Say It Ain't So!

I have been meaning to blog on this topic for a couple of weeks now… but, just have not found the time to…

I read an article in the AJC back on 04/23/07 regarding how a high school in the styx of Georgia had finally had their first INTEGRATED prom and elected only ONE homecoming queen for the first time ever in the history of the school. Well I’ll be, Bubba, say it ain’t so!!! Are you kidding me? The article claims that “Now, for the first time since court-ordered integration in the 1970s, the campus has one homecoming queen and its very own prom.” As I state above, are you kidding me? I was in shock with my mouth dropped open the entire time I am reading the unbelieveable article. I mean it has only taken Turner County roughly 30 or so years to intergrate extra-curricular school activities! What about their Greenhouse class or the Tractor Maintenance class? Are those integrated yet? I bet Forestry and Shop are still segregated too! I remember all of these classes in my country-bred high school. It was almost embarrassing to admit that we actually offered classes for the “non-college” bound curriculum- you would not believe how many hillbillies and rednecks were enrolled in these courses during my 4 years of high school. One class even had a “biggest rack” contest every year for whoever shot the buck with the biggest antlers. AND they would put a picture of the first prize winner and the runner-ups in the local newspaper… Yee-haw! I will never forget- my senior year I had taken pretty much taken every scholastic class they offered since my freshman year and needed two more electives to fullfill my 7-classes load. Since I was enrolled in my fourth science and fourth math class (GA graduation requirements do not require sutdents to take but 3 years of science and math to graduate- EVEN if you are college-bound) on top of english, social studies and health, there was nothing else to take but electives. I had already taken Typing, Computers, and two years of Spanish- everything they offered to prep one for living in the big city of Atlanta… My only options were another foreign language- NOT- spanish was enough for me, Home Ec- NOT- all they did was bake cookies and I did not need the extra calories, all of the redneck courses listed above and Art. So I wound up with Art and a third year of Spanish class… real exciting… they tried so hard to enroll me in Greenhouse… I refused to be vocational in a college program… is that bad of me? Naaaaa Look at me now- even without Greenhouse in high school I can still plant vegetables and watch my garden grow!
Anyhoo, back to my original blog rant… Turner County… I remember you rednecks from even when I was in grade school, in the 4-H club, going to Livestock Judging contests… (Yes, I did participate in 4-H Livestock Judging- don’t ask, don’t tell) I knew even back then something was scary about those folks from Turner County.
Let’s just end this with few thoughts… Thank you, Turner County for giving the yankees and westerners one less reason to call all of us Georgians, “a bunch of back-woods rednecks”. It is so nice that you finally decided to join the integration movement- what’s 30 years anyway? Just a few years short of my entire life-span for crying out loud! It is folks like you that make some of us civilized Georgians wonder why we even admit our traditions.
Go check out this article for yourself at:

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2007/04/22/0423metprom.html