Henry County Times

OPINION The Henry County Times Page 4 September 23, 2020 “The only thing that does not change, is change itself.” ~ Auliq Ice “Men can dig wells, but they can’t create water.” ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough Read the Times online at henrycountytimes.com under flipbooks. The Henry County Times Publisher Mickie Jackson Editor Seth Jackson Office Manager John Jackson Advertising Mickie Jackson Nick Vassy Graphic Artisté, Webmaster Nick Vassy Contributing Writers Jack Bernard Jerry Belcastro Jimmy Cochran Rob DeMarco Frank Hancock Kathy Pillatzki Jeff Reeves Kaye West Beverly Wittler The views expressed in Letters to the Editor and on the Opinion page are not necessarily those of The Henry County Times . The Henry County Times is not responsible for the views expressed in Letters to the Editor and theOpinion columns.We invite all responses to any text we publish. All letters must be signed, giving the name, address and tele- phone number of the writer. Only the name and citywill be published, however, the telephone number is needed for verification purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. All letters are subject to editing, and letters containing defamatorymate- rial will not be published. Please send letters to: editor@henrycounty times.com , or to P.O. Box 2407,Mc- Donough, Georgia, 30253 H T C The case of the missing well As I look back it seems that for most of my life, I have lived on well water. My grandfather had a well, my father had a well, our neighbors all had wells and there was one shallow drilled well in a field where we played that simply had a hand pump on top. We thought this was the best water around. There was a bucket of water beside the well that was used to prime the pump. Once primed, the pump began to work and the water flowed. The first priority was to refill the priming bucket for the next user. Most places I have lived there was a well. Some were better than others, but they all served their purpose of providing water for the family. Today I have a well that provides the water. I said all this to establish the fact that I am very familiar with the function of a well. I have seen all shapes and sizes: dug wells, bored wells, and drilled wells, and I have wit- nessed folks down in their dug wells doing the annual well clean- ing. Anyone who has spent time walking in the woods has come across old home places. The first thing you notice is the beautiful flowers all lined up where the house used to be. While some are admiring the beauty my mind im- mediately starts to wonder about the location of the well. Is it still open, covered by debris or are we about to fall into it? This was es- pecially true when we were on search and rescue operations with the dogs. Any time I spied a place resembling an old house place, I immediately put my dog on lead and looked for a possible well. I have therefore spent a good bit of time looking for old wells. A while back a lady called the office to ask for help locating the well for the house they were buy- ing in Locust Grove. This is not what I normally do, but I thought, how hard could this be? The house was located on five acres of thick undergrowth and there was a well tank under the house. The search began with a thorough search of the area immediately around the house, no well. There were some folks cleaning up on the adjacent property, so I asked them, no luck. After one more pass around the house, I stopped the search. As I was leaving I no- ticed a fire hydrant across the road. Surely this house is not on county water and if it is why is there a tank under the house? Back at the office I called Envi- ronmental Health to get the plat showing the location of the well. The plat shows the well about one hundred feet in front of the house. Back out to the property, but there is no well in front of the house, so I go back to the office and called the company that installed the well. I gave them the address and the lady just laughed, she then said that they had a plumber out working on the well next door to this address. She gave me his number and said that he could show me the location of this well. I called and he described the lo- cation, it was not anywhere that I would have looked. It was down the property line towards the road. Apparently the people who built the house were related to the folks next door and both wells had been installed at the same time. One was on one side of the line and the other on the other side of the line. I was happy to see the wells and happy that this mis- sion was completed. So if you lose your well, don’t call me, it took me three days, three phone calls and three trips to find this one! Frank Hancock has worked as a Farm Manager, Vocational Agri- culture Teacher, Vice President at Snapper and currently serves as the University of Georgia Agri- cultural Extension Agent in Henry County. He is a also a member of the Heritage Writers God bless America I like seeing people request that we lift up the good old USA as I scroll down my Facebook page. And we do need to keep that prayer going! It is so scary seeing the violence, the looting, and then I learned that a neighbor had been shot while driving. I’m glad he’s going to be okay, but there are lots of surgeries in his future. The couple noticed the vehicle tail-gating them on I-675, but had no idea the driver would fire a gun into their Volvo! I walked by their home and observed the bul- let hole and the shattered wind- shield. I’m still praying for them, and that this will be solved too. Back when we got robbed, crime almost never happened in Henry County. And later, in my next career, I did lots of commut- ing on I-75 and 285 but never ex- perienced any road rage. Grow- ing up in Jackson, Georgia, we never locked our doors, nor our cars. Then we moved to McDon- ough and did lock our little apart- ment in the Stroud house, but not the 1961 Impala that sat in the driveway. Later, when we lived in Ola, we still did not lock our vehicle, nor did I when I moved to Henry Street. And then, maybe 2016, someone trashed my Camry, and a neighbor’s car too. Sigh. So, I changed my behavior about that. Hope there is no defunding of our hard-working police; we need them even more these days! I’m always glad to see them ob- serving traffic, watching out for their Henry County brothers and sisters. I’ll bet my parents are shaking their heads as they look down on what our world has be- come. Not only has physical crime gone way up, but we also have to be very careful while on- line. Yesterday I received an e- mail from my bank informing me that I needed to update my per- sonal information and it gave me a link to click on so I could an- swer their request. So, I called the 800 number on my bank state- ment, and, nope, they replied that they would never send me an e- mail about my accounts! The rep- resentative then gave me an e-mail address so I could forward the fake notice to their fraud spe- cialists. Like most of us, I get a lot of fraudulent phone calls too, even though I am signed up with the do not call system. As soon as the fake caller tells me my internet may be compromised or they’ve found something in my cloud ac- count, I just hang up. I’m also hanging up on the four or five daily calls I get from Trump re- questing my donations to help his political funding. I’m always glad to help out certain charities, plus my church. But I’m not helping any candidate with their finances. I will keep praying, though, that the right one gets elected. I still wish somebody like Jeff Foxworthy would get in the race. I admire how he reaches out to the homeless every week, with meals and Bible lessons so I know he has the right spirit to lead this country. I now use his cookbook every couple of weeks to serve a different meal to fam- ily. I wonder if Biden or Trump know how to cook, or if they have ever helped the homeless? I’m still watching my Sunday morning church service, via the internet. Last Sunday though, the church I wanted to watch had lost their audio. I watched the fill-in pastor holding the Bible and moving her lips and finally gave up. I’d already prepared some grape juice and crackers so in- stead I read the communion words from my Methodist hym- nal as we enjoyed that monthly ritual. I had already watched Dr. Charles Stanley earlier that morning. I always read his morn- ing devotional and then my Upper Room before the day’s scripture. I will keep praying for America, our health, finances, and a total healing in all ways. Beverly Wittler has four chil- dren, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She lives in McDonough with her husband. The Henry County Times Published faithfully each Wednesday by The Henry County Times, Inc. 48 Racetrack Road McDonough, GA 30253 770-957-6314 www.henrycountytimes.com Presorted Standard Postage Paid At McDonough, GA 30253 Postmaster, send address changes to: The Henry County Times P.O. Box 2407 McDonough, GA 30253 FRANK HANCOCK Columnist BEVERLY WITTLER Columnist