Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Day the Roses Died



Thomasville, the lovely "Rose City," was somewhat defamed as our illustrious Vice President Cheney made a visit. Reportedly, he stayed at a nearby hunting lodge. Hope no one was shot this time.........

A real man of the people, customers were asked to leave as Mr. Cheney needed to do some shopping at Kevin's of Thomasville. Of my many visits to this picturesque little town in southwest Georgia, I don't remember Kevin's.

I do remember the quaint historic downtown area with brick streets, a great barbeque restaurant called Fallon's, all the beautiful, but pricey antique shops, and the Pool Room, home of the best chilli dogs in the world.

Adorning a wall in this old hangout is a newspaper article about a man who once rode his bicycle all the way from Alabama just to eat a Pool Room hotdog. On any afternoon, you can still see older women lining up at the curb side window outside ordering their dogs. You see, a few decades ago, it wasn't "ladylike" for a woman to enter an establishment such as the Pool Room. So women ordered from the outside window. My mother, who is in her 70's, still observes tradition and doesn't dare set foot inside the place. She says if she did, she would feel a thousand disapproving looks from past generations of women who just wouldn't find that proper.

Celebrities like Thomasville native, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman frequently make trips to Thomasville, especially during the spring time Rose Festival. Jacqueline Kennedy used to vacation in seclusion at a nearby plantation.

Such a lovely history for a lovely town. But just knowing that Dick Cheney has spent the night there makes me think the city council will need to spend a little money fumigating and cleaning up whatever residue that slug left behind.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcomed back Button. I hope you had a good holiday.

As a hunter, I always remind folks that Cheney gives hunting a bad name. Not for shooting someone (accidents happen), but because he is a private land "pen hunter".

Cheney likes to hunt by releasing game from a cage and kicking them in the air so you can shoot them. I'd like to know if he ever actually eats any of the game he kills...

Eddie said...

Butotn,
Great post!

Button Gwinnett said...

Jon, I didn't know that about Cheney. I figured that a guy from a great western state like Wyoming with plenty of wild game would prefer the challenge of hunting instead of "pen shooting." That seems rather deviant to me.

Even though I'm not a hunter myself, I come from a family where the men like to hunt. But they hunt in areas where populations need to be thinned. And they eat everything they take. I understand this way of life and have reaped the benefits of it. Which is a huge part of the reason why I'm a supporter of WWF, but not PETA.