GwinnettForum | Number 22.20 | Feb. 21, 2023
THE UNITED STATES’ SHOOTING DOWN of Chinese balloons over the last few weeks brought this photograph to our attention. It turns out that Japan was launching balloon bombs over the United States’ territory during World War II, causing some damage and the lives of six Americans. We’re indebted to Phillip Beard of Buford for forwarding this photograph.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Gwinnett firm improving safety of college sports
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Summertime in the South, with baseball, colas and peanuts
SPOTLIGHT: The 1818 Club
FEEDBACK: Here’s another view on sports betting legislation
UPCOMING: Ninth Suwanee Arts Festival scheduled for April 29-30
NOTABLE: Hudgens Center presents digital art exhibit on Lawrenceville Square
RECOMMENDED: Hungarian Folk Tales, by Val Biro
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Former Gov. William Northen was ahead of his time
MYSTERY PHOTO: Springtime’s green shown in today’s mystery
CALENDAR: Black heritage celebration at GJAC Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Gwinnett firm improving safety of college sports
Image courtesy GuardianSports.com
(Special to GwinnettForum)
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. | A Peachtree Corners company is designing and manufacturing sporting equipment worn by youth and high school football teams, college teams, and most recently, mandated by the National Football League.
Guardian Innovations was formed in 2011 by Erin and Lee Hanson, along with other family members and dedicated employees. It was created as a sister company to their material science company, The Hanson Group. The local family, who has more than 25 years of experience operating their company, has operated out of the Adriatic Court location since 2014. The company occupies 90,000 square feet over eight acres and now has 34 employees.
Their flagship product is the Guardian Cap, which was created to advance the standard football helmet by dispersing some of the energy that is generated during impacts. The Hansons used their expertise in material sciences to engineer, patent and manufacture the Guardian Cap, a lightweight, external soft cover that fits on existing football helmets to disperse energy from cumulative blows. To say that it is successful is an understatement.
Several years ago, the company started selling Guardian Caps to youth football teams. The one-size-fits-all helmet covers drew the attention of several notable football players. NFL running back Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers, along with the late Tim Lester, former fullback and friend of Bettis, purchased the caps for the Milton (Ga.) High’s Steelers.
Jake Hanson, a Wesleyan and Georgia Institute of Technology graduate, and director of strategy and operations at Guardian, says: “They wouldn’t let the team play without Guardian Caps,”
The musician Snoop Dog donated 2,000 caps to underprivileged youth playing in his California youth league. Little by little, the helmet covers started to be worn by more youth teams and then high school and college teams. Clemson University has worn Guardian Caps in practices for the past 11 seasons.
When quarterback Matthew Stafford suffered an injury to his hand, coach Sean McVay required the caps be worn to protect Stafford’s throwing hand.
Reporters started writing articles, “What’s with the padded helmet caps the 49ers are wearing at training camp?”
In 2022, after independent testing by NFL-appointed engineers, the NFL mandated the covers be worn during training camp practices. As a result, the NFL observed a more than 50 percent reduction in concussions as compared to a prior three-year average of those position groups. The 2022 preseason was the first time players from all 32 NFL teams wore the Guardian Cap.
The Hansons were teased at first. People said they were trying to put bubble wrap on football players. “You’re laughed at and considered crazy…until you’re not,” Lee Hanson says. Many players didn’t want the game to look different, even though they agreed that better outcomes were needed.
The Guardian Cap is only one of many products engineered and produced by the company. After the success of the Guardian Cap, they turned their efforts to lacrosse.
Guardian’s answer was the PEARL ball, manufactured in their Peachtree Corners facility and made completely out of a urethane that doesn’t change over time. PEARL is now used by 13 out of the top 20 NCAA Division 1 men’s teams. Guardian Innovations is the only lacrosse ball manufacturer in the USA. The company also manufactures a turf infill product called Guardian Bio- Based TPE Infill made of corn and soy which is natural and keeps fields up to 28 degrees cooler. Unlike other infill products available, Guardian BioBase doesn’t emit toxins when hot that can make some people sick.
Summertime in the South, with baseball, colas and peanuts
Via Wikimedia Commons.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
FEB. 21, 2023 | Having been born in the South, we boys growing up never even thought of how hot it got in the summer time in Georgia. It was just plain hot, and we accepted that in the days before air conditioning was standard.
Suffer from heat? Not us. Sweat during the summer? Probably, but it seemed natural, and didn’t slow us down.
There was no organized playground nearby. There was a small open field, a little unlevel, where we played baseball. The pitcher was slightly up the hill from the batter but we paid that no mind. We were too young for the pitcher to throw very fast anyway.
Have organized adult supervision? None at all. It was a little early before Little League, et al arrived in our area. But play baseball on an open field in our neighborhood? Yep, most of late winter, spring, summer and into fall. (This was before we had paid any attention much to girls. None played sports with us.)
As to baseball equipment, it was simple. Most of us had our own bat, but we usually had only one aged baseball, which was pretty ratty from use. There was no spare ball, so if someone fouled off a pitch into the nearby bushes, the game stopped while we all searched for it. As that ball got more use, the cover came off, so it was repaired with black friction tape. That made it a little harder to hit, a little more difficult to see than a white ball. You couldn’t hit that taped ball quite as far as you could when the ball had a leather cover.
Basketball for us? Not so much. In our neighborhood, no one had a hoop. We went from baseball in spring, summer to fall and warmer winter days, then to football.
As for refreshing ourselves, eventually, as we got a little older, somehow we managed to have a few coins, often earned from different chores. We didn’t have much money in our pockets, maybe five or ten cents. But a drink only cost a nickel back then.
We would go to a store’s soft drink box, and pull out a drink from the icy water. That drink box’s icy water was mighty cool on our hand.
Feeling we needed to get as much as we could out of a nickel, our choice of drinks was not those days’ standard six ounce Coca Cola, but the 12 ounce Royal Crown, which we knew was also a Georgia product. (Pepsi in our crowd was not so popular.) Royal Crown also produced 12 ounce Nehi fruit drink, a secondary choice. Its best were Orange and Grape sodas. Strawberry was red enough, but more watery. And the Peach tasted awful. Don’t expect Nehi ever made much money off that Peach offering.
If one of us had another nickel, we bought a pack of salted peanuts, and each poured some into Royal Crown, or Coke. One long pack of peanuts would be shared by all. We never mixed peanuts with Nehi drinks. It tasted far better with a cola product. While we never recognized it, we were cooling down with those icy soft drinks back in that day before air conditioning.
Today you might need about a dollar to buy a soft drink or even that sleeve of salted peanuts.
Growing up in the South was mighty hot, but, we only thought of it as normal times.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The 1818 Club
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is The 1818 Club, named for the year that Gwinnett County received its charter. The 1818 Club is a member-owned, private dining experience providing the best in food, service and meeting accommodations for its members. Whatever your business or social dining needs, the 1818 Club has the proper facilities, recently renovated, to gracefully host your gatherings.
- 100-seat formal dining room open for breakfast and lunch.
- Capital Room open for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as cocktails.
- Three private rooms which can be used for dining or meeting space. AV is offered in each room.
- 220 seat Virgil Williams Grand Ballroom, divides into three sections, all with AV.
- Gwinnett Room for upscale dining, with Frankie’s menu available.
Our top-notch service team enhances your experience by providing a sophisticated social atmosphere, engaging events and a full serving of dining and entertainment opportunities. If you want an urbane and central site to entertain people, consider joining the 1818 Club. For more details, visit https://www.the1818club.org/Home.
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Here’s another view on sports betting legislation
Editor, the Forum:
Senate Bill 57, the sports betting bill, also contains horse racing, a “sport” with dark and harmful undertones. This needs to be removed from the bill because Georgia doesn’t need this problem. One of the many negatives is that about 1,000 race horse deaths are reported each year and 7,500 go to slaughter just in the US. This is a conservative estimate from the racing industry.
When horses retire from racing, one would think they’re all “put out to pasture” to live the life of Riley, but that’s not so. Far too many are loaded onto trucks for the long and arduous ride heading to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered for meat. And the public is led to think all those magnificent runners are treated like royalty. Sadly NOT true!
See info here about horse racing: The Dark Side of Horse-Racing, a 90-second video: www.gapetcoalition.org/horseracing Let your Georgia legislators know that horse racing is something that we AND the horses don’t need.
– Louise Stewart, Norcross
Dear Louise: Thank you for this. Instead of eliminating horse racing from the bill, why not have the Legislature just drop the whole bill, killing two birds with one stone? –eeb
Feels some legislators forcing items onto him
Editor, the Forum:
I sure hope those legislators wanting to push through legalized gambling aren’t as crafty and vicious as the ones that have been trying to negate the will of the people and force MARTA on Gwinnett. Like you intimated, no means no. The people have voted, thus spoken. Please continue to be consistent and use the voice of the GwinnettForum to stop both legalized gambling in Georgia, and the encroachment of MARTA into Gwinnett.
— David Simmons, Norcross
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.
Ninth Suwanee Arts Festival scheduled for April 29-30
The Suwanee Arts Center is gearing up to celebrate its ninth annual Suwanee Arts Festival. The event is a highlight of downtown Suwanee’s event schedule, with vibrant, eclectic and family-friendly art and activities. The festival will take place on Saturday, April 29 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 30 from noon to 5 p.m.
SAC’s Suwanee Arts Festival will dazzle the community with art, food and entertainment. Town Center Square will be filled with artists exhibiting and selling their creations, food trucks will have a variety of cuisines, and there will be live stage entertainment.
The 2023 artists will offer paintings, ceramics, photography, sculpture, wood, jewelry, glass, fiber, and more. Several live art demonstrations will engage festival goers. Contact the art center for information about becoming an art vendor.
The festival will feature a Kid’s Zone with free art projects led by artists and teachers. It will provide young art enthusiasts with hands-on, make and take projects suitable for all ages and levels of experience. Young artists will create their very own masterpiece to take home as a souvenir.
New activities added to this years’ festival are the Art Workshop tent, the SAC Members Exhibition and an extended stage performance schedule featuring live music. The Art Workshop tent will offer Hobbit Door classes using polymer clay.
Suwanee Arts Center president Sheila Crumrine says: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Suwanee Arts Center to fulfill its mission of bringing talented artists and the community together to experience and appreciate the wealth of talent that artists can provide to enrich the lives of all community members.”
The Suwanee Arts Festival will also host the official unveiling of The Ultimate Participation Trophy Project, the brainchild of the Suwanee Public Arts Commission. This is a unique sculpture created by the Georgia Artist Phil Proctor, constructed out of trophies donated by local residents.
The Suwanee Arts Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit that provides opportunities for artists to thrive, fosters art appreciation through education and exhibitions, and serves as a catalyst for dynamic and vibrant community interaction with the arts. Please find and connect with us through social media. All the classes and events are regularly updated on the website: Suwanee Arts Center & Gallery | Suwanee Visitor Center
- For more information on the Suwanee Arts Festival, visit SuwaneeArtsCenter.org.
Hudgens Center presents digital art exhibit on Lawrenceville Square
Brother Nature, Shoghi Lombard’s newest digital project, can now be viewed throughout Lawrenceville Square during February in celebration of Black History Month. Visitors are invited to explore each piece on the kiosk by learning and reflecting on Lombard’s statements.
Mayor David Still says: “Through this partnership with the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, the City recognizes the impact Brother Nature has. This is a powerful visual on the same square where the Charles Hale Memorial is located.” (Hale was a Black man lynched on the square in 1911.)
A Gwinnett County resident, emerging artist Shoghi Amir Lombard was born in New Orleans, and produces concepts in his own distinctive style. As his family moved through the Southern states, Lombard grew to appreciate the simple yet intricate organic forms of nature he recognized in rural Georgia, reinforcing his eagerness to express himself. Add to that his maturing acuity, history and pride of the African American educational culture from Tuskegee, Ala., he traveled to Clark College to study medical Illustration. While there, Lombard also studied drawing at Spelman College. He was inspired by visiting with Atlanta’s civil rights and artistic luminaries.
As Lombard worked in the fast-paced, time-consuming, corporate exhibit and advertising realm, he nurtured a growing appreciation for the fine arts. Lombard delved into learning about his own existence, questioning his place in the universe, and developing a more intimate relationship with his higher power.
The Hudgens Center for Art and Learning’s Executive Director Laura Balance says: “The Hudgens Center is excited to continue the partnership with the City of Lawrenceville through a new digital avenue. Through his work, Shoghi Lombard aspires to raise awareness among people of their innate, inherent nobility; of the multitude of divine traits that lie within; and of the definite, future spiritual advancement of the human race.”
Years later, 2024 PCOM Pharm students mark white coats
The end was the beginning. With the PCOM Class of 2024 having started pharmacy school at the beginning of the pandemic when most of the world was shutting down, the 79 class members decided to delay a virtual ceremony in 2020 to have an in-person ceremony two and a half years later on February 10.
Shawn Spencer, dean and chief academic officer of the PCOM School of Pharmacy, extolled the students. He said, “You are not only becoming a pharmacist, but also a leader, mentor and a role model.”
Keynote speaker Bris Soto, PharmD ’22, who is a postgraduate year one pharmacy resident through a partnership between PCOM Georgia and Wellstar North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, shared her thoughts. “When I think of a healthcare professional, I think of someone knowledgeable, someone who puts effort into gathering all data before making a decision, and someone who is trustworthy,” she said.
Among the graduates of 2024 are, from left, Mir Mirjan, Komal Bhut, Priyanka Patel, Krishna Chavada and Will Riley.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Hungarian Folk Tales, by Val Biro
From Raleigh Perry, Buford: These are 21 of some of the best stories that I have ever read. I used to tell stories and bought a plethora of books on folk tales. I bought this book about 1990 or earlier, remembering it came from the Oxford Bookstore in Peachtree Battle. It is an everything-comes-out-smelling-like-roses book and would be a perfect book for someone nine to eleven years old, better a girl than a boy. It might need a parent close by because some of the words are not in the usual vocabulary of American kids that age. Don’t worry, there are no bad words. This is a good book for a parent or grandparent who reads to their children. Most of these stories would be appropriate for 9- to 11-year-olds. But adults can also enjoy these old-day folk tales.
- 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
Former Gov. William Northen was ahead of his time
Despite William Northen’s success and influence as an educator, agricultural reformer, state legislator, and governor, history has largely ignored his life and work. As governor in the early 1890s, he was ahead of his time. Not only did he advocate such progressive reform measures as prohibition and increased educational funding, he also fought stridently against lynching.
William Jonathan Northen was born on July 9, 1835, to Louisa Maria and Peter Northen in Jones County. Peter Northen was a planter and educator who traced his lineage to Virginia in the 1630s. In 1840 Peter moved his family to Penfield, in Greene County, to accept a position at Mercer University. William graduated from Mercer at the age of 18 took a position as an instructor at Mt. Zion Academy in Hancock County. Northen subsequently became assistant principal and rose to headmaster. He wed Martha Neel in 1860 and later had two children, Thomas and Annie Belle.
When Georgia entered the Civil War (1861-65), Northen joined his father’s regiment, the Second Battalion, Georgia State Troops, as a private. An educator’s exemption, however, allowed him to opt out of combat duty in 1862. Northen worked at Confederate hospitals in Atlanta and Milledgeville.
After the war, Northen returned to Hancock County to resume his teaching. In 1874, too ill to continue teaching, Northen retired to his 800-acre farm in Hancock County and soon established himself as a leading scientific planter. Combining his teaching acumen with his farming success, Northen helped establish the Hancock County Farmers Club. He was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1877-78 and again in 1880-81. In 1884 he was elected to the state senate, where he made educational and agricultural reforms his priorities.
Between 1887 and 1890, Northen served as president of the prestigious State Agricultural Society. That position propelled him to the forefront of the race to replace John B. Gordon as governor in 1890. As governor, Northen pursued progressive legislation by advocating prohibition, railroad reforms, an improved educational system, and reforms in the prison system. He also pushed hard for the passage of antilynching legislation, but it was never achieved. Northen won a second term in 1892.
During his tenure as governor, Northen also rose to prominence as a leading Baptist. He also served as vice president of both the Southern Baptist (SBC) and Georgia Baptist conventions during his gubernatorial career, as well as president of the SBC’s Home Mission board. Northen served as president of the SBC for three years and as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention for 14 years.
Although Northen continued to involve himself in public life, however, his fatigue was becoming evident. Northen retired from public life with “his skirts clear,” believing that he had done his duty for God and for Georgia. He died two years later at the age of 77 and was buried in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Springtime’s green shown in today’s mystery
When today’s Mystery Photo was taken, it must have been turning toward springtime, the new leaves on the trees indicate. Figure out where this photo is located, and send your answers to elliott@brack.net, including your hometown.
Several people recognized a distinctive angle photograph of the reflecting pool at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in downtown Atlanta. They included Pat Bruschini, Peachtree Corners; Steve Ogilvie, Lawrenceville; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Lindsay Borenstein, Atlanta; Ross Lenhart, Stone Mountain; Virginia Klaer, Duluth; Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill; Lou Camerio of Lilburn; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. The photo came from George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
Peel’s research turned up this: “Today’s mystery photo is of the Waterfall Memorial at the Tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 968) and Coretta Scott King (1927 – 2006), part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in the King Historic District of Atlanta.
“The pool is made up of a series of steps/waterfalls that have a simile taken from the historic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech during the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., in which King declared:
“WE WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL JUSTICE ROLLS DOWN LIKE WATER
AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE A MIGHTY STREAM.”
“It is also worth noting that Dr. King was originally buried at South-View Cemetery on Jonesboro Road in Atlanta, the same place as his parents. His body was reinterred in the King Center Tomb in 1970, though at the time, much of the surrounding architecture did not exist and was only completed between 1977 and 1981. When Coretta King died on January 30, 2006, she was also buried elsewhere because the original tomb was only designed to hold one coffin. Her body was reinterred next to her husband in November 2006.”
As February ends, Gwinnett County will honor Gwinnett’s Black heritage at its annual Black History Month Heritage Night Celebration on Tuesday, February 21 at the Gwinnett Convention and Administration Center at 6:30 p.m. Poet Laureate Hank Stewart and other local leaders will share remarks. The Grayson High School Orchestra, Berean Christian Church Choir and North Metro Academy of Performing Arts Chorus and Step Team will perform.
Peachtree Corners Comprehensive Plan will be for discussion on February 23 at 7 p.m. at the City Hall Community Chest Room. The series of meetings will focus on determining the goals of the city for the next decade. What improvements does the City need to make and what should it prioritize? Topics for this first meeting will include housing (apartments, single and multi-family homes, rental properties, etc.), trails, transportation, and land uses.
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