RRN Online Volume 264

June 23 '01

Volume 264

Big Bang On Arnold Avenue

Six-hour roundtrip road trips burn Close Call an awful lot of daylight and add to the ever-increasing stress of driving in a sea of motorists where aggressive and sometimes belligerent driving is becoming the norm. Long days on the highways save my company a little money as opposed to my spending a night out, but, whenever possible, I'll do the windshield time more for the purpose of sleeping in my own bed than saving a dollar. Anyway, corporations keep us in their employ based on what they believe we shall accomplish for them in the future and not for that performed in the past. As for the present, it is already past by the time our employer hears of it.

I usually need a good half-hour to unwind after a grueling day behind the wheel of an automobile. Enter my hobby, writing, and its associated paraphernalia, computers. I've become spoiled to the storage capacity of a Zip drive as opposed to a floppy drive and had borrowed a portable Zip drive from the Marketing Department in our Indianola headquarters for the purpose of transferring some large files from my laptop to my home computer. I had just returned to my Delta residence after a six-hour day of driving and was about to plug the Zip drive's power supply into a surge protector when a big bang startled me, prompting me to drop what I was doing. As I've grown older and wiser, big bangs, particularly those occurring simultaneously with actions involving an electric current, tend to frighten me.

It happened to be a Thursday afternoon, and though the sun had been shining when I drove into town, a moderately stiff breeze was stirring. The noise reminded me of a clap of thunder, the big, booming, rumbling sort of sound one associates with an afternoon thunderstorm.

"Is a cloud coming up?" I asked myself as I walked into the kitchen to open the paneless wooden door to check on the weather.

"If that wasn't thunder, it may have been somebody's car slamming into the side of the house," I mused, while considering other possibilities.

Our Delta house is situated on a corner lot that has seen its share of fender-benders over the past few years, and I half expected to find an automobile in something akin to a weird lip-lock with my bedroom wall. Instead, as I peered out the storm door a large tree limb from our huge sycamore tree had come crashing down from a height of some thirty feet. In its fall, my car was spared any damages, but the limb popped the cable TV wire from the utility pole ripping both the TV and phone connections away from our bedroom wall and simultaneously pulling down the floodlights which were attached to the same plank as the other devices mentioned.

The break was apparently the result of an old injury the limb had received, possibly during the ice storm of '94. The new growth became too heavy for the weakened portion to support, and gravity, with the help of a little wind, took its toll.

Living out of two households requires two of a lot of different things, from big things like appliances, bedroom suites, and living room furniture to little things like coffeemakers, cornbread skillets, and toothbrushes. It doesn't require two chainsaws, but I can now see how having one in each location might prove desirable. In lieu of a chainsaw and aside from a cheap hatchet that has somehow found a home in the trunk of my car, the only device I could find to help reduce the big limb to transportable sections was a small, toolbox-sized handsaw I had purchased shortly after Barbara and I bought the house in Greenville. I think I bought the saw to make a seat for a tree swing the former owners had left, thinking our granddaughter, Anna, would enjoy the swing whenever she visited.

As I began sectioning the tree limb I was impressed with the sharpness of the little saw and remembered the children's story of the little train that climbed the high mountain, repeating, "I think I can, I think I can." Fortunately, sycamore wood is less dense than hickory or oak, so the sawing chore was lighter work than I expected. However, before I completed the chore, drops of sweat were splattering on the inside of the lens of my bifocals, and I was hotter than heck or whatever it is we're supposed to be "hotter than."

Once the tree limb removal was complete, I inspected the floodlights that managed to stay intact in the fall onto the concrete driveway. I supposed the shrubs had broken their fall, but perhaps not, since the fixture itself had been broken. Nonetheless, the bulbs burned brightly when I tested them inside the house. The phone service was still good, and rabbit ears helped one of the televisions get a clearer local station than the one without a set of rabbit ears.

Perhaps, by the time this news is printed, the cable and phone lines will have been returned to their rightful places, the ripped plank repaired, and a new receptacle for the floodlights installed, giving a semblance of normality to our little gray house on Arnold Avenue, and with any luck, we'll have sold our Greenville house by the time the next big bang occurs.

Letter Writing II Kin Keepers

I have been privileged to know Mrs. Callie Young practically my entire life. Miss Callie and I have worked together in various Sunday School and Church Training efforts at First Baptist Church in Pontotoc. Hers was one of the first church families that befriended us when my folks returned to Pontotoc in 1954 after a nine-year absence. Her older son, Larry, and I have worked together on various church committees, and I have long appreciated Larry's musical talents. Her second son, Jerry, and I were good friends all during our school days at PHS. Miss Callie also has two daughters, Cathy and Wanda Bess, both of whom I knew quite well during their formative years.

Miss Callie has more writing credits than I could list in this newsletter, and to say I admire her abilities is an understatement. Her commitment to writing is exemplary. Thus, you may appreciate my excitement when I received the following letter (edited for brevity).

Dear Wayne,

I was fascinated with a portion of your article on Letter Writing [RRN 05/12/01]. It concerned the unique communication efforts shared with you by Gwen Howell Cottrell that is in process by the Herbert Howell family. I am glad that they are trying to hold on to that special bond they share. I see they no longer use the old round robin method, which I wrote about in the Seasons of Love devotional you mentioned. I understand how this would be difficult with their increasing extended family households. I am sure that the Howell family whom I love and admire tremendously will do whatever it takes to hold on to that bond of closeness and love they exemplify. Although I agree with the validity of Gwen's communication plan and am sure that it will work, I am still an advocate for letter writing.

Martha Stegall, Pontotoc, County's Home Extension Agent, once included the term "kin keepers" in her Pontotoc Progress weekly column. She identified this person as "the glue that holds families together." She mentioned that one thing which qualifies a person to be a kin keeper is to be a letter writer. She also wrote "that kin keepers' activities are largely 'women's work.'" I believe that I qualify as a kin keeper for I stay in touch with "kith and kin" as well as friends through my letter writing. My letters make their way to friends and relatives into fifteen states.

Some of my letters are hand written if they are short, or if I want them to be extra special. I have dashed off letters on a manual typewriter. I followed this method with an electric typewriter, then graduated to a Smith Corona Word Processor more than a dozen years ago. I now write most of my letters on a computer.

I believe in letter writing. Letters can bridge the miles of separation and can bring people together. They can be channels of self-expression and deep human emotions and filter gladness into a drab or discouraged life as they carry a measure of love. One of the blessings I receive through my letter writing is that I know they give pleasure to others.

Card writing is also a part of my communication efforts. Beautiful and appropriate cards sent with a few handwritten words of love and concern can cheer the heart of the receiver whatever the situation is. I am always disappointed when I receive a lovely card from a friend or loved one and find no personal message. It is like meeting a friend in the church or the grocery store who will walk by you without speaking. That is why I always include personal words in every card I send, including Christmas cards.

Through my letter writing I have extended my prayer ministry in a special way. The idea was given to me years ago by a dear friend, Miss Sara Wright. She would say a special prayer for each person to whom she wrote. She would then ask the Lord to bless everyone who touched the letter from the time it left her hand until it was received. I have tried to follow through with this plan and have found that it strengthens my own prayer life and blesses me in a special way.

Some people might think that the scope of letter writing I do is an expensive hobby. It is not a hobby to me and not expensive, all things considered. Once when I mentioned the expense of your newsletter you explained it away by saying you neither smoked nor had expensive recreational hobbies. In the same manner, I can say that I neither use expensive make-up, nor do I buy or wear ear rings, (ear bobs, ear screws), or whatever they are called at this point in time. Maybe I save enough that way to afford my letter writing. I am now more than halfway through my third roll [of stamps] for the year. I spend much more for cards than I do on letter writing materials for I average sending more than a dozen each month.

I read a few lines in a recent feature article that explained how E-mail was fast becoming the leading method of person to person communication. The article went on to say that letter writing was becoming a lost art and would soon be a thing of the past. As long as my brain and fingers function, I shall do my part toward keeping letter writing alive. I hope that my letters, short notes, and cards will continue to give pleasure to those who receive them. I know that the act of writing brings satisfaction to me.

Since I am a kin keeper I "keep" many of the missives I receive. I also have a large notebook filled with copies of my own letters that contain important family or community information. I will use these later to compile my Family Memoirs as a gift to my family and special friends. I don't know when I will begin this project. It should, of necessity, be soon, for I will celebrate my 86^th birthday before 2001 ends.

Historical note from the editor:

The late Miss Sara Wright never married, but was perhaps, from a Baptist's perspective, the closest thing to a nun a Christian woman could ever be. A professing non-denominationalist, Sara Wright was the Bible teacher in the Pontotoc Separate School District in the years I attended high school. Her sacrificial Christian service was an inspiration to many throughout Northeast Mississippi and beyond, while her influence continues in the lives of those to whom she ministered.

Meals For One Delta Dining

With my wife's recent move back to Pontotoc, mealtime in the Delta leaves something to be desired, namely a cook. I was brought up in a home with a stay-at-home mom, so the only times I ever saw my Dad do housework or cook was if Mom was sick and "laid up." Barbara has done a great job juggling a career and keeping a household together while I have, no doubt, been guilty of not doing my fair share of the housework. Blame it on my "raising."

My fair share of our Delta residence has more than doubled over the last eight weeks. If any housework gets done, I do it. I don’t mind saying that doing the laundry, making up the bed, leaving the bathroom and kitchen spotless before heading out for work each day, and functioning as the only cook is not my calling. I definitely think it's a job better suited to women.

I am getting better at preparing meals for one person. The meals themselves may be nutritionally suspect, but I'm steadily improving at my new job. Take breakfast, for example. I like to keep it simple. A slice of apple pie heated in the microwave and topped with a chunk of extra sharp cheddar cheese gets me off to a healthy start (three of the five food groups right there…fruit, bread, and a dairy product).

Dinner (supper) offers more variety and may include entrees such as hamburger steak, hot dogs, red beans and rice, bacon and eggs, or even a variation of pepper steak and rice introduced to me by my wife in which the steak is replaced with smoked sausage. The picture at right illustrates the smoked sausage, onion, and green peppers being sautéed. All of the above entrees are easily prepared and require minimal time in the kitchen.

Side dishes for the above are kept to a minimum also, as some entrees are consumed as a complete meal. Most often, I prepare a baked potato with the hamburger steak but occasionally substitute a green salad. More recently, I sautéed onions and peppers and served them over rice with the hamburger steak.

I phoned Aunt Jo to get her rice pudding recipe a week or so ago because I needed a dessert and rice was plentiful. She told me what all to mix up and how to cook it. I thought it turned out rather tasty, especially, for my first attempt.

Readers are encouraged to send a wholesome (or not) dinner suggestion, for one or two, to the editor, in care of the address of this newsletter. The same editor admits to being peculiar, but is not too peculiar to try something different now and then.

Bodock Beau Taxi Driver & BBQ Events

Bing Crausby found the following taxi story humorous and forwarded it to our attention.

A guy in a taxi wanted to speak to the driver so he leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder.

The driver screamed, jumped up in the air and yanked the wheel over. The car mounted the curb, demolished a lamppost, and came to a stop inches from a shop window.

The startled passenger said, "I didn't mean to frighten you, I just wanted to ask you something."

The Taxi driver said, "It's not your fault sir. It's my first day as a cab driver. I've been driving a hearse for the past 25 years!"

Dena Kimbrell must have been reading our mind, as her contribution came in just prior to press time. (Dena and Bob are the proud parents of Gracie Camille Kimbrell born June 12, 2001. Congratulations!)

When a man Bar-B-Q's the following chain of events is put into motion.
1) The woman goes to the store.
2) The woman fixes the salad, vegetables, and dessert.
3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils, and takes it to the man, who is
lounging beside the grill.
4) The man places the meat on the grill.
5) The woman goes inside to check on the vegetables and set the table.
6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning.
7) The man takes the meat off the grill and hands it
to the woman.
8) The woman prepares the plates and brings them to the table.
9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does
the dishes.
10) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed her "night off."
Upon seeing her annoyed reaction, he concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

For Original Material Only