GwinnettForum | Number 20.80 | Nov. 3, 2020
DESPITE LEFTOVER WIND GUSTS from Hurricane Zeta, last Friday was a great day to ride a bike. That’s exactly what Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) students, faculty and staff did that afternoon as part of the Link to Lawrenceville event, an annual bike ride from the center of GGC’s main campus to downtown Lawrenceville. The connection is 2.5 miles between Georgia Gwinnett College and Lawrenceville. GGC President Jann Joseph address the participants, saying: “The Link to Lawrenceville is a great way for us to spotlight GGC’s wonderful relationship with our home city of Lawrenceville.”
TODAY’S FOCUS: Grace Clower of Snellville is a model for tireless and long contributions
EEB PERSPECTIVE: We’ll look back upon 2020 as one of the most distinctive years ever
ANOTHER VIEW: Since money buys elections, time to work to reverse Citizens United
SPOTLIGHT: Lail Family Dentistry
FEEDBACK: Simple acts of road courtesy show the type of people in Gwinnett
UPCOMING: County approves program that will raise water-sewer rates
NOTABLE: Shaunieka Taylor is new head of Community Outreach Department
RECOMMENDED: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Native Americans were enslaved after arrival of the English
MYSTERY PHOTO: Fall scene asks you to identify today’s mystery
LAGNIAPPE: Checking out a birthday
CALENDAR: Rick Bragg talks new book Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South
Snellville’s Clower is model for tireless, long contributions
By James Cofer
SNELLVILLE, Ga. | Summarizing Grace Long Clower’s life’s activities resembles a nomination for Volunteer of the Year. This Snellville lady is a tireless and lifelong contributor to a number of organizations that she deems worthy. She works energetically and without fanfare behind the scenes to produce tangible results for her non-profit groups.
Cofer
Grace was born as one of seven children to Aubrey and Merdie Long in Grayson, where she grew up and attended elementary school. She graduated from South Gwinnett High School in 1966, where she played basketball. She married fellow SGHS alumnus Woody Clower, and they had 35 years together before his untimely death. The couple had one son, Tom Clower, who with Katie have two children.
Grace is a 34-year member of the Snellville Lions Club, having served as [resident, vice president, director, and chaplain of the local club. In the Northeast Georgia District, she has served as Zone Chair, Region Chair, Vice-District Governor, and District Governor. Even on the state-wide level, she has served as Council Chair. As a Certified Guiding Lion, she helped to establish several new Lions Clubs. She is currently serving as the Georgia Global Leadership Coordinator.
Clower
In recognition of her efforts, she has received many awards including: Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow, the highest award in Lionism; two International President’s Certificates of Appreciation; the International President’s Leadership Medal; the International Presidential Medal, and the Georgia Ervin-Crumbley Award.
She has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation. She led the project to erect a bench in front of Snellville City Hall in celebration of Lions Clubs International 100th Anniversary. She is currently serving as Area Leader over seven Southeastern States and the islands of the Caribbean in the Lions Club International Foundation Campaign 100 to secure donations for the Foundation’s humanitarian efforts.
Grace is a 49-year member of the Snellville United Methodist Church. Over the years, she has served as Chair of the Board of Trustees, Co-Chair of the 2016 Vision Committee, Assistant Lay Leader, Adult Sunday School Teacher, worked with the Children’s Ministry, member of the Church Archives/History Committee, and member of the Kitchen Angels. She is currently serving as Chair of the Church Council and is a member of the United Methodist Women’s organization.
In past years she has volunteered at the Southeast Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry, coached a girls’ and boys’ basketball, and adult softball teams, served as a mentor for 8th grade students at Craig Middle School, and worked as a poll worker for City and County elections. She was awarded Volunteer of the Year in 2013 from Snellville Trade and Tourism, and she received a City of Snellville Proclamation recognizing her volunteer work.
Grace currently serves as President of the Snellville Historical Society. During her tenure, she facilitated the relocation of the Society’s office and archives from City Hall to the historic home of Edwin and Mabel Snell, which was made available through the generosity of the E.R. Snell family.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
We’ll look back on 2020 as one of most distinctive years ever
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 2, 2020 | What a year 2020 has been! Let’s address saner subjects today.
With a presidential political year on top of a worldwide COVID crisis, 2020 will go down in history as one of the most distinctive ever. Having Donald Trump around already provided the year a different perspective out of Washington, but the COVID situation overwhelmed and affected us all.
Now let’s talk about other things. And hurrah!: bigtime campaigning is over for 2020!
Pretty soon we’ll see a televised football game where there will be swirls, if not a lot of fallen, snow blowing around. When fall arrives, I never fail to recognize just how lucky we are to live in a warmer, full-four season climate. But the best part, especially when watching these football games with harsh, snowy weather, is to recognize that in Metro Atlanta, we live in an area where we have long falls and springs, and relatively short winters and summer. Oh, yes, we can get the snap of heat or cold, but most times, these are relatively short.
In South Georgia, when talking with a visiting Swede, I asked if it was true that after they sat for periods in a sauna, when exiting the sauna, would they sometimes roll in the snow for stimulation. “Oh yes, many of us do that,” he told me, “But last night in Waycross, Georgia, I have never been so cold in all my life.”
When it comes to books, I like to read authors that write on themes, and have characters that you can get to know well and anticipate their instincts. My favorite author is Alexander McCall Smith, the Scotsman, who writes four novels annually on different subjects, a prolific author!
Recently at the Gwinnett library, I stumbled across an author who has written about six books about life in Mackinaw Island, Mich. Her pen name is Nancy Coco. If you haven’t been to Mackinaw, you need to know that besides the charming auto-less island itself, there are lots of fudge shops on Mackinaw. The heroine of these novels is a college-trained fudge maker herself, and on her return to take over her late grandfather’s small hotel, also has a fudge shop. Fudge recipes are at each chapter’s end. In each book, she gets into all sorts of problems, usually after she, or her dog or cat, discover dead bodies.
If you want some light mystery reading (I usually read while watching college football with the sound off), try the Nancy Coco books. They’re not too heavy, for sure, but fun.
Make an appointment, when it’s time to re-new your driver’s license. Many, depending on age, can simply renew online. But anyone older than 64 must appear in person, or of course, if you are getting your license for the first time. Either way, make that appointment.
When I showed up to re-new recently, it took only six minutes, from entering the building to leaving, to get my new license! Cynthia Crosland of Lilburn was at window No. 18, and quickly processed me through. What a pleasure from the long, long waits of a few years ago! My license arrived in the mail a week later. Spenser Moore is doing a good job, it appears, as head of the Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner.
With the election over, let’s hope we return to saner times with COVID being smothered soon.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Since money buys elections, time to reverse Citizens United
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | According to a 2017 poll, 96 percent of Americans believe that money buys elections. And, they are correct.
Many people have never heard of the “Citizens United” Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision. Citizens United was a 2010 court case brought by a conservative political action committee which had been restricted by the Federal Communications Committee from placing negative campaign ads too close to an election. In a 5-4 decision, a politically divided SCOTUS found that outside groups and corporate spending to buy elections cannot be limited.
Justice Kennedy was the swing vote. Kennedy had a unique interpretation of the Constitution. He wrote that in essence corporations are like people and cannot be denied the “right” to exercise free speech. The SCOTUS majority naively assumed American political life would go on as usual and corporate spending would not be used for nefarious purposes.
Of course, we now know that assumption to be incorrect.
This decision unleashed a torrential downpouring of money from the ultra-wealthy and corporations via PACs and super PACs, using dark money. Much of this money has gone to run ads opposing candidates who are advocates for the public and against corporations.
In the off-year 2018 campaign alone there were 2,395 of these groups. They raised over $1.5 BILLION, with the majority of their spending going to support conservative causes, no surprise.
In the 2020 cycle, fund raising has hit record levels. About a fourth of total spending is from “dark money” coming from billionaires and shadowy outside groups.
Public Citizen is a public interest organization dedicated to seeing Citizens United reversed. They have been pushing for a Constitutional Amendment in this regard. Currently, their efforts are supported by 47 Senators and 200 Representatives.
However, two thirds of Congress must pass a Constitutional Amendment, and have it approved by 75 percent of the states. Therefore, bi-partisan support is needed. So far, no influential GOP figures have supported reform. Few GOP dominated states have called for a constitutional amendment. With GOP domination of numerous smaller states, this approach must be viewed as a long shot, at least in the short-term.
Since the SCOTUS decision can’t be reversed by Congress, the only sure way to lessen the role of money in our politics is to overturn Citizens United in the courts. This will require expansion of the court to 13 seats if the Democrats win the Senate and presidency in the election. With the weak leadership of the Democratic Party, I doubt this will happen, even if they are in power.
So, until we have a more progressive Congress and president, what can we do? Public Citizen has a few recommendations worthy of consideration including public financing of elections; requiring corporate shareholder approval for campaign ads and contributions; and mandating complete, detailed disclosure of all contributors.
Let’s promote these ideas after the election.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Lail Family Dentistry
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Simple acts of road courtesy show type of people in Gwinnett
Editor, the Forum:
Driving toward the Mall of Georgia, I was thinking about all of the negatives of 2020. I realized my need to see positives in my life. Just at that moment the line of traffic stopped in front of me to let in a car from a side street. A simple act of kindness. In the couple of miles of heavy traffic, I saw other acts of traffic kindness. Most of the traffic merging I saw as I drove was done thoughtfully and with kindness. It felt good to see the positives around me.
I have lived in New York, Ohio, and Georgia. I have driven throughout most of the states and most of Georgia. I have not observed as much thoughtful and kind driving as I observe everyday here in Gwinnett Country.
I’m in the middle of our political and health crises, and such simple acts of kindness show the kind of people we have in Gwinnett. I am so glad to live here.
— Alan Schneiberg, Sugar Hill
Thanks, Alan, for this observation. Most people are courteous, but every now and then you see people passing you driving too fast, and weaving in and out of traffic lanes, unfortunately, even in Gwinnett. And somehow, it seems these are the times when police cars are elsewhere. Your letter inspires us!–eeb
Sees political redemption if more people vote Libertarian
Editor, the Forum:
As a right-leaning Libertarian, I recoiled at the idea of a “Nationalist” Donald Trump becoming president. I did what I could do to prevent that back in 2016. Unfortunately, the media who despises him today gave him as much free air time which helped him win the presidency.
Four years later, I’m still in a state of shock. I’ve never been a fan of the binary choices presented every election cycle. I’m even less so this time. I put most of the blame for the situation we’re in squarely at the feet of a myopic Republican Party. They gave us Mr. Trump and he has spun the left into a frenzy that is chomping at the bit to regain power. And they may well get it. I’m not looking forward to a Biden administration. The soft totalitarianism of today’s progressives will become a tad bit harder, especially if they capture the Senate.
And Donald Trump has made it easier for them. The worst part about the last four years and the legacy of Donald Trump was his disdain for the unwritten checks and balances, derived from our Constitution, that became institutionalized over time. Those precedents will provide Biden/Harris with expanded executive powers. Now, when they use them, of course, it will be no problem. The press will be happy to obfuscate the offenses.
So, yeah, I’m pretty disgusted with the choices. And no, I didn’t vote for Biden. I voted Jo Jorgensen, you know, the Libertarian. We need a new approach or rather a return to the classical liberalism of our founding. That is the path to political redemption.
— Theirn (TJ) Scott, Lawrenceville
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
County approves program that will raise water-sewer rates
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners have approved a water and sewer rate resolution that sets rates for the next decade with planned gradual increases. The rate resolution will ensure funding to make needed investments in improvements, as well as for responsible maintenance and operation of the water and sewer system.
The increase amounts to a 2.2 percent increase for water and sewer customers, and 1.8 percent for water customers, annualized over the 11 years period. There are some 72 different projects included.
Last week, the Board of Commissioners approved the Gwinnett County Water and Sewerage Authority to issue bonds to finance these investment projects. The new rate structure will support the repayment of the bonds.
Economic development and service demand growth have resulted in the need to expand and extend existing infrastructure. In addition, the County must maintain and rehabilitate critical assets as well as address aging infrastructure in order to avoid future failures that can interfere with service to customers and harm the environment.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlotte Nash says: “Based on today’s favorable interest rates, our finance staff was able to rework the terms of the bonds, which allowed us to implement a smaller overall increase for ratepayers than originally anticipated. The rate resolution provides funding needed by the Department of Water Resources to continue its history of serving residents and businesses, maintaining the system in a manner that protects the environment, and complying with federal and state requirements.”
The new rate resolution will gradually increase water and sewer rates for usage every other year from 2021 to 2031. The rate increases over the period add up to an additional $1.38 per 1,000 gallons water and $2.27 per 1,000 gallons sewer used by 2031. In addition, the monthly sewer base charge will increase from $5 to $7.50 in 2023 to place sewer charges more in line with costs.
Winn DAR chapter names D’Angelo award winner
With Dr. James D’Angelo at the awards presentation were Beverly Paff, Chair of Community Service Awards Committee; Leslie Perry, Vice President of Fort Daniel Foundation; and Frank Perry.
Dr. James D’Angelo of Lawrenceville is the recipient of an award for community service from the Philadelphia Winn Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. He was recognized at the 12th Annual Fort Daniel Frontier Faire recently.
For 13 years, Dr. D’Angelo has served as the principal archaeologist for the Fort Daniel site. His passion for creating a community archaeology program has emerged and educational events are offered to the public. These programs include Archaeology Month Open House, College Day, the annual Frontier Faire, Scout training, and others.
The fort, circa 1813-14, was one in a line of forts built on the western frontier of Georgia during the War of 1812 to protect settlers from any conflicts due to the Creek (Red Stick) War. As an archaeologist with over 40 years of professional experience, Dr. D’Angelo’s leadership has led to the preservation of this site by Gwinnett County government.
Taylor is new head of Community Outreach Department
Gwinnett County has a new person headlining the Community Outreach Program.
Taylor
She is Shaunieka Taylor, who has served Gwinnett County for 13 years in the Communications Division, recently as the division’s public relations manager. She has been named to her new position by County Administrator Glenn Stephens.
He says: “For more than a decade, Shaunieka has gained a wealth of knowledge about this organization and understands the role our many functions play in serving the people who live and work in Gwinnett County. In addition, she possesses the heart of a servant, with a keen ability to connect with people of all backgrounds and experiences.”
Taylor will lead the outreach program, which fosters communication and engagement with diverse constituencies, coordinates cultural events and provides civic education and youth leadership development. The Board of Commissioners established the Community Outreach Program in 2015 in order to engage and empower residents to become more informed and involved in their county government.
Before joining Gwinnett County, Taylor was a city clerk for the city of Avondale Estates.
Taylor brings more than 15 years’ experience in local government. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the College of Charleston and holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Brenau University.
Explore Gwinnett grants $80,700 to local arts organizations
Explore Gwinnett has awarded a total of $80,700 in grants to 12 Gwinnett County non-profit arts organizations through the Gwinnett Creativity Fund. These grants will provide support for arts and cultural initiatives throughout the first quarter of 2021.
Lisa Anders, Explore Gwinnett executive director, says: “2020 has been an especially tough year for our arts partners. The Gwinnett Creativity Fund granted over $130,000 to local arts non-profits this year through both Operations Grants and Project Grants. We are thrilled to be able to support their individual missions through our latest project grants.”
Organizations receiving project grants from the Gwinnett Creativity Fund Operations Grant include:
Aurora Theatre – “2 The Left: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, A Streaming Experience” ($10,000) – A prerecorded streaming musical based on Lisa Lopes a controversial member of the 90’s pop music phenomenon, TLC.
Broad St. Concert Band at Sugar Hill, Inc. – “ A Bowl of Sweet Sounds” ($10,000) –A 3-D public art musical motif with uplighting will be featured in Downtown Sugar Hill, leading down to the Bowl.
Button Art, Inc. – “Infinite Energy Center (IEC) Button Sculptures” ($5,000) – Two ‘Button Art’ public art sculptures at the IEC Complex, one entitled “Saxophone Player” and the other an interactive chalkboard sculpture at the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning.
ESTA Solutions, Inc. – “Atlanta African Film and Fashion Festival” ($2,000) – A film and cultural festival celebrating African film, fashion, and culture.
Gwinnett Ballet Theatre – “The Nutcracker” ($7,500) – Gwinnett Ballet Theatre is celebrating their 40th annual production of the Nutcracker performed at the Infinite Energy Center Theatre featuring their GBT professional company, Sugarloaf Youth Ballet, professional guest artists and community members.
Let’s Fo-kes, Inc. – “Let’s Fo-kes Presents AADR” ($5,000) – The African American Dance Review (AADR) is a cultural dance experience illustrating the story of African American dance from the beginning to end and everything in-between.
Lionheart Theatre Company – “Playing in the Dark Festival” ($1,858) – A walking event featuring scary stories, pumpkin painting, make-up horrors workshop, magic show, and a live play performance finale.
North Gwinnett Arts Association / Suwanee Arts Center – “Fall Outdoor Art Workshop Series” ($4,600) – NGAA is hosting 12 outdoor art workshops, six for adults and six for youth with topics such as photography, painting, drawing, and doodle sketching in Suwanee Town Center Park.
Spectrum Autism Support Group – “Spectrum Drama Club” ($3,100) – The club is open to children through young adults with HFA/Asperger’s Syndrome as they explore the art of improv, drama, puppets and music, allowing them to improve their communication skills within a small group or in front of a larger audience.
Suwanee Performing Arts – “Best of the Nutcracker” ($3,500) – SPA will be performing selections of The Nutcracker at the Eagle Theatre in Sugar Hill.
Suwanee Public Arts Commission – “Buford Highway Mural” ($10,000) – Suwanee will be creating a public art mural on the corner of Buford Highway and Town Center Avenue approximately 180 feet long and 10 feet high.
The Hudgens Center for Art and Learning– “Healing Arts: Project Welcome Home” ($10,000) – Virtual programming for military veterans to build community through the arts and develop coping skills through artistic expression.
- More details can be found at GwinnettCreativityFund.com. Photography of grant awardees can be found here.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
From Raleigh Perry, Buford: A friend recently finished reading The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), situated in Florence, Italy. A similar book is The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1345–1400). Both were written at about the same time, the mid 14th century. The stories both have the same etiology – both were two groups of people escaping the Black Plague in their cities. The approximate mileage between them is just short of 1,000 miles, so there is virtually no way that one could have read the other’s work. The two books are similar in virtually all respects. The reason for the trip was the same and the stories in their works are almost the same. You can buy both books inexpensively and I suggest you read one and then the other. I suggest you get them both in modern English because Medieval English and Medieval Italian will simply wear you out.”
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
[butto n size=”small”]GEORGIA TIDBIT [/button]
Native Americans were enslaved after arrival of the English
When the English came to America, the Native Americans of Georgia encountered one of the most profound forces for change: the world economy. European merchants ushered in this new economic system with a commercial trade in dressed animal skins but even more so with a commercial trade in enslaved Indians. The slave trade began in northeastern America and spread quickly. It had a profound effect on the Native Americans of Georgia from its beginning in the first half of the 17th century, through the full incorporation of Georgia Indians into the trade by the late 17th century, and until English trade interests turned to buying and selling the skins of white-tailed deer in the early 18th century.
At the time of English settlement in present-day Georgia, the Native Americans of the South already were well into a profound process of transformation that had begun when they first encountered other Europeans. One of the first forces for change was epidemic disease. Within a few decades after the conquistador Hernando de Soto and his army of 600 made their way through the region in the mid-16th century, the powerful chiefdoms of the Late Prehistoric Period began to collapse. Archaeologists believe that the demise of these societies was due, in part, to the devastating population loss from disease.
In interior Georgia, Muskogee-speaking survivors of the collapse abandoned large areas and began joining together at certain areas. One such area centered along the Piedmont stretch of the Oconee River and another along the Upper Coastal Plain section of the Chattahoochee River. Native Americans who lived in coastal Georgia and the barrier islands fell under another force for change: Spanish missionaries. After the establishment of St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565, Spanish Catholic missionaries labored among the Guale and Mocama of the Georgia coast and the Apalachee and Timucua of present-day north Florida.
Native Americans were transformed by the new trading system. It was a commercial trade in dressed animal skins—and enslaved Indians. Slavery was not unknown to the indigenous peoples of the eastern woodlands, and they practiced a version of it at the time of contact with English traders. Once enslaved people became something to be bought and sold, however, a powerful new dynamic began shaping the lives of the Georgia Indians.
English traders would give European-made guns and ammunition to a group of Indians and demand that the guns be paid for with enslaved Native Americans. The armed groups would then raid an unarmed rival group to pay their debt. The unarmed group, now vulnerable to Indian slave raiders, would thus need guns and ammunition for protection and would have to acquire them. The Native Americans depended on the European trade for flintlock guns as well as for shot and powder. Therefore, anyone needing guns had to become a slave raider. In this way a cycle of dependency emerged.
Indian slave raiders took captives, mostly women and children, by the thousands and sold them to English, French, and Dutch slavers, who shipped them to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean, although some certainly went to the new coastal plantations in Virginia, South Carolina, and French Louisiana. For most native groups, already seriously weakened by losses from disease, slaving was a serious blow. Wherever slaving penetrated, the same processes unfolded: many Indian groups moved to escape slave raiders; some groups joined others in an effort to bolster their numbers and present a stronger defense; some groups became extinct after losses to disease and slave raiding; and all those left became part of the slave trade.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Fall Scene asks you to identify today’s Mystery Photo
Here’s a beautiful fall scene for today’s Mystery Photo. Now tell us: where is it? Send your answers to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Local Mystery Photo spotters were either lazy, out-of-town, or puzzled at the last mystery, as only two people from “away” reported. The photo came from Jerry Colley of Alpharetta, and was taken at the Roswell Town Square Park.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. was sharp as usual, writing: “I believe the fountain commemorates the six families who originally settled Roswell, Ga. Roswell Town Square was built in 1839 as part of the original design of the town envisioned by founder Roswell King, who established a cotton mill. The bandstand was added in 1905 on the occasion of President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to his mother’s girlhood home. Today, the square is the site of art shows and other festivals and events, including weddings.”
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. also contributed: “Today’s mystery photo is of the fountain in the Roswell Town Square in the center of the Roswell Historic District. The town was founded in 1839 by Roswell King (1765 – 1844), an American businessman, planter, slave owner, and industrialist, and the Square was always part of the original town plan. The fountain that is featured in the mystery photo was erected by the Roswell Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and was dedicated on April 26, 1940. There are four memorial plaques around the base of the fountain. These plaques are dedicated to the head of four (of the six) founding families – Archibald Smith, Barrington King, Elizabeth King Hand, and James S. Bulloch. A much larger plaque dedicated to the founding father himself is located at the Roswell King Memorial at the south end of the park.”
Birthday feast: Here’s one guy, our publisher, Elliott Brack, marking his birthday at the Marina Variety Store Restaurant in Charleston, S.C. Note the celebratory candle in the lemon, for marking his 85th time around.
Author Presentation: Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize- winning author of All Over but the Shoutin’, will talk about his new book Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South, in a virtual program on November 12 at 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Gwinnett County Public Library. Registration is required by going to www.gwinnettpl.org/authorspeaker/. A link will be emailed to registrants. His book is an ode to the stories and the history of the Deep South, written with tenderness, wit, and deep affection. He talks about his love of Tupperware (“My Affair with Tupperware”) and the decline of country music, from the legacy of Harper Lee to the metamorphosis of the pickup truck, the best way to kill fire ants, the unbridled excess of Fat Tuesday, and why any self-respecting southern man worth his salt should carry a good knife. For more information, please visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
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