We Deserve This Mild-So-Far June
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
The weather has been absolutely glorious for the past couple of days and, after all the meteorological trauma we’ve been through lately, we Water Villains deserve this mild-so-far June. Now, as is typical, I’m sure tomorrow’s temps will reach 100 degrees with a 250 percent humidity. I swear, the weather reads my column and switches course in the 24 hours between my writing and the Herald going to press. I’ve not once predicted the coming weekly weather correctly.
I did pick the perfect time to take up outside gardening as my new hobby because the ground is so soft from rain that plucking up the acres of weeds in my yard by hand is as easy and satisfying as pulling cotton candy from a paper cone. And the earth worms! Have y’all seen them lately? My word! Water Valley has always been on top of its earth worm game but, wow.
After this monsoon season they have become Amazonian – fine, healthy specimens. The ancient Greek athletes of invertebrates. We really should consider a Water Valley Earth Worm Festival as long as I’m not on the committee.
I don’t have a whole lot to report this week as my entire existence on this soggy earth for the past month or so has been solely devoted to helping my high school graduate fill out his FAFSA form. If you know, you know. If you don’t know, then I’ll spare you the saga other than to say that FAFSA is the form to get Federal Student Aid for college. I’ll also say that there was a point where I was juggling four different FAFSA accounts with four different passwords, all of which used authenticator verification to four different phones and none of the phones were in the same town as me, much less the same room. I felt like an air traffic controller with no sense of direction. An interesting aspect in the whole process was that the very helpful woman at the Ole Miss Financial Aid office was named “Janet,” which is the name of my outside cat. I felt like I was repeatedly emailing my cat and felt my cat was stubbornly holding back vital financial info I needed. Janet at Ole Miss Financial Aid is much cheerier than Janet the Outside Cat.
Ole Miss Freshman Orientation was this past weekend. There was a moment when I saw a little group of Water Valley kids — Amos Harvey, Liam Ennis, Reid Burress and Molly Embry – all huddled together under the porch of the Ole Miss Student Union, checking the school maps before they went off to their respective departments for their chosen majors. The scene immediately called to mind memories of the kids being little babies. Liam’s mom and I used to walk Liam and Amos in their strollers from our houses downtown to Town Creek Learning Center everyday where they were practically raised by Linda Neely, Ms. Theresa and Nana.
As it goes with a lot of Water Valley kids, they have all been friends since they were born. I’m thankful for this. The scene of the little Water Valley crew on the steps of the Ole Miss Student Union was quite touching and made the whole FAFSA situation with both Janets worth it.
