Andy and Barney are long gone now

Georgia Route 36 between Jackson and Covington was painted in tans and greys as I drove toward Monroe. Other than a few red barns along the road and an occasional wreath left over from Christmas, there was very little color on the Winter palate. Nevertheless, the scenes were quite peaceful despite the other cars on the road. By the time I got on Georgia 11 from Monroe toward Winder, I passed old farms, now cut into residential lots and commercial tenancies begging for tenants. Despite the urban sprawl of strip malls and fast food restaurants, you could still see the remnants of the agricultural past and even a few working farms along the road.

I ultimately headed up from Jefferson and the Jackson County Courthouse, once found in town along the road to Gainesville, now relocated to a former pasture out away from town, toward Commerce, to find the road which leads from Commerce to Homer, the county seat of Banks County. Banks County is one of the smallest counties in Georgia, and other than a development of outlet mall stores and the attendant gas stations and restaurants hugging the interstate, the county is one of the less developed counties in Georgia as well.

Homer is its county seat and a sign as you enter the city limits lets you know that the citizens of Homer hold the world's largest Easter Egg Hunt in April. Other than that, a rusted cotton gin, still decorated with the name of the company which ran same back in the days when the cultivation of cotton reached from the Florida border to the border with North Carolina and Tennessee. Now the large tin gin building is the repository for old rusted automobiles, parked here and there around and on top of the gin building.

When I was practicing in Toccoa, about fifteen miles to the east of Homer, I was sent by one of the lawyers to the jail in Homer to interview one of the inmates for a civil matter for which we provided insurance defense. I drove through the hills westward toward Homer and found the county jail, comprised of two cinder block buildings sharing a roof and a dogtrot between, just up a hill from the old courthouse, which consisted of, at the time, a two story red brick building, with a central hallway from the front to the back of the building, with offices on the first floor, and a double stairwell climbing the front outside wall to a second story courthouse.

I parked my car in front of the county jail and looked for a jailer or deputy sheriff to let me in to the jail to speak with our client. No one was around the right building which held the jail cells. I walked back over to the left building and found an older woman sitting in front of "The Price is Right" talking to someone on the telephone. When she looked up and noticed me she hung up the phone and asked me if she could help me.

I explained my business and she took the large ring of jail keys and led me back over to the eastern building, opening the door and calling for one of the inmates to come up and speak with me. A young teenaged boy came out of the darkness and followed me to the deputies' break room, where the sheriff's wife left us to go back to the television in the other side of the county jail.

After a few moments of discussion, my client decided he needed something from his cell, so he left me in the breakroom and walked over to the room with the sheriff's wife and came back with the keys to the jail cells. Opening the jail door, he walked into the jail cell area, leaving me to hold my hand on the outside of the cell door in case the inmates decided to rush me and escape.

But the client returned from his cell and closed the door behind him, leaving the keys on the shelf outside the cells. After we finished our interview, I asked him if he wanted to be put back into his cell. He said, "no," that he would be eating lunch soon and would just stay outside until lunch was served.

I suggested that he had it pretty good in this jail. He informed me that he got three meals a day, rather than the required two in other county jails. That he and the other inmates could leave the jail on Friday and Saturday nights to enjoy the evening, as long as they were locals and were back at night. Only one of the inmates was not a local, and she had to stay in the jail all the time.

As I pulled away from the front of the Banks County jail, I left my client waving from in front of the dogtrot of the jail.

When I was there today, the county has a new courthouse and it appears that the jail has been amended to make it more secure. The old "Andy of Mayberry" feel is gone, and I suppose that was inevitable. But when you drive through Homer, you can still see the remnants of that long time ago.