Betty’s Week
By Betty Shearer
If you enjoy Southern Gospel Music you’ll have two opportunities to hear groups in the next couple of weeks.
This Saturday night, August 23, Cedar Creek will appear in concert at Bethel Baptist Church. The program will begin at six o’clock. This group has a local connection. Drummer Michael Hall is a son of Vallians “Sissie” and Mickey Hall. I’m looking forward to attending this if I can get home from Mom’s in time—I’m her usual Saturday afternoon sitter.
Then on Sunday night, August 31, beginning at 5 p.m. the Steadam Family of Cleveland will present a concert at Sylva Rena Baptist Church. Everyone is invited to attend this.
Mr. Jack Biggers brought us this announcement. We talked a bit about the old times—a slower paced, more gentle way of life. I think we’d both like to return to those times. We didn’t have to lock our doors, we could go out after dark, even on the streets of the Valley, and feel perfectly safe. Mr. Jack’s career was driving a Greyhound Bus, so I’m sure he’s seen a lot of the country from many years ago, until he retired just a few years back, so he’s familiar not only with our area, but lots of the U.S. I know how much change we’ve had right here in WV—can’t imagine the drastic changes he saw in more radical areas. Enjoyed our visit Mr. Jack, and hope I can slip out to Sylva Rena to hear this concert.
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Another exciting event in Yalobusha County, which will be happening in the near future, is the opening of the Hatchery and Museum over at Enid Dam. Jessie Gurner will be the curator of the museum and she was by yesterday (Monday) with a pictorial preview of what’s over there. It’s going to be great folks and I know everyone’s going to want to get over for a tour. We’ll keep you posted as to the opening date.
Mississippi has so many things to be proud of, one of them being our fine museums. You hear me rave about our Agriculture and Forestry Museum in Jackson, which is under the MS Agriculture Department. The Hatchery and Museum at Enid is under the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
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Friday morning I was off to clear out more of the old building, but wound up helping with a more pressing clean-up.
Nephew Michael is moving his business to Batesville and has leased a building on Highway 6. It needed a lot of cleaning and renovation. Jimmie had painted for a couple of days by herself so I volunteered to help on Friday. We did an amazing amount of work for two old women, before the troops came in to assist late in the afternoon.
One of our helpers was Michael’s young son, Ruff. Ruff came in, found him a roller and stated to me, “I can paint the low part, if you’ll paint the high area.” This we did and this little boy can paint. He never dripped, didn’t get paint on his clothes, and did an excellent job of putting it on the walls. Now this was quite a feat, seeing how we were painting peg board and rough paneling. He did not paint a few minutes and quit, as most children would have. He stayed right with me until we all called it a day at about seven o’clock.
Ruff then informed PapPa Bill that he was hungry. Bill says, “Ruff, where do you want to eat?” His choice was the Cracker Barrel and Bill says he eats as well as he paints.
I had a church committee meeting Saturday morning, so it was after noon when I got back to the paint roller. Ruff was there and he immediately became my low man. Then Bill began painting the doors and Ruff thought he’d better help PapPa Bill, so he changed out his roller cover—trim was a different color. After they finished one side of the door, we took a break to let the door dry. After break time, Bill was entertaining a visitor. Ruff, however, checked the door, decided it was dry and the other side was waiting to be painted. He informed Bill of this, but Bill continued to visit. Ruff, found the blue tape, masked out the door knob, and painted his low part. Bill still was occupied, so Ruff found an extension for his roller and had almost completed the door when the visitor finally left. Bill (and the rest of us) had to compliment his grandson on a job well done.
Ruff is so smart and so dedicated to his task. I’m sure he’s going to be an outstanding adult and be very successful in whatever field he decided to pursue—and he’s so much fun to be around.
We painted rooms that were 40×40, a couple 10×10, and a 10×14, along with a mile long hall, in less than two days. All of us, except Ruff, hate to paint, but we did a good job.
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Now I’m dragging out my soapbox.
Didn’t need to go by Mom’s so it was closer to Batesville traveling 315 and then down 6. Had been so happy that the recent rains made our world green up and get beautiful again. Well the DOT apparently didn’t like this, because they uglied it up again. They have sprayed herbicide along the roadway along 315 and it’s really a sore sight. Kudzu, pine trees, oaks and other vegetation are covered with ugly brown patches all along the way. Now I know that it is costly to keep the roadsides cut, but I believe it’s much more environmentally safe and it’s sure much more eye appealing for our tourist and even us locals. We have a beautiful state, let’s keep it that way.
