Today I Smiled

Today I smiled, and all at once
Things didn't look so bad.
Today I shared with someone else,
A little bit of hope I had.

Today I worked with what I had,
And longed for nothing more,
And what had seemed like only weeds,
Were flowers at my door.

Today I loved a little more,
And complained a little less.
And in the giving of myself,
I forgot my weariness.

~ author unknown ~

Homer, GA

A View Of Downtown'a Main Street

Homer was founded in 1858 as seat for the newly established Banks County. Homer was incorporated as a town in 1859, and its first courthouse was built in 1863.


Looking across the park downtown towards the old Banks County Courthouse, the large brick building in the left background
 
Homer is among the earliest to hold the world record for an Easter egg hunt - 80,000 eggs, listed in the 1985 Guinness Book of World Records. The event in the small town of 1,100 people is an Easter Sunday tradition that has lasted 47 years. The egg hunt each year draws about 5,000 egg hunters, children and adults. Even though it no longer holds the record, Homer has long touted its annual hunt as the world's largest.


A closeup of the Old Banks County Courthouse, now a tourist attraction

 
A view down a side street off the main street of Homer. The church is the First Baptist Church of Homer.

Education:

Banks County students in kindergarten to grade twelve are in the Banks County School District, which consists of two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. The district has 150 full-time teachers and over 2,428 students.

• Banks County Elementary School
• Banks County Primary School
• Banks County Middle School
• Banks County High School

Demographics:

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1870	120		—
1880	140		16.7%
1900	221		—
1910	228		3.2%
1920	291		27.6%
1930	248		−14.8%
1940	283		14.1%
1950	340		20.1%
1960	612		80.0%
1970	365		−40.4%
1980	734		101.1%
1990	742		1.1%
2000	950		28.0%
2010	1,141		20.1%
Est. 2016	1,136	[1]	−0.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[10]

As of the census^[2] of 2000, there were 950 people, 366 households, and 249 families residing in the town. The population density was 99.1 people per square mile (38.2/km²). There were 406 housing units at an average density of 42.4 per square mile (16.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 84.32% White, 11.79% African American, 1.16% Native American, 0.84% Asian, 1.16% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.00% of the population.
There were 366 households out of which 36.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.4% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.7% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.16.
In the town, the population was spread out with 28.1% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $35,500, and the median income for a family was $41,667. Males had a median income of $30,147 versus $23,438 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,353. About 8.9% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.3% of those under age 18 and 21.1% of those age 65 or over.
  
Source: wikipedia.com 

Reminiscing – Dad’s 1940 Ford

1940 Ford, excerpt from ad below. Image courtesy of Lov2XLR8.no.

[Editor’s note: This “Reminiscing” story, edited by Richard Lentinello, comes to us from Hemmings Classic Car reader Thomas Murphy.]

One memory that I will never forget is about my father’s 1940 Ford Opera Coupe. It had the jump seats in the rear which, when not in use, folded up parallel to the sides of the rear compartment. Back in 1950, those jump seats were usually occupied by my brother and I; I was just five years old at the time.
My father was one of the original hot-rodders. The Ford had a flathead truck V-8 block which was bored out – apparently truck blocks allowed for thicker cylinder walls for purposes of over boring. The engine was equipped with a 3/4 racing camshaft, high compression Granatelli aluminum cylinder heads, a four-barrrel carburetor, exhaust headers and dual exhausts and Lincoln Zephyr gears for the second gear.
That old Ford would wind out to 90 miles per hour in second gear before shifting to third was required due to those Zephyr gears. There was not much on the street in 1950 that would touch it. The Ford looked stock, being a black 1940 Deluxe Coupe. Only two rusty exhaust pipes sticking out the rear belied it was not stock.

One day we were on a touring vacation in Canada in the Fall of 1950. We were stopped on a gravel road which had an overhead stop light hanging from a wire traversing the intersection on a four-lane road. What pulled alongside us at the light was a brand-spanking new Powder Blue Oldsmobile “Rocket 88” fastback coupe. The Olds still had the price and equipment sticker on the rear-side window. When I looked over from my jump seat out the side rear window of the Ford, the driver of the Olds was smiling like a Cheshire cat and glancing at his buddy in the passenger seat, while revving the Oldsmobile’s engine.
When the light changed, my father, who was never one to ignore a challenge for a race, took off. From the light we were side by side with the Oldsmobile. In First gear we were fender to fender, and the Olds owner was looking a bit quizzical at our evenness. Bear in mind that the loser of this gambit would be eating the winner’s dust from the gravel road. In Second gear I remember the Ford winding out to 90 miles per hour, and it ended up two car lengths ahead of the now vanishing Olds when the shift to Third gear occurred.
So much for the much-heralded Rocket 88 Oldsmobile. That ’40 Ford was fast!

A Famous Person From Our Little Town

Lamartine Hardman was the governor

 

 

Lamartine Hardman

 

of Georgia from 1927 to 1931. Considered to be one of the wealthiest men in north Georgia at the turn of the twentieth century, Hardman was a successful physician, entrepreneur, and farmer from Jackson County. As governor, Hardman advocated a businesslike administration of the state's government and was best known for his effort to make governmental processes more efficient.

Lamartine Griffin "L.G." Hardman was born in Harmony Grove (later Commerce), in Jackson County, on April 14, 1856. He was the son of Susan Elizabeth Colquitt and William B. J. Hardman, a prominent physician and preacher. Hardman graduated from the Georgia Medical Department of the University of Georgia in Augusta (later Georgia Health Sciences University) in 1877 and later studied in New York, Pennsylvania, and London. In 1890 he returned to Harmony Grove, where he joined his father's medical practice. During this time Hardman experimented in the field of anesthesiology, having been influenced by the work of physician Crawford Long, a medical pioneer from nearby Jefferson. In 1907 Hardman married Emma Wiley Griffin, the daughter of a socially prominent Valdosta family. Together they had a son and three daughters.

 

Hardman founded and served as president of several financial institutions, textile and manufacturing corporations, and public service organizations, in addition to owning approximately 10,000 acres of peach and apple orchards in seven Georgia counties. Hardman also served as a trustee for several institutions of higher learning, including the Georgia State College of Agriculture

 

Hardman Family

 

in Athens (later the Agriculture College at the University of Georgia) and Mercer University in Macon.

Hardman served in the state legislature from 1902 to 1907. There he sponsored the state's prohibition legislation, citing not only religious objections but also evidence from his knowledge of medicine. He also sponsored a bill establishing the State Board of Health and numerous pieces of agricultural legislation. Hardman served as the state fuel administrator during World War I (1917-18). After two unsuccessful attempts in 1914 and 1916, Hardman was elected governor in 1926, becoming the state's oldest elected governor at the age of seventy-one. Two years later he was elected for a second term.

Hardman's most significant accomplishment as governor was the establishment of a study in government efficiency, called the Allen Commission on Simplification and Coordination, headed by the Atlanta businessman Ivan Allen Sr. Although Hardman 

 

 

Ivan Allen Sr.

 

was unable to convince the legislature, with the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930's, to embrace the dramatic changes proposed by the commission, the findings of the Allen Commission ultimately paved the way for wide reorganizations of state government, which were brought about by Hardman's successor, Richard Russell Jr.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardman's term as governor was plagued by illness and fatigue. On February 18, 1937, he died of a heart ailment at Emory University Hospital at the age of eighty. He was buried in the Gray Hill Cemetery in Commerce.

 

Source: georgiaencyclopedia.org

Growing Up In A Small Town

1. You know the population of your town because it's on the sign as you enter.

2. You can name everyone in your high school graduation class.

3. If you said a swear word, your parents knew about it within an hour.

4. It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town.

5. You gave directions by people, not street names. (Turn at the Nelson house, go east to Andersons) and it's four houses left of the track field.)

6. You saw at least one friend a week driving his tractor through town.

7. All directions included "the 4 way stop" as a reference.

8. Your teachers mentioned when they had your parents in class.

9. The closest mall, movie theater, and McDonald's was a long drive.

10. You've "parked" with a date behind a barn.

Isn't English the Most Complicated and Absurd Language?

English is a language that both unites and divides us. For some it's the beautiful, mellifluous verses of a Shakespeare or Keats that get their juices flowing, for others it's the strict application of cold, rigid laws of grammatical perfection. In reality, English is neither perfectly beautiful, nor perfectly logical. In fact, it's genuinely absurd. Take a look at these 14 examples of the most ridiculous reasons why English is a decidedly odd tongue.

 

Oh, You English!

How to Really Annoy People with Just 3 Words

Some Classic English Tautologies

His Mother Ruined His Life!

Shall We Use American English or English English?

'I' Before 'E' Except...

 

And You Know You Should Be Glad

Six Blue Dogs, but Not Blue Six Dogs

Spelling 'B'

Line up, Line up!

I Never Said SHE Stole My Money...

I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello.

Aussie English Is Even Odder!

English: No Rhyme or Reason

H/T: boredpanda.com

Cover image courtesy of Depositphotos

Source: ba-bamail.com

 

Bad Grammar

 

Grammar is what holds civilization, as we know it, together. Well, maybe that's something of an exaggeration, but it's still seriously important. I mean, just look at all the problems that accrue when the sacred rules of grammar are not obeyed. These 20 examples will have you holding your face in you hands, rolling your eyes, and laughing your socks off!

 

















 






















 










 

















 















 













 

Source:  ba-bamail.com