In Mar. 1 issue, Russell County News
By Barbara Sharp Zimmerman, Columnist

Like many of us who grew up in the Norman Rockwell-like village that was Jamestown in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, I was devastated when I heard that the World War I doughboy on the memorial green in the center of town had been destroyed by some idiot driving both very drunk and way too fast.

For me, the doughboy symbolized an old way of life - when people gathered in town and visited with each other on front porches like they did when I was growing up. Television and air conditioning didn't keep us cooped up inside. We socialized with each other because closing yourself up in a refrigerated house and filling the hours with mindless entertainment were not yet a part of our lives.

The doughboy always seemed to greet me each time I returned to my hometown - arms raised as if to gather me in. Never mind the grenade and rifle; they were just something he carried. He wasn't going to use them on me.

Then that idiot plowed through town in his tricked-out pick'em-up truck and demolished something that had been part of our hometown all my life. And now I cringe when I drive through town.

Jamestown's square without the doughboy is barren and sad. We have lost our identifier, our symbol, our icon. We have to get it back.

If that guy who so recklessly tore our doughboy from his perch has any assets whatsoever, he (or his insurance company) must be made to pay for what he's done - literally. If he doesn't have any assets, then the city must come up with the funds to fix the doughboy. Short of that, perhaps the community can stage fundraisers to get the money.

The doughboy statue must be repaired and restored to its rightful place - for those whom the statue honored. For those who have gone on. For those to come. For us, here, now.

Because Jamestown without its 70-year signature statue is not OUR Jamestown.

It's simply inconceivable.