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Tallapoosa Journal
3/24/08
She was born on a cold morning in 1888 in Franklin County near the small
community of Martin, Georgia. She never saw the internet, a flat screen
television, and for sure she would have been disappointed at the
political climate and economic upheaval facing America. In her view a state's
governor was an important leader. Being governor wasn't a way to meet chicks as
in the case of the State of New York. New Jersey's former governor was caught up
in a scandal a few years ago and it was revealed last week that his wife knew
and even was a part of the shenanigans. My grandmother's dream for me was to one
day be either the Governor of Georgia, a Baptist minister or the drummer of the
television show "Hee Haw".
The reason I follow local, state, and national politics is because of my
grandmother's influence. I remember watching the political conventions of 1960
and the emergence of John F. Kennedy as our president. She was deeply saddened
by his death in November 1963. The first time I ever voted was a dozen years
after JFK's election and I voted for a senator from South Dakota whose main
qualification was he wasn't Richard Nixon. My grandmother voted the same way.
She was an unabashed Yellow Dog Georgia Democrat and when Watergate began
dominating newspaper headlines, she was not surprised because of who was behind
the scandal. I recall coming into the house and her glued to the Watergate
hearings on television. She truly loved her country. She drilled into me the
notion that only in the United States that a boy from the South could be
anything he desired to be as long as the principle of hard work was a dominant
axiom for living. She believed in education quite strongly even though she
didn't have a lot of it. Her limited education didn't stop her from reading the
afternoon edition of the Atlanta paper from cover to cover every evening. She
also had read the Bible from cover to cover countless times. She would turn off
the Jackie Gleason Show on Saturday nights until I had read and knew my Sunday
school lesson for the next morning. Jackie Gleason was called "the great one".
My mother's mother was truly deserving of that moniker.
My grandmother was never on television or got her name mentioned in the paper
with the exception of her obituary in this very newspaper 25 years ago this
week.
Last Monday while many were wearing green and celebrating St. Patrick's Day and
feasting on corned beef and cabbage and sipping beverages that were green when
there shouldn't be. I spent last Monday reflecting on St. Patrick's Day in 1983
when that evening my cousin Tommy called me in Montgomery to tell me that our
beloved grandmother had gone to be with the Lord. She had just celebrated her
95th birthday a couple of months before and had gotten sick for the first time
in my memory a few days after. She was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma that
weakened her body to the point that she eased from this earth in a matter of
weeks. I remember my anger at her dying that I punched the wall and learned a
good lesson on sheet rock repair the next day. I channeled that anger into work
with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and will continue in the fight for a cure
until we find one. That goal gets closer each day.
I go to Hollywood Cemetery and meditate on how she influenced my life. She
taught me to follow the teachings of the man who commanded us to "love ye one
another". Her principled life was a great example for all of us who knew her.
She loved everybody and if you met her you would have loved her too. One time
when a congressman was seeking re-election and he was campaigning on
Tallapoosa's streets he got an earful from my grandmother on his missing a key
vote on Social Security. I don't remember her ever missing an opportunity to
vote ever. I have not missed a chance to vote since I earned that first chance
in '72. She thought there were never any "small" elections.
Her love for her Lord, her family, her town, her county, her state and her
nation stuck with me. Everything I believe is based on things my grandmother
taught me. The concepts of brotherhood and loving your neighbor as yourself were
learned at the apron strings of this wonderful lady when I was a little boy.
I miss her so much more even though she has been gone from here for 25 years.
She lived to be 95 and is the only woman I have ever kissed that dipped snuff.
If you still are blessed with having your grandmother, you are blessed indeed.
Call her, no better yet go see her and tell her what she means to you.
Around 1980 University of Alabama Coach Paul Bryant did a series of television
commercials for South Central Bell. One of them encouraged the use of long
distance calling. The spot ended with this giant and legend saying quote "Call
your mama, 'cause I sure wish I could call mine".
Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a member of the Georgia Radio Hall of
Fame and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville. You can
contact him at P.O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, Ga. 30176 or via email at
Rhubarbjones@aol.com
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