Best of the North Georgia Mountains Issue 47 3-11-20

NGM THE BEST OF THE NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAINS

ISSUE # 47

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G N I N T H G I L MEET 'THE WORLD'S FASTEST - AND CLEANEST ACOUSTIC GUITARIST.' BY THE WAY, BLAIRSVILLE'S CURTIS JONES CAN ALSO PLAY 22 MORE INSTRUMENTS!

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#47

March 11-April 28, 2020

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Publisher: Mitch Talley Publisher’s Boss: Cindy Talley Founder: Robb Newman Founder’s Boss: Thia Newman Distribution: Eddie Ash, O. Myback Graphic Design: Mitch Talley, Cray Ola Writers: Mitch Talley, Lora Bunch, Raland Patterson, Kathi Hill, John Shivers, Patricia Kovsky-Dotson, Ted Smith, Joe Cobb Crawford.

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How many instruments can Curtis Jones play? Well, there's the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, piano, banjo, sitar, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, cello, bassoon, drums, tabla, shamisen, erhu, tanpura, flutes, balalaika, tin whistle, charango, and steel guitar. Oh yeah, and the latest, the waldzither!

23 AND COUNTING Playing musical instruments is like eating potato chips for Curtis Jones. He can't stop with just one!

Curtis discovered his musical talents in middle school and progressed so rapidly that he started earning a living in the music business right out of Pebblebrook High School. In the 30-plus years since, he's traveled the world with several bands and has settled into the good life in Blairsville these days after earning the reputation as "The World's Fastest and Cleanest Guitar Player."

The Best of the North Georgia Mountains Publisher Mitch Talley recently took a few minutes to talk with this talented musician and singer, as he was just finishing up teaching a flat picking guitar class at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. Here's what he had to say about his inspiring career during our 45-minute talk.

Watch 'The World's Fastest - and Cleanest Guitarist' in action at: curtisjonesguitarmusic.com

Now, what is John C. Campbell Folk School? I'm not familiar with that.

It's a folk school in North Carolina and they do weekly classes on folk art. They have music courses and basket weaving, quilt making, metal art, just everything to do with folk art.

It's a wonderful school. They do it all year long and they have classes every week. So we

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"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

were up there teaching this past week. We were doing a flat picking guitar class.

When did you start playing the guitar yourself?

I started playing guitar when I was in middle school, late middle school.

I originally started with the trumpet and saxophone in early middle school.

Right into high school, I switched over and started playing guitar.

OK. Where did you go to school?

I went to South Cobb High School for my first two years and then went to Pebblebrook High School my last two years and graduated from there.

Can I ask how old you are?

I’m 52. That’s a good age. You know, I feel better in my 50s than I actually did in my 40s. I'm in much better shape. And you know, being out on the road back in my 30s, I ate a lot of cheeseburgers and didn't exercise much.

So I feel much better in my 50s so far.

Can you give us an idea of how your career progressed?

Yeah. I was fortunate enough to have very supportive parents, you know? And my mom's still alive. They got me the instruments I needed, and I just got real dedicated to it in high school. So just out of high school, I landed my first professional gig actually with Cotton Patch Gospels, a theatrical play that went on the road and we were gone for four months. When I was out on the road with them, I just decided that's what I really wanted to do, keep trying to make a living playing music. So it’s the only job I've ever done. It's the only job I've ever wanted to do.

Wow. So, yes, I was fortunate enough to just land that gig right out of high school and it kind of inspired me to keep going with it.

And what all have you done since then?

I started a band called Misery River, a local bluegrass band based out of Dallas, Ga. We wound up getting a lot of corporate gigs and playing a lot of the big bluegrass festivals for a couple of years.

After that, I went to an annual convention for IBMA, which is International Bluegrass Music Association, and met the Schankman twins out of California there. They hired me, and that was really my first big

professional job. I spent a lot of time on planes going back and forth to California and then flying all over the country playing. I did that for seven years.

After that, I joined a band called Bluegrass, Etc., and that was the band that I really started going more worldwide. We toured Europe a lot more than we did the States. So I stayed pretty much on a plane for at least 200 days a year every year for about three and a half, four years.

After that, I decided to start focusing on the studio so I built a recording studio and kind of learned how to do all that and then decided to start staying closer to home. So I still play and perform a ton, but it's all within four or five hundred miles usually. If it's anything more than that, I'll do it for sure, but I do it a lot less. So now I'm able to stay home. And, you know, I do a lot of teaching. I teach a lot of clinics and seminars and also have a lot of wonderful private students, too. I do that all around Georgia and North Carolina and then play just a bunch of different gigs, corporate gigs, festivals, and then there's some bar gigs. We play at Rocco’s in Jasper, play there quite a bit. We do a lot of restaurant gigs and stuff like that.

Sounds like you stay pretty busy!

Man, we run the roads, that's for sure.

It’s a blessing, though. It’s so, so nice to do what you love for a living.

When you were starting out in middle school, when did it hit you that, hey, I’ve got some talent with this. Was it like immediately or did you work for years?

I've always loved music. I remember my mom telling me when I was a little baby, she would play music for me in the crib and I

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." - Albert Einstein

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would start patting my foot and kind of hitting the side of the crib in time with the music. She remembered all that. In middle school I was walking by a classroom one day and the choral instructor was in there playing piano and he was just playing some beautiful stuff on it. I just kind of stuck my head in and he asked me to come in and said, do you play or sing anything? And I said, no, I've never tried.

So he hit a couple of notes on the piano and said can you hum those notes. So I did. He said, man, you've got great pitch, you know, can I have a meeting with your parents? I told mom and dad, and they went up to the school and he told them he’d really like to get me in band and choral. So while we were in chorus, I just got real involved with singing.

And then he asked me, how would I like to play an instrument, too? At that time, I really didn't know too much about music. I didn't know anything about jazz, which is my favorite music, and all of my favorite musicians are horn players now.

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But I didn’t know that then.

The instrument that really stuck out to me was the trumpet, so that’s the instrument I picked. And of course, my parents got me one, and I started learning, just generally how to read scales and how to think about that kind of thing. So I did trumpet for about a year and a half to two years. I really didn't get bored with it, just wanted a different sound so the tenor saxophone kind of caught my ear and I did that for another year.

Then how it happened with guitar is I was just listening to some music and heard some really cool-sounding flat picking music, which wound up being a Doc Watson recording. Just something about the tone of the guitar really captured me, so mom and dad got me a guitar and I got a chord book and learned a few chords and just kind of started trying to figure out some of the stuff Doc Watson was doing.

And then it just kind of snowballed from there. I got so involved with it and I went to a bluegrass festival shortly after that - this would have been early high school - in Dallas, Ga., called the Raccoon Creek Bluegrass Festival, and they actually still have that festival.

Oh. Just the sound of live bluegrass really captured my imagination, and the guitar especially. So at that festival, I remember there was a record seller there. I still remember his name. Carl Queen was his name. And I asked him what I should get to listen to great guitar music. He actually handed me a Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs record and said, ‘That’s on the house,

man. I hope it inspires you.’ So I took that record home and dissected it. It was a vinyl record, and I stuck my finger on it to slow it down so I could hum what they were playing and try to figure it out.

That's always amazed me. I assume you can listen now and just start playing a song.

Yeah, now that I'm more familiar with scales

and all that. And I’ve trained my pitch now to hear notes, so if I hear a chord, I can figure out what they’re playing.

I noticed on your website that you play with several bands. Are you still active with those?

Yeah. I have a bluegrass band called Primal Roots. And then I have a jazz band called

"One half who graduate from college never read another book." - G. M. Trevelyan

Insonnia. We do a lot of traditional swing type jazz, a lot of original stuff, and then some more new jazz. We throw in some bee-bop. And then we also have a rock band called Echoes of Imagination that is kind of Pink Floyd inspired. We all love the music of Pink Floyd and write all our own music.

But it's very inspired by Pink Floyd.

Yeah, I enjoyed your version of “Minor Swing.” That was good.

Oh, thank you. That's a piece that was written by the great Django Reinhardt, of course. There's a lot of players that I adore, but Django Reinhardt is probably my favorite guitarist of all time. I really listen to a lot of Django's music, so that was done as kind of a tribute to him.

Did you write that song?

No, that was done by Django, but I have composed and written a little bit over 800 pieces of music in my career, and I've released 19 records to date, all originals. Everything I've ever recorded is originals that I have written.

What was your first recording?

It was called “Blue As I.” It was a bluegrass record that at the time I was with the Schankman twins. And so I was real inspired to write a lot of bluegrass music. I just kind of sat down and the first song I ever wrote is actually on that record. It's the second song on the record.

I just got real inspired to write. At the time, there were a lot of new bands coming out with original material. In the past, bluegrass had been everybody doing Flatt and Scruggs and Bill Monroe tunes. But at the time, it got to be a trend for the new bands to start writing their own material. So I wrote 12 songs and then decided to put them on a record. I recorded that project with

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a lot of Alison Krauss' band, at that time. They're all good friends of mine.

So I talked them all into recording with me so we just went in the studio in Virginia and recorded that record.

Now, when would that have been?

That would have been 1998. I think I started recording that record in ‘96 and we recorded most of the guitar tracks and most of the vocal tracks first.

And then it took a couple of more years to get everybody else’s stars lined up with mine so we could get them in studio and perform on that record.

It took a couple of years to get it done, but it was finally released in ‘98.

I noticed on one of the songs that you play a whole bunch of different instruments. How many do you play?

I play 22 different instruments.

Wow! Yeah. I've actually got a record called “Fused” that I did a couple of years ago where I played all 22 instruments on that one. Kind of what has inspired me over the years is getting to go to all these foreign countries and see all these other cultures and the way people live through music. So everywhere I would go, say, for instance, France or Brazil or Italy or Spain I would get out and roam the countryside and try to discover local music talent, try to find musicians that were local, and then

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

study some of their music. So it led me to getting a lot of instruments that at the time I didn't even know what some of them were. Fortunately, I had enough interest to get the instrument and bring it home and try to learn how to play it.

Can you name all 22 for us?

Ok, well I can try. Let's see, we got guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, piano, banjo, sitar, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, cello, bassoon, drums, tabla, shamisen, erhu, tanpura, flutes, balalaika, tin whistle, charango, and steel guitar. Those are the 22 I played on my record Fused. But I've actually added a new instrument since that record. It's called a waldzither, and it's a German instrument that is very different.

It's a 14-stringed instrument and it's in the lute family. I guess it’s up to 23 instruments now!

Since you play so many instruments from other countries, can you talk a little bit about what it's like to actually perform overseas? I mean, you've been to how many countries?

I’ve been to most of them! Let's see, it probably would be easier to just send you a list of ones I haven’t been to. I haven’t really been to the Middle East very much. I really wanted to go when I was playing overseas a lot, but there really wasn't a big market for American musicians going over there at that time. And then, of course, after 9/11, you know, I was a little bit nervous to go over there because of all the world tension. I mean, it just got too dangerous. We did get a call one time to go to Iraq to play at a convention hotel. At that time, 9/11 had happened not too long before, and I was really just too nervous to go plus I didn't really want to bring a lot of the musicians in my band at that time. You know, they had families and I just was too nervous about it.

But we've toured all over Europe, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, of course, England, been to the U.K. In fact, I used to teach music in the public schools or do seminars over in France and England twice a year.

And then again, this

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was before 9/11. So that kind of stopped after that. All over Europe and Ireland. I love Prague. We played in Prague a couple of times and Transylvania and all over that region. So it's been quite a few different countries. But the experiences over there were always tremendous. Oh, yeah, Russia, too. We used to go to Russia twice a year to play. It’s just been great. I mean, just getting to meet other cultures and ironically enough and I know it sounds weird, but at the time we were playing mostly bluegrass and bluegrass music is really huge over there. And I think it's because they don't really get it like in this country, you know, in Georgia or North Carolina or Virginia, those states, I mean, you can pretty much throw a rock and hit a bluegrass musician. But over there, they just really don't get to hear authentic bluegrass music very much so it always went over real well and we were always treated wonderful.

Do you mostly do instrumentals? I know I've heard you singing some on your website.

It really depends on the music and what we're hired to come and do. Like when we go out for bluegrass, we generally do more singing than instrumentals. So in a 12-song set, we'll probably do 10 vocal songs and two instrumentals. If we go out and do jazz, though, we do mostly instrumental. We might throw in a couple of old standards like “Summertime” or “My Favorite Things,” but primarily in a 15-song set of jazz, we would probably do 13 instrumentals and maybe two vocals. And then with the rock band it's kind of right in the middle because just like Pink Floyd, we do a lot of ambient instrumental music leading into song, so probably half of our set is vocal, half is instrumental.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

I guess you have noticed that music is the international language.

Oh, it definitely is. I mean, I met several people in Spain when I was over there that didn't speak hardly any English. And I, of course, didn't speak any Spanish. But we communicated just through music. You know, we jammed together, including one wonderful afternoon with a man who had an antique shop. I went in there and he recognized me from the show that we had played the night before. He closed the shop and took me upstairs and he had a bunch of flamenco guitars up in the attic. So we sat down and just pretty much played for five hours without stopping.

Wow. And you could hear people banging on his door downstairs trying to getting in. But he locked it up and we just sat and played and spoke very little to each other other than through the guitar. So it's definitely a universal language that people can relate to.

What might be your most memorable performance that you've done in your career?

That's a good question. You know, I've played a lot of memorable performances, but one sticks out to me more than any. And this is going to be funny to a lot of people. But I performed at a casino in Russia. I remember the weather when we were there. It was the winter time and it was just frigid cold. So it was everything that you would think when you think of St. Petersburg, Russia. You know, we got on the subway and when we came out, it was pouring snow. We went in this casino, and the gig didn’t start until midnight. So we started playing from midnight to 2 and then we had an hour off to walk around the casino. And then we came back on for another two hour set at 4. For some reason, that gig always stands out to me as my most memorable. Everything was just magical about it. You know, we were drinking good coffee on stage and we were in a casino dressed up nice and everybody was dressed nice. And it just really stuck out as one of those things that I'll never forget.

You're billed as the world's fastest and cleanest acoustic guitarist. When did you reach that level?

I'm very lucky in that I've always been able to play really fast. I never, never really set out to be a fast guitar player. My main thing was, I wanted to be really clean, so I always practiced a lot to make sure that when I played a solo or played notes that they're really clean. I guess in doing that and playing so much in practicing difficult runs and scales that it really helped my speed as well. I can remember never really struggling to play fast. It always just kind of came natural for me, putting the work in, of course. I just didn't pick up a guitar and start playing that fast. So there was a lot of hours there spent doing certain runs and certain lead lines and scales, just doing them over and over and over again to make sure they were clean.

So pretty much, right off the bat, people started calling me really fast. Then when I joined the Schankman twins, I guess that's when the outside blue-

grass world that I didn’t know outside of Georgia started taking notice of my speed.

A bunch of people started saying that this guy is, you know, the fastest and cleanest guitar player, acoustic guitar player I've ever seen. So it just kind of snowballed, and now everybody talks about it a lot. I never really focus on it myself. I just focus on being the best player I can be. I have a certain standard that I want to perform, and if I don’t get to that standard, then I’m not very happy with myself. I just make sure I play enough to make sure that standard is met with myself.

What is something that maybe you still would like to improve on?

I would think songwriting. I love to write songs, whether it be instrumentals or vocals. If there is improvement to be made, really, I would love to improve at songwriting and I would love to improve at orchestration. So one of my big goals this year is to do more film scores, which I've done a few in the past. But I really want to be a much better composer and try to keep growing in that area and composing more music that I feel is good enough for people to notice me as the composer.

Right. I think you said you had written 800 songs.

Yeah, that's right. I've written a lot of songs counting instrumentals and soundtracks. A lot of people do not know this about me – and I don’t even think it’s on my website – but I did the music for the Roland Martin and Orlando Wilson fishing shows for several years back when I was in Nashville. That alone is over 300 pieces of music that I sent to that show.

So yeah, I was cranking out a lot of music there for a couple of years. And again, like I said, I always every day want to get better as a composer and I want to get better as a songwriter as well. I've written quite a body of work ,and I definitely want to keep on that route.

You mentioned Orlando Wilson. He actually ran the Chevrolet dealership in Calhoun, where I live.

Oh, cool. Small world, isn’t it? He used my work on his show for a long, long time, and I was very grateful because that was a great exposure for me. Believe it or not, even today I have people come up and they know me more for that than they know me for anything else I've done. But it never offends me. I think it's a great compliment when somebody is watching a show like that and they notice the music. So that always makes me feel good.

So you actually performed the songs on the show?

Yeah. I didn't do the theme song - that was done by Tom T. Hall - but all of the music in the background, once the show started, that was pretty much all my music.

"I always wanted to have my own album released before I graduated from high school." - Christina Aguilera

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Do you come from a musical family?

I do in a sense. On my dad's side of the family, everybody sings. My dad was the only musician other than myself. He was a great fiddle player and a great banjo player, and he was instrumental in starting me out with music. He always tried to get me inspired to play the banjo. But really, the horns are what got my attention first. And then after I started guitar, my dad showed me a few banjo rolls. I’ve continued my progress as a banjo player as well.

So my dad was really the only musician, but everybody on his side of the family sings and sings really well. I've got three sisters, and they all sing as well. I have one sister, my middle sister, Nora, who plays a little bit of guitar, but just chords. And, you know, they just never had the fire in them like I did.

They all chose different career paths, and they just never really wanted to do much with music.

So I got all the bug.

What kind of advice would you give to the aspiring musicians out there?

The biggest thing that I would say is to be open to sound. A lot of musicians I know and have grown up with are great and wonderful, talented musicians, but they kind of lock themselves in cages, you know? Meaning that they'll get stuck on one thing and won't allow themselves to like anything else.

So one of the reasons I am where I am musically, anything I do is because I've always been open to other styles of music. And looking back on it, I probably would not have the fire I have to keep going. I mean, I've been doing this now for 30 years and I love playing it. I mean, I can't wait for the gigs tomorrow. We have two gigs then, and already I can't wait to get out and go to those gigs.

Part of the big reason for that is I’ve just been open to sound and I’ve explored being a jazz guitarist, being a bluegrass guitarist, a flamenco, a classical guitarist and whatever else that I'm into. I would say especially for younger musicians, just to keep an open ear and listen to a lot of different players and a lot of different styles of music. Keep the inspiration clicking.

Because a lot of time if you just do one thing, it kind of can start to get old and, you know, you can just kind of lose interest in it.

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What’s a typical show like at Rocco’s?

We've played a lot of different styles at Rocco's, but they tend to like us to play more bluegrass. So usually we do a trio there which will consist of guitar, bass and mandolin. We usually do a mix of traditional bluegrass, and then we throw in a lot of original stuff and a good mix of medium tempo stuff, up tempo. At Rocco's, they tend to like the faster stuff, so we usually do a lot of fast instrumentals and things like that up there.

What's your most popular song to perform?

Probably my most requested song is “Sweet Georgia Brown,” which is an old traditional jazz tune. But a lot of people know it more for being the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. There’s a YouTube video of me playing that song with a mandolin friend of mine, and it’s got over a million views. A lot of people recognize me from that video, so they'll ask me to play it so I would say that's probably my most requested.

What instruments maybe would you like to still learn how to play?

If there's anything, something that’s really been nagging at me a little bit is probably the oboe. I've played a couple of times on an oboe, but not long enough to really get much out of it because it's a double reed instrument. The oboe is one of those instruments that just touches my heart. When I hear somebody play it really good, it just kind of like makes me feel good, just float away.

Oboe will probably be the next instrument that I'll really take serious and really start getting it figured out.

You mentioned a lot of practice in the early years. How many hours did you practice back then?

Oh, yes, definitely at least eight hours a day. Back when I first started, of course, I didn't need a job back then. I was just in high school. So I did have a little bit more time to devote to it. But I still maintain practice, so for instance, if I'm doing a two-hour gig one day, I'll still practice two hours sometime in that day. So pretty much four hours a day since I started playing at least is the average.

Even now.

Yeah, even now. Now if I’ve got a full day of gigs like six, seven hours then other than warm ups and stuff, I won't really practice that day because I'm already playing a lot. But if it's a light day where I'm just playing a couple of hours, I'll definitely throw a couple of hours practice time in there as well.

Now where is it you live?

We live in Blairsville.

I guess y’all got snow last week?

We got a bunch. In the span of three hours we had six inches on the porch, so it was pretty heavy there for a little bit.

That's kind of an inspirational place to live, huh?

Yeah, we live very close to the foot of Blood Mountain. So you can pretty much walk out our door and look to the right and see Blood Mountain and then look to the left and see nothing but woods. So it is very inspiring living there. It’s a beautiful area. And of course, the hiking and nature trails and

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40 "Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue." - Plato

FIRST THINGS FIRST IN FIRST GRADE Things sure have changed since I started school.

I remember the first day of first grade. That was the first day of school ever, for there was no such thing as preschool, and kindergarten did not exist in the rural areas.

We stood in line with our mamas to register. The girl in front of me was named Judy, and she was adopted. I thought that was the most magical word I’d ever heard. I figured she was a princess. She was the sweetest child. They moved at some point, and then she was back for a year later on before she disappeared again.

The girl behind me was Patricia. I remember how little she was! And she still is. At our last class reunion, she was still up to my shoulder, just like she was in first grade.

I remember being so excited about everything, but one thing in particular: learning to read.

I’d been hungering for this for a year or two. I would memorize “Nancy” in the Sunday comics of The Atlanta Journal and walk to my grandparents’ house and “read” it to them.

I remember the notebook I brought with me, the one that the teacher would use to teach me how to print.

I remember the pencils, all new and absolutely beautiful. Remember how they smelled?

I carried all my supplies in a brand new, red plaid, satchel that fastened like two belts across the front.

One of the things the teacher brought out was a big, plastic, pink boot with blue shoe laces. We lined up as she taught us how to tie our shoes. Now, I already knew how to do that, but I wasn’t about to lose a turn! It was so much fun; I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Before I knew it, I could read “see Spot run” and all the other adventures Dick, Sally, Jane and Puff had.

I couldn’t get enough of it.

COURTESY PENGUIN YOUNG READERS

As the year wore on, we progressed with bigger Dick and Jane books, which had a longer story plot and bigger words. At the end of the week we would be tested on how to spell these words and to pick out the correct meaning of some of them (Run: to go fast).

Learning how to print was a chore! I enjoyed it, but I so wanted my letters and numbers to look as neat as what was written across the black-

I remember being so excited about everything, but one thing in particular: learning to read.

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.' ”-

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board. The teacher’s printing was beautiful, too.

I even liked math in the first grade. I loved the way it looked on paper, the one plus one equaling two and so on. Toward the end of the year we started with subtraction.

It wasn’t till sixth grade and the “new math” that threw me (and the teachers) off the tracks. I began to hate math then and never fully recovered. The death knell for math love was Algebra I and Geometry.

Our playground was a large area with a giant old oak tree that we could sit under if we got too hot, throw our coats on if they became too warm and chase each other around and around it.

Some of the children I already knew, but many of my already familiar faces were in the other class. I wonder if that was done on purpose, separating us, so that we would make new friends.

I made friends that year that are still friends.

And my teacher! She was wonderful. I had no idea that her mother was the woman that lived two doors down from us, or that her brothers were my daddy’s good friends. As a child I had trouble connecting people to their family after they became adults.

I remember when the light bulb came on that my grandparents were my parent’s parents!

One of the best things about my teacher, Mrs. Parks, was that she had the same birthday. If that’s not magical, what is? My mother made cupcakes on my birthday and brought them to school. The children sang happy birthday to Mrs. Parks and me. I wished for a baby brother or sister. My mother says it embarrassed her to death.

After lunch, we’d get these little cartons of ice cream with a wooden spoon on top of the lid. I loved the ice cream but hated the way the wood felt in my mouth. I tried to be careful to keep lots of ice cream on the spoon so I wouldn’t feel that texture in my mouth.

In between all these activities, our teacher taught us manners, how to behave and share in a group of other children, how to behave in the classroom, all the while getting us ready for second grade.

But that’s another story for another day!

Daddy's healthy lesson One night after supper Daddy began to cough up blood. I could hear Mother insisting the next morning he go straight to the company hospital. Luck was with him, and Dr. Hyde was there to treat him.

When he got home Mother wouldn’t leave him alone until he told her what the doctor said. I tiptoed to where I could hear them.

Daddy stammered a little, and said, “Doc Hyde looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Edd, there’s nothing I can do for you. What you need to do is stop smoking.

If you don’t, you’re going to die pretty quick. I don’t like my patients to die on me, so if you won’t quit, don’t come back to see me. Now get back to work.’”

Mother was surprised, “He really said that? What are you going to do?”

Daddy took his two cartons of Camels and put them into the hot coals of the kitchen stove. Then he placed a large red can of Prince Albert pipe tobacco in the center of our fireplace mantel.

He looked at Mother and swore, “I promise I will never smoke again. My promise to you and that Prince Albert Can will remind me to never smoke again, and I hope it will teach the two boys to never start.”

Mother ask, “Why don’t you tell them that at the supper table tonight?”

He grinned, “I can do that.”

For years I would see Daddy take out a packet of peanuts occasionally and place three or four peanuts in his mouth, but I never saw him smoke again.

All my teenage years classmates would try to start me smoking. As they talked, I would remember seeing Daddy with blood running down his chin. Needless to say, I never even tried just to smoke one.

The bad news is my brother Chuck didn’t see Daddy when Daddy was sick.

Chuck started smoking in high school. It wasn’t long until he was smoking two packs a day. Chuck was born on my eighth birthday. He never stopped until he died. He didn’t live long enough to retire.

“Don’t smoke” was one of the many lessons My wonderful Daddy taught me.

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The writer's daddy

"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth." - John F. Kennedy

Why is Henrietta DEPRESSED? Boy, I say boy, you're about to exceed the limits of my medication. ― Foghorn Leghorn I often encounter bizarre questions at book signings. The more signings I do, the more prevalent this phenomenon becomes. The strangest queries usually have nothing to do with my writing.

Instead, the questions are about an attendee's pet chickens. I guess they ask me because they've read my first two books set in the fledgling “poetry industry” of yesteryear. (That’s “poultry industry” for those who haven’t read those books.) They know I have “hands-on” experience with chickens. Well, maybe.

At a recent signing a seriously concerned amateur chicken farmer asked me why his prized pullet was depressed. He then launched into a lengthy tale of her change in behavior and lifestyle. Henrietta, he maintained, had always been a very jovial chick. He grimaced with an expression on his face closely akin to sorrow, as he told me the story.

22

By JOE COBB CRAWFORD

Henrietta, it seems, had once been an outgoing chick who ruled the roost. Daily she strutted her stuff in the sun, cackled loudest of all the hens after she laid an egg, and liked nothing better than to race and chase June bugs.

But of late, she had become a recluse and had taken up retreat in her nest. When he attempted to remove her from that cozy abode, she had pecked and flogged the concerned owner. “It's ironic,” he said. “It's almost as though she likes being depressed.”

Then the questioner got a thousand-yard stare on his face, rubbed his chin, and pondered the words he’d just uttered. It was obviously a “eureka” moment, and his shocked expression was followed immediately with his conclusion.

“It's that other hen!” he belted out. "It all started when I added HER to the flock. She's a bully! That other hen is bullying Henrietta. She’s afraid to come out. That's why she stays in her nest, won't eat, and has stopped laying eggs."

I tried to explain to the questioner that in a hen's life, they periodically go through a period called "molting." They lose weight and feathers, are lifeless, and don't act normal.

The questioner wanted no part of my theory on Henrietta's change in behavior, preferring instead to believe that Henrietta was being bullied and was now clinically depressed.

Anyone know a good therapist for Henrietta?

From “WHAT THE BOOKMAN SAW” by Joe Cobb Crawford

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death." - Albert Einstein

Understanding Medical Sharps and Safe Disposal Options FAMILY FEATURES

If you’re among the millions of people in the United States who suffer from a chronic illness, you may use “sharps” to manage your medical condition at home or on the go.

For example, many people with diabetes self-inject at least two insulin shots every day, and conditions including allergies, arthritis, cancer, infertility, migraines and psoriasis, among others, may also require the use of a sharp to administer medication.

A medical term for devices with sharp points or edges that can puncture or cut skin, sharps may be used at home, at work and while traveling to manage medical conditions. Examples of sharps include: Needles – fine, slender, hollow pieces of metal used to inject medication under the skin Syringes – devices to which needles are attached in order to inject medication into or withdraw fluid from the body Lancets, also called “fingersticks” – instruments with a short, twoedged blade used to get drops of blood for testing Auto injectors, including epinephrine pens – syringes pre-filled with fluid medication designed to be self-injected into the body Infusion sets – tubing system with a needle used to deliver drugs to the body Connection needles – needles that connect to a tube used to transfer fluids in and out of the body.

However, disposing of those medical sharps safely may be a concern.

In fact, in interviews conducted by SafeNeedleDisposal.org with sharps users, people who use needles and lancets to manage their medical conditions believe it is their responsibility to dispose of sharps safely but lack clear, factual information on how to do so. Existing information does not always personalize disposal guidelines for people in every state or locality.

“SafeNeedleDisposal.org helps people in the United States make sense of safe sharps disposal options nearest to their home, work or wherever is convenient,” said Larry Ellingson, vice president of the National Diabetes Volunteer Leadership Council. “This resource is much needed for people who regularly use needles to manage health conditions like diabetes and want to do the right thing with their used sharps.”

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, sharps not disposed of properly may cause injury. Consider these three steps for safe and proper sharps disposal: 1. Place used sharps in an FDA-cleared sharps disposal container or a strong plastic container such as an empty laundry detergent or bleach bottle.

2. Seal the container with duct tape and label it “do not recycle.”

3. For most sharps users, place the sealed container in the household trash, never the recycling. A resource like SafeNeedleDisposal.org can be used to look up local disposal guidelines by ZIP code. For states that do not allow household disposal, the website provides ZIP code-specific information on convenient drop-off locations that will accept used sharps.

The most famous and forgotten

GORDON COUNTIANS "As long as the new moon returns in heaven a bent bow, so long shall the fascination of archery keep hold of the hearts of men.”

-The Witchery of Archery by James Maurice Thompson Before the Civil War, about 1845, a Primitive Baptist minister named Thompson from Indiana via Kentucky made the decision to move to Gordon County at Crane Eater. The minister was wealthy, owned a small plantation, established a church, and achieved some local prominence.

He and his wife had two sons, James Maurice, born in Indiana in 1844, and William Henry, born at Crane Eater in 1846. Their father and mother, who was very well-educated herself, hired tutors who provided them with a very good education, and they were apparently not very strict because the boys were allowed to

By Ted Smith

(Ted Smith, a.k.a. Marion T. Smith, is the author of two books: The Wilderness in My Backyard containing 258 photos of wildlife and wildflowers with commentary; and Life in the Park, A Novel about life in a fictional North Georgia town. Both are available on Amazon.) roam the wild woods and fields.

They made friends with an old man named Thomas Williams, who became their mentor. Maurice describes Williams as “an old hermit of a fellow whose cabin stood in the midst of a vast pine forest that bordered my father’s plantation in the beautiful hill country of northern Georgia . . . Williams was an incomparable archer, and delighted in practicing with his favorite weapons: but a strange timidity so mastered him that no amount of pleading on our part could prevail on him to make any public exhibition of his skill.”

Williams taught them what he knew of nature and the hunting skills he had learned. Maurice later writes that they learned how

"Education must not simply teach work - it must teach Life." - W. E. B. Du Bois

Maurice Thompson helped found the National Archery Association with his brother, Will.

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28

MAURICE THOMPSON

to go into the woods with only a knife and return with a very good bow and arrows.

When the war came the two boys were on the cusp of manhood. They apparently were exuberant supporters of the Confederate cause and served three years as privates in the army. They fought in several key battles including the Battle of the Wilderness, Pennsylvania Courthouse, and Gettysburg. One or both of them is thought to have gotten aboard the locomotive Texas at Calhoun and participated in the Great Locomotive Chase. I can't really say, but I do know that Maurice was a scout. He writes a lot about it years later, especially about the lawlessness of war. He said he did things as a scout he preferred to keep secret.

He did describe a funny incident during the war. He was trying to take a shortcut around Calhoun on a donkey when Sherman's army had almost reached the edge of the city. Maurice did not realize they were so close until he entered a large field by the Oostanaula River. When he saw them

he spurred the donkey to run as fast as it could, which wasn't nearly enough for him, to escape his dilemma.

After the war, the Thompson brothers stayed in Calhoun a couple of years where they studied surveying, engineering, and law. Maurice had a penchant for writing and submitted his first article for publication while living there. In 1867 Maurice and probably Will began a study of the botany and bird populations of Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

Afterwards the two brothers left Gordon County and moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where they married sisters. They opened a law office there in 1871, and Maurice worked as an engineer on a local railroad. He also served in the Indiana legislature. But eventually they parted with Will moving to Seattle in 1889 where he became a prominent lawyer. Maurice stayed behind and made a name for himself in Indiana. The two stayed in frequent contact with one another.

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." - Aristotle

After the war Confederate soldiers could not own guns so the Thompsons took it in stride by returning to their boyhood roots. Maurice wrote a book entitled The Witchery of Archery (1878) which is considered a classic. The brothers were enthusiastic supporters of the sport, champion archers, and are credited with a revival of interest in it in the second half of the 19th century.

In 1878 they helped found the National Archery Association. M. R. James, founder of Bowhunter magazine, says they were America's first widely recognized bow hunters. He calls them the "Patron Saints of American Archery."

In addition, Maurice and to a much lesser extent Will began to gain a reputation as writers.

Maurice wrote essays that were published in the New York Tribune, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's Monthly, including some on bow hunting in Georgia and Florida. He also gained nationwide recognition as a poet and novelist.

In all he published 22 volumes of essays, poetry, and several novels. They included one, How to Train in Archery: Being a Complete Study

30

of the York Round, co-authored with Will. His most successful book was the novel Alice of Old Vincinnes, which was a nationwide best seller at the time of his death in 1901.

So why is he not remembered for his contributions to American literature? Well he's really not that good except for being a local colorist. Basically he died in 1901 at the height of the 19th century and his popularity, literally and literarily.

But he got swept away in the tsunami of 20th century modernism and was soon forgotten.

Maurice says that he made another significant contribution to American literature. At one time his "back door neighbor" in Crawfordsville was the author Lew Wallace. Maurice says that Wallace gave him a first draft of the novel Ben Hur to critique. Maurice liked it but said it lacked excitement. Wallace re-wrote the manuscript and gave it back to Maurice. He said, "It was much improved. The sea battle and the chariot race had been added."

Several of Maurice’s works can be read online at Project Gutenberg.

ARCHERY HALL OF FAME

Will Thompson was inducted into the Archery Hall of Fame in 1979. His brother Maurice was in the inaugural class in 1972.

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read." - Abraham Lincoln

MEMORIES

Today's children would feel deprived if they were living 'back in the day.' With no electronics, what could you do?

“Back in the day” we were living in a different time – a different world.

Children certainly were not deprived, but because of the economy and having to start over, there were few toys to occupy us, so we made our own fun which children do not have to do today. What we did would not be entertaining and fun in today's culture.

“Back in the day” was at the end of the Great Depression when most daddies had just been called back to work after being laid off their jobs for several years. My daddy had just moved us back from his parents who lived on a farm below Atlanta when I was around three years old.

These memories were when this kid was about three to seven years old. It all happened on almost Main Street in McCaysville-Copperhill, in a small rental house when daddy had been called back to work at the Tennessee Copper Company. What I am remembering was mostly through the 1930s.

This was a new life for my family, who had to pull up roots and moved south during the Depression. Daddy had his job back. Mother stayed at home. I made new friends in the neighborhood where there were children in most every house, while my sister at first was so little she stayed inside.

To start the memories, I must say that I did have a few toys. One of my favorites was a doll about six to eight inches tall. One day I was playing with it, and my baby sister began crying for it from her playpen. Mother said for me to let her see it for a minute. Very hesitantly I handed it to her. It did not take “for a minute” for her to hold it up in the air and throw it into the burning fireplace. Maybe that is why I enjoyed playing outside so much!

Probably my first recollection of children playing was hearing a group playing and laughing three doors down at that big brick building called the First Baptist Church. When I eased down there, which was my easing limit, children were sliding down the concrete slope which was on the brick wall at the two sets of steps. I was so little I did not dare do this,

32

By Patricia Kovsky-Dotson

but I certainly could watch! It didn't take long for me to grow bigger and take part in this wonder activity. By the way, Preacher Cutts didn't care for his son was a ring leader!

Some of the bigger boys would congregate across the street from the church, in a curve, and play in the dirt in the culvert. My mother thought this was dangerous and called to them. One of them answered, “Don't

"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master." - Leonardo da Vinci

worry, Mrs. Holden, my daddy doesn't care if we play in the street!!”

Kids...

One of my closest friends, Johnny Christopher, lived in the house behind ours and another house, but right on the river bank. Actually, the little house was built up on stilts. I could go to their house, but not get near the river.

Johnny and I played dirt and running games. He could not talk plain, so I never knew what he said, but only knew what games we played.

His mother told my mother what he had said. “Tawk abot you purry gurs, Patchie Hoie beachie aw.” (Talk about your pretty girls, Patsy Holden beats them all.)

My first friend and my first compliment! What a day!

This is an event that most people have never seen. There was a young boy, probably an older teenager, who lived a ways up the road from us. We always loved to see him coming for he would be running and rolling an automobile tire at high speed. It had no tube nor rim and he never lost it all the way to his destination in town. To him, this was his car, and yes, we got out of his way!

Not everything happened outside. Back in the day there were still families who were in need. Every once in a while, a beggar would come to the houses around town and ask for food. Mother would answer the back door, for they never came to the front. He would be dressed in shabby dark ragged clothing, unshaven, and sometimes on a cane.

34

This would scare the living daylights out of kids. She would go in the kitchen and give him what she had to spare. He would thank her and go on his way, while we were peeping around watching him.

Now to the action things!! In Daddy's job back then, he had other responsibilities with the Company than his office. From time to time, he would go back at night to check on some things. Guess what?? Kids wanted to go, too!

We piled in the car, and before we got through town, we were on our daddy's case to “take us over the dip.” We had learned that around this curved Company road there were little hills and dales to experience.

Our first cry was, “Daddy, take us over the dip.” Then, the speed limit was probably about 30 miles per hour on the highways, so it was not the speed, it was the thrill of dipping off that rise into the valley. Let me tell you, it was like riding a roller coaster from the feel in your stomach as you fell into the back seat yelling to do it again! Life was simple then.

We would go to the guard house where he checked on the guards and their situation. What was fun to us was that we could get out of the car and play around on the paved area while our daddy spent time spinning yarns with his guards. Paved areas were very sparse back in the day!

The most glorious sight on most all occasions, if Daddy timed it right, was the pouring out of the molten slag on a bank near the Company. This was the remains from the furnaces where they smelted the copper. It was red hot and was dumped out of a railroaded vessel on the bank above. To us it looked like the world was on fire as it covered a wide area. The rocky remains of it still remain as a memory on the bank of the Company road. If we had not lived in town, we would not have experienced such fabulous sights!

Another exciting destination was going to the Company's housing called “The Blue Goose.” This was rooming for the single men working at the Company. It was at that time a huge wooden building with a kitchen big enough to feed the whole town I thought. Daddy had to often check on this at night to see how things were going.

You walked in this big kitchen after hours with nobody there. It was clean as a pen, and I had never seen so many kitchen appliances and tools at that time.

While we were still all agog over everything, Daddy opened the refrigerator, which was the biggest thing I had ever seen. Right up front was

"Books, the children of the brain." - Jonathan Swift

a platter of leftover fried pork chops. Daddy just reached in, handed us each one by the bone end, and told us we could eat it! That was better than an ice cream or a coke in that day and time. Despite the mess, we ate it, for after all, Mother had not had a big ole fried pork chop for supper that night. Yes, everything was alright at “The Goose” that night, especially the pork chop!

A big scare came right in my front yard one day. My daddy had finally been able to buy a newer car, and he had parked it in the driveway. Naturally, I was so excited over this that I wanted to “drive” it. What entertainment it was to sit behind the wheel of that car and pretend I was going somewhere.

I imagine I must have turned that wheel and backed up a thousand times!

My next door neighbor, an older, fun loving guy, saw me having fun. He slipped around behind the car which was light in those days, and lifted it up and down and hid himself behind it. Mercy, I was scared to death because I just knew I had started the motor in some way. I screamed, jumped out, and suddenly saw my neighbor on the sidewalk, shaking all over with laughter.

I flew mad when I saw what he had done. I remember screaming ugly things at him that I had never heard before. When my nerves calmed down, I forgave him, for after all, his wife had made me my first glass of Kool-Aid. I got to watch the powder magically turn into deliciousness!

Talk about bad tricks, one day I pulled one, totally unaware! The Toccoa Street in front of our house was not paved at the time. It was just packed down gravel, and cars usually went slow by the houses. The real event in all of this was that I got to watch the street get its first paving.

One day while on the porch I saw this huge machine coming up from town toward our house. It had a huge brush type sweeper on the front, and rocks and dust were flying everywhere. Upon running in the house, I found out that the street was being prepared for paving.

Not knowing what paving was, I proceeded to watch it all being done in the next few days.

My mischievous, innocent event happened between brushing and the time of paving.

When Daddy came in from work each evening, “we” would get out the water hose and water down the sidewalk and dusty street so we

could breathe.

Naturally, my helpful hands had to be a part of it. I had the hose in my hand when a car came ambling up the street from town, and I was so busy I didn't notice it. In that day, the car windows were all down, yet my water hose was still up, and I wet the car and passengers as well. They slowed down and waved and laughed as they went on their way. They probably appreciated a shower on that hot summer day.

The Kiwanis Karnival, sponsored by the local club, was held once a year, and a kid thought it was a tremendous event. They blocked off the street through Copperhill, put in many wooden makeshift booths, and crowds gathered to have fun and support the funds of the club. Kids had the usual fishing game, and some more that I don't remember. If an adult ever threw a ball and won you a prize, you cherished it forever.

There were clowns, food, games for all ages, and anything exciting that you could imagine.

This was a big deal in our town and was until the times outdated it.

You probably would never believe that there was a big wholesale building two houses above us. It was a wooden building, painted a red-

dish brown. The color never mattered to me; it was the size and the huge loading dock on the front, which looked like a huge front porch to me. The reason I was so taken by this was that the owner also owned our rental house, and we were all friends. I was not a bit interested that they sold to local businesses most of their goods, ranging from groceries on to feed for cows, etc.

Salesmen would come in cars and park there all of the time, along with delivery trucks, making this quite a busy place. I was warned not to go out there and was allowed to go so far on the sidewalk. What a disadvantage!

Sometime “Arp,” as we called him, would bring us sample candy that the salesmen had left. Every day I was on the lookout.

My main experience here was watching the workers unload freight off of the railroad car across the street. Over this city street was built a fairly wide wooden ramp, over which freight was rolled on to the dock.

The freight car was sidetracked until later when it was empty. Imagine a kid watching this and hoping they would not fall off into the street!

Well, I guess I had watched this long enough, so one day when no one was at the wholesale or looking from my house, I decided to make the great adventure to the wholesale, on the dock, and across the ramp going over the street. I had been told not to go to the wholesale, but I never remembered being told not to go across the ramp!

Here I eased on across, but when I got across to the box car, I realized that I had to go back across the ramp and over the street to get home! What a scary predicament I had gotten myself into. It was all because of boredom and probably being told not to go to the wholesale. Now, holding the bottom sides of my dress, which would keep me from falling off, I sort of flew back across.

Nobody ever knew this, and it satisfied my curiosity and my evil skill to do it, but never again!

As the song goes, “Those were the days, my friend,” but yes, they finally did come to an end. My daddy had bought a house about a mile and a half out of town, and we moved there for more kid adventures. I missed my playmates and the action, for at first nobody had kids near us. I fully believe that we were destined to live in that little house downtown, for if we had not lived there, I could not have had such vivid childhood memories that you had to make on your own. I am so grateful that I can still remember having the time of my life without many toys and entertainment.

I believe I must close these rambling events for it seems that I can still hear a voice coming from the house saying things you don't often hear today.

“Kids, come on in the house. Supper is about on the table.”

ELECTRIC

EASY RIDERS

I thought I was a dead man the first time it happened. Alone, I poked my car past the handicapped spaces and maneuvered on to the end of the rows of parked vehicles. There, I painstakingly parked my car.

Locked its doors, marched toward the store entrance and was nearly turned into roadkill by one of them.

“Them” in this case was the driver of an electric shopping cart. Like Ricky Bobby with a Talladega Green Flag to Happy Hour he zipped up behind me. In the “Super-Speed-Way” of the parking lot he tried swapping paint with me and came within inches of taking my life.

He scared the bejesus out of me. Jumping sideways, I climbed the tailgate of an F-150 pickup truck. My chest tightened. He passed me. Gasping the dirty air of his wake, my legs went wobbly.

Half-smiling, he scowled like I was “Off-The-Pace” and was impeding his progress. I thought it was checkered flag day for me. But thanks be to God I survived.

The second time I witnessed the antics of one of “them” I was out of harm’s way, but frightened no less. I’d taken my buddy to a Big Box Building Supplier. He’s a senior citizen, overweight and not nimble. I delivered him right up to the front door. After parking I met him inside.

Like Dale Earnhardt Jr. waiting for the “Green Flag” he sat in an electric shopping cart. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel he said, “What took you so long?” And before I could answer, he raced away yelling, “Okay. Meet me back here in 15 minutes.”

Like a bat out of hell, down the deep canyon of this mega store he breezed. At the first aisle intersection he didn’t slow down. Instead, he honked his horn and bellowed out a few unmentionable words. I feared

By JOE COBB CRAWFORD

another electric cart driver would t-bone him or worse, he’d hit a walking shopper. But the NASCAR Gods were good to him, and he made it safely through. No one was injured.

At the next intersection he didn’t honk his horn, but again, failed to slow down. He did something unbecoming and most unsportsmanlike.

He shot the bird at a shopper who glared at him as he sped through the intersection.

True to his word, 15 minutes later he returned the electric cart/race car to the starting gate. While he paid out, I nervously brought my car to the store entrance, picked up my race driver friend and we crept away.

He’d enjoyed shopping, but complained about the sluggishness of the shopping cart and my driving. He said, “Speed it up old timer. I’ve got things to get done at home.”

My last frightening experience with an electric powered vehicle was at an unlikely place—a public library. The driver didn’t see me, and I didn’t hear his graveyard silent foreign car. No engine sound; only a muffled tire biting concrete vibration, as from a new bicycle. He almost did a bump-and-run maneuver on me.

I had just set one foot down from the curb when it happened. Out of nowhere a ghostly quiet car appeared. A gray-haired, bespectacled man resembling Mr. Magoo’s older brother sat inside. His car was so small, I couldn’t tell if he was driving the car or wearing it. As he sped by, nearly hitting me, I was speechless. And it all happened right there at the town’s Written Word Storage Building—the library.

My reaction to nearly being run over was the same as my first near miss: My heart skipped eight beats, my chest tightened and I felt the call of nature. I stumbled backwards.

Slumping down onto a nearby bench, I rested. After my heart stabilized and I regained mental clarity I got a little giddy about still being alive. I began pondering life’s many ironies. I thought to myself: I’m retired from a long, uninjured career as an electrical engineer. Wouldn’t my obituary be peculiar if God hadn’t protected me today: “Electrical engineer, after a safe 40 years on the job, was run over by an electric vehicle.”

Be careful out there! Those electric easy riders are everywhere.

Curtis Jones

Continued From Page 16 just how much there is to do there outdoors. And me and my wife both love it outdoors. So we get very inspired every time we're able to get on the AT and walk a little ways and walk up to the top of Blood Mountain. We both get very inspired to create for sure.

Now, you mentioned your wife. How did you meet her?

Oh, I was living in Tennessee at the time. I got hired on to do a musical in Pigeon Forge, so I was looking for a house because at that time I thought I was going to stay up there. So she was a real estate agent who I happened to call and she went and showed me a few properties. And so we just really clicked and started talking to each other outside of looking for a house.

We had so much in common it was unbelievable. In fact, it’s still amazing.

We’ve been married for three years now, and we’re still together all the time.

We do music together, she’s my booking agent, of course, and she’s playing music now. It’s just amazing how much we have in common. I used to think that opposites attract had some meaning, but after being in this relationship, it’s really taught me it’s very important to have a ton in common.

What challenges are left for you now? What's the goal?

You know, I'm definitely not saying that I've done everything I want to do, but I'm really happy with where I'm at musically and professionally. You know, I don't have to play commercial music. I have my own record label.

I have my own recording studio. So I have pretty much everything that I would ever dream to have and have an extensive guitar collection and instrument collection, of course.

So I kind of have everything I would ever dream of there. Musically my goals are, like I was saying, film soundtracks. I would love to do more of that. And I would love to eventually play Montreux Jazz Festival, because that's something I've not done yet. That is definitely on my goal list. And then I would also love to play the jazz festival. The big one in New Orleans.

I've not done that. I've been to it, but I've not played that yet. So that is definitely a goal that I would like to see come in the next couple of years.

Grandpa's hope chest packed with treasures Why do we assume we are going to live forever? Why do we forget 'that part' of living? How many of us are like my grandmother and put away the fine things we are given to save for the uncertain future. How many of us store our dreams in a hope chest in our minds?

It doesn’t seem that long ago when most of our homes included a piece of furniture some called either a cedar or hope chest. These were initially designed in the 15th century as a dowry box to store items to be given to the first married daughter.

Many of ours used in the south were for storing blankets, sweaters, photo albums, and hidden secrets if you also used the lock. Every one of my relatives, as well as myself, owned this vital piece of furniture including my grandmother, aka, “Grandpa.” It was the name her first grandson bestowed her because he deemed her special.

Grandpa’s cedar chest was made of a golden mahogany veneer that matched her bed and dresser. Her bedrooms throughout her life were small, but she somehow expertly carved a space for her treasured piece.

I would often see her use the key to unlock the chest, throw something inside and quickly lock it back. When I was young, I wasn’t that curious about the contents because I usually was trying to rush her to go fishing or play Rook.

Once I was grown, my mother and I went for our usual visit. Grandpa was in her late 80s, lived in a small duplex in Tennessee, and was still full of fun and feistiness. We didn’t fish much anymore, but we sure had some great Scrabble matches and humorous discussions.

One afternoon Grandpa and Mama were in the bedroom talking, and I joined in. Grandpa's old pocketbook was on the bed looking worn and abused. Once my mom noticed it, she said, “Let’s go shopping Mama and I will buy you a new purse!”

When I heard the word “shopping," I quickly began putting on my shoes.

Suddenly, Grandpa said, "Well, shoot Elizabeth, I think I have a new one in the chest!"

She retrieved the brass key from the drawer of her little dresser to unlock the chest. When she lifted the top, the mild scent of cedar wafted through the room. She rummaged through to the bottom and pulled up an elegant navy blue leather purse, lifting it high above her head. “See, I knew I had

me a new pocketbook in here!” she happily declared.

For a moment Mom and I couldn't close our mouths as she held the beautiful purse with the original tags still dangling from its strap. “Mama, where did you get that?”

“Oh, I am not sure Elizabeth, but I think it was a Christmas present years ago from your brother. I was holding on to it like I do all these things in this chest.”

Once she made that confession, we both jumped to look in the secret space where Grandpa had collected a stash of finery fit for a queen. Gifts of robes, gowns, sweaters, perfumes, wallets, and shawls.

I was so shocked I couldn’t say a word. However, my mother exclaimed, “Mama, why in the world have you not used these fantastic gifts?

“Well, shoot, I was saving ‘um!”

“Mama, how long are you planning on living? You know the purse will last for years, plus these are items you need and can use now.”

With that my almost 90-year-old grandmother simply stated, "Well, I reckon you are right. I forgot that part!"

With that statement, my mouth finally started producing a laugh so loud that everyone joined in as Mama fell back on the bed in a howl.

We began to empty and organize the contents of the cedar chest with the hope that Grandpa would be able to live enough years to enjoy all those gifts she had been saving for that ambiguous “rainy day.”

Why do we assume we are going to live forever? Why do we forget “that part” of living? How many of us are like my grandmother and put away the fine things we are given to save for the uncertain future. How many of us store our dreams in a hope chest in our minds?

I say we should take the plastic off the sofas, use the fine china on the table along with the once-stored crystal pieces to hold good wine and elegant candles. I suggest we open our secret stashes of hopes and dreams to become realities today. Who knows what we might discover when we unlock the secret place where they reside?

When I leave this earth, my hope is I used up all my dreams, broke a few pieces of my fine china, and my last purse is worn and abused.

Grandpa lived another 10 years after we opened her secret box. In the end, the emptied mahogany hope chest held only our precious memories of her.

Lynn Walker Gendusa is an author and columnist who lives in Georgia.

She can be reached through www.lynngendusa.com.

By LYNN GENDUSA

"What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul." - Joseph Addison

41

Nick White, left, host of “America’s Top Dog,” smiles during a visit with Whitfield County Deputy Todd Thompson. White traveled from his home in Florida to attend a watch party for Episode 6 that featured Thompson and his K9 partner Eddy.

EDDY'S THE

PHOTO BY MITCH TALLEY

TOP DOG! Friends and family gather with Whitfield County Deputy Todd Thompson to watch the local crime-fighting duo compete on popular new A&E show

The room erupted in cheers and applause in mid-February when Whitfield County Deputy Todd Thompson and his K9 partner, Eddy, outlasted the competition to emerge as the overall winners in Episode 6 - appropriately titled “Country Boys and Rescue Dogs” - of “America’s Top Dog.” Now it’s on to the Grand Finale to face off against other weekly winners in a future episode slated to air on A&E. Cherokee Brewing + Pizza on West Cuyler Street was packed full of well-wishers who had gathered to watch the show and show their support for Whitfield County’s crime-fighting duo.

“It was an experience of a lifetime to get to do this and to honor Lt. Fran Rice and his legacy and his family,” Thompson said. “Fran was a big part of me getting to do this (become a K9 handler). This meant a lot to me.”

Rice, a long-time lawman for the sheriff’s office, passed away last year shortly after Thompson had finished filming the show in California in June. The two men were neighbors when Thompson was growing up, and Rice eventually encouraged him to pursue being a K9 handler four years ago. To honor his friend, Thompson asked Rice’s wife, Kim, if he

By MITCH TALLEY

could borrow his retirement badge and let Eddy wear it on his chest during the show.

Reflecting on Episode 6, Thompson says he’s proud of how he and his K9 partner performed in the competition and “proud of the teamwork and the bond that Eddy and I have established over our short time together.”

Thompson says the community’s support “means the world to me.”

“I’ve got so many text messages and e-mails and phone calls from people that I hadn’t talked to in years,” he said, “and everybody is just really supporting us and it’s just been overwhelming.”

The fact that he and Eddy did so well on the show “solidifies that I am definitely on the right track with this program,” he said. “I’m on the right track with this dog, and what a great dog we have in this county!”

Unfortunately, Eddy wasn’t able to attend the party in his honor.

“I believe it’d be a little bit too much for him,” Thompson said. “He’s at the house – he’s got free reign in the house. I woulda gave anything to have brought him tonight, but I didn’t want to take away from my family and my friends and I didn’t want to have to worry about every move he was making or not making.”

One guest that was able to attend the party was Nick White, labeled as an “expert trainer” in his role as one of the hosts on “America’s Top Dog.” White is a former U.S. Marine and former member of the Secret Service with years of experience working with K9s as well as the owner of a dog training company with locations across the country Now residing in Destin, Fla., White says although he has been to Atlanta “a lot,” he had never visited Dalton before.

“What I see that’s different about Dalton is it has that small-town camaraderie, which I love,” he said. “It has that very ‘Cheers, everyone knows everyone’ feel to it, a family, and I love it here. I’m super glad and excited to be in Dalton, and I would love to come back. Hopefully Deputy Thompson comes back for the (Grand Finale), and I’d love to come back and see the great people of Dalton again.”

White says he “immediately loved” Thompson as soon as he met him for the show. “I’m from a small town in Ohio,” he said, “and he gave me that small-town, super respectful, super nice, very genuine, caring country boy feel that kind of brought me back to when I was in Ohio growing up. We immediately hit it off – I loved him. I knew he was such a great guy, had such a great dog, such a great team, so when he invited me to come up here to Dalton, I was like, say no more, I’m gonna be there, and here I am.”

“America’s Top Dog” brings together top K9 cops and civilian dogs alongside their handlers as they compete nose-to-nose on the ultimate K9 obstacle course. The series is hosted by White and Curt Menefee and sideline reporting by Jamie Little.

In each one-hour episode, four police K9 teams, including fan-favorites from the hit series “Live PD,” and one civilian team face off for the title of “Top Dog” in three rounds of high velocity, furry competition. The skilled teams are tested on their speed, agility, and teamwork by completing a series of expert tasks on a massive obstacle course including navigating a complex maze for scented items and apprehending and taking down a suspect in a bite suit, among a variety of other challenges.

Each week’s winning team receives $10,000 and an additional $5,000 to donate to the animal charity of their choice. In the final week of competition, top competitors, including Deputy Thompson and K9 Eddy, will return to the finale course to battle for the title of “America’s Top Dog” and an additional $25,000 cash prize.

“I’m just trying to matter,” said June Carter Cash, the wife who lived in name was left out. This community bestseller read like a telephone book, having more names than Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel, the shadow of singer Johnny Cash.

“I tell ya, I don’t get no respect,” tongue-in-check said comedian RodCrime and Punishment. No plot. No discernable storyline. No amazing ney Dangerfield. revelations.

“Of what significance are the things you can forget,” said naturalist But the buyers of the book possessed one distinct demographic Henry David Thoreau. characteristic: they were uniformly all past the age of 50. These mature The older people get the more they seem to dwell on these three conreaders bought the book to witness their name printed inside. cerns: In today’s world, people desperately desire two things: they want Did I matter? respect and they want to matter. In the autumn of their life they want to Was I respected? know that their having lived was significant. They also want to not soon Was my life significant? be forgotten. What else could explain everything from elaborate tombI’m a writer and author. My story topics are typically from yesteryear. stones, to college campus buildings, to sky scrapper towers with dead The story readers are usually the past-50 age group. From talking with persons’ emboldened names showcased on them? them, I’ve learned much about their sheltered values and goals.

“Vanity. All is vanity,” wrote the wise, albeit depressed author of EccleWhat has surprised me most is many readers’ near obsession with siastes in The Holy Bible. Little about the human condition has changed “mattering,” their “significance” since he wrote those words and how they will be “rememthousands of years ago. Now as bered.” I was shocked to then, humility is a rare quality to realize that almost no one find in human beings. wants to be forgotten. To June But what makes older people Carter’s point, “mattering” matlose their humility? What makes

BY JOE COBB CRAWFORD ters much. them become vain and manifest Prior to beginning a writing self-centeredness in their latter career I never once thought senior citizens could be “egotistical.” Not years? once did I imagine one being borderline narcissistic. In my mind, all This is an essay. As such I do not offer an answer or a five-step remmore mature women were Aunt Bea from Mayberry and senior men edy to cure this identified social ill. Like a philosopher or a current day were like John Boy Walton’s granddad from Walton’s Mountain. politician I merely describe my observation. But I do have a theory. I NOT TRUE. also have a personal plan of action that’s not recommended for all readers of this essay.

What brought me to this discovery was reading the most popular book written by a person from my hometown. I read it twice. I reread My plan is to become an elderly menace. I’ll be everyone’s worst the book not because it was a spellbinding page turner. I reread the enemy. None will envy or want to emulate me. On the day of my death, epistle in an effort to determine why it was a local favorite. Like most dancing will break out in the streets. things pertaining to human behavior, a single solid scientific reason for But, the day after the dancing stops, they’ll remember my name. I’ll the book’s appeal could not be determined with any level of confidence. have mattered. I will have had significance if only for that one day celBut, I still developed a theory regarding its popularity. ebration of my having passed. And best of all, no major money will have It was the exhaustive list of names written inside. No local person’s been wasted on my vanity or the memory of me. That’s the plan!

44

SIGNIFICANCE

"The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values." - William Ralph Inge

Isolation isn't necessary, we're all cut from one star, the more that you withdraw yourself, the less you will go far.

Take off your mask, reveal your truths, stand up and sing your tune, let everyone around you, come harmonize with you.

Invite the light, to push out your dark, welcome it with a grin, because this is the one true note, It's Love, it It Always Wins.

-SARA WINICK-HERRINGTON

Crowds all around me, But still I feel alone.

I reach to feel someone, My hand drops like a stone.

Screams escape my lips, But whispers are what is heard.

Beg for someone to hear me, But I cannot utter a word.

Sanity has left me, As panic takes its place.

Clawing towards the surface, Tears roll down my face.

Holding up a neon sign, Help me shining bright.

Everyone around me, Seems to have lost their sight.

My inner demons hold me tight, Desolation fills my heart.

I need someone to hear me, But oh where do I start?

I know they all love me, My burdens they shouldn't hold.

Too afraid to seek their guidance, So my troubles won't be told.

-SHANNA PAGE

WEEDS OF SPRING Moon fades away Sun starts new day Lake waves glisten Quiet birds listen Dormant plants awaken Fragile flowers brave nightly cold Welcomes promise of melting snow Deer herd on their morning prowl Owl nods, winks, does not howl Together all yearn for spring’s arrival Fallowed fields with specks of green

CORNER

POETRY

Last year’s thistles standing keen Tall and proud, hardy, alive With just sun’s rays they survive Happy to stay for a few more days On red hill against sky of blue Hope for day—sun shines through Golden blooms, from plants not sown Flowers so splendid, beauty has grown Glorious blooms of weeds love spring, too -JOE COBB CRAWFORD

Satire I sit here staring out into nothing on a dark cold night praying for inspiration and hope When the emptiness sets in it’s hard to gage the depth it will sink to before I find the strength to begin the climb back to the top I am a strong and independent person who is surrounded by love and blessings beyond anything I’m worthy of Even positive and loving people have those lows and find themselves in dark places where shadows of memories and fears of what’s ahead haunt them If you stare at the dark long enough the lights of hope will appear and the stars will come out to dance I am more than my circumstances and refuse to be engulfed in the negative this world can throw at you This night I find beauty in dark and fill my own cup leaping from the depths of what was meant to hold me down Happiness is a choice and a labor of self love that one must put in the effort to reap the benefits of a full and happy life - LORA BUNCH

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