Letters to the editor
A thank-you to North Augusta
Halloween - time for costumes, candy, parties, volunteering ... Volunteering? More than 200 North Augusta residents, young and old, spent Halloween morning going door-to-door collecting for It's Spooky to be Hungry, the annual food drive held in more than 200 neighborhoods in the CSRA, including more than 30 neighborhoods in North Augusta. These volunteers worked to collect more than 10,000 pounds of food and $6,700 just in North Augusta, surpassing last year's totals. Think about it - five tons of food given by North Augusta residents.
I'd like to thank all of these wonderful volunteers, from my 80+-year-old mother-in-law Betty (Granny) Dollar who collected in her Foxhill Drive area by herself (and had the sore legs on Sunday to prove it), to Cathy Moseley and Lee Koehler who again organized the huge neighborhood of Hammond Hills, with their young adult children even coming home from college to pitch in, and all those neighborhood captains in between. Charlene Miller, collecting in Greenbriar for about the 10th year, reported that her neighbors had a 98 percent participation rate -- Wow! Some North Augustans, including Maria Daley in Woodlawn Place and Caroline Thomas in Woodstone, contacted Spooky this year to get this effort started in their own neighborhoods. Last year, Chris and Lauren Amos got their daughters involved to collect in Currytown Station and Whispering Woods. All of Knollwood knows of Keith Liner's efforts and homemade sign, and Jen Harlan squeezed Spooky into the busy lives of her friends during their senior year at NASH to collect on Friday in Hidden Hills. Oh yeah, Missy Smith reported that it took her quite awhile to collect in Bergen Place West -- she had to stop to chat with all her neighbors along the way. All of you have stories - and many have years of memories as your kids, like mine, learned the value of volunteering.
If your house wasn't approached, it's because we don't have someone in your neighborhood to organize the effort. Can you do it? There are many more neighborhoods that need to get started - Spooky provides the materials and instructions; you just need to gather your friends and family one Saturday a year.
Thanks to all who donated to this effort -- you are the ones that provided more than 34,000 meals through your donation. Yes, North Augusta is a great place to live -- we always say that we have real sense of community, and you proved it again this year. Please help next year by getting your neighborhood involved. Call me at 278-0604 and I can get you started.
Thanks, North Augusta.
Linda Dollar, N.A. liaison
It's Spooky to be Hungry
Remember the boys of the 112th
Veterans Day as many know was originally Armistice Day to honor those who fought in WWI. One Army outfit that fought in the Great War was the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Division, the Keystone Division from Pennsylvania. They trained in Augusta from Sept. 10, 1917, to May 7, 1918. The soldiers made many friends in this area. The following is an eyewitness account of the last day of the war written by a soldier named Lester Swartz of Newburg, Pa. This is from an old book titled, "With the 112th in France" by James A. Murrin.
"This is the day that will never be forgotten (Nov. 11). For the last few days we have been very active, sending out patrols, etc., and the artillery has been continually shelling. This morning at about 2 o'clock we received orders to make an attack some time during the morning.
"Last evening we received word that the armistice had been signed, but that was all we were able to find out. This morning, for some reason, the attack was held up, but the troops were held in readiness to go over at any moment. At 8:25 a.m. the colonel called me to his quarters, and when I entered he was talking on the telephone. He told me to take down what they said to him, and it was the message for hostilities to cease at 11 a.m. I surely published that message in record time.
"All the forenoon the artillery kept up a devilish fire and, of course, we cursed them all. It was tough luck that some fellows had to be picked off at the last minute. Just before 11 a.m. I went to the colonel's quarters for his approval on a memorandum I was to publish. Shortly before 11 (at exactly 10:59:20) the artillery cut loose with the highest speed they could fire. The din was terrific. We were watching on the colonel's watch, and at 3 seconds before 11 a.m. the last shot was fired. As the roar died away in the woods the colonel looked up and said, 'Thank God, that finishes it!'"
Murrin continues, "That night signal flares and torches were sent into the azure blue from all corners of No Man's Land and from the trenches; lights cut their way through the woods from uncovered windows that marked the P.C. The night was quiet for once in the war zone; the peace that will become permanent had come at last."
Remember the boys of the 112th and all the men and women who have given so much so that we can stay free.
Harry Thomason
