A Sunday Afternoon in Athens

I was attacked by a bazooka on a Sunday afternoon in Athens.
Not the weapon.
The bubble gum.
I took my second mom, Debra Sampieri, to the VJ Day Remembered program at the Athens Senior Center. While looking at my program, a piece of the square pink gum struck my hand and landed on the floor. I looked up to find the town's Bubble Gum Man, also known as Hugo Bates, smiling at me from a couple of rows ahead.
This is the kind of town where you can get struck by bazooka gum by a real life character named Bubble Gum Man.
It's also the kind of town where you can spend a Sunday afternoon with characters like Ray Charles, Bob Hope, and Gen. George Patton - characters played by local residents for the rememberance program. With humor, dance, songs, and local stories, the program took a packed senior center back to the World War II era.
Evan Thornton had audience members laughing as he played an overly exhuberant G.I. who won a chance to be on stage with Carmen Miranda during a Bob Hope NCO Show. He and three other "G.I.s" danced with Carmen while wearing fruit on their heads.
Jerry Barksdale left some crying as he told the story of Winston Garth of Athens, who survived being a POW and helped a friend survive a forced march in the snow, only to come home and learn his younger brother was killed in battle.
Gratitude had the audience rise in standing ovation as World War II veterans, one for each military branch, stood by a screen showing their service photographs.
As the program ended, Ray Charles sang "America the Beautiful" and Celine Dion sang "God Bless America" with the cast. Instead of pieces of gum flying, Old Glory was flying as the crowd waved the Stars and Stripes.
A woman in front of us cried as she watched a man I assume was her father and a veteran, struggle to stand with the help of family and his cane.
Athens is this kind of town, too.
One where you can laugh and cry with your neighbors, and leave with a piece of gum.