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Editorial
The Banks County News
July 5, 2000
Voters need to
find out about candidates
An important election is ahead and there are a large number of
candidates seeking the few seats up for grabs. The probate judge
and sheriff races have the largest field of candidates.
With so many candidates to choose from, voters need to find out
as much as possible about those seeking to serve in public office.
A political forum sponsored by the Banks County Chamber of Commerce
last week provided voters a chance to hear from and meet with
the candidates.
Another opportunity to find out about the candidates will come
in next week's issue of The Banks County News. Questionnaires
were sent to all candidates facing opposition in the July 18
election. Their answers will be featured next week. In the meantime,
find out all you can about these candidates in order to make
an informed choice on July 18.
Column
By
Drew Brantley
The Banks County News
July 5, 2000
Hall still rules
nation's
all-time rushing roost
Last year, Commerce's Monté Williams became the all-time
leading rusher in his school's history. This year, he has a chance
to break the Georgia record for career rushing yards. While those
records may make Williams worth his weight in salt, he does not
even come close to Sugarland.
For the next logical question could be, "Does Williams have
a chance to break the national record?"
The answer would be "No."
The answer to the question is probably "Don't even ask the
question."
While Williams has posted significant numbers that would make
almost any high school running back envious, he is nowhere close
to the all-time leader. He is just barely more than halfway to
the record right now.
But that is nothing new. Ken "Sugarland Express" Hall
has such a stranglehold on the national rushing record that no
one has come within 2,000 yards of him for nearly 50 years.
Not Herschel Walker. Not Emmitt Smith. Not the current Georgia
career leader Robert Toomer. Not anybody. No one comes close.
Hall ran for 11,232 yards in 1950-53 for Sugarland (Texas) High
School. Running out of the single-wing, Hall was the feature
back in the offense. He scored 899 points in his career, which
is still second all-time.
Williams has made a name for himself by averaging more than 2,000
yards for his three seasons. Hall turned in 2,821 per year. It
is always amazing to look at Hall's statistics.
The first night I ever worked for a newspaper, I started looking
through a national record book. When I saw Hall's rushing records,
I knew that no one could do more. I was wrong.
For somehow, in his four years of running 'round Texas, Hall
found time to throw for 3,326 yards as well. That is a total
of 14,549 yards in a career.
Hall's total yardage mark has not been eclipsed either. Not even
by countless numbers of high-flying passing attacks that have
come up in the past 20 years. The closest anyone has come to
his total yardage was in 1996 when quarterback Romaro Miller
amassed 12,315 yards.
If Williams were to rush for the 1,539 yards needed to break
Toomer's Georgia career record, he would still be 3,364 yards
short of Hall's mark.
If Williams could play a fifth season after setting the state
record, and he rushed for 3,364 yards, that would be a mark The
Sugarland Express bested twice in his four-year career.
A sure pro Hall-of-Famer, Smith gathered a staggering 8,808 high
school rushing yards. That total is still almost 2,500 yards
away from Hall.
Walker holds the Georgia single-season rushing record with 3,167
yards in 1979. Over 15 games, that was better than 200 yards
per game.
But that is so pitiful when compared to what Hall did in 1953.
Hall ran for 4,045 yards in his senior season.
Recent Tennessee Volunteer Travis Henry rushed for 4,087 yards
in his senior season of high school. But it took Henry 14 games
to best the total Hall had made in 12.
So it will be fun to see if the Tigers' Williams can make a run
at the state record. But remember Hall and take Williams' local
and state marks with a grain of, well, sugar.
Drew Brantley is the sports editor for The Commerce News and
The Banks County News.
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Column
By Jana
Adams
The Banks County News
July 5, 2000
Fashion, Harmony
Grove-style
At the turn of the century, the 20th century, that is, fashionable
ladies in Harmony Grove cinched in their waists to impossibly
small measurements (all the better to emphasize that hourglass
figure that included a bustle in back) and covered their shoetops
with long skirts.
As Lola Mildred Hardman of Harmony Grove prepared to wed Gordon
T. Jones, a dry goods merchant, on December 31, 1899, and embark
on a honeymoon trip to New York, she stocked her trousseau with
the latest fashions.
Today, on long-term loan courtesy of Mrs. Hardman Jones of Commerce
- daughter-in-law of that turn-of-the-century bride - items from
the Joneses' honeymoon clothes are on display at Crawford W.
Long Museum. Anyone interested in getting a glimpse of past lives
would be fascinated by the display. (Just try to imagine buttoning
one of the dresses around your waist. Impossible! Around a leg,
maybe.)
The collection includes Mr. Jones' wedding day tuxedo, a smoking
jacket and two outfits Mrs. Jones wore in New York, plus a dress
and jacket worn by Elizabeth Susan Colquitt Hardman, Mrs. Mildred
Jones' mother.
Also on display are black and white photographs of Mrs. Mildred
Jones in her wedding dress, which is on display at a Rome museum,
a shot of a dry goods store and a photograph of Mrs. Hardman.
The clothes have been passed down through the family, with some
items even worn on occasion as costume, according to Mrs. Hardman
Jones.
"Mrs. Jones lived with us and these were her things,"
Mrs. Hardman Jones said. "I kept them wrapped in newspaper,
and my two daughters wore her wedding dress. These were her going-away
outfits, so she kept them. It was her trousseau for wintertime....If
they can be viewed and enjoyed, that's so much better."
Mrs. Jones' honeymoon dresses include a blue wool with a velvet-worked
collar and buttons on the jacket and a black dress with fur trimming
on the jacket and sparkling buttons.
Mr. Jones' tuxedo, including cuff links and collar pin, as well
as a deep blue wool smoking jacket with "frogged" front
closure, complete the exhibit.
I imagine the two of them strolling arm in arm, very elegantly,
on a New York sightseeing venture.
The "flocked" jacket accompanying a black silk dress
worn possibly at the turn of the century by Mrs. Hardman is unusual,
with a raised velvet pattern and jet-tipped fringes at the throat,
wrists, hem and down the button line.
"They are in very good shape for their age," said museum
director Tina Harris, adding that it's been interesting to study
the clothes after taking a 19th-century Southern clothing class
at the Atlanta History Center.
OTHER ITEMS
Other items of interest at the museum include a folk medicine
and healers exhibit in the history gallery. That exhibit, which
will be on display through August 18, includes information about
Dr. William B. Hardman, brother of the above-mentioned bride.
In addition to Dr. Hardman's typhoid treatment, the display includes
information, photos and some samples of various medical treatments
of past days - nearby Legg's Mineral Springs, local healers,
"white mud" for clay eaters and various folk cures.
For example, did you know puff balls (Devil's snuff) were used
to stop bleeding and prevent infection, or that a brown paper
bag soaked in wet salt, vinegar or grease was applied for cold
and headache?
A red flannel wrap around the neck or on the chest was also a
cold remedy, and a dried yellow root made into tea aided cold
sores, cankers and stomach ailments. These bits of information
are included in the exhibit.
In addition to the displays, two programs are upcoming at the
museum. An African resist dyeing workshop is planned for 10 a.m.
to noon Tuesday, July 25. The cost is $5 and reservations are
required.
An oral history workshop will be held by Dr. Pamela Sezgin from
6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27. All ages will learn how to
begin an oral history project, interview techniques and ethics.
Call for reservations.
For more information on museum exhibits and programs, contact
Harris at 367-5307.
Jana Adams is features editor of the Jackson Herald.
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