Colquitt Coupon Days are fast coming to an end. In last week’s Liberal, there were two pages of gifts from Colquitt merchants and businesses worth in excess of $2500.00. With most coupons, you have a chance to win the gifts, money and certificates if your name is drawn.
Some of the participating merchants and businesses will be open for Hometown Holidays on Saturday and Sunday, November 19 and 20. See ads in this week’s edition for times.
Many of the participating merchants and businesses will close Friday, November 18, and that will be your last opportunity to have a chance to win some of those wonderful gifts being given away with no strings attached.
The only rules are that you must be 18 or over to participate in the Colquitt Coupon giveaway. You don’t have to buy anything, although these merchants have their shelves full ready to help you with your holiday buying.
This is one of the many ways that Colquitt merchants and businesses show their customers and prospective customers how much they appreciate serving you. These are the participating businesses and merchants who invite you to drop your Colquitt Coupons in their boxes: American Pie Etc., Blooming Business, Chick-A-Dees, Cedar Head Mayhaw Co., Bride & Gift Gallery, Grow Drug Co., Crooked Oak Golf Course, Dixie Detailing & Accessories, Fre-Jan’s, K-Lynn’s Jewelry, Into the Forrest, Natural Effects, PeopleSouth Bank, Market on the Square, Petro, Chan Long, Kay Ford, Royal Collection, Swamp Things, Nora Kate’s, D & G Sunbeds, Subway, Wilkin’s IGA, Miller County Liberal, Helen’s Pirate’s Cove, Colquitt/Miller Arts Council, Pat Sammon Chevrolet, The Wear House Etc, Hardee’s, Moore’s ACE Hardware, The Posie Patch, Road Runner Seafood, Red’s Liquors, Tarrer Inn, Bevis’ Furniture Company, MacArthur’s, Merchants & Farmers Bank, Twelve Oaks Antique, RonCam, Pic-N-Sav, and Tradition’s.
The winners names will be published in the next edition of the Miller County Liberal
All of these participating merchants and businesses are ready to serve you with the best they can offer in services or quality merchandise at great prices. Shop Colquitt and save!

Veteran’s Day was observed in Colquitt on Friday, November 11, before a large crowd of veterans and friends of veterans in the community and surrounding area.
The scene was at the northwest corner of the Miller County Courthouse square at the Veterans’ monument. The American Flag was flying high, and the flags of each of the U.S. services were flying to the right of the monument.
The welcome was given at 11:00 a.m. by Claude Newsome, commander of American Legion Post 165. After a welcome to the crowd, Commander Newsome asked Glenn Sheffield, chaplain of the American Legion, to open with a prayer.
Gerald Jenkins, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, offered the crowd some inspiring words about how a veteran feels about serving his country and then led the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
As those people able continued to stand, the National Anthem was played. Then Eugene Hornsby played the music of the different branches of the services. Those present who served in the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the U. S. Army and the U.S. Marines raised their hands to show which branch they served in.
Speakers Claude Newsome, Lavon Clenney, Tina Clemente and Gerald Jenkins gave inspiring talks on what it means to be a veteran.
Guest speaker Bubba Varnadoe told of his service time during the Viet Nam War as follows:
“I was humbled and honored when I was asked to speak today about the Vietnam War. I only hope that my words will do justice to the sacrifice that my fellow Vietnam Veterans gave.
I served with the 70th Combat Engineer Battalion assigned to the 1st Air Calvary in An-Ke located in the central highlands. I'm proud of my service and would go again if I was asked.
This year we observed the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War last approximately 20 years; 2.5 million Americans served in Vietnam. Over 58,000 lost their lives. 228,000 Georgians served with 1,584 losing their lives.
“Two Miller Countians died, Phil Tabb and Melvin Thompson. Mr. Thompson's body has never been recovered. There were 766 P.O.W.s. Of that number, 114 died in captivity. As of this date, 2,029 soldiers are listed as missing in action. An average of 18 soldiers a day died during the Vietnam War. The worst day was March 31, 1968, when 246 died. California had the most casualties with 5,575. Georgia was 10th with 1,584 combat deaths. There was 245 Medal of Honor recipients during the war. Along side of American troops fighting were troops from Australia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and New Zealand. It's kind of ironic that 4,000 draft age men went to Canada to avoid the draft, but 40,000 Canadians joined the American forces and served with in Vietnam or the Asian theater.
The Vietnam War brought into the living rooms of America by the way of television strange sounding names such as Hue, Ia Drang, Saigon, Khe San, Dak To, Quin Nhon, Da Nang, An Khe, and many more. American troops fought an enemy that they seldom saw. We were forced to fight a gorilla type war against the VietCong, and the north Vietnamese army seldom put up a stand but used hit and run tactics. Through the Monsoon rains, the booby traps, mined rice paddies, and hot landing zones, the American soldier never lost a major battle and never failed to meet an objective.
“The war continued until May 1975. We saw mass panic as people were lifted off the American Embassy in Saigon. We saw helicopters being pushed off carriers to make room for more refugees. This, in my opinion, was the darkest day of the war. People in power in Washington had turned their backs on a nation and left them to fend for themselves against an advancing Communist Army! Forget about the promises we made and the lives of Americans lost. All that Washington wanted to do was get rid of a war that they didn't have the courage to fight. I never have understood why we send our smartest young minds to the world's best military colleges to learn the art of war and then let our politicians decide on how a war is fought!
I don't think any discussion on Vietnam would be complete without talking about how the veterans were treated when they returned. The Vietnam veteran went to Vietnam by himself, not as a unit as in previous wars. He returned home by himself to face the wrath of protesters that spat at him, threw eggs at him and called him a baby killer. The very government that sent him there never attempted to stop the harassment they endured on their way home. I never saw those kind of actions here in South Georgia; I guess that's why I wouldn't live anywhere else. One actress even went to North Vietnam and sat on an anti-aircraft gun, laughing and joking with the enemy–and nothing was done to her. I always thought that if you aided the enemy in any way, that was treason! But even today, she enjoys a lucrative lifestyle.
Sadly, Vietnam is used as an example as to what war should not be. I strongly disagree. Never in our history have so many dedicated men and women held Mother Liberty so close to their chest and kept the light of freedom burning until it was chic to show your patriotism again.
I challenge each one of you, if you know someone in service, write to them or send them a care package. If you know their family, visit them, support them and offer your help if they need it. Never let the nay-sayers get the upper hand, and if we have a problem with a war, protest at the ballot box, not in our streets, so that our adversaries can use it against us.
In closing, I'd like to share a poem written by Major Michael O'Donnell after the first battle for Dak-To on January 1, 1970.
“If you are able,
Save for them a place,
Inside of you.
And save one backward glance
When you are leaving
For the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
You loved them
Though you may or may not have always.
Take what they left
And what they have taught you with their dying
And keep it with your own.
And in that time when men decide and feel safe
To call the war insane,
Take one moment to embrace
Those gentle heroes you left behind.”
“With that, let me say, Happy Veterans Day and to my Vietnam brothers, welcome home and God Bless the United States of America!
Jerry and Brenda Joiner then placed the wreath on the Veterans’ Monument.
“Taps” was played, and the closing prayer was given by Glenn Sheffield.
As it was noted, veteran are a very special citizens. They fought, sacrificed and many died so that we have the freedoms that we have today.
If you see a veteran or a solider serving your nation today, go up to them and say thank you. They were willing to die to help protects us. They are still serving and dying to protect the rights we citizens enjoy today.

The Colquitt Police Department is investigating an armed robbery that occurred at Barnard's Convenience Foods at 108 North First Street. The armed robbery happened November 7, after midnight.
According to the police report, one subject armed with a handgun and one unarmed subject entered the store after midnight. The armed subject held the clerk at gunpoint while the unarmed subject attempted to take the money from the cash register. The suspects then fled on foot, leaving the store in a northerly direction.
The suspects are described as black males, in their teens to early 20s. They are 5'7" to 5'10" in height, with slender to medium builds.
The Colquitt Police Department is offering a $500.00 cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the offenders.
Anyone having information concerning this robbery or these suspects can call the Colquitt Police Department's investigation division at 229-758-1010 or 229-758-1009. Callers will remain anonymous.
Colquitt Police Chief, Scott Worsley, stated that any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated. It takes the help and cooperation of citizens with the police department to apprehend criminals.

Have you ever been to a peanut pickin’’? If you’re under 50, you’ve probably never seen anything like what happened the first of this month.
Marlin Gibson, who lives on 1084 Bellview Road just out of Colquitt, is at it again. He picked his stacked peanuts, the old fashioned way, on Friday, November 4, and Saturday, November 5. This is getting to be an annual event that not only the 21st century farmers enjoy seeing how it used to be, but everyone who goes to see an old fashioned peanut pickin’. The Georgia Peanut magazine cameras and reporters were there to see this annual event. It will be in the Georgia Peanut magazine in the December issue. Marlin was a little early this year with his pickin’’. He picked before a good crowd last year in mid December.
It’s not unusual to see large peanut pickers going six rows at a time into large fields of peanuts in Southwest Georgia, even as late as November in some cases, but nothing like this. Marlin’s peanuts have been plowed up, stacked on poles to dry and thrown into a Benthall stationary picker that was made in the early 1940s.
Marlin Gibson is an antique tractor and farm machinery collector. He will take tractors and equipment that no one wants and rebuild them into almost new condition. His barn of “junk” turned into “treasures” is sometimes referred to as Sanford and Sons.
Gibson stated that he enjoys fixing the old farm equipment and showing the young and old how it used to be. “It brings back memories of when I helped my mother and father, Evelyn and Ed Gibson, gather peanuts,” Marlin stated.
Some of those “treasures” that have been transferred by Gibson at the peanut pickin’’ were John Deere tractor models 1939L, 1936B, 1940B, 1943D and a 1957 F120. Farmall tractors on display were models 1945, 1935, D30, 1936 F20, 1937 F20, and 1944-F120. There was also a 1941 Farmall pulling peanut picker.
Marlin not only picks peanuts, he works on all types of farm equipment, grows and gathers sugar cane and makes juice and syrup to sell to the public as long as it lasts.
Marlin will be selling cane juice this weekend, and some of the best cane syrup ever poured over a biscuit near Thanksgiving.

The Miller County Board of Education met with members Leroy Bush, Terry Pickle, Vicki Merritt, Andy Spooner and Jack Nicholson present. Superintendent Robbie Phillips acted as secretary and Ronnie Rentz as BOE attorney.
Chairman Leroy Bush called the meeting to order and asked Terry Pickle to give the invocation then the overflow crowd of citizens and teachers gave the Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.
When the adoption of the agenda was called, Jack Nicholson asked that the matter of the Richardson Field sign be placed on the agenda. It was done.
The past minutes were approved, and the public participation part of the meeting began.
The first to speak was Joe Cook, a member of the committee that requested the memorials be made for the late principal, David Richardson.
Mr. Cook told the BOE members, “The reason I am here tonight is to apologize to Mr. David Richardson’s folks. This was never intended to hurt feelings. I thought that I had done what the BOE gave us permission to do.” He told the BOE members that it was his understanding that the committee and the teachers would choose the things to do in memory of Principal David Richardson. He stated that when he left the BOE on April 11, 2005, they, the BOE, gave him permission to do what they could as long as it did not cost the BOE anything. Cook stated that it may have been some miscommunication, but he was sure that he had come before the BOE members and they gave permission for the committee to act as requested. He told how he discussed the memorial plans with Principal Ginger Webster and Superintendent Robbie Phillips. He stated that he or the teachers didn’t have a clue that there was a problem with the Richardson Field sign until eight weeks after it was in place. Terry Pickle came by to say that there were some people who had a problem with the Richardson Field sign. I even understood what the problem might be;

Week of November 13, 2005