July 4, 2016

Is it hot or not?  How did we ever survive without air conditioning? Somehow we did. My car’s 12-year-old air conditioner decided it was time to “give up” and quit working. For a few minutes I kept driving with the windows up but soon let them down. I tried opening the sun roof but the sun was just too hot. I got to Diboll Motors as quickly as possible but with the approaching holiday and needing parts, Mike said it would be after the 4^th before he could “fix it”. In the meantime, that meant I would be riding with John Ralph in his red GMC pickup that I detest trying to gracefully get off the ground and into the front seat. We made it for a couple of days and then he decided I need to drive the pickup and follow him on his tractor. Of course that meant I had to re-adjust the seat forward, upward and bring the back toward the front. I didn’t know it would also alter the brake pedal and the accelerator. I thought, I’ll set my personal seat adjustment on number “2” of his fancy pick up and leave his on number “1”. Boy, was that a mistake! Tuesday morning when JR got into his pickup and turned the key on, everything started moving toward my number 2 setting and pressed him like a pancake against the steering wheel. I think it made him panic until someone else was able to reverse the situation. Needless to say, I’m banned from driving his pickup unless I can do so without changing anything! So, I caught a ride to work Tuesday morning only to discover the air conditioning in my office decided to quit working. As I write this, I am sitting in front of an oscillating fan that seems to be blowing hot air toward me and blowing all the papers off my desk. Hopefully, by the time you read this I should be riding and working in cool air conditioning and being ever so thankful for doing so.

Tuesday, Earl and Joyce Carr were at the round table getting their RV ready for another trip and being members of Fairview Baptist Church, told me they had another successful July 4^th event at the church. In talking with the pastor, Gene Hazell, he confirmed it was a great success, their 12^th annual event, but it was also the last. Gene said their first event twelve years ago started because Lufkin decided not to have their annual fireworks display at the zoo. Members of the church got together and planned a July 4^th event and were happy with the 60 or so people that attended that year. They decided to do it the following year and had about 100; the third year about 200 and this year the event drew about 1200 to 1300 people including some from Livingston and Nacogdoches. The pastor said it is a big project that takes several days of preparation using volunteers plus help from the Angelina County Sheriff’s department inmates to assist in setting up and taking the huge tent. There is a 3-1/2 minute filming of the impressive fireworks taken from a drone operated under the technical direction of Logan Lair; it’s on You Tube if you want to see it.

While visiting with Pastor Gene Hazell he invited the public to come to Fairview Baptist Church (at the intersection of FM 58 and FM 2108) on Monday, July 11, at 7PM to hear evangelist and motivational speaker, David Ring. From his website I found the following. “Few individuals have felt the crushing blows that have besieged David Ring since birth. He was born to lose. On October 28th, 1953, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, David was born with Cerebral Palsy. Orphaned at age 14, he was cast about from family to family with nowhere to call home. He endured constant physical pain, humiliating public ridicule and constant discouragement. Yet in the face of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, David emerged not victimized…but victorious! You’ve never heard a speaker quite like David Ring. Although difficult to understand at first, you will soon find yourself captured by his quick wit and warm personality. Mark your calendar and make plans to attend.

Thomas Anderson and Dr. Ed Domingue are both retired and members of the same Sunday school class at First Baptist in Lufkin. These two and other members of their class meet for breakfast at the airport every Wednesday morning then these two come to the round table and visit. Andrea volunteered to cook their breakfast the following Wednesday at the round table. Present for homemade biscuits, eggs, bacon and sausage the next week were Larry Ross, Roy Cates, Jerry Hennington, Thomas and Dr. Domingue. Woody Ingram who drinks coffee every morning before leaving to “fire the boilers” also enjoyed eating and visiting with the guys. They were all complimentary of Andrea’s “cathead” biscuits.

A group of ladies who gather for lunch every Thursday drove to Woodville to enjoy a family style meal at The Pickett House. Enjoying the ride was JoNell Placker, Joyce Carlton, Mary Lou Havard and their designated driver, Kathreen Chuke. JoNell and Joyce stopped by the round table for coffee later in the afternoon. I owe JoNell an apology for a note I found about her cousin, Sue Liles, who was in town visiting her. Sue grew up in Alto but now lives in Port Charlotte, FL and has taught school in six different states. Sue only spent one night with JoNell because she was unable to sleep with the train coming through during the night.

We thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet and visit with Ernie and Peggy Battle when they stopped “just to look around”. They live in the South Bend subdivision off FM58 across from “The Lot” that is shared between Sandra and Joe Varga and the Larry Choates. It looks more like a park, beautifully landscaped and where the Battles were invited to celebrate the 4^th of July with neighbors. Ernie and Peggy are relatively new to this area and John Ralph tried to tell them everything he could about Diboll and the surrounding area. In fact, Ernie borrowed one of Bob Bowman’s books from our mini library to learn more history about this area.

Peggy Burt was thoughtful to bring us a pan of cinnamon rolls to share at the round table. The delicious cinnamon rolls were made by Tina Jowell who is making a name for herself with her baking talents. She loves to bake and will be happy to take orders for anyone needing something sweet. She calls her hobby, Dessert First and you can reach her on her cell at 1-512-963-2600.

Ray Paulsey plans to not do anymore weed eating with the purchase of 2-1/2 gallons of the weed killer “Eraser”.

I have visited with David McCarty from Leggett before when he’s come in to buy garden seeds as he did last week. This time he was wearing shorts and I had not realized he is an amputee. That doesn’t seem to slow him down as he works and still gardens. Just a few years ago he learned the art of cleaning windows and made his living doing so with customers in Woodville, Trinity, Livingston, Corrigan and Diboll. Some of you may remember seeing him while cleaning windows at Brookshire Brothers, First Bank & Trust, City of Diboll or the Dairy Cream.

Hey, my office is cooling down thanks to Ricky Morris with Morris Air Conditioning and Mike Shivers at Diboll Motors just called to say my car is ready! Both of these dependable and reliable businesses belong to the Diboll Business Association which encourages you to shop locally.

Stay cool and come see us…’round the table.