What a coincidence! In June 2005, Gary and Dean Mansfield of Washington became the proud grandparents of

Emily Bridgewater Mansfield who was born at home because she didn't give her parents enough notice to get to the hospital. (It's important that you remember this little girl's name in order to understand the rest of the story.) She was delivered by her mother Mary and assisted by her father Cliff, with telephoned instructions from 911. The family was living in Johnson City, Tennessee, at the time but they now live in Norcross. Although Emily was approximately six weeks premature, she weighed five pounds and spent only a week in neonatal ICU. She is now three years old and has a sister, Hannah Mansfield, who is six. (She was three at the time of Emily's birth.) The birth was announced in The News-Reporter. Now for the coincidence. In mid-November of this year, a friend of Gary and Dean happened to hear a report on one of the Atlanta stations about a child who was born at home in Massachusetts without time for a hospital trip, with help of the father and 911. The friend didn't pay much attention to the item until he heard that the child's name was Emily Mansfield. He called Gary, who called Cliff, who was able to locate a website that told of the birth of the Massachusetts Emily Mansfield. Mary and Cliff were able to contact The Enterprise staff writer concerning the similarity and thus another story was written comparing the two. Other coincidences include the fathers' names - Cliff and Chris; and both Emilys had a three-year-old sibling at home at the time of birth. On the same page with Massachusetts Emily's unusual birth (in The Enterprise) website was an advertisement for

Bridgewater Credit Union. (Remember the Georgia Emily's middle name is Bridgewater.) . . . The two couples plan to keep in touch with one another. No family connection has been determined at this time.

ƒ

We will have another one of those busy weekends this week. The annual Washington-Wilkes Christmas Tour of Homes will be Friday and Saturday and there will be many extra activities in addition to the tour. Included are the annual Christmas at Callaway Plantation; Dickens' A Christmas Carol at the Toombs House, and tours of the house; lunch at the Woman's Club; and Nativity Festivity at the First United Methodist Church. The Christmas Parade is Sunday afternoon. . . . You can read all the details elsewhere in this paper.

ƒ

Monday and Tuesday, December 15-16, are Joe Barnett's two days to shine. A crew from television's

Food Network will be in town to film Joe's famous cooking and for other activities. Tentatively titled "King of Cook-Offs," the crew will be filming Joe and his cooking at

The Livery on Court Street, with plans for airing the show on the Food Network in 2009.

ƒ

Downtown had another successful Downtown Candlelight Christmas Shopping Tuesday night, December 9, with stores open from 6 until 9.

ƒ

The home of Wanda Jenkins in Thomson was included on the Thomson Tour of Homes Saturday, December 5. Wanda is the principal of the Washington-Wilkes Elementary School. Peggy Jones, a teacher at the school, was one of the hostesses.

ƒ

Last week, rumors circulated in the county that The Augusta Chronicle would no longer be delivered to Wilkes County. The rumor is partially true. Information from the Chronicle circulation department says that service to "some areas of Wilkes County" will be discontinued, but that the town of Washington WILL continue to have delivery. Some subscribers in the Tignall area have already been notified of the discontinuation of deliver, and were encouraged to subscribe to the internet service provided by the newspaper. But for me, it's like

Carolyn Gammon said in the Tignall news last week, I want to turn pages to read a newspaper. I don't want to "scroll down." Nevertheless, I expect that our service in Washington will eventually be terminated. . . That means that everybody needs to subscribe to The News-Reporter to get the news! . . . I know. We're a weekly hometown paper and most of our news stories are about just this area. We will just have to get our Georgia and national news from the television. At least we won't have to "scroll down."

ƒ

Can you believe it? Somebody stole the Santa Claus from the sleigh in front of the City Hall in Tignall Saturday night. . . . I didn't get there, but I've heard that Tignall had a great parade Sunday afternoon.

ƒ

Rosemary Walker Caddell sent me a printout from This Old House's website which lists Washington as one of the "50 best places to buy an old house." The site also gives lots of good comments about the town. One of the statements reads, "It's been said before, but, yes, when you walk through Washington, Georgia, you feel like you've stepped into Scarlett O'Hara's celluloid Civil War world. Washington is one of the most sultry, scenic, and seemingly overlooked destinations in the South, yet it's less than an hour's drive from both Athens and Augusta. Most of the town's homes are located on quiet streets that extend out from its historic public square, bordered by 19th century commercial buildings filled with restaurants and shops."

ƒ

Several Downtown businesses, lofts, and Christmas trees have colored lights this year, and you know from past years that makes me happy. The white lights are pretty, but to me, Christmas is colored lights.

ƒ

Terry Thornton reminded me this week that I failed to include his IGA store in my naming of the oldest businesses in the Downtown area. I named just the ones around The Square. But Meadows Grocery which was on The Square for many years still continues in the family with Terry's IGA,m just off The Square. Jimmy and Austin Meadows (brothers) founded the store in the very early 1940s -- maybe even the 1930s. Terry is their nephew.

ƒ

Be sure to check in the Don't Forgets to see our early deadlines for the December 18 and 25 newspapers.