Betty’s Week
by Betty Shearer
Friday night I, along with lots of other folks, attended the Water Valley High School presentation of Romeo & Julie, a Comedy by Bill Comeau. The play, held in the Water Valley Civic Auditorium, was a Shakespeare modernized for today’s teenage audience—many adults also enjoyed it.
Preceding the play was a poetry reading, which was excellent. Siren Song by Margaret Atwood, presented by Shaniqua Wesley, took 2nd Place in the State Poetry Reading. Other offerings were: The Tiger by William Blake, read by Aaron Williamson; Quicksand by Brandon Boyd, presented by Randall Winkler; and The Slave Auction by Francis Harper, read by Sequareah Sayles.
Saquareah Sayles was a beautiful Julie and Randall Winkler was a charming Romeo. Parents of these two were Mom Mountainview by Jillian Harris and Dad Mountainview performed by Adrain Tallant and Rebecca McGavock as Momsy DeCapitate, gave an excellent performance in this role and also doubled as the bush, and in the role of Daddy DeCapitate was Jesse Anderson. Other supporting characters, also with outstanding performances, were: Aaron Williamson as Tibolt, Lizzie Shawk as Rosaline, doubling as the window, Treshon Calahan as Ben, and Tim Taylor as Merc. The Wall was admirably portrayed by Reggie Turner. Adding much to the performance were: Roykeisha Rockette as Chorus, and Sasha Owen as the Heckler. A sterling performance was given by Shaniqua Wesley as the Curtain. She had the first and final words of this wonderful show—and was outstanding throughout. The play was directed by Debra Anderson, with stage assistants, Frankie Holland, Rhonda Miller and Mrs. Anna Koshenina, all doing excellent jobs.
If you failed to make it to this performance, you missed a really fun night. Thanks, to all who made it possible.
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Got home, ate my bowl of soup and cornbread, showered and donned my P.J.s. Knew the lights were scheduled to go out at midnight. Found my flashlights, lit my candles and crawled into bed to watch a little TV before the power was cut. Didn’t see anything nearly as good as my earlier entertainment right here in the Valley.
After the lights went out, I turned over thinking I’d soon be in dreamland. Was not to be.
Found that I do not sleep soundly without some noise. On my hill it’s quiet in the wee hours, with no fans or appliances running. Even my birds, squirrels and other critters were fast asleep. Finally went to sleep about three, only to be jarred out of bed at five-thirty by my smoke alarms, which have back-up power, but when they go back to electricity they sound a loud alarm. Might as well have gotten up, because there was no more sleeping Friday night.
Finally got out of bed around seven, got dressed, went grocery shopping, and then it was off to Mom’s. Cooked her Mother’s Day dinner on Saturday. Her favorite foods are all fried and they’re just not good if they are not eaten as soon as they come out of the grease. This means there is no frying on Sunday—we have to serve foods that stay in the crock pots and run in the microwave, since we all arrive from church shortly after noon.
Fried her favorite chicken pieces, made fried potato patties, had to have blackeyed peas, sweet potatoes and cornbread, plus peach cobbler. She had her feast and then ate what we put on the table Sunday with gratitude.
Mom had five of her six chicks with her—Brother Terry from Brandon didn’t get to come. Also visiting were three of her grands—Bill’s and Jimmie’s sons, William and Michael and Misty, daughter of Bo and Carolyn.
We had not seen William in quite a while, so it was great to catch up on his life. William is quite an entertainer and we laughed for an hour or so at his recent adventures. Seems he’s just bought a new pick-up, according to him not as plush as he usually drives. Youngest son, Ian, has a different view of this vehicle, though. William said first time Ian rode with him in the truck, his remark was, “Dad, I sure do like these cloth seats, they’re much nicer than those rubber ones in your last trucks!” William has always had vehicles with beautiful leather seats.
William and Karen hired a cleaning service recently, recommended by others in their area using these women. Some of the neighbors began discovering items missing after their houses had been cleaned and warned Karen of this in ear shot of Ian. William said they were the carpool for a recent outing for several children (some of whom they don’t know very well) and he overheard Ian telling the children, “Mom and Dad have hired thieves to clean our house!” Well, I considered this and think maybe I’d better seek out this service—maybe they’d cart off some of my junk.––
This week is going to be a busy one, with the regular paper and then the completion of the Graduation Section.
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We have another entertaining event coming up Saturday night. Bill Pullen came by to place an announcement of his wife, April’s students dance recital, which will be held at 7 p.m. in the Water Valley Civic Auditorium. Admission will be $3. Sounds like this is going to be lots of fun. Come out and support these young dancers.
