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April 11, 1978, Around Adair This column originally appeared in the April 11, 1978 edition of the Daily Statesman. A lot has changed in 40 years, but quite a bit remains the same, from an April Community Clean-up to an emphasis on planting trees. I only vaguely remember the dogwood tree drive, but the internet says that a dogwood can live for 80 years, so I'll bet some of the trees they planted back in 1978 are still around town. If anyone knows for sure, please let us know, or send a picture. --Pen Around Adair with Ed Waggener: Clean-up set next week By Ed Waggener We'll have more complete details on it next week, but the whole county is supposed to be mobilized sometime during the week of April 17 for a clean-up campaign. Judge Brock and Mayor Downey are going to put all of their forces on the clean-up, Superintendent Al Sullivan is joining the effort, and the various civic and service clubs are being asked to help. Whether or not the spring clean-up works, of course, will be determined by the efforts individual citizens make. I personally feel that, this year, more than ever, the public wants a super-clean Adair County. Arline Young put it best. She said, "I don't want to see the community clean. I want to see it squeaky clean." --and I do-- Even if I didn't prefer a neat, clean community, I would want to see it squeaky clean to please Ms. Young. An added dividend My brother, Ralph Waggener, says that the community would likely get in a little extra cash if the clean-up crews segregated the refuse picked up from the ditch lines to sell it to recyclers. "There's enough scrap aluminum to add up to a tidy sum," Ralph said, "and the returnable bottles could go to the stores and the non-returnable ones could go to glass recyclers." Newsprint, too, will bring fairly good prices. Other paper scraps may bring less. Segregating the trash will be somewhat of a chore. There would have to be special aluminum, glass, plastics, and paper crews, but it ought to be worth it. Any money derived would be a bonus for the clean-up drive. And it could be earmarked for programs such as the Dogwood Project or for the Mayor's Beautification Committee. They need the funds. Dogwoods going well The Dogwoods arrived in Columbia Saturday morning. Already, those who bought earlier are picking up their dogwoods, and many who had not asked for them are buying now. Ralph, Coy Downey, and I took a chance and ordered about 300 more dogwoods than we had money to pay for. But, we have no doubts that the dogwoods will be sold this week, and we may order another load. We were very pleased with the response, especially considering the uncertain price we were able to give the public. The trees actually cost more than we originally anticipated, and many people had to trim their original commitments to correspond to the money they had intended to pay. And some have found that they were unable to buy any, after all. But that's okay. It's the spirit of the thing that counts, and Coy, Ralph, and I blame ourselves for the uncertainties. The public has been super. A better act next time We'll have a better act next time we have a tree planting. Now that we've gotten into the nursery plant buying a little more, we know a lot more about what nursery wholesalers expect, and we'll be able to give absolute prices in the future. We're not trying to knock local nurserymen out of business. Dorman Hawkins is setting up a nursery business out on Highway 55, and we predict success for him and hope for the best for him. Rives Harbow still does some nursery work, too. What we hope is that the big wholesale drives, such as the Dogwood Project, will stimulate trade for the commercial nurserymen here. In bloom, worth seeing -THE MASSES OF FORSYTHIA all over the Jones-Wright Addition, especially at Willie Nell's, at James Montgomery's, at Mrs. Robert Akin's, and between the Dagwood Gore's and the Aaron Davis'. -The GIANT REDBUD tree in Mrs. Morris Epperson's backyard at the corner of Fortune and Burkesville Streets. The Alleluia! praise gathering The Columbia Baptist Church presented the combined adult and youth choirs massed for a second presentation of "Alleluia! A Praise Gathering for Believers," Sunday afternoon, which was well attended. The 32-voice choir, under the direction of the church's minister of music, John Dean, gave a memorable performance. Especially noteworthy were soloes by Dean, Alice Hadley, Barbara Hadley, and Janet Caldwell, and the personal talks by Mrs. Delmer Upchurch and Mrs. Michael Campbell. The choir's rendition of the spiritual, "Get All Excited," was particularly moving. Members of nearly every church in Columbia were in attendance, and most felt, I believe, as I did, that the Baptists had shared a truly outstanding musical performance with the community. There was a sad note I walked the two blocks from my home to the Baptist Church Sunday afternoon. The walk is, for the most part, pleasant. But I couldn't help noticing that the Saturday night revelers had broken beer bottles all over the Municipal Parking Lot between the Baptist Church and the J.D. Harper Building. And I remembered walking around the square Saturday night with my seven-year old, Pen, and overhearing two 14-15 year old boys coaxing a pair of young girls to go with them for a beer. I'm not passing judgment on four kids for drinking beer. Most of us did when we were kids, I guess. But there was a certain rowdiness in town on that Spring night which I thought had left Columbia years ago. And later, Sunday afternoon, I went to my mother's home on Jamestown Street. It is a commercial neighborhood now. Her property is entirely surrounded by businesses. But that was not the problem. The businesses are good neighbors. Mother fell on the steps of the beauty parlor last Thursday morning, and my sisters Fay McKinley and Annette Richards, and the rest of the family have been staying with her while she recovers from a back injury. The problem, they said, was the hooliganism at 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning, when a gang of rowdies had a car-pull in front of mother's home at 705 Jamestown Street. They tied a chain between the rear bumpers of two cars and squealed tires and raised hell in what they thought was sport. Onlookers cheered their favorites. Somehow, one doesn't call the police and tattle on the kids. That's alien to The Code. You want them caught. You want them stopped. But you don't do it yourself for fear of being called a meany and you don't inform on them because informers are held in the greatest contempt (and I think, rightly so). Neither Mother nor my sister Annette got any rest because of the noise. I don't know an answer for the vandalism, the hooliganism, or the grossly overstepped intrusion on properties that are a part of this Springtime Ritual. I think it has more to do with some parental shortcomings than with what the police can do. I think it has to do with some discipline that the kids themselves desperately want, some parental attention they have a right to expect. But I don't presume to know the answer. This story was posted on 2019-04-21 07:40:30
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