Gris-Triv’ #1: Test your local knowledge

Hello, class. Although it’s still July, it’s already the first day of school.

Every couple of weeks in The Macon Melody, I will give you a multiple choice test on Macon and Middle Georgia trivia. It will be a regular feature, along with a pop quiz or two.

You will answer a lot of them correctly. You will miss a few.

But hopefully you’ll sharpen your pencils and learn something.

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1. Scenes from the movie based on the memoirs of Republican Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance were filmed in Macon in 2019. What was the name of the movie, which was directed by Ron Howard and nominated for two Academy Awards?

(A) “The Legend of Bagger Vance’’ 
(B) “Hillbilly Elegy” 
(C) “The Beverly Hillbillies’’  
(D) “Hillbilly Street Blues”

2. In the 1950s, cartoonist Johnny Hart and his wife, Ida Jane “Bobby” Hart, lived in a tiny upstairs apartment on Georgia Avenue in Macon. It was there Hart began drawing characters for what would become one of the most widely read comic strips in the world. What was the name of it?

(A) “Garfield” 
(B) “Blondie”
(C) “Peanuts”
(D) “B.C.”

3. Moore’s Furniture, a family-owned Macon  business, announced earlier this summer it soon will be closing its doors after 40 years. What was originally located in the Moore’s building on Riverside Drive?

(A) Shrimp Boat Restaurant 
(B) Riverside Movie Theater 
(C) Chuck E Cheese 
(D) Whiskey River

4. This “muddy”  river, which flows through Middle Georgia, is mentioned in Chapter 3 of the book “Gone With The Wind” and described by author Margaret Mitchell as “running silently between walls of pine and water oak covered with tangled vines, wrapped about Gerald’s (O’Hara) new land (Tara) like a curving arm and embraced it on two sides.’’

(A) Ocmulgee
(B) Oconee
(C) Ohoopee 
(D) Flint

5. Pinkney Benton Stewart Pinchback was born in Macon on May 10, 1837. What is his claim to fame?

(A) He briefly served as governor of Louisiana for 35 days in December 1872 and January 1873, making him the first African-American to serve as the governor of a state.
(B) He was chief engineer of the I-75/I-16 interchange.
(C) He attended college in South Bend, Indiana, earning him the nickname “Pinchback of Notre Dame.’’
(D) He spearheaded efforts to get the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds designated as a national park.

6. Which Macon journalist once worked at The Weather Channel and was part of the network’s first-ever storm “live” shot in September 1988, following Hurricane Gilbert to Brownsville, Texas?

(A) Ben Jones
(B) Laura Starling
(C) Liz Fabian 
(D) Raymond Tubb 

7. Which of the following musicians did NOT appear at the Atlanta International Pop Festival held at the Middle Georgia Speedway in Byron in July 1970?

(A) The Rolling Stones 
(B) The Allman Brothers
(C) Jimi Hendrix
(D) B.B. King

8. The G-8 Summit, an annual meeting of the leaders of the world’s eight most powerful nations, was held 20 years ago this summer on which Georgia coastal island?

(A) Jekyll Island 
(B) Sea Island
(C) Tybee Island 
(D) St. Simons Island

9.  Betty Cantrell Maxwell, who was crowned Miss America 2016, is a graduate of Mount de Sales Academy in Macon. Which of the following  did NOT attend the city’s oldest independent school?

(A) Mike Mills and Bill Berry of the rock band R.E.M. 
(B) Samford head football coach Chris Hatcher 
(C) PGA golfer Russell Henley 
(D) Soap opera star Natalia Livingson

(10) If you continue traveling north on U.S. 41 from Macon, you eventually will have to stop 1,234 miles later, at the northern terminus of the famous highway. Where will you be?

(A) Copper Harbor, Michigan
(B) Duluth, Minnesota  
(C) Hell, Michigan 
(D) Toledo, Ohio

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CLICK HERE TO VIEW ANSWERS

(1) B
(2) D
(3) B
(4) D
(5) A
(6) C
(7) A
(8) B
(9) C
(10) A

REPORT CARD: 

(8-10) Valedictorian 
(5-7) Salutatorian 
(2-4) Teacher’s Pet 
(0-2) Tutoring is available