‘Flip’—Retired Cop, Good Neighbor
(Editor’s Note: The following is fifth installmen in our series, Know Your Neighbor. Please, if you know someone interesting, or you have a story to tell, let us know. This week’s story is the result of a neighbor calling us. Any Jasperite or almost Jasperite can be featured in this space as we are all neighbors in this community. And everyone is interesting in some way. Call us 706-468-6511, e-mail us, info@themonticellonews.com or text us 706-318-7396 with your suggestion as to who to interview. We appreciate your help!)
One of our newest neighbors, living here less than a year is Phillip Johns, and his lovely mate, Patti.
They moved here just last June, and they made a big difference already to their neighborhood. Some may remember the jungle-looking overgrowth that hid the lot at the corner of Hillsboro and Hilton Street. Now it is a beautiful, grassy tree-lined piece of property.
Philip, who is called “Flip” by most of his friends followed his sister to Monticello. Or should I say, sisters, brothers, and others. Flip is one brother of Lura Currie. Lura, and her husband Doug, followed their son, Steven to Monticello many years ago. Slowly, much of the rest of the family followed.
After Doug and Lura came here, then came Beth and Mike Whitmire, another sister of Flip. Out of 10 children in the family, five ended up in Monticello, Georgia after growing up in Millberry, Ohio. The closest large city to Millberry, said Flip is Toledo, but it’s not close. Bowling Green is the county seat of Wood County, but they didn’t live real close to Bowling Green either.
Flip came to Monticello through a very circuitous route. He worked as a motorcycle police officer in South Florida for 25 years, mostly in Pompano Beach. His roots there are interesting, and shows what a small world we live in. After he moved to Hilton Street, he really wanted to clean up the lot next door. However, he didn’t know if the owner was interested.
Turns out the owner, Joe Lewis White, has a brother in South Florida…Pompano Beach to be exact. Flip knew Mr. White’s brother. And, Mr. White also had a sister and daughter in Florida, and Flip knew them too. After they talked and learned what a small world it is, they came to an agreement, and Flip bought the property. He hired Kenny Jeffries to come in and clean it up, and among other things, they found a barn on the property. It had been completely obscured by overgrowth.
A.J. Stewart and Justin Wyatt also helped with the clean-up, as did neighbor, Walt Harrell. Flip said once the bulldozers were through, he and Walt burned every day for more than a week, getting rid of the brush.
However, I digress. Sometime after Flip retired from the police department in south Florida, he headed to Dahlonega where he set up housekeeping for a time. While there he drove a truck hauling race cars for the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) racing. IMSA is actually now owned by NASCAR, but it is the races such as Road Atlanta, and other places like Alabama, Daytona Beach, Fla., Indianapolis, Ind., and other locales. He worked for Marty Robbins and Patrick Dempsey as well several others. He told of an adventurous trip to Mexico City where things weren’t any too safe.
He would haul the cars and that could take a good bit of time. From Dahlonega, where Flip had a four-car garage full of stuff, he moved to a location in Gainesville, Ga. With a two-car garage and had to downsize significantly. He had to downsize again when he moved here.
Flip met Patti through her son in Indiana, who was also a motorcycle officer. Patti said her son wouldn’t let her ride with him, but she rides with Flip.
Besides hauling race cars, Flip has hauled much more. He was a contractor for the government, hauling three Humvees from Camp LeJeune, N.C. to Camp Pendleton, California and back. He learned that it was just to move the Humvees so they would not have to be counted as inventory. He said he was the beneficiary of a good bit of government waste.
He has since sold his tractor and trailer, but still loves a motorcycle. Last weekend, he went to Charleston, S.C. for an annual police oyster roast. And soon, he’ll go to south Florida for a reunion.
I asked the 77-year-old if he would haul his motorcycle to Charleston. He laughed, and said he had a hauler, but that’s for hauling other people’s motorcycles. Since the forecast called for rain, I asked about weather preparedness, he and Patti told about being in a freezing rainstorm in Duluth, Minnesota, and said they were well dressed for the weather, but nonetheless were soaked to the bone. Flip has logged a million and half miles, and has visited all 48 contiguous states, as well as five Canadian provinces.
At home, he still enjoys cleaning up the neighborhood, and helping the neighbors out, like any good neighbor will do.
He and Patti are joined in the household by their dogs, “Sir” Davidson and little Harley.
