The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 4

(The Amnstcm jtar PaflR 4A Wednesday. October 31. 2001 Showdown on aviation security bill set for Thursday. State Public Health Department issues Halloween safety tips for parents, chil- Senate bill. Groups of moderate Republicans and Democrats were separately called to the White House Tuesday.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta is to address House Republicans today to urge support for the president's Oct. 11 that would put the 28,000 airport screening personnel on the federal payroll. Smaller airports would have the option of using local or state law enforcement officers for screening. The vote, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was put off until Thursday, partly so members could attend the funeral of former Rep.

Gerald Solomon, But the delay also gave the White House more time to sway more than a dozen House Republicans who have indicated Support for the We Now Offer Custom Window Treatments (over 40 books of fabric sample to choose from) 1005 Garnet Avenue Annision. AL 36201 Phone-12561231 -2340 Medical Insurance $10Copay to doctor $10 Copay for generic drugs Pays up to $5,000,000 lifetime A-ratcd Company Great rates on Medicare Supplements and Dental Insurance I 3 Larry Gullage Associates 305-AE tlthSU Anniston 238-1219 children's eyes. Make costumes short enough to avoid tripping. 0 Dress children in shoes that fit, so they won't trip. Allow them to carry only flexible props, such as knives and swords.

Tell children to keep to the sidewalks at all times to avoid hidden obstacles such as lawn ornaments and clotheslines. Give children flashlights. Tell them to walk, not run, while trick-or-treating and never to dart out into the street; tell them to stop at all street corners and to cross only at intersections or crosswalks never between parked cars. Before crossing, they should look both ways and continue doing so until they get to the other side. Use costumes that are bright enough to be seen at night.

Decorate costumes and bags with reflective tape and stickers. Set a time for children to return home. Inspect fruit closely for punctures or holes, wash thoroughly and cut open before allowing children to eat them. Accompany children under 12 on their trick-or-treat rounds, and only go to houses or apartments where you know the residents. Attach children's names, addresses and telephone numbers to their costumes in case they get separated from adults.

Teach your children their phone number and make sure they have change for a phone call in case of a problem. Tell children to travel only in familiar areas and along a pre-established route. Tell them never to enter a home or apartment unless accompanied by an adult you know. Tell them not to go to homes where the outside lights are off. If a child must wear a mask, be certain his or her peripheral vision isn't obscured.

Secure hats and hoods to make sure they won't slip over by Matthew Korade Star Capitol Correspondent MONTGOMERY Halloween is here, and children are thinking about their costumes and the piles ofeandy coming their way, but they max not be thinking about the dangers they may encounter during their frantic trick-or-treating t'estiitiev "Many of the risks children face can be avoided if parents address a few. simple safety tips and take a moment to talk to their children before they go out trick-or-treating." said Jim McVay, director of the state Public Health Department's Bureau of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease. For. a healthy Halloween, here are some safety tips for parents from the Public Health Department: Tell children to bring their treats home before eating them. Check treats to ensure they are safely sealed and" haven't been tampered with.

Monster: Williamson liked to frighten people to relieve his boredom it Back then, you didn't have nothing to do really. You didn't have computers. You just had to create your own fun. And that was fun until that last appearance. Neal Williamson CALHOUN COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION Condensed Statement of Revenues and Expenses October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001 REVENUES AND RECEIPTS; State Sources $39,120,198.03 Federal Sources 4,266,139.00 Local Sources 12,100,978.20 Other Sources 49,566.01 Fund Transfers In 1,553,742.88 Non-Revenue Sources 595,840.80 Total Revenue and Other Financing Source 57,686,464.92 Fund Balance October 1,2000 20,942344.00 Total Funds Available 78,628,808.92 EXPENDITURES: Instruction Services 30,746,522.73 Instructional Support Services 8,893,055.75 Operation and Maintenance 4,392,424.25 Auxiliary Services 8,469,517.68 General Administration and Central Support 1,633,902.87 Capital Outlay 470,788.80 Debt Service 118,412.50 Other Expenditures 1,220,872.64 Fund Transfers Out 1,554,442.88 Total Expenditures 57,499,940.10 Surplus and Reserves at End of Year, Sept 30,2000 21,128,868.82 Total Expenditures and Surplus Reserves 78,628,808.92 I certify that this report is correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

H. Jacky Sparks, Superintendent Subscribed and sworn to before me this 26th day of October, 2001. Marie Holmes, Notary Public By Jim Abrams Associated Press WASHINGTON The White House is pressing lawmakers to support its version of a bill to fix aviation security, which the Transportation secretary says is still unacceptable seven weeks after the Sept. 1 1 attacks. Democrats, with their GOP allies, argued on Tuesday that the White House bill doesn't go far enough and lobbied for their own alternative.

"Now is the time to overturn the status quo and overhaul airline security," said House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. The House on Thursday is set to decide between the two proposals, which differ mainly on the issue of the future of airline screeners. The measure supported by the White House and House Republican leaders would make the government responsible for supervising screeners but would give the president flexibility in deciding whether they should be private or public employees. Democrats support legislation passed 100-0 by the Senate on Georgia Calhoun, president of the Choccolocco Heritage Society. "It was the outsiders who was all so interested in a monster." One woman who did doubt Williamson's story was Demarest Teague, Margaret's older sister.

Though Demarest never saw what Margaret did, she vividly remembers the terror that arose in her sister. Margaret would never travel down the Iron City Cutoff alone again. Upon hearing how Williamson created the monster, Demarest was skeptical, asking how it could be a teenager when whatever Margaret saw was so big and hairy. As an explanation for the monster, Demarest suggested another legend an old man rumored to have wandered off into those woods, reappearing to give people a fright. By the end of the interview she seemed anything but convinced.

But, she allowed, "I guess if he says he did it, he did it." To Williamson, a lot of what you see depends upon what you want to see. "It's just like snakes," he said. "You go hunt snakes, you'll find snakes. You don't hunt them you ain't gonna find them. You get to looking around for them, man, you're gonna find one before it's over with." While his account can be neither verified nor disproved, one thing is certain: On the edge of a summer when a man would first walk on the moon, some folks in the eastern part of Calhoun County feared there was a monster in the woods.

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But. now, Williamson and two friends who had tagged along were under fire, a spotlight from the truck sweeping through the trees. By the second shot he as off, and whatever rush he got from giving chills to passersby must have been magnified a hundredfold as he raced through the woods, across a pasture, and then into a barbwire fence. The shooter, whose shots all missed, was never identified, i "To this day," Williamson said recently, "I don't know who it was and 1 didn't care. But that was the last appearance that monster made." In an intervievat his Nances, Creek home last week, Williamson, now 48, drove a stake through the heart of Calhoun County's version of the Sasquatch legend.

He described how the extended practical joke began and how it ended, and laughed as he recalled how a little media attention turned the joke into frenzy unseen before or since in these quiet parts. The interview ended a myth that no one seemed to believe in anyway. At the time, most Choccolocco residents were pretty sure the monster was really just a cow or a bear. These days, locals just raise an eyebrow, shake their heads or laugh deeply when that dead memory is brought back to life. Though the truth's cold fingers unravel this already threadbare tale, it leaves behind an amusing swatch of a story of a few people who shuddered at the glimpse of a strange figure and the many more who came from far and wide to shoot it dead.

"I knowed it was a booger." Margaret Teague was driving to her Choccolocco home from work at Cleburne County Hospital one night in May 1969 when she saw hat she thought was a monster. It was late, and the way home took her over the secluded Iron City Cutoff. She saw it sitting on its hind legs on the edge on the woods. She would later tell the county sheriff as well as The Star that the monster had a huge head and was hairy. She said the hair prevented her from telling whether it had paws or hooves; she exclaimed only "Oh, Lordy, Lordy, what a head." giving is worth more than the gift." Williamson jacked his family's old 1950 Ford, which he didn't have a license to drive, and started cruising down the backroads of Choccolocco.

He was bored, just driving around, and realized that in the backseat there was a cow skull he'd found. And so, the Choccoldcco Monster was born. He'd put on a long black coat, raise the skull up, and do a dance. That, and a little bit of timing, was all there was to it. "I'd wait," he said, "until somebody come around the road there, and I'd run out and don't let them get a good look at me.

When let off the gas, I'd run up back in the woods." He did it just four times before the hail of bullets put an end to the creature. But so far, it's the most famous of pranks in a lifetime of joking that includes locking a cow in the hallway of his high school, as well as a number of stunts that could get him in trouble if word got out. Williamson, who works for Southwire, talks about all the joking with a mischievous glint in his eye. He's unapologetic and says he liked to give people a fright just to relieve his own boredom and have a little fun. "Back then, you didn't have nothing to do really," he said.

"You didn't have computers. You just had to create your own fun. And that was fun until that last appearance." His wife, Glenda, on the other hand, feels a little sorry for the victims. "His wife apologizes for him," she said. "Please don't be angry with him." Looking for snakes When told recently that the Choccolocco Monster had been in fact a kid playing a joke, few in the community were surprised.

Some were hard-pressed to dredge up the memory of the episode, and those who could recalled it as overblown. "We thought it was a cow," said Halloween this year, with 5.3 million; in 1970, California had 3.9 million. Other Halloween tidbits, according to the Census Bureau: The United States produced 894.9 million pounds of pumpkins in 2000 a lot of jack o' lanterns (and pumpkin pies). The value of all those pumpkins was $101.6 million. Illinois led the nation, producing 364 million pounds last year.

More than 1,000 U.S. manufacturers produced chocolate and cocoa products in 1999. They employed more than 42,000 people and traded 1 1 billion worth of goods. Halloween is the top holiday for candy sales. The year's estimated sales are $1.9 billion, according to the National Confectioners Association.

Mrs. Teague, ho died several years ago, was one of at least eight people who said they saw a monster during those late spring weeks. A composite portrait of the monster developed, and then evolved as the days went by. At first, it was gray or black and about the size of the cow with a hump and large teeth. Then it had stringy white and black hair that obscured many of its features.

At least three newspaper articles, all of which quoted people who doubted the existence of the monster, helped to drum up interest. By early June, cars from other counties were roaming the backwoods, their drivers taking potshots at anything that moved in the night. "People came with flashlights and guns and different things," said Beverly Graham, a teen-ager during this time. "That scared me." Aside from fear, whether generated by the creature or the trigger-happy visitors, there was anger. You could practically smell the reporter's notebook burning when Mrs.

Bobby Murphy warned those who were unloading their weapons near her farm. "But I'll tell you one thing, if one of our cows or bulls is shot, and we can find out who it is, somebody is going to pay dear," she told The Star. Mrs. Murphy said she thought the monster was in reality a beaver or a cow or a bull, a skepticism echoed by many in the area. But as for the believers, no matter which of them saw it, they were dead-certain it was a monster, and not a member of the local wildlife.

Mrs. Teague was certain her eyes weren't fooling with her. "And, oh Lordy, they weren't, for I knowed it was the booger," she told The Star. "I turned the car around in the middle of the road to get another look, and it (the car) got caught in a ditch I just knowed the booger had me for sure." "You just had to create your own fun." His parents asleep, Neal Tammy Chapman said. Since then, the average attendance has been around 1,000 children.

This year, the department held the event Saturday at Woodland Park. Only about 500 children participated. "I think the reason we had such a lower turnout was because a lot of people didn't know about it," Ms. Chapman said. "We did our best with advertising, but there are also just so many organizations doing these kinds of things now, and then there are fewer kids out there, too." The rest of the nation, however, has seen an overall increase in this population.

There are now 41.1 million children aged 5 to 14, slightly more than the 40.7 million in 1970. California has the largest number of children that could be celebrating Calhoun County Community Foundation Honoring ike Past, Securing the Future. Qiaritoble giving has been described as planting a (tee and knowing that someone else will find shade under its branches. The Calhoun County Community Foundation con help plant that tree by establishing your own family foundation that will: Haunt: Halloween is the top holiday for candy sales 4 A vi SjT vS From Page 1 A something like this than go door-to-door. But the decrease in trick-or-trcaters that I have seen in my own neighborhood may also have something to do with the decreased number of kids, too." Canady's Halloween at the community center was Tuesday night from 6 to 7:30.

He expected about 45 to 55 children to attend, the same as in the past few years. Other community Halloween festivities, however, have seen a decline in attendance. The Annision Parks and Recreation Department, which has hosted a Halloween party at the City Meeting Center for the past few years, reports fewer children attend every year. In 1996, nearly 3,000 children the most the event has ever had flecked to the center, director To start your own Family Fund, contact the Calhoun Foundation at 256.231.51 60 or visit our Web site ot www.cccfoundation.org..