We have flat got to: Get Ready! Set! Spend $25 on the 25th  and enter to win $100!  I suwanne y’all! Friday, March 25 can’t come quick enough! I’m as excited as a kid at Christmas! I mean this Shop Local business has flat got it goin’ on! I’m gonna spend $25 in every ding dang business on the Shop Local Page (pop over to Local Color - C10!). Yeeehaw! My handsome husband ain’t got no idea the Biz Buzz is gonna rob his wallet and put that money to work in the Morgan County economy! Plus I’m gonna be in the pot to win $100 big dollars!
    Ok so last week we buzzed five of the 11 Shop Local participants: Laughing Moon, The Madison ChopHouse Grille, Madison Produce, Just out of the Kloset and Youngblood Motors! Let’s check out the other six to get us flat ready to Shop Local!
    Madison Markets! I love to meander through this fantastic shoppin’ destination located at 144 Academy St., in Madison! I mean y’all it’s just THE BEST! Antiques! Glassware! Art! Paintings! Jewelry! Cool Furniture for indoors and out! I could just stay at Madison Markets FOREVER! Oh and the best part is that on Friday, March 25 . . . to help y’all spend your $25 or more . . . honey they are gonna stay open late and offer up complimentary refreshments from 5 p.m. til 7 p.m.! There’s just somethin’ Southern and regal ‘bout shoppin’ while sippin’ champagne! I can’t wait!      

Story and Photos by Patrick Yost

For three days officers learn the subtleties of drunk driving

Tom Robinson was drunk.

And he knew it.

Robinson, a 28–year–old Jasper County resident was trying to perform the one–legged stand in front of a Morgan County deputy and he wobbled. He leaned. He couldn’t keep his foot off the ground without having to right himself.

The officer duly noted his behavior. Robinson laughed.

“Put the cuffs on me. I’m going to jail,” he said.

In a real world situation he would not have had far to go. Robinson, along with four other twenty–something volunteers, was surrounded by 19 officers and more police academy instructors in a dimly lit cavernous room in back of the Morgan County Public Safety facility.

For more than two hours the five volunteers had been “dosed” with five Crown Royal and Coke alcoholic drinks. After each drink the volunteers had their blood alcohol levels checked and recorded with a breathalyzer.  The exercise, according to Jonathan Fuss, an instructor with the Georgia Police Academy in Forsyth, was aimed at teaching officers the affect of alcohol on a potential driver. And while the five had consumed the drinks, under the watchful eyes of Fuss and Sgt. Mark Williams, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, the participants were showing vastly different levels of impairment.

Some showed very little. That was the idea.

“We’re not looking for the person that’s falling down drunk,” said Williams. “That’s obvious.”

Momma! Where in the Sam Hill did you get hold of that pot of glittery gold coins? Ding dang! We’ve flat struck it RICH, RICH, RICH . . .I tell ya! Let’s head over to Edward Jones at 149 West Jefferson St. in Madison immediately to find out where to invest our fabulous Money, Money, Money! Hey Doris! What’s shakin’? Yikes! Who in Tarnation just walked outta Mark Bowers’ office?  I know one thing: That stranger’s been shot with the UGLY GUN! Boy Howdy! He’s short with red, Irish hair and ugly, bushy eyebrows and those pointy boots are just flat tacky! Yikes! That there’s a Leapin’ Leprechaun! Momma! He’s tryin’ to get our gold coins! Run! We’ll hide in Town Park by the fountain! What the? This fountain water’s all green and smells like beer! Do you reckon what I reckon? I’ll get the cups! Lord Have Mercy! Momma? Where’d you put the pot o’ gold coins? What do you mean you can’t recollect? Shoot Fire! You musta forgot to pay your brain bill this month!  Oh well . . . let’s do some local shoppin’! Now that gas prices are higher than a Georgia Pine, we can all save a heap of money just by shoppin’ local! Plus when you spend $25 on the 25th, honey you’ll get a chance to win $100! That’s right!

Spend $25 on the 25th! That’s right y’all! We’re fixin’ to really show our support for local Morgan County merchants by shoppin’ local on March 25! Here’s what Momma wants all y’all to do: Spend $25 on March 25 with one of the following local businesses for a chance to win $100 big bucks! Ok so the participating’ businesses are: Amelia's, Barkin' Dog Shoe Co., Godfrey Cox, Laughing Moon, Madison ChopHouse Grille, Madison Markets, Madison Produce, Just out of the Kloset Consignments, The Silver Fox, Tequila Express and Youngblood Motors! All you’ve gotta do is pop into one or more of these businesses on March 25 and spend your $25! Then you take your receipt, print your name and phone number on the back and bring it over to the Morgan County Citizen by Thursday, March 31 and we’ll pull a winner outta of the pot! Now I know exactly what my handsome husband is gonna do on March 25th! He’s gonna head smack over to Youngblood Motors and buy Biz Buzz that FANCY DANCE blue Mustang convertible! It’s only $20,000! I mean what a ding dang deal! I can just see myself drivin’ all ‘round town in that fab car! Can’t wait y’all! I mean I do need somethin’ sensible to deliver newspapers in, don’t ya think? This shoppin’ local business is right fun!

Lord Have Mercy! Y’all stop all that spring crazy cleanin’ and get your bowhonkers over to my front porch for a bona fied girl’s only porch party! Momma’s whippin’ us up gallons of fab pink Cosmos and we’re poppin’ beaucoups of champagne! We ain’t pourin’ no recession wine today! Shout it from the roof! We got us some candles from Le Petit Jardin and some of these really cool battery-operated garden lights from Godfrey Cox! Better yet? The Man’s got a meetin’ and the kids are on lock-down in their own dang rooms! Perf! Y’all pull up a rocker! Momma! Pour everybody one of them wipe-out Cosmos and keep the pitcher full!  We’ve gotta catch up on some major good news with our sistas!

Now I know all y’all agree ‘bout us Southern Women: We  run rings ‘round those hootin’ tootin’ businessmen of ours -  bless their little hearts! Anyhow, contrary to popular belief, we don’t have any need of smellin’ salts unless someboby’s slapped somebody else into next week and bloodied a nose in the process! I mean . . . we can gulp down a shot of White Lightnin’, start a juicy rumor and close a business deal all at the same ding dang time! Tell it! You know it’s true!

Morgan County bus driver performs CPR, saves the life of a 9-year-old

It has been 16 or 17 years since Loretta Berryman took a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) class.
In fact, the Morgan County bus driver remembers thinking, “I’ll never remember how to do this.”

On the grey morning of Friday, Feb. 4, in the rain, in the middle of Madison’s North Main Street, the skill returned to Loretta Berryman. Or maybe it never left.

Berryman was driving into town around 7:15 that morning. She remembers conditions outside being darker than usual. Looking out of her windshield, she questioned what was going on in the road ahead of her. A mother was scooping up a child.
Unbeknownst to Berryman, 9-year-old Morgan County Elementary School student Anaiah Rucker and her sister, 5-year-old Morgan County Primary School student Camry Harden, both residents of North Main, had been struck by a pickup truck moments earlier as they were crossing the street. Rucker had borne the brunt of the impact in an effort to shield her sister. Their mother, Andrea Taylor, watched the accident occur from the porch of their home and rushed to her children.

Berryman, a 22-year school bus driving veteran, put on her brakes, “popped” her lights, and called Joe back at the bus shop to send an ambulance. She told “her kids” – there were 55 or 60 of them – to stay on the bus.

She’d only seen Rucker and Harden a handful of times before – she’d stop and pick them up if it was rainy or cold.

Berryman remembers Taylor holding Rucker in her arms. Rucker was limp. Berryman felt Rucker’s neck, wrist, chest, just searching for signsto see if she was breathing. She found nothing.