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Betty’s Week

  Thanks so much to everyone who called to check on me last Thursday. We apologize for not notifying you that I was going to be out of town and that the office would be closed on Wednesday. It is certainly comforting, though, to know that I’m missed and that if I have a problem someone is going to care for me. Water Valley is the greatest place on earth to live. I know, because I’ve been royally cared for for the past three-and-a-half years. My every need is met, sometimes even before I know I have a need.

  I went over to Mom’s after work Tuesday, spent the night with her so she could sleep in her own bed again. Carolyn and Bo were still on vacation.

  Then, early Wednesday mooring, Jimmie and I went to Jackson, where we joined T. J. Ray for a day in the Print Shop at the MS Ag Museum. It was Cub Scout Day and we really enjoyed all the young people who came through our shop. We had some especially lively ones. Now they were all well behaved, but some just enjoy life more than others. One young man was watching me demonstrate the cutter and after I’d made several cuts, just trimming off about three-quarters of an inch of my demonstration cardboard, he asked, “Can you cut the little strips?” I told him I could and then began to do so. He looked longingly at those little squares of red cardboard and says, “If I had those I could do a lots of things with them.” We’d been told not to give the boys anything, only to give our samples to the leaders and they’d put them in packets to be distributed following the Flag Ceremony—last event of the day. I broke the rule. I told that young man, “You can have them if you stuff them in your pocket and not take them out until you get home.” He promised and it was so funny watching him really stuff his pockets. I’m sure those did not come out until he arrived home—now I may be in trouble with his Mom.

  Jimmie was demonstrating her press, T. J. his, while I was at the cutter and giving other info. Occasionally they needed material cut or I would need to feed one of the presses. This meant that I had to have clean hands. We were out of hand cleaner and there is no water in our building. I had to find someting to cut that ink and the first think handy was Windex. It worked. I washed my hands in Windex all day, just wiping them with a shop rag. Everything was fine until late Saturday afternoon. I’d finished cooking for Sunday lunch, washed the last dishes, and sat down to visit with Mom for awhile before going home. My hands felt strange—almost numb. I thought they’d just been in too much dishwater, so I went for Mom’s best lotion. Rubbed it on and stuff started falling off onto my jeans. It was my skin. I rubbed, added more lotion, rubbed some more for a couple of hours. Finally got to new skin. Windex made a great chemical peal—my palms look great.

  We had a really great trip, got a lot of work done, and entertained some 350+ Scouts.

  We’re hoping for a return visit in July.

  I arrived at Mom’s about nine, spent the night, then came on home early Thursday to try to get all the work left over from Wednesday and also Thrusday’s chores completed in one day.

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  Late Thursday Jimmie, Bill, and Bo came over to bring a few things to be stored at the office and also to pick up my little red truck.

  While the boys were unloading Bill’s truck and getting mine ready to roll, Jimmie watered and cared for her plants out front. While she was working and fussing because I’d not cared for them properly, J. C. Womble came by. She enlisted his help in keeping her plants in good condition. J. C. was in yesterday (Monday) to tell me he’d watered on Saturday. I got them on Sunday morning, so those things are faring well.

  One of the items brought for storage was the foundation off of Mom’s bed. We had to go back to her original box springs—the new mattress and foundation made her bed too high for her to comfortably get into. Bill’s a clown, so we don’t know how true this story is, but it’s funny. Jimmie says when she said they were bringing a foundation, Bill asked, “How big and heavy is this thing?” She says, “It very light, just bulky.” Well, Bill declares that he could just picture a slab of concrete, or other foundation material, and could not imagine why it needed to be brought to WV to be stored. “However,” he says, “I never question what you two are doing, I just follow my instructions and try to stay out of trouble.”  When he and Bo were loading the foundation, Bill says, “Bo, why didn’t they just say bed springs?” Bo educated Bill as to the new terminology for what goes under a mattress. When unloading at the Herald Bill says, “I just want someone to come along and asked about our bed springs, so I can tell them to get into the modern world—this is not springs it’s a foundation.” We do have a lots of fun in our family.

  Then we got to “Little Red” and the teasing really picked up. My tag still had the ‘06 sticker on it—haven’t yet found ‘07, but did come up with ‘08, which was the one we needed. Gas tank was on fumes and the inspection sticker was way out of date. We knew the battery was dead. However, with jumper cables it was easily started. A city policeman was at Sprint Mart, so Bill decided to wait before making a gas run, hoping not to run out. Probably a wise decidions, since he was sporting a two year out of date tag and a long expired inspection sticker—new tag was at the house and we did get it on before going to Panola County. While waiting, I cleaned out the beer bottles—the truck had been used for a trash can for several months. My truck does not have power steering, so Bill had to build up some muscles. It does, however, have an excellent air conditioner, so he didn’t have to sweat, even working as hard as he had to. He made it home fine, and I’m glad to see “Red” being put to good use.

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 Friday sister-in-law Ginny, along with her sister, Evelyn, who lives on the MS Gulf Coast, came by. They antique-shopped and then we enjoyed lunch at Nallie’s before they went down for a tour of the Jamie Whitten Plant Materials Center. We tried to persuade Evelyn to stay with us until Wednesday of this week and enjoy the yearly tour. She couldn’t, so they were treated to a personal tour by PMC Manger Paul Rodique. They reported a great experience.

  Jimmie and I took the formal tour last year and we hope we can make it tomorrow (Wednesday) Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the tours start at 8:30. Lunch is served at noon, but it’s too late to register for this. Come on out though, you’ll have a great time on the tour and also the many demonstrations and other activities are very informative. Further details of this are included in an article elsewhere in the paper.

    Also, on Friday night, there will be another wonderful musical eveing from the downtown bandstand. These have been well received and I understand there will only be one other after Firday night’s program.

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