I knew that we would eventually receive word of somebody from Washington-Wilkes being in Haiti during the devastating earthquake. Dr. Cary Austin Sanders, daughter of Katharyn and Preston Sanders of Washington-Wilkes, and her fiance’, Dr. John Bartley, who are associated with Bethlehem Ministries in Athens, arrived in Haiti the day before the earthquake struck. They were working north of Portau Prince, but felt the quake and the after-shocks. They were evacuated the next day through the Dominican Republic. . . . Dr. Bartley is the son of Lydia Roberts, who grew up in Washington, and her husband, Tom Bartley. Lydia is the daughter of the late Lucille Roberts, who taught school here in the 1960’s, 1970s’, and 1980s, and her husband, the late Stanley Roberts. . . . Dr. Sanders and Dr. Bartley are back at their regular medical stations in Greenville, S.C., and Augusta after making their way safely home from the disaster area.

The Office Cat ƒ

Did you know that Washington, Georgia, will be 230 years old on Saturday, January 23, 2010?

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A sign in the window in the storefront across the alley from

Master’s Wildlife on The Square reads: “Coming soon! The Cafe at the historic Fitzpatrick Hotel.” (The building most recently housed Petal Pushers.) . . . A sign in the window next door to the entrance to the Fitzpatrick Hotel reads: “We are currently undergoing renovations. An exciting new retail establishment is coming soon.”

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We had lots of rain in less than 24 hours Saturday and Sunday. Norris on Hill Street recorded 1.8 inches; and Sonny at Tyrone had 1.9 inches. But today (Monday) is a beautiful, warm, sunshiny day!

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George and Ailen Rodrigues have not lived in Washington-Wilkes for a good many years, but Ailen wrote on her renewal notice, “After all these years away from Washington, it is still great to read about it.” They live at Satellite Beach, Fla., near Oviedo.

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About three weeks ago, Ora Mae Kirk called to say that her beautiful orange-colored cat had disappeared from her home on East Robert Toombs Avenue. A representative from the Animal Shelter told her that they had picked up a cat that had been hit by a car and that he was dead. Her doctor son (Dr. Kirk) called to ask if she would take a stray cat that had been hanging around his house for three weeks. Ora Mae took the cat to the veterinarian, and the next day she had a phone call from

Harriett Callaway who lives just around the corner, saying that she was almost sure that the cat at her house was the cat that was described in The News-Reporter. Harriett’s daughter, Beth Buller, came with a “cat taxi” and they brought “Ginger” back home. Ora Mae says “thanks to The News-Reporter, I have my beautiful cat home safe and sound, and now I have two cats.”

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A reader called and asked if I would look up something for her in the 1982 bound copies of The News- Reporter. I did, and as usual, while looking at old copies, I get “carried away” with looking at other items in the paper. In this copy, on January 14, 1982, the headline on the front page read, “Century’s coldest blast dumps icy snow on Washington- Wilkes.” There was a picture taking up about half of the front page. It was made from around the vicinity of where Fievet Pharmacy now stands, looking west on Robert Toombs Avenue. There were several inches of snow and ice covering the streets, sidewalks, and trees. The report said that Don Griner at the Georgia Forestry Commission on the Tignall Road reported that the temperature on January 11 was

ZERO degrees, and the high was 24 degrees. We had five days of temperatures below freezing, most of them in the teens.

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In that same issue of The News- Reporter there was an item in “The Office Cat” that said that I had been writing this column since July 23, 1970, and had never missed a week. . . . It’s now the year 2010 and I still have not missed a week writing the column. But if somebody doesn’t help by calling me, or writing me, I may be missing one soon. Please do call me at 706-678-2636. And thank you to those of you who do call me.

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Here in Wilkes County, we're not the only ones experiencing extremes of weather. Jeanne Davis-Blair, owner of Alfred’s On The Square and Southern Elegance Bed and Breakfast, was visiting friends and relatives in California. E-mail from Jeanne reads, “I hope you are staying warm. I think the weather is bad everywhere. It’s raining here and apartments and houses are sliding off hills and cliffs.” I’d rather have our cold than California’s rain and mudslides. . . . Jeanne says she had planned to go shopping but the sales tax there is 9.75%, “so no shopping for me.” She took her News- Reporter with her and says she will be bringing a picture of her and her News-Reporter so we can see how far from home the paper is.

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In thinking back over Mark Waters’ attempt to find a water glass on the internet (last week’s paper), Mark says that daughter

Laurie and her husband Mark said they would pay for him to get high speed internet service because they say that what he has now is “poke your eyes out slow.” Laurie said that during Thanksgiving when the family visited, she sat so long at Mark’s desktop computer trying to get something accomplished that the “date changed” while she was sitting there. Mark says she has a tendency to exaggerate. (Wonder where that trait comes from.)

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Here's a tale I was told this week. It's true. A Wilkes County man bought a house and its contents for resale. As he was cleaning out drawers from dressers and cabinets, etc., he found a small metal box. When he picked it up, it rattled. So he looked inside and there was a gold tooth. On his way to see how much he could get for it, he showed it to several friends along the way and every one of them said no, they were not going to touch it. In fact, some backed away and refused to get another glimpse of it. One person said she would touch it if she put on rubber gloves. . . . I haven't figured out what the problem is. Why not touch it? . . . I don't know if the finder found a buyer or not.