[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 79 (Monday, May 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2778-S2779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Dean Lewis

  Mr. ISAKSON. Madam President, we are called upon many times to do 
many things in this Chamber, and in 21 years I have been called to do a 
lot of different things, but today may be the most different of all.
  In a way, it is something that is a joy to do. It is about a place in 
Bartow County, GA, in White, GA, a small rural town that is being 
caught by the urban growth of the city of Atlanta, one of the biggest 
cities in the United States of America. White, GA, is a great town. The 
first Sunday of every month, there is a breakfast at 7 a.m. for the 
guys in town, where we all go and talk politics, talk about the future 
of the county, talk about what is happening, share good and bad ideas, 
tell jokes for the week, and come back a month later to see how things 
are going. It is something I relish doing. It is something I started 
doing because I am a politician. You go where two or more are gathered, 
and you go to talk to them and to try to get them to know you and to 
make sure they know you are on the ballot the next time.

  I have been in politics a long time--41 years. I have learned a lot 
of things. I have learned that in politics the best thing to know is 
your next-door neighbor and people. The best thing for them to know is 
to know you.
  But I also learned some interesting things about our economy and 
about business. The No. 2 producer of revenue to our governments around 
the country is revenue off of tourism. Tourism is the No. 2 industry in 
the country in terms of revenue at the local level--for sales and use 
taxes, for bed taxes, for hotel-motel taxes, for entertainment taxes, 
and for all kinds of taxes. They generate money to help our cities and 
counties buy and build facilities that attract tourism to come in the 
future, whether it is convocation centers, educational centers, or 
whatever.
  I am always paying close attention everywhere I go to see what 
somebody new is doing around the country that we might not have done in 
Georgia before. But I have been sitting on a ham sandwich, starving to 
death, because every first Sunday of every month, when I go to the 
breakfast in White County, GA, I am going to something that is exactly 
that, unique to the country. So I thought I would bring it to the floor 
of the Senate today and tell you a little bit about it.
  It is about a guy named Dean Lewis and Dean's family's home place.
  Dean's family's home place is in Bartow County, GA. Dean grew up on a 
piece of property that in 2009 was a junkyard. It was just a junkyard 
of old cars--in fact, 40 years' worth of old cars. There was kudzu. I 
don't know if the Presiding Officer knows what kudzu is. The South is 
full of it. It was a great idea to stop erosion, but it was a horrible 
idea because you can't kill it. It just gets bigger and bigger. We have 
40 years' worth of kudzu that has grown through these cars, wrecked 
tractors, buses, and everything. They are almost canopy hidden by the 
kudzu.
  Dean Lewis was sitting on the front porch of his house, looking 
across the street at what he has now named Old Car City, and said: You 
know, that would be an interesting place for people to come and visit, 
because people are always looking for parts on old cars that they might 
get to help restore the old cars they have.
  It started out as just a place where people who wanted to come and 
tear some old parts off of an old car to fix their jalopy or their old 
car would come and get them from Dean.
  One day Dean had somebody come from the Atlanta Ballet and said: You 
know, this would be a big, great background for our ballerinas in a 
photo contest to talk about how agile they are.
  So the Atlanta Ballet used the backdrop of Old Car City for photos 
for their calendar a few years ago. The Atlanta Falcons have used it. 
All kinds of businesses have used it. Businesses from around the world 
have used it. It has become a famous place. It is not a famous place 
because it is handsome or beautiful. It is not famous because it is 
famous but because it is unique.
  Dean Lewis and his family took something of theirs that was unique to 
them and molded it into something people would come and see. It is one 
of those ``if you build it, they will come'' deals.
  You saw the end of that movie, where all the taillights and 
headlights were weaving through the town to go see the field that was 
finally built. That was

[[Page S2779]]

the same thing with Old Car City. They took a useless, rusted-out old 
junkyard and turned it into something people would want to come to see, 
someplace where they would want to come to get old parts for cars or 
come to get their pictures taken with the cars. International companies 
want to come to do business there, to where it is now one of the most 
attractive places we have in North Georgia.
  I thought I would come to the well for no other reason but to pay 
tribute to Dean Lewis in White, GA, because he has taken an old car in 
a junkyard--a jalopy--and turned it into something that raises money 
for the community, that memorializes our heritage and our past, that 
takes the use of something everybody thought was wasted and turns it 
into something good. If we can always try to do that, as well as make 
something new good, then we would all be doing well as business people, 
as tourist promoters, and as builders of local government.
  I rise tonight to commend Dean Lewis on what he and his family have 
done, to commend Old Car City on what has turned into a great money-
making project for the State and for our local property--the tourist 
attraction they have created there--and to tell them to keep on doing 
the work and making chicken salad out of good fried chicken. Georgia 
chicken is the best that you can have, and there is no better chicken 
than a junkyard in Georgia called Old Car City.
  God bless you.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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