Four-year-old Anne Marie Burriss watched the program

about the Washington-Wilkes Tour of Home which was aired on Channel 12 Augusta last week. She was watching with her adopted grandparents, Jo and Buzzy Randall, and her dad, Trevin Burgess, along with Dean Mansfield, were being interviewed by TV personality Mary Morrison. When the program was over, Anne Marie seemed a little puzzled and asked Jo and Buzzy, "How is my daddy going to get out of that TV?" She was still a little puzzled during the afternoon, checking the television and asking if her daddy was out yet.

How many times since Monday have you dialed a local telephone number and heard "We're sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed"? Monday was the day we have to start dialing the 706 along with the local number. I might have dialed right a couple of times this week.

Market Day on The Square resumes May 1 and Washington First is trying to build it into a big event with lots of participation. Wanted are church and youth groups doing bake sales, people with arts and crafts items, Grandma's canned goods, and other vendors. Booths are available for $10, and limited tent space is available. You can call 706-678-2013 to reserve your spot.

Jon Griggs will be declared a Registered Nurse when he graduates from the Medical College of Georgia in May. Jon's aim is to be a Nurse Anesthetist. Soon after graduation he and his family, wife Noelle, and daughters Brenna and Maggie, will be moving to Fort Worth, Texas, where Jon will be associated with Cook Medical Center in the Neo-natal Intensive Care unit. This experience will give Jon the background he needs to apply for admittance into the nurse anesthetist program. His dad, Jim Griggs, says it's great that Jon can have this opportunity, but Fort Worth surely is a long way from Washington-Wilkes.

Sherree and Ken Bufford and daughter Kimi are moving to the Augusta area where they will be living in Sherree's grandmother's house and Sherree will begin training to become a Registered Nurse. The family has been a vital part of the First Baptist Church, Washington, for many years and will be missed.

Celeste Stover is retiring after serving as Director of the Bartram Trail Regional Library for 17 years and a total of 33 years with the library. She will be honored at a reception on Sunday, April 23. Celeste says she will be living in Canton where daughter Sarah Jane lives, and she doesn't plan to do anything significant right away. She has done much for the library and the community during these 33 years.

Dr. Mark Waters is a lecturer for the Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, and is the guest lecturer for the Spring Lecture Series sponsored by the Historic Macon Foundation. Thursday his lecture is on "Confederate Treasury Gold: the Track of the Confederate Treasury from Richmond, Virginia, to Washington, Georgia, and its final Disposition." The lecture was held in the Sidney Lanier Cottage House Museum. Friday's lecture is "Civil Liberties in Wartime: A History of Military Tribunals and Other Wartime Restrictions from 1845 to the Present," held at the City Club of Macon.

The Washington-Wilkes Tour of Homes 2006, is history and it was a good one. The report Monday was that we had about 800 people attending, which is a little less than was expected, but it brought attention to Washington-Wilkes and everybody seemed to enjoy the day tours and the candlelight tours.

This tour seemed to bring more people Downtown than in years past and that was beneficial to Downtown businesses and shops. Carol McTier at The Garden Party says that she had a great day business wise and that she thinks the fact that the houses on the tour were fairly close together and people were able to walk from one attraction to another and this brought them to the Downtown area. . . . Debbie Jackson at Tena's Jewelry and Gifts also said that it was a wonderful day and that she doesn't remember being as busy on a tour day as this Saturday. She said that people were walking and looking, but they were also buying. . . . Henry Harris says that it was a very good day for all three of his Petal Pushers stores. . . . I heard that the Mayflower Coffee Company did so well the three days that they stayed open extra hours.

Evelyn George of WashingtonWilkes and Connie King of Decatur, Ala., enjoyed sipping coffee and enjoying goodies in the Mayflower and watching people and visiting with some of them. Connie said she enjoyed the "good Southern hospitality." . . . Many people took a break, using the benches in the Downtown area and doing some people-watching. . . . About 30 volunteer drivers drove the tour cars to get tourists to their destinations conveniently and efficiently, adding to the day's pleasure. . . . The Robert Toombs House set a record for visitors with more than 400 people signing the guest register.

A young man from Penland, Texas, found Vicky Moses' Second Time Around Mini-Farm on the internet, decided to take a break, made a reservation, and thoroughly enjoyed Vicky's animals - espe cially the llamas - and the tour.

Washington-Wilkes gets mentioned in a lot of nationwide publications. A note and a clipping from Susan Aldrich of Milledgeville, native Wilkes Countian, had the Tour listed in its April Happenings, giving details and the phone number. The publication was American Profile, Southeast edition. . . . Gerald Lyle West of Surprise, Arizona, a cousin of Priscilla Maxwell, sent a clipping from The Arizona Republic, newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona. The clipping listed the "Top Ten Lovey-dovey lodgings in the country - the top romantic bedand breakfasts and country inns for 2006, from American Historic Inns Inc." Washington Plantation Bed and Breakfast in WashingtonWilkes was number 10 on the list.