Tuesday, May 17, 1977 Newi Journal, Mansfield, 0. 9 'Tired of Loaf ing9 Town's Craftsmen Fight Shopping Malls Georgian Rin gg UpH appy Life rr -tv -Mil Jfl s-' Uvi. A. i A If AUSTELL, Ga. (LTD In the red hills of North Georgia, 77-year-old Ira Billingsley stokes up his homemade furnace and, after a half-day of hard labor, turns out another farm bell.
The bells were once a melodious part of American rural life. But these days, Billingsley's clientele Is not the farmer but the suburban housewife who wants the rustic-type farm bell for her front yard or the patio. Billingsley has three or four of the bells sitting around his makeshift, open-air foundry, located off a quiet rural road and well-hidden from the din of commercial life in Atlanta to the south. He has no signs directing passersby to his work place. Without specific directions, a customer would have a hard time finding him.
Billingsley has done nothing but foundry work for 56 years and says "I wouldn't know what else to do." He shifts a wad of Day's Work chewing tobacco from one cheek to another, holds up one of his bells and gives it a sharp tap with a piece of metal. "Sounds just as good as an iron bell," he says. His bells are made out of aluminum, as are all his other products, such as fence parts and summer furniture. "It takes me about half a day to MIAMISBURG (UPI) In the middle of this Montgomery County community sits the Market Square Building, a entry in the National Registry of Historic Places, and the home of the Market Square Day Assn. The building comes alive on the first Saturday of each month from May through October when it is surrounded by the modern day "butcher, the baker and the candlestick They are the craftsmen from near and far who set up booths in the center of the street to participate in Market Square Days.
"Market Square Days is one way we can fight the (shopping) malls," said Doug Sorrell, who handles publicity for the event. "There are no chain stores here all businesses are family operated." Sorrell's family is in its third generation of doing business in a western shop. They also operate a denim shop and a banquet hall. This was the fourth year for the monthly event, free to the public, in this 159-year-old city. The streets in a six-block area are cordoned off to traffic for the event, which runs from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Merchants set up their goods on the sidewalks, thus leaving the streets for the craftsmen who pay a small fee for their booths. "Many of them have been here for every one in the past three years," Sorrell said. "Then there are some who know they will be in the area at a particular time and will enter that day only. "This event draws about 6,000 people each month," he said.
"Some of the people just come to view the architecture." Craftsmen keep the money they take in that day while the fee they pay for their booth space goes to the Market Square Day Assn. for promotion. Momnriil Memorial BELL-RINGER Ira Billingsley shows off one of the aluminum bells he made in his Austell, foundry. He retired 14 years ago from the Lockheed-Georgia Aircraft but "got tired of loafing." He now makes farm bells for suburbanites. (UPI Photo) would work a day or two, some not even a full day and they'd be gone.
They don't like this kind of work, these young guys. It's hard work and dirty, too. "I had one boy, he broke his finger nail. He quit. He couldn't stand that." Each month has a different theme for entertainment.
This year's entertainment revolved around the theme of "Youth." Sorrell lined up high school bands, choirs, a play, along with a kiddie fashion show, a pet parade and cupcake eating contest. There were rides in stagecoaches pulled by ponies. June's Market Square Days will feature the third annual Bluegrass Jamboree and groups from the area will be performing throughout the day. July's theme is "Heritage Day" and will feature the second annual Celebrity Canoe Race on the Great Miami River just one block away from the Market Square. "Our Sister City of Owens Sound in Canada will also participate this day by sending a bag pipe corps, "he said.
"Miamisburg Day" will be the theme in August with local clubs, groups and organizations invited to set up booths free of charge. September's theme will be "Circus" complete with clowns and attractions again from Owens Sound, Canada. DO IT YOURSELF! carpet cleaner Sift solulioift canv tins r4 (5. lOTUSftoSj'Jent, Inc. BOGNER Dry Cleaning South Main St (First 524-0811 fresh oo Rentthe pro One-Room School Classes Informal in Rural North Dakota says someone stole one of his bells re-, cently, thievery apparently is not a big problem with him.
What is a big problem is finding competent help, says Billingsley, who works in a cap and an apron, lie's had half a dozen but "some Discipline problems are few: "We take care of that real fast. Sometimes we get to the seat of the problem. Sometimes we make public announcements (in front of the students) that are quite effective." Drug problems? "We don't have any. But that's not to say we couldn't. We try to alert our children without being too conspicuous so as to make the drug thing an attraction." Parents and neighbors flock to the school at Christmas and in the spring for oo flow Dav Artificial wreaths, sprays, eight-grade graduation.
They arrive via the Goat Trail "because that's what the road once was," says Mrs. Helling. A fiddler breaks out a tune to start the festivity, a couple of guitar players join in, and everbody starts singing mostly western songs. Christmas and graduation are the highlights of the school year. But there won't be any diplomas handed out on the school's front steps this spring because there aren't any eighth graders.
Next year there will be two. nowers and potted plants. Moore Florist 1084 Lexington Ave. 756-6800 Nert to Former Bank oooooooooooouuuuu make one and I sell them for about $45," he said. Billingsley was born in Sylacauga, Gomer Pyle's in 1900 and grew up on a farm near Cedartown, Ga.
Strangely, the farm of his parents was not equipped with a bell and Billingsley remembers that "we Just guessed at it" when it came time to leave the cotton and corn fields for the dinner table. He left the farm at age 21 because "I never had any money," went into foundry work at Rome, in 1922 and has been at it ever since. He quit making tools and machinery parts for LockheedGeorgia Aircraft Co. upon retirement 14 years ago. "I like foundry work," he says, "and I got tired of loafing." So about three years ago, Billingsley set up his own place in a shed, which is open on two sides and has a dirt floor.
Tobacco juice helps keep down the dust. In one corner, Billingsley made a furnace out of an old oil drum lined with fire brick and fired with natural gas. Since he can't lock the place up, he takes his most valuable tools home with him at night. And although he "I teach them that the greatest commandment of all is love." Mrs. Helling, who says she's well past retirement age, has been a teacher for 45 years, including 17 at the rural Chil-cot School.
The closest post office is 30 miles away at White Earth. Mrs. Helling isn't a "textbook teacher," but she says six former students were on the honor rolls at Tioga and Stanley this year. Desks are scattered informally about the room in the white frame building. A handbell that gets daily use is in the corner.
"The thing Is to do whatever work is best for the individual child," says Mrs. Helling, whose three grandchildren are among her students. "If I have a slow we sit right down and work with him alone. "We don't wait for any special period or time to talk about something. We just strike when the iron is hot when the interest is there." Ohio Pomeroy's boom time in Meigs County began in the early 1800s when Nicholas Longworth, a wealthy pioneer of Cincinnati, opened a coal mine.
The town was named for a settler, Samuel Pomeroy of Massachusetts. Manchester, Adams County, founded in 1791 by Nathaniel Massie, besides becoming an important Ohio River town, early became known for its pearl button factory which utilized the prolific mussel shells dragged from the river. Thomas Worthington, who. became one of Ohio's first two senators and later governor, founded the Ohio State Library while governor in 1814-1818. Morgan gw M0R9AM DMr ClUNIM AdjustaDrape World's largttt drapery cleaning proem.
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(AP) Teacher Mae Helling'8 one-room country school is located in the remote, rugged rangeland of western North Dakota. Because of the isolation, she tries to prepare her students for the outside world after they graduate. Because they're farm and ranch children, the current nine students in grades one through seven know about the birds and bees. Beyond that, they'll enter a new, alien way of life after graduating from the eighth grade and moving on to high schools in the prairie towns of Tioga and Stanley. "I tell them that not everybody is going to like everybody else, and that there will be disappointments," says the whitehaired Mrs.
Helling, who often wears cowboy boots to school. "I tell them that they're going to hear about evolution I don't teach it any more than I have to and I suggest they just stand by the Bible, that they not be led away by fads. History of A statewide prohibition of alcoholic beverages in Ohio was adopted in 1918 by a popular majority of only 25,759. In December of 1787 the first official settlers of the Ohio Company, en route from Ipswich, Mass. via ox cart, stopped at West Newton, then called Sumrill's Ferry, to build boats for the rest of their journey to Marietta.
Ohio's first official settlement at Marietta in 1788 began with the blessing of George Washington, who said: "No colony in America was settled under more favorable auspices. I know many of the settlers personally and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of a community." Ohio University, although not chartered until 1804, was first conceived in 1786 when founders of the Ohio Company met in the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston, and discussed the future founding of a university in the West which would be like Yale. When the company's plans were completed two townships were set aside along the Hockhocking River, now the Hocking, for a campus and its support in Athens County. I B9 mm mmmmmm I LiU LiLJLJ LDJ CDJ i Carpets, furniture, walls and floors. 805 STftRllGHT TTREAf PH0XL 756-3637.
