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WE CALL HIM SCRATCHER

I want to tell all of you about a selfless man from Between, Georgia whom I consider to be one of the finest fellows I know. His name is John Ramming and he did the site-work on our Lot. We have known John for 14 years and I first met him at a convenience store at the end of New Hope Church Road in Between, Georgia (a little town in Walton County on Highway 78 between Loganville and Monroe). John needed some legal advice and had heard I was an attorney who was working in Lawrenceville at the time.

As many of you may not know, under Georgia law even the most minor traffic violation is a misdemeanor which is punishable by up to a year in prison or a $1,000.00 fine, or both. When cited for violations like speeding tickets or other moving violations, most of us just pay the fine, take the points and go on about our lives. John Ramming is not most of us. I liked John instantly and found out that he had ended up being sentenced to some jail time by Judge Marvin Sorrells in Walton County. His only offense was deciding to fight a speeding ticket for going 45 mph in a 35 mph by demanding a jury trial. You see, John knew the area was a speed trap and wanted to show the Judge that he had been victimized.

From John's account of the trial, he fumbled and bumbled a bit because he was not familiar with the rules of evidence and he was unable to introduce his speed trap defense evidence into the proceedings as a result of objections by the Solicitor. His trial lasted a day and, not surprisingly, a jury of his peers found him guilty as charged. When it came time for sentencing, Judge Sorrells was angry at the waste of the court's time and resources and decided to teach John a lesson.

After the jury returned its guilty verdict, Judge Sorrells told John something like this: "Mr. Ramming, under our system of justice every person is entitled to a trial by jury and you, sir, have had yours. I hereby sentence you to four weekends in jail, a $1,000.00 fine and a year's probation." While shocking, the sentence was within the Judge's discretion and I found myself having to advise John after looking into the matter that he had no way to set aside the sentence other than to ask Judge Sorrells to reconsider it. A proud man, John never asked the Judge for leniency and did his time cheerfully, knowing that he had fought for a principle he believed in. I have always admired John for his character and willingness to stand his ground no matter what the cost.

I found out that John was in the landscape business and worked on major roadway and dam projects in California and overseas before he and his wife Peg and their boys moved to Georgia. We think a lot of the family and John's grandchildren, and he unfortunately lost his beloved Peg to cancer many years ago. Shortly after that first meeting at the Between Fina, I asked John to remove some silt from a spring that fed a 3/4 acre pond we had on our property in Between. He gladly agreed to come to the house and pond and "scratch around a little" with his excavator to see if he could help, and we affectionately nicknamed him Scratcher way back when.

When we moved to the first house we owned in Cumming (the one just behind High Gables that Lynn's sister, Iris, her husband, Marty, and their kids, Avery, Ben and Laney now live in), we decided to make a bigger back yard about five years ago and Scratcher was the man we called. Although he was retired, he graciously agreed to help and he drove the hour or so each way every day from Between for four weeks to do our work. When it came time to clear the Lot for our house in High Gables, it was Scratcher whom we imposed upon again, and again he graciously agreed to fight the traffic and make the trip up each day for several weeks. Like so many of the other subcontractors we used on our house, John was the only one we could have imagined doing the job, and we are thrilled that he agreed to help us.

My friend Randy Chambers, who installed our silt fence and waterline, could hardly stop laughing when I ordered a mini-excavator to clear the Lot rather than a huge loader that could have done the job in no time. Our concern was taking it easy on the trees and making sure as many of them as possible survived, and John and his excavator were perfect for the job. Randy quickly learned that John was a magician with any piece of earth-moving equipment one could imagine and I know he now has great respect for John's abilities.

John cleaned-up our Lot with the help of some laborers that Randy provided and also helped us with site issues, the selection of our home site and numerous other questions and issues that came along during the construction process, including building the base for our driveway and getting everything ready to be poured. Whenever we ran into problems along the way, John was there to help and give us the right advice, and he deserves much of the credit for the fine place that we now have.

John allowed us to keep his Takeuchi TL-26 Track Loader on our lot for nearly a year and only removed it in early May of last year when it slung a track and he needed to do some work at his own place. When we ran into the site issues last June that delayed our work, John was the one who loaned us his Takeuchi in July so we could do what needed to be done before we poured the driveway. We all think the world of John and are grateful to him for all of the help and support he has given us over the years.

I had not talked to John since the lawsuit was filed against me and I spoke with him the other day just to let him know that he might eventually be called as a witness in the proceedings. I told him to check out the web pages to find out what was happening, and he did, sending me an email message with his comments last week. Since John was on the job and took the trouble to send me an email message about this mess, I feel compelled to let him have his say, and his remarks are set forth below.

"Larry I don't think any one knew what that place was like when you bought it. Large trees was shoved over on that property. Huge burn holes 30x60 @ 10 depth. My guess 100 or more trees shoved over hiding the burn holes. Larry at that time I asked you get the HOA out to the lot to handle the cost to clean those burn and the trees dumped on the lot. HOA is paid to see that burn holes and logs and debris on vacant lots does not happen. You told me to collect for the clean up you would have to sue your neighbors. I said Boss its your money. Remember the location for the foundation moved to keep the foundation out of the soft spots of the burn holes. You rented a 2 cubic yard loader to expedite the work. Larry look at the cost for the Cat two yard loader and the 8 ton excavator and my time plus 2 laborers cutting up the trees so we could get rid of them. Larry those burn holes covered over dumping debris dumping logs etc. on a vacant lot was not a one day or week event that operations had to go on for months. Larry the HOA can tell you that you have the wrong color of curtains in your kitchen but did not know debris was being dumped on your vacant lot. Like I said then you should have hung the HOA BUNCH (board) out to dry and not bear the extra cost of being a good neighbor. Well Larry I shut this email down. When I see abuse like this it really P.O. me. Call me if there is any thing I can do. John"

At the risk of sounding sappy, it is friends like John who make life worthwhile, and we certainly appreciate all he has done for us. We thank John for his comments and his friendship, and we look forward to seeing him again soon. Please note that while I do not agree with John that it was the HOA's responsibility to police what happened on the Lot we bought from Tuggle Residential, his comments are still worthy of consideration.

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