THE ET CETERA CHRONICLES - VOL. 88

A GOOD TIME IN THE OLD TOWN TONIGHT -   During the 1880s when Dublin alternated in times when the city council strictly banned or apathetically allowed the free sale of spiritous beverages, lawlessness frequently infected the fledging city.  In the fall of 1883, the Editor of the Dublin Post wrote, “Last Saturday night, every third man in the streets was drunk, some beastly drunk.”   “ Yet they say that there is no whiskey sold in Dublin,” the editor lamented.  The editor of Houston Journal joined the outcry by stating “Surely the law must be winking at crime in that locality.”  Home Journal, November 7, 1883.  

CONTEST WINNER - Dublin 8th grader and Courier Herald newsboy Larry McLendon wrote a letter about the importance of a college education.  That letter was written in 1950 when going to college was still not the norm in the community.  Larry entered the Colonial Grocery store's contest without the knowledge.  Lo and behold, McLendon came in first place in Georgia and in the process won a $2500.00 prize which in those days would be a very nice college scholarship.  Butler Herald, April 27, 1950. 

BEFORE THE GODS OF BASEBALL - Former Dublin attorney, District Attorney, and State Representative Wash Larsen grew up in the days before the end of World War II.  Wash is known as a “walking book.”  In fact, he is famous for being able to drive down the street, cross a busy street, or walk along a crowded sidewalk with his eyes focused on a book, While still in school, Wash fondly remembered playing on the old Fairgrounds field on Troup Street.  Every once in a while, a young doctor would drive up in his sports car and ask to play ball with Wash and his friends.  Although the doctor was primarily a tennis player, he did know a little bit about baseball, for the Dublin physician was Ty Cobb, Jr., son of the iconic baseball hitter.  The boys didn’t care that they were playing baseball with Ty Cobb.  

After Wash entered the University of Georgia he was chosen to make a beer run over to South Carolina.  When he walked into the appointed place, he noticed walls covered with baseball memorabilia.  The bartender had played baseball on that same field in Dublin where Wash and friends played.  Wash, always curious, asked the aging man, “Did you play baseball?”  The old man nodded his head and said “a little.”  When Wash asked the man’s name, he said, “My name is Joe Jackson.”  Stunned, Wash recalled that Joe Jackson was indeed “Shoeless Joe Jackson,” one of baseball’s greatest players ever, only to be wrongfully banned from baseball because of his alleged role in the “Black Sox” scandal during the 1919 World Series.  As related by Wash Larsen. 

 

SENIOR NURSE - When Inez Cravy Boatright retired from nursing, she was the oldest practicing nurse in the State of Florida.  A native of Milan, Georgia, Mrs. Cravey spent the early part of her nursing career at the Veterans Hospital in Dublin, Georgia. 

NO STANDING ON MY BUSES - Freeman Moore opened the first exclusively African-American bus line, The Cotton Belt Bus Line, in the summer of 1928.  The route began at 7:30 in the morning at the “Negro Drug Store” and returned to Dublin in the mid-afternoon.  Macon Telegraph, August 27, 1928.

BLIND AMBITION - Apparently nobody ever told Woodrow Foskey of East Dublin, Ga., that blindness was a limiting condition. At least it would seem that way, for this remarkable man, who was born totally blind, never let his blindness interfere with his living a fully productive life. As a child, he attended regular school. His folks read his lessons to him. Whether it was on the working end of a cross-cut saw or rafting wood downriver, Woodrow saw the job and did it. He is now East Dublin's city jailer. In this capacity, Foskey, age 53, cares for the prisoners, operates the police radio, takes messages, dispatches police bulletins, and even raises and lowers the American flag; In obtaining his present job, Foskey's vocational rehabilitation counselor arranged for a tape recorder to aid him in taking the many calls that come into the station. How is he doing? Well, according to Police Chief Ed Tanner, "Woodrow can do more things better than some people with sight... he does so well, sometimes I think surely he must be able to see."  (Reprinted from Rehabilitation Record, Nov-Dec. 1967)