Gris and That: Overtime, Elf and ‘Elfis’

The craziest GT and UGA game 

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you find yourself talking about an eight-overtime college football game for hours,  days, weeks … and probably years to come.

 Whew. I’m still exhausted. No doubt, some of you are, too.

Many Georgia fans – including family members who shall remain nameless – began heading toward the exits after Georgia Tech went ahead by two touchdowns with 5:37 left in one of the wildest, craziest college football games in the rivalry.

Maconite Grey Henson stars in Broadway’s “Elf”

Macon’s Julie Wilkerson was walking out of the Marquis Theatre in New York last week with her daughter, Virginia. They had just seen the Broadway show “Elf,’’ with Macon’s own Grey Henson in the lead role as “Buddy.’’

Julie is the executive director of the Macon Arts Alliance. Virginia was a classmate of Grey’s at Stratford Academy and took lessons at the same dance studio. She now lives in New York.

They were walking down the stairs at the theatre, bragging about how Grey was perfect as “Buddy” and how he had carried the show. They were proud to know him.

A woman overheard their conversation, turned and said: “There are performances that you remember your whole life. This is one for me. The other was when I saw Elvis.’’

Julie and Virginia have seen Grey on stage in “Mean Girls” and “Shucked” in New York and were in the audience when “The Book of Mormon” was in Atlanta.

“It’s fun to watch someone you know, and so great to see Grey succeed because he is such a nice person,’’ Julie said.

Macon loses Josh Rogers

Our hearts will be heavy for a long time with the loss of Josh Rogers. I first met Josh when he was executive director of Historic Macon and later president of NewTown Macon. 

He was a talented young man. A visionary. He was a bold leader in downtown revitalization efforts. His footprints and fingerprints are all over town.

I got to know him even better after he joined the Macon Palaver Club five years ago.  At our monthly meetings, he presented thought-provoking papers on subjects such as the Okefenokee Swamp (he grew up in Waycross and Ware County), empathy and, most recently in October, on cities and the human habitat.

Josh once admitted he wasn’t a huge sports fan. I found that interesting since his father-in-law, Mark Slonaker, played basketball at UGA in the 1970s and was the head basketball coach at Mercer from 1997-2008 (he was national coach of the year in 2002-03.) Josh and his wife, Meaghan, met while students at Mercer. Mark is also known for his color analysis on Georgia basketball radio broadcasts and ESPN telecasts.

He might not have been big into sports but I saw him almost every Saturday morning this fall cheering on his 7-year-old daughter, Ellie, in her youth soccer league at the Macon Soccer Club on Raley Road. He was a devoted family man. Meaghan said for all of Josh’s professional accomplishments, he was most proud of being a dad.

See Macon-born actress Bobbie Eakes in new holiday Netflix film

If you watch – or plan to watch – the new Christmas movie “Our Little Secret” on Netflix you will see a familiar face.

Actress Bobbie Eakes, who was born in Macon and grew up in Warner Robins, is in the romantic holiday comedy, which was the top-watched movie on Netflix last weekend. Bobbie’s character, Cheryl, is the mother of Logan (Ian Harding), who plays Lindsay Lohan’s ex-boyfriend in the movie.

Bobbie is the youngest of the five Eakes sisters – Susan, Sharon, Sandra and Shelly. Bobbie was named after her dad, Bob. 

Collectively, the beauty queen family piled up more crowns than British royalty, including two Miss Georgias, three Miss Warner Robins, one Miss Macon, one Miss Augusta, one Miss Watermelon Queen, and a Miss University of Georgia.

Bobbie, who was Miss Georgia in 1982,  has had a successful career as both a recording artist and an Emmy-nominated actress. She played the role of Macy Alexander on the CBS daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful”  and Krystal Carey on ABC’s “All My Children.’’

The passing of Natalie Barfield 

We lost a redwood in the community with the passing of Natalie Barfield. She taught exercise classes longer than anyone else in Macon, starting at the old YWCA on Second Street in 1963.  She used the President’s Council on Physical Fitness as the model for the class,  adopted that same year by
President John F. Kennedy.

 After she left the YWCA and joined the staff at Vineville Methodist, she began offering exercise classes for senior citizens at the church. I used to take my mother and would always get a kick out of watching them do chair exercises to “Moon River” and the theme from “Gone With the Wind.’’

Natalie was an legend in the local theater community. They played “Climb Every Mountain” from “The Sound of Music” at her funeral last Saturday.  Jim Crisp, the founding artistic director at Theatre Macon, delivered one of the eulogies. He said in the more than 40 years he knew Natalie he had never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.

I will always cherish the words of encouragement she would send me. She called herself a “digital dinosaur” and preferred the print edition of the newspaper. On National Newspaper Columnist Day (April 18) in 2021, she wrote to tell me my columns were like “hearing sermons that uplifted, challenged, or made me want to be a better person … just keep writing and I will read and enjoy your observations, whatever the subject.”

A memorable Nutcracker performance 30 years ago

“The Nutcracker” is one of Macon’s greatest holiday traditions. One year, it even brought tears to my eyes. It happened 30 years ago this week on opening night on Dec. 8, 1994. 

My family had balcony seats at the Grand Opera House. During one scene, people in the balcony’s front rows began coughing. At first, I thought it was rude. Then others started wheezing. 

A youngster had reached into his mother’s pocketbook and accidentally discharged a can of mace. 

It made last weekend’s pepper spray incident at the end of the Ohio State-Michigan game look tame.

Paul Harpin: The most storied restaurant owner in Macon history

Iconic Macon restaurateur Paul Harpin reminded me the 145th anniversary of the world’s first Salvation Army band is coming up in three weeks. The band played its inaugural concert on Christmas Day in 1879. No, Paul was not there. But it did take place in his hometown of Consett, County Durham, England.

Paul now lives in Roanoke, Virginia, with his wife, Hazel. They once ran Harpin’s Restaurant in Payne City. He might be the most storied restaurant owner in Macon’s history. After all, he once served as Mick Jagger’ss personal chef. Judy Garland gave him her recipe for egg salad. He danced with Carol Channing and went swimming with Olivia Newton-John before she became famous. He prepared meals for Andy Warhol, Bette Midler and Jimmy Carter. He  brushed elbows with Frank Sinatra, Elton John and Sammy Davis Jr. 

Perhaps his biggest claim to fame in Macon was when he was managing Le Bistro (now the Downtown Grill) on Mulberry Street Lane and was there the night Greg Allman proposed to Cher in one of the booths. 

Pearl Harbor & the Winecoff Fire

Saturday will mark the anniversary of when more than 2,300 people lost their lives in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 – a day that marked America’s entry into World War II. It was a war that killed more people, destroyed more property and changed the world more than any military conflict in history.

It also is the anniversary of the Winecoff Fire in downtown Atlanta five years later on Dec. 7, 1946. It was the worst hotel fire in U.S. history, killing 119 people. Thirty of those deaths were high school students attending the annual Georgia YMCA Youth Assembly at the state capitol.

The Winecoff billed itself as “fireproof” in the same way the Titanic was supposed to be “unsinkable.” But 280 guests filled the 194 rooms that night, and almost half of them did not live to see the sunrise the next morning.

I have a number of personal connections to the tragedy. Seven Bainbridge High School students who died in the fire are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Bainbridge, not far from the grave of my maternal grandfather.

In 1993, a former newspaper colleague, Sam Heys, co-wrote a book called “The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America’s Deadliest Hotel Fire.’’  And, in December 2007, I interviewed Ed Kiker Williams, of Cordele. He was a 17-year-old boy on a trip to Atlanta with his family. His mother, 8-year-old sister, his aunt and three cousins all died in the blaze.

If you are interested in more of the story, check out  “True Gris: Storytelling from the Heart of Georgia”  at edgrisamore.substack.com