Which Stall to Use?

Well, Dahlonega and Beyond has been 'off the air' for a while, but we're back...and today we're posing a burning question for women. Here goes: When you go into a bathroom with multiple stalls, which one do you use?

While this is not a subject that comes up often at a dinner table, it's one that gives you food for thought. Is the first one on your right, the one to use? Do you go to the middle, thinking fewer people would use that one, or do you use the last one - again thinking that's the one that is not used as much.

Even if you're not a germ-a-phobe, you've got to be thinking, "Which one is the cleanest? Which one did the little kid not stand on? Which one has the fewest users?"

Next time you go into a multi-stall venue, look at the other women there. Bet they are thinking the same thing...."Should I use the one on the right? Or maybe the handicap one?"

No Air Jordan Shoe Fights in North Georgia

A sight you probably will never see in a North Georgia mountain town is nine thousand people standing in line for a pair of shoes. And definitely no local crowd would storm a store door and fight off others just to buy a pair of sports shoes. (As happened in Atlanta and across the country last week when the new Nike Air Jordans came out.)

In Atlanta, people were shoved, pushed, scraped, hit, and fired upon just for those $180 white leather shoes. (While stores sold out of these shoes within minutes, if you really want a pair, ebay is selling them for $450.)

Why no big Nike shoe rush in Dahlonega and Beyond? Here's just a few reasons we doubt that will never happen here:

1. The 'malls'  we have are more inclined to have Walmart as the anchor store...not a Nike or a Macy's.
2. Walmart isn't known for carrying sports shoes in the $100+ range. 
3. Most counties in North Georgia don't even have 9,000 people living in them.
4. People try to avoid buying white shoes because Georgia red clay makes a horrible mess on the soles.
5. We've got more important things to spend our money on.

The Stockings Hung by the Chimney with Care

They may not be pretty, but they are TRADITION.

Dozens of years ago, D took out her new sewing machine and tackled one of her first crafty projects - making Christmas stockings.

Oh, the love that went into the stockings (but alas, very little craft ability.) And year after year, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care... to the delight of the children, big and small. No one seemed to mind that the stockings were not needle-pointed nor Martha Stewart inspired.

This Christmas, a new grandson meant new stockings and a dilemma. Do we toss out the old 'home made' stockings and buy new, more stylish stockings for all so that our stockings matched?

Tradition won out. D dusted off the sewing machine (yes, the machine literally was dust-covered), re-read the 'how to use this machine' directions, and got eye-strain threading that ity-bity sewing machine needle.

Two and a half hours later, the Bates had two new family stockings that will hang for the first time on the mantel of our mountain home. The tradition continues.