Mrs. Betty Was No Fan Of Time Change
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
Mrs. Betty would have gotten a kick out of the 6 p.m. train whistle Monday afternoon. Many longtime readers will recall, she despised Daylight Savings Time and routinely shared her opinion each year when we had to spring forward. One year Betty wrote that she started a day early, setting her clocks forward Saturday morning to help with the acclimation. Apparently it didn’t work, because she wrote that she could barely keep her eyes open during Brother Lynn’s sermon Sunday morning.
Casey Jones Museum Curator Grant Thompson has the train whistle set on a timer to blow each afternoon at 5 p.m. He was in Chattanooga and did not get the timer synced with Daylight Savings Time. I think we will have the six o’clock whistle until he returns. Five o’clock doesn’t always mean quitting time at the Herald office, but I have enjoyed hearing the whistle each afternoon and appreciate Grant for doing it.
I have my own complaint to share this week – the current weather cycle. It seems like the sun is shining and it is warm outside during weekdays, and storms roll in each weekend. The forecast, or weather news as Mrs. Betty called it, shows a strong chance of severe thunderstorms Saturday. That hurts, as Saturday marks the opening morning of turkey season in Mississippi and thousands of hunters plan to be in the woods.
I can brave the rain, but thunder and lightning gives me the heebie-jeebies and will send me to the house. Turkeys don’t mind the storms, often times the thunder will make a turkey gobble.
Turkey hunting is my favorite, and the “forecast” looks good for hunters across Mississippi. We have had several years of good hatches, and the turkey population seems to be increasing. That is not the trend across the country, as many states are experiencing a decline in turkeys.
Inmate Nevin Whetstone’s escape last week spooked folks across the state. He was on the lam for three days before his capture.
I think the mugshot of the Parchman escapee last week gave folks across the entire state a case of the heebie-jeebies. Inmate Nevin Whetstone is serving a life sentence for a grisly murder in Lee County and he sure looks scary. During the days between his escape on March 4 and capture on March 7, I heard several folks say they were locking their doors and keeping an eye out for him.
It turns out he only made it a seven miles down the highway from Parchman to Drew. I guess it was no surprise he didn’t make it far, an article in the Mississippi Today reported the 71-year-old man used a walking cane.
I may be wrong, but I can’t remember an escape from Parchman that was successful – sooner or later the escapee always gets caught. Does anybody recall back in 2003 when Larry Hentz escaped from Parchman? His wife had smuggled a reciprocating saw blade, a pair of wire cutters and $500 cash to help him. Holes were found in the fence when Hentz was missed during a head count.
Hentz was convicted in 1983 for capital murder in the death of James Williamson. Some of you with more gray hair than I have may remember the details about Hentz and Cookie Williamson conspiring to kill her husband. Hentz had also been involved in a lot of shady dealings, and people all across the state were nervous until he was nabbed.
Weeks passed after his escape with no trace of him. The escape was featured on a segment of America’s Most Wanted. He was finally captured checking in a motel in San Francisco with his wife. He had almost made it to the Mexican border.
