12 AUG 05: CHATT. ROOMS

For the first time in 36 years, Chattahoochee County has its own high school. The new school opened Thursday - which means students who used to attend Spencer High are already three days behind.

Chattahoochee County High School actually was supposed to open last week - but road work on Georgia Highway 26 led to a ten-day delay. Apparently now the highway is sufficiently reinforced, for all the oversized pickups teenage boys like to drive.

The last time Chattahoochee County tried to open a high school, disaster struck. The school in Cusseta went up in flames in 1969, only hours before opening day - a day when integration was supposed to start. If this was arson, the logic apparently was that it's better to be dumb separately than smart together.

There was no fire along Highway 26 Thursday - only a long line of cars dropping off students. The high school and middle school parents were directed to separate entrances. Maybe that will satisfy the people who still support segregation.

Pam Timms is the principal of Chattahoochee County High School. She admitted the 48 hours before Thursday's opening day were stressful, and she had very little sleep -- thus setting a bad example, since experts always students at the start of school this will hurt their performance.

About 350 students attended the opening day of Chattahoochee County High School. WRBL reported there's a waiting list of students, who want to attend from other counties. Who knows how many Spencer High School football players dream of joining a potential winning team?

Chattahoochee County students attended Spencer High School for years. Perhaps because of the long trip, the county developed one of the worst dropout rates in Georgia. Officials hope the new high school will stop this trend - if only because the walk to those Victory Drive clubs will be much longer.

Perhaps in an attempt to attract students to high school, Chattahoochee County's faculty is promising NO homework! Well, this IS a county with no Wal-Marts or Targets selling backpacks....

Instead of having students take home assignments, Chattahoochee County students spend the end of their days in "study hall." I was in this for a semester during seventh grade, and remember it for two things: reading library books, because my homework was finished - and taking back half the room's lunch trays, because they asked.

WRBL's reporter declared the first day of school at Chattahoochee County High "an A-plus." Oh dear - these Peter Jennings tributes are getting out of hand, and more reporters are throwing in personal opinions....

An East Alabama high school faces a different sort of dilemma, in keeping students. Loachapoka High didn't make "adequate yearly progress," so students can transfer to other Lee County schools. In fact, they can get their homework finished in the car, while mom drives them home from Smiths Station.

Lee County school officials plan to encourage Loachapoka parents NOT to transfer their children to other high schools. So you can see what we have here -- a "Hold-'em 'Poka showdown."

Back in Columbus, police staged a crackdown on school zone speeding Thursday at Baker Middle School. The evening news indicated neighborhood residents were happy to see the blue lights there. So have they finally run off the Baker Village residents who DON'T want to see them?

E-MAIL UPDATE: You never know who's going to stop by for a visit. Take this blog reader:

I was making a turn around the other day and noticed the apartment complex on 1st, where you reside.

Have you taken a vow of poverty? I'm curious as to why a seemingly intelligent person would choose to live in that location, given an option to live...anywhere...else?

Thanks, just wondering. I read your site daily, and barring all the WRBL references, I find it interesting.

Thank you for the interesting questions. First of all, some people would say anyone like me who moves from Atlanta to Columbus automatically takes a vow of poverty....

I checked newspaper ads and considered several places, as I moved to Columbus eight years ago. But one duplex I visited near Lakebottom Park was under renovation and a dark mess. Today, that might be called charming mill property.

Another stop on my search for a Columbus home was a small building near Fox Elementary School. But I had a waterbed, and the manager told me the floor of the vacant upper-story apartment couldn't handle it. Of course, most people can't handle the thought of anyone owning a waterbed nowadays....

It was after 3:00 p.m. when I borrowed a landlord's key and drove to the apartment complex where I live now. Two women were outside, and they told me it was a safe neighborhood. Only after I moved in did I meet other neighbors -- one begging for loans every month, another firing a shotgun from his porch late one night....

So why do I still live there eight years later? In part, because the rent hasn't gone up one penny in eight years. I could move one block west to Broadway and pay $100 or more extra every month, but why?

Another reason I still live where I do is because things really ARE quiet most of the time. If only those motorcyclists would slow down approaching the Oglethorpe Bridge near my window, when I'm trying to sleep....

(It's SO quiet that when a fight in one apartment led to a killing several years ago, my air conditioner and fan drowned out the ambulance pulling into the courtyard.)

Besides, my location puts me near all sorts of Columbus attractions. I can walk to Golden Park, the Columbus Civic Center, the Riverwalk, the Space Science Center - but honestly, I've only stepped inside the Villa Nova package store a couple of times....

This blog and the former "LaughLine" have recorded some of the curious visitors I've had over the years. But let's face it -- curious people can live in any part of town. Remember the doctor who was arrested in Green Island Hills several months ago?

So come see us again sometime -- and now let's explore other sights from Thursday:

+ The price of gasoline jumped another nine cents across Columbus, to a LOW of $2.37 a gallon. Now that's the way to celebrate the signing of a federal energy bill....

(This latest price increase is changing one of my habits. When I stroll to a convenience store in my neighborhood, I plan to walk between the gas pumps - so I can be around the people with money.)

+ ABC's "Nightline" explained how the Dixie Youth Baseball World Series in Auburn began. It started when 61 South Carolina Little League teams refused to play an all-black team in Charleston 50 years ago. Uh-oh - now some white Southerners will accuse Martin Luther King, Jr. of ripping off their boycott idea.

(One player on that 1955 Charleston Little League team now runs a Columbus architect firm. John Rivers told "Nightline" the boycott gave him an incentive to succeed in life. So you people who feel trampled down by affirmative action should shut up and start working.)

+ First African Baptist Church reopened its "Crisis Closet" of discounted clothing. It had been closed four months because of break-ins and thefts. As if this place actually has trendy fashion?!

+ The Cherokee County, Georgia coroner was arrested on drug charges. You'd think someone in that office would know better than to commit political suicide....

+ The Columbus Catfish lost at Augusta 4-3. WDAK broadcaster Chad Goldberg revealed during road trips, the Catfish spend at least one hour a day in the gym. The most challenging part must come when players hear the sound of passing steroid trucks.

+ A major archery competition opened at Fort Benning's Uchee Creek complex. Why is it that you never see anyone at these events wearing Arrow shirts -- or even endorsing them?

+ Instant Message to Wendy's restaurants: You win. Your new commercials with the tooth saying "ranch" over and over are easily the most annoying ads of the year.

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