GwinnettForum | Number 21.33 | April 27 , 2021
WE CALL HIM a Happy Camper. He’s today’s Mystery Photo. Figure out where this photograph was taken, and tell us more about this Happy Camper. See details in the Mystery Photo below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Long term, USA should fully eliminate private medical insurance
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Georgia Regents “pause,” perhaps avoiding another Cocking Affair
ANOTHER VIEW: On the dumbing down of American political discourse
SPOTLIGHT: Mingledorff’s
FEEDBACK: Infinite Energy Center beginning to feel worst is about over
UPCOMING: Commissioners update core values, vision and mission statements
NOTABLE: Homeowners get 291,000 notices of assessment of property
RECOMMENDED: Sometimes You Have to Lie by Leslie Brody
GEORGIA TIDBIT: New Mexico replaces Georgia as top state producing pecans
LAGNIAPPE: A rose is a rose is a rose
MYSTERY PHOTO: Figure out where this happy camper is on display
CALENDAR: Snellville Commerce Club to meet May 4 at City Hall
USA should fully eliminate private medical insurance
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | President Biden’s party is holding onto a very slim margin in Congress. If he does not play his cards right, Pelosi and Schumer will be replaced by McConnell and McCarthy in 2022.
And the Grim Reaper (Mitch) would make sure that no Biden bill was ever passed in 2023 and 2024. So, after his current infrastructure effort is concluded, Biden should look closely at national opinion polls before moving forward and proposing healthcare legislative initiatives.
I strongly believe that long-term we should completely do away with private medical insurance. It’s ineffective and private insurance companies have 12 percent in overhead costs versus 2 percent for Medicare.
But enough folks in the middle of the political spectrum are not yet sold on the premise that Medicare-for-All will reduce their costs while preserving high quality care. Politically, Medicare-for-All would be a poor short-term item for Biden to push.
A better option for short-term coverage expansion is for the Federal Government to assume 100 percent of Medicaid costs. The Feds currently pick up 90 percent and that gives the 12 red states without Medicaid expansion an easy way out by saying that they can’t afford to expand. But Georgia and the rest can’t say that if the Feds pick up the full cost.
Of course, then the Republican members of Congress will hypocritically say we cannot afford it, even if it’s funded by tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.
I’m a social liberal and fiscal conservative, as well as a former Republican local elected official. Decades ago, I once fit nicely into the GOP, which was trying to evaluate public expenditures based on costs versus benefits. Said another way, the old GOP cared about waste, but also about addressing the needs of our citizens. No more. For decades, the Republicans have ignored fiscal responsibility.
We all should know by now that President Trump was no fiscal conservative. His record from 2017-2020 proves that he was a big spender, often for the wrong things (like the border wall). Check the deficit. It went from $665 billion in 2017, to $3.7 trillion in 2020. That’s an increase of 556 percent in just the four Trump years! (https://www.thebalance.com/us-deficit-by-year-3306306)
The Republican Party advocated tax cuts (especially for corporations and the wealthy) while constantly urging more military spending. Often, the primary group pushing these members of Congress for increased funding was not the Pentagon. It was the military-industrial complex…big corporations wanting corporate welfare regardless of the need for tanks, planes and so on. And the GOP supported them.
It’s a little late to advocate for fiscal responsibility now, especially if the Democrats introduce a healthcare coverage bill designed to help those in need versus big business. The average person can best be helped by the government paying the full Medicaid cost short-term (and the full Medicare cost for all longer-term). This will benefit the people…and President Biden.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Regents “pause,” perhaps avoiding another Cocking Affair
The 1907 entrance at the University of Georgia campus. Image via Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 27, 2021 | It’s an important incident in Georgia history and politics. It happened in 1941 and was called “The Cocking Affair.”
Wikipedia tells us that this was “….an attempt in 1941 by Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge to exert direct control over the state’s educational system, particularly through the firing of Professor Walter Cocking because of his support for racial integration, and the subsequent removal of members of the Georgia Board of Regents who disagreed with the decision. “
Then, of all things, it was even “….made into an opera, entitled A Scholar Under Siege.”
That came to mind this week when word was circulated that former Gov. Sonny Perdue might be considered to become the next chancellor of the University System of Georgia, the agency that oversees the 26 public educational institutions in the state. The system has an enrollment of 333,507 students in 2019.
Perdue
Dr. Perdue, himself a veterinarian, as the head of the academic institutions of our state? “Surely, they are jesting,” was one early thought.
Well, perhaps not quite that fast. We remember one veterinarian, Dr. Fred Davison, who was a solid president of the University of Georgia for 19 years (1967-1986).
But Sonny, something of a career politician, and former Secretary of Agriculture for President Trump, to be the chancellor?
Happily, some balked.
And those balking were significant, in that many of them were members of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Once Sonny’s name was circulating, word came that the Regents were “paused” in their search for the new chancellor. Translated, that meant to us that the Regents were also thinking: “What? Sonny as the chancellor? Not in my lifetime!”
So, the official “pausing.” Happily.
We can recall several superb chancellors in the last 20-30 years twho have continually made improvements in the overall system of higher education in the state. Some were more outstanding than others, but the main thread was significant improvements. Chancellors since the Regents were founded were:
- Charles Melton Snelling, 1932-1933;
- Philip Weltner, 1933-1935;
- Steadman Vincent Sanford, 1935-1945;
- Raymond R. Paty, 1946-1948;
- Harmon White Caldwell, 1948-1964;
- George L. Simpson, Jr., 1965-1979;
- Vernon Crawford, 1980-1985;
- H. Dean Propst, 1985-1993;
- Stephen R. Portch, 1994-2001
- Thomas Meredith,, 2002-2005;
- Erroll B. Davis, Jr., 2006-2011;
- Hank Huckaby, 2011-2016; and
- Steve Wrigley, 2017- present.
Back to the Cocking Affair: you may remember the outcome. As a result of the firings, all Georgia universities lost their accreditation. Students rallied, and…..Cocking w(as) eventually rehired. This incident also contributed to Gene Talmadge’s loss in the subsequent gubernatorial election to Ellis Arnall.
Wherever the trial balloon started to name the former Republican governor Perdue to run the University System, there’s no telling. You might imagine several who would start this rumor.
What got to us is that the move seemed a maneuver to return our state to the days when politics were more important than professional management in picking the leader of the University System.
Regents planned a standard “national search” for the best candidates to lead our educational institutions. We can’t imagine that a search firm would say that George Ervin “Sonny” Perdue III, age 74, would be at the top of the list. More likely the top candidates would, first of all, be educational leaders, and secondly, much younger.
Nineteen people balked. Happily, they were our Regents. They did us proud.
We don’t need another Cocking Affair look-a-like.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
On the dumbing down of American political discourse
By Andy Brack
Publisher, Charleston City Paper
CHARLESTON, S.C. | Maybe it’s smartphones. Or television and the 10-second soundbite. Maybe it’s all of that instant access to information.
But any way you look at it, the people who get microphones stuck in front of their faces these days just don’t seem as smart or pithy as they did a few decades ago.
This conclusion grew after I read something current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in 2004: “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
Why don’t our leaders talk like that — or talk in ways that truly inspire? American political speak has become mostly boring, often being little more than a race to nastiness. It’s less inspirational than pure vanilla, fraught with buzzwords, poll-tested stock phrases and blather.
These days, when are you really knocked out of your socks with words like Franklin Roosevelt’s “The only thing to fear is fear itself,” or Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” or John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you,” or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream?
Instead we get (or, at least, used to get) nasty tweets or insults or dull sobriquets that dumbed down America. Where are the modern Mark Twains, Winston Churchills or Oscar Wildes? What about the Eleanor Roosevelts or Vince Lombardis or, even, Yogi Berras?
None of this is to suggest there aren’t a few inspirational leaders and speakers these days. Think of former President Barack Obama or prison reformer Bryan Stevenson. But on balance, they’re the exception in these days of instant information and reaction, not the rule.
“Two of our last three presidents cared nothing about the English language,” said Indiana University journalism professor Chris Lamb, author of The Art of the Political Putdown: The Greatest Comebacks, Riposts, and Retorts in History.
“The exception was, of course, Obama, who used the English language like Wynton Marsalis plays the trumpet, which is ironic, if you believe the right wing, because Obama was of course born in Kenya. Obama really understands words. Bush and Trump treated words like they were unwanted bugs.”
Politicians, in particular, may not be less smart than they were a generation or five ago, but there is something weird going on in the verbal ether.
“I think they’re lazier and too many of them don’t give a damn about words,” said Lamb, who once taught at the College of Charleston. “When you listen to NPR or PBS, everyone being interviewed sounds really smart, except (Ohio Congressman) Jim Jordan, but he’s not interviewed very much. When you watch Fox News, so many people being interviewed – and everyone doing the interviews – sound like morons. See Jim Jordan.”
In his 2020 collection of putdowns, Lamb pointed to how former President Donald Trump used words by responding “with the finesse of a knee to the groin. His comebacks are more like something you would hear on an elementary school playground.”
Smart political talk is the exception, not the rule. But since Trump left office, the level of debate seems to have improved, albeit slightly. Let’s hope our leaders can have more civilized discussions and fewer putdowns, although we don’t want to put Chris Lamb out of a job!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Mingledorff’s
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s featured sponsor is Mingledorff’s, an air conditioning distributor of the Carrier Air Conditioning Company. Mingledorff’s corporate office is located at 6675 Jones Mill Court in Norcross Ga. and is proud to be a sponsor of the Gwinnett Forum. With 37 locations in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina, Mingledorff’s is the convenient local source with a complete line for the quality heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration parts and supplies you need to service and install HVAC/R equipment. Product lines include Carrier, Bryant, Payne, Totaline and Bard.
- For all of your HVAC needs, and information on the products Mingledorff’s sells, visit www.mingledorffs.com and www.carrier.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Center sees signs worst attendance is about over
Editor, the Forum:
The year 2020, and the Pandemic, proved to be a difficult year in the entertainment and tourism industry. Infinite Energy Center was certainly not exempt from these difficulties. The past year proved to be the most difficult year in the entire history of the Center.
Hundreds of events were cancelled, difficult staffing decisions had to be made, and daily attention to the financial tightening of the belt was at the top of each day’s agenda. It was reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day, as each day produced more bad news, as it had the day before, and the day before that. The entire large venue facility industry took a direct hit. We are still crawling out of the crater that the pandemic created.
While that crawl continues, we are finally starting to see signs that the worst is behind us. With anti-COVID sanitizing and social distancing methods in place everywhere we see, as well as signs that the pace of the vaccinations are increasing, we look forward to a recovery over the next few months.
While we are still restricted by attendance sizes based on the Governor’s current Executive Orders, there is a possibility that those capacity numbers will begin to increase sooner rather than later. This change would create options for large shows coming back to our facilities. Those conversations have already begun. We have received strong evidence of a pent-up demand from our customers to get back to live shows and we are excited about that as well.
There is obviously still a way to go to get back to pre-pandemic operations at our center. However, as each day unfolds, the optimism of such a return is more and more in our sights. We look forward to great shows coming our way, and a return of those fans who have supported us from day one!
— Stan Hall, chief operating officer, Infinite Energy Center
Cobb County no longer GOP bastion; look north, south, rural
Editor, the Forum:
No longer do I think that Cobb County and Marietta are the bastion of conservatism that it once was. These days I feel that rural middle plus extreme north and south Georgia are where this concentration now is centered. The new Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is from the northwest.
Most Georgia metropolitan areas vote Democratic. And, you can add Savannah and the surrounding area to that list. Georgia’s population is 10+ million and the Metro Atlanta area is over six million of that. Add the population of the standard metropolitan statistical area, there is another 1.5 million people. That leaves about 3.5 million for the remainder of the state.
People are pouring into all of those areas from the northeast, the middle west, and even from Texas and California, usually adding to the Democrats that are already here. I am not saying that all the 7-8 million in the metropolitan areas are voting Democratic, but the majority are.
— Raleigh Perry, Buford
Likes idea of Spencer statue in Duluth rail museum
Editor, the Forum:
On GwinnettForum’s comment about Samuel Spencer, the Southern Railway founder: “Damn straight! Great idea for the Museum.”
— Mike Tennant, Duluth
More suggestions on reading wide views of civilization
Editor, the Forum:
Will and Ariel Durant’s Story of Civilization is a great work. Thanks for the brief review. I acquired these books from the Book of Month club years ago and read them one by one for each month until I completed the set. If these cannot be found in Atlanta, one might check with McKay’s giant used bookstore in Chattanooga and Knoxville. They used to have a similar store here in Atlanta but it went out of business. I love these books, but they are heavy on text.
A better choice for young and older readers might be J.M. Roberts Illustrated History of the World in 10 volumes. Also great is Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, which can be found in used book stores, It was serialized a few years ago on PBS and the DVD version can be found certainly on ebay and Amazon.
— Frank Sharp, 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, and include your hometown. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Commissioners update core values, vision and mission
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners have voted to approve updated statements intended to guide their actions going forward. The commissioners developed the vision, mission and core values statements during their annual planning session held in Athens last month.
The vision statement says, “Gwinnett is the preferred community where everyone thrives!” The mission statement reads, “Gwinnett proudly supports our vibrantly connected community by delivering superior services.”
The core values statement includes: “Integrity: We believe in being honest, building trust and having strong moral principles. Accountability: We believe in stewardship, transparency and sustainability. Equity: We believe in fairness and respect for all. Inclusivity: We believe in engaging, embracing and unifying our communities. Innovation: We believe in continual adaptation of technology, process and experience.”
Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson said that with three new Board members, now is the time for them to declare their common purpose, goals and values to use moving into 2021 and beyond. She said:
“We spent considerable time discussing these ideas based on the local economy, population and demographics, election results, technology trends, and many other factors. Then we distilled our thoughts into three specific statements as part of our desire for transparency and accountability to the residents of Gwinnett County. I really believe the mission and vision statement reflect who we are today.”
Norcross summer events to return with big line-up
After almost an entire year without fan-favorite events because of COVID-19 precautions, the City of Norcross announces its confirmed 2021 summer events line-up. With a green light from representatives of the health department, the city is prepared to once again offer large outdoor concerts and festivals in downtown’s Thrasher, Lillian Webb and Betty Mauldin parks. CDC guidelines will be followed.
The summer concert series will be 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. May through September in Thrasher Park. The first concert will be May 28 with Voltage Brothers. Table reservations will go on sale May 3 at 9 a.m.
Jazz-in-the-Alley will be 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. in Betty Mauldin Park late summer through early fall. The first event will be June 26.
Red, White and Boom! July 3 Festival at 5 p.m. in Lillian Webb Park. The City of Norcross is throwing a pre-Fourth of July block party and you’re invited!
Bluesberry Beer and Music Festival will be August 21 from 3 – 10 p.m. in Betty Mauldin Park
Indie Green Festival is set for August 21 from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. in Lillian Webb Park, curated to allow local residents and visitors the opportunity to learn about modern, eco-friendly and thoughtful lifestyles.
First Friday Concerts are 7 – 9 p.m. in Cultural Arts and Community Center. The 2021-22 season has been confirmed, but the band lineup is still TBD.
Norcross Community Market continues to operate as an online market with drive-through pickup in order to keep connecting local farmers and food producers with their customers. Visit the online store at norcrosscommunitymarket.com to place your order.
- For more information on events in the City of Norcross, please visit aplacetoimagine.com.
Homeowners get 291,000 notices of assessment of property
The Gwinnett County Board of Assessors mailed approximately 291,000 Annual Notices of Assessment to residential and commercial property owners last week.
State law requires that notices be sent to property owners advising them of the assessed value of their property as of Jan. 1. The annual Notice of Assessment provides last year’s value, the 2021 value and explains the reason for any change in value from the previous year. Roughly 42 percent of the notices will state that the appraised value was adjusted for market conditions in response to housing values that continued to increase through 2020.
Despite the pandemic, the housing market reflects high demand for housing with a relatively low number of available properties. The Gwinnett County Assessors’ Office uses all data available to value each property conservatively to meet state regulations for accuracy, while at the same time not over-assessing.
The assessment process provides the county, each city and the school board with details about their property base in order to plan for and fund essential services. Therefore, the issuing of Annual Notices of Assessment is a critical early step in the months-long process of collecting essential tax revenues for the school system, county and 16 cities. These revenues, collected later in the year, are a primary funding source for school, city and county operations that include essential services such as police, fire and EMS.
The Annual Notice of Assessment is not a bill, but it does include an estimate of 2021 property taxes. The estimate combines the 2021 property value with the 2020 millage rates and exemptions on file. The 2020 tax rates are used because the 2021 rates for county, cities and schools are not calculated until later in the year. The estimates on the notice do not account for potential changes to fees, such as stormwater, solid waste, streetlights or speed control devices.
Chief Appraiser Stewart Oliver recommends that property owners review their Annual Notice of Assessment to ensure it accurately represents their property and the fair market value for Jan. 1, 2021. If property owners disagree with the 2021 value, they have 45 days from the date on their Annual Notice of Assessment to file an appeal.
ePac Flexible Packaging expands manufacturing facility
ePac Flexible Packaging is expanding their manufacturing facility in Gwinnett County. The announcement represents 15 jobs being added and $3 million in capital investment for the community.
ePac is a digitally-based packaging company and produces high quality graphics. They aim to help brands of all sizes stay competitive with stand-up and flat packaging pouches along with rollstock packaging. By leveraging digital printing technology, ePac provides its customers 5 to 15 business day turnaround time, low minimum order quantities, and the ability to order to demand and avoid inventory obsolescence.
ePac Atlanta is one of 18-ePac locations established in North America, Europe, and Indonesia. Every ePac location includes sales and operations functions, including a full-service manufacturing platform that includes prepress, digital printing, lamination, and pouch making services. ePac Atlanta is at the intersection of emerging technology and manufacturing, located at 1856 Corporate Drive in Norcross.
Striper’s single-game tickets now on sale for May dates
Gwinnett Stripers’ single-game tickets are now available for purchase for all May home games at Coolray Field. Tickets can be purchased at GoStripers.com/tickets.
The Stripers are following the guidance of local, regional, and national health and government agencies to safely welcome fans (50 percent capacity) back to Coolray Field in a socially-distant manner beginning with Opening Night on Tuesday, May 11. Capacity restrictions are subject to change, and the Stripers will work closely with Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Braves, and local health officials before increasing capacity this season.
Gateway85 CID reelects directors Aggarwal, Reams
Gateway85 Community Improvement District has reelected two board members during its annual Caucus of Electors. Gateway85 CID is a 14-square mile self-taxing district that uses additional property taxes to accelerate infrastructure improvements, security enhancements and mobility within its area in Gwinnett County.
Reams
Aggarwal
Those re-elected members include Shiv Aggarwal, developer and property owner for American Management Services, Inc., representing Post 6 and Michael Reams, technical manager with OFS Fitel LLC, representing Post 3. They will both serve three-year terms. The board also voted to re-elect Aggarwal as the CID’s board chair.
Shiv Aggarwal not only founded his own real estate business, but also Global Mall, the first and only indoor South Asian mall in North America. Designed to bring the metro Atlanta Indian community together, Global Mall serves as a community center with temples, dance and music academies, learning centers, yoga studios, banquet halls, more than 100 unique retailers, a food court and more.
Michael Reams of OFS Fitel LLC helps major television and movie productions that are working in Georgia by enabling them to use the Norcross OFS facility to house production offices, mill shops and stages. He works with entertainment specialists, location coordinators and other units onsite, including transportation, set designers, construction and more and serves as the primary point of contact for all production phases from initial scouting, through contract negotiations, and as the daily liaison during prep and shoot periods, and finally through wrap and office closing.
Sometimes You Have to Lie by Leslie Brody
From Karen Harris, Stone Mountain: Louise Fitzhugh, the author of the middle school title Harriet the Spy, catapulted into fame and controversy with this trend-setting title. Her beginnings in Memphis Tenn. were both confining and diametrically opposed to her outlook on life. Louise’s move to New York City was in part to further her painting and writing careers and also to explore the gay/lesbian community in Greenwich Village. Though Louise met many friends and supporters of all her artistic endeavors, her self-confidence was fragile, and she became dispirited when criticized. Her relationship with family in Memphis was damaged, though she was deeply affected by her father’s death. Louise’s mother worked to maintain a relationship with Louise and was her staunch supporter. Mercurial, fiery, and fearless with speaking the truth, she set the stage for the relevance of realistic children’s literature. This book is a revealing read whose authenticity rings true even after 57 years. The full title is: Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy.
- 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
New Mexico replaces Georgia as top state producing pecans
Although the pecan has a long history in North America, Georgia farmers were relative latecomers in realizing the benefits of this tree nut. By the 1950s, however, Georgia had become the country’s leading producer of pecans. (Georgia has previously been the largest pecan-producing state in the nation; however, in 2018, after severe storms hit Georgia, New Mexico replaced Georgia as the top pecan production state.—eeb)
Pecan (Carya illinoensis) is a common name for a species of hickory in the walnut (Juglandaceae) family. According to archaeological and historical evidence, Asian species of the hickory tree arrived in North America before the first humans crossed the Bering Strait from Asia about 10,000 B.C. Other species are native to the Mississippi River valley.
The tree typically grows to a height of 75 to 100 feet and is well adapted to Georgia’s sandy loam soil with clay subsoil. The term pecanis also applied to the tree’s edible fruit. The nuts have a rounded, oblong shape and vary in weight; a pound contains from 25 to 100 pecans.
While there may have been wild pecans in some of Georgia’s river valleys, the nuts are generally regarded as nonnative to the state, and their value as a potential cultivated crop was not recognized until the late nineteenth century. By that time landowners began to regard pecans, long a staple of wild native trees from Iowa and Indiana to Texas and Mexico, as a commercial crop. Commercialization of pecans allowed the nut crop to expand into a number of southeastern states (including Georgia) and to New Mexico and California.
In the late 1800s several individual Georgia landowners near Savannah began producing and marketing pecans on a small scale (about 97 total acres by 1889). By 1910 a “pecan boom” began when southwest Georgia landowners started planting what became thousands of acres of pecans. The orchards, however, were not looked upon as a commercial agricultural venture but as a real estate enterprise. Most of the acreage planted during the fifteen-year boom, from 1910 to 1925, were sold as five- to ten-acre units for homes or small farms. Most of this acreage was concentrated in Dougherty and Mitchell counties.
Those early-20th-century plantations consistently remain the center of Georgia’s pecan-producing counties today. Modern orchards with plantings of scientifically improved pecan varieties now yield what are called “papershell” pecans, so named because the nuts are easy to crack and shell.
By the 1920s Georgia was producing 2.5 million pounds of pecans. As of 2019 Georgia pecan orchards ranged in size from just a few trees to several thousand acres, with more than 140,000 acres bearing the tree nut. Georgia is also fortunate to have an early harvest date compared to other pecan-producing areas, which often results in good prices for Georgia growers. The state produced about 90 million pounds in 2019.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Figure out where this happy camper is on display
Here’s a happy camper, playing a musical instrument. Figure out who is depicted in this Mystery Photograph, and where it is on display. Send your answer to elliott@brack.net to include your hometown.
For the recent Mystery Photo, several people recognized Antioch Methodist Church in Clinch County, Georgia The photograph came a long time ago from Bob Foreman of Grayson, so long ago that he did not remember sending it in, but correctly identified it. Others getting the photo right included Pat Mitchell, Boone, N.C., who identified it first; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Susan McBayer, Sugar Hill; Lynn Naylor, Norcross; Allan Peel, San Antonio, Tex.; Sara Davis, Lawrenceville; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
Graf wrote: “The church was organized in 1844, and the consensus seems to be that this is the third structure on the site, although it may only be the second according to some sources. We think the present church was built in the mid 1890’s. Reverend Irvin Roberts Booth (1822 – 1896), who moved to Clinch County in 1840 from South Carolina, is credited with the organization of the church and the raising of the first structure. He then served as pastor for 50 years, and history tells us that he conducted the Sunday School class on the Sunday before his death in 1896 at the age of 84.
“It would be difficult to overstate the appeal of the little church or that of its setting. The United Methodist History of the South Georgia Conference said it best in 1982. “In Clinch County near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp among tall pines, is a small one-room, high-arched-roof building, painted red with white trim. There is no electricity or modern comforts and there is silence all about. This is Antioch.’ Part of Antioch’s appeal is in the architectural proportions…part of it is the red paint and white trim…and part the cedar shake roof. The little chimney has a unique charm, being hand made of local clay with uneven coloring. We are told that the church closed at some point in the first half of the 20th century, but in 1944 or ’45 it reopened. Regardless of having only four regularly attending members, services are still held each second and fourth Sunday at 9 a.m.”
A rose is a rose is a rose
SPRINGTIME BEAUTY: Roses are in full bloom in the glorious spring weather. Enjoy!
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Snellville Commerce Club to meet May 4 at City Hall
Snellville Commerce Club will meet at noon on May 4 at the Community Room of the Snellville City Hall. Social distancing will be in effect, with masks required. Reservations are required, by contacting:
https://experiencesnellville.com/snellville-commerce-club/#cc-registration. The Club will announce winners of two $1,000 scholarships for students at South Gwinnett and Brookwood high schools at the meeting.
El Señor Taco Festival will be in Duluth on May 2 from noon until 8 .m. This Cinco de Mayo celebration is free to all and will feature high quality taco vendors from Georgia. Wristbands are required to purchase alcoholic beverages.
Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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