July 31, 2017

Jimmie Woodard was on another one of her adventures Friday.  Her sister-in-law, Cindy Parish, invited her to go with her and husband Andrew Parish to the Longview Hot Air Balloon Race and Show.  Also along for the fun was Cindy and Andy’s daughter and son-in-law Traci and Andrew Hall and their daughters Remie and Sadie, daughter Hannah Parish and her son Aiden and daughter Emily Hale and her step daughter Kynsleigh and niece Josie Hambrick.  Andrew Parish drove the front caravan vehicle and Cindy navigated!   The only problem was, Cindy thought they were on their way to Longview where they saw Santa Land, which was totally incorrect!!!  Santa Land — was in Lindale!!!!!  SSOOO, 45 minutes into the trip it was noted that they were headed to the wrong city and going the wrong way!  No problem for Cindy, she immediately checks with SIRI, who lead them down some narrow, bumpy, curvy, dusty, yet scenic back roads. Vehicles following them were in tremendous wonderment as to where they were headed and would they arrive in time for the show. At one point Andrew decided to get a paper map out and check to see what was up??!!

The 1 hour 45 minute trip only took 2 ½ hours, but the journey was definitely well worth it.  There were 55 balloon teams and as they began to prepare their balloons, audience members were invited to come and help roll out the balloons.  It was a fun experience as adults took children to the field to participate in the balloon roll out and the children definitely enjoyed participating in the event!   The teams began to inflate their balloons. One team member informed them that the balloons held an average of 88,000 cubic feet of air.  Balloons were extremely colorful and beautifully designed.  Some of the balloons were designed in animal shapes such as a cat, Keystone cop, bulldog or a clown.   After all balloons were inflated the National Anthem was sang and there was a countdown for the balloon glow.    The teams ignited their fuel and the glow of the flames filled the balloons with light which reflected their colorful beauty.  It was exciting and totally awesome!!

Since the event is produced by the Detached Marine Corp League, there were helicopters and jets on display for viewing.   At this event, there were vendors and food booths to take your money but also live musical entertainment.  It was an awesome adventure and everyone should attend the event to experience the excitement of the Hot Air Balloons!!!

Following is news from Jan Wilkerson about their latest adventure: Each summer we (Jan and Burlon) take the grand kids on an adventure.  This year we went to Waco for a couple of days.  We left Diboll on Thursday morning with grandchildren; Annabeth, 11, and Ryan Wilkerson, 8.  We stopped in Marquez to pick up 4 year old Neely.  After lunch in Waco, our daughter Melanie and 11 month old Jake met us at the Mayborn Museum.  The Museum is a hands-on experience for children.  Adults have almost as much fun in the different rooms where everything from a small town, the electricity and music to telephones can be experienced. It is all indoors and offers hours of fun for everyone.  Following a full afternoon, the kids were ready to head to the hotel and swim.  We had picked a hotel with an indoor pool–pretty smart for hot July days! On Friday, the morning was spent at the beautiful Cameron Zoo.  The Zoo is laid out in a circle and is very shaded making for a comfortable walk through to see the animals.  That afternoon was spent at the Dr. Pepper Museum. A stop back in Marquez and the kids getting to swim again topped off the trip.  Everyone had a great time.

Recently Jan was a guest at the Texas PTA Summer Training held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.  As a past president of the association, Jan was invited back to help with the event and Burlon joined her for part of the weekend.

Ruth Mullins recently attended a Neil Diamond concert in Houston’s Toyota Center. Her daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Bob Pennington, treated her to this special event.  Although he is 76 years old he still has devoted fans as Ruth and thousands of others. Neil Diamond is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. One of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, he has sold over 135 million records worldwide since the start of his career in the 1960s. With 38 songs in the Top 10, he is the second most successful artist in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary Top 10 charts.

Earl and Carolyn Hutson heard it was time to fertilize azaleas and came in for special fertilizer. Trey and Rachel Brown came in to get a tire repaired on their cattle trailer. They were taking cows to the auction and had plans to pick up their daughter, Kynlee from her great-grandparents Alma and Billy Wayne Breazeale. Kynlee loves going to the auction and seeing the cattle. One of the newest people to move to Diboll from Texarkana is Erna Adams who is a sister to Leonard Robison. We are happy that she came in and purchased new tires and enjoyed visiting at the Round Table. It must have been the day for flats: Jerri Kay Minchew came in for tire repair as well as Don Bess who was trying hard to get hay cut, raked and baled before it rained. Not worried about the rain was Skeeter Scarborough, Joe Paul Stovall and Jimmy McCall who enjoyed visiting at the RT. Poor Rodney Cheshire had to get out in the heat to use his new Stihl weed eater

It was a sad day for Kathy Sample when her mare “Goldie”, died. Her full name was “Twice the Gold”. Once retired from the race track, she was a gift from Clifford Grum and became a broodmare for race horses at the Sample’s on FM1818. Kathy said Goldie was a good mother and took care of the calves, donkey and horses. Kathy said when the cows got out of the pasture, Goldie would come to the back fence and “whine” to let Kathy know something was wrong. Goldie was truly Twice the Gold and “queen of the pasture”.

Anyone that has heard of Fastrill, an early Southern Pine logging camp near Forrest, Texas might want to join others who have stories from that time in the history of Southern Pine Lumber Company. Several who remember living there plan to meet at Catfish King on Saturday, August 12th at 11:30. John Powers remembers growing up in Fastrill and is encouraging anyone that is interested to join them for lunch. The name Fastrill came from three men who had an important part of the logging camp: Farrington, Strauss and Hill: Fa-Str-ill.

Stay cool, send me your news and come see us…’round the table.