pt.1

Returning from a jaunt to Florida

in the wee hours of a dark, sleety night several years ago, we were heading

up the parkway, and I noticed a warm glow from an office window at the

fire station.

I was struck by the feeling

that someone had left a light on for us.

That low gleam symbolized the

way I think of the fire service. Like home and family.

Members of the fire and rescue

service are an unashamedly sentimental group, and have been since long

before Sept. 11. I'm especially touched by the respect and honor shown

to us old-timers ­ Life Members, most of us ­ by those who answer

Peachtree City's calls for help today. Their training and equipment are

as far ahead of ours as ours were ahead of our predecessors'. Their esteem

for those who laid the foundation on which today's service is building

may not be that clearly demonstrated everywhere. So I credit today's leadership

­ Chief Stony Lohr, assistant Chief Ed Eiswerth, and officers of

the volunteer association, many of whom I've never even met ­ with

keeping the light from the past strong and bright.

C.J. Mowell Jr. addressed the

firefighters of Peachtree City at their annual awards and installation

dinner recently, and he could hardly have had a more appreciative audience.

The current members, many of whom were in Huggies when I was an active

member, love hearing about how things used to be and marvel that we ever

saved a building or a life. Truth to tell, we marveled sometimes too.

At the same time, there were

several of us Life Members in the audience to keep C.J. honest. He was

chief of the volunteers in Fayetteville in the '70s when a fire call or

a wreck anywhere in the county was answered by whoever was available.

We worked closely with each other, especially in the development of the

then county-wide Emergency Medical Service, and I was a witness to some

of the tales C.J. spun for the entranced gathering last month.

C.J.'s speech needs to be on

Fayette County's historical record, so I'm presenting it to you in this

space, with his kind permission and minimal editing.

When Faye and I moved to Fayetteville

in 1964 from Newnan, we came through a wide place in the road that I had

always known as Shakerag. The name had been changed to Peachtree City.

The scenery hadn't changed

a whole lot except there was a lake and a few new houses around the lake.

Highway 54 was just a two-lane road with no traffic lights. Line Creek

Baptist church, Mr. Dave McWilliams' general store where you could still

get a churn or a plow point or a stovepipe. Credit was not unusual, as

Mr. Dave knew who you were or whether you were a native Fayette countian.

The property where the grading

is being done now for Home Depot and Wal-Mart was an upscale grocery store

run by Mr. Hugh Huddleston whose father, along with Mr. Dave, had owned

most of the property that presently is Peachtree City, Ga.

We came on to Fayetteville,

the county seat, where we had purchased a house to open a funeral home.

We had also acquired a used combination ambulance/hearse.

The county did not have a 24-hour-a-day

ambulance service but was basically served from Jonesboro, Fairburn, Newnan

and Griffin by funeral homes. If you needed an ambulance you not only

might need to look up the proprietor but make sure the tires were pumped

up and you had gasoline in the vehicle. The nearest hospitals were South

Fulton in East Point, Griffin Hospital, Newnan Hospital, and Coweta General,

just completed.

The Doctors Sams (Helen and

Sambo) were the only doctors actively practicing in the county since Dr.

Busey retired. Sams Clinic closed every Thursday, with Sambo and Helen

leaving town. So if anything happened on Thursday, folks panicked. Most

of the medical referrals were sent to Atlanta to Crawford Long or Georgia

Baptist hospitals.

The first year we were in business

we did not do a whole lot. Only two funerals: The first was an infant

graveside service at Line Creek Baptist cemetery. The grave was hand-dug

affectionately called him "Brother." He later became the first

chief of the Peachtree City Fire Department.

The ambulance wasn't real busy

either. I don't have the exact number of call we made, but probably 50

or 60 the entire year. A lot of those were convalescent trips bringing

Granny home or maybe someone had a new baby, and we would bring mother

and baby home. After all, there were only a little over 8,000 people in

the entire county.

During the slow times we had

time to keep up with what was going on throughout the county. For instance,

if we went west on Highway 54 in the ambulance with a light and siren

on, Miss Louise Leach (Brother's sister) or Mrs. Pearl Horton would call

the funeral home to find out where we were going, who we had, and what

happened.

Most of the time Faye would

not know because some folks would call and just say, "Send an ambulance,"

and Faye would not know any details until we returned. If there was an

unfamiliar car in the yard at the funeral home, a salesman or just someone

stopping by to shoot the breeze, Mrs. Willie Banks would call and inquire

if we had a body. If we did she would want to know if it was anyone she

knew until one day Faye asked her who all she knew.

Continued next week..

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