Sallie Satterthwaite certainly wrote a venomous column for the Oct. 13 Citizen. I have to take issue with her comments on people she meets on the path and her observations of what is obviously the community where I live, Village Park.

My wife and I both walk and drive the paths and have found all the people we meet both polite and friendly, even the children! We have lived in Georgia for two years and I often say that its the people that make this state what it is. I include all the people in that statement.

Now as to Village Park and the signs Sallie finds so offensive: I can say that she committed the worst error a writer ever could. She never checked out the story behind them. Those signs were not just put up there by a bunch of cranky old people. There are a number of excellent reasons for them, and if Sallie had checked with the police department as any responsible writer should, she would find there are many incidents in the last three years that triggered the signs.

Keep in mind that Village Park is a private community and that we own and maintain the street and can tell unwelcome persons to stay out. The majority of people are elderly and many are widows, and we don't feel secure with strangers running through out back yards at night. Yes, that is a true statement.

There has been a house vandalized with paint guns, windows broken by rocks (we got one on tape along with the cart number), things stolen from yards, berms degraded by bicycles and even carts. I myself was awakened at 4 a.m. by headlights shining into my bedroom by a cart crashing through the foliage and small trees in my backyard. We have even had boys in their upper teens come into out area trying to sell tickets on a phony lottery for a nonexistent TV set. We have even had an assault on a 70-plus resident.

So you see, Sallie, there is much behind the signs and you could have found out all about it by talking to us, and that is what I thought reporters did.

I have days when I feel in the mood you were in when you wrote the article and can give you a tip on what works for me — in two words, “prune juice.”

Curtiss F. Ross
Peachtree City

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