The Office Cat
Talk of the town
Wilkes County Emergency Medical Technician

Bruce Bailey is credited with saving the life of a Banks County football player in the September 29 game with the Washington Wilkes Tigers. When the player was seriously injured during the game in Banks County, the team's trainer and medical personnel were having trouble preparing him for the helicopter which was coming to pick him up and take him to an Atlanta hospital. Bruce, who has been a volunteer EMT with the Washington Wilkes Tigers for 13 years, was called on to assist and immediately assessed the situation and went to work. When the helicopter crew arrived, they assured the Banks County people that the student was in good hands because Bruce had been the one who had instructed and trained them.The student had excessive bleeding and after arriving at the hospital had a shunt placed to relieve pressure on his brain. He is now in a private room and his mother who is a Registered Nurse credits Bruce with saving her son's life. She wants to meet Bruce and wants her son to meet him, too. They have spoken by phone on several occasions and Bruce and Tina (Bruce's wife) are keeping in touch with them.

Jeffrey Roth continues to work with the #49 Nextel Cup team owned by BAM Racing. He works in the suspension shop Monday through Friday and on race day he is the rear tire carrier in the pits. During the Kansas Speedway Race the weekend of September 29, the #49 team did not qualify on speed for the race, but Jeffrey was honored when he received a phone call and was asked to assist another team during the race on Sunday, October 1. He served as rear tire carrier on the pit crew for the #37 car driven by Bill Elliott, former NASCAR Champion. Jeffrey met Bill several years ago at a race in Charlotte, N.C., when Jeffrey was about 12 years old. Jeffrey said that he never would have dreamed that he would ever work with Bill on his pit crew. Jeffrey has also been assisting a Busch team in the pits. He has been rear tire carrier with the #25 Marines car driven by Ashton Lewis Jr. during the Busch series races. Jeffrey is the son of Darrell and Sonya Roth of Washington-Wilkes.

When we received an advertisement from the Augusta Lynx this week, we found out that the Director of Corporate Sales & Community Relations is Donna Branch whose brother, Del Branch, his wife Bonnie, and daughter Grace Ann, live in Washington-Wilkes. Del is with the State Patrol and has just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. . . Donna encourages everybody to attend the Lynx hockey games, adding that it's good family entertainment. They have lots of church groups, clubs, and family groups who attend.

Preston and Katharine Sanders of Washington-Wilkes were having dinner in Brunswick a couple of weeks ago with David and Betty Ann Boswell Louis of Brunswick. Betty Ann is a lifelong friend of Katharine and Betty Ann's mother was Katharine's favorite teacher. Betty Ann's dad was the late Sidney Boswell who was superintendent of Glynn County Schools for many years and had connections in Taliaferro and Greene counties. At dinner, the conversation turned to college days at Mercer University and the Sanderses found out that Betty Ann and Jimmy Newsome, are cousins. Jimmy and Preston were classmates at Mercer. Jimmy is a native Wilkes Countian and is now pastor of the Vero Beach Baptist Church in Florida. . . . When Betty Ann got home after the dinner, she got a call from Jimmy inviting her to a celebration of the 85th birthday of his mother, Jenelle Newsome of Washington-Wilkes. Sidney Boswell was Jenelle's first cousin ... Preston and Katharine live in the loft apartment above Petal Pushers Christmas and plan to build a house in the Sandy Cross area.

The talk of the town this week is the amethyst dig at Jackson Crossroads. It's called Dixie Euhedrals and is owned by Rodney Moore who hosts digs, usually on weekends. I haven't been out there, but I am going. The way I understand it is that a person, corporation, or company pays a fee and is allowed to dig at the huge hole that has been made. A machine brings a load up to the surface for the buyer to dig

through. The pictures that I have seen of amethysts found at the dig are huge and beautiful. I even thought that the "throw-aways" were beautiful. Last week there were about 100 diggers, coming from as far away as California (flying in) and Florida. I think they're not digging for amethysts to make jewelry, but for collectors. Read more about it elsewhere in The News-Reporter.

The Mayflower Coffee Shop will be closing this month, leaving another empty building Downtown, and I am so sorry. Terry and Milton Roberts have provided a needed service to Washington- Wilkes people as well as visitors. . . . Verizon has moved into the corner building formerly occupied by Grate Fires.

An article in the Athens Banner- Herald this week says not to be concerned about taking in your hummingbird feeders too early and causing the hummers to leave before it's time. The writer said don't worry about that because the hummers know when it's time to go and absolutely nothing will stop them from going. He did say that it might be good if we left our feeders up through November or even through the winter for some stragglers that get left behind and will need the energy to cross the Gulf of Mexico. And there's also the possibility during the winter of seeing a rare species of hummingbird at our feeder.

Mule Day at Callaway Plantation this year will be held two days - Friday and Saturday, October 13- 14. . . . The Rayle Ramble is Saturday with lots of interesting attractions. . . . The Rotary Pancake Supper is October 20, and that night is the last home game for the Tigers, unless there are playoff games I don't know about.

In a letter to the editor this week,

Probate Judge Jim Burton announces that he will not seek reelection at the end of his present term which expires in 2008. By that time he will have served five terms. He says he is announcing his retirement early to give prospective candidates plenty of time to investigate the possibility of seeking the office.

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