RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Office Cat
* Shirley Gunter has scheduled another performance of Handel's Messiah during this year's Christmas and holiday season. The program will be sponsored by the Arts Council of Washington on Sunday, November 25. Shirley says, "If there is anyone who has sung the Messiah before and would like to sing it again, but did not sing with us in 2004, I would like for them to call me at 706-678-7182." The String Ensemble from the Augusta Symphony will again be accompanying the chorus. * Boy Scout Mason Klaus is working on his Eagle Scout rank. One of his projects for earning the rank is cleaning the School Street Cemetery off Whitehall Street. Saturday he directed about seven boys and fiveadults in picking up "modern trash" and filling in graves. * Sunday, September 2, from 6 to 9 p.m., Hanna's House Productions will be filming for a new Washington-Wilkes commercial on The Square in Downtown Washington. The producers need extras to come for the filming. Dress casually because it might take three hours or so. Anyone interested can call Ashley Barnett at 706-678-5111 or Hanna's House at 706-678-6256. * Sometime between midnight and the early morning of August 2, thieves removed the chain link fence in sections behind the basketball court at the Ashley Park Playground. Small parts of the fence were found near the side of the road leading toward the trailer park behind the guest side of the Tiger football stadium, but nothing has been recovered. The Washington-Wilkes Parks and Recreation Department is asking all of us to be alert and report to the police if we notice or even hear about anyone destroying public properties. Removing the fencing around a playground could be deadly for children playing. . . . I've heard of thieves stealing manhole covers in Athens (to sell for scrap metal) and even going into homes and stripping the copper wiring. * Lloyd Johnson III and his Master's Wildlife Service have been notified that a picture of one of Lloyd's taxidermy projects has been selected for the cover of the annual catalogue of Van Dykes Taxidermy Supply Co. in Woonsocket, South Dakota. Lloyd says the company is a national company with a longtime history and a top-notch reputation. The picture is one that Mercer Harrismade of a Nyala antelope with a spiral horn from Zimbabwe. Lloyd's son Robert assisted with the project. This is quite an honor for Lloyd. * The News-Reporter and Radio Shack will be closed on Monday, September 3, for the Labor Day holiday. Early deadlines for news and advertisements will apply. All classified and legal advertisements should be in our officeby 5 p.m. on Friday, August 31. All other news and retail advertising should be in by noon on Tuesday, September 4. Community correspondents are asked to slide their news under the front door Monday morning. . . . If you have information for this column, please call me by 5 p.m. Friday. * Skeet Willingham had an uninvited guest in his swimming pool on a recent Sunday afternoon. Skeet says he was on his float in his pool when he felt movement around his ankles. When he looked to see what it was, he was just in time to see a three-foot-long snake slide on up his legs into his swim suit. He immediately took the suit off and shook it -- but he didn't check to see where the snake went!! When he put the suit back on he realized the snake was still inside. . . . I don't know what Skeet did at that point. I just didn't want to hear any more. I knew I would be dreaming about snakes that night. * Jerry Stover has been off on another one of his jaunts with his airline flight attendant daughter Anna. Jerry and Anna and some of her friends were in Paris, on "the rail" on their way to The Louvre when the rail just stopped and they were told to get off. Turns out, that line was on strike and they had to walk about a mile to their destination. * Paula Goodrich of Sandersville called this week to say that she wanted to renew her mother's subscription to The News-Reporter. She said that even though she didn't know anybody here she had read the paper all the years her mother had subscribed and enjoyed it very much. Her mother was Pauline Haney Combs of Wilkes County and Paula had started kindergarten in Washington-Wilkes when they lived here and her father was in the Navy. The family had moved shortly after that and her mother had continued to subscribe to The News-Reporter. * We've had a little bit of relief from the extreme heat since Friday and a little bit of rain. It depends on where you are as to how much rain you get, if any. You might get a "good rain" at your house while your neighbor across the street doesn't get any. Sunday afternoon's rain brought .8 of an inch on Hill Street and up the Lexington Road, but other places didn't get any. I think Rayle and Tignall have had some. Norris says he's recorded just .9 of an inch for the month of August. I hear thunder now (Monday evening,) so maybe we will get a little more.
* After more than 30 years, Steve Blackmon has had contact with
Dr. Robert (Bob) Gatton who was headmaster at Wilkes Academy in the early 1970s. Steve and Bob spent an hour and eight minutes on the phone last week, reminiscing about Bob's stay in Washington-Wilkes and where he has been since leaving here. Bob told Steve about a very interesting man he met in Louisville, Kentucky, and who said he was from Washington-Wilkes. He told Steve that he couldn't remember his name but he (Steve) probably wouldn't know him anyway. Bob described him and Steve said, "That's Irvin Cheney." And it was. Irvin is Steve's best friend and lives next door to him on North Alexander Avenue. The Gattons, who now live in Knoxville, Tenn., near other family members, lived in the house that was the home of the late Rosemary (Hill) and Troupe Harris Jr., now owned by Marian and George Thorpe, two houses from the First Baptist Church.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
