April 2,2011

"Company's comin'" exclaimed my grandmother as she got off the phone with her sister Effie who lived in Belton, South Carolina. That meant I got to trim the hedge, cut the grass, and paint the front porch. When company came to visit the best foot was always put forward. Tallapoosa has company coming next weekend with the annual Dogwood Festival. Scores of people from out of town come to sample the arts, crafts, kids games, and fried food on a stick. Tallapoosa always has known how to have a parade. The Dogwood Festival parade three years ago had no less than 125 motorcycles in it. Yes, I counted them. Next weekend many folks who grew up here will come home. Some of the classes of dear old Tally High have reunions and gatherings. My cousin Beth Meunier Warner called a couple of weeks ago to tell me of such a gathering on Bowdon Street to watch the parade. It will be a great weekend. My kids love the pony rides and the inflatable "jumpy things." What is the proper name for those cash cows? Tallapoosa is the only place I can think of that has changed so much over the decades and somehow stayed the same. There are people I remember as a lad that will forever live in my heart. People like Jess Newman, Ray Hitchcock, Lee Roy Brooks, Howard Brooks, Johnny Holcombe, G. B. Evans, Jr., W. G. Littlefield, and Ray Allen were people who taught me how to treat people. Working for G. B. Evans taught me the value of hard work when working at his grocery store. Jess Newman is responsible for me having the opportunity of going to college. Ray Hitchcock taught me how to be a neighbor. I often wonder about some of the people I knew "back in the day." Whatever became of John Logan, Eddie Free, Edna Weeks, George Greene, and Jerry McCollum? I saw Keith Miller a few weeks ago and thought of his father. Hubert Miller has to have the title of the funniest funeral director in history. I think about Burford Pope who used to let me watch him weld. He also taught me that picking up hot metal isn't a good thing. Forney Walker who lives just across the state line taught me how to pick out good quality fruits and vegetables. I know professors of ethics that don't know as much about it as Forney. Tallapoosa produced the funniest person I ever knew that wasn't a professional stand-up comedian. Clarance Ballew could make us laugh with his genuine brand of comedy. Harold McWhorter is a marvelous songwriter and performer. Bud Jones is another great singer. Bud also taught me about respecting nature. He was the first conservationist I ever met. He was one before pop culture invented the term. How many of you can remember out town's doctors from years gone by. Dr. Downey, Dr. Allen, and Dr. Reid provided our city with quality and personal health care. Those gentlemen made "house calls." My daughters find it hard to believe that once upon a time if a person was real sick, a doctor would come to their house to take care of whoever was ailing. I remember when Dr. Max Burgess moved here from Atlanta and set up a dental practice. He was a very kind man who once gave me a tad of mercury for a science project in school. Our city can boast some pretty darn good legal minds. Don Howe I was told was a master in the courtroom. Federal Judge Harold Murphy when he practiced law here helped me with a term paper. The only "A" I ever got on a writing assignment. Tallapoosa was blessed with some teachers that were true educators. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Mrs. Pauline Rambo. She taught me in the 6th grade. Some 75 years ago she taught my mother in the 6th grade. Tallapoosa High School librarian Marian Stringer was hilarious and a great French teacher. She also was a college classmate of Calder Willingham who wrote the screenplay for Dustin Hoffman's first starring role in "The Graduate." You might be telling your age if you too can remember Bailey & Barnes Furniture, Cummings Department Store, The National, Smith's Red Dot, Skinner's Store, Burger Inn, Club 78, Lillie's Truckstop, The Southern Cafe and Junior and Frances Windom's Smokehouse. The fellow who recorded such hits as "East Bound and Down", and "When You're Hot, You're Hot" Jerry Reed told me about stopping in Tallapoosa once and was blown away by the hospitality of the folks here. Radio icon Red Jones who wakes out area up every morning on The Legend, WKNG recalled how he was on his way to a job at WQXI in Atlanta and stopped off here for breakfast. Our town made a lasting impression on him. Red Jones made a lasting impression on me when I'd hear him on "Quixie in Dixie." Tallapoosa's rough and hardscrabble reputation has passed. Tallapoosa is known for fine and friendly people. To prove it, come to the Dogwood Festival next weekend.