Cheering on the soap box derby, cleaning out the book sale and asking you to write me a letter

Saturday I completed two-thirds of the Macon Events Triathlon, buying a crateful of books from the Friends of the Library Book Sale and cheering on folks at the Magnolia Soap Box Derby (I missed Fresh Record’s record store day celebration, my bad y’all. Next year!).

The soap box derby is a quintessential community event — it’s free, it gets folks outside, it utilizes public spaces, it celebrates schools, businesses and nonprofit organizations. And we had beautiful weather this year. 

Before the final set of races, the organizers held a moment of silence for the late Josh Rogers, who 16 years ago was one of the founders of the race because of course he was. Everywhere you turn in downtown Macon, you can see Josh’s fingerprints, demonstrating a consistency of purpose that so few master.

Josh was already on my mind because Wednesday NewTown announced he received the Mary Means Leadership Award from Main Street America. It’s the organization’s top award, and I’ll let Main Street’s Erin Barnes sum it up:

“Josh Rogers was one of the most impactful leaders the Main Street movement has ever known. He didn’t just transform Macon’s downtown; he transformed the very framework of how Main Street programs across the country think about inclusive revitalization.”

Hard to imagine higher praise than changing the way that people across the United States think about their communities.

*****

One of the books I purchased for a dollar (A DOLLAR) at the book sale Saturday was “84 Charing Cross Road,” written by Helene Hanff and originally published in 1970.

The book (it’s so short, it’s really more of a pamphlet) contains a selection of correspondence between Hanff and Marks & Co, a London antiquarian bookstore, beginning in the late 1940s and running until the early 1960s. It’s a delightful, quick read. Hanff is hysterical, extraordinarily well-read and just prickly enough about the right kind of things to come off as eccentric and interesting rather than bitter.

Writing a letter in 2025 seems intensely antiquarian itself, but I’d love to get one from you (okay, an email works as well). Letters to the editor are often the heart of an opinion page, a chance for engaged, quirky or just plain angry residents to wax poetic on whatever local issue they feel strongly about. 

While I’ve received a few letters to the editor in the past eight months, I’d love to run at least one a week. So if you have something you want to say (and want others to read) please email or mail me a letter. Make it no longer than 400 words, and include your name and address (only your name and hometown will be published).

If I were to write a letter to our community, it might start this way: 

Dear Macon, please stop scheduling everything on the four weekends in April. I get it, they’re the best weekends we get all year. But we are tired out here.

Caleb Slinkard is the managing editor of The Macon Melody. Email him at [email protected]. Or send a letter to 1675 Montpelier Avenue, Macon, GA 31201.