Local Business Spotlight: Five O'Clock Sports Bar & Grill Raising the Bar in 2019!

7189 Turner Lake Rd 
Covington, GA 30014
770-385-3060

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As this publication wrote about some time back, Five O'Clock Sports Bar & Grill is an amazing place with great people & food while featuring fun entertainment & live music. 

Five O'Clock Bar & Grill, located at 7189 Turner Lake Rd, has become a veritable institution over the last several years. Opened back in the mid 2000s, this fantastic music venue - that also happens to have some of the best food in the home county - has continued to thrive as truly a "Cheers" type place, where everyone knows your name. 

That special & unique feeling that derives from Five O'Clock comes from "a sense of community & family" that owner Greg Rogers & I talked about the other day when I interviewed him for this piece. In addition to the aforementioned attributes of being a top-notch music spot; having a kitchen putting out high quality, not-your-typical bar food; and the fellowship & camaraderie this cool place provides - they also strive to help folks who need a helping hand & are always wanting to give back to the community.

As the premier spot in town it'd be easy to rest on their laurels but that's just not Greg & them's style.

First off, they've got a new menu & those that know the Kitchen Manager, Jake, know that this guy is serious about food!

New Menu Items

The Brisket Sandwich

Absolutely *OUT-OF-BOUNDS* Too good! 

Jumbo Taco Salad

People are RAVING about this one! 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Homemade Pimento Cheese, Pretzel Bites, Funnel Cake Fries & - now - a Ribeye steak, plus several other new additions are available on the regular menu. However, as us 5 O'Clock foodies will tell you, the Piece De Resistance is their daily specials. This is where they really shine! Po-Boys, Pasta dishes, Pulled Pork, Smoked Chicken Wings, you just never know! Call 770.385.3060 or check their FB page to stay up to date on these daily meals. 

Expanded Beer List

Five O'Clock has always had a good beer selection (and they've got a real nice price on their Sweetwater 420 draft, btw), as they're doing with their food menu - the bar is being raised. Ditto on their selection of spirits. 

Smoke Free for Lunch, starting Monday June 3rd

For quite some time I've had folks tell me how much they enjoy the food at The Five but they can't handle the smoke. "Call in a to-go order," I'd always say, but sometimes you just want to be able to go somewhere to eat, especially for lunch. Well, a fair number of other folks also felt the same way so the People have spoken - starting Monday June 3rd, 2019 - 5 O’clock Sports Bar & Grill will be non-smoking from open till 2PM Monday - Friday. This means all ages are welcome, during these hours. Smoking will still be allowed on the patio. 

Five O'Clock will now be non-smoking until 2 PM Monday - Friday! 

Regular Weekly Entertainment

There's always something to do at The Five! 

Tuesday Trivia 

Wednesday Cornhole 

Thursday Karaoke 

Live Music on the Weekends! 

For years now, Five O'Clock has been known as Covington's Destination Location for live music. With bands as varied as PitBoss, The Peeled Onions, Kiser, Peachtree Peppers & others, great music can be found on both Friday & Saturday nights. And lately the place has been having live music on Sunday afternoons as well! 

Friday May 31st. The Andrews Brothers with their "Dueling Pianos" show. A Must See!

There's always something going on at The 5! 

Good Friends, Good Food & Good Music! It Doesn't Get Any Better! 

[Ellis Millsaps] - The Porch: Chapter Six, In Which Things Celestial Are Revealed

*Read the previous chapters of The Porch here.

* photo credit - Brian Hassett

Chapter 6

Bruce and Bob and I are eating chicken gumbo on the porch when Leonard Cohen shows up with his lawn chair.

Me: Like some gumbo?

Cohen: I'm still a vegetarian.

Me: How about some chilled asparagus soup?

Cohen: That sounds splendid on this ninety degree day.

Bruce: This gumbo will make you sweat.

Dylan: It’s got some kick alright.

I come back with the soup and another bottle of Aldi’s  three dollar chardonnay.

Me: Where's the rest of the gang?

Cohen: They all have other business today.

Me: What kind of business?

Cohen: I don't know. I try to mind my own, but generally good deeds, getting cats out of trees, keeping kids out of the street. We get assignments.

Dylan: Who gives you these assignments?

Cohen: Well, there is rumored to be a supreme being, though nobody I know has seen this character. We just look at the bulletin board and see what's on for today.

Dylan: Bulletin board?

Cohen: Yes, in the musicians guild dining hall. You see when one crosses over Jordan, as they say, buys the farm, bites the dust, you join a guild.  The jobs you get depend on your guild and rank. That's why I'm sort of the spokesman for the triangle band.

Bruce: How do you outrank Bowie, for example. He died before you, Not to mention Elvis.

Cohen: Well it's not all seniority. I got something like advanced placement. Elvis still doesn't get solo assignments. He needs adult supervision. I think Petty's minding him today.

Bruce: So you're on assignment now?

Cohen: No this is a magic triangle. Magic triangles are something like vacations for angels. There was a big sign up sheet for this one. I got in by rank but the rest got in by lottery. On assignment, except in rare cases, we do not interact with the living--and get to eat things like this delicious soup.

Me: Wait a minute, you’re angels?

Cohen: What did you think?

Bruce: We kind of just thought you were dead musicians.

Cohen: We are in fact dead musicians, but we are also angels.

Bruce: How many ranks are there?

Cohen: You know my song,” Tower of Song? “I said to Hank Williams how lonely does it get? /Hank Williams hasn't answered yet /But I hear him coughing all night long/ a hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song.” I think it's something like that. The short answer is I haven't figured it out yet.

I was honored recently to be chosen by Mahatma Gandhi to assist him on an assignment. God that man's got a dry sense of humor.

Me: What was the assignment?

Cohen: Your president has been separating children from their parents at the  southern border. We were sent to address that situation.

Me: What did you do?

Cohen: We sort of inspired, you might say, a few leaks to the New York Times.

Now about this Graceland trip, I'm thinking autumn. Memphis is really hot in the summer.

Me: Yeah and in fall kids will be back in school.

Cohen: Okay, I'll check our schedules and get back with you. Now I've got  other things to attend to today. Thanks for the soup and wine.

Me: Don't mention it.

Bruce: Wait, before you go I'd like to ask you something. If y'all get these these assignments how come children still get run over every day?

Dylan: Not to mention genocide.

Cohen: Ah, that is the eternal question,the problem of evil.

Well, the folly of mankind is a lot for a band of angels to keep abreast off, but it's basically bad management.

Bruce: The supreme being?

Cohen: Yes. It's apparent he, she or it has been  in over his, her or its head from the beginning. We imagine somebody upstairs with a ouija board, rolling dice and pulling names out of a hat. We can discuss this further next time. Goodbye friends.

- Ellis Millsaps

[Perrin Lovett] - Wherein Latin Rides to the Rescue of American Education

The Memorial Day weekend of 2019 has passed us by. Summer approaches. All across the Several States, mortarboard-wearing students graduate from the high schools. Many have had their intellectual faculties turned off since fifth grade, disengaged as much by the education system itself as by hormones, peer pressure, or electronic distractions.

In his 2017 book, Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Anthony Esolen noted two primary problems with America’s government school system: “There are only two things wrong with our schools: everything that our children don’t learn there and everything they do. The public schools, with their vast political and bureaucratic machinery, are beyond reform.” Ch. 3, pages 68-69.

His suggestion in the same paragraph I had already taken action on, even before reading the same - my own mission in partibus furibundis. But, the raging may as well have been against Stone Mountain; I’m worn out and it’s still there, unchanged.

A burrito is a terrible thing to waste…

Picture by Perrin.

Esolen’s observations are correct. Last year, before I commenced my grand experiment (of which, more will be revealed sooner or later), I had already reached a similar conclusion. I presented some novel suggestions in the spirit of remediation. To those, I now add proposed solutions to address Esolen’s dual issues.

As for what the children do learn in their prison camps: abolish the damned schools. I’ve said this before. Esolen says essentially the same thing. Literally rolling through the buildings with CAT D12s, while admirable, is the extreme solution, and thus, likely lost on the multitudo ignarus. Everyone loves a system, so I’m trying to come up with a multi-tiered compromise approach. In the meanwhile, individual abolition is quite feasible. Simply enact one of my previous alternatives, or consider the following suggestion.

The solution to what the children do not learn is - you may have already guessed from my usage herein, above - Latin. Reinstitute Latin grammar education - as early as second grade. Decades of newfangled schemes have progressively made matters worse. Thus, give the old school a new try. I The “why,” I for now leave to Cheryl Lowe and her “Top Ten Reasons for Studying Latin,” all of which I agree with. They are, in short summary:

1) It’s the natural next step after phonics.

2) Half of English is Latin or has Latin roots.

3) Science terminology is based on Latin.

4) As is law, government, logic, and theology.

5) Latin grammar improves English grammar.

6) Learning Latin prepares the student to learn any other language.

7) Latin develops critical thinking. (Perrin’s favorite)

8) Latin connects the student to all other academic pursuits.

9) Latin is the integrating factor for cumulative learning.

10) Western Civilization depends on it.

And, there are many more good reasons. To find out more, contact a Latin school organization like Highlands Latin of Louisville, Kentucky. Curricula (more Latin) can be tailored to fit any homeschool or homeschool “cottage” study. Additionally, there is a growing movement to open traditional Latin schools, many of them with Christian devotion.

Last week, it was my high privilege to sit down and chat with the Headmaster of one of Highlands’ “franchise” schools. As I told a friend, it was one of the most intellectually stimulating conversations I have had in at least a year. It was inspirational too. A classical education is not a panacea. It will not fix everything “wrong” with teens and tweens, nor will it solve, by itself, solve all societal maladies. But, it is a strong start. And, it works.

Young Miss Caroline Campbell, of Augusta, Georgia, is a testament to the fact. Campbell, a 2019 graduate of the Westminster School, was named one of the Augusta Chronicle’s “Best and Brightest” this year.

This latter-day Edith Hamilton is, among many other things, a National Latin Exam Gold Medalist. (She also SHOOTS CLAYS competitively!) This Fall, she’s off to UGA to major in Classics - in the department where I honestly - apologies to MB and C.F. Floyd - probably should have concentrated my academic energies. Per reason six, above, she also studies Mandarin. My guess is that her command of French, German, Spanish, and maybe English exceeds my own. Let her be an inspiration to others.

There will be MUCH more in this vein later. For now,

Some other items in the news:

Nationalists turn on the electoral heat in Italy, Austria, Germany, France, and the UK. Western Europe is early in the process of saving itself (Central and Eastern countries wisely rejected the rot from the get-go).

Treason by and from elements of the deep state is a given. News from D.C. and from Italy indicate insane efforts to undermine the Trump administration. Thus, multiple investigations are underway. People are nervous. Need they be? Don’t count on it. I predict that Trump will be as effective at draining the swamp as he has been building his wall. I hope I’m wrong.

Crossfit, the corporate entity that spawned countless fitness programs around the world, has preemptively ditched both Facebook and Instagram, citing abusive thought policing by Big Social. They’re not the first account deleter nor will they be the last. That’s the WOD.

Perrin Lovett 

Fellow Terry College of Business (UGA) grad Brother Perrin Lovett is a true renaissance gentleman & scholar. A recovering attorney, he's into guns & cigars, and the US Constitution. A published author, Prepper columnist & YouTube personality, and an acclaimed blogger, TPC is very proud to have our old friend on board as the C.F. Floyd Feature Writer of National Affairs. 

Click here to read Perrin's various writings at TPC. 

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The Piedmont Chronicles

Your Source for the REAL Story

COVERING THE GLORIOUS GEORGIA PIEDMONT

| Covington, GA | Newton Co. |

Bess Tuggle's Memoirs of Surviving Children: Reading & Payback

Thing 1, my oldest child, was abused.  I abused him from the day he was born.

I read to him.  If he was in my lap or nursing, I read aloud to him.  I –love- to read, and the first things I read to him came from National Geographic and Stephen King.  That has come back to haunt me on occasion, but I can’t say I’d change a thing.

Once he got old enough to semi-understand the words coming from my mouth I moved on to Dr. Seuss.  Still, he cut his teeth on National Geographic and Stephen King.

His brothers’ compounded the problem and were abused accordingly.  Night time stories were part of our evening ritual, and I was one of those strict moms that believed in regular bedtimes.  Bedtime was 7:30 p.m. for elementary aged children, 8:30 for middle school and 9:30 for high school.  That’s probably one of the reasons I still have a little sanity left intact.  After they got into middle and high school they were too old for Dr. Seuss, but I’d give them thirty minutes of reading time before lights out.

Once they were old enough to pick their own reading material, I didn’t give them free reign to my library.  I will always have a bad habit of leaving newspapers and magazines all over the house, but there are a couple books on my shelf that I –still- won’t loan them.  The boys are all twenty-something year old adults.  There are also some things a mom just can’t share with a son.  Reminds me of when my little sister took my grandmother to see Dolly Parton’s movie “Best Little Whore House in Texas.”  Neither knew what they were going to see, both enjoyed the movie/love story, and both will still blush if you mention it when they’re in the same room.

As a Stephen King fan, I do have to admit I took great pleasure in embarrassing my eldest when he was in his teens.  He did it to me on a regular basis, so I figured turn about was fair play.  King published short stories once or twice a year in Playboy.  Yes, Playboy – and you couldn’t get those stories anywhere else.  As an avid fan, I had to have them.

I also made sure, each and every time I bought a Playboy, that Thing 1 was with me.

Imagine the embarrassment of a teenage son standing next his mother while she buys a Playboy magazine.  

I really, -really- just bought them for the King stories, and sometimes payback can be a –really- wonderful thing.  

Bess

Bess Tuggle

A jack of all trades, Ms. Tuggle has been a Covington resident since the late 70’s. She's been a K-Mart cashier, cabinet builder, vet tech, office manager for a beef cattle ranch and water well company (where she was able to hold benefits for D.A.R.E. and Scouts), a court reporter, business manager, assistant at a private investigation firm, legal assistant, convenience store clerk, landscaper and elementary school substitute teacher.  Her greatest pleasure is being a wife, mother and grandmother.  Her stories are all real, and all names will be withheld to protect the innocent, and also maybe the guilty, depending on the crime & the Statute of Limitations.  

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Click here to read a sampling of Bess's columns 

The Piedmont Chronicles

Your Source for the REAL Story

BOC1 Commissioner Stan Edwards Addresses Mansfield Traffic Concerns

Lately, especially on the heels of yet another bad wreck in downtown Mansfield, several residents have voiced concern with the traffic issues of their home city, formerly known as Carmel Junction (and also Bob Lee). 

Stan Edwards, Commissioner of Newton Co.'s 1st district & a true man of The People, has developed a plan of attack that he shared with his constituents this weekend: 

"This is a follow-up to a couple of other FB conversations on the Mansfield page. Two accidents in Mansfield in the last three days means it’s past time for something to be done. Truckers jump off I-20 and I-85 north of us to avoid Atlanta traffic and speed though Mansfield. Passenger and other commercial vehicles from Newton, Morgan, and Jasper counties speed through Mansfield. It’s a problem I see every single day on my daily walks through town. It’s scary sometimes. Over the last several years I have engaged local law enforcement for help with this issue. They always respond but scarce resources means a temporary fix in most cases. Newton county has good friends on Governor Kemp’s staff. I will reach out to them for available help. I will contact state and local law enforcement for help. This morning I sent an inquiry to the DOT asking for a caution light at 213 and 11. We’ll see how they respond but they are normally pretty good making things happen when possible. I will ask our Probate Judge for help with ticket fines - to the extent allowable by law. Lastly. Our new sheriff precinct in town should be used for the purpose of helping slow down traffic.

We have got to change the culture of speeding in Mansfield. Once word gets out that the town is serious about safety, things should improve. Hers the thing - we have to set the example. Tell your neighbors, teenage kids, and anyone else to slow down. I’ll report status on the above-mentioned items as I get it."

We applaud Commissioner Edwards for this & will be keeping an eye on the situation moving forward. 

Mansfield, GA 

--MBM, Ed. 

[Fred Wheeler] - Origins of Memorial Day & the Great Debt We All Owe

The worsening lack of historical awareness of our society is saddening and frightening.  For a case in point, ask a group of young people what we will be celebrating on the Fourth of July. Or, what we are memorializing on the approaching Memorial Day. Chances are you will get a bunch of blank stares.

What we now call Memorial Day, before World War ll, was officially called “Decoration Day”. While several places claim to be its birthplace, the consensus is that the holiday’s genesis was in Columbus, Mississippi a year after the Civil War ended

Columbus was the location of a Confederate hospital.  After the battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862) many of the wounded were brought there and by the end of the war, the community’s cemetery was the resting place for thousands of souls of Union and Confederate soldiers.

On Confederate Memorial Day (April 25, 1866) the ladies of Columbus laid flowers on the graves of both the Union and the Confederate dead in the cemetery. A poet, Francis Miles Finch, from Ithaca, New York, happened to be in Columbus at that time and was inspired by the ladies’ actions to write a poem, “The Blue and the Gray”. One of the verses reads,

                          “From the silence of sorrowful hours

                            The desolate mourners go,

                            Lovingly laden with flowers

                            Alike for the friend and the foe

                            Under the sod and the dew,

                            Waiting the judgement day;

                             Under the roses, the Blue,

                             Under the lilies, the Gray.”

Former Union General John A. Logan, then a congressman from Illinois and the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (a fraternal organization of veterans of Union service) led the campaign to have “Decoration Day” declared a national holiday. It was first celebrated on Saturday, May 30, 1868, a date chosen because it was not the anniversary of any significant battle and because it was when many flowers would be in bloom. On that first “Decoration Day” events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 of the 37 states.

The name of the holiday was gradually changed to “Memorial Day” starting in the 1880s. One would think that “Decoration Day” would require the celebrant’s presence in the cemetery to place actual flowers on the graves. But, one could celebrate a “memorial” no matter where you might be. Finally, in 1967, the name was officially changed and in 1968, under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday in May.

What are we memorializing on Memorial Day? The table below gives an idea of the number (primarily young men at the prime of life) who have sacrificed their lives to protect our nation in time of war.

          WAR                                                                            TOTAL DEATHS (combat and non-combat)

Revolutionary War         1775-1783                                    25,000

War of 1812                     1812-1815                              15,000

Mexican-American War 1846-1848                                                     13,283

Civil War (combined)      1861-1865                                  664,035

        Union                                                                                          364,511

        Confederate                                                                                   299,524

World war l                       1917-1918                          116,516

World War ll                      1941-1945                          405,399

Korean War                       1950-1953                             36,516

Vietnam War                     1955-1975                              58,209

Afghanistan War               2001-Present                                 2,229

Iraq War                             2003-2011                            4,488

        TOTAL                                                                                       1,321,612

These figures don’t add up because only the major wars have been listed. The Civil War, in terms of deaths and percentage of the population has been the most costly. Young boys, north and south, are buried in hundreds of cemeteries accross  the country (mostly east of the Mississippi River).

The number of fatalities during the Civil War was bad enough, but because of one of the recruiting methods used by north and south, the impact on communities could be catastrophic. Often, a prominent person in the neighborhood would recruit and outfit a company of 100 or even a regiment of 1,000.

The First Texas, recruited from several counties in east Texas lost 82% of its regiment at Sharpsburg (Antietam), September 17,1862.  The 26th North Carolina from seven counties in the western part of the state, suffered 714 casualties out of 800 during the battle of Gettysburg. Eighteen members of the Christian family of Christianburg, Virginia, were killed during the war.

Our nation was slow to learn its lesson. During subsequent wars, units continued to be recruited from communities; friends and family members were encouraged to join and serve together. When I was about ten years old, I put together a model of a Navy destroyer, the U.S.S. Sullivans. It was named after the five Sullivan brothers who were killed when their ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine.

The numbers making the ultimate sacrifice are large, but it should be remembered that each digit represents a life interrupted, dreams unfulfilled, loved ones left with empty hearts. I knew several friends in school whose fathers had been killed in world War ll or the Korean War. To my knowledge, their widows never re-married.

A family’s loss is compounded when, for whatever reason, the body of the deceased soldier cannot be retrieved or cannot be identified. In response to this tragedy our government created  the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C. There, the bodies of one soldier from World War l, two from world War ll, and one from the Korean War lie protected around the clock by an armed guard. The tomb has been inscribed by a grateful nation with the simple words,

                                                           “HERE RESTS IN

                                                             HONERED GLORY

                                                             AN AMERICAN

                                                             SOLDIER

                                                             KNOWN BUT TO GOD”

The tomb had contained a serviceman from the Vietnam War but he was removed in 1998 because he was identified through DNA as Air Force First Lt Michael Joseph Blassie. This had to be a comfort to his family, but it must have had the reverse effect on many other families who shared the hope that their loved one was at rest in the tomb.

The traveling Vietnam Memorial recently was in our community. You can find each of the 58,000 plus names on the wall and there is a website you can visit to get information about each person.

There’s only one person who I knew personally who was killed in Vietnam, Alan Calloway, who was in my high school class. We played football together. I often think of Alan and wish that he didn’t have to miss out on the rest of his life.

Another person I often think about I never met. When my daughter was in high school, the father of one of her classmates, an Air force pilot, Colonel Fallon, was still listed as MIA. I don’t know if he was ever re-classified as killed in action.

We owe a great debt to these noble warriors and their families who have suffered the loss of a parent, spouse, or child. It would be appropriate to remember that Memorial Day was created to memorialize those who died protecting our way of life—not just to give us a day off from work or to give us an opportunity to go the lake or grill hot dogs and hamburgers with the family.

Thank you, Alan and Colonel Fallen.

- Fred Wheeler