Up The Creek Without A Paddle
Talkin' about good lookin'
by Terry Toole

Some good things are happening in Colquitt.

Last week, there were lots of strangers in town to attend the first ever Building Creative Communities Conference.

Folks from seven states came to Colquitt so that our experts could tell them how we have been able to not only stay alive, but actually grow and draw people from all over the U.S.A. They told them how our arts council has helped with the renovation of our town square, the hotel, have a Swamp Gravy, become the first Georgia Mural City and many, many other things and honors that are in the works.

The conference was a success, and many of the participants wanted to know when the next one was going to be held.

When I got up early Saturday morning, my feet hurt at the thought of what was ahead for the day.

On Saturday, Bo Haywood held his annual Fishing Rodeo for young people. They started fishing before 8:00 a.m., and they caught lots of fish. This annual event brings lots of people to Miller County.

One woman from Albany asked if I was from the newspaper, and did I know Garrett Richardson? I told her he was my grandson. She said that she worked with him and saw the ad in his Liberal and brought her son fishing.

The young and not-soyoung folks seemed to have lots of fun. Bo and Kim do this free fishing rodeo up right. They were asking me when the photos would be on our website before I left to start more photo events of the big happening at MCHS.

The MCHS Prom is one of the biggest happenings for our young people in Colquitt. As some of the folks from out-of-town said, "I don't know of any school who goes all out like this."

That is an understatement. Those sophomores, juniors and seniors, and I expect parents do it up right. They turned our school into a showplace with all the trimmings.

The most beautiful, well dressed and well mannered young people anywhere came in with their finery at around 2-6 to get their photos made by professionals.

Us nonprofessional photographers at the Liberal take around 600 to 1000 shots of our students and those who help them. It's kind of become a tradition over the past 30 or more years. We use some of the pictures in our Grad Edition, and put the rest on our website. Not much money in it, but the young people and their parents enjoy it almost as much as we do.

These young people, like those in the past, seem more like my grandchildren since I've been taking their photos since kindergarten. In fact, my last grandchild, who lives here, was one of the sophomore servers this year. I've got two more years with her, and the gray/ white on my head might force me to retire that part of my job here.

I didn't finish getting all the photos downloaded, but I got over 600 on our web by midnight the night of the prom. There are more coming.

When I got home early the next morning, my feet were swollen, and I was tuckered out, but I slept until time to get up for church.

I haven't heard of anything bad happening to any of our young folks, so all seemed to have gone well. Thank You, Lord!

You know it's getting dry when several of those young men asked me when it was going to rain instead of asking how good they looked or their dates.

Looks like we missed the rain, again, but when we see what is happening to our east with the fires or to our west with the tornados, we seem to be doing good.

HE said ask, so I'm asking for rain where we need it.