Out On The Mudline
Time Management Creates Problem At Sissell House
By W. P. Sissell
Where Does the Time Go?
Good morning to all you good people out there and I must say a special good morning to Maxine. I didn’t realize that you would be reading some of these articles. To those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the Maxine I’m talking to is the Maxine Hogan mentioned in Betty Shearer’s last column. Maxine and I started to school at Camp Ground School many years ago along with about thirty other children in Miss Murff’s first grade class.
This morning I’m wondering where the morning time has gone. I intended to start writing this week’s column at least an hour ago. My trouble is that I cannot resist watching a good western show on TV and my Nannette switched channels so that I got a little involved in the western that she found. In addition, Nannette placed a pile of unopened mail, which I needed to look over, in front of me at the breakfast table just as I finished eating.
Now I have consumed, done away with, lost, approximately one hour taking care of that mail. I have a deadline for the Mississippi State, Arkansas game that starts at eleven. Yes, I am a State fan. Several of us that were members of that first grade class attended Mississippi State after returning from service. Many of us got an expense paid trip to most of the European countries while others got a like trip to the South Pacific.
A Visit Home
I again had to hand deliver the weekly article to Water Valley. I still do not have the e-mail function of my computer working exactly right but Barbara (my computer expert) will fix that as soon as I call her about the trouble. I know that sometimes she wonders just why I can be so dumb about this machine.
As I left town I realized that I now had some extra time on my hands, not much, but enough to take the old Mud Line Road and go by “Chigger Ridge road” (now Airways) to the Tindell School road and thence over to the Prophet Bridge crossing. As I came across the Prophet Bridge crossing into town I noticed that Yocona River was over bank full and wondered how the old O’tuckalofa place was doing. Our preacher had talked about catching a box full of catfish in the “Wildcat” area during the week.
When I got to the turn at the foot of Swindoll Hill, where Delma Jones, Harvey Gray and Earnest Shelton lived in those grammar school days I could see the water—flat, level, smooth—all the way to the McFarland hills. As I rode further up to the Tindell School crossing, I was saddened as I remembered all the families that I had known in the area.
Where that road ended at the boat ramp was the approximate site of the first Sissell place in the south. My father and his younger brother Ray grew up there. They walked to school over where the road intersects “Chigger Ridge.” He loved to tell his sister Ethel and brother Ray that he was their boss in those days—the tallest and their big brother so he held the lunch pail (a molasses bucket) between his knees and let them have what he didn’t want. He and Ray told many stories about the hills on both sides of the river (that would be the old covered bridge and those very crooked meanders of the old Yocona River run).
Our wish for you is a great week. You may reach me most of the time at 23541 Highway 6, Batesville, MS 38606 or 662-563-9879
