GwinnettForum | Number 21.54 | July 13, 2021
STORM A COMIN’: Brandon Brooks, a Walton EMC line technician, shot this award-winning photo with his smartphone while he was on power restoration duty after Hurricane Laura. The photo captured first place in the smartphone photography category in the Cooperative Communicators Association annual contest.
Come to Downtown Duluth and enjoy Eddie Owen Presents at the Red Clay Music Foundry, with several shows each week. While there, eat at Dreamland Barbecue, Good Word Pub, PURE Taqueria, Maple Street Biscuits, The Cottage on Main, Local on North, Nacho Daddy, or others. Food Truck Fridays, with free entertainment, are going strong. The fountain is always an exciting draw for kids, so visit and bring the whole family! And, don’t forget the Duluth Fall Festival, September 25 and 26, so mark your calendars now! All of the proceeds from the Festival are used for improving Downtown Duluth, and, as you will see, this mission is paying off! Visit duluthfallfestival.org.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Considering pandemics and businesses needing workers
EEB PERSPECTIVE: You may get frustrated when you change your mailing address
ANOTHER VIEW: After Covid, sightseeing in Paris turns out to be mighty easy
SPOTLIGHT: The Piedmont Bank
FEEDBACK: American public educational system is in dire straits
UPCOMING: Hazardous waste collection to be July 22 at the Fairgrounds
NOTABLE: Northeast Georgia Boy Scouts honor Wilbanks and Levengood
RECOMMENDED: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Native Georgian is composer of Take My Hand, Precious Lord
MYSTERY PHOTO: Lift your eyes skyward for this edition’s Mystery Photo
Considering pandemics and businesses needing workers
By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | Over the years I have read a plethora of material on the Black Plague of the 1350s that hit England and wider. The plague took out a vast number of people. This was during the era of serfdom where the Lord of the Manor (Suzerains) reigned supreme, and the serfs did all sorts of work for little or no remuneration.
Perry
Many of the serfs died as a result of the pandemic but also many of the Suzerains died. This allowed the serfs to leave the manor and seek work where they could find it. They usually found work on other manors.
They also found that they could make a substantial amount of money doing temporary work, work that needed to be done here and there. They charged for the labor and when finished with that property, they were free to go to the next. Basically, this finally led to the early origins of the middle class, as now they could earn enough money to either buy existing housing or build new houses and still have money left for other things that they needed.
Move forward 661 years and you find many businesses unable to find workers today. Many of the unemployed workers now were underpaid (or they thought they were) and they refuse to go back to work such jobs for a pittance as waiters and waitresses or the scullery workers for restaurants and bars. The same is true of all businesses who are now seeking employees.
With the number of people who have died during this pandemic, there are a lot of positions open. In spite of the state cutting off money, the people refuse to work for a pittance. Ten or fifteen dollars an hour simply will not get them back to their old jobs. So they are holding off for more.
The truth is that office clerks and restaurant workers will hold off until the situation gets dire for them. Meanwhile, the businesses that need them will either be closing or paying what workers they have overtime. The same will be true for middle management in businesses. There are jobs available, but today many people want more money. Eventually, they will be getting it.
This will certainly bring on inflation, but at the same time, it will improve the standard of living for many. Prices will rise in restaurants and prices will rise on products that are made in factories. States and the Federal Government cannot change the inevitable.
In the news today, I read that the average cost of a new car is $45,000 and the average cost of repair on those cars is also increasing. Used cars are selling for more than they did two years ago and used cars are selling so much that dealerships are paying quite a bit more (percentage wise) for used car inventories.
This all boils down to cause and effect plus supply and demand. Nothing will stop it. Be ready to pay more for food, finished goods and other things that you need.
As an aside, many people are blaming President Biden for the rise in gasoline prices at the pump. He had no effect on the price of gas.
The Covid 19 pandemic was a true pandemic in that with the ease of travel has affected the whole world, cnd caused labor problems.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
You may get frustrated when you change a mailing address
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 13, 2021 | If for some reason you are considering changing your postal mailing address, be forewarned!
You are about to face a problem, that of your mail being significantly delayed, no matter how diligent you are in following the correct procedures for forwarding mail to a new address.
Here’s what has recently happened to me. Needing to switch from having my mail delivered to my office in Peachtree Corners, to a post office box in Norcross, I dutifully filled out the postal form, online, as my postman instructed.
The date was May 18, and I asked that mail be sent to my new address beginning May 20…..and never did I give it a second thought. I should have.
By the way, the distance from the old Zip Code 30092 in Peachtree Corners to the new Norcross 30091 post office is 3.6 miles, no more than a normal 10 minute drive. Come to find out, that distance is insignificant.
Here’s why: all mail from any post office in the United States that patrons ask to be forwarded to a new address is first sent to……(get this)…..Tampa, Fla. What? Yes, it must go to a forwarding location in Tampa, Fla. Google tells me that’s 475.8 miles from 30092 to Tampa.
You could walk mail from 30092 to 30091 before mail could go round-trip 950 miles! And we wonder why service is bad and why a political appointee, or at least someone who acts like one, is heading the post office. Is the postal system in trouble?
So, here’s unaware me, not checking my mailbox on May 20, but checking it on May 21. No mail. And so it continued each successive day into June, still no mail. Finally, on June 10, I got my first mail, addressed directly to that postal box. Over the next few days, I got more mail, but only mail that was addressed to the postal office box. There was still no forwarded mail from my previous address.
Finally, on June 19, one day shy of one month when I said I wanted to get forwarded mail, I got a single forwarded letter. The second forwarded letter came June 22.
At least three people called me saying that they got a returned a letter they had sent to me. I could understand one, since it was mailed to the old business address. But two letters were returned to senders which were addressed to the correct post office box. Postal officials could not explain that. (By now I was on a talking basis finally with several postal officials.)
Then on July 6, a letter came that had been mailed directly to the post office box and returned to the sender. (She telephoned, and she again addressed it to the box number.) The original letter was postmarked June 2. No telling where it had been hanging out for a month, but it appeared it did not travel to Tampa.
Finally, on July 8, in talking to another postal official, I learned that I had made a mistake in filling out my forwarding form online. In the space for the name of the person wanting the mail forwarded, I had put my name, along with the name of my two businesses.
Wrong! Instead, she had me fill out three different cards for forwarding, with only one name or business in the blank where it asked “name?” The inference was that all these delays were my fault for not filling out the form correctly.
Sure, it was!
If you are about to change your mailing address, now you know: expect delays!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
After Covid, sightseeing in Paris turns out to be mighty easy
(Editor’s note: this is the second installment of a trip by the Ponders of Duluth to Paris just as tourists were allowed to make trips to Europe after the Covid pandemic. Look for further Ponder reports from Paris. –eeb)
By Rob Ponder
PARIS, France | Delta Airlines began marketing travel to Europe on June 29, the day after the Europe Union opened up for tourism. Our full plane on July 5 made us fear that Paris would also be full. Surprise! For the first time ever, when we got to Paris, there was nobody in line to get through immigration and customs. We walked through in less than five minutes.
Ponder
Wait a minute! No crowd of men at the exit of customs selling taxi service? No line at the ATM? No line to buy tickets on the RER train line into Paris? No obvious pick-pockets! We could already tell that this was not going to be our normal trip to Europe. We made our way to our hotel near the Eiffel Tower on nearly empty trains and subways.
Getting a hotel in Paris was another story. We booked our stay about five months before we expected to arrive. About one month before we got on the plane, that hotel emailed us to say that they were not yet open and that they had to cancel our reservation. No problem. There are lots of hotels in Paris.
A second suggestion looked pretty bad online and got terrible reviews about how the entire building shook when the Metro passed underneath it. No thanks.
The third hotel was the charm. Near the Eiffel Tower, right next to a Metro Station, right next to a small grocery store, and right next to a McDonalds (half the price of breakfast compared to the hotel). At only $120 per night per room….this was the one. (Quad rooms are hard to find in Paris so we went with two double rooms). We even got two rooms on an upper floor with a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were “home” for the next nine nights!
My daughter and I showed up at the doors of the Paris “Catacombs” about 30 minutes before it was scheduled to open. While Covid had the ticket booth closed, we were able to buy tickets on-line for the first slot of the day and still leave enough time to get a French pastry before entry. The last time we had been in Paris, we were shut out of this landmark because it was sold out for all of the days we were there.
If you are not familiar with the catacombs…. They are the final resting place for the remains of about six million Parisians. These are skeletons that were removed from cemeteries overcrowded from the plague, piled up by centuries of people living in a dense city, and removed from church cemeteries during the construction of the subway system. They were placed in underground rock quarries that run for miles under the city. The novel way of building a front “wall” out of leg bones and skulls gives an eerie feel to the place. (all of the remainder of the skeletons are just thrown behind the front “wall”).
The entire family had the same luck the following day when we went to visit the Louvre. We were able to get tickets for an entry time that was only a few minutes after we arrived. Corridors that are normally packed with tourists were easy to navigate and the room with the famous Mona Lisa was less than half full.
Overall, Paris was proving to be an easier place to visit than normal!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The Piedmont Bank
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is The Piedmont Bank, which opened its doors in 2009, is a full service commercial bank. It has recently closed a merger with Westside Bank with offices in Paulding and Cobb Counties and also recently opened an office in downtown Duluth. Piedmont now has offices in 13 locations, with its home office in Peachtree Corners at 5100 Peachtree Parkway and other locations; at 185 Gwinnett Drive in Lawrenceville; east of Interstate 85 near Suwanee at Old Peachtree and Brown Roads; in Dunwoody at 1725 Mount Vernon Road, in Cumming at 2450 Atlanta Highway and in Cleveland, Gainesville, Jefferson and Blue Ridge. Piedmont Bank has capitalization in excess of $140 million and over $1.6 billion in total assets and is active in making loans to businesses and individuals in its local markets. Piedmont’s board of directors includes local business leaders with strong ties in the communities it serves. Board members include Lamar Black, Ray Black, Robert Cheeley, Paul Donaldson, Kelly Johnson, John Howard, Paul Maggard, Michael Tennant, Ray Barnes and Monty Watson. Deposits at The Piedmont Bank are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000.
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Bemoans lack of objective reporting in television news
Editor, the Forum:
Oops! You left CNN off of your list of non-objective reporting. Surely, you don’t believe everything that they say. Say it ain’t true!If my husband was still alive today (he died in 1990), I doubt that he would want to discuss politics over lunch. Sports, maybe, but not politics.
I don’t watch CNN much but I do sometimes check in to see if they are reporting “straight” news. On one day, Jake Tapper, after commenting on something then President Trump had said or done and after an interview with a guest, he proclaimed that ALL of Trump’s administration were liars.
Probably some were; after all, they are politicians for the most part, but ALL? Hummm!
There were other times I felt that CNN was not objective, but this one really bothered me because there are people who felt that if Jake Tapper said it, it must be true. By the way, I don’t think that Fox News is always objective but I do enjoy the fact that they frequently smile and even laugh and will often end an hour with a story about something uplifting to hear about.
— Mary Upchurch, Peachtree Corners
Dear Mary: Since I watch almost no cable news, there may be others besides Fox stating opinion as fact. However, you must agree that there are many voices out there now, and it seems that fewer and fewer are really objective. To list them all would take up big space. –eeb
American public educational system is in dire straits
Editor, the Forum:
Throughout my school years and beyond, the American public school system was viewed as one of the greatest cultural successes that delivered well-prepared workers for the economy and well-informed citizens prepared to participate in our democracy. Hoakie stuff, but true.
As I watch the reports on the struggles in our schools throughout the nation, I have to wonder what has happened to the system which once thrived. Demands of political groups are dictating what is said to our children. Reading and writing and arithmetic have taken a back seat. Our nation falls further and further down the list in testing versus other nations. Our graduates won’t be able to compete with those in other nations. The end of the great success story is approaching.
If I had a few young school age children today, the decision would be between homeschooling and private schools. That’s usually a matter of money. I can see a boom in new private schools. Sadly, our public schools had been the equalizer throughout the years in America. The future of public schools will have only the children whose family cannot provide alternatives and they will be forced to hearing the political indoctrination conditioning.
— Byron Gilbert, Duluth
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. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
Hazardous waste collection to be July 22 at the Fairgrounds
Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful has some good news for those Gwinnett County citizens eager to rid their homes of clutter and household hazardous waste. In conjunction with the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, the eco-focused nonprofit will host their second Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day of 2021 on Thursday, July 22. From 4-8 p.m. It will be at Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. It will accept items that aren’t collected curbside and could prove harmful to the environment like pesticides, antifreeze, spray paint, auto batteries and more for proper disposal or recycling.
Schelly Marlatt, executive director of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful says:“We’re switching things up a bit based on the response from our participants, vendors and team members. Ever since the launch of our Household Hazardous Waste Collection Days in 2018, we’ve traditionally hosted these events bright and early on a Saturday morning. This time, to get as much participation as possible, we’re hosting it on a Thursday when many people are getting off work or coming home after picking the kids up from summer camp.
“It’s a win-win – residents benefit by getting rid of difficult to dispose of items that are taking up space in their basements, garages, offices and kitchen cabinets, and the environment benefits because those items will not wind up in a local landfill where their harmful contents might leach into the ground and nearby water sources. Many of the items collected will be recycled or used in the manufacture of entirely new products.”
Not accepted curbside during weekly pickup, the following items will be collected for proper disposal or recycling during the four-hour Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on July 22:
- Aerosol/spray pesticides
- Automotive products (engine degreaser, brake fluid, transmission fluid, antifreeze, etc.)
- Cleaners, corrosives, spot removers, acids and bases
- Aerosol/spray paint
- Auto batteries
- Batteries (household and rechargeable)
- Chlorinated solvents
- Cooking oil and grease
- Fire extinguishers
- Flammables (lighter fluid and waste fuels such as kerosene, gasoline, diesel fuel, etc.)
- Fluorescent bulbs and ballasts
- Insecticides
- Latex and water-based paints
- Lawn care products
- Mercury
- Mercury salts and elemental mercury thermometers
- Oil based paint and stains
- Oxidizers
- Poisons
- Propane cylinders
- Solvents and varnishes
- Thermostats and other mercury containing items
- Thinners and paint strippers
- Weed killer
- Wood preservatives
Gwinnett County residents may bring up to five containers of household hazardous waste during this FREE event. Containers may include laundry baskets, storage bins, copy paper boxes or similarly sized receptacles.
Please bear in mind that containers will not be returned. For examples of container sizes, please visit the event page at www.gwinnettcb.org. As for items that will NOT be collected during that day include (but are not limited to): ammunition, radioactive waste, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical/biohazard waste.
Northeast Georgia Boy Scouts honor Wilbanks, Levengood
Two of Gwinnett’s leading citizens have received prestigious honors from the Northeast Georgia Council Boy Scouts of America. They are Alvin Wilbanks and Mike Levengood.
Wilbanks
School Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks was honored on June 25 as part of a Gwinnett Schools’ celebration for his years of service. He became the Northeast Georgia Council’s first recipient of the Elbert K. Fretwell National Outstanding Educator Award. Dr. Fretwell was a professor of education at Columbia University and served as the second Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America. He was an early proponent of aligning Scouting activities and teachings with educational endeavors.
Wilbanks has been a member of the Executive Board of the Northeast Georgia Council for over 20 years, serving as council president and currently as a member of the council’s Trustees. His leadership resulted in a record number of Scouts gaining the rank of Eagle Scouts during his term as president, as well as record membership growth, which earned the Council national recognition from the Boy Scouts of America. He has received the Silver Beaver Award and the Scott Hudgens Distinguished Citizen Award for his many contributions to Scouting in the Northeast Georgia Council.
Levengood
Mike Levengood has been selected to receive the Silver Beaver Award from the Northeast Georgia Council. This award is the highest honor a local Scouting Council can bestow on an adult volunteer. Mike is an Eagle Scout, having earned that achievement in 1971. He has also received the Outstanding Eagle Scout Award from the National Eagle Scout Association and is a recipient of the Scott Hudgens Award from the Northeast Georgia Council.
A member of the Council’s Executive Board, Mike currently serves as council attorney. His service in Gwinnett also includes numerous leadership positions with Gwinnett Parks Foundation, Leadership Gwinnett Foundation, Partnership Gwinnett, Gwinnett Health System and Northside Hospital.
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: This book is an astonishing expertly researched book that presents the history of this country from 1492 through 2000. Told from the point of view of indigenous immigrants, it relates the experiences including the brutalization of these peoples with the goal of developing the land mass that is the United States of America. The hierarchy of the haves and have nots was conceived along with the first arrivals from elite European classes. As each area was developed and the government took shape, the small group at the top of the hierarchy were the power brokers and set the stage for decades of the same up to the present time. The issues that faced U.S. presidents are also covered with immense detail. It is a tough but especially important read for all Americans to read. The result will be an understanding of the issues that face the United States of America today.
- An invitation: GwinnettForum is about out of recommendations. 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
Georgian is composer of Take My Hand, Precious Lord
(From previous edition)
At the height of his blues career, Georgia Tom Dorsey’s gospel music also gained popularity, and his work spread throughout the Chicago religious community after Willie Mae Ford Smith sang “If You See My Savior” at the National Baptist Convention. In February, 1932 Chicago’s second largest church, Pilgrim Baptist, employed Dorsey to organize and direct its own gospel chorus.
Dorsey
In August of that year Dorsey organized a performance for the three gospel blues choruses with which he was involved, and this collaboration became the impetus for the founding of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. Dorsey was elected as the founding national president, a position he held until his nominal retirement in 1983. This period of church involvement marked a turning point in Dorsey’s career as he moved away from performing solos and duets toward directing large groups.
In 1932 Dorsey’s wife, Nettie Harper, died during childbirth, and their son died the following day. This tragedy caused Dorsey to renounce blues music and inspired him to write his famous piece “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” the first of his religious songs to mirror lyrically the emotional and personal impact of his blues compositions.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Dorsey worked extensively with Mahalia Jackson, establishing Jackson as the preeminent gospel singer and Dorsey as the dominant gospel composer of the time. His work with Jackson and other female singers, including Della Reese and Clara Ward, ensured Dorsey’s continued prominence.
Dorsey died in Chicago on January 23, 1993, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Although he didn’t invent gospel blues, Dorsey was one of its earliest performers during the genre’s transition from performance by guitar evangelists to performance by large choruses. Furthermore, his foresight in deciding to publish all of his material, coupled with the large audiences for his music at some of Chicago’s prominent churches and at the National Baptist Convention, helped Dorsey to become an icon.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Lift your eyes skyward for this edition’s Mystery Photo
Soaring arches, lots of people, perhaps tourists….where is the location of this Mystery Photo? Send your answer to elliott@brack.net to include your hometown.
Lynn Naylor of Norcross recognized the most recent Mystery Photo, saying: “Salem Sue is a giant fiberglass Holstein cow sculpture located in New Salem, North Dakota. Salem Sue was built in 1974 for $40,000, by donations from local farmers and residents, and was sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club in honor of the local dairy farming industry.” The photo came from Frank Studer of Greenville, S.C.
Others nailing this mystery included George Graf, Palmyra Va.; Allen Peel of San Antonio, Tex.; Gloria James, Lawrenceville; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; and Jim Savedelis, Duluth, who added: “Salem Sue was sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club in honor of the local dairy farming industry. Her stats are impressive: 38 feet high, 50 feet long, six tons of reinforced fiberglass, so big she had to be built in three sections to get her up the hill.”
Peel told us that: “The artist was Dave Oswald, who is also known for designing the world’s largest catfish, which sits around 230-miles east southeast of Salem Sue in Wahpeton, N.D.”
Click to make image larger.
FESTIVAL FACES: This 2019 photograph of some of the volunteers for the Duluth Fall Festival gives you an estimation of how many people take the time to help in the annual festival. Each year it takes more than 400 people as volunteers for the festival. To give you an idea of how vast an organization this means, figure there are slightly over 100 people in this group. Try counting ‘em. First, enlarge your computer screen. Then start counting. It’s dizzying!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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