of women who die suddenly of heart disease do not experience any previous symptoms. More women than men die of a heart attack before getting to the hospital and within one year following a heart attack. Two-thirds of women who have a heart attack do not fully recover. One-third of adult women have some type of cardiovascular disease.

Now that we have your attention, here are some things all women should know to help detect and prevent heart disease.

RISK FACTORS: There are two main types of risk factors controllable and uncontrollable that can increase a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chance of developing heart disease. amily history of early heart disease and advancing age fall into the uncontrollable risk factor category. However, controllable risk factors the ones women should really pay attention to can also greatly increase heart disease development. These include smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity, physical inactivity, and diabetes.

TYPES OF HEART DISEASE: There are several types of heart disease that affect the heart and the blood vessels in the heart.

Coronary heart disease is caused by

hardening and narrowing of the arteries and can lead to angina (chest pain or discomfort) or heart attack.

Heart failure occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood through the body.

w w w. k it chendr aw er.net

Heart arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, is also a form of heart disease. Once it develops, heart disease is a lifelong condition that will gradually worsen unless changes are made to daily habits. ortunately, women may be able to lower heart disease risk by MORE THAN 80 PERCENT by making healthy lifestyle choices. 23

INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY SERVICES AT SPALDING REGIONAL

Spalding Regional is committed to treating cardiac patients as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Our Cath Lab combines some of the latest technology with board certified cardiologists and a specially trained nursing staff working together in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart conditions. What is Interventional Cardiology? This branch of cardiology uses very small catheters that can be threaded through large veins in the body into the heart itself. This allows doctors to place stents (mesh tubes) that keep a vein open or insert a balloon into a narrowed area of a vein and then inflate the balloon to widen the area. Doctors also can remove a clot through the catheter deliver clot-busting drugs directly into the problem area or insert an umbrella-like device that can catch clots that break loose.

WARNING SIGNS

According to Dr. James Day, Griffin Cardiologist, “It’s very important for women to know the warning signs of a heart attack because these symptoms are likely to be different from those experienced by men. For women, a heart attack can cause:

SPALDING REGIONAL CARDIOLOGISTS:

Dr. David Remington in Griffin Dr. James Day of Internal Medicine in Griffin ATLANTA HEART ASSOCIATES OF GRIFFIN Dr. Jeevith Kanukunta Dr. Rajasekhar Reddy Dr. Camille Nelson Dr. Muthusamy Sekar Dr. Gregory Petro For a free referral to a cardiologist, or any other physician your family might require, call our FREE physician referral service, (770) 467-6136 or visit us online at www.spaldingregional.com

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Kitchen Drawer

History

MEET OUR NEWEST CONTRIBUTOR

DR. STAN DEATON

OF THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF MICK JAGGER,

historian writer blogger teacher speaker runner

lease allow me to introduce myself. My name is Stan Deaton, and I work at the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) in Savannah as the Senior Historian and Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Historian (an endowed position). GHS is a public history educational institution (check us out at georgiahistory.com). We publish history and offer a variety of educational outreach programs for adults, professional educators, and K-12 students. We also hold one the most comprehensive collections of Georgia history material in the country, available for research in the Research Center at our statewide headquarters in Hodgson Hall in Savannah. I serve as the chief educational officer, responsible for ensuring the scholarly quality and integrity of our institution’s brand through all of our educational initiatives, including public programs, publications, historical markers, teacher training initiatives, and public outreach. My job, broadly defined, is to educate the public about the importance of history and the role it plays in our contemporary culture and society and the role that GHS plays in serving as a bridge between the academy and the public. I tell people who ask what I do that I get paid to think, write, speak, and teach about history. It’s what I went to school for all those years (more on that below). I wear many hats at the Georgia Historical Society: teacher, public speaker, writer, editor, and, of course, historian. The most public role I’ve played is as writer and host of Today in Georgia History,

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Kitchen Drawer

TODAYINGEORGIAHISTORY.ORG produced for radio and TV with Georgia Public Broadcasting, which aired from 2011-2013. You can see it on the web at todayingeorgiahistory.org. I also serve as managing editor and book review editor of our scholarly journal of Georgia history, the Georgia Historical Quarterly; help secure materials like the Vince Dooley Papers for the GHS Research Center; lead teacher training workshops; write historical markers that you see around the state; conduct oral history interviews; publish newspaper editorials; and help write grants and otherwise assist with fundraising and donor relations.

OFF THE DEATON PATH Some of the most fun I have in my job is writing a blog called “Off the Deaton Path.” I encourage you to check it out at deatonpath. georgiahistory.com. I write on just about everything there: history, of course, but also extensive book reviews, sports, films, TV, the weather, and the loves and losses that we all share in life. I have always loved the more informal book reviews that newspapers publish, and in particular I’m a big fan of Michael Dirda and Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post. Their reviews are essays—longer thought pieces than academics write in scholarly journals—and of course they’re intended for general readers. I wanted to write those kinds of reviews for the blog, and you’ll find many of them on there. I was also given free rein to write about almost anything else that interests me, and I’ve done that too—everything from baseball to cold weather to the Professor on “Gilligan’s Island” to tributes to two very dear friends who died this year. One blog post that I wrote as a tribute to a friend who committed suicide really touched a chord with a lot of people, and it’s been reposted on Facebook well over a thousand times. He suffered from depression, so the essay was about friendship and being more aware of the silent battles that those all around us are facing. It was really about our common humanity, the value of friendship as we age, and just being there for each other, and it really resonated with a lot of people. I hear from people all the time, total strangers, commenting on one post or another, and the experience has been very gratifying and rewarding. I hope you’ll check it out.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Whatever I’m writing or talking about I try to put in some kind of historical perspective while at the same time making it interesting to people who aren’t historians. I hope to at least get people to think about whatever the subject is—whether serious or light—in a new way, to get them to stand on different ground. As a historian for a public history institution with a broad outreach across our state, I hope to get people to see that history isn’t something that happened “back there,” but that it still informs everything we do, every decision we collectively make. And the

w w w. k it chendr aw er.net

way we think about the past is the way we think about the future. The recent uproar in Colorado over the way history is taught is something that public history institutions have been dealing with for a very long time. Many people just want “happy history,” a celebratory, patriotic account of the past that glosses over so much of what makes up the American historical narrative. GHS has had public programs on controversial subjects, and I’ve heard many people say, “Why are you trying to make me feel bad about my ancestors?” My response is: stop letting your ancestors do your thinking for you. History that doesn’t ask hard, critical questions about the past isn’t history, it isn’t education, it’s indoctrination, and we in the profession, whether in the academy or in public history institutions like this one, have a responsibility to our audiences to ask those questions and to get people to think about things that might make them uncomfortable. The hard thing for most non-historians to grasp is that history is all about interpretation, not a big collection of facts that somehow tells their own story. The past never changes, but history—the telling of the past—changes all the time. New evidence comes to light to make us rethink what we thought we knew, or old evidence is reexamined in a new light. We ask new questions of it. If I can get someone to stand on new ground, to think about the past in a different way, and to better understand its connection to the present, then I’ve succeeded.

GEORGIA NATIVE Just a little about my background and me personally: I’m a native Georgian, born in Atlanta and reared in Snellville, in Gwinnett County, where I graduated from South Gwinnett High School. At the University of Georgia I earned a bachelor’s degree from the Grady School of Journalism and a master’s degree in history. My Ph.D. is in history from the University of Florida. I’ve lived in Savannah, working at the Georgia Historical Society, since 1998. When I’m not in Savannah, I love spending time in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia. I also love to read, exercise, and run, whether it’s the Peachtree Road Race, the Savannah River Bridge Run, or the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. As long as my knees hold out, I’m there!

I LOOK FORWARD TO TALKING ABOUT HISTORY WITH YOU IN THE PAGES OF

Kitchen Drawer!

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BY JAY SANDERS It was a lesson that he could either learn from me or from some show on TV. Considering the programs that are on TV, I decided to be the one teaching this lesson. I was going to show my son how to treat a lady. Would you trust The Walking Dead to teach that lesson to your kid? Don’t answer that question out loud. I had a decision to make almost as soon as I pulled into the parking lot of our local outlet mall. I was somewhat familiar with the jewelry store on my left. It wasn’t Diamond Dave’s Discount Jewelry and Sporting Goods, but it was close. To my right was Kay Jewelers. I’m really familiar with Kay Jewelers because of their commercials that come on during football games where some fellow who is just below a serial killer on the creepy scale proposes to his girlfriend. She always says yes, and then the background singers inform us that “Every kiss begins with Kay.” Diamond Dave’s Discount Jewelry and Sporting Goods makes no such promises. So we went to Kay. That’s the first lesson in romance. Always choose the right store. If it’s jewelry that you’re buying, you always want to stay away from stores with words like “discount” or “sporting goods” in the name. When my son and I walked in, an associate greeted us and told us that she would help us soon. We walked around and tried to look like we belonged. One thing stuck out—there were no price tags. That was affirmation that I had made the right choice of stores. The really classy ones never broadcast their prices. As we gave ourselves a tour of the store, we were interrupted by a small kid who was playing music on what appeared to be his mother’s phone. I’m assuming it was his mother’s phone because the case was pink, but that’s not always the case in today’s forward-thinking and tolerant culture. The kid held the phone up to my face and asked me if I liked the song that was playing. It was Rascal Flatts. “No. I don’t like Rascal Flatts.” The boy looked shocked. That was the second lesson of romance that I had to teach my son. There is nothing good about Rascal Flatts. Stay away from them at all costs. It was good to see that my son was already a step ahead of the competition. Finally, an associate arrived to help us. She had just finished her smoke break—yet another sign that I had made the right decision. There’s just something about a piece of jewelry lightly scented with nicotine.

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“What are we looking for today?” “Pearls.” That’s when things got tricky. “Are you interested in the perpendicular quadrant pearl or more of a fine, oilbased pearl?” That led into my next lesson for my son. Never let the saleslady know that you have no idea what she’s talking about. If you do, you’ll leave the store having purchased one earring that weighs somewhere around half an ounce and costs $4,783.42. Just play it cool, son. And that’s what I did. “Oh, we’re just looking to buy something plain and simple.” “Great. First, how much money are you looking to spend?” The next lesson of romance: money is no object. Spare no expense for the special lady in your life. “A hundred dollars.” The saleslady gave me the same look freshmen at Auburn get when they ask where the library is. She fumbled around the display case. “Well, this necklace is $800.” Scratch that last lesson. Here’s the new lesson: spare no expense for the special lady in your life assuming that the

expense does not exceed $100. “But I do have something that you may be interested in.” She reached into a drawer behind the counter and pulled out a necklace. It looked exactly like the $800 necklace. “This one is only $140 and it’s 30% off.” My son said, “Ooh, I really like that one.” He was learning quickly. “What’s the difference between the $100 necklace and the $800 one? They look exactly the same.” She quickly looked around the room, careful that no one would hear what she was about to say. She whispered to me as if she were about to reveal JFK’s real killer. “The only difference is the price.” She laughed. Now I was the one learning the lesson. When shopping at a jewelry store, always ask them to show you the cheap, excuse me, reduced price jewelry in the drawer. She went on to explain how the expensive pearls came from the deep part of some really cold European ocean where the clams eat only organic seaweed and nuggets of gold. The cheaper pearls are found at the bottom of a lake somewhere just outside of Lanett, Alabama. “But the cheaper one is still a real pearl?” I asked. “Yep.” “Sold.” That’s the next lesson. If you find a good deal, try to close that deal as quickly as possible before the saleslady’s manager shows up and shuts everything down. On the way home, my son drew a Valentine’s Day card while we discussed the best way to give this necklace to our special lady. We decided that it would be cool to hide it in his notebook so she would find it when she checked his schoolwork. A few minutes after we got home, my wife found her early Valentine’s Day gift. Even though the pearls came from the bottom of some lake and carried the slight scent of Virginia Slims, my wife smiled, hugged our sons, and kissed me. Thanks, Kay. We were all really happy, just like we were before my son and I bought that piece of jewelry. And that led to my son’s final lesson in the fine art of romance (on a budget). It’s not about how much you spend. It’s not even about how romantic you are. What matters is that you make the effort. And if you find a special lady she’ll appreciate those efforts. But if the girl you’re interested in looks at the $100 pearls you buy her and says, “I wanted tickets to see Rascal Flatts,” you’ll know that she’s not the right one. Just keep looking until you find one a little more like your mother.

This excerpt is from Jay’s new book, Your Kid Needs Help: Why Moms and Dads Matter, available on Amazon and at other stores in hardback, paperback, and e-book formats. Read more from Jay at

jasonlsanders.com

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Oak Hill Baptist Church 11:45 AM

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sports

: l l a b t o o F e g e l l o C n i s tion e a t s e n l e h p t A om C t n f e o d e u u St The Iss By Taylor Gantt n the landscape of American college athletics, football plays an impressively large role. Nationwide popularity, universal accessibility, and unquestionable profitability are just a few of the benefits that the sport enjoys. For the universities, money generated from football programs fuels many other institutional functions, including the continuing existence of less financially viable college athletics. Lucrative television contracts, ticket sales, and merchandising rights have provided many universities with an irreplaceable stream of revenue, making football the proverbial “golden goose” of collegiate athletics. But the reality of the situation for a significant number of college football’s athletes is far less glamorous.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), college athletes are strictly recognized as “amateur” athletes, meaning that any attempts to profit from their own name, likeness, or celebrity is forbidden. This includes autograph signings, endorsements, or any actions that would result in the acquisition of improper benefits. In short, despite the increasing profitability of the sport, student-athletes cannot directly reap any of the w w w. k it chendr aw er.net

revenue that they play an instrumental part in creating. Most recently, the issue of player compensation has been reignited by the case of University of Georgia running back Todd Gurley, who came under fire for pocketing more than $3,000 after signing various pieces of merchandise for a memorabilia broker. He was suspended for four games, ordered to repay the money, and sentenced to 40 hours of community service, all for signing materials that very likely displayed his jersey number and name. The Gurley incident has placed intense scrutiny on the practices of the NCAA, an organization that insists on the importance of preserving the amateur status of athletes. As profits continue to rise, skepticism about the NCCA’s intentions has risen just as quickly. Is this powerful entity truly concerned with the well-being of their athletes or simply the security of their revenue stream? Nate Wayne graduated from Ole Miss in 1997 after playing football throughout his college career. After being drafted by the Denver Broncos, Wayne helped his team secure a Super Bowl victory in his rookie season. But even 35

after a distinguished NFL career, Wayne still reminisces about his time in college and empathizes with the difficulties that many athletes still face today. “Coming from humble beginnings, it was tough,” Wayne said. “I was raised by my grandmother, who was on a fixed income. I qualified for Pell Grant, but the NCAA caps the amount of financial aid you can receive. For those of us that didn’t come from affluent backgrounds, it was tough.” Wayne agrees with the silent majority of college athletes who view the sale of autographed memorabilia as vic-

Is this powerful entity truly concerned with the well-being of their athletes or simply the security of their revenue stream?

timless crime, stating that “there’s no harm, at least in [the players’] eyes.” The rules and standards of the NCAA are often perceived as archaic and outdated, tempting more student-athletes to obtain their piece of the fiscal pie. NCAA President Mark Emmert, the man in the middle of the issue, recently spoke out about autographs in an interview with USA Today: “There shouldn’t be any doubt in the minds of student-athletes that under the current rules the membership has in place, you can’t sign autographs for pay…Whether or not that’s a rule you like is a different story. Here in Indianapolis, the beltway speed limit is 55 and as Mark Emmert, I think that’s too low. But if I’m driving 65 and get pulled over, I can’t say I don’t like the rule.” Despite Emmert’s hardline stance on the issue, he goes on to discuss the possibility of adjusting the policy at some point in the future. From his perspective, just because the rule is potentially faulty doesn’t give college athletes an excuse to ignore it completely. Nevertheless, Emmert’s 36

statement does reveal that the current prohibitions are considered tenuous, even within the upper levels of the NCAA. “We see all the restrictions put on these athletes, and yet they are bringing in so much money to the NCAA and to the universities,” Wayne said. “Something can be done here.” Another dimension of the issue involves the physical toll that football can have on college athletes. Many athletes carry their scars with them, with no real recourse for long-term rehabilitation. Wayne reeled off a laundry list of his own injuries sustained from his time in college and the NFL. He then made the point that most college football players will have to deal with injury, but only the elite who make it to the NFL will receive comprehensive health insurance. He continued: “Those guys are there to play football, and realistically, they’re sacrificing their bodies.” One of the most common defenses for withholding financial opportunities from student-athletes is the free education provided for scholarship athletes. Although a degree from a well-regarded institution can accomplish much in the right hands, a number of young college football players attend universities purely out of necessity. Per NFL rules, high school athletes must wait for three years after graduation before they can become eligible for the league. This system greatly benefits the NCAA, as talented athletes have little choice but to enroll in college, regardless of their educational inclination. Some student-athletes are able to adeptly balance the demands of education and football. But for many highprofile players who leave college after their junior year to get paid in the NFL, the educational requirements of their university are merely a condition to continue their playing careers.

ship between educational and financial compensation for college athletes. “Honestly, I think college student-athletes are entitled to their fair share of the revenue that their performance and presence provides a university as determined by the economic marketplace. There are just so many variables involved, but the gift of a college education should certainly be factored into whatever that compensation would be.” Change is almost certainly around the corner for the NCAA. In the landmark court case O’Bannon v. NCAA, Judge Claudia Wilken determined that the NCAA’s ban on paying players for the commercial use of their images and likenesses is an unreasonable restraint of trade. While the case still has to go through the appellate process, it could irrevocably change the way that college athletes are compensated. We may soon see a day when student-athletes receive a substantial part of the revenues that the NCAA and universities now solely enjoy, effectively ending the current system of athletes playing without financial compensation. Until that time arrives, the debate will continue to rage between those seeking more compensation for college athletes and those wary of changing the status quo. For current and ex-players alike, this concern remains a massive point of contention and may serve as the touchstone issue for a complete overhaul of the NCAA’s business dealings. Nate Wayne, and those who concur with his way of thinking, simply cannot wait for that day to come. “The NCAA is making all this money,” said Wayne, “and the players aren’t seeing any of it. These guys are going to get hurt, and although they may recover, they’re going be affected in their 30s and 40s. Why not do something to help them now?”

This is not to say that the current scholarship system is, in itself, patently unfair. Enterprising young athletes who understand the brevity of the average NFL career have the golden opportunity to earn a degree and potentially secure a better future. Brian Paglia, Sports Editor for the Forsyth County News, commented on the complex relation( 7 7 0) 412 - 0 4 41

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tuffing an entire life into a two-hour movie is, to say the least, a difficult task. Stuffing R&B legend James Brown’s entire life into a two-hour movie is a task of almost Herculean proportions. Perhaps realizing this, Get on Up director Tate Taylor (who previously gave us The Help, your mom’s favorite film of 2011) gives up on traditional structure altogether and frantically leaps back and forth throughout the highs and lows of Brown’s life, blasting The Godfather of Soul’s furious funk from start to finish. While it becomes apparent after a while that Taylor’s film is a less a revolutionary new brand of storytelling and more a frantic remix of a fairly conventional biopic—it’s a collage, not a detailed portrait—the film has a certain unpredictable grooviness which proves nearly irresistible. Nearly every time I watch a musical biopic these days, I’m reminded in one way or another of the gleefully funny Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a film which effectively satirized nearly every convention of the genre. Indeed, Get on Up opens with a scene of an aging James Brown (Chadwick Boseman, 42) preparing to go onstage as voices from his past run through his head, and I couldn’t help but think of one of Walk Hard’s best lines: “You’re

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gonna have to give him a moment, son. Dewey Cox needs to think about his entire life before he plays.” Then, the film throws its first curveball: it doesn’t jump back to Brown’s childhood, but rather to Augusta, Georgia, circa 1988. There, we witness a fiery, shotgun-toting Brown wandering into an insurance seminar and delivering a bizarre, halfdelirious monologue to a captive, frightened audience. It’s an electrifying, strange way to kick things off, and the film proceeds to jump back and forth across the timeline of Brown’s life from there. While many of the scenes we witness over the course of Get on Up feel rather conventional, Taylor’s arrangement of them keeps us on our toes. Brown was clearly a complicated, troubled, ridiculously talented man, and we never know which side of him we’re going to see next. Scenes of Brown being abused as a child are juxtaposed with showstopping scenes of Brown performing for a captive audience, while scenes that depict Brown as a charismatic charmer sit side by side with scenes which demonstrate his history of spousal abuse and drug addiction. It doesn’t quite provide a greater understanding of the man (viewers may well leave the film with more questions than they entered with),

but it captures his complexities with admirable even-handedness.

the film’s conclusion notes that Brown is one of the most sampled artists of all time, and no wonder: those horn blasts and soulful screams add invaluable punch to nearly everything they’re added to.

Even so, what Brown symbolized is arguably even more important than who he was. Brown was a self-mythologizing musical superhero, complete with cape and larger-than-life hairstyle. Unlike many of his peers, Brown was primarily concerned with reaching a black audience through his music (“Black people don’t buy records!” one record label executive insists). He revolutionized the music industry, forced record companies to pay greater attention to minorities, and provided the soundtrack to the civil rights movement (one scene recreates the famous incident in which Brown calms an angry crowd in the wake of Dr. King’s assassination). His music is nearly omnipresent in the film, and its funky power has a way of nearly overwhelming everything else. No matter what Brown did in his personal life, nothing could possibly overshadow the instantly iconic riffs of “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “The Payback,” or “Get Up Offa That Thing.” A bit of text at

The real reason to see the film isn’t the music (which you could simply purchase on its own) but the central performance of Chadwick Boseman. The Jackie Robinson biopic 42 may have proven his worth as a capable leading actor, but Get on Up heralds the arrival of a new star. Boseman commands the screen at all times with his alternately charismatic, entertaining, and chilling performance. He has the dance moves down and somehow manages to recreate Brown’s raw physical energy (though he’s required to lip-sync the voice). Boseman is backed by a fine supporting cast which includes Viola Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Nelsan Ellis, Jill Scott, Craig Robinson, and Octavia Spencer. They all do fine work (particularly Ellis as Brown’s longsuffering best friend Bobby Byrd), but this is Boseman’s show. Through his performance, we witness the intensity of Brown’s stage presence, the power of his personality, and the demons lurking within his soul. Grab a front-row seat and watch one superstar revive another.

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The band “us” performs at liberty technology after hours

malcolm neal with the new digital projector at the ritz theatre

Scott and seleta stewart, owners of the new shane’s rib shack, in spalding village

rebecca truitt’s horse, brave, looking for treats

ladies in green at the liberty technology festivus

Mario bonacci wins “LIberty honey badger” award, second year running

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On the surface, street art may look and feel a lot like graffiti, but at the core, these art forms are very different. While they often use the same media, the schools of thought vary, and the processes to achieve the desired results are different as well. My career as an artist has spanned most of my life, and it is rooted deeply in the urban art form many are familiar with called graffiti. Now, I know what you may be thinking: art form—graffiti? Yes, I have heard people express their disdain and disagree with the hows and whys of graffiti, but there is tremendous beauty to be found if one is willing to take a closer look at the art form and how it is expressed. Graffiti is set in a mentality of pushing the boundaries of traditional lettering and letter styles. It’s twisting the typical Helvetica-style font, if you will, and creating an almost hieroglyphic stylistic language. This piece is not about “graff,” however, and I may write one later to explore it further, but for now, let’s look at the art form known as street art. Wikipedia defines street art as “visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues” (usually meaning literally outside). You can easily replace the words “street art” with “graffiti” in the same definition, but while graffiti is, in essence, a form of street art, it is not the same.

In a Q&A session with The Huffington Post, blog Melrose & Fairfax offered the following distinction: “Both graffiti and street art use the reappropriation of public space. But with graffiti, you are limited to what you can do with a spray can on the spot. Street art might employ some of the application techniques, but most often, it is a finished product that is brought ready-made to the location, so the artist’s message is much more developed. Street art is not so much about making a name and leaving a mark as it is getting people to interact and view something in a new way, and that is a big difference.” In addition, graffiti mainly focuses on the styling of letters. Most often the piece represents the name of the artist who painted it. While opinions vary greatly, many traditional artists have borrowed from the roots of graffiti to achieve

visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues

amazing street art and modern art. I have transitioned into, and may I say fallen in love with, street art. For starters, I am drawn to the rebellious nature that courses through the veins of both graff and street art. The forward thinking that there is a message in almost EVERY street art piece grabs me. Also, the intricacy of technique required to produce street art pieces—whether wheat pasting, stenciling, stickers (which both forms employ), or installations—is interesting in and of itself. Street art, at its core, wants to make a statement to the masses. It often has a message that demands to be heard. It is thought-provoking, edgy, and risqué at times, and like graffiti, it does not want your forgiveness for what it represents or what it takes to be heard. It battles the confines of society and often dictates how, when, and where art should be. The message often represents the plight of those struggling every day who feel they are not normally seen or heard. It is easier to stomach than graffiti—I get that—because it is based on imagery and looks to convey its message quickly by appealing to the very basics in all of us. Most times, the artist uses it to raise awareness about a social issue most of us would not have been exposed to otherwise. For instance, in 1980, artist John Fekner painted on an abandoned building project in the South Bronx and simply titled it “Broken Promises.” This is a prime example of a street artist trying to make people aware of what is going on around us. John Fekner also did an art installation on a New York dumpster filled with TVs and titled that piece “No TV,” which I think speaks for itself. A search for “street art” on Wikipedia shows photos of these pieces along with other examples of street artists and their work. These individuals may or may not have the notoriety of well-known street artists like Banksy or Shepard Fairey, but their impact on society and art as a whole is no less important.

College courses in both graffiti and street art are now available, which proves the impact that the art forms have had on society and the importance of what they represent to not only the blue-collar worker but to the white-collar art collector as well. Pieces done by UK-based street artist Banksy are being stolen right off the street and auctioned for tens of thousands of dollars in auction houses around the world. Artists like Banksy, Obey (Shepard Fairey), and many others are now making a living on what started as art to make a statement. Street art is big now—so big, in fact, that when Banksy did a month-long residency in New York last year it turned the city into one big scavenger hunt. It put people in such a frenzy that they were stealing the pieces right off the street with the goal of simply selling them later. All the while, Banksy never pocketed a dime from the works. With the popularity of street art, even the individual artist who simply wishes to raise awareness of social injustices can get caught up in the financial rewards modern art can fetch. How then does an artist whose sole wish is to raise awareness stay true to that goal? As an artist, it can be difficult, because now you have an avenue to make money doing something you love in your medium, but it changes the intent and, in most cases, the power of the work you create as perceived by the people who have come to know and love your work. I have often dreamed of being employed full-time as an artist but have struggled with the fact that if that becomes the case, art now becomes my job, not necessarily a “love” any longer. So does it change the power and intent of my work if I am employed for my skill, and does an artist lose anything by doing so? I think the answers to those questions lie within the hearts of artists themselves. After all, as artists, we are very often our own toughest critics.

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STRAWBERRY CRUSH Since she and her husband are expecting, Ashley shares a cocktail recipe that’s ideal for expectant moms. 2 ounces ginger ale 1-2 ounces strawberries, chopped or crushed 1 basil leaf Pour ginger ale in cocktail glass. Add strawberries and basil leaf.

Pour contents over ice in shaker, shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds, strain into martini glass, and garnish with a grapefruit slice.

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1 cup water 1 cup sugar 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice Boil water, stir in sugar. Add lemon and lime juices. Yields about 3 cups of Sour Mix. (Store extra in a closed bottle in the fridge.)

LONG ISLAND ICED TEA Fill a 12-ounce glass ½ to ¾ full with ice. In a separate glass or cocktail shaker, pour the following: 1 ounce Tito’s Vodka 1 ounce Bombay Gin 1 ounce Bacardi Rum 1 ounce Agavales Blanco Tequila 3 ounces Sour Mix 2.5 ounces Coca-Cola Pour cocktail over your glass of ice, garnish with a slice of lemon, and enjoy (responsibly).

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MOSCOW MULE ½ lime plus one lime wedge 1 to 2 teaspoons Simple Syrup (sugar and water) 2 ounces Tito’s Vodka 4-6 ounces Reed’s Original Ginger Brew 1 sprig mint Squeeze lime half into copper mug. (For Simple Syrup, use one part sugar and one part water. Boil until sugar dissolves, then let cool.) Add Simple Syrup to lime juice and stir. Add 2 or 3 large ice cubes, then pour in the vodka and fill with cold Ginger Brew. Garnish with mint sprig and lime wedge, and serve with a stirring rod.

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Mix in shaker. Serve on ice in a tall glass. Garnish with an orange slice.

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Ben says Ernest Hemingway’s Bloody Mary can’t be beat. This recipe is from an April 5, 1947 letter from Hemingway to Bernard Peyton. TO A LARGE PITCHER (ANYTHING SMALLER IS “WORTHLESS”) ADD: 1 chunk of ice (the biggest that will fit) 1 pint vodka 1 pint chilled tomato juice 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 jigger fresh lime juice Pinch celery salt Pinch cayenne pepper Pinch black pepper Several drops of Tabasco “Keep on stirring and taste it to see how it is doing. If you gets it too powerful weaken with more tomato juice. If it lacks authority add more vodka.”

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By Laurie Cochrane with the KD Crew PHOTOS BY BRITTANY MICHELLE COBB

First of all, we should mention that KD friend Eddie Grogan doesn’t want you to visit Lucky’s restaurant in Jackson. He likes to think of it as his own personal hideout. However, he recently let the Kitchen Drawer staff in on his secret and invited us on an adventure. If you decide to go to Lucky’s anyway, you didn’t hear it from us! Our adventure began in the Spalding High parking lot where we rendezvoused with Lucky’s 24-seat courtesy bus, wrapped with photos of the menu items. Our driver, Scott, sporting pinstriped pants and vest and ponytail, settled us into our seats as Elton John and Billy Squier played over the speakers. The bus cruised into the dark, still streets of a Wednesday night in Jackson and let us out at the storefront entrance to Lucky’s. The restaurant is intimate, dimly lit, with cozy booths for a quiet supper. A small bar with eight stools and three flat screens is tucked into the corner. Latticework laced in string lights and silk grapevines lowers the ceiling over the booths. The décor encompasses Elvis memorabilia, family photos, gold mirrors, collectibles, and reproductions of oil paintings—much like little family-owned Italian restaurants in New York state. It was refreshing to have an Italian dinner in a “non-chain” atmosphere.

Two friendly servers took our drink orders and filled the table with appetizers. The Lobster Bisque (served in a hot fudge sundae glass) was a favorite for Allison and me, and Allison also gives high marks to the Spinach-Artichoke Dip. If you’re a fan of Olive

Garden’s garlic breadsticks, then you’re in luck at Lucky’s. They come out with the drinks, are served with melted cheese and marinara as Lucky’s Cheese Bread, and are served toasted with the Spinach-Artichoke Dip. The Stuffed Mushrooms

with crabmeat were tasty and piping hot. And if you’re in the mood for Escargots or Oysters Rockefeller, Lucky’s is the nearest place! Among the entrée items, a favorite for all was the Lasagna. Allison commented, “It was just the right combination of pasta, sauce, and cheeses.” Ashley P. said of the Eggplant Parmigiana, “Wow! This passed my test. You can really go wrong with the way you cut the egg-

plant, but this is spot-on. I like everything about it.” The Stuffed Shells were also very good. Along with the “traditional” Italian dishes, Lucky’s offers a collection of six creative ravioli: Lobster, Butternut Squash, Blue Crab, Wild Mushroom, Chicken & Spinach, and Steak & Portabella. I particularly enjoyed the Butternut Squash Ravioli – a sweet and savory delight with roasted squash, aged Parmesan, amaretti cookies and brown sugar, with a sage-brown butter sauce. The most popular dessert for the KD crew was the New York Cheesecake.

Allison observed, “Some cheesecakes are too thick and rich for my taste, but this one was light and tasty.” Also on the menu are Tiramisu, Spumoni, and Italian Bundt Cake. Owner Glenn Howell, a Kentucky native, came into the restaurant business by way of a barge company and a video rental company. As a young man, Glenn worked a summer continued on p. 55

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continued from p. 52

job for Hines Barge, based in his hometown and running freight and fuel up and down the Mississippi River. He soon discovered that he could be out there pulling ropes and riding barges, or he could work in the tugboat kitchen with the Cajun chef. It was from this chef that Glenn learned a thing or two about the Cajun cuisine that influences the seafood choices on Lucky’s menu.

Glenn later landed in south Georgia and was in the video rental business. He says, “One day I was riding with a friend up north of Atlanta. We passed this place that said ‘Pizza and a Movie,’ and I said, ‘Turn around!’” The place delivered pizza with a VHS movie. Glenn loved the idea. The problem was…he had no idea how to make a pizza. Glenn figured that the best place to learn how to make pizza was New York City, so he went to NY for five days w w w. k it chendr aw er.net

and started observing. Then he started exploring pizzerias in the Atlanta area. The best pizza he found was in Little Five Points. So when the boss of the place stepped out, Glenn asked the cook in the back, “How’d you like to make $100? Show me how you make that pizza.” Glenn started delivering his own pizzas with videos in his three stores. Meanwhile, on frequent visits to Olive Garden, he observed that there was always a crowd waiting to be seated there. That’s when he decided to branch out and start delivering other Italian foods, as well as pizza. The concept was a big hit. Glenn recalls, “I couldn’t believe that people were ordering Oysters Rockefeller for delivery!” Always a trendspotter, Glenn claims to have had the first U.S. restaurant to offer online ordering. Now, with Lucky’s, he has turned that model around and brings his customers to the food: “Now I send the bus to come get you!” Glenn and his brother and business partner, Sydney, have been in Jackson for 32 years, running the pawn shop next to Lucky’s and, for the past 10 years, the restaurant. Glenn says that the

Lucky’ s Filet (the one pictured on the billboard that you can’t miss while traveling east into Jackson) is his biggest seller, followed closely by his Lasagna and Eggplant Parmigiana. He’s most proud of Lucky’s Salmon Salad, which he says is a beautiful plate. So whether you’re heading through Jackson on your way home from the lake, or need a quiet dinner that doesn’t include waiting for one of those plastic buzzer things to tell you when your table is ready, or just need to get your escargot on, head over to Lucky’s. And if you spot Eddie Grogan, shhhh.

Lucky’s Italian 107 East 2nd Street Jackson, GA 30233 (770) 775-7511 WED-SAT 5:00 - 10:00 PM

Have you ever been told you have a quirky sense of humor? Are you a lover of locally produced indie films? If you answered yes to either or both of those questions, then… well, you’re welcome. We have found a gem of a website for you. 50MilesSouthofAtlanta.com is the website of local independent filmmaker John Dinkins. Originally from Griffin, Dinkins now lives with his wife and two children in Barnesville. He films in his free time and posts the fruits of his labor on the website for the merriment of others. The site’s name is a reference to Barnesville, which is—you guessed it—about 50 miles south of Atlanta.

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At 50MilesSouthofAtlanta.com you can click through dozens of videos that are sure to have you cracking up: from the web series Dirty Joe, which follows the exploits of a fictional rogue police officer in Griffin, to Beyond Suspicion, a mockumentary-style series about paranormal activity.

shoes don’t looke like mine. BOBOS... only cost a $1.99.” I later made my own version of the BOBOS song and turned that into a short 15 second video clip. When I was editing the first episode of Dirty Joe a few months later, I needed something to stretch the time to 5 minutes. So I took that clip and placed it right in the center of the video. It got a lot of laughs, so I made BOBOS the official fake sponsor of Dirty Joe. Thanks Pete!

Recently KD caught up with Dinkins to learn a little bit more about the man behind these hilarious videos.

Tell us who’s involved and what goes into filming an episode of Dirty Joe?

Where did the inspiration for Dirty Joe come from? Would you say he’s your alter ego? I am a huge fan of Clint Eastwood. One night, I ran across one of his movies on Amazon that I had never seen before called The Gauntlet. That movie got to the point where it was so violent it was funny to me. I decided then to start my own cop series. I went down to the Goodwill and the CWC and pieced together a suit, bought a security guard’s badge from the Bear Paw, picked up an airsoft pistol from Super Deal, grew a mustache, and started Dirty Joe. I am not at all like the maniac I portray on the Internet.

What kind of car does Dirty Joe drive? Dirty Joe walks right now. I thought about buying Dirty Joe a squad car, but my wife would kill me if I brought one home.

What do your wife and kids think about the work you do on Dirty Joe and Beyond Suspicion? My wife thinks I’m crazy, but at the same time she has been very supportive. My kids watch a lot of YouTube, so they think that since I don’t have a million subscribers, I’m not that good.

In the series Dirty Joe, the TKO is a criminal gang that Joe has made it his mission to defeat. We hear that the real-life inspiration for this group was a gang of “cool kids” at Griffin High School back in the ‘80s—but maybe this is just a rumor. How about a little background on the TKO? Yes. The TKO did exist in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but it was more like a fraternity than a gang. As the legend goes, in the late ‘80s the TKO was a school-sponsored club that was dissolved by GHS officials for disciplinary reasons (keg parties, vandalism, etc.). A few guys tried to keep it going and did for a while, but by the time I got to Griffin High in 1993 it had faded out completely. As far as it being a club exclusively for cool kids...I’m not real sure. But if that was the case, can someone please explain to me how Jason Stowell got in?

The BOBOs commercials are big hits in the KD offices, and some of us even use the music as our ring tone. If BOBOs were a real company (we’re assuming it’s not), what would its company slogan be? The original BOBOS slogan is “BOBOS: Yo’ Shoes Don’t Look Like Mine!” But it will soon be changing to “BOBOS: What Did Your Feet Do to Deserve This?”

What’s the backstory to the BOBOs brand and the jingle? BOBOS are a brand of “knock off” shoes that are available only where gasoline is sold. A friend of mine from T-Town introduced me to BOBOS and the BOBOS song. He was singing the original BOBOS shoe song one morning before work, and I just thought it was hilarious. The original song goes, “BOBOS... Yo’ 58

I try to keep everything as simple as possible. I have included my wife and kids, plus eight other people I know, in the series so far. Usually, I’ll contact a friend on Friday, write the script on Saturday, and go out and shoot it on Sunday. I shoot primarily in Griffin, because Griffin is such a ghost town on Sunday, but I have also filmed scenes in Pike and Lamar Counties. It’s a lot of fun.

Since filming isn’t your day job how do you find time to fit in filming? I film mostly on the weekends. A lot of people don’t know this, but almost all of the Dirty Joe episodes were shot over a 2 to 3 week period. I can finish an episode of Beyond Suspicion in about 3 days depending on the eyewitness account. I spend more time on these videos than I probably should, but when someone comes up to me that I barely know and tells me they really enjoy what I’m doing... it’s all worth it.

Do you have any favorite movies or TV shows that inspire your own shows? I grew up watching cop dramas like Hunter with my Dad. My father also introduced me to cop comedies like Police Academy. I have been a fan of these two genres ever since. Add any Clint Eastwood movie to that equation and you get Dirty Joe. Beyond Suspicion is just something I started because I am fascinated by supernatural phenomena.

Explain to our readers the difference between Dirty Joe and Beyond Suspicion. Dirty Joe is a purely fictional cop drama/action/comedy series and under NO circumstances should it be grouped with or even used in the same sentence with Beyond Suspicion. Beyond Suspicion is a separate “reality-based” web series I have created. It is simply a forum for people who have been witness to supernatural activity in the area to be heard. So far I have recorded a Loch Ness Monster-like-creature sighting, a UFO encounter, and two Bigfoot sightings. Once again...Dirty Joe is fiction and Beyond Suspicion is reality.

Where do you see 50MilesSouthofAtlanta and your web series in 5-10 years? Video production is my hobby. I enjoy every aspect of it from beginning to end. I eventually would like to get into wedding videography, but for now I’m having way too much fun for that. I can definitely see Dirty Joe still fighting the TKO ten years from now.

There are some who may interpret the Dirty Joe web series as a humorous criticism of Spalding County police. Would you say that is your intention? Absolutely not. I knew there was a chance that some people might take Dirty Joe the wrong way, but so far I have received nothing but positive feedback. ( 7 7 0) 412 - 0 4 41

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In July, we announced a fiction contest. Out of dozens of entries, we selected the following winners. Read the winning stories in Kitchen Drawer throughout 2015. First Place: “Moving On” by Cherry Mack Hill Second Place (Tie): “The Vase” by Kaylee Tuggle and “Desperation” by Joey Doak Third Place: “Burn Out” by Denise Maddox Fourth Place: “Turning Point” by Margaret Landham Fifth Place: “The Kinfolk Magnet” by Cherry Mack Hill Sixth Place: “The Bracelet” by Patsy Harden-Yates

MOVING

BY CHERRY MACK HILL

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“I can’t afford this.” Mama

squeezed her pocketbook into her stomach and looked up at the plastered ceilings. My little sister, Leonette, was twirling in the middle of the big empty room. We were standing in the upstairs apartment of a converted mansion. Outside, the white paint was peeling, but the fluted columns looked sturdy enough. But I knew from the story of Samson and Delilah not to trust columns. An angry man and his chains could destroy the safest shelter. The apartment had high ceilings. Dark wood outlined the tall windows. But the kitchen was a closet. Two bedrooms. “Where’s the washing machine?” Mama shrugged, “We’d have to use the laundrymat.” I had been begging Mama to leave Daddy for a bad month now. She knew I usually gave her good advice. So we went to look at the apartment after Mama’s shift at Massey’s Supermarket. But I didn’t have to look out the bedroom window to know that our town church was just across the street. The preacher would know why we had moved and feel sorry for me. I didn’t want him praying my name. Probably he wouldn’t. Daddy said this preacher had been to seminary and didn’t believe that God interfered with our daily lives. At Bethlehem Baptist, where Aunt Rose went to church, they prayed for Brother Ledbetter and Sister Eloise and asked that God send the tornadoes somewhere else. Our prayers and responses at First Christian were all about God’s glory and forgiveness, straight from the Psalms or the Confessions of the Saints. I loved the way the choir always echoed layered rounds of Aaahmen, Aaahmen, Ahahahamen after the prayers. I tried to look at their mouths and puzzle out who was singing what when, and how it all worked, but Daddy brushed me on the back of the head every time I tried to look up. “You and Leonette could walk to school,” Mama said. And I knew that meant the town school and that I wouldn’t be the smartest girl in my class at County Line anymore. That my friends would finally know. I would be like Keedie Shaw who lived in a house that was unsafe for children to visit because Keedie’s mama and daddy were “sick” and might pass out with a pot boiling on the stove.

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This apartment’s living room had once been a bedroom, and there was a bare bulb hanging down on a long black cord. Mama pulled the little chain, but the yellow glow didn’t make it to the rose-beige walls. “When will we move?” I knew to skip the “can we” part. Mama shook her head, said, “I don’t think I can afford it,” and started whispering the familiar refrain: I don’t know what I’m doing here. I can’t leave him. It’s not right. My mama would kill me. I married him for better or for worse. I knew there was occasionally a better part, but right now all I could see was the worse. He can’t help it. I thought he could not help it away from us. I knew how to be quiet and stay out of his way during the actual binges and fights, but sometimes when he was hung over, or wanting a drink, my backtalk earned me a belt whipping. I thought Mama should leave. I knew this happened. Or she could lock him out like Aunt Jonnie Lou did Uncle Rob sometimes. We had a picture of a teenaged Mama and Daddy sitting in a booth with another couple, dark bottles of beer in front of each of them, even my mother. Daddy and the other boy are wearing Coast Guard uniforms. There is a checkered tablecloth. Daddy is handsome with the one-sided smile that I recognize. Mama is relaxed and pretty with the long, thick hair that she finally hacked off because of work and time and tiredness. It seemed a strange picture. Mama was still worrying out loud. If I squinted my ears a little, and hummed in the back of my throat, she sounded like our living room box fan, a kind of moaning whine. If he had been there—and I was very glad he wasn’t— if he had seen her broken down with her face in her hands, he would have yelled at her with what Aunt Rose calls ugliness. He would kick at her legs and tell her to “shut up and stop sniveling.” There was nothing in this place to throw. And she would stop crying, but he would keep ranting for a while until she cried again or he stumbled off to bed.

He’s my husband… Her sobs and hiccups were overriding my head fan rotations, but I didn’t have to listen to the rest of it. I took her purse and gave her a tissue. I wondered whether or not I could use the bathroom in this apartment that we hadn’t paid for. I crossed my legs and tried to think about something nice. I thought about the Tybee beach where Aunt Rose had taken us last summer. Some nights I went to sleep riding the waves, but tonight the ocean made me want to pee more.

I said the last line with Mama under my breath. She sucked in a powerful sniff and said, “He needs me. He always thought nobody wanted him and I can’t do that to him again. And maybe he’ll quit drinking this time.” It was the repeating chorus, the echoing amen.

So I pictured the new dress that Aunt Rose was sewing for me. It was the first pink dress I had ever owned with my red hair and all. It was pink-and-white-striped seersucker with a white sailor collar trimmed with more pink rickrack, a pink poplin tie, and matching sash. I thought about how my friends at County Line wouldn’t get to see it, and I hoped that town girls appreciated fine-quality homemade. Would the pink clash with my red hair and all?

I sniffed too, but gritted my teeth and begged, “Please, Mama.” But Leonette ran on down to put the key on the hall table like the lady had said to do.

We were all three just standing and watching, stiff and apart, so it was okay for me to leave the room. I handed Leonette Mama’s pocketbook and said, “I’m going to use the bathroom.”

stay out of his way dur-

It was darker in the bathroom, I couldn’t reach the light, and there was nothing to dry my hands on, so I didn’t wash them. When I got back to the living room Mama was reciting the “Poor Little Leon” story. Leonette was leaning toward Mama’s thigh. She hadn’t heard it as many times as me, since she was two years younger, but in another year she would be acting it out, with me playing all the parts where Daddy’s relatives argued over his dead mama’s casket about who was going to take him, a six-week baby, to raise. They all cried and moaned and sweated till he ended up with his feeble old grandmother. When she died he was shifted month to month, relative to relative. At last he went to stay with his Uncle Rob and Aunt Jonnie Lou and slept on the couch with their son Delford, feet to feet. Delford had lost his bed to his own grandmother the year before and said he was scared on the back porch by himself. At 14, Poor Little Leon moved to Brunswick to live with Aunt Rose and Uncle Troy and tried to get a job at the shipyard like them to earn his keep. But he was too young. So they soon took in a boarder, renting out his bed, making him a pallet under the kitchen table. He said it was warm and cozy, but his suitcase was in

everybody’s way. And so, at 15, he lied about his age and joined the Merchant Marines. And he always added that he learned to drink and throw up in a crow’s nest on the way to France, “from the crow’s nest to the deck.”

I thought he could not help it away from us. I knew how to be quiet and ing the actual binges and fights, but sometimes when he was hung over, or wanting a drink, my backtalk earned me a belt whipping. I stomped down the stairs behind Mama till she frowned up at me to walk right. Then I was staring right at her skinny back. My little left hand would fit right between her bony shoulder blades. One push and she would be lying all broken at the foot of the stairs. And I could go live with Aunt Rose. Or be shifted around like Daddy. And what about Leonette? My church across the street was looming through the front door sidelights. The columns stood menacing. I ran out in front of Mama hoping the columns would hold long enough for me to get on out into the yard. Like Mama, I had no choice but to pretend everything would be all right. Even the pink seersucker dress. Even with my red hair and all.

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