Posts

Showing posts with the label Iowa

32nd Harkin Steak Fry

I know this event has nothing to do with Oconee County, Georgia but I just had to post this. 32nd Harkin Steak Fry Shared via AddThis

Ruminations at 42,000 feet

So this is being written while flying on AirTran flight en route to an annual get together with a bunch of high school buddies at a lake in far northern Iowa. I am happy to be traveling from Oconee to Okoboji in less than a day and I will probably be comparing and contrasting some of the more comical items of what they do and do not have in an extremely rural part of Iowa with that of what we do have in Oconee County, Georgia. Wind Turbines All along the drive down from Minneapolis to Lake Okoboji I am delighted to see lots of wind turbines generating power for the people of Minnesota. I wish T. Boone Pickens would build a bunch of those near Watkinsville after Georgia spoils the dedication of his new Stillwater, OK stadium for Oklahoma State in about 30 something days. Apparently the winds are not strong enough or consistent enough to support massive wind turbine technology in Georgia, but I was glad to read that there is a Clean Natural Gas station finally opening up in Atlanta tha...

Slate of precinct captain in Michigan in 1966

So long ago (1966) and far away in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, my mother started running for Precinct Delegate along with the distinctive green bow tied candidacy of this gentlemen running for U.S. Senator after a long stint as Governor and Zolton Ferency running to replace him. Lucien Nedzi was the candidate for 14th District congressman.

Predictions from all kinds of Georgians, including at least two local folks

This is the result of a long series of email exchanges, but it was fun and I was happy to contribute. I can remember being huddled at the end of the stairwell in my pajamas watching a crowd of people up our stairs raising their hands for George McGovern on a cold night in 1972. We had a "raucous caucus" according to the Des Moines Register and Tribune newspaper at the time and thus was born yet another nickname from Coach McGuire. We had people packed into every corner of our stucco house on the hill in the middle of Snake Drive.

Proud of the Hawkeye State

I have lived in Georgia more than a quarter century with my father's family going seven generations deep on a hilltop in Druid Hills, but I grew up in the great state of Iowa in a rather interesting political climate. My mother Norma S. Matthews was part of the apparatus adjusting the Iowa Caucuses to the front of the line in 1972. We hosted a caucus at our house on 44th st.eet "Snake Drive" where people huddled in corners to declare their allegiance to everyone from Hubert Humphrey to Edmund Muskie to Scoop Jackson and George McGovern. My mom was the co-chair of the McGovern campaign and we had quite a parade of people through our living room and guest rooms that year, including Bill and Hillary, Gary Hart, and many others less famous. McGovern came in third that evening but won in the expectations game, doing better than was thought possible, and the Senator from South Dakota won the elusive momentum factor into New Hampshire and Wisconsin on to the nomination. Every ...