Two Washington-Wilkes high school students were among the six students who represented the Rayle Electric Membership Cor-poration (REMC) on the 2008 Washington (D.C.) Youth Tour which is held annually. The students - Courtney Gunter and Spencer Swinson - were among 105 high school students from across Georgia to step into a new world and experience an itinerary that took them to all parts of the capitol city. The student delegates traveled on a weeklong, all-expenses-paid journey beginning in Atlanta, then the Little White House in Warm Springs, and on to Washington, D.C. They joined almost 1,400 other student delegates representing electric membership cooperatives from 44 states on the tour. The tour is not just a trip, it is a leadership experience where delegates learn not only about the electric cooperative movement, but about American history and how their government works. They also visited the many national monuments and the Smithsonian Institution. Other students representing Rayle EMC were Sarah Paul of Lexington; Zellie Duvall of Greensboro; Elisabeth Grimes of Crawford; and Amanda Gay of Lincolnton.

ƒ

Have you noticed the large advertisement we've been using to promote reading The News-Reporter? The little boy shown "reading" The News-Reporter is Matthew Cope, son of Buck and Carmel Cope. Buck worked several years here in Radio Shack and Wilkes Publishing Co. Matthew will be a year old in November.

ƒ

Margie Burke at McDonald's reports a record number of people being served at McDonald's drivethrough service on Friday, August 29. Margie says that between 7 and 8 a.m., the drive-through took in and served 100 orders to its customers.

ƒ

Along with several other people, I have been concerned this past week with the plight of a non-descript brown dog in town. He is obviously lost and seems frantically trying to find his owner. I first saw him Wednesday of last week as he came running about as fast as he could straight up the yellow line on main street in front of Fievet's, Subway, and other businesses in that area. This was about 8 a.m. when traffic was very heavy. The next day I saw him about 7:30 a.m. running very fast up the middle of Liberty Street near the Mary Willis Library. I called Diana Hall to report the incidents to the Washington-Wilkes Animal Shelter, and found that Diana was already aware of the dog and had been trying to catch him for several days. Thursday, the workers at the School Bus Shop near the Primary School called to say the dog was there. Diana went, but he just ran away. He's wearing a collar but nobody can get close enough to read the tag on his collar. If you have lost such a dog, please call the Shelter or Diana. . . . It's sad.

ƒ

Last week was a stormy week, but we did get some rain. Tropical Storm

Fay came along and sort-of sat on us for a while and brought us some much-needed rain. I don't think we got as much in town as some of the areas in the county but what we did get was welcomed. The Washington tornado alert siren sounded at least twice Tuesday night and the one in Tignall warned residents in that area of the impending danger. Members of the fire department, sheriff's department, and State Patrol were out in the threatening weather tracking the storms and providing information for the warnings. In town we got about 3.9 inches of rain from Fay, making a total of 4.7 for August. Total for the year, as reported by

Norris Ware, is 21.9, which means we are about 10 inches short for the year. . . . Dr. Randy Clayton called to say that "out in the country" where he lives, he collected 3.1 inches of rain just for Tuesday night, and a total of 4.3 for the month.

ƒ

Friday night, those of us in midtown, West Robert Toombs Avenue, and Lexington Road got lots of rain and felt sorry for the football fans who were in Tiger Stadium. We found out later that the rain stopped abruptly before it got to the stadium and there was just a brief sprinkle there.

ƒ

Wiley Crittenden called to report that there is a good resource for taxpayer education in the form of an online book located at http://srdc. msstate.edu/02value/legal/propertytaxincentives. pdf. With all the tax issues lately, it's worth checking out.

ƒ

Many of you oldtimers (like me), and some of you not-so-oldtimers will be interested in a phone call we received here at The News-Reporter and an upcoming event involving a family that lived in Washington- Wilkes a good many years ago.

Walt Strickland from Statesboro called to place an advertisement about an estate sale of Mary Frances Graham Hanson and her husband, Dr. Stanley Hanson of Statesboro. Mary Frances (Macy), was the daughter of the late Fannie Lou and Claude Graham, and grew up in Washington in the 1930s and 1940s. They lived in the house behind Raco at the corner of East Robert Toombs and South Alexander avenues at one time. Walt, who is the real estate agent conducting the estate sale, says that it is unbelievable the amount of things he has for sale. He had to rent a huge warehouse to store it and organize it. He says there are several pieces from Washington-Wilkes, including a curly pine mantel; an 1840s French bed and dresser valued at $15,000; and a wooden pick-up station from the Washington Post Office. If I am remembering right, Mr. Graham worked at the Post Office. Other items include other pieces of furniture, tools, minerals, Belleek china and other patterns. Mary Frances was a Master Weaver and Walt says he has 13 pallets of weaving equipment; 37 sewing machines; four spinning wheels; 500 boxes of yarn and other weaving materials. The Hansons also were candlemakers and there are three pallets of candlemaking supplies.