10/28/2009 - Decatur Rotary Club

In This Issue
October 28, 2009
Announcements
Guests & Visitors
Speakers At-a-Glance
Officers of the Club
Birthdays!
In case you ever needed help getting around Georgia or the
restaurants of the South, our Speaker was the man for you. Follow
his story of weight gain and weight loss as well as the trimming of the
Atlanta Journal Constitution. Read all about it!!
John Bennett
President's Corner
Speaker's Corner
President's Corner
'Round the Room
The Four-Way Test
In everything that
we think, say or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all
concerned?
Will it build
GOODWILL and
BETTER
FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be
BENEFICIAL to all
President Bryan receives a banner from a Rotary Club in
Hawaii
Don O'Briant, Writer and Authority of
Southern Culture and Cuisine.
Darro Willey introduced Don O'Briant, a native of South Carolina
and had the good sense to move west to Georgia! He is an
authority on southern writers and is an accomplished writer himself.
concerned?
Announcements
President Bryan urged
us to pay our bills if at all
possible. Times are
tough but he wants to
make sure the club can
honor all if its
commitments.
NEW!! Link to the most
recent District 6900
Newsletter:
District Newsletter
Guests & Visitors
Our Invocation was
given by Rev. Nathaniel
Briley
Our Visiting Rotarians
included:
Wes Dodd, CFO of First
Decatur Bank
Our guests included:
Joe Maddox, program
manager of Dekalb
He served as the Book Editor for the AJC for many years. He
survived the Brian Nichols shootings at the courthouse and was just
happy to be with us!
He claims to have been born in a
drafty old farmhouse and got up at
5:00 in the morning to slop the hogs,
milk the cows and then off to his one
bedroom school with the pot bellied
stove and snow on the ground just
across the river from Augusta.
He hardly ever got to go to the big city
of Augusta but it was a treat. No one
he knew ever went to Atlanta except
on a Sunday and that was with a big
church group because of so much
sinning and debauchery. You had to be home before dark because
there was no telling what could happen to you. He heard rumors of
locals that went to Atlanta and must have been kidnapped because
they never returned home. He was scared to death of Atlanta. He
realized later it was by choice!
In 1963 he went to Georgia Tech and figured out real quickly that he
was no chemical engineer and was not likely to be the next rocket
man to fly to the moon. He did so poorly on his first few tests that his
chemistry professor told him that he was not really college material
and he had better become a plumber!
He actually transferred to Clemson and got a real practical degree
like political science. He worked at the school paper though and
finally got a job at the Greenville News. He fell in love with an Agnes
Scotty and found his way back to Atlanta. There was no way was
she leaving Atlanta for Greenville.
He got a job at the AJC and
became the Book Review Editor.
He saw a book that was titled, The
Idiots Guide to Plumbing and
thought back to his old Tech
professor. He looked him up and he
was still teaching. He knocked on
the door, introduced himself and the
professor did not remember him.
He told the professor that he had
indeed been college material and
Library, guest of Darro
Willey.
John Noah from Guilford
College, guest of
Warren Davidson.
Doug Robinson from
Eagle Eye Books and
also a guest of Darro
Willey.
Speakers
At-a-Glance
October 30, 2009:
Kristian Bush,
singer/songwriter.
Officers of the
Decatur Rotary
Club:
President - Bryan
Downs
President-Elect - C.J.
Becker
Past President - Mark
Hastings
Secretary - Alan
Dishman
proudly told him he was the AJC
Book Editor by goodness! The
professor without missing a beat
said well you "still should have become a plumber!"
He and Lewis Grizzard were great friends and he often wrote
columns for Lewis when he might have had a few too many. He
wrote under the name of "Sonny Bubba Ferguson." He wrote the
Sonny & Bubba Weight Loss Guide. It was a cookbook and he
encouraged folks to cut back on the lard and the butter. He
encouraged at least 2 cheating days per week. When asked if you
could lose any weight he said sure, may a pound or two a year if you
were lucky. If you stuck to it you could really lose a lot of weight in
20 or 30 years
He got a dream assignment of writing a about mom and pop
restaurants around the South. He was eating 6 meals a day! What
fun. He got to go around to all of the best local diners.
He recently finished the Newcomers Guide to Georgia. It is a history
of the State, the sports, entertainment, how to get a fishing license
and other important things. It will show you where RC and Nehi
were started. Waffle House and Huddle House were started right
here in here Decatur. There are so many food festivals all around
the State including Alligator, Vidalia onions and everything else in
between. If you want to know where the haunted places are,
Savannah leads the nation in that department! We are the home of
Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Ty Cobb too.
He has found that everyone has certain preconceived notions of the
South. He does want folks to know that: Grits don't grow on trees,
there is no Tara, kudzu is not an ornamental plant, Deliverance is not
a documentary, and yes we don't care about how things were done
up north!
Some of his favorite columns for Grizzard pointed out the many
shortcoming of Snellville. When the locals found out about the new
lobster tank at Kroger, many took them home for pets only to return
them a few days later after they had cut down the tomato plants!
They also had a new Half Days Inn that had kidney shaped beds,
mirrors on the ceilings and rented rooms by the hour! He got quite a
bit of hate mail.
He certainly wrote about things with the average man's view to say
the least. He was one of the first men to get a pedicure at Big Rich's,
he had his colors done, his bald head was styled at one of the most
upscale salons, he joined a fitness club, the aerobics classes and
did it with the flair and slant of Sonny Bubba!
Treasurer - Jason
Conn
Sergeant-at-Arms Rev. Nath Briley
District Governor Roy Strickland
Birthdays!
When asked about the best barbeque in GA, he mentioned the
Spiced Right in Snellville, Low Country and Sprayberry's in Newnan,
but he really had a fondness for NC barbeque.
Needless to say it was a very entertaining meeting. Pick up his
book. You'll like it. He is the author of seven books, including
Looking for Tara: The GWTW Guide to Atlanta; Travel Smart:
Georgia; and Backroad Buffets & Country Cafes: A Southern Guide
to Meat-and-Threes & Downhome Cooking.
Library Book: Newcomers Guide to Georgia, by Don O'Briant
Report by Mark Whatley
'Round the Room...
Oct 8, John Robinson
Oct 15, Scott Stevenson
Oct 19, Bill Moon
Oct 28, Judy Turner
Oct 29, Rick Garnitz
Fred Turner and Tom Adams debate Waffle House vs Huddle
House.
Rotarians meet our guest speaker and try to get the inside scoop.
James Brewer-Calvert shares a recipe.
President Bryan and Jim Jarboe enjoy lunch.
Sincerely,
The Rotary Bulletin Committee
Decatur Rotary Club
Directions: Old Courthouse on the Square