Thursday, May 07, 2009
Ann and I worked with this nice lady at JC Penneys downtown a thousand years ago...
Willa May Ramsey
Willa May Ramsey, 89, of Stillwater, died on Tuesday, May 5, 2009, in Stillwater. Service will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday in Lost Creek United Methodist Church with Pastor Max Rudd and the Rev. Larry Huff officiating. Interment will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens. Strode Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
She was born on Oct. 30, 1919, in Arkansas, to Zeek Bounds and Florence (Tettleton) Bounds. She married Paul Vernon Ramsey on Nov. 5, 1938. He preceded her in death on March 9, 1988.
She was preceded in death by her parents; and husband.
She is survived by three sons, Paul Ivan Ramsey and his wife, Faye, Billie Wade Ramsey and his wife, Cynthia and Curtis Dean Ramsey and his wife, Pam; two daughters, Carolyn Huff and her husband, Homer and Donna Faye Quinn and her husband, Bill; nine grandchildren, Larry James Huff, Paul Scott Ramsey, DeWayne Huff, Michael Todd Ramsey, Kimberly Ann Owens, Amy Lynn Wright, Toby Ryan Ramsey, Matthew Taylor Ramsey and Nicholas Hoisington; and six great grandchildren.
Condolences may be e-mailed to the family and an online obituary may be viewed by visiting www.strodefh.com.
Appreciating teachers
For Teacher Appreciation Week, Stillwater NewsPress is recognizing teachers who have positively impacted readers’ lives. Here’s what several readers had to say:
Appreciating Anita Hauf:
Mrs. Hauf rocks! She is a second-grade teacher at Will Rogers Elementary. She has taught me in both first and second grade.
She taught me how to pronounce words correctly and what they mean. She let us raise caterpillars that turned into Painted Lady Butterflies. She understands when you’re hurt. She makes you happy when you’re sad.
She lets us have popcorn parties as a reward for being good. She’s had lots of student teachers because that’s how good she is.
We got to have a young authors fair. We wrote a book and spent lots of time illustrating it. Then we looked at each other’s books and read them to the parents of my friends.
Mrs. HAUF IS A ROCK STAR!! She makes learning fun!
I’m going to miss her next year.
— Submitted by Lauren Millis
second-grader at Will Rogers Elementary
Ed's Note: My personal thoughts... I have to fav's.... Mrs. Tammy Moffat, and Mrs Trisha Moffat... They are the coolest bestest greatest nicest caringest... you name it they are the "est" of all!
Jonathan sends along this note....
As you have probably heard, Pontotoc county has had the first Oklahoma
case of swine flu. That is right, right here in Ada in fact.
What is really sad is that you get the impression from some around
here like it was a race and it is a good thing. That just confuses me.
Anyway, Randi, me and the kids are all OK so far, so it wasn't us.
But nobody is saying who it was, but supposedly, from the health
person at ECU, this person quarantined themselves for 5 days until
the symptoms passed. So maybe it didn't spread much. But we will know
more as the next 3-4 days go by.
--
Sent from my mobile device
Thanks,
Jonathan Moffat
case of swine flu. That is right, right here in Ada in fact.
What is really sad is that you get the impression from some around
here like it was a race and it is a good thing. That just confuses me.
Anyway, Randi, me and the kids are all OK so far, so it wasn't us.
But nobody is saying who it was, but supposedly, from the health
person at ECU, this person quarantined themselves for 5 days until
the symptoms passed. So maybe it didn't spread much. But we will know
more as the next 3-4 days go by.
--
Sent from my mobile device
Thanks,
Jonathan Moffat
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
"Be generous with your colleagues and your competitors. When
people learn that they do well whenever they work with you,
they will be more willing to come to you with opportunities."
— Michael Masterson
people learn that they do well whenever they work with you,
they will be more willing to come to you with opportunities."
— Michael Masterson
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Wishing Ms Madison Ann Blankinship a very Happy 4th Birthday today!
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday Princess Madison Ann
Happy birthday to you!!! And many more....
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday Princess Madison Ann
Happy birthday to you!!! And many more....
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
from Heather comes this interesting tidbit of news...
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will be
04:05:06 07/08/09
This will never happen again until the year 3009. 1,000 years later
04:05:06 07/08/09
This will never happen again until the year 3009. 1,000 years later
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
| EL RENO’S GUITAR HEAVEN |  |
EL RENO’S GUITAR HEAVEN By Louie Tyson A quiz master participating in a parlor game called “What Am I?” may offer the following clues regarding this musical instrument:  Rock on! Housed in a century-old building that practically “hums” as you enter, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar, with an inventory of over 3,000 instruments, is a tribute to the balladeer, the wandering minstrel and the headbanger. “Guitar heaven ” awaits those who enter their doors. Lead angel and proprietor Bobby Boyles, who has had a love affair with guitars since he was 15 years old, says that the iconic nature of the modern guitar captures the imagination like no other instrument. “There seems to be an innate feeling in all of us to pick up a guitar and jam,” he said. “Every time I attempt to play a guitar, I feel the sweat and artistry of great American blues artists like Robert Johnson, the nimble fingers of Oklahoma’s own jazz genius Charlie Christian, and every young, talented player with a tune on his mind and a dream in his heart.” As Boyles tells it, the journey that brought Oklahoma Vintage Guitar to El Reno was not without pitfalls and a learning curve. “We were looking for a building that would have appropriate character and location,” said Boyles, an Arkansas native who spent his non-musical career working with religious organizations and churches while also authoring several books. “From the minute I saw this historic treasure with its 10,000 square feet and met with the city fathers in El Reno, I knew it would be perfect for all our needs.” Guitars of all shapes, sizes, colors, styles and ownership line the walls, along with banjos, mandolins, fiddles and ukuleles. Also in the shop are accordions, keyboards, amplifiers, percussion instruments and resonators. Its vastness, combined with an almost spirituality, is nearly palpable. “It’s all here – we want to be all things to all people, musically,” Boyles said. “Our friends love it that we have strings and other auxiliary guitar materials – sometimes there’s no larger emergency than a broken string.”  Boyles has resisted corporate buyout opportunities and kept the emphasis of Oklahoma Vintage Guitar on customer service. And while Boyles has eschewed a “cookie cutter,” business model, the guitar lines that he carries are those with which he has worked closely since opening his first store. “We carry Martins, Gibsons, Taylors, Fenders and all the rest,” he said. Boyles makes particular mention of the “Ovation” guitar, which was developed by Charlie Kaman and virtuoso Glen Campbell. “When Charlie Kaman set about to build a better guitar 45 years ago, he had no preconceived notions about instrument design,” Boyles said. “After much analysis and experimentation, a parabolic ‘bowl’ shape proved to give the best projection, volume and tone. Ovation has gained its fame with its round back. “Interestingly, the Ovation is made using carbon graphite materials similar to those used on the nose cone of a 747 jet,” Boyles explained. Not satisfied that all major guitar lines are beating down his door, Boyles has worked to design his own. Presently, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar is the only location in the world where one can experience “Red River” guitars. “I call them ‘Red River’ after a wonderful fishing locale at home in central Arkansas; however, when I came to Oklahoma, I found that the Red River is the true dividing line between heaven and hell,” he said. “In all seriousness, all my years of experience playing and selling guitars have gone into the development and design of these instruments.” While prototypes of the guitar have been made overseas, Boyles said their manufacture will soon be made by hand in his El Reno shop. Boyles hopes to manufacture between 25-50 guitars in the first year of production.  “We are going to build new guitars, both electric and acoustic, that will play like the classic pre-war Martins or pre-CBS Fenders – instruments that had legendary qualities,” he said. “Our ‘Red River’ guitars will also have a Native American sensibility, much like those made by artisans in the Cheyenne-Arapaho nation.” Not one to dream small, Boyles next set his sights on an expansion of the store that will offer both historical and cultural insights into the guitar and its place in modern society. “Our store is so grandiose and our lifelong guitar collection so impressive that during the next year, we will be turning the loft of the building into a guitar museum. People will be amazed at what we have,” Boyles teases. “I will mention that we have the Fender Telecaster Joe Walsh played during the days of the original recording of ‘Hotel California.” Boyles also says Fender guitars will be in abundance, from the Broadcaster and Nocaster to the 1952 Telecaster and the 1955 Stratocaster. When all is finished, the 2,000-square-foot museum will host about 250 guitars – for starters. “After all these years, I am very tied into the guitar community,” Boyles said. “There is always the valuable, one-of-a-kind instrument that appears on the market. With that in mind, there’s no telling what will be in this museum from day to day.” Boyles adds that his future museum and the city of El Reno are a match made in heaven. “El Reno is a historic city that is truly on the move. I am adding this museum at a time when the whole unique downtown is receiving a facelift that celebrates its history while also planning for a bright future.” Celebrities and professional musicians are not unaware of the Oklahoma Vintage Guitar store. “It seems now that we are a stop for professional musicians traveling this way as they go from gig to gig,” Boyles mused. “  Most recently a contingent of band members who work with Kelly Clarkson drove up from Dallas just to check us out.”Another celebrity regular is Kerry Livegren, from the group Kansas, who regularly visits and trades guitars with Boyles. “We are always seeing bandmates of Toby Keith and Garth Brooks,” Boyles said. “Let’s face it, all these musicians are ‘guitar junkies’ and they get their fix by coming into our location for a visit.” Among the many celebrities with one of Boyles’ guitars in her collection is one not necessarily known for her playing skills. “A few years ago, Britney Spears was onstage doing a very difficult dance routine when she fell and seriously hurt her ankle,” Boyles said. “Rather than disappoint her paying fans, however, she finished the show. As a reward to her for being such a trouper, her manager called us and requested that we ship a ‘Daisy Rock’ guitar, an instrument manufactured specifically for women. This particular guitar was in the shape of a purple heart, and he gave her that ‘medal’ as a reward for going on with the show although wounded. We understand she was thrilled with the gift.” For those who have the desire to learn, Oklahoma Vintage Guitar offers lessons to all ages of potential guitarists.  “Some might think that we purists would be against computer games that simulate guitar playing,” Boyles said. “However, we find that the interest it creates causes people to try out the real thing.” Boyles said a recent family outing brought this particular concept home. “Over the holidays, my sister-in-law started playing ‘Guitar Hero. When she was through jamming with the kids, she and her husband asked to start lessons the next week, along with one of their sons.” So, from the inlay on the neck to the truss rod, fretboard and strings; from the first chord that rocked popular music as it introduced “A Hard Day’s Night” to the Brazilian rhythms of Antonio Carlos Jobim; and from the works of Carlos Santana to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, the guitar is and will continue to be man’s greatest attempt at combining art, design, music and style. A trip to Oklahoma Vintage Guitar will offer potential pickers just the right opportunity to twang, samba or just practice, practice, practice to achieve the uninhibited joy that only music can bring to both the performer and the listener.  |
100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES
100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES
JOE SCARBOROUGH, GLENN BECK AND OTHERS ON OBAMA'S SHORT, ERROR-PRONE TIME IN OFFICE
http://www.nypost.com/seven/0425200...
Obama Orders Review of New York Flight as Cost Put at $328,835
By Roger Runningen and Tony Capaccio
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered a review of a publicity-photo shoot with one of the planes that serves as Air Force One that cost taxpayers $328,835 and caused a furor in New York City.
Obama Speech To Cost Networks
April 29, 2009
The primetime slot requested by President Obama for a news conference marking his 100th day in office is going to cost the broadcast networks millions of dollars in lost ads.According to the latest ad pricing data from Nielsen, the Wednesday slot between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. generates some $21.5 million for the big four.
Obama sows seeds of demise
By Dick Morris
Posted: 04/28/09 05:45 PM [ET]
When the Obama administration crashes and burns, with approval ratings that fall through the floor, political scientists can trace its demise to its first hundred days. While Americans are careful not to consign a presidency they desperately need to succeed to the dustbin of history, the fact is that this president has moved — on issue after issue — in precisely the opposite direction of what the people want him to do.
Right now, Obama’s ratings must be pleasing to his eye. Voters like him and his wife immensely and approve of his activism in the face of the economic crisis. While polls show big doubts about what he is doing, the overwhelming sense is to let him have his way and pray that it works.
But beneath this superficial support, Obama’s specific policies run afoul of the very deeply felt convictions of American voters. For example, the most recent Rasmussen Poll asked voters if they wanted an economic system of complete free enterprise or preferred more government involvement in managing the economy. By 77-19, they voted against a government role, up seven points from last month.
And in the Fox News poll — the very same survey that gave Obama a 62 percent approval rating and reported that 68 percent of voters are “satisfied” with his first hundred days — voters, by 50-38, supported a smaller government that offered fewer services over a larger government that provided more.
By 42-8, the Fox News poll (conducted on April 22-23) found that voters felt Obama had expanded government rather than contracted it (42 percent said it was the same size) and, by 46-30, reported believing that big government was more of a danger to the nation than big business. (By 50-23, they said Obama felt big business was more dangerous.)
By 62-20, they said government spending, under Obama, was “out of control.”
So if voters differ so fundamentally with the president on the very essence of his program, why do they accord him high ratings? They are like the recently married bride who took her vows 100 days ago. It would be a disaster for her life if she decides that she really doesn’t like her husband. But she keeps noticing things about him that she can’t stand. It will be a while before she walks out the door or even comes to terms with her own doubts, but it is probably inevitable that she will.
For Americans to conclude that they disapprove of their president in the midst of an earth-shaking crisis is very difficult. But as Obama’s daily line moves from “I inherited this mess” to “There are faint signs of light,” the clock starts ticking. If there is no recovery for the next six months — and I don’t think there will be — Obama will inevitably become part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And then will come his heavy lifting. He has yet to raise taxes, regiment healthcare or provide amnesty for illegal immigrants. He hasn’t closed down the car companies he now runs and he has not yet forced a 50 percent hike in utility bills with his cap-and-trade legislation. These are all the goodies he has in store for us all.
Obama’s very activism these days arrogates to himself the blame for the success or failure of his policies. Their outcome will determine his outcome, and there is no way it will be positive.
Why?
• You can’t borrow as much as he will need to without raising interest rates that hurt the economy;
• The massive amount of spending will trigger runaway inflation once the economy starts to recover;
• His overhaul of the tax code (still in the planning phases) and his intervention in corporate management will create such business uncertainty that nobody will invest in anything until they see the lay of the land;
• His bank program is designed to help banks, but not to catalyze consumer lending. And his proposal for securitization of consumer loans won’t work and is just what got us into this situation.
So Mr. Obama should enjoy his poll numbers while he may.
Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of Outrage. To get all of Dick Morris’s and Eileen McGann’s columns for free by e-mail or to order a signed copy of their new best-selling book, Fleeced, go to dickmorris.com .
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Kind of puts things in perspective...
A Hundred Anxious Days
In a South Carolina Town Where the Downturn Has Deepened Since the Inauguration, Two Obama Supporters Have Struggled, Going From 'Fired Up' to Tired Out
By Eli Saslow, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, April 26, 2009
GREENWOOD, S.C.
Her cordless phone stores 17 voice messages, and tonight the inbox is full. Edith Childs, 60, grabs a bottle of water, tosses her hat on the living room floor and scowls at the blinking red light. A county councilwoman, she spent the past 12 hours driving rural roads in her 2001 Toyota Camry, trying to solve Greenwood's problems, but only now begins the part of each day that exhausts her. Childs slumps into an armless chair and steels herself for a 13-minute confessional.
"Hi, Ms. Edith, this is Rose, and I'm calling about my light bill. It's $420. . . . There's no way I can pay that."
"Edith, it's Francine. . . . They stopped by my house again today, talking about foreclosure. I don't know what to do. Can you call me?"
Childs leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes. Her hair is matted down with sweat, and thin-rimmed glasses sink low on her nose. Every few minutes, she stirs to jot notes on a to-do list that fills most of a notebook. She has to remind herself that she ran for county council in 1998 because she coveted this role: unofficial protector, activist and psychologist for her home town. Back then, the hardships of Greenwood -- 22,000 people separated from the nearest interstate by 40 miles -- struck Childs as contained. Now she sometimes wonders aloud to her husband, Charles: "When does it stop?"
"Yes, councilwoman, this is Joe Thompson calling. Uh, I'm having a bit of an emergency."
Across the dark living room, one of Childs's favorite pictures is displayed on a worn coffee table. It shows Childs with her arms wrapped around Barack Obama, his hand on her back, her eyes glowing. They met at a rally attended by 37 supporters on a rainy day in 2007, when Childs responded to Obama's sluggishness on stage with an impromptu chant: "Fired up! Ready to go!" She repeated it, shouting louder each time, until Obama laughed and dipped his shoulders to the rhythm. The chant caught on. "Fired up!" people began saying at rallies. "Ready to go," Obama chanted back. He told audiences about Childs, "a spirited little lady," and invited her onstage at campaign appearances. By the day of his inauguration, when Childs led a busload of strangers bound for the Mall in her now-iconic chant, her transformation was complete. She was Edith Childs, fired up and ready to go.
But now, as Obama nears the 100-day milestone of his presidency, Childs suffers from constant exhaustion. In a conservative Southern state that bolstered Obama's candidacy by supporting him early in the Democratic primaries, she awakens at 2:30 a.m. with stress headaches and remains awake mulling all that's befallen Greenwood since Obama's swearing-in.
On Day 4 of his presidency, the Solutia textile plant laid off 101 workers. On Day 23, the food bank set a record for meals served. On Day 50, the hospital fired 200 employees and warned of further job cuts. On Day 71, the school superintendent called a staff meeting and told his principals: "We're losing 10 percent of our budget. That means some of us won't have jobs next year, and the rest should expect job changes and pay cuts." On Day 78, the town's newly elected Democratic mayor, whose campaign was inspired partly by his admiration for Obama, summarized Greenwood's accelerating fragility. "This is crippling us, and there's no sign of it turning around," Welborn Adams said.
On Day 88, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that South Carolina had set a record for its highest unemployment rate in state history, at 11.4 percent. Greenwood's unemployment is 13 percent -- more than twice what it was when Childs first started chanting.
"We have a lot of people who live in cold houses, with no jobs and no food," Childs says.
Hundreds of them call her, and the most desperate travel to Childs's single-story house on Old Ninety-Six Highway outside of town and knock on her front door. A retired nurse living with her husband on modest savings, she makes $725 a month for serving on the county council and uses that money to pay other people's bills: $240 for her brother's electricity, because he can't find a job; $300 for a young family's rent in a two-bedroom apartment, because they have a 5-year-old boy and no income; $168 for a friend's water bill, because the county threatened to shut it off. When the $725 runs out -- and it always does -- Childs dips into savings and tells Charles she spent the money on a new outfit.
"Always a fighter." That's how Childs describes herself. She disapproved of how her first husband wasted money on liquor, so she called him into the living room and lit a $20 bill on fire to emphasize her point. She disliked Greenwood's plans to build a road between her neighborhood and a new housing project, so she filed a lawsuit and dragged it out for five years until she won. She thought Obama would make a good president, so, she says, "this mouthy black lady knocked on doors in the whitest, most Republican neighborhoods in town and told them what was on my mind."
Now Obama is president, and she still believes he will help rescue Greenwood County. But her enthusiasm has faded into a wary optimism. "He's only one man, and there's a lot to get done," she says, a predicament she knows all too well.
"I never used to get tired, but I'm running out of energy," she says. "It's stressful. Maybe one problem gets fixed, but it's not fixed for long, and while you've been doing that, four other people have called asking for help."
And their messages are waiting.
"Hi, Edith, this is Helen Witherspoon. I'm calling because I have a problem with my hot water heater and I'm wondering if you might know of a church or someone who can help me."
A message near the end causes Childs to wince. It is from Evon Hackett, her younger cousin, who has always reminded Childs a little of herself. Hackett has "never wasted a lazy hour in her life," Childs says. But now she is desperate and unemployed, and her voice barely registers above a whisper as it plays on Childs's machine.
"Hey Edith. How ya been? Just calling again to see if you heard from anybody who was hiring. . . . You know me. I'll do anything. It doesn't really matter what the work is."
* * *
Evon Hackett, 38, lost her job on Day 20 of Obama's presidency. She was nearing the end of her Friday afternoon shift on the assembly line at Tyco Healthcare, stuffing three packets of diapers into each passing cardboard box for $8.59 an hour, when a manager asked to see her. Hackett cleaned out her locker on the way to his office.
"What, was he going to give me a raise?" she said. "Huh-uh. Not happening. Not in Greenwood."
The job search that began that afternoon with a phone call to Childs has since grown into an odyssey in futility: Twenty-two job applications. Six interviews. Three drug tests. Once, Hackett received a call from a meatpacking plant, asking her to arrive at 7 a.m. Monday for a new employee orientation. She gushed to friends about the company's good benefits and its $10.80-an-hour starting salary, and she woke up Monday morning at 5:15 to bundle into the heavy winter clothes recommended for an eight-hour shift in a gargantuan refrigerator. She borrowed a friend's car and drove 40 miles on unfamiliar roads to the factory in Newberry. Fifteen minutes into the orientation, a manager called Hackett into his office. There had been a mistake, he explained. A clerical error. They had not intended to call her. Hackett was back home by sunrise.
Since then, mounting frustration has compelled her to distribute 50 résumés at a local job fair and to make road trips to factories in Clinton, Greenville and Abbeville. "There are no jobs in all of Greenwood," she says. "I think we're going to become a ghost town, or maybe some kind of town for rich, retired people."
She voted for Obama and still holds out hope for the man she calls a "people's president," but she's not interested in hearing his stories about flying to Europe or fighting pirates. "I guess he's just working his way down the list, and he'll get to us," she says.
Rather than wait for that day, Hackett decides to seize control of her situation one afternoon. If nobody will hire her, she will start her own business. She decides to sell Easter baskets to Greenwood parents who will buy them as holiday gifts for their children. On a shopping spree to purchase supplies at Wal-Mart, she overdraws her bank account by $121 and returns home with enough stuffed rabbits, Spider-Man action figures and Hannah Montana dolls for 17 baskets. She sorts them into neat piles on her parents' living room floor and ties red and pink ribbons around each basket, curling the trimming by running it between her thumb and a scissor blade.
Her sleeveless shirt reveals toned arms and broad shoulders earned during two decades of factory work. Only the deep creases under her eyes betray the stress of a hard 38 years -- a battle with breast cancer in 2000, three layoffs in the past decade and her only son's incarceration three hours away in Bishopville.
The Easter baskets distract her from what she considers the worst symptom of unemployment: deathly boredom. She monitors her father's recovery from a stroke and paints her parents' bathroom bright yellow to assuage the guilt of moving in with them after the layoff. She sleeps 12 hours per night in her makeshift bedroom, where clothes sit in piles on the fraying carpet and a sheet hangs over the open doorway to allow a modicum of privacy.
During the final stages of the presidential campaign, Hackett obsessively tracked Obama on CNN and spent Election Day driving her neighbors to the polls so they could vote for him, but now she avoids watching the news. It puts her in "a dark mood," she says. Instead, she rests her feet on a coffee table occupied by an unopened Bible and a half-empty jumbo bag of peanut M&M's and watches cartoons or judge shows on the family's 12-inch television.
"If I don't distract myself, it starts getting depressing," she says. "Every day is long, and I'm just looking for ways to pass them. It's hard not to let my mind start thinking, 'Am I ever going to get myself out of this?' "
After Hackett finishes tying together the Easter baskets, she displays them on a wooden table and admires her handiwork. "I've always been good with crafts," she says approvingly. She tries to sell each basket for $25, but potential buyers balk at the price. She considers setting up a sales table on her sister's front lawn in Atlanta -- "people got money there," she says -- but concludes that bus fare would negate her profits. Finally, a day before Easter, Hackett drops her price to $20 and starts calling friends.
"I'm not trying to be a charity case," she explains to one, "but I'm telling you these baskets are nice, and I could use the money."
The strategy nets Hackett $85 in profits, which she uses toward debts of $121 owed to her bank, $190 to her cellphone company and $59 to a warehouse storing her furniture. Childs is her best customer, paying the full price of $25 and purchasing two baskets.
* * *
Working on her daily to-do list one April morning, Childs visits an unemployed friend in Promised Land, a town of trailers 10 miles outside Greenwood, and then drops off a bag of food for a 92-year-old woman whose cupboard has emptied of everything but grits.
"Somebody probably needs something in every house we pass," Childs says as she drives. "A lot have problems too big to solve."
Just before 1 p.m., she pulls into Greenwood's normally deserted downtown for a few more errands and notices a large crowd gathered in front of the courthouse. More than 200 people are dressed in red, white and blue and are waving miniature American flags. Childs asks a friend for details and learns that it is a "tea party" to protest Obama's economic policies, one of about 1,000 similar events coordinated on Tax Day across the country.
"Of course it's going to be a lot of white Republicans, and mostly men," Childs says as she walks through the crowd and finds a spot alone at the rear of the plaza. "I want to see this, but I'm keeping my distance."
In a state that voted 54 percent for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Childs has heard plenty of anti-Obama rhetoric. "Most people around here know where I stand and let me be," she says. "People are too polite to be nasty." So she shakes her head in disbelief as she reads the angry messages scrawled on the poster boards in front of her.
"Say NO to Obama and Socialism!"
"OBAMA'NATION."
"Who cares what Obama says? America IS a Christian nation."
Childs puckers her lips and listens as Greenwood residents take turns stepping to the podium and shouting through a megaphone. Their speeches revolve around the same themes Childs hears in her phone messages, except what she identified as the solution to Greenwood's problems is what these speakers now disparage as the cause.
"We all know this president is the major problem," David O. Davis III says. "I've got friends with families who are losing their jobs, getting laid off."
"We're struggling to pay our bills and get by," Cathy Heitzenrater says. "We're feeling disenfranchised from our own country and disappointed about who's running it."
"Vote the bum out," R.J. Fife says.
After each speaker finishes, Childs retreats a few steps farther from the crowd. A part of her would like to go grab the bullhorn and tell these people to "keep their mouths shut and give Obama a little time," she says. But she woke up at 3 a.m. again this morning, and she can't go home for a nap until she pays $100 on a constituent's bill at the water company and stops by a city office to inquire about possible job openings for Hackett.
"Let them have their tea party," Childs says. "They're just looking for somebody to blame. My ears are full."
She walks away from the courthouse as the crowd joins into chorus to sing the national anthem.
* * *
On Day 85 of the Obama presidency, Hackett wakes up and swaps her usual blue sweat pants for a pair of ironed capris and a denim jacket. Eight silver bracelets are divided between two wrists. Her hair is pulled into tight dreadlocks, which a friend twisted until 11 the night before. As Hackett stands up to leave her parents' house, she completes her outfit with a pair of pink high heels, purchased at the bargain price of $15.99 because she managed to squeeze into the children's size.
"I want people to look at me and think, 'Classy,' " Hackett says. "I don't want nobody thinking I'm some know-nothing loser."
She fears drawing that conclusion herself, which is why she put off today's trip for almost a week. She is headed to the unemployment office, a place she describes as "the end of the road." Since being laid off, she has visited five times and waited as long as two hours before getting her turn at one of the center's 10 computers. On this visit, she goes during lunch hour -- the center's slowest time of the day -- to minimize the odds of running into somebody she knows.
Her brother drops her off in front of a squat brown building in the center of town, and Hackett hurries to an open workstation at Computer No. 5. As usual, the center is what Director Joan Burgess describes as a "beehive of activity" -- 47 people in one modest room, babies crying, cellphones ringing, voices rising despite the "Quiet Please" sign on the wall. All of Greenwood is represented inside: 25 blacks and 22 whites, 19 women and 28 men. Filing into the workstations near Hackett are an elderly blind woman carrying a cane, a young mother carrying a toddler and a middle-aged man carrying a leather briefcase.
The past four months have turned the unemployment center into one of the few places in Greenwood that is thriving. It added staff, extended hours and launched a series of seminars -- "Market Yourself in One Minute," "What Employers Want" -- for an estimated 3,500 job-seekers. "We have a lot of people coming in who have been laid off from companies where they worked for 20 or 30 years," Burgess says. "They don't have résumés. They don't know computers. We are essentially teaching them how to look for jobs."
This day, the center has posted nine new jobs on a dry-erase board attached to the wall -- the longest list in more than a week. Hackett reads over the job titles and finds four that intrigue her: sales agent, machine operator, cleaning tech and customer service. She writes down each job's six-digit serial number, which will enable her to search the computer for more complete descriptions.
Job 298342 is no longer available.
Job 315722 is for a CV 3-9 operator. Hackett reads the description. "Move large reels weighing 50 to 75 lbs. Stand for eight hours per eight-hour shift on a concrete floor. Bend/stoop to ground level thirty times per hour. Roll reels weighing 100 to 10,000 lbs. Pay: $8."
Job 321273 is part time, eight hours per week at $8.55 and located 16 miles away in Abbeville. Hackett does some quick math. "Minus gas, that's like $20 a week," she says.
Job 318393 is the customer service position, which requires talking on the phone, making copies and other duties described as "secretarial." It pays $9 an hour. Hackett once hoped to make at least $10 with good benefits, but seven weeks of unemployment has diminished her standards.
"Sounds boring but okay," she says. "It could get me by for a little while."
She walks to the front counter of the center with the serial number and requests an application. While she waits, she notices a stack of fliers offering tips for job-seekers during hard times. On criminal backgrounds: "If you were arrested but not convicted, do not list it." On salary expectations: "It may be best to write 'open' or 'negotiable.' "
The front desk attendant calls for Hackett.
"This job is at Sykes, out at the mall," he says. "They need somebody immediately. I don't have an application here, because they want you to apply in person. If I were you, I'd go right away."
Hackett thanks him and walks out the door, optimistic. An immediate hire? Apply in person? "I think this could be something," Hackett tells her brother, and she spends the car ride to the mall planning ways to use her first few paychecks. She will pay off her cellphone bill, spoil herself with new sneakers, move out of her parents' house to stop inflating their electric bill -- maybe even pay a few electric bills for them.
Hackett grabs a copy of her résumé, printed on watermarked paper, and walks into the Sykes telemarketing center. A receptionist hands her a clipboard with an application, and Hackett sits in a blue chair in the waiting room to fill it out. Under references, she lists Childs and some prior bosses. Under salary preference, she writes "Negotiable."
After 25 minutes that conclude with her shaking a tired right hand, Hackett signs the application and delivers it to the receptionist, who promises to get in touch. Only after Hackett thanks her and turns for the exit does she notice the waiting room is now full. Six people sit with pens and clipboards, filling out the same application she just turned in. As she walks out, she forces a smile to hide what she already knows: She will never hear about the Sykes job again.
Later that night, inside the house on Old Ninety-Six Highway, Childs sinks into the armless chair in her living room. "Don't bother me, Charles," she tells her husband. She picks up the cordless phone, where 17 new messages are waiting. One is from Hackett.
"Hi, it's me," she says. "Hope you had a good day. . . . No luck over here yet. I'm just wondering if you've heard about anything."
Monday, April 27, 2009
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