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May 12,2008
Tallapoosa Journal
I grew up in
Tallapoosa B.C. That stands for "before cable". When I was growing
up there was a sign up in the lobby in the movie theater off the square in
Carrollton warning movie patrons that "pay television is coming and it is going
to be a terrible problem for American families.
I think it was to get people to not subscribe to cable television and spend the
money on going to the movies.
In the Tallapoosa of my youth, folks had to have an antenna on the roof. My
cousin Joyce Owen and her husband Fred are the only folks I know that still have
a television antenna on the top of their house. They also don't write a check
every month to a cable or satellite provider. I recall that you had a choice of
three Atlanta television stations. NBC was on channel 2, CBS was on channel 5,
and ABC was on channel 11 back in the day. You also could get educational
television broadcasts on channel 7 out of Mount Cheaha, Alabama. Our next door
neighbors the Hitchcock's had a Channel Master antenna that could bring in
television broadcasts out of Birmingham and Chattanooga. Gregory Cook who was in
my class at school also had the first color television set I ever saw. My mother
bought our first color TV when I went away to college. She knew I would come
home every weekend so I could watch football on Saturdays and Disney's Wonderful
World of Color on Sunday nights.
Television had a huge impact on my growing up. Getting up in the morning, we
would have the radio on but we also enjoyed the NBC Today Show. I liked Dave
Garroway, Jack Lescoulie, and J. Fred Muggs the chimp that gave comic relief
before having to face a tough arithmetic test from Mrs. Florence Barnes when I
was in elementary school. Later the Today Show introduced us to Barbara Walters
who grew up around great performers who played at her father's world famous
Latin Quarter night club in New York City. I have always liked and admired
Barbara Walters because she never took herself too seriously. She was a
co-anchor on ABC's Evening News with Harry Reasoner. She held her own against
the tough curmudgeon of a newsman. 20/20 has been a long time favorite program
because of her terrific ability to get answers to questions we all are wanting
to know. Her specials on ABC have spanned decades now. WSB television in
Atlanta pulls great audience ratings with Ms. Walter's The View. As a guy, I
like watching the late morning program to get my blood boiling listening to the
incessant whining of Joy Beharor get a laugh on with Whoopi Goldberg. Rosie
O'Donnell and Star Jones departures from the show did not make me cry. The glue
that keeps the program going strong and the person who stirs the daily soup is
Barbara Walters. She is perhaps one of the top interviewers the television
industry has ever known.
I just bought her new book "Audition". It is a great read. She also has a candor
that is pretty refreshing in a day of celebrity spin and deceit. She reveals
things about herself that many in her position would try to cover up.
I have never been one to read much fiction. I can tell you that I am also
reading a book by Alabama author Ace Atkins "Wicked City" that centers on the
crime ridden days of Phenix City, Alabama. It is a book close to the format of
what the late Truman Capote wrote as factual fiction. I still remember when "The
Phenix City Story" played at the Grand Theater on Head Avenue when I was a kid.
Phenix City has spent the past 50 plus years cleansing itself of the filth and
crime that stained the city across the Chattahoochee from Columbus.
I have had a couple of months to catch up on some reading. Being unemployed and
still getting a check has its advantages. I picked up a book last week written
by an Alabama author from Jacksonville. In my opinion Rick Bragg is my
generation's William Faulkner. Rick Bragg's new book "The Prince of Frogtown" is
another revealing look at his family stories in northern Calhoun County,
Alabama. His other book's "Ava's Man" and "All Over But The Shoutin'" are books
that made me laugh out loud and more than once gave me a lump in my throat. I
met him years ago when he wrote "All Over But The Shoutin'" and he was on a book
promotional tour. In the book he revealed his mother was so poor that she never
had a doll growing up. I wanted to buy her an Xavier Robert's signed Cabbage
Patch doll and send to her because the story of her poverty moved me so much.
Rick wouldn't allow me to follow through with it and was thankful for the
thought. I think that if Rick turns his books into movies they will be Hollywood
hits. His movies would make Billy Bob Thorton's "Sling Blade" look like an Adam
Sandler slapstick comedy. I like Mr. Bragg's honesty and no holds barred form of
telling a story. He is also a heck of a nice guy. Â I am beginning to think
about what my mother used to say to me often when I was growing up. She'd blast
into the living room and say "turn off the television and go read"!
Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a faculty member of Kennesaw State
University and can be reached at P.O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, Ga. 30176 or via
email at
Rhubarbjones@aol.com
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