WGL May-June 2017

West Georgia

LiVing May/June 2017

Civil War in west Georgia Trends in college fashion The Gilded Age in Douglas What's old is new again

Life . Art . Music . People

Susan Hayward at 100 $3.95

Vol. 7/Issue 3

Features UWG students have routinely followed fashion trends

13

A star like no other, Susan Hayward called Carrollton home and treasured its friendly atmosphere

PLUS You and history are connected........................................8 Sweetwater Park Hotel.....................................................32 Turning Old into New.......................................................38 West Georgia's earliest inhabitants.............................44

4 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

29

Moore's Bridge is west Georgia's only Civil War battle site

May-June

23

41

2017

At 426 feet below the surface, USS Atlanta has many stories to reveal

Sacred Harp is a uniquely west Georgia musical tradition

On the Cover: Susan Hayward and her husband Eaton Chalkley on their farm in Carrollton, June 1962. Photo courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, Kenneth Rogers Photographs collection.

Summer is upon us and your are invited to come on over and visit Southern Home & Ranch Garden Center!

When it comes to maintaining, improving, problem solving or creating your idea of a wonderful yard or garden, Southern Home & Ranch is your kind of place. We have a wide and varied assortment of healthy, well-maintained shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, in-home tropicals, edibles, and of course your favorite garden vegetable plants.

The majority of our plants are from nearby local nurseries and growers, acclimated to this growing area – our way of helping make sure your selection has the best possible chance for long-term success.

Whether you are working on your lawn, in your garden, revitalizing your flower or shrubbery beds, putting out fertilizer, or fighting off pests and stubborn diseases, we can help. We carry a complete selection of all the right products to help you keep your lawn and garden in the best possible shape and looking good. Be sure to come by and check our NEW Bonide Analysis Center, bring in a sample of your pest or plant problem, we will give it a close look and hopefully find a solution.

Our friendly and knowledgeable Garden Center staff, including our own local expert, Carl Brack, are ready to help you find the perfect plant or to try to help solve a problem. If we don’t have what you are looking for, let us know and we will do our best to find it for you , we also do soil testing on site, your PH level is the #1 key to success.

For those of you with even bigger yards, fields or pastures, we are your local SOUTHERN STATES BRAND dealer, carrying feed, seed, fertilizer, animal health products and field and farm products.

At Southern Home & Ranch, you will find our Outdoor Living area has expanded to include even more pottery, plants, fountains, furniture, benches, swings, rockers, statuary, chimes, bird baths, fire pits, our made in America PRIMO ceramic grills and smokers and much more. We are all about outdoor living and entertaining.

Inside Southern Home & Ranch we are full of surprises with something new most every day. We are constantly sourcing new and interesting products to make your home and gift giving fun and the talk of the town. Our selection includes Carhartt and Wrangler clothing and jeans, shoes and boots from Born shoes for men and women, Twisted Boots, Georgia Boots, and Thorogood work boots.

Look over our jewelry case, featuring hand-made one-of-a-kind pieces, fragrant Trapp candles, beautiful White River design Lifetime candles, and our locally produced Clyde Cook honey, Olivia Marie fresh preserves, Georgia Farms olive oil, Kinloch Pecan oil, Cooke’s Tavern soups along with other special delights and treats.

The list can go on, but instead of telling you more, why not just come on by and see for yourself!

Our sales folks are friendly and eager to help you find what you need and help you with your project or problem.

Southern Home & Ranch, your one stop shopping for most anything and everything you might need, locally owned and operated, easy to get to, a fun place to visit, with help from folks you might even know. If you haven’t been here, you really do need to come on by! Hope to see you soon ... e e, you ea y do eed to co e o by! ope to see you soo ...

Southern Home & Ranch

West Georgia

Li Ving Volume 7 . Issue3 May/June 2017 Publisher Marvin Enderle publisher@times-georgian.com

Editor Ken Denney ken@times-georgian.com

Advertising Melissa Wilson melissa@times-georgian.com

Photographer Ricky Stilley rstilley@times-georgian.com

Design Richard Swihart rswihart@messenger-inquirer.com

Contributors Taylor Boltz, Melanie Boyd, Lisa Land Cooper, Robert Covel, Nancy Dombrowsky, Rob DuvĂŠ, Richard Grant, Joyce McArthur, Arthia Nixon, Josh Sewell, Haisten Willis

ABOUT THIS ISSUE Welcome to our biennial "history issue," in which we explore the historical heritage of west Georgia in all its diverse forms.

We begin with a celebration of the 100th birthday of the actress Susan Hayward, who made west Georgia her home in the early 1960s, and who chose to be buried here beside her late husband.

We also travel halfway around the world to explore the wreck of the USS Atlanta, a World War II vessel named for the capital of the state, sunk during the savage naval battle of Guadalcanal. Speaking of war, we also tell the story of the only Civil War battle to have taken place in west Georgia: the Battle of Moore's Bridge.

On the lighter side, Taylor Boltz shows us how college fashions have evolved over the decades, and how those trends have been shaped by our changing culture. Haisten Willis tells us the story of Sacred Harp sing-

A R T I S T' S C O R N E R FOOD GARDEN

Submissions, photography and ideas may be submitted to Ken Denney c/o The Times-Georgian, 901 Hays Mill Rd., Carrollton, GA 30117.

Submissions will not be returned unless requested and accompanied with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

West Georgia Living reserves the right to edit any submission.

Copyright 2017 by the Newspapers of West Georgia

6 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

But that's not all this issue has for you. We bring you the story of a Douglasville artist who forges metal into sculptural art. Rob DuvĂŠ has some tips and recipes on pairing that perfect wine with an equally perfect dish. Our Master Gardeners present the stories of some of those iconic Southern plants - some of which have distinctly unSouthern roots. And Robert Covel reviews a book exploring the myths and realities of pit bull dogs.

There's a lot to see and explore in this latest issue, and we hope you enjoy it.

Departments

To advertise in West Georgia Living, call Melissa Wilson at470-729-3237.

West Georgia Living is a bi-monthly publication of the Newspapers of West Georgia.

ing, which has been a major part of west Georgia culture for nearly two centuries.

Richard Grant takes us back into the mists of time to tell the story of ancient people who lived in our region centuries before Europeans arrived. And Arthia Nixon tells us how old buildings are being revived for new purposes across west Georgia.

CINEMA BOOKS

58

A combination of art, science and welding?

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The perfect wine parings for that special dinner

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The story behind those iconic Southern plants

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When pop culture evolves into history

54

The pit bull isn't a beast to everyone

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What is history, anyway, but a

collection of stories?

S

tudents in school, or people in general, have a tendency to roll their eyes and sigh heavily whenever they hear the word “history.” To them, the word takes them back in time to classrooms, in which unimaginably dull teachers tried to drill into their skulls the dates of events from an unrelatable past.

That conflict is notoriously difficult to find interesting, but it’s a little bit more digestible when you build a ripping good yarn around it. Shakespeare gave it a go with a series of historical plays that focused on the melodrama. Now, “Game of Thrones” is doing the same by throwing in some dragons and zombies.

Yet these same people, will get caught up in a TV drama and have no idea they are watching – and possibly learning – history.

Earlier this year, the PBS drama “Victoria” got a lot of non-history folk interested in the doings of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, even though these TV viewers had likely never knew about the internecine squabbles of European royalty that filled Victoria’s life.

The fact is, all history is about the things that people did. Some of the people were cretins who did stupid things, or cruel things. Some other people were kind people who did great things. Other people did great things, but left no names behind to take credit.

That was history, sort of. Which is to say, it was a dramatized piece of history in the same way the TV series “Reign” is a sort-of history of Mary, Queen of Scots. People watch these drama-heavy shows, I think, because it makes history more palatable, more tolerable.

Schoolteachers, perhaps, don’t always do a good job with history because they focus more on the facts, and less on the stories.

But to me, “history” just can’t be separated from “story” – I mean, s-t-o-r-y is part of the word “history,” amirite?

Throughout time, great storytellers have borrowed from historical events to tell their stories. Anyone out there a fan of “Game of Thrones?” It just happens that George R.R. Martin, who wrote the books that became the epic HBO miniseries, was inspired by the “Wars of the Roses,” the series of 15th century conflicts between two warring factions over the English throne.

8 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

The point of studying history is to see how what those people did long ago shaped the life we lead today. The turning points of our past created our present.

History is, if anything, a series of opportunities taken or not taken; like a long road, with many side paths. Along the course of history, the people who lived might have chosen any of an infinite number of routes, but the routes they did choose led us to where we all live today.

Exploring these “what ifs” is one of the great games we can play. What if Lee had defeated Grant? What if Hitler had won? One popular TV series, “The Man in the High Castle” games out that very scenario.

The people who made these choices were, in every practical respect, just like you or I. They might have had more money, or been more politically connected – being born a

KEN DENNEY

king helps, I suppose, in shaping history – but they were all just human beings, like us, shaped by the same emotions, and faced with the same choices.

You might think that the great people of the past did what they did because they wanted to change history. Not true. Most of the things people did were for the basest of human reasons, and only sometimes for altruistic ones. Those explorers who discovered the new world did so to enrich themselves and their countries. Those who won freedom from tyrants often did so to put themselves in power.

No great act of history was ever won purely, but that is no reason to deny the fact that they were great. America won her freedom from England but simultaneously, and for a long time, denied freedom to all its new citizens. But the arc of history, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, bends toward justice, and time, after all, is on history’s side.

If you personally feel remote from history, think otherwise. When you tell your coworkers about that thing you did last weekend, you are both sharing a story and a slice of your personal history. When you and your friends watch a ball game, or argue about current events, you are participants in history that is yet to be told.

The people we have become are the result of the choices we have made, the endless branches of opportunities taken, or those forgotten. Our personal history could be different as a result of not taking a certain path, or it might have been the same. History is unknowable to the present. But it is the one thing that connects us all to the future. WGL

Know your

5

Blood pressure Cholesterol Blood sugar BMI Weight

Know Your 5 Key Numbers for Health

Here is a quick guide to your key health numbers:

Whether you realize it or not, numbers play a huge part in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.

1. Know Your Blood Pressure

There are numbers we all have to keep up with, from the PIN for our bank account to our best friend’s phone number. But there are other key numbers that you need to know, as they can help reduce your risk of developing heart disease and other serious illnesses.

By keeping up with your five key health indicators — blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, body mass index (BMI) and weight — you can improve your health and even control or prevent diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.

Amy Eubanks, MD

“When visiting your healthcare provider, ask to be screened for these five key health indicators,” said Amy Eubanks, MD, FACP, a board-certified internal medicine physician with Tanner Internal Medicine of Bremen. “Once you find out what your numbers are, talk to your healthcare provider about developing a plan to help manage or improve them.”

Following a healthy lifestyle — eating healthier, getting more physical activity and quitting tobacco — can help you turn bad numbers around. Even small changes can make a big difference.

Tanner Health System’s Get Healthy, Live Well offers several evidence-based wellness programs that can help you keep track of your numbers. To find and register for classes in Carroll, Haralson and Heard counties, visit www.GetHealthyLiveWell.org or call 770.214.CARE (2273).

High blood pressure is called “the silent killer” for a good reason: You can have it and not even know it. High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, so if you don’t have your blood pressure checked regularly, the first sign of high blood pressure could come in the form of a heart attack, a stroke, heart failure or kidney failure. A normal blood pressure range consists of a top number (systolic pressure) of 120 or lower or a bottom number (diastolic pressure) of 80 or lower.

2. Know Your Cholesterol Your body naturally creates a small amount of cholesterol, which is all you need. But your cholesterol can climb to unhealthy levels because it’s also found in many of the foods you eat, which can put you at risk for heart disease. For a well-rounded picture of your cholesterol, you should know your LDL (lower is better), HDL (higher is better) and triglycerides. Having a HDL level of greater than 60 mg/dl, a LDL level of less than 125 mg/dl and a triglycerides level of less than 150 is considered low risk.

3. Know Your Blood Sugar A screening blood sugar test is generally used by primary care providers to determine whether your blood sugar is too high. Often, adults with elevated blood sugar don’t experience obvious symptoms of diabetes or prediabetes. Detecting and treating type 2 diabetes early is important to prevent complications of diabetes. A normal blood sugar level is between 70-99 mg/dl when fasting.

4. Know Your BMI Although it is not a perfect measure or the one that your doctor may use, BMI gives a fairly accurate assessment of how much of your body is composed of fat. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. A BMI of 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 or greater is considered obese.

5. Know Your Weight According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 68 percent of U.S. adults older than 20 are either overweight or obese. Extra weight is a concern because it may cause new health issues or worsen existing health problems. Maintaining a healthy weight is especially important if you have or have had heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, certain types of cancer, high total cholesterol or arthritis of the back and knees.

Get Healthy, Live Well is led by Tanner Health System and funded in part by a Partnerships to Improve Community Health (PICH) grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 9

CINEMA

O.J. Simpson shows jurors his gloved hands during his 1995 trial for murder. Photo by the Los Angeles Times

O.J. Simpson: When pop c I

t’s a strange feeling to hit your mid-30s and realize that those cultural moments you still think of as current events are now technically considered history. In my job as a college English teacher, it’s starting to happen with shocking frequency. I suppose that tends to happen when you talk to teenagers on a daily basis.

I noticed it for the first time a few years back, when I brought up 9/11 during a class discussion, only to have my students remind me they were too young when that horrific day occurred to fully understand the ramifications. Now I have students who were 10 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

toddlers and don’t remember it at all. Soon, I’ll be teaching freshmen who weren’t even alive in 2001.

The most recent pop culture phenomenon that made me contemplate the passage of time was last year’s competing O.J. Simpson projects: ESPN’s documentary “O.J.: Made in America” and FX’s miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”

O.J. Simpson, once a football player who

JOSH SEWELL

became a minor celebrity, was put on trial for murder in the death of his former wife and another man. When the verdict acquitting Simpson was announced in October 1995, I was a high school freshman; I vividly remember sitting in my performing arts class and watching it unfold live on television.

I also remember the year-long media circus surrounding the trial, in which troubling aspects of fame, race and class took center stage. They served as shiny objects that distracted Americans (most of whom viewed the trial as a combination of freak show and

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. recreates the courtroom scene in “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” 20th Century Fox Television.

culture evolves into history soap opera) from the tragedy at the heart of the case: the brutal murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

But the trial’s ramifications didn’t stop there.

It served as ground zero for two decades of cultural transformation, reshaping the media landscape, changing the motives of cable news; and launching reality television as a dominant force – arguably ushering our current president into the White House. It might be the most striking example of pop culture evolving into history since 1964, when The Beatles made their American debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Viewers certainly feel that historical weight in Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America,” which won the Oscar for Best Documentary back in February. The eight-hour epic doesn’t just cover the trial; instead, it’s a masterpiece of journalistic storytelling that spans decades.

The filmmaker takes his time laying the groundwork that explains Simpson’s defense team’s shrewd decision to shift the jury’s focus to racism. An odd choice at first, considering the former football hero spent most of the 1960s distancing himself from the Civil Rights Movement and

making statements like, “I’m not black. I’m O.J.” In doing so, his lawyers capitalized on generations of injustice within the Los Angeles Police Department and the city as a whole.

The documentary’s scope is astonishing. It doesn’t get to the infamous murders until Part Three, but it never feels like Edelman is spinning his wheels. There’s far too much story for that, and he tells it in skilled, compelling fashion.

While it’s initially puzzling that the director spends so much time focusing on May/June 2017 West Georgia Living 11

seemingly unrelated aspects of racism in America, once all the pieces click into place, you realize how brilliantly crafted this sprawling narrative has been from the start. Through astonishing archival footage and insightful interviews with key characters in the Simpson story, Edelman reminds viewers that Simpson used to be a revered public figure – not the caricature he is today, an artifact of the hoopla surrounding the trial.

The result of this gradually unfolding narrative structure is such, that when we learn the details of his disturbing marriage to Nicole – particularly the years of domestic abuse she endured – it almost comes as a shock. After that, the momentum picks up with parts Three and Four, which take viewers through the murder investigation and the trial, and posits that generations of racist police officers and politicians in Los Angeles ultimately paved the way for the logicdefying innocent verdict.

Finally, Part 5 focuses on two decades worth of aftermath, including the lesspublicized civil trial that found Simpson “liable” in the deaths of Nicole and Ron. Everything wraps up with a baffling epilogue chronicling the fallen hero’s later years in Miami, surrounding himself with yes-men and fame junkies, and eventually receiving a length prison sentence for his role in a stupid memorabilia robbery in Las Vegas.

“O.J.: Made in America” is in equal parts infuriating, horrifying and tragic. Edelman makes it abundantly clear that he believes Simpson is guilty (interviews with his former manager and an old cop friend are particularly damning) and that the brutal

murders of two people were overshadowed by grandstanding lawyers and a news media more interested in entertaining viewers than informing them.

Strangely enough, four months before Edelman’s film aired, another O.J. project premiered on FX. “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” is a 10-part miniseries that has different narrative intentions but manages to be equally compelling and, judging by the slew of Emmys it won in September, just as acclaimed. Surprisingly, the two works complement each other well, working together to paint a bigger picture than either can do on its own.

Created by Hollywood screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the drama focuses solely on the trial and how it affects the lives of the key figures. The series somehow manages to shed new light on a spectacle that most people thought had been covered from every angle. That includes the inevitable outcome, from which the story manages to wring huge drama by forcing viewers to anticipate the “not guilty” verdict as if they’re the only ones who see a car crash coming.

The narrative also shapes prominent players in ways you might not expect.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) and defense attorney Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer) are painted as flawed, tragic heroes. There’s even a mostly successful attempt to portray Simpson’s lawyer Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) as a real person, instead of the cartoon character that pop culture eventually turned him into.

More interesting are the roles that don’t

quite work but still contribute interesting elements to the story. Cuba Gooding Jr. is profoundly miscast as Simpson – he’s far shorter and less muscular, and there’s no bass in his voice whatsoever. But that ends up working in the film’s favor, because it reflects how the sports legend becomes smaller in the public eye as the trial progresses. Not to mention how repugnantly he’s viewed after the verdict.

John Travolta’s work as defense attorney Robert Shapiro follows a similar path. His performance is far campier than everyone else in the cast (they play it mostly straight), but that starts to make sense later in the season as he alienates the rest of the legal team and becomes an outcast from the group he cultivated.

Each episode charts an intriguing path, devoting its attention to a different player in what became known as the “Trial of the Century” – there’s even an hour devoted to the jury, which begins to buckle under the stress of being sequestered for several months. It might be the most fascinating and darkly hilarious episode of the season.

For those who remember the real trial, I understand the inclination to avoid diving into that never-ending train wreck again. But both these extraordinary projects prove there’s still plenty of drama and intrigue left to explore in a bizarre situation where the paths of fame, racism and the collapse of the media industry all intersected in a toxic and devastating manner. WGL E-mail: joshsewell81@gmail.com Twitter: @IAmJoshSewell Facebook: facebook.com/josh8199

CARROLLTON/BREMEN 770.214.2800 VILLA RICA 770.456.3786

12 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

When a

STAR fell on west Georgia

100 years after she was born, Susan Hayward still has a place in local hearts

KEN DENNEY

Susan Hayward and her husband Eaton Chalkley on their farm in Carrollton, June 1962. Photo courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, Kenneth Rogers Photographs collection.

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 13

S

he came into the world, one of her sons says,

“with her fists up.” And during her life, Susan Hayward fought her way from Brooklyn to Hollywood; from nowhere, to the top of a

profession made of dreams.

In the century since her birth, Hayward has started to fade from the public consciousness – but not everywhere. Fans still make the pilgrimage to her gravesite at Our Lady of Perpetual Help outside Carrollton, to see the unlikely place where a Tinsel Town goddess made her onetime home and her final resting place. There are plenty of people around west Georgia, too, who remember the days when she used to rattle downtown in a pickup truck, running a farm errand with her flaming red hair bound in a kerchief.

But the fans who come here find nothing but a stone marker; and local memories, 14 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

Susan Hayward photograph courtesy of her son, Greg Barker

fond as they are, are selected moments from a complex life. She was a woman, after all, who inhabited many roles; wife, mother, friend, actress.

At the edge of her 100th birthday, she now endures as a legend.

Foolish Heart.”

Susan Hayward with Eaton Chalkley in Carrollton. Photo courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, Bill Wilson Photographs collection.

In the spring and summer of 1950, Hayward traveled to Georgia to film “I’ll Climb the Highest Mountain,” a movie based on a novel about a circuitriding minister written by Georgia author Corra Harris. This put her into the orbit of a man named Harvey Hester, a sports team owner and restauranteur living in Atlanta.

The real person who inhabited that legend, it turns out, is hard to find.

A rising star According to her official biography, Edythe Marrenner was born June 30, 1917. There’s some question about that, however and not even her children are certain. But she was certainly born in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children.

She became a photographer’s model, and a picture of her in the Saturday Evening Post caught the attention of producer David O. Selznick, who then was casting the role of “Scarlett” in his production of “Gone With The Wind”. She did two screen tests for Selznick in December 1937, but wound up losing out on a role many other actresses aspired to win.

Yet she stayed in Hollywood, taking a succession of bit parts, and while under contract with Warner Brothers, Edythe got a new name: Susan Hayward. She finally found a starring role opposite Gary Cooper in the 1939 film “Beau Geste”. That opened the door to more substantial roles in which her talents were put to the test. Struggling to lose her Brooklyn accent, she lost none of the flint that had propelled her thus far, and that toughness and assertive personality resonated with the studios.

Many celebrities dined at Hester’s restaurant, called “Aunt Fanny’s Cabin,” a type of “theme restaurant” that doesn’t exist today. It perpetuated a certain view of the South, based on a “Gone With the Wind” fantasy that unfortunately included stereotypical images of AfricanAmericans. But in the Jim Crow era, the restaurant was popular, and Hester was soon counting Hayward as among his many celebrity friends.

During the war years, Hayward worked continuously. And although her films received mixed success, her reputation as an A-list star began to grow. In 1944, she had met Jess Barker, an actor whom she later married. The couple had two children: fraternal twin boys born seven minutes apart, named Greg and Tim. Unfortunately, it was a rocky marriage that ended in divorce, and a lengthy court battle briefy tarnished Hayward’s career.

But in 1947, she received the first of what would eventually be five Academy Award nominations for the film “Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman.” In 1949, she was nominated for the Best Actress award for “My

It was through Hester that Hayward would be brought into contact with the man who would be her second husband, and who would introduce Hayward to his adopted hometown of Carrollton.

Eaton Chalkley If you read biographies of Susan Hayward, you will find Eaton Chalkley mentioned only in passing, with no other detail than he was a “Carrollton businessman.”

But that isn’t true; Chalkley wasn’t from Carrollton. He was born in 1909 in Washington, D.C., to well-to-do parents, in conWest Georgia Living May/June 2017 15

trast to Hayward’s background.

And he wasn’t just a businessman; he was an attorney who had also been an FBI agent and, during World War II, had worked with the OSS. Chalkley had come to Carrollton in 1954 on legal business for General Motors. During that visit, he noticed that the Chevrolet dealership, then located on Newnan Street, was for sale and decided to buy it.

From all accounts, Chalkley loved Carrollton. So much so that he bought a house in the Sunset Hills Country Club and moved in. Pretty soon his sister, Margaret, or “Peg,” and her husband, Matthew Irwin, took a neighboring house.

pack his bags because “we’re going to Georgia.”

Tim, who now lives in California, said that Hayward had described an idyllic life in which they would all live together as a family on a farm, a promise he greeted with skepticism.

When the boys arrived, Chalkley and Hayward had left the Sunset Hills house, and begun to build a home on an 18-acre lake off Old Center Point Road, between Carrollton and Temple. The kids stayed at a house that is still on the property that they called the “red house,” while their mother and new step-father lived at a cabin by the lake as a new main house was being built.

Chalkley had grown up with a man named Vincent Flaherty, who, like Harvey Hester, was in contact with Hollywood celebrities. Flaherty was a sports columnist and screenwriter. He was also brother to Pat Flaherty, a minor motion picture star. After Vincent moved to Los Angeles in 1945, he began to consider numerous movie stars as his friends, including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

Hayward and Chalkley were married in Phoenix, Ariz., on Feb. 8, 1957. And it was after that that Carrollton became part of her life, and that of her two children.

Moving to Georgia That year, Greg and Tim Barker, now 12, were at a boarding school in Palos Verdes, California. Greg recalled that he got a phone call from his mom announcing that she was married – something which was a surprise to him – and instructing him to 16 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

Although they enjoyed going to school in Carrollton, it was something of a shock when they were told by their mother and Chalkley that they had been enrolled in yet another boarding school: what is now known as Woodward Academy, but in those days had the more foreboding name of Georgia Military Academy.

Life in Carrollton

He and Susan Hayward crossed paths at a Hollywood Christmas party in 1955. The party was hosted by Flaherty, and Hester was Hayward’s escort to the event.

“When Mom saw Eaton she said, ‘I’m going to marry him.’ I mean, it was just that quick.”

Hayward and Chalkley, who later moved his car dealership to the Bremen Highway, were often away and the Barkers would stay at the Denney house, or at the home of one of their other friends’ families, all of whom welcomed them into their homes with a kindness both remember today, a half century after the fact.

Greg had thought they would be starting at the Academy the next fall, but both boys quickly discovered that they would be moving there immediately after Christmas, 1959. “So, I went midterm to Georgia Military Academy,” he said. “They dropped us off there and went on about their lives.”

Chalkley often visited him in Los Angeles and, between the two Flaherty brothers, he met and rubbed shoulders with many of Hollywood’s elite. On these trips, he was never averse to meeting actresses. With his movie-star good looks, his dashing past and the fact he was recently divorced, he was an attractive catch for any of them.

Greg Barker, who now lives in Alabama, has a succinct account of the meeting:

ton High School, which then was located on South White Street. And they found themselves with good friends who had no connection to Hollywood and the life they left behind. Both say they were very close to the family of Dr. Roy Denney and his wife Evelyn, whose children – especially Larry and Roy Jr. – were close in age.

Ricky Stilley Hayward's Academy Award Greg and Tim had grown up with the children of celebrities, and now found themselves in what is even today a rural part of a rural state. While Greg tried to “roll with the flow” of his new family situation, he notes that Chalkley “didn’t get along with my brother, and my brother didn’t get along with him.”

But whatever their home life was like, there was at least one positive aspect: living in Carrollton itself.

“Getting out of California was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Greg said.

For the first time in their lives the brothers attended public school, specifically Carroll-

There are many people still living in west Georgia who tell fond stories of Susan Hayward living like “an ordinary person” in Carrollton. Many in Carrollton considered her a friends, and she threw herself into many local affairs. She seemed to enjoy the contrast between her life in west Georgia and Hollywood, and when a Hollywood reporter asked her in 1958 about why she preferred Carrollton over Los Angeles, she said: “It’s a great place. No telephones ringing all day long, no big deals being made, no smog! People down there really know how to live – and relax.”

“She loved everybody she met there, because they were so genuine,” said Greg Barker. “When she got back to Georgia she was treated so nicely by everyone in Carrollton. She enjoyed it. She enjoyed not putting on makeup to go to the A&P. That was a big deal. And nobody bothered her.

Out in California, when someone sees a star people run up to them and want their autograph, like a paparazzi, that sort of thing. It was just a real calming effect when

she got to Carrollton. She enjoyed the farm life, which she never had.”

to get into television. She filmed a couple of pilots – but before any of these projects could come to fruition, she became ill.

Tim Barker, on the other hand, said that for much of her life, his mother had few close friends, and while in Carrollton her social circle consisted mostly of Chalkley’s friends or business associates. Even in Hollywood, he said, Hayward went to some parties, but only hosted a few.

Some small-town ways eluded her. A neighbor’s family recalled they once offered her a pecan pie, which Hayward thought had to be cooked. And when she once came to the old Colonial grocery store in Carrollton, she tried to pay with an out-of-town check, something most merchants wouldn’t have accepted if she had not been who she was.

There is a story that the cancer that eventually claimed her life was due to a movie she filmed in 1955, called “The Conquerer.” Many of the people associated with that film, much of which was shot near atomic bomb testing grounds in Utah, also succumbed to cancer, including her friend John Wayne and Agnes Moorehead. But the Barker brothers point out that Hayward, like Wayne and Moorehead, were heavy smokers.

Susan Hayward gives some direction to a tractor operator at her farm, Chal-Mar, located on Old Center Point Road in Carroll County. Photo courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center, Bill Wilson Photographs collection.

These little eccentricities, and her local charitable work, won her affection in Carrollton and everyone tolerated (sometimes with bemusement) her efforts to blend in.

Hollywood did not entirely disappear from Susan Hayward’s life. She had commitments for at least six more films, and in 1957 she returned to Los Angeles to begin filming “I Want to Live,” a movie based on the life of convicted murderer Barbara Graham. On screen, Hayward put on a powerful performance, including a painfully realistic scene recreating Graham’s 1955 execution in the gas chamber.

Released in 1958, the film did well at the box office, and she captured her fifth nomination for Best Actress. She captured the Oscar™ the next April, signaling her arrival at the height of the acting profession.

When she returned home to Carrollton after the award ceremony, the state and the city made a big fuss over her – and then went right back to leaving her alone.

The last years As time went by, the Chalkleys began dividing their time between Carrollton and a new home in Fort Lauderdale. Their life went on as normal, or at least as normal as possible.

That’s the way things went for nine years.

In 1966, Hayward was in Rome, Italy, on the set of a movie called “The Honey Pot”.

Chalkley was at the Fort Lauderdale house when he became ill from hepatitis, a condition that Greg Barker said he developed during a blood transfusion from years before.

“He didn’t want her to know how sick he was,” said Barker. “So I guess he just didn’t let her know, and when she got back, she got mad at everybody for not letting her know he was that sick.”

Released from the hospital, Chalkley was at the Florida house when he died on Jan. 9, 1966. He was 57 years old.

Chalkley was buried on the grounds of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. A part of their farm, Chal-Mar, had been given to the church to help it relocate there. Afterwards, Susan held a wake at the farm for her close friends, including many people from Carrollton. And then she left west Georgia, never to return in her lifetime.

“I think she was lost there for a little while,” said Barker, who by that time was at Auburn and busy with his own life. Other accounts say she was stricken with grief. But, Barker said, she “had to occupy her time,” so, living in Fort Lauderdale, she got interested in sport fishing. She became quite good at it too, competing in tournaments.

Slowly, she returned to acting and hoped

Whatever the ultimate source of her illness, she did not go quietly. She sought treatment at Emory University and other places, and soon exhausted her insurance coverage. She continued to fight the disease with private treatments, a costly process and both her sons were called out to California to help deal with her financial affairs. Tim said that his mother, then seriously ill, became furious when she was told that he had been granted a conservatorship over her finances.

In 1974 she presented the Best Actress award at the Oscar™ ceremony, but she was so ill she had to be helped to the dais and held up by co-presenter Charlton Heston.

Less than a year later she was dead. She was 57; the same age Chalkley had been.

In the last months of her life, she had requested to be buried beside Chalkley in Carrollton, and so she was brought here and laid to rest at the Our Lady church on March 16, 1975.

Susan Hayward, the Actress Occasionally, someone will visit the gravesite and leave a note, thanking Susan Hayward for her movie performances and extolling her talents. The centennial of her birth seems an appropriate time to assess her achievements as an actor.

Her biographers, Robert LaGuardia and Gene Acerci, wrote in 1986 that one scene – that execution scene in “I Want to Live” – describes that talent at the peak of develWest Georgia Living May/June 2017 17

Greg Barker

Both Tim and Greg Barker seem to have had a remote relationship to their mother, although both are very proud of her achievements. This may be expected, since the force of Hayward’s personality could easily have overshadowed their own. Greg went on to become a successful veterinarian; Tim became a publicist and promoter, but both seek lives that do not invite comparisons to Hayward.

Hayward, Tim Barker said, could not abide being told she could not do something. She would defy expectations and prove naysayers wrong, and sometimes she would suffer as a result.

opment. Hayward, they wrote, “was able to rid herself of mannerisms, deleting all those extraneous body movements that had become her trademarks.” Instead, she pared down her movements: a defiant glance, a slow building of emotions, minimal movements during the most terrifying scenes.

“She was able to display the most suspenseful sort of torment without inducing observers to wonder at the actress behind the emoting; a rare creative objectivity that audiences had never seen in her before.”

In other words, Hayward had so enveloped the role of her character, that the person playing that role was completely masked.

It was, in essence, what Susan became herself – a person who remained private, unknowable, even to people who thought they knew her; even to those who should have known her best.

Her last acting challenge was to transition into television, a risky move for an established Oscar™ winner, but one of the few acting jobs then open for women of her age. Tim Barker recalled going to visit his mother on a soundstage where she was making a made-for-TV movie, only to find her concealed deep in the back “in full meltdown mode.”

“She said, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this, it’s too fast, It’s too fast, it’s not like making a movie”. She was referring to the pace of the television production. Movie scenes might be done in 50 takes or more, giving an actor the chance to wring out their best performance. No such luxury was afforded in television, and Barker said he had never seen his mother like that.

••• And perhaps no one else had, either. Those who knew Susan Hayward in Carrollton, or those fans who treasure her movies, may have only seen facets of her personality. To them, she will always be a fiesty, sassy redhead.

Tim Barker Who Susan Hayward really was remains elusive, despite all the biographies about her. Her acting skills cannot be cataloged from the films she made; her soul cannot be reconstructed from all the fond stories told today by Carrollton friends.

This is not a surprise, since legends are made by other people; not by the legends themselves.

Yet it seems she made a statement when she chose this area as her final resting place.

Cynics might say that the farmer’s life with Eaton Chalkley was yet another fiction, but if so, it was one in which she evidently believed. Of all the different roles that she ever played, it was the one that she chose, at last, to be remembered by. WGL

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18 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

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The Evolution of Campus

Style From bellbottoms to skinny jeans, UWG students have followed the trends of fashion STORY BY TAYLOR BOLTZ PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

UWG student Amber Womack dresses in typical college fashion of the 1960s and the 2010s.

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 19

Abbie Driver wears “athleisure,” or black leggings with a graphic tee, sneakers and a flannel button up in plaid.

Present-day UWG students Angel Bullington (left) and Amber Womack pose for a selfie. Angel wears a black and white skirt with a white tank, cream cardigan, opaque tights and black boots. She also wears a necklace with large silver beads.

Amber wears jeans with sneakers, a pink tee and army green jacket.

T

he University of West Georgia has gone through many changes since its beginning in 1906 as the Fourth District Agricultural and Mechanical School – and so have the thousands of students who have passed through.

Changes in fashion, that is.

Those familiar with current college students, or who have some in their family, know the kinds of outfits seen on campus: work out wear; college T-shirts (usually given free at oncampus events); Greek life cotton tees; jeans with relatively casual tops; and sometimes even dressy clothes, depending on the occasion.

But what was clothing like for students in the 1920s? In the 80s?

Recently, the University library digitized yearbooks, ranging in dates from 1923 to 1981.

Looking through those yearbook photos, anyone can see the drastic changes in student fashion over the decades; trends that reflect how society itself has changed, from uniformity 20 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

West Georgia College students gather together in 1938 for a “Chieftain” yearbook photo. toward a gradual expression of individuality.

Of course, like any school picture day, everyone turns out in their very best clothing. In the black and white photos from 1939 forward, it seems every girl was in pearls. In 1928, 1940, and 1946, all the girls in the class matched.

In 1938, college men favored suits, while women wore printed dresses.

For 1928, it was dark jackets and dark skirts with white blouses; the class of 1940 chose black dresses. In 1946, senior girls wore white dresses and freshman girls wore dark dresses with white collars. Men always dressed in their very best suit, always with a tie. Formal pictures were just that: formal.

has a sweater on over his dress shirt, with the dress shirt collar peaking over the sweater.

One wears a sport coat.

The girl on the other hand wears a dress with a cinched waist and buttons up the front. She wears what seems to be simple sneakers.

Women had just started to enter the world as beings with whom to be reckoned. Voting rights were relatively recent (Georgia women got the right to vote in 1922), and though the world began to venture into a new age, clothing still tried to keep women where society thought they should be: domestic and refined.

Both men and women wore clothing that kept them looking their finest, aiming to make it the best and only impression needed to enter their adult lives.

If you want to see what college kids wore every day to class, you’d have to look at candid, not posed shots. Those photos are what really speak to the atmosphere of the college at the time.

The 1940s welcomed shorter skirts for women, but still featured basic patterns, dark colors, and sweaters or blouses. Men kept their trousers and sweaters with dress shirts.

This was the time of World War II, where many men were drafted and women were experiencing more freedom and autonomy because they were needed for the war effort at home.

But the yearbooks from the 1920s to the mid1930s don’t feature any candid shots of the student body. This seems quite intriguing, begging the question as to why this would be the case. Most likely, it was a result of the rigid and formal nature of colleges at the time, where institutions tried to maintain control over what the students did in their free time.

This led to less and less public “fun.”

This mold-breaking continued through the yearbooks of the 1950s, when women started to wear a version of neckties, much shorter than the men’s version, for themselves, usually in dark colors. This entrance into the masculine zone makes a subtle statement of early feminism; women demonstrating that they could wear the same accessories as men brought gender equality to the next level.

However, just as today, students most likely found their way around the rules, allowing themselves to have the “full college experience”. Just not in a way that the yearbook might explore, and so future generations would know.

However, the 60s saw a drastic shift in styles: a more relaxed look, in which women started to wear more short sleeve button-ups and

This 1938 college student wears a light suit; his companion wears a printed skirt.

In the 30s, girls wore long dresses with neutral colors and simple patterns, hinting at a time of economic turmoil, in which styles were less extravagant and understated: long skirts, both pencil and A-Line, in dark colors or plaid patterns with light colored blouses. Men wore trousers with jackets and ties or sweaters tucked in with button up shirts.

These sweaters mimicked the patterns and colors of women’s skirts, meaning they featured plaid or dark colors.

A picture of the student body officers in 1939 depicts the clothing style of the entire decade: two boys and a girl all in what might be read as brown or grey. One of the boys wears black pants, the other is in khaki. Dress shoes and shirts worn by both, but the one in black pants

Male and female college students swapped clothes for this 1938 portrait.

Leather jackets were worn by college men in 1938. more casual looking shirts with stripes with more varying patterns. As the Civil Rights movement merged with the Women’s Liberation movement, and the overall freer lifestyles of the late 1960s, the Age of Aquarius was manifested by a relaxed look that sharply contrasted with the button-down conformity of the previous decade.

The ubiquity of women wearing pants also makes this decade stick out. Women’s jeans, or dungarees, made life much easier for women, who now were free to express themselves as builders of careers, not just makers of homes.

The color photographs of the 1960s yearbooks show that some women still wore floral print shirts; skirts of a more flowing nature and variety of cuts; and jackets with black or dark colored capri pants. These fashions continued to usher a new era for college women. Even with these new options, especially shorts (which seem to have made it to the college campus in 1967), women still wore mostly dresses and plain patterns, trying to keep with the traditional tones of campus – at least some of the time.

The 70s turned everything up a notch. The Vietnam War, heavy metal rock music, and the continued fight for equality, all mixed with freer lifestyles reflected in clothing styles that were far more eclectic than in previous decades.

Pants for men became more adventurous, ranging from short shorts to wide bellbottoms featuring stripes and patterns in a youthful rebellion against the staid styles of the past.

Shirts were no longer button ups; instead simple cotton tees demonstrated a desire for West Georgia Living May/June 2017 21

a more relaxed way of life. Women’s shirts also shifted to tie-dye patterns; turtlenecks in lavender or cerulean, stripes and floral, also continuing the revolution from historical clothing choices. The wild look continued into 1981, where the final yearbook features photos of paisley, geometric shapes, and designs, even in the formal photos.

People say that yearbooks are paper time capsules. Yet some forget these books exist, and many current students throw them away after a few years.

However, the digitized collection that has made its way into the archive.org website has helped track the student body over the course of 60 years, offering a unique glimpse into what life might have been like during those years.

A West Georgia student sports and checked jacket and an oversized joke cigar for this 1938 photo.

Styles change with the times, and so each piece of fabric hinges on history; as the tiniest of pebbles can make the largest waves. The fashions of today’s college students reflect trends that are barely glimpsed now, and which in the future will be as antiquated as those in old yearbooks.

Students dress to be fashionable among their peers, but the styles and choices they exhibit today will help shape future generations. WGL

A leather jacket and skirt creates a unique look for this 1938 student.

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Whether you’re a current UWG undergraduate or graduate, or returning home to Carrollton from another university for the season, join us for an unforgettable summer experience!

Earn credits over the summer break by signing up for any of our summer sessions. Enrolling over the summer can boost your GPA, allow you to graduate early, or let you focus on that tough class without distractions.

Get started by visiting westga.edu/summer. June and July session courses are available in Carrollton, Newnan and online.

The Priority Application deadline is May 15th.

Go West. It changes everything.

22 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

USS Atlanta steams at high speed circa November 1941. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

USS

ATLANTA

The GHOSTat 71 fathoms “It was a barroom brawl after someone had shot all the lights out” – survivor of the sinking of the USS Atlanta

W

hat’s left of her lies in the deep dark, tilted on her left side. And while any sunken ship is called a wreck, this one certainly is; blasted from stem to stern by shells, punctured and broken, she is an almost unrecognizable hulk of broken and twisted steel.

This is the USS Atlanta, lying 426 feet below the surface of the water, not far from the island of Guadalcanal, which she – and the 157 men still aboard – gave their lives defending on November 12, 1942. Caught between friendly and enemy fire as she drifted helplessly into the melee of a horrific nighttime surface battle, she was so

KEN DENNEY West Georgia Living May/June 2017 23

fearfully wounded that her captain was forced to scuttle her.

Today, 75 years after the Battle of Guadalcanal, the ship lies among many others scattered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, at a place nicknamed “Iron Bottom Sound” for the 200 vessels, American and Japanese, resting there. The Solomon Islands, once the scene of one of the most vicious fights during the Pacific War, is now a peaceful nation, seldom visited by western tourists.

“Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell christened the ship on Christmas Eve, 1941.

The resting place of Atlanta was discovered in 1992 by Dr. Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the wreck of the Titantic. A few ambitious and very well equipped divers have since explored the wreck, but none more thoroughly than a crew who visited the site in the spring of 2011, the first to provide a complete photographic record of the scene.

A documentary of that expedition is currently streaming on Netflix. “Return to the USS Atlanta: Defender of Guadalcanal” tells the story of the ship, the battle, and the heroism of terribly young men caught up in the death and destruction of World War II.

The third of her name The Atlanta was christened on Christmas Eve, 1941, by Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With the Wind.” It was only two weeks and three days after the air forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy struck the United States’ Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The nation, which had struggled not to become entangled in the European War, now found itself at war in the Pacific.

As the new ship was being fitted out and undergoing sea trials, men rushed to recruiting offices to sign up and fight. SailUSS Atlanta at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in May 1942. Photo from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

24 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

ors from Georgia were recruited to join the Atlanta, and many did.

The Atlanta was the first of a new class of warship, an innovative type of vessel that was essentially a hybrid between a destroyer and a light cruiser. She was designed to provide anti-aircraft protection for naval task groups, which were a collection of vessels centered around one or more aircraft carriers. Their job was to patrol the flanks of those floating air bases and ward off any attacks that might be launched against the carriers.

It was not the first ship to carry the name.

The first was a casemated ironclad that was launched in 1861, converted from a Scottish-built sailing ship called the Fingal. She served the Confederate Navy until 1863, when she ran aground and was captured by two Union gunships. Federal forces refloated her and re-christened her with the same name, and thereafter she served the Union Navy.

A second USS Atlanta was launched in the peacetime year of 1884 and served the Navy in various capacities until 1912.

The Atlanta built in 1941 had the hull symbol of CL-51. She was 541 feet long and

53 feet wide at the beam. Powered by two geared turbine engines, she could cruise at 37 miles per hour and carried 673 officers and enlisted personnel.

She was armed like a destroyer, with 16 five-inch guns, a total of 20 anti-aircraft guns as well as torpedo tubes. She was a formidable fighter, but she was lightly armored and so would be vulnerable in a heavy battle.

In May, 1942, she was assigned to Task Force 16, formed around the carriers Enterprise and Hornet, and participated in the Battle of Midway, a major turning point in the Pacific War, in which four Japanese carriers were sunk.

Japanese forces were thereafter crippled in the South Pacific, but not defeated. And they set their sights on the Solomon Islands as a new base of operations to halt the advance of American sea power.

The Battles for Guadalcanal Unlike the land battles of Europe, the Pacific War was fought over control of the thousands of islands scattered over the ocean.

The islands provided places where men and aircraft could be based, including longrange bombers that could not be launched from carriers.

The Solomon Islands was a strategic position for the Japanese. An airbase there would allow them to control the sea lanes between America and Australia, disrupting the supply line for the allies throughout the Pacific.

In June, 1942, Japanese troops arrived on Guadalcanal to build an air base. Two months later, American Marines landed there to take it away from them, setting in motion a six-month campaign by U.S. forces to regain control of this strategic position in what was one of bloodiest land battles of

the entire war.

By November, the Japanese were determined to reinforce their dwindling troops on the island, now mostly controlled by the Americans. On the 12th, the Navy learned that an enemy surface force consisting of two battleships, one cruiser and six destroyers were headed to Guadalcanal, hoping to shell the air base that U.S. forces had captured with so much sacrifice.

The Atlanta and several other ships, including the USS San Francisco, sailed out to meet and repel the Japanese force.

It was early in the morning of Nov. 13 when the two enemies came upon each other in the darkness. The Americans had hoped to meet them as if crossing a T, so that they could fire a broadside on the Japanese.

Instead, the two forces crossed like an X, giving an advantage to neither side as the ships brushed up against one another, suddenly and far too close for comfort.

Liam Allen, expedition project leader, during the 2011 dive on the USS Atlanta. All expedition photos courtesy Fort Greene Filmworks.

As the Atlanta moved ahead of the San Francisco, the Japanese destroyer Akasuki turned on their searchlights and the Atlanta was caught in the bright light from only 1,600 yards. The Atlanta’s gun crews quickly levelled on the Japanese ship and soon overwhelmed the enemy vessel. Two other Japanese vessels crossed in front of the Atlanta.

As the Atlanta fought, one of them, possibly the destroyer Inazuma, fired a torpedo that caught the Atlanta in her forward engine room.

The resulting explosion lifted the Atlanta out of the water, and killed many of its sailors outright. But worse was to come.

Almost immediately afterward, she came under fire – from her sister ship the San Francisco. In the darkness, with the battle scene lit by searchlights and the flash of gunfire, American sailors had mistaken the Atlanta for an enemy vessel. Before the firing was halted, the Atlanta had been raked from stem to stern by Japanese and friendly fire, and was left blazing on the surface of the sea.

A set of guns left just as they were deployed on the night the Atlanta was engaged in battle.

As daylight broke, the captain of the Atlanta dropped her starboard anchor to keep the helpless ship from drifting toward the range of enemy forces ashore. Another ship came to tow the Atlanta, but the dropped anchor and flooding compartments made the light cruiser difficult to pull.

It was clear to the captain that further effort to save the ship would be useless. By that afternoon, all her wounded sailors had been transferred off the vessel, and all her dead had been respectfully arranged in their

The USS Atlanta was virtually destroyed by friendly and enemy fire.

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 25

“It took a lot of hits during the battle, and we were expecting it to be in a lot worse condition. A lot of the superstructure was heavily damaged, and you could certainly see areas on the bow where there were impacts from shells.”

— Liam Allen

expedition project leader Members of the dive team look over relics of the Guadalcanal campaign on the island. bunks. The crews set explosive charges to scuttle the vessel, which her captain did remotely after he was the last to leave the ship.

Very shortly afterward, the shattered superstructure of the ship disappeared underneath the waves as the Atlanta sank toward her final resting place.

The expedition In May, 2011, a group of divers and filmmakers began assembling to visit the wreck of the Atlanta, whose location had been verified by Robert Ballard in 1992.

According to Liam Allen, the expedition project leader, the crew had been attracted to the project mainly because of the technical challenge it faced. But they were also there to record for posterity the wreckage of a ship that had played a significant role in World War II. While the fierce land battle to capture Guadalcanal had been told many times, few people knew or appreciated the naval battle that was also crucial to the successful Guadalcanal campaign.

But the technical challenge of diving on a ship 426 feet under the sea was daunting.

As such depths, divers cannot make a normal trip. The farther one dives under the water, the more pressure the water exerts on the body. When divers breathe gas mixtures from their tanks, these pressures can make the gas poisonous to the body.

26 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

To survive, divers must breathe a mixture of gases that do not become toxic at great depths. And, when they return to the surface, they must make several “decompression stops” to breathe additional mixtures designed to purge their bodies of the old gases. It is a complex process, but Allen – an Irishman living now in Australia – said it was a challenge that the dive crew was willing to accept.

“As you spend many years learning the art of technical diving, there is always something a bit deeper and a bit further to go to,” he said in a Skype interview. “And this was certainly on the limit for us, and I think the technical challenge was certainly appealing.”

At 426 feet, the Atlanta lies at the edge of what it is possible for humans to reach; any farther down, and her wreck could only be visited by a submersible, such as those that visited the Titanic, which rests at a bonecrushing 12,500 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Allen’s team included very experienced divers, but also men who had a high degree of interest in the history of the Atlanta, and a high measure of respect for the sailors who still rest with her. As the documentary shows, all the divers went to the ship with the understanding that it is a war grave.

Their mission was only to photograph the wreck and assess its damage and current condition.

“It took a lot of hits during the battle, and we were expecting it to be in a lot worse condition,” Allen said. “A lot of the superstructure was heavily damaged, and you could certainly see areas on the bow where there were impacts from shells.”

Allen said the ship apparently sank stern first, so that when it struck the seabed the ship broke apart, coming to rest on her port, or left, side.

Ships do not remain forever on the sea floor; they deteriorate, although more slowly the greater the depth. The Atlanta, which sank 75 years ago, is slowly disappearing and Allen said it was important to document the vessel before it is gone.

The survivors The documentary, Allen said, was born at the same time as the diving expedition. The dive crew included experienced still and video cameramen, while topside, a separate group of filmmakers worked to record everything else about the expedition.

That included trips ashore to Guadalcanal, where the crew were guided to significant

points of the land battle, where Americans lost some 7,000 men and the Japanese lost 30,000.

cially when telling such stories as that of the Atlanta.

“It’s incredible,” Allen said. “To witness and be able to go to an area where such horrific destruction and horrific violence occurred is very moving and we were very, very lucky at the time. The historian who took us around was one of the most knowledgeable in the area, and he brought us to places where pretty severe fighting went on.

“You can actually feel the presence of these young men trying to run up these hills, trying to take on the enemy and its very moving. And even today the locals are still discovering graves there, Japanese graves in particular, and are recovering bodies.”

“It’s non-fiction, so you’re dealing with real people, real lives and real stories, and you have to be very sensitive and respectful of other people,” she said. “They trust you to tell their stories; that’s a big responsibility.”

•••

description of the battle and sinking of the Atlanta became the core of the film.

“That was amazing, because obviously, it was very hard to find any survivors,” she said. “I just combed the internet looking for names and where they might live, and I was very lucky to find the gentleman in Atlanta.”

One of the most moving parts of the documentary, however, are interviews with men who served aboard the ship, including Clifford Dunaway of Atlanta, who has since passed away.

Knowing that both men were in their 90s, the film crew rushed to interview them – and that included Anderson immediately getting on a plane and making the 17-hour flight to Atlanta from her home in South Africa.

Shareen Anderson of New York directed the documentary, and said that Dunaway’s

Making documentaries, she said, is different from other types of filmmaking, espe-

Although the dive was five years ago, the reception of the documentary has continued to bring success to both Anderson and Allen, and everyone else associated with the project. Allen remains amazed at the success of the film, and how it continues to be part of his life.

“I think that the beauty of this is that it unites people of completely different backgrounds and completely different interests, but all have a similar sort of feeling for this sort of stuff.

“We’re lucky, because now our generation now at that point where a lot of the vets from World War II are moving on, and it’s lucky to be able to reach out to them, considering what they went through. I can’t even imagine. Poor fellas.” WGL

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the Battle of

M O ORE'S BRIDGE

West Georgia’s only Civil War skirmish ended in a Yankee rout

S

hortly before noon of July 13, 1864, a group of soldiers were standing or sitting naked in the shallows of the Chattahoochee River, when all hell broke loose.

Coming out of the trees and thundering down the road was a troop of Federal cavalry. The leveled their guns at the Confederate soldiers, who were now scrambling out of the water, joining their fully-clothed compatriots to protect the covered bridge they had been so lackadaisically guarding that morning.

Some of the Confederates picked up their guns, but the cavalry troop had the draw on them. They opened fire, wounding a lieutenant and soon the rest of the Confederates were captured – caught literally with their pants down.

That was how the only Civil War battle in west Georgia began; a two-day affair at Moore’s Bridge, spanning the Chattahoochee between Carroll and Heard counties. The federals wanted the bridge because it offered a dry crossing of the river, and a straight shot to Newnan and the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.

But the Yankees would not keep the bridge for long.

A bridge on the Chattahoochee In many ways, the Civil War is a remote, alien place. More than 150 years in the past, it seems to most people living today almost as if it belongs to another world.

In a sense, that is true. In an era of automobiles and smartphones and a global internet, it seems impossible to get into the heads of people who lived in the days

Union Maj. Gen. George Stoneman

Confederate Brig. Gen. Frank Armstrong

of locomotives, and the telegraph – and slavery.

former slave who became one of the most respected engineers in the South.

Yet the Civil War is not so remote that it is untouchable. The places where the events of the war happened are still there, often unchanged by the passage of time. Moore’s Bridge, which has recently become a new park in Carroll County, is such a place. An old railroad bridge, built in 1917, marks the same spot as the bridge Civil War soldiers fought for. Nearby is the house of James Moore, for whom the site is named.

Horace King had been born a slave in 1807, with African, European and American Indian ancestry. In 1830, he was sold to John Godwin, a contractor who quickly recognized King’s innate engineering talents — skills Godwin promptly put to work in several commissions from their home base near Columbus. Although their relationship was, legally, master and slave, Godwin soon came to consider King an equal partner in their work, which included building bridges at nearly every crossing of the Chattahoochee River.

One notable thing missing, however, is any sign of the man who built the bridge: a

KEN DENNEY

Godwin and an attorney convinced the Alabama Legislature to emancipate King West Georgia Living May/June 2017 29

in 1846, the only way that an enslaved person could then be freed.

Thereafter, King was essentially in business for himself, contracting with private and public entities, including the three-way ownership of a covered bridge built on land owned by James Dolphin Moore Sr. near modern-day Whitesburg.

There, on the road between Carrollton and Franklin, King, Moore and Charles Mabry charged a toll on those who wished to use the bridge. King had built the narrow, 480-foot structure, using a technique he had taught himself.

It involved using criss-crossed planks that looked like a garden lattice. This type of bridge allowed wide rivers to be spanned without expensive iron or other materials.

The bridges were structurally complex, yet unskilled workers, following a plan, could build them.

Part of Sherman’s strategy West Georgia was a backwater of the Civil War, yet the area suddenly took on a strategic importance in July, 1864 – thanks to the existence of Moore’s Bridge.

During the war, armies were dependent on the railroads for supply and were at the mercy of natural barriers like mountains and rivers. Sherman had invaded Georgia to break up the armies led by Confederate General Joseph Johnston, and to destroy the railroad hub of Atlanta, whose industrial output was supplying all the armies of the Confederacy.

In July 1864, Johnston had fallen back from the north Georgia mountains to the Chattahoochee, and was depending on the river to block Sherman. But Sherman was equally determined to get over the river and destroy Atlanta’s railroads. Since July 5, Sherman had been ready to cross the 30 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

called Campbell County.

Stoneman first sought to cross the river on July 11 at Campbellton Ferry, which is now the site of the Highway 92 bridge across the Chattahoochee.

But a fierce artillery exchange from Confederates – who were now on guard all along the river – discouraged him and he turned west, convinced that Franklin might be the best bet after all.

Illustration by Ken Denney river at two places above Roswell, but he wanted Johnston’s attention diverted elsewhere.

So, he sent cavalry squads south, in the hope that Johnston would send his own cavalry after them and away from Roswell.

The man Sherman had tasked for this mission was Major Gen. George Stoneman, a renowned cavalry officer. Only a year before, Stoneman had been on the cover of the Time magazine of the day: Harper’s Weekly. But Sherman had a low opinion of cavalry generally, and of Stoneman in particular. He often complained that Stoneman would use any Confederate opposition as an excuse to abandon a mission.

Nevertheless, Sherman’s plan to use Stoneman to divert Confederate attention worked; as Stoneman started his mission, Johnston sent some of his cavalry south to watch what Stoneman might be up to.

The battle at Moore’s Bridge Yet Stoneman’s mission wasn’t entirely a ruse. If Stoneman could cross the river, he might be able to attack the Atlanta & West Point Railroad, one of four rail lines that ran to Atlanta. Sherman hoped Stoneman could cross at a place nearer than Franklin, the site of the only other bridge known to the army. The railroad paralleled the Chattahoochee, snaking from West Point through Newnan and Palmetto, in what was then

Then a scout brought him word that there was another bridge – Moore’s Bridge – located near the mill village of Bowenville, now the site of Banning Mill. Stoneman turned his force in that direction.

A troop from the First Tennessee Confederate cavalry was already at the bridge and had prepared it in case Union soldiers stopped by. They had pulled up some of the floorboards and had stuffed sap-heavy pine tree knots into the timbers so that it could quickly be set on fire.

Stoneman’s force moved toward the bridge on the morning of July 13. With him were two brigades of his three-brigade division; troops from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, along with the 24th Indiana Light Artillery.

As the column got closer, one of the brigade commanders, Col. Silas Adams, personally led the 11th Kentucky forward.

They caught the First Tennessee soldiers completely by surprise, although at least one of them was able to get on horseback and tear down the road toward Newnan and the army telegraph there.

Stoneman proudly wrote Sherman that evening of his accomplishment, and prepared to head across the bridge and down to Newnan the next morning to attack the railroad. He sent out the 8th Michigan four miles east to Phillips Ferry in case any Confederates might be headed his way.

They were. Brigadier General Frank Arm-

strong was leading one of the Confederate brigades that had been sent south to shadow the federal movement.

A Union sergeant and a lieutenant were wounded; there is no report of any Confederate casualties.

Armstrong was known for being the only officer to have served both sides during the Civil War and had commanded a federal force at Bull Run, the first major battle of the war.

Although he had more troops than his opponent, Stoneman decided not to challenge Armstrong. As he prepared to leave, a lieutenant with one of his Kentucky brigades ran to the bridge under a hail of bullets and set fire to the pine knots left earlier by the Confederates. Soon the bridge was ablaze and burned until it collapsed into the river.

His force was smaller than Stoneman’s, consisting of four Mississippi cavalry units, along with a four-gun artillery battery from Missouri. During the night, the troops crept closer to the bridge and as dawn broke on the morning of July 14, Armstrong sent forward the 2nd Mississippi cavalry, along with his Missouri artillerymen and their three-inch guns. The cannon unlimbered underneath some trees facing the bridge, while the Mississippi troops dismounted.

They opened fire on the bridge, driving federal troops on Armstrong’s side of the river back across. From all accounts, it was a fierce fight, but none of the participants could say afterward how long it lasted.

The Confederates won, but lost Stoneman left the area and took a roundabout course through Villa Rica to return to the rest of Sherman’s army upriver. Along the way, he sent scouting units to raid Carroll County farms for provisions and horses.

One of them, the 8th Michigan, rode into Carrollton to camp overnight. During their visit, a soldier named James Goff of Detroit, strode into the Carroll County courthouse, flipped open a records book, and scrawled a

sarcastic message: “Hurrah for Union!”

Armstrong had prevented Stoneman from damaging the vital railroad in Newnan, and word of his exploit was sent to Confederate Jefferson Davis. But Stoneman’s defeat did nothing to halt Sherman, who crossed above Roswell as planned. The federals captured Atlanta in September 1864.

That capture ensured the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, who had not expected that result during the summer of 1864.

With that election however – and the voter’s endorsement of his military policy toward the Confederacy – the federal armies continued to fight, Grant in Virginia and Sherman in Georgia.

By destroying Confederate factories, breaking its railroads and demoralizing Southern patriotism, the federal troops were able to bring the war to an end. That war and that ending, however, has left a mark on both the South and the nation, and has shaped the present day. For that reason, it is worth remembering the war and commemorating the places where it was fought. WGL

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West Georgia Living May/June 2017 31

The Sweetwater Park Hotel sat in what is today’s downtown Lithia Springs. It boasted 250 rooms / Courtesy of Lisa Land Cooper

The Palace at SALT SPRINGS

The Sweetwater Park Hotel was a touch of the Gilded Age in Douglas County he first time I heard about the Sweetwater Park Hotel, I learned there were rumors concerning a treasure of jewels that had been lost forever on a cold January morning in 1912, when one of the most magnificent hotels in the state burned to the ground.

The bath house constructed at the springs – one side for the ladies and the other for the gentlemen – was decorated with fine engravings, sofas, and “every convenience and comfort”. / Courtesy of Lisa Land Cooper

It’s a tale that comes straight off the pages of a novel, one that mixes Gilded Age extravagance with Southern charm.

Today, of course, the Douglas County town of Lithia Springs is the last place many would think of as a location for one of the large hotels of the “grand hotel era” that flourished in the last part of the 19th century. But for 25 years, the tiny town straddling a small strip of Bankhead Highway/ Veterans Memorial Parkway on the eastern edge of Douglas County was indeed such a destination for those seeking rest, relaxation, and a water cure.

The story begins with the springs, which had long been known for curative powers dating back to the Cherokee settlement of Sweetwater Town, home to a Cherokee named Ama Kanasta, or Sweetwater.

32 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

Natives referred to the area around the springs as Deer Lick because deer were drawn to the salt that formed on the rocks.

LISA LAND COOPER

Later, white settlers began referring to the area as Salt Springs.

In the summer of 1881, James A. Watson, native son of Douglas County and an Atlanta businessman, was on the way to visit his

mother in Douglasville. The route from Atlanta cut through Salt Springs, with the home of John C. Bowden serving as a stagecoach stop. The home still stands on Bankhead/Veterans Memorial Highway.

Somewhere between Atlanta and Salt Springs, Watson fell ill, causing him to spend a couple of days at the Bowden home. During his stay, he was given water from the springs and he later credited it for his speedy recovery. He left the Bowden home with a jug of water, and once back in Atlanta he had the water tested. It was discovered the water was rich in lithium bicarbonate, known at the time as useful to treat many medical conditions. Though Bowden was already selling the water, Watson saw a business opportunity and shared his idea with a couple of his friends and business associates from Atlanta, Edwin W. Marsh and Samuel M. Inman.

The miracle water of Salt Springs Edwin W. Marsh is remembered today as an extremely successful dry goods merchant. He transferred his business to Atlanta in 1863.

Besides his efforts at the dry goods trade, Marsh also had controlling interest in the newspaper, “Southern Confederacy”, which relocated to Macon during Atlanta’s Union occupation. Following the war, Marsh’s dry goods store was the first one to re-open in the city. He developed an extremely prosperous business and invested heavily in real estate.

Samuel M. Inman was born in Tennessee to a wealthy planter family. He attended college at Princeton, and fought in the Civil War. The Inman family had been hit hard by the war and they found it necessary to relocate. Like many former planter families, the Inmans embraced the changes brought by the “New South” era and went into business.

They headed to Georgia where they acted as bank agents, merchants, and also owned a cotton factoring concern. At one point, it is thought Inman was worth around $750,000 to $1,000,000. He invested in many different businesses, served on many boards, and gave much of his money to charity.

Marsh and Inman unbelievably wealthy, so they were the perfect men for Watson to approach regarding the opportunity he felt the springs had to offer. It’s no surprise the men would invest in a resort hotel in Salt Springs.

What began as a lease from John C. Bowden allowing Marsh and Inman to use the springs, ended with the men finally taking ownership, along with several hundred acres where downtown Lithia Springs sits today.

The Marble Pavilion at the springs was a gathering spot for family reunions, company picnics, dances, etc. The name comes from the fact the floor was created from a marble slab. / Courtesy of Lisa Land Cooper

James Whitcomb Riley (left) and Joel Chandler Harris (right) better known as “Uncle Remus” frequented the Sweetwater Park Hotel for the curative waters. / Photo from Wikipedia.

The men began an extensive advertising campaign - which must have worked, because “The Weekly Star” dated February 17, 1885 advised that The Bowden Lithia Water Company was shipping large quantities of water, and that the company had offices in Atlanta, New York and New Orleans.

John Bowden’s son, Willie, oversaw the shipping department.

Many orders arrived by mail simply addressed to Lithia Springs. Eventually, the Salt Springs name for the village was forgotten and the name Lithia Springs stuck.

Small hotels sprang up near the springs,

Richmond Pearson Hobson, a Spanish American war hero, visited the Sweetwater Park Hotel at the height of his fame. / Photo from Wikipedia. including the Watson Hotel owned by James A. Watson, who ran the hotel in a manner similar to today’s bed and breakfasts. But, always seeing an opportunity, the Atlanta businessmen, Marsh and Inman – with Watson in tow – began to develop what would be known as the Sweetwater Park Hotel.

A palace in west Georgia For months, the building’s progress was tracked in the Atlanta papers. Reporters likened the construction to the magic of the Genie from Arabian Nights who “in a twinkling built palaces in the deserts and made West Georgia Living May/June 2017 33

An early postcard from Lithia Springs.

grand courts in mere wastelands.”

That “magic” actually took 200 men, by some accounts, to erect the huge hotel on the property located on what is now the western corner of Bankhead/Veterans Memorial Highway and South Sweetwater Road.

Work was going on around the clock down at the springs, too. A pavilion was being built over the springs described as “ornamental to the highest degree … with an arched roof that was finished in exquisite taste.” The pavilion floor was a sheet of solid marble that measured 65 by 50 feet. Today, a piece of that very floor is all that is left of the pavilion, and it’s on display at the Douglas County Museum of History and Art. The hotel opened in the summer of 1887 boasting 250 rooms as well as parlors, offices, and billiard rooms. Piazzas stretching for 700 feet, with widths of 14 to 28 feet surrounded the hotel with wide halls dividing the rooms. One description states, “It (was) built with wings of open courts of wood and grass enclosed, so that there (was) not an inside room in the house.”

The third story contained open balconies 40 feet square, handsomely finished from which guests could look towards Atlanta on one side and Marietta on the other – with the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in full view.

On top of the main building was a handsome covered court for observation. There were reading rooms for gentlemen, parlors, billiard rooms and every possible convenience of the best hotels.

The building had electricity, and the halls were heated by steam – though most of the rooms also had open fireplaces. There were electric call bells in every room and most had private balconies. Bathrooms had hot and cold water, as well as shower baths.

Water being moved from the Bowden Lithia Springs plant. possible to run the hotel. They traveled to Traverse City, Mich., to observe John B. Billings, the manager of a large hotel there. After two or three days, they were satisfied enough to make Billings an offer, however, Billings refused until he could look at the Sweetwater Park Hotel for himself.

The hotel must have met his approval, because not only did he accept their offer to run the hotel, he set out on a trip to New York with them to buy furniture and other items – including a fine piano, plush Brussels carpet and the same furnishings that could be found in Fifth Avenue hotels.

Celebrity sightings The Sweetwater Park Hotel quickly became a place to see and to be seen. The Atlanta papers, as well as newspapers across the state, were full of weekly accounts regarding who was visiting Salt Springs and its magnificent hotel.

Over the years, there has been the belief that the hotel was the playground for people with names like Astor, Whitney, and Vanderbilt, but after searching for over five years. I’ve yet to confirm those visits through any published source, or at museums where those family papers are archived.

Future President William McKinley did visit Lithia Springs in 1888, but not to stay at the hotel. He was there to speak at the Piedmont Chautauqua regarding the tariff; at the time, he was an Ohio congressman.

The dining room was 50 by 86 feet, finished with enormous plate glass windows and decorated inside with eight huge mirrors of the finest French glass.

Still, the Sweetwater Park Hotel had some interesting visitors through the years – including writers Joel Chandler Harris (better known as “Uncle Remus”) and James Whitcomb Riley, the “Hoosier poet.” But in the summer of 1898, the hotel was in the news all across the nation as the place where Richmond Pearson Hobson would reunite with his mother following his exploits in Cuba during the Spanish American War.

Marsh and Watson wanted the best man

In what today would be described as a suicide

34 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

mission, Hobson and his crew were ordered to take the coal ship Merrimac to the mouth of Santiago Harbor and sink her there in order to bottle up a Spanish squadron. During the attempt, Hobson was under heavy fire, and the steering gear was damaged. The Merrimac was sunk, but failed to go down in the shallowest part of the channel. This made Hobson and his crew of six easy pickings for the Spanish. The crew was held as prisoners of war.

Today, we use the term “viral” to refer to anything presented in social media that is shared very fast and thousands of times, but “going viral” is nothing new. Hobson’s story “went viral” rather quickly as the news media plastered his image and story in newspapers from large cities to small towns embellishing Pearson’s exploits. It certainly didn’t hurt that Hobson was rather handsome.

Hobson was released during a prisoner exchange on July 6, 1898, and hundreds of speaking invitations were sent. He embraced his celebrity by kissing young ladies at every stop earning the title of “the most kissed man in America.”

Hobson’s visit to Lithia Springs that August was twofold. Not only would he finally meet up with his mother, who was staying at the hotel, he would also visit the military camp that had been established in Lithia Springs near today’s Baker Drive and named Camp Hobson to honor the country’s new hero.

Under new management For the most part, the Sweetwater Park Hotel remained under the control of one business entity. Inman’s involvement faded away at some point, as did Watson's, leaving Edwin Marsh as the sole owner of the hotel and water company. He died in 1901.

His heirs weren’t enthused about running either business, so ads appeared in 1905 offering both the water company and hotel for sale. They were bought as a package deal and in January, 1911 the new own-

ers – a hodgepodge of movers and shakers from Atlanta and across the state – began a media blitz advertising the new owners and board of directors.

In February, 1911, the news was out that the hotel would re-open May 1. A fund of $30,000 was set aside to spend on improvements “from garret to cellar”, and at some point that February, Sam Pegram assumed management of the hotel. He was “one of the most widely and favorably known hotel men in the South, and was formerly connected to many hotels including Atlanta’s Aragon Hotel.”

The re-opening was a success, according to newspaper reports. It is said that the first Sunday dinner served at the hotel was presented “in a manner in which a Parisian chef might be proud.” The season’s opening dance was held Thursday, June 1. The ballroom, lobby, and dining room were decorated in ivy, ferns, and wild flowers. The regular orchestra for Atlanta’s Piedmont Hotel was secured for the dance, as well as for the entire summer.

So, who were these rich and well-connected Georgians running a hotel in Douglas County?

John D. Little was president of the newly organized Bowden Lithia Water Company.

Little, an attorney, was well known in Atlanta social circles. Little’s wife had inherited an immense fortune from her first husband, and Mr. Little gladly invested it here and there.

In an era when women could not cast a vote in an election, the Bowden Lithia Water Company installed a woman as vice president of the company. Lettie Pate Whitehead was the widow of John B. Whitehead, one of the original bottlers of Coca-Cola. Upon his death, Mrs. Whitehead assumed control of her husband’s affairs and won a well-respected reputation in various business and political circles. She was most certainly a woman before her time.

Herbert F. Haley assumed the position of secretary/treasurer. He was also involved with Coca-Cola as a bottler. It seemed as if his family “owned” southwest Georgia due to their heavy involvement with pecans, cattle, banks, farmland, newspapers, hotels and leadership positions in the civic and cultural realms.

The board of directors included men who were attorneys, a gas company president, a doctor, and a drugstore owner who sold Bowden Lithia water at his soda fountains.

The Sweetwater Park Hotel’s season began

May 1st each year and continued through August. The 1911 season was no different, with special trains scheduled to ferry people back and forth from Atlanta to Lithia Springs for dances, dinner, and special events.

New owners meant the Sweetwater Park Hotel appeared to be poised on the verge of a second life, but it was not to be. And that takes us to our treasure story.

The ‘lost treasure’ On the morning of January 22, 1912 the Sweetwater Park Hotel burned to the ground, and some of the greatest myths surrounding the large structure were born from the ashes.

At some point toward the end of 1911, or early in January, 1912, storytellers say, a foreign lady appeared on the steps of the hotel, along with her maid. It didn’t matter that the hotel rarely took guests during the off-season months. The foreign lady wrote her name in the guest book and announced she intended to stay at the hotel until she died.

This woman not only brought her maid along with her, she had what was reported to be a fireproof vault; a vault so large it took four men to carry it into the hotel. And since she didn’t trust the hotel’s safe, she demanded that it be taken to her room.

Later, it would be said, that the vault was crammed full of jewels.

By that point, according to these storytellers, the hotel had new ownership; reportedly a man from Ireland and one from Germany.

And when the fire broke out, the unnamed Irishman, who was on the property, repeatedly entered the burning hotel to save things.

The poor foreign lady had to be carried out of the burning hotel by a few men in full view of the crowd of folks watching the spectacle.

The Irishman may have been one of her rescuers – but he, the lady and her maid all disappeared after the fire. They were never heard from again, and many believed the foreign lady’s jewels must have been lost somewhere in the rubble.

Some say that in the days following the fire, four new foreigners came to Lithia Springs – an insurance man and an interpreter, along with two detectives from abroad. It is not clear if they came at the request of the foreign lady or at the behest of two of foreign owners of the hotel.

Rumors were also rampant that the hotel was heavily insured. The insinuation, of course, is that the destruction of the Sweetwater Park Hotel was some kind of con job.

Needless to say, I have issues with this story.

I admit it sounds great, but there are too many holes, and things that just don’t fit.

For one thing, the owners of the hotel in 1912 were not Irish and were not German; they were those aforementioned movers and shakers from across the state.

Secondly, every news report I’ve found regarding the fire is adamant that the hotel was not occupied. These reports mention that occasionally a tourist would visit the hotel during the winter months, but at the time of the fire the building was empty.

Doesn’t it make sense that any lady heroically carried out of the burning building would be been mentioned in the papers?

News reports regarding the fire mention the Bowden Lithia Water Company only carried a $75,000 policy on the three-story, 350room hotel – so there goes the idea that the hotel had been “heavily” insured.

Even so, news reports on January 23rd and 24th mentioned it was “generally believed that a new building would take the place of the one destroyed”, but J.D. Little, president of the Bowden Lithia Water Company, said no definite decisions could be reached until a meeting of the stockholders had been held.

In the days that followed, papers across the United States reported the Bowden Lithia Water Company had sustained a $250,000 loss with the fire. There was no mention regarding the heroics of an Irishman, or of a foreign lady and her lost jewels.

And then … silence. Oh, there might have been a mention here and there of folks complaining about the loss of the hotel. Suddenly, a favorite destination for auto excursions was gone, but the owners decided to take their heavy loss and just focus on marketing the water.

••• Over the years, folks dug in the rubble and found silverware, bowls, and other assorted items, but I’m confident there was no treasure.

The hotel came “as if by magic” and left us in much the same way. Today, there is little evidence it ever existed, and though there was no loss of life, I consider its loss to be one of Douglas County’s greatest tragedies. WGL Lisa Land Cooper writes a weekly history column for The Douglas County Sentinel, and is author of “Every Now and Then: The Amazing Stories of Douglas County” and “Douglasville (Images of America).”

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 35

PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY 36 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

The Holly Springs Cemetery, located on West Chapel Hill Road, south of Douglasville, is monitored by the Douglas County Cemetery Preservation Commission, with the assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department Inmate Trustees. Gravesites at the historic cemetery date from 1840-1933, including many from the Civil War era, and many that are unmarked. It also includes one of the oldest original headstones in the county, (pictured at left), of Permelia "Amelia" Watson Camp, born in Feb. 17, 1811, and died Nov. 11, 1849.

May/June 2017 West Georgia Living 37

OLD

Turning into

NEW

Interior of the Brown Dog Deli under construction at Hudson Mill. / Melanie Boyd

West Georgians find new uses for the area's historic buildings

W

est Georgia’s historical charm is evident in the architecture of many buildings. Some of these have been passed down from generations as homesteads. But others are transformed into multi-purpose buildings, keeping alive a link to the area’s past, while yet serving modern uses.

Two examples in Carrollton are found at either end of Bradley Street: The Stalling’s House, a former residence, and Hudson Mill, which has seen several transformations, the latest which began two years ago.

Husdon Mill is a 111-year-old building, located at 202 Bradley St., just off Adamson Square.

It’s had many names and served many occupants over the years. Developer Richard Dement is responsible for its latest transformation; a multi-use building with upscale loftstyle residences, shops, and restaurants.

38 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

“From the time this project was conceived, I had hoped to attract businesses which would add to the life of the downtown,” said Diment. “It has certainly worked out that way, and I am very

ARTHIA NIXON

The Groover-Smith Building on Adamson Square, Carrollton. / Melanie Boyd

The old Douglas County Courthouse is now a museum in Douglasville. / Ricky Stilley

pleased with the tenant mix so far.”

Located a stone’s throw from Carrollton’s amphitheater, the shops currently include a women’s boutique, urban market, photography studio, and office suites. Two restaurants, the Brown Dog Deli and Moe’s Original Barbecue, face the amphitheater.

When Diment acquired the building, both floors were primarily wide open spaces. While filling in the interior with commercial and residential units, he preserved as many of the original architectural features as possible, such as the exterior and interior brick walls, the wooden floors and ceilings, posts, beams and doors, as well as the large, metal-framed industrial windows, and original sections of concrete floors.

Originally built in 1905, the structure was an industrial building hosting various businesses. One of the original occupants was a soft drink bottling plant that bottled retired brands such as Chero-Cola and Red

Rock Ginger Ale, as well as the still-popular Coca-Cola. Though barely visible after years of fading, painted evidence of CocaCola’s history remains on the building’s red brick exterior.

The 1892 Haralson County Courthouse in Buchanan is now a library. / Ricky Stilley

Around 1920, a dealership selling Hudson automobiles moved in. Diment said this segment of the building’s history is the partial basis for the name he chose for his development. By 1924, a textile business known as Carroll Mills acquired the building and converted it into a mill, remaining there until 2011. After that, the building remained vacant until Diment acquired it two years ago.

Diment’s vision for the building incorporated many of the original elements. A contraption once used to spin yarn and old canisters have been repurposed into light fixtures. Two elements that remain in the place they originally occupied are a large Carroll Mill industrial scale, now a prominent feature in the main hallway, and the smokestack that previously had been attached to the boiler now bears the words

The courtroom of the old Haralson County Courthouse. / Ricky Stilley

The former Stallings House in Carrollton is being renovated into a restaurant. / Ricky Stilley

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 39

A hallway inside Hudson Mill, Carrollton. / Melanie Boyd “Hudson Mill.”

Although Diment has renovated several other historic properties in downtown Carrollton, he said that Hudson Mill, with almost 30,000 square feet of space, presented more structural and adaptive design challenges than he has faced with past projects.

“The whole building was open factory-style when I came in,” said Diment. “The outside is original brick and the main entrance is an exact replica of what was there before. I would have loved to keep the original, but it was dilapidated and beyond salvaging. So, we had to build another one. I also wanted to keep the wooden floors, but they were warped and had rotted, so whatever (parts) we were able to save, we used in the bathroom as countertops.”

Diment said that he has strived to achieve a vintage look, attempting to make it difficult for casual observers to tell what is original, and what is not. An example of this is the design of the new exterior apartment entrance doors, made of metal and glass to replicate existing industrial-style windows.

No two units are the same.

Still, they all have a Soho loft-living feel, with high ceilings; tall windows; purposelyexposed beams and pipes; concrete floors; and contemporary appliances.

Just down the street, business partners Brandon Wilks and Keith Rabideau – who have already had success with their restaurant, Plates, on Adamson Square – are turning the historic Stallings House on Bradley Street in Carrollton into a restaurant and brew pub.

“Essentially it’ll be a restaurant and bar, but we’ll also produce our own beer on site for customers,” said Wilks. “It won’t be sold outside of the restaurant. When we brought the Stallings House, this was not the original plan for it; we just wanted to be able to restore the building. But we went through a few different business ideas and hadn’t been able to really come up with something that made the numbers work until we settled on the idea of doing a brew pub. Also, my busi40 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

ness partner is a partner in a brew pub in Athens, so we’re not going into it blindly in that sense.”

The house was built in 1910 by Carrollton banker and merchant James T. Bradley, for whom Bradley Street is named. But it is more widely known as the home of the late Tracy and Shirley Stallings. Tracy Stallings served six years as a member of the Carrollton Board of Education, nearly 14 years as mayor of Carrollton, and from 1994 to 2002 as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. The Carrollton Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department’s Tracy Stallings Community Center is named after him.

Wilks and Rabideau are focusing on keeping the second floor of the house off limits to the public, while the main rooms on the first floor will be able to accommodate about 100 patrons, including 25 seats for the bar area.

“The front four rooms in the house will largely remain untouched and will become our dining areas, and then what the historic rehabilitation folks refer to as the service rooms: the kitchen, the bathrooms and things like that, we’ll have to do some pretty major renovations to those in order to adapt them to our use,” said Wilks.

Wilks acknowledged that the house can’t accommodate all their plans to transform it into a brew pub and restaurant just yet, but said that there will be an extension added to the back of the building.

“That addition will house the bar and the brewery,” said Wilks. “We have had discussions with the historic folks and what we have come up with after talking is there will essentially be an enclosed hallway, like a breezeway, to separate the original structure from the new structure so that it will be visually apparent to tell what is historic and what is not.”

Carrollton is far from being the only community in west Georgia that is actively trying to preserve its past. The Douglas County Courthouse, built in 1956, is of a unique

The exterior of Hudson Mill. / Melanie Boyd architectural style called “International,” which flourished in the early decades of the 20th century. But the stark, unornamented appearance of the buildings soon fell into disfavor, and many of them were torn down.

In fact, the courthouse was scheduled for demolition in 1998, when the county built a new courthouse. But preservationists were able to convince the county government to keep it, and it is now known as the Douglas County Museum of History and Art. In Haralson County, the Victorian style courthouse, built in Buchanan in 1892, is one of the rare survivors of that era. It now serves as the main branch of the county’s library system.

Once it was common to tear down such buildings in favor of new, sleek modern designs. Yet even though renovating an old building can be costly, developers are finding that younger generations appreciate the pedigree that comes with old buildings, and enjoy the stories and history behind them.

That bodes well for these relics of the past, as they continue to serve the needs of the present and the future. WGL

Sacred Harp: One of West Georgia’s Great Musical Traditions Audrey Clark moves her arm as she keeps time at Mt. Prospect Baptist Church, Villa Rica.

Dating back to the 1700's, Sacred Harp music flourished in the South and is still popular in rural churches

I

t’s fairly well known among west Georgia natives that one of the state’s most influential gospel musicians, Thomas A. Dorsey, is from this area.

Dorsey was born in Villa Rica July 1, 1899, and his illustrious career lasted nearly a century until his death in 1993.

But there’s an even older musical tradition with roots in west

Georgia that involves no organs or pianos and — despite its name — not even a harp.

Sacred Harp singing is one of the oldest forms of American music. A form of shape note singing, it involves groups of acapella singers arranged by voices on four sides of a square room, with altos sitting across from tenors, bass voices across

HAISTEN WILLIS West Georgia Living May/June 2017 41

Joyce Walton and Davide Ivey conduct a song during the Georgia State Convention for the Sacred Harp singings at Emmaus Primitive Baptist Church in Carrollton. People from all over the country and some outside the country attended the convention. / Melanie Boyd

Above, Emmanuel Wilson at Mt. Prospect, leads during a song.

Below, Scott Lewis, also of Mt. Prospect. from trebles, with a song leader standing in the middle.

means “original,” referring to a Baptist faith before early 19th century doctrinal schisms.

The musical tradition dates all the way to the 1700s, the same century James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia, and has always been most popular in rural areas and smaller churches. It flourished in the South, particularly in Coweta County, where it went with settlers awarded old Creek lands by lottery.

In 1852, a group adopted a specific collection of hymns and called themselves the Chattahoochee Musical Convention. Since the 1930s, this group has been based in Carroll County and its hymnbook (called the Sacred Harp, a reference to human voices inspired by God) has spread from west Georgia to across the world.

West Georgia is also home to the Sacred Harp Headquarters and Museum on Oak Grove Road in Carrollton.

“Sacred Harp is one hymn book that’s part of the broader tradition of shape note singing,” said Dr. Ann McCleary, Director of the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia. “There were singing schools in the region and throughout the South that would teach people to sing using 42 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

the shapes. Sacred Harp is an older book that had a strong presence in this area.”

The old tradition can still be found locally at places like Mt. Prospect Baptist Church in Villa Rica and at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in Bremen. It has long been associated with Primitive Baptist churches, but that name has nothing to do with the absence of pianos or organs. “Primitive”

Instead of standard musical notation, the shapes of triangle, oval, square and diamond correspond with the syllables of fa, sol, la and me, though a later version of shape note singing includes seven notes.

Singers keep time with their hands and read music with four shapes assigned to the various notes.

“Typically, the first time through the group

The Georgia State Convention for Sacred Harp was held in March at Emmaus Primitive Baptist Church in Carrollton.

Sacred Harp, which has its roots in west Georgia, has followers from around the world.

Below, Ludie McClure leads the singing at Mt. Prospect. At bottom, a group of women at Mt. Prospect follow along with their music as they sing. sings the notes rather than the words,” said McCleary. “The second time they add in the words.”

Since both men and women can sing treble and tenor parts, they sit together; women who sing alto sit by themselves, so do men who sing bass. In the middle of this “hollow square” stands the leader, who is just one of the singers taking a turn. He generally stands with the hymnbook open in one hand and counts out the beats with the other, moving his arm in a smooth up-and-down motion, sometimes gesturing to one section or the other to indicate when they should come into the hymn.

The songs in the hymnbook are referred to only by page number, and although many of them are familiar to other churchgoers, the titles are not. The song known by everyone else as “Amazing Grace” is known in the Sacred Harp book as “New Britain.” There is no clear explanation as to why.

To experience Sacred Harp, simply show up for one of the singings, which are listed at AtlantaSacredHarp.org. For a more formal education on the tradition, head to the UWG, which houses an archive of material related to the heritage at the Center for Public History.

The local collection grew a few years ago, when the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon shut down. Most of the museum’s holdings ended up in Athens at the University of Georgia, but a significant amount of sheet music, audio and video recordings, advertising and other ephemera from local gospel music traditions made its way to UWG. Sacred Harp helped to influence later forms of music, including bluegrass and even R&B, but it remains a force in the 21st century.

“Sacred Harp singers were an aging group at one point, but now a lot of younger people are getting interested in the tradition,” said McCleary. “It’s not necessarily a religious thing for them, they do it because they love the music.” WGL West Georgia Living May/June 2017 43

Georgia’s Earliest Inhabitants

G

eorgia’s mild climate and burgeoning opportunities have made Georgia the ninth largest state. And it’s still growing, with a population on its way to a projected 14 million by 2030.

"Long Swamp: Life in the Etowah River Valley" is a touring exhibit of artifacts from early civilizations in Georgia. All photos courtesy of the University of West Georgia.

It’s a little difficult to believe, then, that the whole state, including west Georgia, was once devoid of buildings, roads and crowded cities.

And we’re not even talking about the relatively recent past of 200 or so years ago. Once, thousands of years ago, there were First World peoples who called Georgia home.

In the period known by archeologists as the Paleo-Indian period, extending from approximately 13,000 until 10,000 years ago, Georgia was visited by small bands of hunter-gatherers with Siberian origins, who had pushed south and east from the Ice-Age glaciers covering much of Canada. When they finally arrived in the Ridge and Valley region of what we call Northwest Georgia, it was all terra incognita to them.

Native American Prehistory in Northwest Georgia begins with the Paleo-Indian Period and continues through the Archaic period, the Woodland period and then the Mississippian period. The History and Archeology section of the New Georgia Encyclopedia offers extensive background reading on the region.

Like some modern Georgians, Mississippians spent much of their time outdoors. But they took outdoor living to extremes, using their houses mainly for shelter from inclement weather and for storage. They only slept inside during cold months.

The early Mississippian Period was when the first chiefdoms developed in what is now Georgia. During the Middle Mississippian sub-period (A.D. 1100-1350), large and powerful chiefdoms centered around imposing mound towns that dominated the landscape. By far the largest and most impressive capital at the time was the Etowah site, located in northwestern Georgia near Cartersville.

Recently at the Antonio J. Waring, Jr. Archaeo-

RICHARD GRANT 44 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

logical Laboratory at the University of West Georgia, some of that history was on display in an exhibit that focuses on a local site from the Mississippian period.

With support from the Georgia Department of Transportation, the UWG Department of Anthropology presented Long Swamp: Life in the Etowah River Valley. In February, the display was packed-up and headed to Tulsa, its next stop on the tour.

The exhibit will travel to Native American communities throughout the Southeastern United States, to share artifacts and research from this Mississippian site discovered in Northwest Georgia.

The exhibit takes its name from the Long Swamp site, located along the Etowah River in Cherokee County. The site was originally identified by Robert Wauchope in 1938, and subsequent excavations have recovered the remains of a village with components from a broad range of early cultures. The exhibit focuses on the Mississippian communities that occupied the site, based on information from artifacts recovered during a 2007-08 GDOT-funded excavation project.

The project showcases the Mississippian period artifacts for Long Swamp, and features the archeological record, historic documentation and surviving cultural traditions and knowledge to aid in telling the story of the community that once resided there. The exhibit is comprised of 14 museum panels, artifacts in a display case, replicas produced by tribal members, and a digital component featuring more detailed information about artifacts and historic accounts.

“We have worked very closely with Georgia’s federally recognized tribes, in a sense ‘co-curating’ the exhibit to present a holistic account of the life-ways at Long Swamp,” said Ashley Smallwood, assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of West Georgia. Smallwood is featured in an online video about the project.

The story is told through a combination of archeological record, historic documentation and knowledge of the culture’s traditions. During the tour, communities are invited to share some of their own artifacts for display, making this a truly dynamic, interactive, and ever-evolving exhibit.

“The Long Swamp site is a Northwest Georgia site, and it’s a Mississippian site, so that means it dates to about 1000 A.D. During that time Mississippian-Native Americans occupied Long Swamp, and they left behind a community, where we see can see a mound, and all of the features, a housing area and the artifacts they left behind, so we’re featuring those artifacts,” said Dr. Smallwood.

And, according to the Waring Lab’s Curator of Collections, Andy Carter, “Researchers are interpreting the site as a microcosm of larger patterns, behaviors and experiences that we’re seeing throughout the greater Southeastern region. You can think of it as a social history of Long Swamp.”

Mississippian populations relied on intensive horticulture and grew much of their food in small gardens using small tools like stone axes, digging sticks and fire. Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, goosefoot, sump weed and other plants were cultivated. They also ate gathered nuts and fruits, while hunting game such as deer, turkeys and other small animals. Mississippian people also collected fish, shellfish and turtle from riv-

ers, streams and ponds.

Some earlier artifacts of prehistoric Native Americans have been found in the Tennessee Valley region, said Dr. Smallwood.

She explained that the first well-documented Paleo-Indian culture are known as “Clovis,” first found near Clovis, N.Mex., and widely identified because of the distinctive way they shaped their projectile points. Fluted Clovis points have been found throughout the Georgia Ridge and Valley, Piedmont and Coastal Plain. “The occurrence of large concentrations of Clovis artifacts suggests that the Tennessee River Valley served as a staging area, or a resource-rich place for aggregation, for immigrant Paleo-Indian groups beginning their expansion into the American Southeast,” Smallwood said.

The Dalton people, also known for their distinctive tool markings, arose at the end of the Ice Age, as a new climate took hold in this area. This period saw the extinction of giant Pleistocene mega-fauna such as mastodons, and Dalton hunter-gatherers used serrated points and atlatls to hunt and butcher white-tail deer, Smallwood said.

What is now Georgia and the greater Southeast experienced what scientists call the Archaic Period 10,000 to 3,000 years ago. Archeologists divide this era into three main sub-periods: the Early, Middle and Late Archaic periods, all distinguished by important changes in cultural traditions, which generally followed a trend toward population increase and increased territoriality.

Much earlier, the Woodland Period, also divided into Early, Middle and Late eras, began from around 1,000 B.C. and lasted to A.D. 900. During this period, Woodland populations lived in more permanent settlements with platform mounds that suggest social stratification, and ritual and ceremony were important aspects of Woodland life-ways. These prehistoric populations also practiced horticulture, the cultivation of a wide variety of crops for subsistence.

In terms of governance, chiefs maintained control by amassing considerable stores of surplus foodstuffs through the appropriation of human labor under their direction. This tributary labor and food was also directed toward public functions, ranging from the construction of multi-stage earthen rectangular, flat-topped platform mounds to the maintenance of warriors for military action.

The Mississippian culture at Etowah eventually spread from its origin in Northwest Georgia across much of the northern half of the state and beyond.

Etowah and Ocmulgee (both located in Georgia) are prominent examples of the South Appalachian Mississippian settlements.

The Mississippian Period in Georgia was ended by the increasing European presence in the Southeast. European diseases introduced by early explorers and colonists devastated native populations in some areas, and the desire for European goods and the trade in native slaves, and later, deerskins caused whole social groups to relocate closer to, or farther from, European settlements.

The result was the collapse of native chiefdoms as their populations were reduced; their authority structures were destroyed by European trade; and their people scattered across the region.

Many remnant populations came together to form such historically known native groups as the Cherokees, the Seminoles and the Creek Indians, who are descendants of the Mississippian Temple Mound Builders to the west.

These cultural collapses also coincided with the global climate change of the Little Ice Age. Scholars theorize drought and the reduction of maize agriculture, together with possible deforestation and overhunting by the concentrated populations, forced them to move away from major sites. This period ended with European contact in the 16th century.

It is clear these prehistoric peoples were ancestral to the Native American nations living in this region in the historic era, and modern population of Native Americans who trace their ancestry to Georgia. WGL West Georgia Living May/June 2017 45

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A

PERFECT PAIR Show off your creativity with recipes matched to a specific wine

STORY BY ROB DUVÉ PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY West Georgia Living May/June 2017 49

FOOD

Taking the guesswork out of

pairing food with wine

I

have never tired of pairing food with great wines. It allows me to express my creativity, and of course the result is a dish that perfectly designed for just one wine.

The idea of crafting a dish just for the enjoyment by a select few creates a certain euphoria in a cook’s mind. I compare it to that of skydiving for the first time. The exhilaration that comes from entering the uncharted territory of a free fall, blended with the uncertainty of not knowing whether your parachute will open, comes very close to explaining what it is like to create a dish that has never been tested by a crowd.

If the experiment fails, the end result feels very much like the chute didn’t open.

However, my most recent wine dinner at Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton gave all of the comfort of a soft landing in a grassy field on a warm day – and I couldn’t be happier to share a some of the recipes with you. After all, if you had jumped from a plane and safely returned to earth, you’d share the story with the world. So it is with these dishes and the wines that pair with them.

White Leek Cioppino with Pinot Grigio Cioppino is a seafood stew of sorts that comes from the San Francisco area and is very open to interpretation. It can use just about any seafood you has on hand, served in a seafood and tomato broth spiced with paprika. In this case, I was working with a Pinot Grigio. I didn’t want the heavy acidity from the tomatoes to fight with a subtle white wine, so I took my own direction.

4 large leeks, whites only, sliced thin and soaked in water to rinse 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 50 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

4 tablespoons butter ½ cup white wine 1 cup picked Dungeness crab (save the shells for stock) 2 cups half & half 2 cups seafood stock 2 dozen mussels 4 large scallops Sea salt and white pepper to taste Sliced green onions for garnish After the crab is picked, put the shells in a large sauce pan, cover with water and add ½ teaspoon of sea salt. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Strain the shells out and reduce until two cups is all that remains.

While that is working, heat a small skillet over medium high heat, add butter, and sear the scallops until each side is golden brown. Set aside.

In a pot large enough to make the soup, sauté leeks over medium high heat until they begin to fall apart and turn brown around the edges. Add garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes, then deglaze with white wine and reduce until the wine is almost evaporated. Add half & half and seafood stock and bring to a simmer. With an immersion blender, puree leeks and garlic until very smooth. Transfer to a large skillet and bring to a simmer. Add mussels and cook until they open. Divide the soup into four bowls, add cooked mussels and crab, then place seared scallop in the middle. Garnish with green

onions and serve.

Coffee Crusted Lamb with Fig Reduction with Merlot The chef who taught me to pair food told me to work with contrasts, and to offset flavors with the wines. If a wine is dry, use a touch of sweetness and so on. I’ve always used that advice, but I also like to make comparisons. The Merlot that I tasted for this event had very light coffee notes and was wonderfully dry, so it seemed natural to make a dish that played on coffee, yet had a touch of sweet to offset the dry component.

For the Lamb 2 14-ounce Frenched lamb racks 1 cup quality dark roast coffee, ground very fine ½ cup fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped ½ cup fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped 2 tablespoons granulated garlic 1 tablespoon fine sea salt 1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper 2 tablespoons butter Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix coffee, herbs, granulated garlic, sea salt, and pepper in a bowl and combine thoroughly. Coat the lamb completely and let stand for about 15 minutes so that the crust can adhere, and so the lamb can come to room temperature.

Heat a large skillet over high heat and add butter. When the butter just begins to darken, sear lamb for about 3 minutes on each side, making sure to stand it on end to sear the front. When completely seared, place in the preheated oven and roast for about 12 minutes, or until the lamb reaches an internal temperature of 125 degrees.

Remove and let rest for about five minutes to let the juices redistribute, then slice into chops.

Fig Reduction 2 cups dried black mission figs,

White Leek Cioppino with Pinot Grigio

chopped 2 cups Merlot ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup organic cane sugar 1 sprig rosemary ¼ cup honey Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste Add all ingredients except the honey to a large skillet, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Stir constantly and break up the figs as they cook.

Reduce into a slightly thick syrup and allow to cool with the rosemary sprig still in the reduction. When cooled, remove the rosemary sprig and whisk in honey. If the reduction is too thick, add a touch

Coffee Crusted Lamb with Fig Reduction with Merlot

more Merlot to reach the desired consistency.

Spoon over freshly cooked lamb racks.

intended it. This dish was deceptively simple, but it took each ingredient playing with the others to make it come together.

Cane Sugar Seared Ahi Tuna Tartare, Plum Hoisin, and Wild Mushrooms with Cabernet Sauvignon

For the Tuna Tartare

One of my guests made the comment that, standing on their own, none of these ingredients would have worked with a Cabernet Sauvignon, and that’s just the way I had

1 pound sushi grade ahi tuna, diced 2 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped 1 teaspoon garlic, very finely minced 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest 1 teaspoon honey

West Georgia Living May/June 2017 51

1 cup wild mushrooms 2 tablespoons butter Organic cane sugar for the crust First, sauté mushrooms in butter over high heat until they just begin to wilt. Set aside and hold until plating.

mushrooms on excess hoisin and serve.

Searing the sugar on the tuna tatare

The work of a chef is not always what people think it is. Sure, there’s the cooking but there’s always dealing with personnel, ordering, watching costs and margins, and all too often this gets a bit consuming.

Add all ingredients except the tuna and sugar to a small skillet and heat slightly. Allow to cool for about half an hour to allow the flavors to combine. Add sauce to the tuna and mix to coat completely. Let stand for 1 hour.

Afterwards, plate the tuna with a ring mold or spoon into a small mound. Sprinkle a good amount of sugar over the top and, using a torch, toast the sugar until it turns dark brown and smokes slightly.

Try to do this as fast as possible to avoid cooking the tuna any more than necessary.

It is events such as wine dinners and special events that allow a chef to get back to the passion and intensity of serving five courses in a short period of time, and for a small number of very special guests.

Hopefully, these recipes will serve you as well as they have served me.

For the Plum Hoisin 2 cups plums, peeled, pitted, and diced 1 cup soy sauce ½ cup red miso Paste ¼ cup honey 2 tablespoons butter

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat and sauté plums until soft and just beginning to brown. Place plums and remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. When plating, place a small amount of hoisin under the tartare with just a bit coming out of the side. Place

P. S. – I have to thank Chef Brian Ezell for the use of his wonderful fig reduction recipe, and Chef Adam Herrin for being my right hand through the last wine dinner. Chefs usually have chef friends and I certainly have two of the best. WGL

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GARDEN

Iconic shrubs and trees The history of “native” plants can be surprising

E

veryone in the South has a favorite flowering shrub or tree that, to them, symbolizes genteel Southern culture and the history of its lush gardens. What’s the first one you think of? Some say the imposing Southern Magnolia; others cherish the varied colors of the Confederate Rose or the sweet smell of the Gardenia.

Would you believe us if we told you that most of these aren’t originally from the Southeastern United States at all?

Many of our most beloved and familiar shrubs are from faraway continents, but they have been here so long that they are considered naturalized or domesticated plants. Unlike native plants which have been here since before the Europeans settled in North America, naturalized species originated in other countries; they have been here in the US long enought to be acclimated. Now they thrive as much as a native plant.

Let us tell you about a few of the most iconic trees and shrubs here in west Georgia. Most are easy to find at garden centers; others you can find at area Master Gardener plant sales, such as the Carroll County Mother’s Day plant sale.

Confederate Rose Since we’re talking about the South, it’s only fair to start with the Confederate Rose (Hibiscus mutabilis), also known as the Dixie Rosemallow or Cotton Rosemallow.

Surprisingly, this lovely lady hails from Southeast China, where it naturally grew in thickets along streams in the provinces of Hunan, Guangdong and the contested region called Taiwan. Hibiscus mutabilis was brought to England in 1690 by Lord Portland, and traveled to the US in the 1800s.

54 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

Confederate Rose

South

The Confederate Rose was once very common throughout the Southern US, especially during the Civil War era. It was a fast growing, inexpensive alternative to more expensive garden shrubs after the War. This shrub’s huge billowy flowers start out green to white and change to pink, then deep crimson by evening, hence the name mutabilis. Though the Confederate Rose Photos by Dorothy Rothbart can grow up to 15 feet tall in the form of a for many home landscapes, as well as public multi-trunked tree, it is parks and governmental buildings and usually grown as a large shrub here, where college campuses. An historic specimen still the chilly winters can cause it to die back to grows on the White House grounds that was the ground each year. transplanted by President Andrew Jackson from his home in Nashville, in memory of his Here’s an interesting tidbit of taxonomic beloved wife Rachel. information: The genus Hibiscus is part of the Malvaceae family, which When they first discovered the Southern includes Gossypium species (Cotton), Magnolia in North America back in the late Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra), 17th century, European botanists coveted and Hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle), used in this ancient and beautiful species. Its jams and teas. botanical name honors a French botanist, Pierre Magnol, who admired the tree so much that he transplanted it to Europe 300 Southern Magnolia years ago.

Yep, the Southern Magnolia is a native - born and bred in the swamplands and hardwood Crepe Myrtle forests of the Coastal South, as well as ranging from North Carolina to Florida, and Anyone who doesn’t recognize a Crepe Myrtle west to Arkansas and Texas.

(Lagerstroemia indica) in bloom isn’t even looking outside. What a sight in the middle This statuesque, broadleaf evergreen of summer, when every other garden plant is can grow up to 60-80 feet tall, with huge wilting in the heat and scorching sun! Rows glossy leaves and fragrant oversized white of purple, pink, white or red march down the blossoms. Southern Magnolia is a favorite center of the Georgia highways; in the yards of homes, schools, churches and along the STORY AND PHOTOS BY streetscapes of almost every small downtown, NANCY DOMBROWSKY & JOYCE MCARTHUR Crepe Myrtle absolutely means summertime

s of Southern Gardens

hern Magnolia bloom

to people living in the Southeast US. Back in 1759, Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerstrom’s Far East traders brought the first specimens of Crepe Myrtle from China to Europe. Nobody was very impressed with these little trees – in the cool dampness of France and England, they barely bloomed. In 1786, the botanist to King Louis XVI, Andre Michaux, introduced the tree to Charleston, where it was a great success. Crepe Myrtles loved the sun and heat of the Southeast, and they bloomed their little heads off.

Until the 1950’s, in the United States, Crepe Myrtles were unpruned, and grown naturally as large shrubs. By the 1960’s, builders and landscaping firms had realized that they could severely cut back the branches to keep the plants within bounds of the smaller residential lots, and still have plenty of flowers. Unfortunately, pollarding the trees, as it is technically known, has become a ubiquitous tradition, with no real benefit to the tree’s health or to its looks.

Many varieties of Lagerstroemia indica have since been crossbred for height and tolerance to mildew. The National Arboretum created

Oak Leaf Hydrangea

a series of hybrids, which they named after Native American tribes (Natchez, Arapaho, et al.) that are reliably tolerant and prolific bloomers.

Gardenia The Gardenia blossom is both pure and sensual. The plants are intolerant of Northern winters, so it saves its intoxicating fragrance for the South.

The first Gardenia arrived in Charleston in 1762. Dr. Alexander Garden was a Scottish physician and naturalist. He was living in Charleston and corresponding with John Ellis, an English merchant. John Ellis was a friend of Carolus Linnaeus, the fellow who developed binomial nomenclature as a means of identifying plants. In 1758, John Ellis visited a garden outside of London and inspected a very fragrant plant with double white flowers. It was thought to be variety of jasmine, but Ellis had his doubts. He conferred with Linnaeus and they agreed that it was not jasmine. John Ellis convinced Linnaeus to name this new plant after his friend Dr. Garden. It was named Gardenia jasminoides and in 1762, the first Gardenia

planted in the New World was planted in Dr. Garden’s garden.

There are about 142 species of gardenias, all belonging to the family Rubiaceae.

Gardenias are native to Asia, Africa, Australia and Polynesia. Gardenia jasminoides, also known as Gardenia grandiflora, originally came from Asia where it has been grown for over 1,000 years. Its yellow flowers are used as a dye in clothes and food. Gardenia taitensis, also known as Tahitian Gardenia, is native to Polynesia. It can grow as tall as 12 feet, and the white flowers have 5 to 9 petals. The Polynesians use the flowers as necklaces and in Hawaii they are known as a Lei. On some Pacific islands if you wear a gardenia behind your right ear, you are “available”.

If you wear it behind your left, you are “taken.”

Camillia The most popular camellia worldwide is not even recognized as a member of this family.

Camellia sinensis is better known as the tea plant.

May/June 2017 West Georgia Living 55

Gardenia

Purple Hydrangea

Bride Hydrangea

T’e became popular in China about 1700B.C. during the reign of Emperor Nung. The East India Company brought t’e from China to Europe. It arrived in London in 1650 known as Tay or Tee. It became so popular that the English government placed a tax on it. That tax resulted in the Boston Tea Party, and you know the rest of that story.

The East India Company wanted to start growing Camellia sinensis in England, but the Chinese sent Camellia japonica instead. Camellia japonica is probably the most important ornamental camellia, but it isn’t used to make tea. The first Camellia japonica was thought to be grown in Lord Petre’s greenhouse some time before 1739. The plants were first brought to New England in 1797, where the climate was too harsh and they had to be grown in greenhouses. Linnaeus named camellias for Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit missionary living in the Philippines.

There are over 200 species of camellia and as many as 20,000 varieties, but the two most common species in the United States are Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua and their hybrids. Camellia sasanqua varieties bloom in the fall from

October to December. Camellia japonica varieties bloom from January to March.

Hydrangea Hydrangea fossils dating back 40-65 million years have been found in both Asia and North America. The Hydrangea, or Hortensia genus, consists of about 70 species and over 600 cultivars. They are native to southern and eastern Asia, as well as the United States. In China and Japan, they were cultivated for ornamental purposes. In North America, they were used for medicinal uses.

Hydrangeas are divided into Hydrangea microphylla, which include Lacecaps and Mopheads; Hydrangea arborescens, which are known as Wild or Smooth hydrangeas; Hydrangea quercifolia, which are Oakleaf hydrangeas; and Hydrangea paniculata, or Pee Gee hydrangeas.

Two of these species are native to the United States. Hydrangea arborescens is found in Eastern North America. It was first collected by John Bartram in Pennsylvania in 1736. John sent shipments to his

friend Peter Collinson, who introduced Hydrangea arborescens to Britain in 1736. Hydrangea quercifolia is found in the Southeastern United States. William Bartram, John Bartram’s son, discovered this plant in Georgia in 1791. The name quercifolia comes from the shape of the leaves quercus, meaning oak, and folium, meaning leaf.

Hydrangea macrophilla plants are considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs in Chinese herbalism. The leaves are used to treat stomach cancer; juice from the leaves is used to treat coughs, colds and bronchitis; and the roots are used to treat fevers and indigestion. This plant is 26 times more potent than quinine.

No matter which of these iconic plants is your favorite – or maybe you cannot choose just one – enjoy their beauty and thank those industrious botanists that brought them to the South all those years ago. WGL Nancy Dombrowsky and Joyce McArthur, are Carroll County Master Gardener Extension Volunteers.

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ARTIST'S CORNER

The

SPARK

of inspiration Douglasville’s Richard Jacobus combines art, science - and a bit of welding - to produce unique works

I

t is often said that a teacher affects eternity; he or she can never tell where their influence stops.

Almost any successful person can name a special educator who greatly affected their course in life through a combination of encouragement, education and support, and Douglasville artist Richard Jacobus is no exception.

Jacobus has been an artist in some capacity for his entire adult life, but traces it all back to the influence of his 11th grade art teacher at Decatur High School, Judy Tatum.

“I found that she was very encouraging and I had an interest in her as a person,” said Jacobus, who has lived in Douglasville with his wife Connie since the 1980s. “I found that through practice, I got much better at what I was doing. Then I started seeing it as another means of expression. People I’d gone to elementary school with were like, ‘Richard I didn’t know you knew how to do this.’ I didn’t

STORY BY HAISTEN WILLIS PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY 58 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

know I knew how to do it either. It just sort of came out.”

At the time, he didn’t think of himself as a visual artist and was trying to cut his teeth in another popular art form: rock music. It became difficult to corral all the members of his band together at once for practice; some were more serious about it than others and he decided it’d be much better to captain his own ship in a way he could control singlehandedly.

That led him, of course, to art.

“At the time, it almost felt like I got too late a start,” Jacobus said. “But now that I’m old as dirt, I realize I was a spring chicken at that age.”

The process of doing so as a full-time profession came about gradually. Jacobus

spent a few years at Atlanta College of Art (now part of the Savannah College of Art and Design) and worked in various bartending and table-waiting gigs during his young adult years.

A welding class, of all things, became the spark that shaped his artistic career.

Welding was going to be a solid, dependable career that looked appealing to Jacobus at the time. While studying for his certification, he fell under the influence of another encouraging teacher, Robert Reko. And eventually, the road led all the way back to art.

Jacobus was one of the oldest students in the class and, at the beginning, one of the worst.

Through Reko’s help and encouragement, however, he gradually became one of the best. “He was another person who had enormous patience and was willing to teach what he May/June 2017 West Georgia Living 59

knew,” Jacobus said. “I often think about how, if he’d been discouraging and a hard task master, or unkind, I would have thrown in the towel.”

The final twist of fate came in the early 1990s.

Jacobus had been working for National Endowment for the Arts, and was laid off as part of the fallout from a controversial political decision to cut the organization’s funding.

It proved to become a blessing in disguise, as Jacobus began utilizing his welding skills to create metallic works of art. Then he started selling them.

“I came across a big pile of steel drum heads at a scrapyard in Atlanta,” he said. “I bought them and started cutting faces into them. One thing led to another and, long story short, I had to realize that maybe I can make some extra money doing this. I started doing more and more metal work, which eventually took over my painting studio.”

In 1993, he left a welding fabrication job in Atlanta, took some money from his savings account, and decided to try art full-time – not knowing whether it would work.

It did.

He created metal work exclusively for many years, and it wasn’t until the end of the last decade that painting began to seep back into Jacobus’ work routine.

“I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out, and it didn’t happen,” Jacobus said. “I just kept going with it.”

Though the steel drums heads and outdoor metal work, Jacobus accidentally became an early purveyor of a trend that came to be known as garden art. He rode the trend’s 60 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

growing wave through much of the 90s, utilizing a studio at his Douglasville home, where he still works today.

Eventually, Jacobus tired of being part of such a big trend, especially as more and more low-quality work began flooding the market, and began creating more indoor work to complement the garden art.

Today, he continues working out of his home studio and mainly sells work at art shows in the Southeast and points north, such as Ohio. A trip up north in 2001 eventually led to his re-entering the painting profession.

After stumbling onto an Amish community off the beaten path while heading to an art show, he fell in love with the culture and landscape, which has inspired a series of paintings of the Ohio sky.

“There’s a lot of countryside up there most people never see,” he said. “It’s not near the expressway. It’s like something from another time period. There’s a big open sky, barns, buggies and houses. That whole world has been a big inspiration for my paintings for a long time.”

now for more than two decades.

He’s also made time for personal projects, such as an angel painting donated to his church, Bright Star United Methodist.

Believe it or not, it took some convincing and slicing through red tape to donate the piece to the church, but it has hung there

“I enjoy making things that have a certain quality to them and a certain character, things people can appreciate and enjoy owning,” said Jacobus. “Even though it’s been very hard and difficult, I’m pretty secure with the idea that I’ve done what God has called me to do.” WGL

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Art by and for the p “Sunburst” by Jeri Rasey

“Looking for Dinner” by Lee Long

The Rose”

“Looking out for Our President” by Mary Parker

For the past 11 years, a group of Carroll County artists have been exhibiting their works at the Tracy Stallings Community Center on South White Street in Carrollton. Their goal is to keep the walls of the center always filled with art to be enjoyed by all passersby. The exhibit is changed every three months, and all local artists who wish to display their works are invited to do so.

62 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

people

“Progression” by Jeri Rasey

by Tena Poteat

“Bucket of Sunflowers” by Tena Poteat

“Peaceful Place” by Linda Foster

May/June 2017 West Georgia Living 63

BOOKS

Canine BEAST — or Man’s Best Friend?

Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon. New York: Knopf, 2016.

T

oo often, we hear in the news variations on the same tragic story: an innocent child mauled or killed by a savage dog, often identified as a pit bull or a pit-bull mix. Few viewers or readers of those stories ever look behind the graphic details to the more complex truth.

Perhaps no breed of dog has been the subject of more fear and hatred than the so-called pit bull breed. I say “”so-called” because, as Bronwen Dickey tells us, “The term ‘pit bull’ is an elastic, imprecise, and subjective phrase” that includes at least four different breeds, in addition to a number of other, similar breeds.

Dickey’s thoroughly researched and somewhat controversial book explores the complexities of the history and status of the pit bull. In the process of providing more accurate information on the breed and its often-undeserved reputation, Dickey traces the development of the symbiotic relationship between dogs and mankind, and shows how that complicated relationship has helped to define both species. Her book provides insights into the cultural phenomenon of the pit bull, and in the process, she shines a light on attitudes toward race and socio-economic class; animal rights; and other facets of our culture that impact how we regard one type of dog.

The analysis is both wide-ranging and deep,

ROBERT C. COVEL 64 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

leading one reviewer to call her book “one of the best dog books you will ever read.”

Dickey presents details on the history of the four breeds included in the term “pit bull”: the American pit bull terrier, the Staffordshire terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier and the American bully.

As those breeds developed over the centuries, organizations such as the American Kennel Club have changed their positions regarding the breeds, reflecting society’s altering views of the dogs.

From man’s earliest involvement with canines (as Canus lupus became Canus lupus familiaris), Dickey presents a fascinating history of the development of the pit bull.

She discusses the brutal world of dogfights and bull baiting in the 16th century, leading to honest and sometimes distressing depictions of the modern dogfighting subculture (which some readers will find disturbing). Her book is filled with facts, statistics, and anecdotes on pit bulls in their least favorable light.

She discusses pit bulls as security dogs, as attack dogs, and as the ultra-masculine status symbol of the urban world of drug-dealers and the criminal element.

While Dickey does not shrink from these images, she does give thoughtful insights into canine psychology, and the neglect and abuse that many dogs experience, contributing to their development into the cliché we often have of the pit bull.

She also examines how media portrayals sometimes contribute to the cliché.

Many sources have included erroneous information on pit bull physiology, supporting the image of an animal bred to kill. The term “pit bull” is often used incorrectly to describe an animal, perhaps because an eyewitness used the term. To counteract those violent details, Dickey includes convincing statistics to refute the pit bulls' reputation for violence.

To balance the images of brutality and bloodshed, Dickey includes other details and photographs that depict the pit bull in a far more favorable light. She tells of a nonprofit called the Coalition to Unchain Dogs and its founder Lori Hensley, whose mission is to encourage people to free their dogs from their chains. The

Coalition helps people to get veterinary care, to build fences for their dogs, and to give their animals happier lives.

In these sections of the book, the depictions of dogs chained and ignored, if not actively abused, are distressing; and Dickey’s explanations of the developmental impact of such inhumane treatment give some explanations beyond the cliché of the dog as being vicious.

The book also presents the positive side of the pit bull, reminding us of Helen Keller’s dog, identified as a bull terrier, as well as Pete, the beloved dog with the ringed eye in the old-time “Our Gang” movie features.

Indeed, Dickey lists many celebrities who, throughout the years have owned bull-and-terrier dogs, including such diverse people as Anna Pavlova, Theodor (Dr. Seuss) Geisel, and President Jimmy Carter. The pit bull appears in many photographs as beloved family pets, and they are included in early films as canine heroes, long before Rin Tin Tin and Bullet appeared on the screen. As Dickey explains, the reputation of the pit bull breeds changed over the years, leading to the modern negative portrayal that has led to the typical mindset.

Dickey’s wide-ranging consideration of the pit bull is multi-faceted, and her style of writing varies depending on the subject matter. Dickey is an award-winning journalist, and a large part of the book is written in straight-forward journalistic prose. That style adds credence to her considered opinions, as the use of statistics, documented facts, and support from authorities gives the book a sense of solid accuracy. That style will appeal to the reader who prefers solid non-fiction.

feel more empathy for an often-misunderstood breed of dogs.

Our stories are filled with beloved dogs such as Odysseus’ faithful dog Argos and pop-culture canines, including Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and the Little Rascals’ Pete. The dark side of the canine image includes the three-headed dog Cerberus, and modern devil-dogs, such as Stephen King’s Cujo The image of the pit bull, as Dickey reveals, is as complex as this entire continuum. While the book’s subject matter may not appeal to some readers, other readers will come away with a much more balanced view of the American icon, the pit bull. WGL

Author Biography Bronwen Dickey is an award-winning journalist and essayist, and has won the Lowell Thomas travel Journalism Award and a MacDowell Colony residency grant. She writes regularly for the Oxford American and has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times, Slate, and The Best American Travel Writing 2009, and Outside. She has also appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered. She is the daughter of the late poet, novelist, and critic James Dickey. She lives in North Carolina.

Her style changes, however, as she considers the relationship between dogs and man.

“There may be no creature on earth that lends itself to as much love, hate, and mythmaking as the domestic dog. There is no animal that our culture is more vested in, no animal with whom we spend more of our lives.” In such passages as this, Dickey’s prose approaches poetry (appropriate for the daughter of a great poet). When she reports anecdotes that add narratives to her content, her prose is less journalistic, allowing the reader to

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West Georgia Living May/June 2017 65

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West Georgia businesses answer consumer questions Prenatal Education

“A Rainy Day”

Tanner Health System. .............................67

Scott & Ellen McBrayer/Jones Wynn Funeral Home ................................................... 70

Heart Disease Carroll County Animal Hospital. ..................68

The Importance of the 21st Century Librarian & Library The Heritage School ................................69

66 West Georgia Living May/June 2017

NG Turf Bringing you The Best of the Best: Tiftuf’s Remarkable Legacy NG Turf. ................................................ 71

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What every West Georgian should know about Prenatal Education Q.Why should I participate in prenatal education?

A. Whether a first-time mother or someone who’s been down this road a time or three before, prenatal education can offer a host of benefits for the mother, her partner and even the baby. While prenatal education once focused on the birth process and pain relief techniques during delivery, modern prenatal education includes advice for maintaining a healthy pregnancy, how partners can be supportive of the process and the latest techniques for safely caring for a newborn.

A 2012 peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Perinatal Education found that prenatal education helps even experienced mothers gain confidence in understanding the labor and delivery process, had a higher success rate with breastfeeding, needed fewer analgesic medications during labor and were happier with their childbirth experience.

Megan Grilliot, MD West Georgia OB/GYN

Qualifications:

Dr. Grilliot is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology with West Georgia OB/GYN, part of Tanner Medical Group. She earned her medical degree at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where she also completed her internship and residency.

Q.What prenatal education options are available in our region?

A. Tanner Health System offers two regional maternity centers: the W. Steve Worthy Maternity Center at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton and the Maternity Center at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica. Each offers a newly revamped approach to prenatal education with two free, four-hour “boot camps” to help mothers-to-be and their partners prepare for delivery and newborn care.

The Pregnancy Boot Camp focuses on the labor and delivery process— including the stages of labor, comfort

techniques and understanding postpartum care— while the Baby Care Boot Camp provides advice on caring for a newborn, covering such topics as choosing a pediatrician, breastfeeding, understanding emotional and physical changes to the mother’s body after delivery and more.

Mothers-to-be can register for these free classes online at Tanner.org/MaternityClasses or by calling 770.214.CARE. Q.What if I don’t have time to take a class in person?

A. The benefits of prenatal education are so tremendous that Tanner has sought out a host of other options to help mothers-to-be receive reliable information to prepare for delivery and newborn care. The Tanner iBirth app, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, provides a wealth of instructive articles, videos and advice to help women through their pregnancy, delivery and the first year of their newborns’ lives. Tanner also offers the Understanding Childbirth Online eClass, an interactive, web-based program that provides videos, activities and stories to help women prepare for childbirth. And a new e-newsletter from Tanner, My Baby Expectations, provides month-by-month updates tailored to your pregnancy.

You can learn more about these options online at TannerWomensCare.org.

To learn more, visit TannerWomensCare.org or call 770.214.CARE.

Advancing Ready Healthy pregnancies, healthy deliveries and healthy babies — it’s maternity care beyond measure.

Free resources from Tanner to help new moms prepare for parenthood.

Whether it’s your first baby or your fifth, Tanner Women’s Care is here to help make sure you’re ready for your delivery and beyond.

Find the tools that work for you: Pregnancy and Baby Care Boot Camps – Nurse educator-led workshops that

prepare you for childbirth and caring for your newborn.

Understanding Childbirth Online eClass – An amazing, interactive, web-based

course with videos, activities and stories to teach you the essentials of childbirth and newborn care.

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stage of your pregnancy and your baby’s development from conception to age 1, providing valuable baby care advice.

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What every West Georgian should know about heart disease in their pets.

Q

A

Jason Harden, D.V.M

Carroll County Animal Hospital

Qualifications: Dr. Jason Harden is a native of Carrollton, GA. He graduated from Oak Mountain Academy and continued on to the University of Georgia where he received his degree in Biology and his doctorate in veterinary medicine. His interests in veterinary medicine include surgery, exotic medicine, and ophthalmology. Dr. Harden is married to Chloe Harden, and they have 2 children, Maggie and Reese. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Animal Hospital Association. He is the chairman of the Oak Mountain Academy school board, a member of the Carrollton Lions Club, and on the board of directors of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

As our pets age, just as in humans, one of the most common causes of death is heart disease. Heart disease can occur from a variety of causes but the main three are: infections, irregular heartbeats, or degeneration (wearing out). Owners will often ask, “what are the symptoms I should be looking for?�.

All three of these can have similar symptoms that you might notice at home. Owner will generally report their pet doesn’t have as much energy as they have had in the past. For example, when an owner generally takes their pet’s for a 2 mile walk and suddenly their pet wants to sit down and go no further after half. Owners may also often experience that their pets will begin to cough. This cough will normally be worse after exercise but may occur throughout the day. Pets with underlying heart disease also may have episodes of collapsing. If a pet develops an irregular heartbeat this may cause them to collapse from inadequately pumping blood to their brain. Based on the symptoms and a thorough physical examination, which should include listening to your pet’s heart, looking at the color of their gums, watching their breathing patterns, and feeling their pulses, we are usually able to narrow down the scope of our disease investigation. What are the techniques that we will use to accurately diagnose your pet’s heart disease? After the species specific infectious diseases have been ruled out such as heart worm disease, veterinarians will take X-rays, perform an electrocardiogram (EKG), and perform

an echocardiogram. Each of these tests will tell us different information about your pet’s heart health and will also help us to determine if heart disease is the only disease that they are showing symptoms for.     Once the appropriate disease has been diagnosed, treatment for each disease is very specific.

Medications are generally broken into medicine to rid the body of excess fluids ( diuretics ), medicines to help the blood move more efficiently out of the heart ( ACE inhibitors), medications to help the heart pump harder (positive inotropic agents), or antiarrhythmia medications. Treatment will be targeted towards providing more good years together without side effects of the medications. If your pet is having any of these symptoms of coughing, lethargy, or collapsing, schedule an appointment for one of our doctors at either location to examine your pet.Â

For more information, call 770-832-2475 or 770-834-1000 or visit www.carrollcountyah.com

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What every West Georgian should know about...

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 21ST CENTURY LIBRARIAN AND LIBRARY

The library can get quiet during exams or a break for mindfulness meditation, but make no mistake: gone are the days of shushing and quizzes on the Dewey Decimal system. The 21st century skills learned in the library are without boundaries. A firm mix of past, present, and future methods lead to the development of skills and the use of tools that will support a lifelong love of learning.   1 .Search the question, not the answer My students often think that I’ve read all the books in the library and I make sure to let them know that this is definitely not the case. As the librarian, I am here to help find the best way to ask a question. A 21st century librarian works to harness curiosity and wonder and give it some structure. Learning is not a linear process and the library is a lab for problem solving through trial and error.

Rivka Genesen Qualifications After working in publishing in New York for 8 years, Rivka came on with The Heritage School in 2014. She has an undergraduate degree from Rutgers College, a Masters in Library Science from Queens College, and is currently completing a certification in school media at The University of West Georgia. In addition, she has trained in mindfulness practices with Mindful Schools and is on the reading committee for The Georgia Peach Book Award.

they are- a “good� reader, a “bad� reader, and “I don’t like reading� reader. Those words are my cue: Who a person is as a reader is not a question of morality. Who we are as people and as readers is always changeable; a “bad� reader might not have encountered their passion just yet and “good� reader might be “lazy� in their teenage years. A librarian is here to guide you through that process. Maybe that tv show you love was based on a book series, maybe a love of baseball will lead you to explore oral histories.

5. Read together as a social activity

Take a minute and conjure up your best memory of reading. Mine are of my father reading “The Secret Garden� from the rocking chair to me and my younger sister in our bunk beds, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the lawn of the public library during “Lunch with the Librarian� in the summer. Storytime has that old school ring to it, but it’s a classic for a reason. Reading provides stress relief, mental agility, 2. Develop critical thinking skills social and emotional learning skills like empathy and compassion, Literacy does not begin and end with print books. Information comes and healthy sleeping habits (Buchanan, 2016). We have regular family from all different directions and it’s vitally important to recognize the literacy events, like pajama storytime (milk and cookies) to promote contents of what we consume. Where does Siri get her answers from, what kids want and need- to be read to long after they can read on anyway? Young people have an ease of use with digital tools and an their own. enviable adaptability, but this does not necessarily translate into true  References understanding of the tools they are using. Elegant skills are taught Boyd, D. (2017, January 05). Did media literacy backfire? Retrieved March 8, 2017, from through practice. https://points.datasociety.net/did-media-literacy-backfire-7418c084d88d#.kk8b99d4x

Buchanan, J. (2016, May 02). Parents: Get Caught Reading and Improve Your Child’s Literacy.

Retrieved March 8, 2017, from http://www.cricketmedia.com/blog/parents-get-caughtreading-and-improve-your-childs-literacy Scholastic. (n.d.). Kids and family reading report. Retrieved March 9, 2017, from http://www. scholastic.com/readingreport/reading-aloud.htm

3. Ethical use

We’ve transitioned from the industrial age to the information age.

Ideas are commodities and so an appreciation for the rights of the creator is necessary. Basic knowledge of copyright is on par with Rivka Genesen, MLS The Heritage School knowing what plagiarizing is. Ethics extend too to being a good digital citizen in a world of social media.

Learn more at 4. Discover who you are, as a reader

Kids often introduce themselves to me with an explanation of who

www.heritageschool.com

Come Experience Heritage.

The Heritage School is an independent school in Newnan, Georgia serving Pre-Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade students and families from diverse communities. Inspired by some of the very EHVW WHDFKHUV LQ *HRUJLD FKLOGUHQ ÀQG EDODQFH at The Heritage School - balance that empowers them to think creatively, act independently, and feel compassionately.

APPLY ONLINE NOW www.heritageschool.com Bus Service Available from Carrollton To schedule a tour contact: Lory Pendergrast, Director of Admissions admissions@heritageschool.com 2093 Highway 29 North | Newnan, GA 30263 | 678.423.5393

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West Georgia businesses answer consumer questions

Scott McBrayer Ellen Wynn McBrayer Jones-Wynn Funeral Home & Crematory and Meadowbrook Memory Gardens As always, we remain “A Family Serving Families®....Since 1950”

Qualifications

Scott & Ellen McBrayer are both licensed funeral directors and embalmers. Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory has served our community since 1950. We keep our funeral home & crematory synonymous with its name & reputation of serving & caring for families. We are three generations carrying on one tradition. We offer Peace of Mind with the highest quality of service and affordable options. Our funeral home family is always available to help you clarify or answer questions you might need help with.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

What every West Georgian should know about...

“A Rainy Day” Have you ever lost power during a storm?

Our entire neighborhood lost power during a recent storm. The moments that followed in our home were precious moments that will always be memories. We all realize that the most important things in life are not “things” and sometimes it takes unusual moments to remind us. When we lost power it turned into: family all together talking, flashlights in hand, telling stories, calming our fears of a storm, then more laughing. This got us thinking....wonder. How often do we talk to people - I mean really talk? No cell phones ringing and dinging. No TV in the background. No distractions.

In today’s world, there is so much going on around us. We’re busier than ever before. We’re bombarded with information from newspapers, magazine, TV, radio and the internet. We’re sharing information with family and friends on Facebook, Twitter and by text messages.

But how often do we really talk to people? For some people, good conversation is truly a lost art. Talking with the people in our lives who matter most – our spouses, parents, children, best friends – can have a positive impact on our lives and our relationships. Unlike social media, talking with loved ones is unfiltered. It’s not putting your best foot forward. Talking allows us to see the real person and can help us get to know our loved ones in new and different ways.

Sometimes, we think we know the people we are closest to – and they think they know us. But, there’s a so much more we might not know. Old stories about family and friends. The things we value most in life.

Hidden talents. 1st Job, high school moments, not the important milestone moments but the many lifechanging details along the way. It’s the small moments

that shape us. Have you asked your child who their favorite teacher is or their favorite song? In funeral service, we see how quickly someone’s life can change forever. Remember, we are all pushed by our demanding schedules but years from now as we look back it’s the small moments with our loved ones we cherish most and not the work deadlines. Sitting down with our loved ones to talk about their lives can be rich and satisfying.

Learning about memorable events and people, places and favorite activities, values, and lessons learned can help bring us closer to those we care about most.

Everyone has a story to tell and there is always something more that we can learn about the one-ofa-kind lives of our loved ones. Some families may find it useful to document what they learn. It could be a diary. Some families make video or audio recordings – especially with older relatives – so that important family voices are permanently documented. Maybe it’s a simple document on a computer or a scrapbook. To remember these stories is to remember and keeping their spirit alive in your lives.

What better way to honor your loved one than with their own life stories told to remember and honor them at the end of life.

What is most important is that you take the time to honor and remember the people who matter.

Taking time, whether it’s a funeral, a memorial service or some other creative, out-of-the-box event, is incredibly important. It allows people who are grieving a death to begin the healing process. Funerals allow family and friends to support and comfort one another. Getting through grief is never easy, but these services can help.

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Merett Alexander

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NG TURF BRINGS YOU THE BEST OF THE BEST TIFTUF’S REMARKABLE JOURNEY

As one of the Southeast’s premier turf growers, NG Turf keeps a close eye on emerging scientific advances in turfgrass research. “We’ve been following the development of TifTuf™ for years,” explains Aaron McWhorter, President of NG Turf. “No single turf variety has created this much excitement before… and it is certainly well deserved. TifTuf™ is like no other bermudagrass on the market today. It’s like it was created just for our Georgia climate!”

What’s so special about TifTuf™?

VP Sales & Marketing

TifTuf™ sets the new industry standard for sustainability and drought resistance. Not only does Qualifications it actually need less water to thrive, it boasts superior She has been with the NG Turf for 30+ years. wear tolerance, early spring green up, excellent fall color A graduate of Auburn University with a major retention, and rapid grow-in rates. in Agricultural Economics and a minor in Turfgrass Management. She has been working in golf course sales for the past decade.

How does switching to TifTuf™ sod benefit me as a homeowner?

For one, you’ll save money on irrigation each year.

TifTuf™ actually needs about 40% less water than other popular varieties. Plus, it’s easy to maintain, has

a beautiful bright green color, and fills in quickly after injury. Even in our hot summers, TifTuf™ will stay green after other varieties have gone dormant due to water stress. And installing TifTuf™ is easy. Since it’s is a warm season turf, going dormant in winter, TifTuf™ can be harvested and installed year round.

How did turf scientists discover TifTuf? TifTuf™ was originally bred in 1992 at the University of Georgia’s Tifton campus. It was one of more than 27,000 cultivars studied in a search for improved drought resistance. Throughout more than two decades of testing, Tiftuf™ proved itself to be the best performing variety under drought conditions in North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Questions?

Call NG Turf at (770) 832-8608.

Advancing Health

Advancing Women’s Health and Happiness IN ALL THE STAGES OF THEIR LIVES.

From gynecology and pregnancy care to menopause and bone health, and from beautifully designed centers to the region’s finest physicians, Tanner Women’s Care offers remarkable care and individualized attention.

• Obstetrics and maternity care

• Gynecology and urology services

• Maternity education resources

• Behavioral health services

• Cancer and breast health centers

• Minimally invasive and robotic-assisted surgical options

• Women’s heart care

Experience care that is as special as you. Visit TannerWomensCare.org or call 770.214.CARE to find a women’s health specialist.