It takes three hours – maybe a little more, depending on traffic between Madison and Eatonton where the widening of U. S. 441 into four lanes sometimes brings traffic to a standstill – to get to Eastman, the seat of Dodge County.
That’s where I lay my head when the sun goes down.
Getting here allows for a sojourn on one of the most compatible stretches of highway in our state. U.S. 441 has been “four-laned” much of the way from Eatonton to Douglas. This route, in its entirety, offers a very pleasant drive from Dillard in Rabun County to Fargo in Clinch County – from North Carolina to Florida, though south of Dublin, you take Ga. 117 to get to Eastman.
I have driven the entire length of U.S. 441 over the years and enjoyed many stops along the way.
On a recent trip, I took a break in Dublin with my longtime friend Dubose Porter, publisher of several newspapers in our state’s midsection.
Later, he handed off some delightful tomatoes from his friend and real estate entrepreneur Louie Curry, but renowned locally for his vegetable garden which is accompanied by a “Hoe House.”
This is a gathering spot for friends who drop by for a vegetable from the garden, to be linked up with a preferred libation.
Many of the world’s problems are solved in the Hoe House, as you might expect. And a good time is always enjoyed by all.
Louie’s wife, Ann, also has a rose garden that’s better known in Dublin than the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., in the nation’s capital. When Louie and his friends want to smell the roses, all they need to do is step out back.
Small towns across our state offer a reminder that small-town life is usually a good life. However, communities must work hard to remain viable and stable. Drugs and crime visit rural Georgia as well as the metropolitan areas, but down-home living still prevails. Agribusiness flourishes in this part of the state, and the good neighbor policy is practiced routinely.
Church on Sunday is important, and serving on the school board is a taking-of-the-duty-for-the-kids priority; helping the booster club raise money for the football team is another priority parents are eager to commit to.
High school football is where kids learn about teamwork and how to develop leadership skills.
As you meander down the highway, you see birds perched on utility lines, making you wonder if they are in conversation.
Perhaps they discourse about bumper stickers as the traffic rolls by.
Meanwhile, crops are maturing for the harvest season. South Georgia towns like Homerville, Pearson, Broxton, Jacksonville, McRae, Irwinton, and Scottsboro will enjoy the harvest moon, just like the rest of the world.
Country music stations dominate the airwaves, John Deere tractors dominate the fields, and the Georgia “G” dominates wherever you go. It’s easy to conclude this is a Georgia state.
A historian might remind you there was a time when this area belonged to the Creeks.
That is a story that we simply don’t want to revisit. It’s a reminder there has been trouble and strife in our state’s past. There were racial tensions here long before segregation lost its toehold. You may find a Confederate flag here and there, but we will stick with the favorable times of today. Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.
In Eastman, the Dodge Recreation Department was holding its annual fundraiser, organized under the leadership of Randy Spivey, whose objective was to accumulate enough to buy every kid in high school the latest in football headgear – helmets to provide the best defense against head injuries.
He and his committee went all out with door prizes and a live auction that brought smiles to the organizers when the evening concluded. It was a high moment for a small-town community with a bent for goodwill and local fellowship.
Eastman is the home of Stuckey’s, a forerunner of the convenience stores that proliferate today.
W.S. Stuckey Sr. founded the company in 1937 with a $35 loan and a roadside stand. Stuckey’s grew to be popular with tourists who enjoyed the food, clean restrooms, and pecan products, the most famous being Stuckey’s pecan log roll.
At its peak, Stuckey’s owned 368 stores nationwide in more than 30 states, with advertising on over 4,000 roadside billboards. Of note, W.
S. Stuckey Jr. was a five-term congressman for Georgia’s 8th District.
Also from Eastman is Leonard Floyd, a Georgia linebacker who won a Super Bowl ring with the Los Angeles Rams and was picked up this June by the Buffalo Bills. It also is home to Olympic gold medalist Martha Hudson (4x100 relay), former Georgia Speaker of the House Terry Coleman (2003-04), and of course the Stuckey family (tasty pecan log roll).
But I am more thankful that Eastman gave us local citizens like Randy Spivey, a modest and unassuming man with an altruistic bent to do some good for his community.
You know, a salt-of-the-earth type.
But you find a lot of those people in small towns like Eastman.