Betty’s Week
By Betty Shearer
Watermelon Carnival weekend has arrived. Kick-off will be the Town and Country Music Festival Thursday night. Got fussed at last year because we failed to mention there was a preliminary performance by the Sharecroppers and Effie Burt, which began at 7 p.m.
We only gave the 7:30 time—the beginning of the actual show. Not going to make that mistake again this year. David has just included the pre-show on the Carnival Schedule and I’m mentioning it here. We do enjoy hearing the Sharecroppers’ programs and I know that many of you do also. Get to the Civic Auditorium by 7 p.m., so you will not miss any of the good stuff.
Another carnival connected event will be the sale of racks of ribs by the Rotary Club for Friday night. These will cost $12 per rack and may be purchased from any Rotary club member. My info came from Rotarian Trent Howell. If you want to order ribs, I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear from you.
I’ve had several inquiries as to the time for the Lion’s Pancake Breakfast. We have an official announcement elsewhere in this edition, but I’ll tell you here that the regular time has been extended from 9:30 to 10. Beginning time is still 6:30.
The food is delicious and you get in lots of great visiting at this event. Ernie Aune can cook some good pancakes–bet he has to have lots of help in the kitchen on this special day. They’re also still selling tickets for their television raffle.
My major concern for carnival weekend is the heat. It’s going to be brutal and I just hope no one has a problem. I’ve found that I do not tolerate heat very well anymore. For the past few weeks, when I’m outside for a short time, I feel really exhausted. At the Carnival for the past two years, I’ve had to go in early even on Friday night. Hope it cools off a bit, because I do want to see the fireworks—one of my favorite things.
I asked Jimmie if she was coming over early Saturday morning (we usually do a tour of the park, beginning about 8) and she says, “Don’t know, I’ve been to hell once this week, already!”
I had to have an explanation. It seems that the Pope church‘s air conditioners have been having problems, so they were not turned on until Sunday morning. The choir loft has a separate unit and only the fan got turned on at this site. Jimmie said with her long sleeves, topped by a choir robe, she thought she was going to pass out. Finally they realized what the problem was, got the air on and saved all the choir members and the pastor. She said everyone thought she had lost her mind—waving her hymnal as a fan, and flopping her choir robe. I’m surprised she didn’t strip.
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Had a note from Donna Rhyne with her subscription renewal. It read, “We especially look forward to our paper now to ‘catch up’ with everyone. We’re loving Houston, though, and enjoy being near Michael, Andi, and Peyton. Michael was again voted ‘Best Doctor in Chickasaw County,’ so we’re very proud of him. Hope to see everyone at the Carnival.”
I’m also very proud of Michael—he’s one of our kids. Michael was one of Ed’s music students for many years and we just adopted all of these fine young people.
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Robert Montgomery brought by an article from the July 25 edition of The Oxford Enterprise written by Ben Garrett. It told about Al Huges and him looking for a golf game. They headed to the new-look Ole Miss golf course to find one. Here, they began the Ole Miss Men’s Senior Golf Association, which tees up weekly. The Association now has 55 members, which includes several well known players in the Oxford area, and they play each Tuesday morning.
Sounds like Al and Robert did a great job, since this event started only four month ago. I know they are having fun.
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Bro. Ken recently stated in his pre-sermon comments that he knew that three in the congregation were smiling, noting that they had arrived early and got the parking spots under the big oak tree in front of the church. He continued that he knew how to make the rest of us smile. He told all of us to look up into that tree and see the rotten branches, just waiting for a little wind to bring them down onto the vehicles parked below.
I looked and now I’m not even sure I want to travel that driveway leaving the church. I’ve always come in on the town side of the church and exited the driveway on the by-pass side – going directly under that tree. My decision was to use my regular route, unless we’re having stormy weather.
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I had a call from Crowder classmate James Rotenberry Sunday night, telling me of the death of one of our former teachers. Mr. Daniel Pope, long-tiime ag teacher at CHS, died Sunday morning. Checked my answering machine Monday night and found a similar message from Sister-in-law Gale Shearer (Tom’s wife). Gale is a niece of Mr. Pope. He was our class sponsor during our junior year and somehow I wound up treasurer of the annual staff and on the decorating committee for the Jr.-Sr. Banquet. Often I’d ride with Mr. Pope to the bank and then when we started planning and decorating for the banquet I again rode in his pick-up for the trips necessary for this event.
Our banquet was held in the Alcazar Hotel in Clarksdale, so we spent a lot of traveling time. He was a wonderful person, with a keen, dry wit. It was always a pleasure to spend time with him. He never ran the girls out of his ag classroom or shop either, would answer all our questions and show us how to do things. Even though he never taught me, I learned a lot from him. We have many Crowder connections now living in the Valley, so I thought you would all like to know of his passing. Sympathy is extended to Gale and to the entire Pope family.
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Jim called last night and his opening remark was, “I’m on my way to pick up and put down some weight.” Well I needed an explanation. Jim is now weight lifting as a part of his exercise routine. All summer he has been hitting the gym for long sessions, trying to get back into shape and loose some weight. At last report he was down to 227 and I’m sure he has dropped some more. His lament though, was that in a week he’d have to began school and his exercise time would be cut drastically and also his eating habits would get bad again.
Just yesterday I was talking to Mary Sue Stevens about the upcoming carnival’s barbecue contest and remarked that I wished Jim was here so he could enter. I told him about it and he says, “Maybe next year!” He wanted to know if it was a sanctioned prelim to Memphis in May. Not yet, but the way things grow in the Valley, it probably will be in a few years.
Mary Sue was in to treat us to some homemade ice cream. It was delicious and we did appreciate it. She said she knew we’d be extra busy this week and needed something to pick us up—She got that right. Ice cream did the trick. Thanks.
