City Life To Country Life Turns Out ‘Amazing’
(Editor’s Note: The following is another installment in our series, Know Your Neighbor. Please, if you know someone interesting, or you have a story to tell, let us know. 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 need your help!)
Joanie Peek is The News’ most recent “neighbor.” She came to Jasper County two years ago by way of Rockdale County where she grew up, attended Rockdale High School and graduated from Faith Academy.
Joanie, her fiancee, and seven year-old daughter live in Northwest Jasper where she loves it. When asked about the transition from city to small town life she summed it up as amazing.
“No traffic, no long commutes, and the schools here are so much better,” she said noting that the local school system has helped her daughter tremendously. Her mother worked in the Rockdale school system and her future mother-in-law retired from the Newton school system.
Joanie currently works part-time at Monticello Tire & Lube where she used to work full-time. As a woman in a male dominated profession, she is learning it all eagerly.
“I like learning new stuff,” she said but is partial to the task of mounting and balancing tires as long as they are not too big.
Her least favorite part of the job would be how dirty her hands can get sometimes, of course. Joanie came to work at the local shop when her commute to Loganville from Monticello for her job as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) got too lengthy.
“I was in the car longer than I was at work and that needed to change.”
Her friend Justin, owner of Monticello Tire & Lube, knew her dilemma and offered to help her out so he became her boss and it has been a rewarding choice for both.
When Joanie is not mounting tires or enjoying time with her daughter, she appreciates the wonders of nature by camping, fishing, and just enjoying the lake life.
Joanie’s new appreciation for a slower pace of traffic and small town life appears to be a bit contagious. She said that her parents and her only sibling, a sister, along with her three nieces also have plans in the pipeline for a move to Jasper County.
