Life in a small Mississippi Town.

"Christiansen's Comments" from Hinds County Gazette "Scout and Gabby" came to Grandma's

2012-02-06T09:19:00.000-06:00

Oh! My Word! It was a rough weekend here at 201….

I baby sat daughter Angela’s dogs. We each have two dogs, so that is four dogs in the house and yard, which would not have been terrible, but she has a 6 month old puppy and I have a 6 month old puppy…The puppies never stopped…they never stopped barking, they never stopped chewing, they never stopped running, they never stopped digging. I am exhausted my older dog Shelby is exhausted.

Angela's Scout and Gabby

My Emma

approximately 6 monthes

My beautiful quiet Shelby

The back yard looks like a war zone…. holes every where…they dumped the garbage can over… ripped in to the garbage and strew trash all around. Angela’s puppy Scout turns over flower pots, then totes the pots around scattering them to all corners….she brought one clay pot up the ramp, when I yelled she dropped it and it shattered in to a hundred pieces….what a mess.

Scout pulled the rugs off my back porch…into the yard, so she and my puppy Emma could play tug a war. I don’t know if the rugs are salvageable…probably not.

Angela’s dogs are gone now, so when the sun comes up good and it gets a bit warmer I shall go clean up the back yard…

But what Angela’s puppy Scout did here isn’t the worst performance of her short life…at her house Scout has a doggie door, one day while Angela was at work; she pulled the water hose in the house through the doggie door!!! All 50 feet! Maybe it was just 25 feet….. Still and all quite an accomplishment.

When Angela’s other dog, Gabby, was a puppy I went out and planted bushes along the back fence…Well, Gabby one by one, over time, managed to pull them all up… every one!…about the time you thought she was finished destroying bushes, she would dig up another …a few she pulled through the doggie door…one not only did she manage to pull through the doggie door, she maneuvered it through the house and up on the bed while Angela slept.

We have had lots of rain so the yard was still quite muddy….so all in the kitchen and up and down the hall muddy paw prints abound. I have called for help…Ms Addie will tend to the mud and paw prints…while I will work on the yard.

But first I got to go out to Cannada Farms, Scott just called, he has deer meat for me…I am going to try to make deer tamales…I will let you know how they turn out.

Love to all

Call if you need me

"Christiansen comments" Hinds County Gazette January 19 2012

2012-01-23T09:40:00.006-06:00

My life is grand…Oh, there have been up and downs…peaks and valleys…but all things considered it has been good. Why I bring this up, is lately, I have been giving life “The Big Think”…as a result of this “Big Think” I have come to believe that there are two sweet spots in this life…one was my childhood.

This picture did not end up where I wanted it to...
This is down town Bolton Mississippi...

I grew up in a small town on the Nebraska plains…where we even at the age 5 and 6 we could roam the entire town….We were never bored because we had places to go and things to do… And our mothers turned us loose with no fear because the whole town watched after us. If we went to misbehaving, even mildly misbehaving, seemingly out of no where an adult would appear and tend to us…the ladies were usually wearing an apron….The men who stopped to inquiry about our activities, they might be wearing a suit and tie, more often overalls, or coveralls. Farmers hauling a full load of grain, on the way to the elevator, or a load of cattle to the stock yard, would stop and get out, to find out what we were up to…we could have pocket knives, BB guns, our homemade sling shots and bows and arrows…but you better not get caught with matches, cigarettes….or any liquid that resembled gasoline.

House I grew up in..back then the front porch was not enclosed

Main Street Palisade

Palisade from North of town

As a kid growing in Palisade Nebraska, my days were my own; there were not many demands on my time. Back then, we didn’t have soccer, dance classes etc. that we had to deal with and make plans around. Oh, once in a while somebody would have to break off, go home and get cleaned up, so they could go to their piano lesson. But life as a kid for me, was relatively uncomplicated, as long I respected my elders, behaved at school and church, and was home for dinner and supper on time,.

After childhood came 40 years that I had to be grown up, be responsible and productive, I am not complaining and those 40 years were good, and I enjoyed them.

But I am coming to realize my old age is not unlike my childhood… when I wake up in the morning…..most days are my own… I can choose what I want to do….. Make concrete leaves; hang out in my shop, play with my friends or just putter. Nobody is depending on me.

My little buddy Whit, he is 18 months old now, I am 67, I am coming to realize he and I are not at unlike stages of life, just at opposite ends of it. My old age and Whit's childhood are alike in many ways….As long as, we don’t make a lot of noise; behave and do not do anything dangerous. The adults of this world…. pretty much leave us alone to do what we please.

Love to all

Call if you need me

PS. My friend Alan Huffman has a new book coming out soon….The title is We're with Nobody: , The Web page for the new book is http://www.werewithnobody.com/

Alan lives in “The Greater Bolton area, where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown”….that is what James Anderson always says about Bolton…I couldn’t help myself. But any way Alan will be in Jackson at Lemuria February 21 signing copies…he will be other places too…. Oxford, New York City, Greenwood

But if you miss those events… buy the book…I feel sure we can get it signed for you….perhaps we can arrange to have a signing off the tailgate of his pickup right down town Bolton Mississippi…”Where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown.” Again sorry I just can not help my self….anytime I say “Bolton” I have to say, “Where the grass is green, the sky is blue and the water is brown.” Sorry………

Oh!!!! There is a video trailer for the book…I am in it!!!! I am expecting Hollywood to call anytime now.

Christiansen's Comments from Hinds County Gazette Published January 12 2012

2012-01-17T09:03:00.001-06:00

Good Morning and Happy new year!

This morning as I write from my home, here at the South end of Main Street, downtown Edwards, Mississippi, it is foggy and a light drizzle is steady coming down. For several days, here in Mid Mississippi, it has been incredibly mild. This morning while I ate my breakfast at the kitchen table, the back door was wide open….the sounds of a steady drizzle and birds noisily waking up, came through the open door to my ears delight.

The weather of late has been spring like, highs in the 60s approaching 70….I take that back, it is not Spring like…the recent days have been much prettier then spring.

Winter is not my favorite; the days are short, often depressing, grey, dreary and cold. But I come to appreciate, the clear, sun filled days of winter, the sun’s light is coming from a low southern angle, which makes the shadows long and spectacular…the strong winter sun light makes the woods sparkle…the world sparkles. The clear, sunny days of winter, to me are the prettiest days of the entire year…they are magnificent. Winter’s sunlight is exquisite; it is so intense….rather piercing at times, I feel like it could be going straight through me.

The answer to “why aren’t you writing?” first of all, I have come to realize in my old age, that I can not do as much in a day as I once could.....during the holidays there are so many things to do…there is cooking, the decorating and lots and lots of fun events and parties!

Second, my stride was broke by a minor medical predicament. The medical thing was minor for sure…but the treatment was major in my book….It required stitches was quite painful……so I lost several days to recouping…bed bound…not because the doctor ordered me to be in bed…but bed is the safest place for old people on medication…we do not need to be up wobbling around…risking turning a minor medical event, into a major medical catastrophe.

I was quite whiny during my recovery…..then Charles Davis reminded me what the definition of minor surgery is, “Surgery that is happening to someone else.” Charles made me feel much less guilty about my whining.

Love to all, see you next week

Call if you need me

Christiansen's Comments Hinds county Gazette December 8 2011

2011-12-19T08:56:00.000-06:00

"Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord"

I have come to believe, we Christians have become way over sensitive….

There seems to be an objection to folks saying “Happy Holidays”, the thinking is by saying “Happy Holidays” we are taking Christ out of Christmas. They want us to say “Merry Christmas”. I am not against “Merry Christmas” but I see nothing wrong with “Happy Holidays” ether.

Frankly there are many celebrations between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day that have little to do with the commemorating the birth of Jesus. Many parties! And at some of parties, you are more apt to hear “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” then “O Holy Night”.

Every year we complain…”I just want an old fashion Christmas”

Is an old fashion Christmas is out there? like we picture it… from beginning to end? Mama in her apron baking up fruitcakes and ginger bread….Daddy with the kids going to the woods to cut down the Christmas tree….then the entire family drinking hot chocolate, stringing popcorn, and decorating the tree while carolers are singing outside… Was time between Thanksgiving and Christmas ever like that? Every moment of every day?.

Often Christmas morning it is a living room full of empty boxes and piles of torn wrapping paper…cooking that has to be done, oven timers buzzing, dirty pots and pans soaking in the sink and the sound of the dish washer running…phones ringing folks explaining they will be there… but late …it is chaotic, messy, disorganized and often quite grueling….Nothing like we hoped it would be….

But I believe there is a wonderful Christmas out there to be enjoyed in this year of 2011. But it may be that it comes in little snap shots…. Last Friday evening, the St. Philip’s Parish Choir gave an Advent and Christmas Concert at St. Marks in Raymond…it was a Christ filled…the voices were full and rich… not loud. The choir sounded much larger then the sum of its singers. And when they sang ‘O holy Night’…I wish you all had been there! It was an old fashion, Norman Rockwell kind of Christmas moment taking place in beautiful little antebellum church, in small town America.

last Saturday morning I was in Bolton to deliver my caramels to St. Mary’s Christmas bazaar, when I pulled up in front of St. Mary’s, Christmas music was playing, folks were scurrying around outside, setting up tables for the chicken spaghetti dinner, they would be serving later, on the inside many hands were arranging the bazaar items and an other group was getting the silent auction organized….lots of cheerful chatter and laughter. What is more old fashion then a church bazaar? It was another Norman Rockwell moment, in a beautiful little church, in small town America

I left there and went on down the Street, pulled up in front of Gaddis McLaurin Hardware Store, The Hardware store is a vintage building. I wished I had had my camera, there were two guys, one black guy and one white guy, one standing on the sidewalk, the other was up on a ladder, they had a string of lights stretched between them, they were working… twisting and turning the lights, in an effort to get the long string disentangle, so they could be hung them from the awning… a classic Rockwell moment.

Then I traveled on back to Edwards to meet Jacqueline at the church to decorate the tables in the Fellowship Hall for the nibbles following the Sunday evening Christmas program. Jacqueline broke away from decorating to practice with Dave Harpole, Dave would be singing ‘O holy Night’ for the Sunday evening Christmas service….As I am spreading table clothes, I could hear the sound of Jacqueline playing the piano and Dave’s voice coming from the sanctuary… A Rockwell moment.

The decorating continued, then on after while, Jacqueline once again left the fellowship hall to practice with the children… children’s voices and ringing bells coming from the sanctuary…Rockwell moment.

Later in the day I took food to the Methodist Family Center, much activity, they were preparing a funeral meal for the family of their dear friend Bobby Smith, Bobby husband had died on Thursday. Bobby has played the piano at the Methodist church for years. The Methodists were doing what they could to comfort a friend. Another Rockwell moment.

Last night was the Christmas program at the Presbyterian Church, it too was magnificent, lots of talented people took part… my favorite is always the children. Rockwell moment.

Christmas can be a difficult time…we are conflicted, Christmas morning we want to see Santa coming down the chimney with a sack full of gifts and the baby Jesus laying in a manger.

I made my peace with this season…I hope God intends for me to enjoy all aspects of Christmas…. because I do!

Love to all

PS

And I wish folks would stop trying to make other folks feel guilty about shopping…Because shopping black Friday…for that matter any shopping is not commercializing Christmas. Christmas is what is in our heart. The folks who only have the material side…of the holidays in their heart…I am hear to tell you this….stopping them from shopping is not going to fill their heart with the love of Christ.

Christiansen's comments.. Hinds County Gazette.. November 24 2011

2011-12-05T08:40:00.000-06:00

Last week, I had typed “call if you need me”, copied and pasted it to email, and I was fixing to hit “Send”, when the computer screen went blank. I tried every thing, I knew to do, to get it to come back on…turning it off and on and unplugging it, is about all I know to do….no success.

As soon as the clock said 8AM, I called Chuck, Chuck came and began working on my sick computer…He unscrewed some things, took it outside and blew air in it, it was a valiant effort. But nothing Chuck did could bring life back to my laptop computer. So, way on after while, Chuck had no choice but to pronounce my laptop dead, Ruby was her name, Ruby died of a heat stroke….she just got too hot.

But, it was not all bad…Chuck was able to resurrect my old, slow, almost dead, desk top computer…I am so pleased to have it back up and running. I like the clicking keys of a key board….I feel more productive, and so very cleaver and like a grown up setting behind a full size computer screen….

So anyway, last weeks column is lost forever…It was about my putting up the Christmas tree….and how I have come to believe, nobody actually looks at anybody else’s tree…except to give it a quick glance on their way to the beverages and nibbles….

Nobody looks and sees and wonders why there is an empty can of Gold River chewing tobacco on one of the limbs or that there are Vietnam era dog tags hanging from an upper branch. Folks are not interested in how old my kids were when they constructed ornaments out of walnuts. My kids don’t even care. The people who were actually interested in my Christmas tree have died…and John was only mildly interested….But Mother loved a Christmas tree. But for visitors, if the tree has lights and a few red balls it passes as a Christmas tree.

John's dog tags

Empty can of Gold River chewing tobacco

So keeping all of that in mind…. I only bedecked about 1/3 of my Christmas tree this year, the 1/3 that actually can be seen while standing in my living room…the other 2/3 is shoved back in the corner.

More then 2/3 of the loyal, and elderly decorations were left in the foot locker, at the end of the bed, in the back bedroom….I feel bad about that…it sort of like they didn’t get picked for the team...Here it is the holidays their only time to show off…and they are left in a dark foot locker…

I was hoping Whit might show some interest in my Christmas tree…he did but it was fleeting.

Whit briefly looks at the Christmas tree

Whit loves the attic though…last week was his first time to go up…He found one of Adam’s old Tonka trucks, and was he ever thrilled…jabbered and jabbered about it.

Whit first trip to the attic

Love to all

Be safe this holiday season and call if you need me.

PS. Remember St. Mary’s bazaar and spaghetti lunch December 4, the proceeds are going toward the continuing restoration of the beautiful old church. I am planning on making caramels for the bazaar.

Christiansen's Coments...Hinds county Gazette

2011-11-21T07:43:00.000-06:00

Yippee

Blog spot would not let me place pictures like I wanted today...Taylor is at the bottom of the page...

Keith McKey and Whit

Angela and Whit thier first meeting

Yippee!!!!!

I just became aware, this very morning, that there is still one thing on this old body that still works.

Yesterday, Sunday, was the day we changed our clocks, left daylight savings time behind and went back to the real, genuine, authentic time. Back when I was growing up the time never changed. When did daylight savings became official …early 70s? Well, not sure… but when ever it was, since then, I have been discombobulated for two or three weeks in the Fall when we “fall back” and two or three weeks in the Spring when we “spring forward”.

My knees hurt, my hands ache, my brain and body has slowed down, way down. But when I woke up this morning and the clock said 5:30 and not 4:30...4:30 has been my usual time since Spring…It tumbled to me, a “Bear of little brain”. I do not wake up abnormally early…It is my body clock, it just does not change, I wake up the same time summer and winter. So the rest of my old carcass is wearing out, but my body clock is still working!!!! Never stopped!!!!! For some reason I find that comforting.

I still do not like the shorter days…but there are no more hours of sun light in the days of winter…. no matter what time we by.

Next week ,I will be bringing my Christmas tree down from the attic and begin the setting up process, then commence hanging ornaments….This might be a bit early even for me. But, I am not even one of the “busy” people and my calendar is filling right on up. And Of Course I do not want to miss anything….So the tree will get ornamented in fits and starts again this year

.

I am more energized about setting up the tree up this year…because of Whit…but I am not so sure he will be very excited…. at 1 ½ years old …everything is new to him…so even quite atypical occurrences are just part of his normal day. He watches with curiosity, and great interest, but not with amazement…..it has been my observance it is when children get a little older, is when they begin realize, a speeding fire truck with sirens screaming, is not an everyday happening…then they get excited and amazed. Right now for Whit, a train whistling down the track is no more or less exciting then finding a new rock. Whit is rather fond of rocks, he has quite a collection.

Last week, East Group Properties in down town Jackson , had a Trick or Treat Party. Keith, Peggy Ann’s husband, and my daughter Angela work there…it was for the children and grand children of the employees. Peggy Ann and I, not ones to miss a party if we can help it, went and borrowed us each a grand child, Whit and his big brother, 5 year old, Taylor…and headed to Jackson. I told you all of that to tell you this… Taylor was far more excited then Whit…to Whit it was just another day in his world…an interesting day to be sure…but no more fascinating then standing at the fence in his back yard watching the goats.

Taylor looking uo at the tall building in down town Jackson Mississippi

Got to go! I want to try a new tamale recipe Lindsay Noble Jr. gave me…interesting, instead of wrapping them in corn husks they are wrapped in coffee filters.

　

Whit enjoying his loot

Christiansen's Comments From Hinds County Gazette 10/27/2011

2011-10-31T08:05:00.003-05:00

Think on this…

It is recess time and a class room of 4^th graders are on the play ground, there are three swings and three children are occupying the swings. …..one of the children decides he wants to have the other children’s swings…so he takes them. Is that appropriate behavior?

You know, the older I get the less politically opinionated I have become. Honestly, I can’t keep up with the politics and the ins and outs of government. Truth , seems to me is not only the “first causality of war” Truth appears to me, is also a causality in political affairs and government dealings. Maybe there is not so much out and out lying , as omitting of vital details.

We The People were lead to believe things were rocking along just fine back in 2007…then we woke up one morning the stock market was taking a nose-dive, mortgage companies and Banks were in serious trouble, the housing market was collapsing, 401 Ks had lost billions and folks retirement investments were in serious jeopardy. And the bail outs began …we are still reeling from all of that.

Why did we not see that coming…I have come to believe crucial details were left out all along the way…by government, banks, Wall Street. The news media at one time did a better job of keeping us in the loop….but bless their hearts ….they have all “news” they can handle just trying to keep up with Charlie, Lindsey, Brittney, Paris and all those other celebs….OH! OH! And who might be getting kicked off of Dancing with the Stars, they keep us in that loop.

So anyway, I some years back made the decision I would no longer watch the news…because it made me angry and there was nothing I could do. In fact by the time the public becomes aware of the bizarre happenings out there in the world of government and high finance…it is already in catastrophe stage…too massive for me, bear of little brain, to do anything about. So I became a more or less isolationist …. I made this decision, where politics were concerned, I would mind my own business and stick my nose into nothing except what effects this hill.

So now then about Initiative 31 that will be on our ballots November 8.…Initiative 31, involves us all, it deals with eminent domain ….the government can acquire land from folks for the good of all…roads, schools, utilities all such as that …..anyway that was the way it was until the 2005 supreme court ruling.

From. About.com

July 2005

"In its 5-4 decision in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important, if very controversial, interpretation of the government's power of "eminent domain," or the power of the government to take land from property owners.

The power of eminent domain is granted to governmental bodies -- federal, state and local -- by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, under the simple phrase, "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." In simple terms, the government can take privately owned land, as long as the land will be used by the public and the owner is paid a fair price for the land, what the amendment calls, "just compensation."

Before Kelo v. City of New London, cities typically exercised their power of eminent domain to acquire property for facilities clearly intended for use by the public, like schools, freeways or bridges. While such eminent domain actions are often viewed as distasteful, they are generally accepted because of their overall benefit to the public.

The case of Kelo v. City of New London, however, involved a new trend among cities to use eminent domain to acquire land for the redevelopment or revitalization of depressed areas. Basically, the use of eminent domain for economic, rather than public purposes."

So back to the kid on the play ground that seized the swings, who took them from the children who were there first and swinging happily and turned the swings over to another party, not for the good of all the school’s children, but to his the friends. Is that a nice way to play?

So then now I ask this, is it a nice thing to do for the government of Mississippi to be able invoke eminent domain and commandeer land from rightful owners, who do not want to sell their land and give it to someone else….not for the good of all but so those folks can profit? Would that a nice way to treat the citizens of Mississippi?

Initiative 31, does at least, keep the Government of Mississippi from selling or giving it away for ten years.

summary of the amendment reads as follows

Initiative #31 would amend the Mississippi Constitution to prohibit state and local government from taking private property by eminent domain and then conveying it to other persons or private businesses for a period of ten years after acquisition. Exceptions from the prohibition include drainage and levee facilities, roads, bridges, ports, airports, common carriers, and utilities. The prohibition would not apply in certain situations, including public nuisance, structures unfit for human habitation, or abandoned

property.[9]

Summary of the 2005 United States Supreme court decision. Read the last line if you read no other part of it.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005)[1] was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. The case arose from the condemnation by New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property so that it could be used as part of a comprehensive redevelopment plan which promised 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues. The Court held in a 5–4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The city eventually agreed to move Susette Kelo's house to a new location and to pay substantial additional compensation to other homeowners. The redeveloper was unable to obtain financing and abandoned the redevelopment project, leaving the land as an empty lot,[2] which was eventually turned into a dump by the city."
At some point We the people must stop relinquishing our unalienable rights to the government,…I shall be voting “yes” on Initiative #31

Call if you need me

Christiansen's Comments for publication Hinds county Gazette October 20 2011

2011-10-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

Mississippi Summers are hot, and so very, very humid, just wretched.

Therefore we don’t plan many happenings from end of May until the end of September. About the only time we get out of our limp, flimsy, comfy clothes is to go to church or a funeral.

And as the generation before us, those who at least tried to set a standard of dress for us, now that they are passing on…you can see most any kind of attire now…even at funeral and weddings. My “uniform” this past summer was a wrinkled, (designed to be wrinkled) roomy, all cotton, pants and tops…I had two outfits of them in the natural color and one black…If you saw me this summer you saw me in one of those…even at church…My mother would have fussed, “They look like Pajamas to me.”

But, we here in rural Hinds County have been running in the fast lane lately, beginning for me, with Edwards Cemetery day, the first day of October.

Cemetery Day was closely followed, by ten days of pilgrimage events in Raymond. October 9, Bethesda Presbyterian Church, it is just south of Edwards, on Cannada Cross road, they had their 133 homecoming, with dinner on the grounds. That afternoon it was on to Second Sunday at St Mary‘s Episcopal in Bolton. The blessing of the animals was at 3 and Evening Prayers at 4, followed by the Hinds community college’s Jubilee singers…there just not enough weekends or weekdays for that matter in the month of October to get everything in, so most weekends there are multiple events. And besides the community events … there are football games, soccer games, pig pick’ns, flea markets and the Mississippi state fair etc….

The calendar is chaotic with all the carryings on…and you do not want to miss anything you are invited to if you can help it…this past Saturday evening, Peggy Ann, (Keith was out of town), and I, attempted to get to three, we got to two…the third we became hopelessly lost…The GPS on Peggy phone was so inconsistent we could never get the “Pin” and the “Pulsating Dot” together no matter which way we turned…and we went every which way but up! It was dark and it got to be very late…So we way on after while finally gave up and went home….we were enormously disappointed.

I haven’t mentioned my new dog Emma yet. Emma’s linage is unknown, speculations include, a mix of…. beagle, lab, Jack Russell, pit bull, and heeler …don’t know how big she is going to be ether…those guesses range from “she is about as big, as she is going to get” to “one hand shy of a Shetland pony.” Do not know how old she is ether…she still has baby teeth….and she chews a lot.

My New Dog Emma

Whit's New best friend

We are going to Bolton to Dr. Farr this week and get her shots, and see what he says…And to Gaddis McLaurin to get her a collar with her name and phone number on it. Kay turner went with me to pick up Emma, she harped all the way home that “Emma needs to have a collar” Kay wanted it with a phone number and a name to call.
So I put a collar on Emma …but it is not hers, it is Shelby’s, Shelby is my borrowed dog…I borrowed her from Jacqueline and Russell…when daughter Angela borrowed my dog Charlie…and I was dog less. Shelby does not need a collar, she never leaves this hill. Shelby’s Collar has Russell’s name and number on it…But it satisfied Kay, and put her mind at ease.
Emma is a wonderful dog! Shelby, Scout and I are tickled to have her.
Love to all
Call if you need me

Christiansen's Commments Hinds County Gazette October 6 2011

2011-10-10T08:35:00.002-05:00

While folks were worrying about me and my bus trip….

My friend Peggy Cannada McKey was in Grand Rapids Michigan, attending a National board meeting for Bethany Christian Services , Bethany is a non-profit Adoption and family service agency…This is a cause close Peggy’s heart, and for years, ever since I have known her, the entire McKey family has supported Peggy and they too have been committed to this organization. The family through the years kept and cared for many Bethany babies that were waiting for families.
WWW.Bethanyservices.org

Let me get back to what I was telling you…Peggy while in Grand Rapids was hit by a truck! Peggy was headed out for an early morning walk, she had to cross five lanes of traffic…She waited for the traffic to stop, then commenced to cross the street…a truck that obviously did not see her, began making a right hand turn, collided with Peggy, and tossed her several feet, with a force great enough to knock one of her shoes off. Peggy fell backwards landed on to her elbows and her head bash into the pavement…It was cold so Peggy was wearing a coat…the heavy coat kept the scrapes and bruises from being real bad and ugly. And her head landed on her pony tail…Peggy has a very thick head of hair…so thiick in fact she didn't even have knot on her noggin! However the barrette holding her pony tail, did succumb to the impact of Peggy Ann‘s head meeting the pavement ….it was in pieces. And some body retrieved her shoe…So she is calling it all Good! She is Not out done with anybody…..

Those McKeys are resilient lot…All of them…the kids, the grand kids… all of them! Active bunch too…and once in a while something gets broke… an arm or leg ….but more often then not they just bounce…and are right back up.

We are experiencing ideal weather here in mid Mississippi…cool , dry and abundant sunshine. Perfect for working outside….And that is what I have doing, I have been out with my arsenal of tools, conducting a war here at 201…I set out to conquer that tangle of thorny elaeagnus…the hedge at the bottom of this hill…I don’t know how long that hedge is 30 or 40 feet… maybe more. I hauled a least 6 pick up loads of branches to the burn pile. It took days, but I persevered and won! But this was not a battle with out injury, the barbs on elaeagnus stabbed right through my clothes and scratched my arms all up. And!! I was attacked by a flying insect of some kind…I heard it, but didn‘t ever see it ….it stung me on the back of the neck. But still and all Victory was mine!

Do not worry about the elaeagnus, believe me it will come back, to fight another day, stronger then ever. I am getting older….the strength and endurance I use to take for granted is waning ….I know one day the elaeagnus will be triumphant….but it wasn’t this time.

Lots happening around rural Hinds County in October…

Raymond is having their Pilgrimage beginning this week…goes for two weeks…lots of do not miss events….They were listed in last weeks Gazette and I bet they are in this paper…. Or you can go to their web site. www.friendsofraymond.org

St Mark's Raymond
Thursday's Lecture

There going to be an Old Time Gospel Sing at the old Rock Springs Church Saturday…I hope to be there…Then Sunday, Bethesda Presbyterian Church is having their Home Coming.. I plan to be there. It is Second Sunday at St. Marks in Bolton too. Besides the 4 O’clock prayer service, they are having a blessing of the animals at 3...I plan to be there.

St Mary's in Bolton
Second sunday services

Blessing of the Animals at St Mary's
Billie Abraham
Angela Christiansen
Scout

Bethesda Presbyterian 1826
Home coming

Edwards Cemetery was Day Saturday (october 1)….beautiful day, big turn out!

Love to all

Christiansen's Comments from Hinds County Gazette September 29 2011

2011-10-03T11:32:00.001-05:00

I have been to Nebraska to a family reunion…

took the bus. My family, fiends, acquaintances and total strangers have questioned my sanity….not only because it takes a long time to go by bus, but folks have a perception of who rides the bus….like I could to be in danger from the unsavory characters they envision ride cross county buses. And it didn’t help matters when my friend dropped me off at the bus station…and a patrol car pulled up with a newly released prisoner to get on the bus….it is not an uncommon occurrence.

I have encountered the full gamut of folks while riding the bus…Middle class folks riding a bus to catch a plane, so they do not have to leave car in a parking garage for great lengths of time……Jet planes do not service great portions of America.

And there are still great numbers of folks who do not fly at all…and Trains service far more limited areas of America then buses…Did meet two couples who were riding the bus to catch a train.

And tourists ….This trip I chatted with French and German tourists.

And there are folks who for various reasons do not drive…the prevailing reason among the younger set is no drivers license….DUIs most common reason. Some people with the more age.. just do not feel comfortable driving outside of their communities.

And there are those people who are just plain cheap…I count myself amongst those people….the 1000 plus mile bus ride was $199 round trip! Driving I calculate with gas and motel stays to be well over $500.

This trip, my favorite travelers were a sweet young couple, who with their two very young children were traveling to a job…They had sold much of what they owned to buy the bus tickets and meals for the trip…What was left of their material belongings was packed in large suitcases…. Sort of a modern day “Grapes of Wrath” They were not bitter and whining, they were so happy to be going to a job. Their children were clean, well behaved, and happy…what this family lacked in material belongings…they make up in spirit…a kind, humble and gentle spirit.

I must tell you , if being close to the massively pierced and tattooed make you uncomfortable…Bus riding probably should not be your first choice for travel. ….or if you are in a hurry it is not a good choice….One of the drivers got lost. But for seeing the countryside and people watching it can’t be beat.

Next time you go to wal-mart look around, that is the type of folks you see on the bus. All sizes, shapes colors. You do not see many men in three piece, pin stripped, suits nor do you see many men passed out drunk. …not on the at wal mart or the bus…but you see both near bus stops. Bus stops, in cities, are often downtown. Downtown amongst the tall buildings…one man works and the other man lives and sleeps.

My mother had a high degree of tolerance for the eclectic, and the down trodden, back in the day, our house was marked by the homeless men riding the train, they passed house after house and came straight to ours….mother never turned away the hungry. “They are God’s children” I was never taught to be afraid of people who were different then me… so I am not…I might should be… but I am not.

And there was my John, he would stop the car and get out and give a few dollars to homeless men on the streets of downtown Jackson. I would say, “ you know he is just going to go buy liquor with that money.”

John’s answer…”what ever it takes to him get through the day”

If John and mother can look down…I don’t want them to catch me looking down.

Love to all

Call if you need me

Remembering Katrina...Coloums written and Published in the Hinds County gazette in September 2005

2011-09-04T20:00:00.002-05:00

Republished in the Hinds County Gazette September 2 2011

Remembering Katrina on this her 6th Anniversary

Sunday morning August 28 2005 Edwards Mississippi:

Katrina, a category 5 hurricane, is in the Gulf of Mexico, 275 miles out, the storm progressing at a pace of ten miles an hour, the eye headed for the Louisiana /Mississippi gulf coast. This storm has persistent winds of 175 miles an hour; the weather channel is warning Katrina is as powerful as the august 1969 hurricane, Camille. Of course we all know, it took years for the Mississippi gulf coast to recover from Camille.

New Orleans is especially vulnerable; as it is several feet below sea level, the high waves will cause vast damage. They are also concerned that Lake Pontchartrain will not be able to hold all of the water that is on it's way.

Millions of people will be affected by Katrina. They are predicting the loss of property will be catastrophic. They are saying there are people who can not get out of Katrina’s path; some do not have the means to leave. Old people who do not drive for example…one of the reporters asked some of the folks who are leaving, to take someone with them. They are advising the people that are evacuating to go west, not to go north into Mississippi, they are saying we could feel a very angry smack from this storm even this far North, very heavy rain and high wind

After church I am going to batten down a bit around here. Get the ferns down, take the porch swing off the chains and sit them on the porch floor. I do not know what the out come of this will be. I am very concerned. The people to the east of us are even more at risk then we.
They just said, the folks in the panhandle of Florida, no matter where this storm makes land fall, are going to have high waves and winds to deal with. Those poor folks have been whacked over and over again by hurricanes; they just do not get a chance to recuperate before being whacked again.…

It is harvest time here in the south, the corn has all turned brown and is standing quite stoic, in straight rows like soldiers, waiting to be picked, the cotton is setting bolls , the soy beans are near ready. I am afraid the crops will suffer, or be lost altogether.

love to all
call if you need me

Monday Morning 5:00 am:

Katrina is a category 4 this morning, and eye is fixing to make land fall…it looks like it is not going to hit New Orleans directly. Fox News says the power is still on in New Orleans.

Schools are closing all over Mississippi
The news folks are painting a grim picture of what it is going to be like even this far north.

Katrina came ashore at Grand Isle Louisiana.

I am going to leave you all now…go get what I can get done, while we still have power.

Love to all

This is the first column I wrote after Katrina hit and the lights came back on.

Katrina taught me more about myself then I wanted to know.

We lost our lights sometime around lunch time on Monday, not long after, we lost running water. Thankfully we never lost phone service; folks from all over this great land were calling to see if we were safe. They were our only connection to the outside world …every call I would ask “where’s the eye?” hoping the wind and rain would soon end….the eye seemed to stay above Laurel forever. I don’t even know how long the storm lasted here, but for hours I could hear the sound of tree limbs breaking and falling to the ground… great "cracks", followed by deep "thuds"…sometime in the night it was over…the wind stopped.

After Twenty four hours of being with out water, I learned what I thought I needed…were not needs, they were frivolous wants. I learned even lights were not essential, but water was vital. At one point I told God, “If you let me have water I will not fuss about the electricity.”

We had a two of gallons drinking water on hand; the Kemp's water didn’t go out when ours did, so I was able to get 10 gallons from their house. I learned when the water is off; all you can think about is water. Thankfully, we have big galvanized wash tubs in the yard, for the dogs to drink out of and sit in to cool off. Katrina filled the dog tubs to over flowing... that water is what we used to flush the commodes and felt fortunate to have it.

After 48 hours with out water, my hair was so oily and dirty…When I could stand it no longer; I went out to the back yard, to the dog tub, under the cedar tree, there was a dead toad floating in the water, I flipped the dead toad over the side, filled two milk jugs with the water, then went back in the house, bent over the kitchen sink and commenced to wash my hair. That head washing felt so good…I didn’t think about the water coming from Charlie dog’s spa tub or the dead toad that had been floating in it..

On after while, Wednesday night, the water came back on….Thursday morning, we had to go in to Big Town, to the Baptist Hospital, John had a scheduled procedure. In the waiting room , while waiting for John was the first time I had seen a TV since our lights went out. I could not believe the total devastation that Katrina had caused…..I cried and cried for those folks in shelters with nothing, and in some cases they did not know where their family members were…Heart breaking.

Coming back to Edwards from the hospital Thursday evening, more lights were on in Edwards my heart soared…then fell… the lights stopped just before our street…our house was dark…seemed even darker because of the street lights at the bottom of the hill were burning.

I tried to keep my promise to God…I tried not to fuss about the lights not being on, I had water, but it was hard… especially when the rest of the town began getting lights…and we still didn’t have any.

You all, I had always thought of myself as a nice person, not on the level of Gandhi or Sister Teresa, but still and all ...Pretty nice… but I just couldn’t help myself, I was hot, very tired, it was too hot to sleep, I got a be a bit cranky and demanding....at one point I caught myself telling God, “I could pray harder for those people without homes, if I had lights” I believe that was my lowest low point…. as soon as I said it, I was ashamed of myself. I was so ashamed it was a good while before I could get up the nerve to ask God for forgiveness.

My 90 year old mother lives with us, she was nearly undisturbed by her Katrina experience, except for the nights, the nights were awfully long for her. One evening we were at the kitchen table, eating saltine crackers and Vienna sausages right out of the can; the last bit of daylight was coming through window; I told mother how sorry I was she had to go through this. She quickly answered “This is not the first hard times I have seen; this reminds me of the Dust Bowl days.” Mother has lived long enough to see many hard times, the depression, crop failures, wars and rationing.

Mother

When the lights came back on (around 8 pm Saturday night) and mother got to see the first pictures from the Gulf coast and New Orleans of people suffering and all the destruction, mother with tears in her eyes pointed to the TV and said, “Those are hard Times”

The clean up has begun but it will take years… Katrina was so deadly and so destructive, for many thousands people along the gulf coast, time will be remembered in terms of “Before Katrina” and “After Katrina”

Love to all

PS Let me say this the folks who had lights, were very generous, letting people use their laundry facilities, showers, refrigeration etc. Suzanne Harpole, over on Jackson street, almost immediately after her lights came back on, managed to get up an emergency party, Saturday evening for her friends who were still with out power …And it was a very nice party, with real food, served on real plates, real glasses and pretty napkins….it will always be a favorite memory of mine.

Cars in line for gas....

September 27 2005
Katrina’s impressive winds caused a big oak tree, in the square, to break and fall over; parts of it landed on our famous railroad bridge causing it be damaged, enough that it had to be blocked to traffic.

Old Railroad Bridge

There have, in the past, been suggestions that our famous bridge be closed…I thought maybe this would be its demise….but last week; it was repaired and is back in service once again.

That old humped back railroad bridge, the old water tower on the square and the concrete letters spelling out Edwards, are land marks in Edwards, visitors remember them. And I am not sure it would be possible to give directions to any place in Edwards if we didn’t have them. Many directions end with the phrase, “If you get to the old bridge you have gone too far.”

Katrina injured one my favorite yard trees, the oriental persimmon. You guys are probably like john, he says “You tell me so much, you can’t possibly expect me remember it all” So you probably don’t remember me telling you, that I name my trees after people, the theory being, if I name them I will take better care of them. This tree is named Paula, after one of my walking Buddies. So anyway, I say injured, because it is still standing, Katrina just put about a 15 degree tilt on it… …the fruit is ripening right on. I don’t know what to do….I don’t want to lose Paula.

Because of Katrina blowing out the power, we lost a freezer full of food…I have a gas stove so I could have cooked it up, and did cook the big hunks of meat, but it was so hot nobody had an appetite to eat.

Pre Katrina, every time I went to the store, I bought a buggy full of food because it was on sale, calling myself saving money, and going to be ready for an emergency. I say Katrina was the cause of me losing that food…but the truth be told…much of that food was doomed from the minute it was bought. I put package after package in the freezer; followed by more packages gather from the most recent trip to the store…The only time much of that food was touched was when I shuffled it around, to make room for the next batch coming in. Many a pot roast has died in there from freezer burn.

The emergency came…my great hoard of food was of no use to anybody. In the end, no money was saved, and I for sure was not ready for the emergency. I have unplugged the freezer…I hope I have learned my lesson.

Love to all

call if you need me

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette August 25 2011

2011-08-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

Whit and I

September 15, Whit and I will be together a whole year.

It was a beautiful day, that first day Whit came….I was in the swing on the front porch when Angie dropped him off. I held him just long enough for Angie to get out of the drive way good…Whit was tiny, just three months old. I was afraid I would drop him, So I propped him up on two pillows in the swing and we just looked at each other… he grinned and I grinned back…I was so nervous, I hadn‘t taken care of a baby in years and years…What would I do if he started crying for his mommy?…He seemed to be happy on the pillows ….So, the only time I picked him up was to burp him….I didn’t even change his diaper…we just grinned at each other and swung until his mommy returned. It was a good day.

That first day , Whit and I became buddies….When Whit began crawling I was proud as punch….when he stood up by himself, I was proud as punch, when he gave up his bottle, I was proud as punch, when he started to walk, I was proud as punch….…I would brag about all of his accomplishments to anybody who would listen.

A couple of months ago, it was soon after he began walking, Whit came to spend the day …I looked at his little knees they were all skinned up…I hugged him and I cried…. not because his knees were skinned, he is after all, a boy who lives on a farm with goats, dogs….he is going to have skinned knees, cuts and bruises. I cried because I realized he was no longer a baby…My Whit was a little boy.

Whit with the goats

photo taken byWhit's mommy

Angie Zadrozny

Well, the day rocked on, after lunch I was giving Whit a bath…he has to have a bath after he eats, he is learning to feed himself now

Photo taken by Lesley Cannada

…and often some of his lunch ends up in his hair….on his feet…everywhere.

So anyway Whit was in the sink giggling and splashing…he seem to be a baby again….

after I got his fresh clothes on….Something came over me…I wanted him to be a baby…I put him on the floor and he followed me to the kitchen…Whit had not had a bottle in a long time. I made a bottle, picked Whit up and carried him to the rocking chair, as he was taking the bottle, I cuddled and rocked him… I sang Bringing in the Sheaves , just like when he was a tiny baby…he cooed and grinned just like when he was a tiny….then when the bottle was about ¾ gone…Whit slapped the bottle away and climbed down…when he got to the floor he looked up and grinned….I knew it was the last time I would be treating Whit like the tiny baby he once was …

I knew he would not stand for it again. And I was proud as punch….

Whit with his very favorite rock....little boys like rocks.....

Call if you need me…

Christiansen's comments...Published Hinds County Gazette 08/18/2011

2011-08-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

I must write fast today…

I need to get in the yard bad! It has just been too hot to do anything outside….it is suppose to be cooler this week, so in the yard is where I plan to be. I do not need to mow …no rain no mow. But the shrubs need trimming. And there are lots of little limbs and twigs laying in the yard…waiting to be picked up, we have not had rain but we have had wind…doesn’t take much wind to get a pecan tree to drop limbs and branches.

It was cool one morning last week, I turned on the attic fan and opened up the house and let cool fresh air in….The air conditioners had been running for so long I felt like I was breathing stale, recycled air….like hospital air.

Recently, Brain had me pondering on hot air and cold air ….Brain is still thinking on it…but it is my experience, from living in this old drafty house…that cold air is easier to heat, then hot air is to cool. We will wait and see what Brain decides. But sadly, Brain before he sorts one thing out, often moves on to something else….and leaves me to contemplate on abstract topics, that I would never considered thinking on…. if he wasn’t always bringing them up.

Sunday afternoon I went to Bolton for Second Sunday at St. Mary’s….It was wonderful as usual! Anna McDonald sang several versions of Ava Maria…..Fabulous!!!!! James Anderson arranges for the talent …. I do not know how he does it…. James must be close friends with every talented person and group in Mid Mississippi. Talent worthy of the stags in New York have come out to rural Hinds county, to Bolton Mississippi, to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church to share their talent with us! What a treat!

St. Mary's

Bolton Mississippi

James Anderson

Well, that is about it from 201.…maybe when it gets a bit cooler, I will get out and about more…and I will see something exciting that I can tell you about….

201

Oh!! Oh!! Something exciting is happening in Edwards…they are moving dirt up there around the newer water tower…rumor has it, we are getting a dollar store! Call if you need me

Site of new Dollar Store

Christiansen's Comments HindsCounty Gazette August 4 2011

2011-08-08T11:25:00.000-05:00

Is Summer over?

Must be school is fixing to start…When I was a kid summer was not over until after labor day. It has me scratching my head wondering…why are kids today learning less with more time? I don’t know, maybe they are sharper then tests show…maybe we should find out what they know and test them on that…. .Maybe they don’t need to now how to spell anymore, computers do that for us….Do they have to know how write complete sentences?…or dissect a sentence?…I know for sure I never dissected a sentence after I finish school….young folks write very concise now….like LOL that is laugh out loud…Computers do the math….It is a new world.

I do think many children and possibly their parents…No doubt all of us, could stand some brushing up on our manners ……Simple pleases and thank yous and learning how to sit quietly would be a good start…..computers don’t teach manners, kindness, or courtesy….But like I said it is a new world….maybe courtesy is old fashion and out of date too.

When children see grown folks on the TV yelling, name calling and using ugly language….It is no a mystery to me that there is a enormous problem in this country with children bulling children.

I don’t know how I got off on that tangent, but speaking of TV…I have gone a month now with out cable TV…and have not missed it! I kept saying, “I don’t watch TV enough to warrant the $65 it is costing me every month.”…but sometimes you do things more then you think you do….So I tested myself, I have only old fashion TVs, so I borrowed a converter box from Doug Turner …used it for a about month, and I did not get the DTs…. I did fine… No anxiety… no separation issues. . So I called and had it cut off July 1.

On the converter box you just get the local channels and it is still more TV then I need…PBS has a channel called “Create” that is about all I watch, it is mostly gardening, travel, cooking and crafts. Nobody yelling on that channel.

Well, we vote Tuesday, by the time you get the paper we will have already voted. I am scrambling to figure out who I should vote for, I am not very well informed, as I watch very little news, because it is so awful…But a couple of weeks ago I tuned in to watch the news to see Scott Cannada, has been named Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Mississippi farmer of the year…He is up for Southeastern farmer of the year….you probably saw that in last weeks Gazette. We are all very proud of Scott. And his wife Lesley, we are proud of her too! Lesley headed up Bible school this year…we had nearly 50 children!!! Can you believe it!!!! 50!!!! It was great fun! I love Bible School!

Music

Craft time in the nursery

Most everybody

Receration for the last day!

But anyway while waiting to see Scott, a political commercial came on, it was so refreshing, there was no yelling, or ripping his opponent apart. It was just a man, the candidate, and an old lady sitting on a park bench, the old lady is telling us what the candidate is running for and how he stands on the issues…..She is well informed on his stand and what he is running for but she just can’t get his first name right, she calls him Gilbert, Filbert, and Ingelbert…and each time she calls his name wrong. he gently with a big smile corrects her, “Yes Mamm, but it is Delbert”

Oh! Have you noticed the E D W A R D S sign in the side of the hill at the Presbyterian Church, Eric Armstrong painted it, he wanted it to look nice for Bible School. Eric Armstrong you may not know him, he married Shanna Floyd, you may not know her, they live in Miss Francis’s house on Birdsong lane….Ms Francis was Shanna’s grandmother. If you knew Ms Francis you have not forgotten her. Just the other day we were remembering Ms Francis … she planted the azaleas at the Methodist family center…they are the first to bloom in Edwards. ”Ms Francis planted those, they would not dare not bloom!” Ms Francis was a determined lady…to say the least. Eric and Shanna have two little girls….sweet family…proud to have them in Edwards.

Eric Armstrog

Speaking of the Methodist Family Center…That is where Inez Lee’s 90 th birthday party was held. Huge crowd!!! Folks were lined up out the door, into the street waiting to get in to help Inez celebrate. I was getting concerned I had not gotten enough punch ingredients for a crowd that big…but had enough for one more making….

Ms Inez and a few of her many fans

Got to go now

Call if you need me….

Christiansen's Comment Hinds County Gazette July 14 2011

2011-07-18T06:59:00.001-05:00

It is still hot here in mid Mississippi… record heat…Our once very stylish ,crisp linen and cotton outfits…are no longer crisp…they are crumpled, rumpled and clinging to us, like plastic wrap…. our makeup melted off weeks ago, our sweet southern smiles, has turned to more of a forced grins …but we are soldiering on …chin up and shoulders back…The PGA Viking golf classic is this week and we start Bible School next week….

Even though it blistering hot out there… Our Southern hospitality is not suffering from the heat. Inez Lee‘ has a birthday this Sunday, this will be the number 90. There will be a celebration honoring Ms Inez at the Edwards Methodist Church, family center from two until four this Sunday, July 17. If you Know Ms Inez please come….you will no doubt see folks you have not seen in a good while…..And there will be nibbles and punch!

Ms Inez and just a few of her many fans....

And our Ms Worrell will be 99 this Sunday! That is a lot of Mississippi Summers! Happy Birthday Ms Worrell!

Ms. Worrell's birthday 2004

Bolton’s St Mary’s and Raymond’s St Marks Episcopal churches have entertained us with wonderful musical programs this Summer. You all, every time I attended one of these programs, a memory would almost spark…But I could not quite grab it….I could not put a picture to what I was feeling …. I would lose it. But this Sunday, the Brick Street Barber Shop quartet came at St Mary’s and while they were performing, the memory… it came to me!

St Marks
Raymond Mississippi

St Marys
Bolton Mississippi

Back when I was growing up every city park had a band stand…it was a large white gazebo affair and Sunday afternoon bands would play. …and probably groups singing….I don’t remember. When the elusive memory finally clicked , I could see children, they were laughing…the music was way in the background…I was at the swings, merry go round and teeter totters at the park in Palisade Nebraska with lots of kids. No doubt we kids didn’t sit quietly enough to suit the adults and we were told to “go play” .

I love recapturing old forgotten memories. Memories from days past is one of Gods great gifts to old folks. …. old folks tend to live in the past and ramble…To all of you out there in Gazette Land thanks for listening. Call if you need me.

Christiansen's Comments from Hinds County Gazette June 30 2011

2011-07-04T06:39:00.000-05:00

It is Summer and life take on a more anxious pattern in the Summer, don’t you think? Summer, well, more accurately, warm weather brings with it tornado season and has us nervously standing in the doorway watching the clouds churning and the sky change colors. Some years warm weather brings rain….so much rain we begin to wonder if it will stop long enough get the crops in the ground. Other years we are watching rivers rise flooding the fields and homes… forcing folks to abruptly change the course of their lives . Some years it is drought…no rain…..weeks without rain…the ground turns cracks and turns to dust.

This year seems we have had it all….Killer tornados, record flooding and drought….

I watched my farmer friend Russell as the days without rain wore on and on….turning into weeks of no rain….acres and acres of planted fields desperate for rain….it can’t be easy watching crops suffer….his face, not unlike the parched ground seemed to crack a bit ….

Russell and his dog Lee

But Russell is my new favorite hero….every year Russell plants a field of sweet corn and shares the corn with so many folks around Edwards and beyond…. We look forward to corn picking time at Cannada Farms….Asking , “When will the corn be ready?”

The fields of corn and soy beans, the cash crops Russell couldn’t do anything about them….but that field of sweet corn, he would be giving away to friends, family and neighbors…They hauled water from a pond to save the sweet corn….picked it, brought a pickup load to Church, sacked it and gave it away….I feel sure Russell and Scott have been delivering corn all over the county….and letting friends and neighbors pick what they wanted.

The lesson learned from Russell…Is you can’t help but worry……but give up, no. Russell did what he could do…..one thing he could do was tend to that patch of sweet corn….and by doing so brought much pleasure to so many.

Of course I think we all know that when life is a bit rocky we should have faith and do what we can do…but the lesson sinks deeper when we see someone actually doing it.

I am grateful the life lesson reminder… when times appear bleak and unpredictable ….“Do What You can Do”…. and I am also grateful for the corn.

Rain has since fallen on the fields around the county…I don’t know if it was enough…but Russell’s smile was much broader Sunday.

Love to all call if you need me

Timothy Hubbard

2011-06-22T06:42:00.000-05:00

Timothy Hubbard
Edwards

Timothy "Tim" Hubbard, 50 died June 21, 2011 at his residence in Edwards.Graveside services will be 4:00 PM Thursday at Edwards Cemetery. Visitation will be 5:00- 7:00 PM Wednesday and 2:30-3:30 PM Thursday at Glenwood Funeral Home in Vicksburg. Memorials may be made to the Edwards Cemetery.

Published June 22 Clarion Ledger

Former Mayor of Edwards, Nerissa Smith, obituary from the Clarion Ledger

2011-06-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

Nerissa Smith

Nerissa Smith, 93, died on June 16, 2011, at her daughters' residence in Jackson Tennessee.

Most of Nerissa formative years were spent in Edwards, Mississippi. She attended High school for two years in Washington DC but returned to her beloved Edwards and graduated from Southern Christian Institute.

Nerissa was a people and community oriented person. She loved the town of Edwards and wanted to make a difference in her community. This led her to seek the position of Mayor. She ran successfully and became the first and only female (to date) Mayor of Edwards.

The first county wide Headstart program, summer youth job program, and Christmas dinner for the elderly were some of the projects she developed and implemented.

She is survived by her daughter, Catherine Lewis; two grandsons, Jonathan and his wife Erica, and Jordan; two great grandsons; one great granddaughter; sisters, Gladys Saunders of Washington, D.C. and Doris Taylor of Edwards; seventeen nieces and nephews; and a loving and caring goddaughter, Cassandra N. Lee.

Services will be held at 11: o'clock on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, at United Baptist Church in Edwards, Mississippi. Visitation will be on Monday, June 20, 2011, from 1 to 7 pm at Lakeover Funeral Home

Christiansen's Comments...Hinds County Gazette Thursday June 9 2011

2011-06-13T06:58:00.003-05:00

Facebook?

I bet there are some of you who do not know anything about Facebook. I shall attempt to explain to you what little I know. Facebook is what ‘s called a “social network“…you do it on the computer, by connecting to the Internet and signing up, you able to keep up with all your “friends” without stepping outside your door or getting in the car,and driving over to a friend's house to hang out on the porch… You don’t even have to make a phone call…not anymore…just turn on your computer and you can read all about what is happening in the lives of your “friends“.

Well in fact, You don’t even have to get on a computer , if you have a smart phone….with a smart phone you never have to be out of touch with your friends, where ever you are or they are in this world, all you have to do is … touch an icon on the phone and instantly you can read all about your friends, where they are, what they are eating, and what their dog is doing…..complete with pictures!

I was posting pictures of .....

My new Grand dog Scout...!!!!

Animals are very popular facebook topic….yesterday Erin Noble Patrick had a picture of a baby rabbit that was found in her neighborhood. Shea Cannada had a picture of Micah cutting their dog Bojangles toe nails.…My friend Janice had a wonderful picture of her grand dog sound asleep hugging a stuffed Barney. .

Unnamed Rabbit

Bojangles

Sable and Barney

Of course deer season it is all about the deer...but right now is mostly dogs and cats.

Food is another popular topic, Mary Kathryn is always posting pictures of yummy nibbles.

I have been a facebookie for awhile, but not very active…I found it was taking up too much of my time…running back and forth to my computer… and I didn’t have many friends….sort of embarrassing. You see, after the quick sign up procedure, you go on the hunt for “friends”….I asked everybody I knew to be my friend. I had less then 30....BUT of those 30, I am guessing, if I was to go live with Jesus, they all would be at my funeral...That is if I didn't die during a hunting season...or an important sports playoff.

All of my face book friends had great multitudes of "friends". Up in the high 100s some nearly 1000 ….So I begin to wonder how do they know so many people? I asked a friend, “how do you know all those “friends”?

“people ask me to be their friend.” Nobody was asking me.

But I recently bought an Iphone…I now know how folks get so many people to be their "friend"…they steal them from their "friends"…I guess I didn’t pay any attention until I got the IPhone, but you can click on your friend’s “friends” and ask them to be your ‘friend“. On one of my friends pages I came across the name Beth Harris Guider, I said out loud ,“I know her! Beth is Alison‘s mother!" Alison Guider was the star student at Hillcrest Christian School this year! my friend Lindsey Noble was the star teacher this year at Hill crest.! And Of course I know Beth’s mother Lois Harris…I knew Lois before I met her…. from reading Ms Worrell‘s Learned news… I made one touch to my IPhone screen and ask Beth to be my friend…Then I ran up on Mac McNair’s name on a friends list…I clicked on him…Never mind I hadn‘t seen Mac in 20 years…..then Joe Liddell’s name popped up on some ones list, “I know him”!!!” I have met him a couple of times at Suzanne and Dave Harpole’s house! click…. Lo and behold, all three of them let me be their friend….

Daughter Angela came, I ask her if she had any “friends” that might let me their friend …”Ask Bruce, he will be your friend.” so I did…. he is…so now I have a “friend“, that as far as I know, I have never laid eyes on…But I’m thinking I am going to like him….Saturday Bruce was out shopping with his dog Abby, there were pictures ….they were at The Bass Pro shop.

Abby

I was so encouraged I began clicking in earnest and asking folks to be my friend I now have over 100 friends.

In a very short time Facebook has redefined the term “friend“. Is it a good thing? I don’t know

I doubt many of my newly acquired facebook friends will be at my funeral....probably will not even be aware of my passing unless they see it on facebook.…

But wouldn’t it be nice if every one in the world could be friends?
And That’s all I know about facebook…. Got to go now and water the ferns….

Call if you need me....

Christiansen's Comments from Hinds county Gazette June 02 2011

2011-06-06T08:49:00.002-05:00

Okay first things first….

Very Urgent

We are having Bible School at the Edwards Presbyterian Church , July 20, 21, and 22...every child is welcome….so mark your calendars. But the reason I bring this up now is Lesley Cannada is organizing Bible school for us and she is in a desperate search of a camel …a real camel….You got one? I promise it will be well loved and we will not be trying to pull it through the eye of a needle.

Edwards Prebyterian Church

***************************************************************************************

It is not what you know, it is who you know…

I did not know Keith Jenkins except that he is the writer of the Bolton News. But I do know Doug Beard. Doug Beard invited Doug and Kay Turner and myself to come to the Farr Road Bridge that goes over I-20 to watch the Annual “Run for the Wall” , well the riders came through much earlier then in previous years, so we missed it , but we didn’t miss the neighbor hood cook out Keith hosted in his front yard….Hot dogs and hamburgers, homemade desserts, good conversation…. those Bolton folks are so hospitable and friendly!

**************************************************************************************

Speaking of Doug Turner…he retired recently and he has been working replacing the rotted wood on my house…as I said. Doug is retired, so he works me in when there is not something more fun to do….like cook outs and the like….Which suits me, I am retired too and no hurry. Doug is about finished with the front porch…Remember way back yonder I told you my back steps had been built as a temporary solution? So I asked Doug to put me on his list for new back steps….

Doug and Scout

Doug and were discussing the back steps… when I had an epiphany! …“I don’t want steps! I want a ramp! “ ……at first Doug was not sure a ramp was such a good idea, because right now he didn’t think I needed one. But when I explained I could just load my groceries, bottled water, etc in a cart and pull them up the ramp and how helpful a ramp would be getting those 50 pound bags of dog food to the back porch, I sold him…But I thought if both Doug and I think the ramp is a good idea…I just knew Kay would hate it…Kay is sort of my ecstatic advisor.

I called Kay, and she did hate the ramp idea… vehemently hated the ramp idea….Kay didn’t care if the ramp would ease my burden, it was tacky …Then, way on after while she remembered Charlie, my old dog, and how his old bones are beginning to bother him…and she said, ”It would make it much easier for Charlie get in and out.” and with that thought, Kay was on board. With Kay Turner, Kay Turner it is all about the animals and their comfort and their convenience.

By the way, Kay and Doug son, Jeff will be in New York New York doing a show in June…so if you are in New York !

http://metropolitanroom.com/show.cfm?id=84640

Hey I got to go,

call if you need me or find a camel.

Post Script

We are in mourning here at 201.....My old dog Charlie died this week.

Charlie at my pre Chemo party
March 2006

Christiansen's Comments...Hinds County Gazette May 26 2011

2011-05-29T09:44:00.000-05:00

“What did you say you were doing?????”

My answer: “I am going to Raymond to help entertain Yankees.”

Question: “Why you? And what are Yankees doing in Raymond?”

Well, I don’t think it is a long story, but with me you never know. So here goes…. as I understand it,

The tale begins with Doctor Clark Stewart, Clark is a periodontist, Clark grew up in Raymond, after a bit of time away, he came back to Raymond to raise his family, giving them the small town experience he had growing up.

So anyway, several years ago, Clark was attending a conference in Jackson, where Doctor Bob Levine, an oral surgeon/periodontist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was speaking. In the course of conversation Clark learned that Bob has a passion for history. Clark invited Bob to come to Raymond, somehow Clark was able to get Raymond Mayor Isla Tullos and civil war historian, Parker Hills, involved with Bob. The Mayor and Parker took Bob on a ride around the area, pointing out the points of interest.

Parker is a retired general, who now is a tour leader with Battlefield focus Tours. Parker is a well qualify guide…. I was told, and I am quoting a source who wants to remain anonymous , “Parker knows everything there is to know about the battles of the civil war. He can even point to the exact spot Grant’s horse Pooped.”. I hope I do not have to go to jail to protect my source.

Parker Hills

Because of the efforts of many ….beginning with Clark… Bob has been back to Mississippi several times and is a generous donor to The Raymond Battlefield, plus Bob a cannon sponsor.

For this trip and tour with Parker Hills, to Port Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hill and Vicksburg, Bob and his wife were joined by several other people from Yankee Land and Memphis, they were mostly from the dental profession accept, a pilot and Ray. Ray is a retired psychiatrist. You all, I caught my self being very self conscious of what I said when I was with in ear shot of Ray…then I was offered a glass of wine and got over that, and asked “So tell me Ray, is this group is so messed up it needs a psychiatrist to travel with them?’’ didn’t get an answer…Patient doctor confidentiality no doubt.

Other members of the South’s team called on to entertain the Yankees were Bob Chun, Brenda and Charles Davis, Mayor Tullos, and of course Clark and Ruth Stewart. It was great fun, Thursday we met at the Mayor’s home on the Square for light refreshments before motoring on to Jackson to Cherchale’s to meet up with members of the tour group who’s plane had been delayed. Bob Cherchale went all out to make the Yanks feel at home.

Isla and Tilly

Friday evening we met at the Clark's home for light refreshments….Has Clark ever got the man room! He doesn’t just have a few stuff deer heads…he has whole animals stuffed and mounted to the walls….they are mounted in such a way they appear to be climbing down a rock wall.

Then way on after while we left the Stewart's and we caravaned to Learned, to Gibbes Grocery for dinner….We didn’t leave the restaurant until almost 11 o’clock. So obviously a grand time was had by all!

I know I wasn’t invited because of my vast knowledge of events surrounding the Civil War. I learned everything I know about the Civil War from my friend, Gordon Cotton and Parker Hills….But!!!! don’t ask me any dates… Or specific places…or names…. best not ask me any questions.

So any way…I believe, I was invited in case an interpreter was required. You know my field expertise … I can translate Yankee!

I do hope this band of Yankees comes back to Mississippi soon…I want to have them to my house for a party on the porch!

If you can…Adopt a Yankee…they are so much fun. But you can’t have these Yankees…they belong to Raymond.

Love to all

My deepest sympathies go out to the family of Dick Kilby, indeed the entire city of Raymond. Raymond has lost a friend.

Dick Kilby
getting ready to unload Cannon

Call if you need me

Christiansen's Comments Hinds county Gazette, May 12 2011

2011-05-13T17:30:00.003-05:00

Well, it has been a while since I was last here. Hope your Easter was pleasant and your mothers day magnificent…..Easter and Mother’s Day was that the only holidays we have had recently?…seems to me we have a lot more holidays and special days then we use to. It could be that it seems that way because the stores promote them for sooooooooooo long before they actually get here.

Whit and I have been together a pretty good bit lately. As you know may know, Whit’s grandfather, Lewis Montgomery passed away recently. Years ago, Lewis confronted me saying “don’t you ever write about me.” I looked him in the eye and with out smiling, I said very firmly, , “ Lewis you were born and raised in Hinds County, you have to take your turn being written about….just like everybody else.” Lewis grinned and no more was ever said about that….and we were buddies.

Saturday was May Day in Edwards, lots of activity down town, Whit and I strolled down to watch the parade….the band, horses , motor cycles , and politicians…….on the way back to the house, we stopped at a stand on the corner and bought a plate of barbecued ribs and a side of spaghetti.. Whit ate spaghetti and chewed on a rib bone. We had a grand time!

Square from bridge

Oh! The back porch…is my new favorite place in this house! I don’t remember if I told you, about me calling myself redecorating the back porch a year or so ago. I poured a fabulous concrete counter top and painted the walls and ceiling…. That made the screens look awful… The screen was so dirty… I tried cleaning them, nothing worked…the screen was so disgusting.…I ripped it off ! When the screen was gone, the door come across as just silly. So I took it off too. Well, possums, came in and ate cat food right out of the bag, birds flew in and out at will and ate cat food out of the cat’s dish…..and all of that dust, dirt and grime that was being caught in the screen? Well it was now coming straight on to the porch, directly through the back door, and in to the kitchen.

Possum behind concrete leaf, on back porch.

Enter Doug Turner…He made new screens that, by removing a couple of screws, can be taken out and hosed off…He hung a new door too, it is magnificent…The whole back porch is better now, then when it was new. It looks more original then the original 1920 porch….really it does…everybody who has seen it says so. Really they do.

Back Porch

Next Doug is going to work on some rotted boards round the sun porch. That is, when he is finished out at the Coker House. There is going to be a ceremony, a dedication of the newly rebuilt, historic Coker house. The Coker house figured prominently in the Battle of Champion Hill.

Doug sees after the Coker House, cuts the grass etc, he and wife Kay Windham Turner, live across the highway from it and Kay grew up in the Coker house.….so this week Doug is hard at it getting the Coker House spiffed up and ready for visitors. But he will be back….I know he will, because he left his saw horses.

Coker House before restoration

I will be back too

Love to all

Victor Lewis Montgomery, Jr.,

2011-04-20T05:09:00.001-05:00

Lewis at his cabin by the lake
Hosting a church picnic

Victor Lewis Montgomery, Jr., 62, passed away peacefully on April 18, 2011 in Edwards, Mississippi. Lewis was a graduate of Raymond High School and Mississippi State University and lifelong resident of Edwards, MS. He was self-employed farmer and cattleman. He served in Mississippi's Air National Guard. Lewis was an avid hunter and held a deep admiration for the land and wildlife. His strongest love was for Christ and his church, Edwards Presbyterian where he faithfully served as elder.

Lewis is preceded in death by his parents, Victor "Vic" Lewis Montgomery and Geraldine Montgomery "Gibbens". He is survived by his loving wife Kay Montgomery and his two children Angie Montgomery Zadrozny and husband C.J. of Edwards, MS, Victor Lewis Montgomery, III and wife Leigh of Jonesboro, AR. Grandchildren include: Taylor Jack Zadrozny, Whitaker Lewis Zadrozny and Molly Leigh Montgomery. Also his sister Barbara Mellon (Joe) of Clinton.

Memorials may be made to Edwards Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 347, Edwards, MS Visitation will take place at 10:00 am followed by a service at 11:00 am at Edwards Presbyterian Church. Interment will follow the service in the Edwards Cemetery. .

from
April 20, 2011
Clarion Ledger
Jackson Mississippi

Christiansen's Comments...Hinds County Gazette April 14 2011

2011-04-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, Whit and I watched as the last building , the old Lewis Mercantile, on Main street between highway 80 and the Railroad tracks come tumbling down . They used a backhoe to manipulate the old building’s calculated descent to the ground. I really thought the old building would have crashed into a pile of rubble on the first blow from the backhoe’s bucket…But the old building didn’t give up that easy…it took more persuading to bring it down then one might would have expected.

Whit in front of the Old Lewis Building
Edwards Mississippi

When Whit and I struck out that morning to see what we could see…we sure didn’t expect to see anything that exciting. Whit’s great grandfather Lewis built the building, in 1893, anyway that is the year the man that was tearing it down told us .…they gave Whit a brick.

It is so much fun to hang out with Whit….everything is new to him and every thing is exciting to him…it was fun to see his little feet kick in excitement as the old building came down. No stray brick could possibly hit us….We were watching from a safe distance, the parking lot across the street. However, the front sort of fell in slow motion …. Great clouds of dust funneled out the front door. I quick like a mouse took a picture…then grabbed the stroller and tried to get Whit out of the way of the cloud of dust that was coming straight at us….A few particles may have landed on him. Whit’s mommy is pretty laid back but was not certain how she would feel about him being up in the middle of a haze antique grime…..

As I was a running in the direction of clear air…I said to Whit, “I can’t wait until you are old enough to take some of the heat.” Grandson Garrett and I stayed in trouble…But then came a day when I heard this, “I don’t care what your grandma said! You know better!”

Of course, I would never have told Garrett he did not need to tell his parents everything he knew…But I thought, surely one day on he is going to figure it out on his own…he never did.

Gotta go

call if you need me….

Christiansen's Comments, Hinds county Gazette April 7 2011

2011-04-10T19:35:00.000-05:00

I stay in trouble.

Whit…remember Whit? The little 8 month old boy that I take care of sometimes. Now I am being scolded because of the way I am feeding him. No! No! not by his mother Angie. Whit’s mommy is very laid back and easy going. Whit doesn’t come with a lot of instructions…no rules about nap times etc. And Jacqueline did warn Angie that free baby sitting does not come with out a price. Spoilage Mostly. So Angie leaves Whit and I alone to do pretty much as we please.

It was daughter Angela, who was questioning what I was letting Whit eat “Mother you are not feeding Whit food that his mommy doesn’t know about are you?” That was her reaction to Whit’s first out of the norm culinary venture at my house…..I believe it was when I told her I let him taste the icing when he and I were making valentine cookies for his grandmother Kay Kay. When Angela begins a sentence with “Mother” I know I am in trouble. I don’t even try to defend myself…. I just listen. ….

Whit making cookies for Kay Kay

I do tell Angie what I feed Whit…but often it is after the fact….because we don’t always know what we might be having for our lunch that day. I do not give Whit the foods that can cause dangerous allergic reactions…chocolate, peanut butter, eggs, strawberries all such as that.

Whit weaned himself from the bottle two or three weeks ago. Well, the other day, Whit was kind of fussy…he was sleepy….but would not close his eyes….I filled a bottle with sweet tea…he took the bottle as I rocked him to sleep. Well, apparently you are not suppose to let babies have sweet tea….Did you know that? I was quite surprised….and even more surprised to find out everybody seem to know it but me.

Told you all that to say this…I am trying very hard to do better….Have you been to the baby food isle? My word there is a lot of baby food out there…Whit is coming tomorrow…we are having a baked sweet potato, from a real potato, and plums from the baby food isle, and yogurt for lunch….for our afternoon treat we will be having watermelon….one of those little seedless ones.

Whit and I have been getting out and about more now that Spring is here….first outing was to H&M to see Ms. Becky. While we were out we took a stroll over the Railroad bridge, and back down Main Street.

Last week we went to Bolton to the Hardware Store, to get keys made and see Jack, the Hardware Cat. Whit got to watch Joe make a key. ….Whit was fascinated with the key making process… Then we crossed the street to the library and visited with the librarian Alfenette Robinson. Alfenette wanted me to tell everybody in Edwards “Hello” She use to be the librarian over here.

Whit and Joe at the Hardware store In Bolton Mississippi

By the way, The snake man will be at the library this summer…Whit and I are going!

Love to all

Christiansen's Comments from 03/31/2011 Hinds County Gazette

2011-04-03T09:35:00.001-05:00

We have had lovely weather of late….

I have gotten much accomplished in the yard….lawn mowed, and trimmed, a tree moved and replanted, sprayed 3 gallons of Round Up and dug up day lilies…plan to replant the lilies when I finish here. And I have moved the fire pit from the back yard to the front yard.

You might be a red neck if…you have a fire pit made out of used concrete blocks in your front yard.

Fire pit in the distance....
The white things are concrete stools I made...Just gets tackier and tackier...

All of my lawn care equipment has now been cranked and ready for Spring and Summer 2011…the string trimmer needed no encouragement, it cranked on the first pull, the push mower started after replacing his spark plug, on the second pull, ….the riding mower after getting a new spark plug was still a bit hesitant, Then Doug Tuner squirted ether in to his carburetor, that dose of ether had Riding Mower, singing a different tune. After receiving the ether treatment Riding Mower was more then happy to get up and get to work.

Doug retired last fall, he has been here the last couple of weeks replacing rotted wood on my house…we are looking good here at 201! I am so tickled…I was getting depressed looking at the rot…no one else seemed to notice it. But folks are noticing my house is looking nice now…some thought it had been painted or had gotten a new roof ….

Doug on the scaffolding
Kay and Jo Gayle on the ground...

Saturday I went to town to get the ferns for the front porch and while at the nursery I picked up a few azalea bushes …I am planting the azaleas as a screen between the fire pit and the house.

You might still be a red neck…. Even if you plant azaleas to hide the fact you have a cement block fire pit in your front yard.

It is 7:20 AM Monday morning March 28. Bertha Rather just called, she and Charles heard on the scanner, (Charles is a volunteer fireman) that there was an ambulance called to Worrell Road….that is where our Ms. Worrell lives. Ms. Worrell is 98...will be 99 in July. Let me go see what I can find out….I will let you know what I know.

9:30 still no word…and no answer at Burleigh.

Ms. Worrell's home

"Burleigh"

11:30 I can’t get REBUL to answer the phone. Brooke, Ms. Worrell's son, teaches at REBUL

11:58ish REBUL answered, Brooke is not in today, he is with his mother at the hospital. The nice man that answered the phone at REBUL seemed to think things, at the moment things were going well with Ms. Worrell….

That’s all I know now.

Love to all

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette March 24 2011

2011-03-28T06:14:00.003-05:00

Sunday morning of last week, the time change had me so discombobulated …my clocks were at different times…I had changed some and not others…was not absolutely sure which was which . So I looked at the time on my cell phone…changed all the clocks to that time….then Monday my phone and the clocks no longer matched…apparently ATT did not change to day light savings at the agreed upon time, the wee hours Sunday morning.. I do not know how I got to church on time Sunday morning….I must have went by the time on the TV.

So anyway, after I got the time thing sorted out and the clocks changed , Whit was here…so I didn’t get a column written.

Have I told you about Whittaker Lewis? (Angie and CJ Zadrozny’s son, Taylor Jack’s little brother, and Kay and Lewis Montgomery grandson) Whit is my buddy, my new best friend…Whit will soon be ten months old…he has the most infectious grin…he grins all of the time…and at everybody…you know the yellow circle you see every where, that has the smiley face drawn in it? No matter how often I see the yellow happy face I have to grin…Whit’s grin has the same effect on me.

I didn’t get to know Whit until later in his life, he was born last June….He came Bible school in July, Nancy McKey Hale had him strapped around her much of the day…then the other church ladies passed him around… but I never got to hold him… never got a turn.

"Asleep on the hay"
Whit at Bible School last July.

Then one Sunday morning, I went in to the nursery, Whit looked up and grinned at me….that was it! He had my heart…and from that day on.. Everybody knew to back off….they got a turn holding him when I said so.

These days, Whit and I spend a good bit of time together, Angie lets me take care of him when she has things she needs to tend to….. I am not trying to steal him, I am just keeping him warm until his grandmother Kay Kay gets her strength back.

Before Whit came in to my life, I was wanting a puppy real bad…we at this house have not had a dog started from a puppy in years…we take in strays mostly. I thought if I am ever going to get puppy…I needed to go on and get it. Our dogs live a long time, in 15 years, I’d be up in my 80s, if I would die…nobody wants a 15 year old dog….daughter Angela said she would take the dog, but she was wanting to have a say in what kind of puppy I chose. Then along came Whit…The first time Whit’s mother let me keep him, I called daughter Angela and declared, ”I don’t need a puppy, I have Whit!!!”

I do hope I have not offended anybody by comparing Whit to a puppy… But babies and puppies are not all that dissimilar. …they both make the cutest little sounds and faces…and babies and puppies smell so good. And they love you…no strings attached. Whit doesn’t care if my socks do not match or my hair has paint in it and is not combed….he just grins and coos.

Whit and I have a lot in common too, we like the same things, Doctor Seuss…dogs and cats…sitting on the front porch, watching trains go by….listening to the birds sing and watching them fly,

Whit and Shelby

Whit and Scout
Whit is the cutest little guy….everybody says so…at least every body who wants to my remain my friend…says so. The other day, I was relaying something cute Whit had done,…I was compared to Robert Mashburn… “ You sound about like Mr Robert carrying on about his dog Lady Cotton”

I know one day Whit is going to grow up, and instead of coming here, he will want to go to Pop’s hay field, to the tire shop with his dad or over to the hunting camp and stand around the fire barrel with the hunters… I will not be important to him any more…and that is ok…..But I am preparing for that day., I am working on a scheme…to hold that day off as long as I can. Food is the way to a growing boy’s heart right?……So I have been cooking for him, he loves grits, baked sweet potatoes, broccoli soup….and cookies….when he is old enough to eat fried chicken…That might be the deal clincher….I make really really good fried chicken….

Thinking on it …As wrapped as Whit has me now…. there most likely will come a day when I will not thrilled with him and his behavior…Say for instance, If I look down Main street and see him in his car… popping wheelies and taking corners on two wheels…I will not be happy. He might as well know right now, I have both his mom and dad on speed dial…. And I will bust him out… Then he will really be unhappy with me, he might even mutter uncomplimentary things about me, call me a “busy body“ or worse. But one day Whit will grow up and have kids, then he will know, why, even at the risk, of him not wanting me as a friend anymore…. I had to do it..

Whit crawling
Love to all

…

"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette March 10 2011

2011-03-12T13:48:00.001-06:00

Brain knows Gloria is old. …and he tried to tell her not to do it….

Nothing on my body works anymore, all of my joints are stiff and painful. When I get out of bed, out of the car, even a chair, it takes a bit to get going. I literally have to take several painful steps before my joints begin to cooperate and let me walk up right …. But once I get cranked up, I can go all day long, dig holes, saw limbs, drag limbs, tote cement, I am an stoppable machine…..That is until I run out of gas on up in the afternoon. (I did not tell you that to make you feel sorry for me…Because stiff, painful joints are an inevitable condition amongst the elderly. )Over the counter pain medicine will help ease the pain somewhat…but I have not found one yet that will keep me from wincing all together, when coming out of an at rest position. But they do keep me from whimpering out loud in public.

Now then, I told you all of that to tell you this…Recently one warm, and sunny, Sunday afternoon, I was invited for an afternoon of old cemetery touring. I met my hosts and fellow tour participants in the square at Raymond.

The first cemetery we stopped at was off the road in the middle of a field…..we all got out of the car, I heard the trunk pop open, I thought “Oh! how chic! We are going to have refreshments in the cemetery!” A toast of remembrance, a tribute to those who went before us,….Our hosts have a sentimental interest in this old cemetery, they are not related to those buried there, however their house is. “This adventure is worthy of a Southern living piece, with pictures“. That’ what I was thinking, then our hostess said, to her husband in her sweet southern voice, , “--------, don’t forget the Ladder.” My thoughts took a 180 ….“Ladder?! what will we be doing with a ladder….!?” So instead of wine and cheese, ------- pulled out of the trunk, a short kitchen stool/ladder.

Well, 100 yards or so into the field we came to the cemetery…it was surrounded by an old fashion, ornate, iron fence, the gate was fasten with a rusty chain and it was padlocked. You all, to get in, we had to climb the fence…the ladder was suppose to aid in that effort….Now everyone in the group I would describe as very active, but agile? Not so much….

There was one amongst us who was tall enough to step over the fence ….the rest of us got over with much pushing and prodding….you all, I was the most awkward and clumsy …. they had to physically take me by the foot and lift my legs across to the other side. I have pictures….I do not like to have my picture taken…but half way over the fence I stopped and waited until someone could get my picture….not pretty….I have the grace of a one legged hippo.

But all and all, the afternoon was perfect….and I was not cheated out of my wine and cheese ether. our tour ended with wine and cheese on the back porch of out hosts historic country home and a fried chicken dinner.

I do not give my mortality much thought…I am ready when ever the Lord is ready… But Brain does give my aging much thought. Brain is usually not sympathetic when it comes to me and my growing old, but on the way home that evening, Brain reminded me of something that he began to notice a very long time ago.

Back in the day, when I was a teen, drag racing was a big thing. Really big thing. A fast car and knowing when to shift gears is essential when dragging…but getting off the line, that is vital…if you can’t get off the line, you can’t win…. I could always get off the line…But I would loose my nerve when….You don’t need to know all of that ….It does not matter.

What Brain reminded me of was this, I am still first off the line…at every stop light. When me and my little Toyota pickup are stopped at a light and there are two of us side by side…when the light turns green, I am first off the line…. every time….. not just sometimes…in fact when, I get to the middle of the next block, and glance in the rear view mirror and many times nether lane has only just begun to move. I know you have noticed at even long green lights not as many cars get through as should…and of those who do get through at least one, most time two cars go through on yellow. Brain has declared my old body slow ….but, has come to accept that my reflexes are still significantly above average.

Brain may becoming more compassionate toward me and my physical short comings,….. Perhaps Brain has begun to notice he is not as sharp as he once was ether. I have been knowing, For a very long time, that Brain has had his own aging issues ….but I have not said any thing, because I am much kinder then Brain, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings…he has a much inflated ego, don‘t you know…..

And I sure don’t want to make Brain angry, because even though he is obstinate and cantankerous…I don’t want him to leave me.

Love to all
call if you need me

"Christiansen's Comments" from March 03 2011 Hinds County Gazette

2011-03-07T16:53:00.000-06:00

Here in Mid-Mississippi It is Spring for sure!

The Japanese magnolias are blooming…but that is not a sure sign of spring…they often get caught by a frost.

I am saying it is Spring, because the earth worms are coming closer to top of the ground, there are worms squirming in every hole I dig and I have dug lots of holes in the last couple of weeks. And too, those pesky fire ants are back to building their homes above the ground….great mounds. As annoying as those ants are, I still have to respect their building skills…they are fast builder too. You no doubt have noticed, fire ants don’t seem to mind, even on short notice, picking up and moving. I spread ant poison on their mounds, , by the next morning they have up and moved a few feet and began building again. You can say a lot of things about the fire ant, but you can not call them “lazy“.

It is beginning to smell like spring too, I was driving down old highway 80, last Wednesday afternoon, right there in the vicinity of Dennis Gray’s airfield, were two tractors, one on each side of the road, plowing up the ground …I slowed down and rolled down my window and breathed .….the aroma took my breath , the ground was still damp from the recent rains, wet ground has a more intense scent then dry dusty ground….But I love the smell of fresh tilled ground damp or dusty.

I would have pulled over and stopped, back in the day, when folks were less nervous and fearful of any activity out of the norm…. and got out of the truck, sat on the tailgate to watch and sniff awhile…but, I didn’t want to alarm anybody, so I didn’t …I just rode by very slowly with the windows down. …

I Sure didn’t want the men plowing, to feel compelled to call the law and report “a suspicious acting person“. Can you just imagine, when the officer arrived and I went to trying to explaining my actions , “I just stopped to sniff the dirt.” well…. They may not have handcuffed me…but they may have felt duty-bound to contact my family to give an account, of what they regarded as bizarre behavior. “She said she stopped to sniff dirt.”

I do not believe we are as tolerant as we once were of the eccentric and mildly batty souls who live amongst us. I don’t know…maybe it is a lingering effect from 9/11.… maybe since 9/11our definition of “normal” behavior has become more limited.

Now those eccentric and mildly batty persons that we are familiar with, our very own hometown slightly mad characters ….they are fine…we accept them as they are….But the stranger who appears eccentric and/or mildly batty, we avoid them like grime death….hope they don’t try and talk to us when we encounter them in the grocery or on the street. I was going somewhere with this, but I have forgotten where now…so I will end here.

Love to all

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette Febuary 10 2011

2011-02-15T05:24:00.000-06:00

The XL11 Super Bowl contest have been played and a winner declared…

So the holidays are officially over. The Super Bowl was the last big binge eating holiday until Thanksgiving. Do you feel like you have been in an eating marathon ?

Oh, yes, of course, I know, we do have lots of days of celebration left in 2011, Valentines, St. Patrick Day, Easter, Mother Day etc. ...but they are typically a one day eating event or at the most a weekend …from now on our celebration eating will be more a sprint then a marathon.

I know you all have seen the commercials that are aimed at trying to make us feel guilty about using paper…everybody is wanting us to go paperless….”save a tree”. You all, I say out loud to the TV, “Some people making a living growing and harvesting trees!!!” Any way that what I thought….Driving past great fields of pine trees and following loaded down log trucks. Going…? I don’t guess I know where they are going…

But still and all, that activity lead me to believe, growing trees and growing corn, cotton soy beans etc. were the same. They were all crops loaded on trucks going to market.

Don’t misunderstand, I was born a “tree Hugger” and I am still a “Tree Hugger“. That is…when I am in my home state of Nebraska, trees are precious there. Never saw a log truck in Nebraska. In states the likes of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas there are far fewer trees then here in Mississippi.

Now then, I was watching Farm Week on PBS last week…My suspicions that trees are a cash crop was confirmed….did you know there are two factories in Mississippi that manufacture wood pellets. Do you know what the pellets are used for? Heating!…Seems oil and gas are becoming more expensive. ..so people up north are using the pellets to heat their homes. According to the report on Farm Week, the folks in the American Northwest prefer pine pellets and the folks in the North East prefer hardwood pellets.

http://msucares.com/news/farmweek/

Why pellets and not logs? They didn’t go in to all of that…maybe pellets are easier to transport. The pellets are bagged like dog food…in fact the pellets did not look unlike dog food. Oh! Oh! I remember why pellets and not logs! There is something in the manufacturing of the pellets that makes them burn in a more environmentally friendly manner.

And the fuel pellets that are manufactured here in Mississippi are used to make electricity Too!!!! That’s right! In an effort to make the manufacture of electricity, safer and less dependent on oil, some electric power plants are using a sustainable product…. wood pellets! Wood Pellets manufactured in Mississippi!

http://www.envivabiomass.com/

Did I mention, most of power plants generating electricity from Mississippi wood pellets are in Europe? We have been looking for ways to make us less dependant on foreign oil…we found one and we are shipping it abroad.

No matter where the pellets go….Fuel pellets have to be good for Mississippi’s economy. And I am proud we maybe helping to light the Eifel tower.

Love to all

Call if you need me

/

"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette Febuary 3 2011

2011-02-05T09:30:00.003-06:00

I am so much better now the sun has shined!

I puttered in the yard Friday and Saturday, actually I did more then putter, I got a pretty good bit of work done. Friday I sheared the crepe myrtles…but only lightly. Because, my friend Peggy Ann, a master gardener, called what I have done to them in the past “Crepe murder”. Following Peggy’s logic that made me a “crepe murderer“….I didn’t much like the sounds of that…. So I did not cut them back to waist high as was my usual habit ….just the very tips.

But in my defense, I was told to get crepe myrtles to bloom, I had to cut back them quite severely. And I must say this, in all of the years I have cut them back so brutally…none ever died….but come to think about it,,, they didn’t bloom profusely ether…. So to my crepe myrtles, I opted to be horticulturally kind this year.

At the bottom of the hill I have a contorted mulberry and a cedar tree…. they were becoming entangled…I thought giving a rather messy, unkempt appearance to that part of my yard…The contorted mulberry, obviously needed more room. Saturday morning, I walked to the bottom of the hill , bow saw in hand.

I stood and contemplated on the two trees… cedar was a volunteer it came up on it’s own…it grew up, to it’s present 15 foot height…with no help, and very little encouragement from me. The contorted mulberry on the other hand, has been pampered and praised, from the day it was planted…That contorted mulberry is the most exotic plant on the place….one year ago December, when one of it’s very large branches broke and fell to the ground, I shed tears..

I was ready to cut the “dime a dozen” cedar to the ground. Even though, standing between the two trees, I came to recognize, it was the mulberry encroaching on the territory of the cedar…robbing it of sun light. But, I knew, if I didn’t do something, eventually the cedar would become weak.

Because, I know how I feel….after days and days with out the sun‘s reassuring warmth and bright light….I didn’t want to….but I had to do, what I had to do. I took a deep breath and walked up to the enormous offending branch on the mulberry, and cut it off.

Love to all, call if you need me

PS
For those of you who read me both in the Gazette and on line, I hope you see, I do know how spell crepe myrtle..(It's not crape myrtle)..I am one of the world's worst spellers, so normally would not know if a word was spelled correctly or not...but as I was writing that morning I looked it up...because I thought maybe crepe myrtle was one word....I blame the spelling error on an auto spell check program...they are built in to most word processing programs........it must have been turned on that day at the newspaper.

PS
to my PS Crape Myrtle can be spelled ether crepe myrtle or carpe myrtle.

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette January 20 2011

2011-01-22T08:15:00.000-06:00

Monday January 17 2011

It is drizzling rain this morning…it drizzled much of the day yesterday too. Drizzling rain is preferable to sleet and ice for sure…Lately there have not many days full sunshine…… it is grey and gloomy.

You all, just Soon as the holidays have passed and the tree is down…. I am eager for Spring to arrive…. my friends and acquaintances keep reminding me of how stifling hot and miserable Mississippi summers can be.

So of late Brain has had me contemplating the misery of sweltering summers verses the misery of gloomy winters…comparing them…. I have come to only one conclusion so far…..That being; no matter how hot it gets in June, July and August, I do not ever remember wanting to stay in the bed all day, curled up with my cats.

In the Summer I am out of bed at the crack of dawn… I may not accomplish any more on a scorching summer’s day, then I do on a bleak winter’s day. But I am up and dressed….and maybe all I end up doing is….going to the front porch, cold drink in hand , sitting down in the swing, and watching the grass grow…or helplessly watching the grass wither….but I am up and involved in the day.

Through the window behind me I see the Japanese magnolia budding…this time next month they will be blooming…. and then, perhaps, my winter melancholy will begin to slip away.

On a less whiney subject.

Lindsay Noble called last Friday after reading the Gazette and explained to me how Blue use to make her tamales…He said, Blue began her tamale making by boiling a whole hog’s head…and while the hog head was in the pot cooking, she went out to the barn, to gather up the corn husks to wrap the tamales in….. Well, I did not beg for that recipe…it sounded a bit like real work.

The tamale cooking has garnered up a good many comments…but nothing like the Ambrosia episode…you may or may not remember how out done the sweet, genteel ladies of the South became when I put gelatin in my ambrosia to tighten up the juices. Well, some of those very same ladies, when I filled a punch bowl halfway with ambrosia, (orange segments, coconuts and cherries) and poured 2 bottles of champagne over it and called it “punch”…. They had no objections or complaints to that adulterated ambrosia recipe …..there was nothing but, grins and lip smacking all around…

The sun is up, but not out….I am still in my pajamas ….the cats are asleep, in my not yet made bed.

Call if you need me...I will be with them......

Whit my new BFF

2011-01-20T18:50:00.000-06:00

"Christiansen Comments" for Hinds County Gazette January 13 2011

2011-01-17T08:13:00.003-06:00

Before day break....Monday Morning January 10 2011

The back steps are covered with sleet and ice….over the weekend we here in mid Mississippi experienced a rare, winter, weather event…sleet, freezing rain and snow.

Now then, let me ask you this, does it seem to you, that these “rare” weather events are not as rare as they once were? We came to Mississippi in 1979 I do not remember snow and ice as frequently in the 80s and 90.…. Maybe is it just me and my unreliable memory.

The weather folks began warning us early on in the week that this weather “event” was very likely to occur…But as their prophecies are not always accurate….So I did not hurry out to prepare.

But by late Friday, early Saturday morning the weather folks warning were in earnest. I got to thinking the weather people can’t be wrong every time. So I was up and out of here by 5:15 AM Saturday morning, first I filled up the truck with gas, then went on to the grocery store. I was in the Kroger Store before 6 am.

Actually I didn’t really need anything at the store, but the news people were insisting we stock up… I was already stocked up…But I went anyway. It took more then one trip up and down each and every isle to do it, but finally I managed to gather up enough stuff to spend $88. Then I came home made the biggest batch of chili you ever saw…got my laundry all done….and finished vacuuming. I was sooooooooo ready, I had even stopped and got a bit of real money. John could never understand, way I never had any cash, or gas in my vehicle

Now that the sun is up…I do not see any damage…not even any broken branches.

But still and all, I will not be going out today…it was my mother contention that old people had no business out side when it was below freezing….while it was or after a freezing rain, sleet or snow. If you did, she thought you were asking for a broken bone .

If God allows the loved ones that went before us, to look down and check on us…John and mother should be happy to know, their words of wisdom were not wasted …I did listen….and am now taking their advise very seriously.

I am still on my quest to make the very best tamales. And I did make 2 new tamale recipes last week, , the dough covering the tamale filling… I am satisfied I have found the right formula for it….But the filling, I believe could use a bit of fine-tuning . However, Charles Davis, who quite possibly has had a taste of every tamale recipe I have tried so far…. has declared Daughter Angela wrong , Charles says, “they do not need a sauce”.

Ginger Kilby told me she recently found a recipe for tamales, that was sent to her sometime back, from a lady up in the delta ….I am waiting for Ginger to run up on that recipe again…when she does, she has promised to send it to me….I want to try it for sure, the Mississippi Delta is famous not only for the blues but also for their tamales….

Love to all

Call if you need me

Hinds County Gazette, January 6 2011, Christiansen's Comments

2011-01-09T07:33:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year!!

Here in the South, Black eyed peas and howl jowls, served with cornbread is the accepted menu for New Years.

How were your holidays?

This will be short today, even though the Christmas tree is down and back up to the attic ….and the decorations are packed and placed in the old foot locker at the foot of the bed, in the back bedroom…my house is not yet straight. My Christmas tree is artificial, but I use real greenery on the mantles , so there are evergreen needles stuck in rugs, all over the house and holly berries rolling around the floors. …so must get to vacuuming.

Foot Locker
Painted white because it was Daughter Angela's toy box.

And I have some gift cards that are burning a hole in my pocket…soon as I get up from here I am headed to out buy some lumber!

Oh! Yeah…let me tell you about my grand tamale adventure! Remember? I was making Tamales to give to my walking buddies for Christmas…..I tried different recipes and sent them around to assorted folks to critique …..the judgments were mixed , nobody declared them awful, some said they were not spicy enough, one thought they needed a bit more salt…..My pew mate, at the Edwards Presbyterian Church Maria, who is from Mexico originally, was very impressed , and she said her husband loved them….My friend Isla said they were the best she ever had eaten! Daughter Angela how ever was less impressed…she thought they needed a sauce, but she did give me an A for effort.

I like making tamales…after I got started …I couldn‘t get stopped….I made hundreds of them…gave lots and lots of them away…But Still had dozens in the freezer so the day after Christmas I had a few folks in to eat up the last of them.

Tamales!!!!!

We sometimes pine for an old fashion Christmas…but this year I realized an old fashion, non commercial Christmas is still to be had. And I did not have to go far to find it. St. Mary’s Episcopal in Bolton held two events, December 12, was lessons and Carols, Dorothy Brasfield, played the organ for the choir from Vicksburg’s Trinity Episcopal, it was wonderful…not a big choir but they sounded huge!.

Then on the 21 of December at St. Mary’s, the Holy Eucharist was celebrated, and the Chimneyville Readers Theater presented Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory adapted and narrated by James Anderson of the greater Bolton area. What a treat that was!!!! I am not alone in hoping these will become annual Christmas events at St. Mary’s.

Santa Claus once again came to Edwards to Jo Gayle’s house… 20 or 25 children came to have breakfast with him.

There was a community candle light Christmas service at the Edwards United Methodist Church.

Community Candle Light service at the Edwards Methodist Church
On the 18th , at St. marks in Raymond, the Raymond Methodist choirs, adult and Joy, performed The Gift…once again not a big choir but the acoustics in these old churches just a few can put out the volume….sounds like many more then you see for sure. The Edwards Presbyterian Children’s Choir went caroling the 18th. The 19th I was at Campbell Swamp for carol singing and covered dish dinner at Gordon Cottons….I look forward to this every year…mostly we sing with out instrument accompaniment….this year we did have a keyboard …but it was uncooperative at times…we just went right on singing loud and out of tune.

Garrett, my big, 6 foot tall ,21 year old, grandson build a gingerbread house, to entertain, my little friend, six month old, Whittaker. Whit was tickled by the whole thing. Whit was so tickled Garrett…. it tickle Garrett.
And the sight of the two of them tickled me…… And that my friends will always be my favorite memory from the Christmas of 2010.

Whit, kicking with glee.. Garrett's hands and a bit of his mustache and beard.

Love to all

Whittaker is the son of CJ and Angie Zadrozny…..and the grandson of Lewis and Kay Montgomery

Nell Mixon has passed

2011-01-07T15:09:00.001-06:00

Nell Mixon

Nellie C. Nixon
Clarion Ledger obituary
Nellie Nixon, age 86 went to be with the Lord on January 6, 2011.

She was born June 17,1924 in Hushpuckena, Bolivar County MS.

Visitation will be held Tuesday from 11:00 to 1:00 with services at 1:00 at Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home in Raymond, MS.

She was well loved by friends & family. She worked at Suffolk County National Bank in Riverhead N.Y.; First National Bank of Jackson, Westway Farms of Edwards and retired from Bancorp South of Vicksburg.

She is survived by daughter, Joyce (Thomas) Blindenhofer; grandaughters, Lisa Blindenhofer,Jenny (Donnie) Perry; great-grandchildren, Eric and Christian Perry of Myrtle Beach S.C., daughter,Pam (Arnie) Bridges; grandsons, Dustin & Brandon Bridges; great-granddaughter, Alexis Marie Bridges,all of Florence,MS.; sisters, Dorothy Gordon of Riggs Manor in Raymond MS; Frances Alston of Houston TX; sister-in-law, Helen Alston of Marks, MS; nieces, Cheryl Green, Linda Gatlin and Paula Hill.

Edith Blush

2010-12-26T08:04:00.001-06:00

Mrs. Edith Blush

Long time resident of Edwards Died Christmas day.

Edith Ramke Blush was born 2/14/1916 (Valentine’s Day) in Vermilion Parish, La., near Abbeville and died 12/25/10 (Christmas Day) at Olive Branch Senior Care Center in Tallulah following an extended illness. Edith spent her teen and early adult years in New Orleans and moved to Edwards in 1947 and lived there 56 years before moving to Vicksburg in October 2003.

She was preceded in death by Richard Kohnke Blush Sr., her husband of almost 65 years; a son, Ernest Edwin Blush; her parents, Edwin Derick Ramke and Lydia Marie Lee Ramke; a brother, Otis Vincent Ramke (a casualty of World War II); and one sister, Zoie R. Kennard Cabrai.

She is survived by three sisters, Iris R. Coumes of Slidell, La., Lina R. Parisi of Covington, La., and Grace Ramke of Baton Rouge. She is also survived by three children and their spouses, Florence Edith Blush Frederick (L. Wayne Frederick) of Guntown, Miss., Richard K. Blush Jr. (Fay Conway Blush) of Vicksburg and Herbert Allen Blush (Gloria Hughes Blush) of Yazoo City; 10 grandchildren, Edith F. Wilhite, Amy F. Griffin, Iris F. Horne, Jeanne F. Hardy, Eddie Blush, Andy Blush, Eric Blush, Marian B. Hughlett, Lauren Blush and Derrick Blush; 18 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

She retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1978. She was an active member of the Edwards Baptist Church from 1947-2003, and of the Calvary Baptist Church in Vicksburg since 2003. She enjoyed gardening, being a good neighbor, ministry through her Bible class and church mission groups.

Visitation will be from 5 until 7 tonight at Glenwood Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Burial will be at the Edwards Cemetery in Edwards at 11:30 with graveside service, weather permitting. Speakers for her funeral will be the Rev. Wayne Frederick and Dr. John McCall.

Pallbearers will be William White, Clifton Reed, Billy Smith, Dave Montgomery, Lee Miller, Michael Sullivan, Joe Crist and Riley Nelson.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Calvary Baptist Church, 2878 Old Highway 27, Vicksburg, MS 39180; Edwards Baptist Church, Edwards; or the American Cancer Society, P.O.

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette November 2010

2010-12-01T16:58:00.003-06:00

The Christmas tree is decorated!

It was a team effort for sure, I worked on it…not long, but I did work on it, I had guests for Lunch last Sunday they worked on it. Jacqueline came by Saturday and finished it up….Thank you very much Jac.

My friend Suzanne, on the other hand….. Well….she has not darken my door, since I announce my Christmas tree was down from the attic, fully assembled and ready to be decked out. Bless Suz’s heart she got caught one year decorating my tree…and Let me tell you, she was a less then enthusiastic elf. But Suz did call most everyday last week…Asking, rather overly cheerful, “what’s going on?“ I suspect it was just an attempt to find out if the tree was decorated yet, and to see if it would be safe to accept an invitation to stop by on her way home from teaching.

JO Gayle and I may have been first getting our trees up….But The Suz Girl, is not fond of tree adorning.. at all! She was on the phone weeks ago… lining up a crew to come deal with her tree…. Her daughter, Marianna and her friend Ava are coming this weekend to tend to it.

Ava and Marianna

Deer Hunters Suzanne drafted.....

My tree is up and beautifully decorated, the fruitcakes are made, dowsed with rum and are ripening in their tins, there is a batch caramels cooked and wrapped. My holiday season has begun.

There are always a good many men in the grocery when I go in the mornings…Mostly old geezers pushing the buggy for the wife…As a rule they aren’t doing a lot of smiling. But Friday morning when I was in the Kroger… there were lots of men, of all ages shopping alone, And they were grinning….I was momentarily puzzled…..Then it tumbled….They have charcoal and beer in their buggies. …they are headed to deer camp.

I told you last week that I was making Yankee dressing to take to “old people club“….They ate it! Wait a minute… I don’t know for sure that they ate it… But they did at least they put it on their plates, because it was gone except two or three spoons full, There were a couple pans of cornbread dressing too…The cornbread dressing was all gone….that’s ok, my feelings aren’t hurt.

My next culinary endeavor is going be, seeing can I make hot tamales… from scratch….I have been looking at recipes on line and watching videos of the process on Youtube. I does not appear difficult….Time consuming but not difficult…..we will see.

Sunday evening we had a lovely community Thanksgiving service at the Edwards Methodist Church …after the service…. the ladies served soup lots of different soups. We do not often get together as a community, except for funerals…It was a very special time. My joyous Christmas season has begun

I hope you have/had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be going to Angela’s. We will be eating turkey sandwiches, potato chips and dill pickles. Her philosophy is this, “why make that big enormous meal?…When really the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is the leftover turkey sandwiches. “ Angela will roasting a 20 pound turkey, essentially just to make sandwiches. Angela is a “Cut to the chase” “bottom line” kind of girl. …it must be that accountant gene she has in her.

Love to all

Call if you need me

Wilson McClain passed away Friday November 26

2010-11-28T16:09:00.046-06:00

Wilson McClain
Hinds County Gazette
Christiansen's comments
to be published, December 2 2010

Wilson McClain died of a heart attack Friday November 26, he was 81. Wilson was a man’s man, a strong, soft spoken, gentle, sort of guy. He was a tall man, the kind of fella that stood out in a crowd. Wilson always wore, boots, western cut kaki pants, and western shirts….and if the weather was cool he would be wearing his camel colored leather jacket, . When I picture Wilson in my mind he is wearing that camel colored leather coat…I had known Wilson 23 years…I believe it all of those years it was the same coat….it was a beautiful Jacket

Awhile back, Wilson had begun having memory problems. Trying to sort out what was happening currently….was his difficulty. But memories from the past, Wilson had no problems with those. One Sunday, I think it was last fall, Dave and Suzanne Harpole had Wilson, Peggy Hubbard Ditto, and myself out to their house for Sunday lunch. What a delightful meal it was, Peggy, Wilson and Dave had Suzanne and I in stitches as they recalled stories of Edwards past.

Wilson’s memory difficulties were worsening…causing his friends and family much anguish. Some hard decisions concerning Wilson were inevitable .

Then God reveled his plan for Wilson….Wilson was at his deer camp in north Mississippi, The Tennessee Bar, when he died, his son was with him. I can’t help but think, Wilson died happy , doing what he loved, deer hunting, at a place he loved, Tennessee Bar Hunting and Fishing Club..

Love to all

Call if you need me

                                     The processional to Wilson's Houston McClains grave....

Notice the the horse with out a rider.   Before 4 wheeler Wilson and his hunting companions, like John Hubbard and Ray Cannada rode horses into the woods to hunt.

                               *************

Wilson's obituary as it appeared in the Clarion Ledger.

Wilson Houston McClain, Jr., 81, passed away on Friday, November 26, 2010 at Tennessee Bar Hunting and Fishing Club, following a heart attack.

Born September 15, 1929 in Greenville, MS, Wilson grew up in Vicksburg, was a member of First Presbyterian Church, and graduated from Carr Central High School in 1947. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1951 and was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

He served as 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force then returned to Vicksburg to work in the family business, McClain Gas Company and Texaco Distributorship. After retiring, he worked with Central Pipe Company in Jackson, MS.

Wilson moved to Edwards in 1978 and was a member of the Edwards United Methodist Church.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Jo Ruth Ragan McClain, parents, Wilson Houston McClain and Maxyne Mauldin McClain, sister Marcia Lynn McClain, and infant daughter, Anna Marie McClain.

Survivors include children Wilson H. McClain, III (Lee) of Coldspring, Texas; Kathleen McClain Jenkins Bond (Edward) of Natchez; and Marcia McClain McKinzie (Lee) of Baton Rouge; grandsons Wilson Buford (Buck) Jenkins and Scott Ragan McKinzie; nieces Ann Ragan Duncan and Kate Duncan Carlson; and nephews Robert Francis (Buck) Duncan and William Marion (Bill) Duncan.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 pm on Monday, November 29, at Riles Funeral Home in Vicksburg and at from 10:00 to 11:00 am on Tuesday, November 30 at the Edwards United Methodist Church Family Center.

Services will be held at the Edwards United Methodist Church, 200 Magnolia Street, Edwards, MS, at 11:00 am on Tuesday, November 30, with burial to follow at the Edwards Cemetery.

Pallbearers include Emmett Atwood, Dink Hataway, George Hill, Buck Jenkins, Keith Lewis, Scott McKinzie, Fred Newcomb, Ed Pace, Harold Soverns, and Dennis Wood.

Honorary pallbearers will be David Barnhart, Edward Bond, Richard Boone, Bill Duncan, Buck Duncan, Dave Harpole, Pat Hubbard, Pete Hubbard, Tim Hubbard, Mike Johnson, Jamie Lewis, Bill Montgomery, Jeff Montgomery, Monty Montgomery, and members of the Tennessee Bar Hunting and Fishing Club.

Memorials may be made to the Edwards United Methodist Church, c/o Church Treasurer, 1202 Deer Crossing Road, Edwards, MS 39066 or Edwards Cemetery Fund, P.O. Box 593, Edwards, MS 39066.

Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette November 18 2010

2010-11-22T10:14:00.002-06:00

I am Never first! Never! Never ever!

No matter when I set my Christmas tree up…This year, it was in the wee hours of the morning ,Thursday the 11 of November that I brought the tree down from the attic, and put it together, That is early even for me.

Back in the day when the kids still were home and would assist in the tree’s assembly and decor (sort of) we put the tree up Thanksgiving afternoon. Then when they left home and had their own trees to deal with…I was on my own…. John had ballgames to watch, as I have no TV in the living room…he was no help. So to get the tree up and over with, I begin putting it up the first part of Thanksgiving week…now then I am up to two full weeks before Thanksgiving. Jacqueline says, I will soon be beating wal-mart.

I was so sure I was first this year…My friend Jo Gayle Reeves beat me by a hair last year. So soon as it got late enough in the morning, that I felt comfortable calling Jo Gayle, (that would be shortly after day break,) she, like me gets up very early. I called to brag….Jo Gayle answered laughing, not only did she have her tree up…she was decorating it…AND wrapping gifts. Mine was only up…I depend on the pity and kindness of my friends to come decorate my tree.

As you may or may not know, I am not from the south, but over the years I have worked hard at polishing my southern culinary skills and have more or less perfected Chicken and dumplings…. Kay Montgomery says mine taste, “just like the ones my grandmother‘s cook made. “ I don‘t know… could there be any higher praise then that? And after a few fits and starts…. I can now make quite agreeable Ambrosia.

Well, tomorrow is “Old People Club” I am baking a turkey and making Yankee dressing to take….We Yankees make our dressing with white bread, not cornbread…we will see if the gathered crowd goes to spitting and gagging. If they don’t like it, my dogs will. Peggy Ann said she would make cornbread dressing to bring to O P Club…I hope she doesn’t forget….

Next year I may try cornbread dressing. My favorite dressing is oyster. I shall make some to have for Christmas Eve this year. Yum! Me and the cats will eat it even if no one else does.

Becky Montgomery drove Peggy Ann and I to Bolton for the old time hymn singing at St. Mary’s Sunday…What a treat! I love the old hymns….we sang loud … real loud…a lesser building may have collapsed under the pressure of our voices. Lots of folks turned out…nearly a full house….Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist , Presbyterian…we were all there. James Anderson tells me they are planning a special event for every month. Looking forward to them all!

call if you need me

Life in a small Mississippi Town.: Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette Novembe...

2010-11-09T08:26:00.000-06:00

Life in a small Mississippi Town.: Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette Novembe...: "Get your running shoes on! It has begun! …I am talking about the holiday season. The Holidays run from Halloween through Super Bowl Sunday ..."

Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette November 04 2010

2010-11-08T09:25:00.001-06:00

Get your running shoes on! It has begun!

…I am talking about the holiday season. The Holidays run from Halloween through Super Bowl Sunday now. Not that many years ago, The Holidays began on Thanksgiving and ended, for many, early afternoon, very early afternoon, December 25. I have seen trees on the curb Christmas afternoon…Not just the real trees that may have become a fire hazard…but I have even seen artificial trees still fully decked out on the curd. I guess folks just get tired of them…so tired of them, they can not stand the sight of that tree even one more minute…so off it goes to the trash.

I was out and about Friday gathering up a few things to get me through the weekend, You all, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas merchandise were all mingle and scrambled together in the aisles of stores. Not only that, there were great batches of people everywhere…I was quite puzzled…then I saw an advertisement on the TV. Last Friday was to be the new “Black Friday”. Black Friday traditionally has been the Friday after Thanksgiving. We shall see if this New Black Friday thing catches on…I guess, there is no reason why it shouldn’t….we are easy…. We follow where ever Retail leads.

We abandon whole malls and shopping centers…Metro mall, Jackson Mall, Meadowbrook to name just a few….to follow….where we are led. We ran out north, to County Line Road, to shop til we dropped at Northpark, But the new has wore off Northpark…So, now then, we are choosing to ignore, Northpark in favor of “The Renaissance” and the other new shopping destination out on Lakeland drive. I have forgotten what it’s name is….it will come to me.

There is nothing wrong with commerce…the American economy needs us to buy and consume…Americans need the jobs. I just wish more of the jobs were in the manufacture of the merchandise we are buying. Remember Back in the day when Wal-mart proudly advertised they sold “made in America” products? My friend Isla maintains if Wal-Mart, would go back to Sam Walton’s way of doing business…our economic woes could end…if we manufactured what we purchased we could all be working.

Dogwood! That is the name of the mall on Lakeland! I knew it would come to me.

Gibbes Grocery Learned Mississippi (Gibbs Grocery) 601 885 6833

Saturday night a great bunch of us traveled to Learned to pass out Halloween candy to the trick or treaters from Margret Sue’s front porch, she was working next door at Gibbes Grocery, but she had refreshments laid out for us…Some of the men were fussing because they were missing the ball games…. Margret Sue turned on her TV and settled them comfortably in her living room….Gibbes was very busy, so Margret Sue even arranged for their steaks to be delivered to them at her house…. so they didn’t have to miss even one down of the ball game…Now that is hospitality!

Margaret Sue Dozier on her front porch Halloween 2010 Learned Mississippi

I just love going to Learned for Halloween…I don’t think there were quite as many kids this year as last though.

Sunday morning I was telling daughter Angela about trick or treat in learned.. I was telling her I didn’t think kids are excited about Halloween as they use to be…she too had noticed. “But kids get candy all the time now…we didn’t have candy around when we were kids.” I paused didn’t say anything, she went on… “On Halloween we ran from house to house fast as we could, to get as much candy as we could carry, then we ran home, got another bag and took up where we left off…We didn’t have candy in the house when we were growing up.”

Well, they say confession is good for the soul…I didn’t want to but, I had to tell her, “ Angela there was always candy in the house when you were growing up….it was hid…and I never shared…it was usually Snicker bars.” I waited for her to fuss…she never uttered a word about me not sharing. Which, thinking on it later…lead me to believe she hid candy from Garrett.

There are times in many women’s lives that Chocolate is a necessity…like air and water….we have to have it…God knows, we would share anything we had with our children,….except our secret stash of chocolate, but I believe he forgives us.

love to all, call if you need me

Christiansen Comments.. Hinds County Gazette ..October, 28, 2010

2010-10-31T08:41:00.000-05:00

Good Morning!

The weather here in Mid-Mississippi has been ideal, apart from for the lack of rain. Perfect weather for my Old Auntie and Cousin Alice’s visit to Mississippi. I keep telling everybody Old Auntie is 85, but I have begun to question that…..Alice and I could not always keep up with her…. We had a wonderful visit, caught up on lots of family members I have not seen in 50 years.

Aunt Aryth and Cousin Alice

Let me stop right here and apologize for the confusion I unwittingly caused about the date of the Fall Edwards Cemetery Day. I quote, from my column, dated August 26 2010. “Well, as usual our Fall calendars are filling up fast….Last week I mentioned the Fall Pilgrimage in Raymond, October 1 through 16. Edwards semi annual Cemetery day is October 16. And the Methodists are having a rummage sale that week end too”

I am so sorry….Cemetery day took place in September. But in my defense, I was unaware there had been a change until way on after while….but, even after I announced the wrong date, no one called my attention to it, so I could correct it. Therefore I have concluded that the change was made after I wrote about it in the Gazette published August 26. Well…… there is another possibility, the folks in charge of making schedule changes for cemetery cleanup, do not read my scribbles, and they were unaware I had made such a hefty blunder.

The Edwards Cemetary

October 16 was the date on the 2010 community Birthday calendar. Which by the way, is put out by the nice Baptist Ladies each year for our convenience. AND Some of the profits are used each year to feed us Edwards old people, a lovely, tasty fall luncheon…..always with grand entertainment. …I go to the mail box everyday looking for my invitation…It should be coming soon! The Baptist Ladies are very kind they do not call us “ old people” they have dubbed it the “Keenager Luncheon.”

Back to the Edwards Cemetery Day, date fiasco …I am told there has been another change to the 2011 Fall cemetery date. I do not know what that date is though…..the 2011 community calendar has Saturday September 17.

I didn’t get as many calls about the Methodist Rummage sale, but I did get a few. I announced in that same column they were going to have a rummage sale the same day as Cemetery day, …The rummage sale didn’t happen ether…I don’t know why…Again I am so sorry. I did hear, it has been rescheduled…did not hear a date though….

However “The friends of Raymond” annual Fall pilgrimage, I mentioned in that same August 26 column, went off without a hitch.

I have got to go….On this beautiful Fall day, the front porch is calling me…in particular the Swing, He is waiting on me….He can’t swing with out me.

Love to all,

call if you need me

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette, October 7 2010

2010-10-11T09:27:00.000-05:00

My old House is expecting company....

I was debating as to whether or not to even sit down here this morning, as I told you last week I have very important company coming to visit a few days,in mid-October, and I have lots to do before they get here.

For those of you who moved and now live far away and may have forgotten, Summer time in Mississippi is brutal, this year was especially hot and miserable. During Mississippi Summers ….when it comes to chores around the house, watering the plants confined to pots, keeping the grass mowed, roses dead headed… all such as that…. you are fortunate if you can maintain status quo, let alone take on any projects.

But, has cooled down now, so I have been preparing for my company, the kitchen has been degreased, the mildew has been scrubbed from the front porch…mostly. Saturday, I moved to the back steps…. In the late 80’s when we moved here to 201, we had new steps built to the back porch…to replace the wobbly., rickety ones with the loose and rotting treads….as I recall they were to be a stop gap measure , an emergency build, to be temporary, just until we could sort out what we really wanted to do…..Well, here it is some 20 plus years later and those hastily built steps are still in service at the back door….

I do have to mend them now and again…..I did that Saturday, the boards were loose and there was a significant, possibly dangerous, tilt to the treads…way more then necessary to drain the rainwater off ..for sure. Foot placement was getting tricky…some steps were solid in the middle…some were solid only on one end or the other. They are all sound from end to end now!

There is something so comforting about old houses…even though they can be quite drafty, they still have a cozy feel and they are so friendly….they love to have folks come to visit.

But old houses are work…lots of work. Recently, I heard Allan Huffman say as he was gazing toward his beautiful antebellum home, Holly Grove, “I was hoping to get it fully restored, before I had to start repairing it.”

Now John and I we never quite got around to restoration….the repairs kept us busy.

You all, my ambition is no longer renovation…I have just two objectives left for this old house. 1. Keep it reasonably safe for guests and 2. dry enough to sleep comfortably….… Time and energy are fast fading.

This 90 year old house I live in, He does not seem to mind a few scuffs and dings, He is a happy house, He does not seem to mind that his floors are worn, where folks have walked, children have played and my dogs have laid. He does not seem to worry that his windows and pipes sometimes rattle or his floors creak…For nearly 100 years, he has squared his shoulders and stood up to the elements and protected his people. And House knows he was here before I was born and he will be here long after I die….

But, I know this old house is very fond of me…When ever I come through one of his doors….He gives me a big hug and in his voice, rattles, creaks and squeaks says to me, “you are safe, you are home” . I get the idea on occasion, I need to down size…..But if this old house has his way, 201 will be my address until Jesus comes to take me Home.

Love to all

Call if you need me

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette....

2010-10-04T14:11:00.001-05:00

Here is an oldie.....

HCG January, 20, 2005

There are many things in this world I take for granted, for one, airplanes weighing many tons, can ignore gravity, and fly…. faster then the speed of sound too!!

But, you all, my poor Brain knows it is impossible for planes fly. Brain also knows TV is impossible, if pictures can come through the air, he wants to know why he can’t see them coming in the house. And he wonders how they keep from getting tangled up, what with all of the TV and radio stations, and satellites out there sending different pictures and sounds.

Brain and I watch Mr. Wizard reruns and the science channel, sometimes I even think I comprehend the impossible. But soon after watching I forget and evidently Brain does not have the capability to retain all such as that ether and he too… almost immediately forgets the formulas, and again convinces me achievements such as flying and TV are not possible.

Brain and I, do not have any trouble with things that float…I can make a toy boat that will float…but I could, not even in the fifth grade, when at the height of my paper airplane construction skills, make a plane that could fly across the class room and sail out the open window. Some of the boys could, but eventually theirs too would fall the two stories to the ground.

Brain has stumbled on yet another thing he is having trouble grasping,( he has many). I am convinced I could have been quite brilliant if I had not had to deal with Brain. Brain has me thinking on stuff that doesn’t come to a hill of beans.

In the grocery store the other Day as I lifted a bag, of oranges from a vast mound, Brain chirped up, “Where does all of this stuff come from?” I could not help myself, I began to think….trying to satisfy Brain….but the more I thought about it, the more muddled I became.

I have no doubt every grocery store in America has great piles of oranges similar to the one I was facing. How many grocery stores do you reckon we have in just Mississippi? How many pounds of oranges do you think it would take to stock just Mississippi stores? Then think all of the other 49 states, their grocery stores and mega marts, they too are stocked with oranges. New York City alone with the millions of people living there, you could easily believe they alone would suck up a whole year’s crop of oranges in a matter of days.

And that isn’t all, there still has to be enormous heaps of oranges somewhere that they are turning in to juice and marmalade. I know California and Florida have lots of oranges groves….but boggles the mind doesn’t it? 365 days a year there are oranges in every store in America …I know some produce comes from other countries…but still an all.

Folks all around me we poking broccoli, carrots, and cabbages into bags. But we are often told, “Americans do not eat right!” Well! I am here to tell you somebody is eating this stuff? Have you ever gone in to a grocery late in the evening, the great masses of fruits and vegetables have dwindled to a few broken bags.

I can not imagine how many acres of wheat it takes to keep our all American stores stocked in flour, bread, pie crusts, pasta and frozen biscuits.... 365 days a year.
Now cotton I can see where we might be able to grow enough of it to satisfy the needs of the malls. We buy a pair of socks, we wear them over and over…once we eat that bunch of broccoli it is gone.

Brain is a worry...he is never satisfied....I wish Brain would leave me alone....just let me be in my little world of ignorance.

Love to all, call if you need me.

Christiansen's Comments for Hinds county Gazette 09/30/2010

2010-09-28T06:56:00.003-05:00

Good Morning! Good Morning!

I will not be keeping you long today for sure, my kitchen is tore up!…I do not know what is the matter with me, I am calling myself cleaning, but I have made biggest mess out there.

I have visitors coming mid October, my only living aunt, daddy’s baby sister, and a cousin are coming from Colorado for a few days. My Auntie, , is the only somebody I would go to this much trouble for. Her generation’s standard for a clean house is much higher then mine are today. There was a time I kept a much cleaner house then I do now….Waxed floors on my hands and knees, washed windows at least once a week….Oh! and my oven I was especially proud of it, it was soooooooooo clean, it sparkled…the trick to a sparkling oven is after it is cleaned with the oven cleaner…you mix vinegar in water , dip a clean rag in the vinegar water…wring it out, and wipe out the entire oven….it sparkles!

My oven on this stove has never been cleaned….when something spills in the oven I pour salt on it to keep it from smoking and move on. When the oven cools down, I do sweep the salt out. I am in the process of cleaning the cupboards now….then I am going to clean the stove and oven. My cupboards have not been cleaned in years…and I am not trying to get them super clean….just hoping to get the grime back to 2008 levels. The stove, I am going to take a crack at “sparkle”…but will settle for a look that says, “This stove is just about to need a good cleaning.”

This Friday, October 1 , is the start of Raymond’s fall pilgrimage, it begins with a stroll through the historic Raymond Cemetery at 6:30. Actors, local citizens, play parts of people who are buried there. This is a engaging and informative event. But let me say this…I know there are some of you folks, who are not history enthusiasts….but you do not have to be a history scholar to enjoy the stroll. It is like a very entertaining play, but when an act comes to a close…. a curtain does not come down….. the audience moves….Great fun!!!!

Go a bit early and look around the Raymond Military Park….just off of highway 18... loads of fun for kids there are cannons and a scenic walking trail….

You all, Come on out to rural Hinds county…Not only do we have the Military Park…over here near Edwards, off of Highway 467, the old Coker House, it served as a hospital during the Civil war., has been restored ….it shares an entrance with Cal-Maine. We have places to eat in all our little communities…..

Coker house before Restoration

Need more info about the pilgrimage and it‘s many events…some events are free and some do have a fee…go to http://www.friendsofraymond.org/

Love to all

call if you need me

PDA s And other Ramblings

2010-09-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

Christiansen's Comments
Published in the
Hinds county Gazette
Raymond Mississippi
September 23 2010

Mankind has been through some extraordinary revolutions, what with the, automobile, TV, rockets, crushable beer cans and plastic shopping bags…..But, I am thinking the cell phone have to rank fairly high on the graph of life changing gadgets.

Actually they are not called cell phones anymore, they are PDAs, Personal Data Assistant….a title appropriate to it’s endless talents. With the aid of an appliances… about the size of a deck of cards you can access information from anywhere in the world….dictionaries, Bibles of numerous translations, games…..land records, death records, you can visit art museums, traffic can be monitored in real time. PDAs are equipped with cameras, still and video, GPS, stop watches and even a level…..it can do just about anything…except cook …Though, I would not be surprised , if the PDA could be programmed to remotely turn on your oven….

It has been my observation that in any group of people, say for instance in waiting rooms, in restaurants, etc at least half of the people will be on their PDA, talking, texting, or surfing the web ….the younger the group the higher the percentage.

But, what I think surprises me the most is the number of men using cell phones….Once upon a time I believed men did not enjoy talking on phones. My dad, of course, talked on the phone, but until he retired, seldom answered a ringing phone….….if he answered, you knew he was home alone. My John when the phone rang….on the first ring, would begin hollering, “Is somebody going to answer that phone?”

But John took to the cell phone right away…he went and got us each a phone. But for the longest he would not turn his phone on, unless he wanted to call someone….He said, he didn’t want to run his battery down.

I have noticed in the vehicles I meet, at least 2/3 of the drivers are on their phones…just as many men as women….young and old.

I have come to believe…men just didn’t like being tethered by a cord…while women did not mind being constrained by the wire…gave us an excuse to sit down a few minutes.

PDAs have changed how we communicate in such a short time…I get very little personal mail in my mail box at the road anymore…I could not even tell you, the last time I wrote a note, stamped and put it in the mail. Email…. that was the way to go.

But then,….this is what has come about in just the last few months….I am getting and sending less and less email ….But getting and sending more and more text messages. I use test messaging a lot…it is very convenient…it takes very little time. With the smart phones our world is getting bigger and bigger…we are free!…we can go where ever we want and still be in touch with scores of our friends. You can go for days and not speak to even your best friends…and still know what they are up to….by means of Text messaging and the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

Of course there is a pretty hefty cost for the convenience…The high price of the PDA is only the beginning of the cost….To use your PDA you pay by the minute or subscribe to a packages.

In my parents lifetime it was transportation that moved at mind blurring, head scratching speed …leaping from horse and buggy…. to rockets, taking men to the moon.

My lifetime it is communication and information that gushed ahead …When I was a little girl, we had no TV in rural Nebraska until I was 12, and not everybody had phones, and phones were not like they are now, you had to go through what we called “central” gave the number to an operator, who was sitting in front of a big apparatus equipped with plugs and switches…some how, with the aid of the plugs and switches she miraculously was able to patch us through to our intended party.

When I was a little girl… mother often spent the afternoons visiting friends, the elderly, or shut ins…..I spent many hours sitting on a chairs, my hands folded in my lap, and only speaking if spoke to…..It was not a bad experience…I enjoyed listening to the conversations.

So this is what I have been pondering of late,… is money the only cost we are pay for our…for our …..new convenient forms of communicating?

Love to all…. call if you need me

PS Have you noticed ….you don’t hear as much booming music coming from the car next to you at the traffic light…..it must not be possible to talk on the phone and listen to a relentless, pavement shaking…. Boom! Boom! Boom!

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette September 16 2010

2010-09-19T19:50:00.000-05:00

Folks have been asking me where I have been…well, I will tell you, but you may be sorry you asked, you know how I can ramble, get started and not know how to get stopped. But here goes…..

I do not scare easy… But I have come to believe I scare less easily then some, because I do not watch the news and see all of the evil that goes on…. in and around mid Mississippi. I do not imagine there is somebody hiding behind every bush, ready to pounce, intending to do me bodily harm….

But I did have two things that frighten the fire out of me.

Number 1. Driving on the interstate with all of those inconsiderate folks, who have places to go and drive as if they are very very late, weaving in and out, cutting people off, honking their horns, waving fingers in rude ways.

Number 2. The dentist…all of that drilling and scraping. Very unpleasant. I remember growing up…Friends that went and had there teeth cleaned often had a sore mouth and were bleeding, from the gums.

Well, a couple of weeks back, I begin to have a toothache…not terrible, but nagging….I chose to ignore it…. In fact that’s how I deal with most aches and pains….surprisingly that strategy seems to work for me…my aches and pains just seem to go away on their own…or maybe it moves to another spot…from my knee to my elbow…shoulder to back etc.

So anyway, I have two broken teeth…they have been broken for years…and never caused me even the slightest problem. I would probably still be waiting for the tooth to quit hurting…but I discovered a lump in my left breast. I remembered seeing an advertisement in the Gazette for a dentist in Utica…Martha Lewis, I called and got an appointment….she also has an office in Clinton, I went to Clinton…She is only in Utica Friday and Saturdays..

Now I haven’t been to the dentist many times in my life…I am guessing less then five times, they were uncomfortable occasions….I didn’t not the sound of the drill and it hurt….I had not been to a dentist since before 1979 and my teeth had never been cleaned.

On the drive to Clinton, I prepared myself for a lengthy lecture, shaming me, concerning me not tending to my teeth…one of the dental assistance took me back to an examining room for X-rays….she did not fuss at me…….But I still had to deal with Dr. Lewis….That is who was going to fuss.

While waiting for the Dr. Lewis to come pull my broken tooth ….I noticed three certificates, framed and hanging on the wall….you all! one certificate was concerning dealing with “The Challenging Patient”. I was thrilled! My dentist was certified to deal with wimpy, whinny persons like me!!…and if a dentist can get a certificate to deal with difficult people…there must be a lot of us! I breathed a sigh of relief!!

It gets even better….It was not my broken tooth that was giving me fits, as I understood it, the pain was, caused by a build up of plaque, under the gums, of a tooth very close to the broken tooth. So the solution to that was cleaning the plaque from there and all my teeth…Dr. Lewis didn’t even try to pressure me in to getting the broken tooth pulled….still lots of enamel covering the nerve.

I am here to tell you, dental procedures and tools have changed in the last 30 years! They are not poking, prodding and scrapping you with sharp, pointy steal tools…with names that sound like they came from Sears.

What my teeth were cleaned with was a device . …there was a fine mist of water, I think, maybe it agitated the build up off…I know it was not painful…and I was not bleeding when I got out of the chair. Now, I only have one great fear left…that is the interstate.

I was blessed with incredibly sturdy teeth…That is not just my opinion, Dr. Lewis said so. I can open just about anything but a tin can with them.

My teeth tended to, I went on and made an appointment for a mammogram…Then started, mowing, cleaning house, paying bills, tidied the shop, even washed my truck…I contend you can face anything if you are organized , have a clean house. …and with out a toothache

I had a mammogram, sent to see my oncologist, who sent me to my surgeon, who removed the lump…..I have clean bill of health!

That’s what I have been doing.

Call if you need me.

"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette Augst 26 2010

2010-08-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

Bugs in the bed, Raymond Pilgrimage, And Methodist Rummage....

I do not watch or read much news, I find it entirely too demoralizing, so what little news I get, I get while waiting for the weatherman/woman/person, to come on, stand in front of the latest and greatest high tech, energetically animated maps and radars, to give us their best guess… as to what the day might bring, weather wise. I wonder….Are the weather folks anymore accurate then they were…. say 40 years ago?

All of that, is not what I started out to say….As you probably know, bedbugs have been in the news of late, seems after years of containment, they have re-emerged once again…in some quite posh places. This, is what I heard, while waiting for a forecast, last week…. and found most note worthy and enormously reassuring. Bedbugs can not survive temperatures past 110 degrees…considering our recent heat indexes… surely we do not have anything to fret about here in Mid Mississippi…….while it is true, we here in the South have been burdened with fire ants and they are, of course, a most unpleasant nuisance. Still and all, I do declare, I much prefer having fire ants in my grass…then bugs in my bed.

*******

Well, as usual our Fall calendars are filling up fast….Last week I mentioned the Fall Pilgrimage in Raymond, October 1 through 16. Edwards semi annual Cemetery day is October 16. And the Methodists are having a rummage sale that week end too

www.friendsofraymond.org

The Methodists are rising money in order to tackle some maintenance issues that have cropped up….The Edwards Fellowship club meets in the Methodist family center, therefore some of club members will be adding items to the sale also. So, it should prove to be a magnificent buying opportunity.

The Methodist rummage sale will be part of an annual Highway 80 yard sale….I guess it goes from coast to coast…I had not heard of it. Anyway, I may set up a stand in front of the concrete “Edwards” sign there in the curve …to see can I sell a few of my cement leaves….I haven’t got many leaves left…and it’s been so hot… I have not been motivated to make many so far this summer. But I want to be where the action is for sure…so I will sell leaves ‘til noon…. zip out to the cemetery for dinner on the grounds…scamper back to town, spend the afternoon selling leaves…then dash to Raymond to be part of the Pilgrimage festivities over there.

Fall is fun!!!! Call if you need me!

Hinds County Gazette, August 19 2010, Christiansen's Comments ..

2010-08-23T09:55:00.000-05:00

I wasn’t here last week because my North Carolina Grands came. Adam and his family were in Mississippi visiting. Adam preached in Ellisville on Sunday and Monday they toured Belhaven College, Grand daughter Anna is considering attending Belhaven. It won’t be long and I will have three grandchildren in college. Philip is at Covenant College in Tennessee, and this Saturday Garrett will be going back to Oxford.

Mark your calendars, The Friends of Raymond are gearing up for their annual pilgrimage, October first through the sixteenth. Plans and schedule are not quite complete….as you know, or maybe you don’t know the Raymond courthouse is under renovation , so the ever popular “Bed Bug” play will not be performed this year. But the Cemetery Stroll will happen, if you have not attended this event in the past, you must make an effort this year to go. It is grand fun, very interesting and educational, local citizens dress up and play interesting people, from Raymond’s past, who are buried there…..and from all eras.

There will be lectures at St. Marks Episcopal Church …..I don’t know any details…but they always interesting. And there are customarily refreshments associated with the lectures.

I went to Madison to visit Angela over the weekend….helped her install a doggie door. I don’t know if we have ever discussed Angela’s dogs, they are both rescued dogs. One dog, the oldest, Gabby, is part blue heeler Angela believes Gabby has the IQ of a Rin Tin Tin or Lassie. The other dog, Tess, a hound, Angela has always treated very gently, “you know she isn’t very smart.”

Well guess who figured out the doggie door.. That’s right the hound….the first time…Tess goes in and out at will. The Genius dog? Well… 3 days later Gabby still has not gone though the door with out being pushed. There must be a life lesson there.

Hey I got to go… call if you need me

"Christiansen's Comments" Hinds County Gazette July 29 2010

2010-08-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

How old do you have to be.... to be old?

I realized this week just how old my kids are….in a conversation with daughter Angela yesterday she made this statement, “ Mother, in ten years you will only be 75.” I recall a time when she thought thirty was, if not over the hill, was at the very tippy top of the hill. In fact I remember when I thought 30 was old. Isn’t it remarkable how the older we get …the age we consider old gets older?

Angela

( she wants this to be the picture that accompanys her obituary

no matter what age she passes....she maintains it's the only good picture ever taken of her)

One hot summer day….not unlike the ones we have been having of late. The TV weather man was issuing warnings about the elderly and the heat…they were advising them not to go outside in the heat of the day. Mother loved the front porch and wiled away many happy hours out there. As was her habit, after lunch she took her binoculars and went out….

As was my habit, after a bit of kitchen tidying, I followed mother out to the porch, and sat down in the swing …we hadn’t been out long, when she stood up, repeated what the weatherman had said about the heat and went back in the house….well, we had not been in the house long, when I heard her laugh, slap her knee and say, “I bet they were talking about old people.” and back out she went….mother was in her 90s….

Mother, Jacqueline and baby Haley

Jacqueline and I drove over to Burleigh, to see Ms Worrell last week, Saturday, July,17, was her 98th birthday. We found her cheerful, bright eyed….and still able to spin a good tale. She looked great! Ms Worrell’s hair is red …not old lady blue. You might think 98 is old…but I am here to report it is not as old as you might think. Brooke told us, she played dominions for 6 straight hours on her birthday. So there you are….. age is relative!

Ms Worrell...at 98

Love to all

Call if you need me

My sentimental Journey, back to my hometown, Holdrege, Nebraska

2010-07-26T15:09:00.000-05:00

Methodist Church

Holdrege Nebraska

Post office

Phelps county court House

Holdrege Nebraska

Hotel Dale

4Th Avenue

New Hospital

Daughter Angela was born here, over 40 years ago

Old Holdrege Hospital

Son Adam was born here

Christiansen Comments: Hinds County Gazette, July 22 2010

2010-07-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

Good morning…long time no see. My Summer has been full, for one thing, I took a sentimental journey back to Nebraska, left out of here very early one morning, in mid June, got on the interstate headed west, crossed over the Mississippi River at V’Burg….I abandoned the interstate, at the first exit, Delta Louisiana, the rest of the trip, nearly 2500 miles, I took the roads less traveled, the back roads…the little Highways and byways. Up the eastside of Louisiana, across the bottom of Arkansas, into Oklahoma where I turned and went north, though Oklahoma, Kansas to Nebraska….through the small towns. I believe the biggest town I drove in was Hayes Kansas…maybe 20,000 people live in Hays.

I was a grand trip, they were cutting wheat in Oklahoma. Much of the hay being bailed was not in big round bales…but square and big, like the old time cotton bales. Cattle grazing…great expanses of pasture…but they seemed to be up next to the fences munching.

I even saw a couple of working windmills the old fashion ones…And I saw acres of the new fangled wind machines….they are not pumping water like the old time mills…but making electricity.

When I left Mississippi our corn was over my head tall… the corn became progressively shorter the further north I traveled …. in Nebraska much of the corn was less then a foot tall.

One purpose for the trip was, I wanted to take pictures, on the off chance, one day, my kids or grand kids just might get curious about where John and I grew up. Their interest to this point …I would rate as minor to nonexistent. They were mildly interested in the house my mother was born and raised in…when I told them it had been moved to Hayes Center, Nebraska and turned into a Bed and breakfast.

The Old Potter House

brought up to date!

I wanted to stay there…but it was booked up….Hays Center has a population of less then 500 people….I just googled it had a population of 240 in 2000...

The second reason I wanted to go was to sharpen up my memories…I lived in Palisade Nebraska until I was 12...then moved to Holdrege. I wondered if my recollections, especially of Palisade were anything close to accurate…I had been back to Palisade such a very few times in the past 50 years.

Palisade coming from the North

Main Street Palisade Nebraska

Palisade, population 460. When we left there in 1957, it had almost 700 people in it’s city limits. But still and all Palisade was much like I remember it….The depot was gone, but the school, library, and the post office were just as they were when I left….. The park was still down the hill from town. And the café on Main Street was still in operation…I was excited….I had lunch there twice…..Menu was pretty much like I remember it too…with the exception of the Mexican items that had been added.

I timed my trip to coincide with Palisade’s Pioneer Days, so sister Linda and I could meet up with our last surviving aunt, my dad’s baby sister, Aunt Ardyth who was coming in from Montrose Colorado, for her class reunion. And our cousins Alice and Iris….Alice came for pioneers days…Iris just happened to be passing through and we all meet up at the fire station for pancakes. …It was a grand reunion…I had not seen any of them in 50 years…..Alice is working on a Ring (My maiden Name) reunion next summer….so I will get to see more kin folks then. And this October Alice and Ardyth are planning to come to Mississippi!

anunt Ardyth

Linda and Alice on right side of picture

I am getting up from here in a few minutes and going to the cemetery, to the graveside service for a young man, 29, Joe McCleary. I did not know Joe, but I know his mother Liz and his aunts Barbara, Merry Ellen and Sheryl, “The Henderson Girls” The Henderson girls are among the most compassionate, thoughtful and kind people I know….and they are hurting. I know, I will not be able to talk to them without crying…so I will not try….

Love to all

call if you need me.

Obituary for Bobby White, Edwards, Mississippi

2010-06-05T07:12:00.000-05:00

Bobby G. White

EDWARDS — Bobby G. White died June 3, 2010, at his residence in Edwards. He was 73.

Born Nov. 11, 1936, in Prentiss, he was the son of the late Heady and Fannie Irene Butler White. Mr. White served in the U.S. Army for six years including a tour of duty in Korea. He was a Master Carpenter with more than 52 years of experience. He was a member of the Baptist faith.

He is survived by his loving wife of 52 years, Betty White of Edwards; son, Steven L. White of Vicksburg; three daughters, Sharon Ladd, Stacie Griffin and Shannon White, all of Vicksburg; sons-in-law, Don Ladd, Jeff Griffin and Archie Kirkley; seven grandchildren, Taylor Ladd, Chase Ladd, Elizabeth Bowers and Katie Kirkley, all of Vicksburg, Jaxon Griffin of Pearl and Shane White and Brandy Banks, both of Wichita, Kan.; four great-grandchildren; five sisters, Faye Willis of Utica, Irene Jones of Delta, La., and Carolyn Hearn, Eileen Lowery and Lois Muirhead, all of Vicksburg; and a brother, Robert White of Delta.

Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. today, June 5, 2010, at Riles Funeral Home with Dr. John G. McCall, interim pastor of the Edwards Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be at the Edwards Cemetery. Visitation will be from 1:30 today until the service.

Pallbearers will be Don Ladd, Chase Ladd, Jeff Griffin, Archie Kirkley, Jimmy Cox and Michael Cox.

Honorary pallbearers will be Nancy Butler, Carla Donovan, Dr. Dan Edney, Bill Vinzant, Cil and Charles Riles, Eddie Minnifield and Teresa Cox.

Memorials may be made to Providence Hospice, 1825 I-20 N. Frontage Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180 and to the American Cancer Society-MS Chapter, 1380 Livingston Lane, Jackson, MS 39213.

Bobby on the roof at the old Cannada house on Royal street Edwards Mississippi

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette May 27 2010

2010-05-30T12:58:00.000-05:00

Today, Monday, May 24, The Vietnam Veteran’s “Run for the Wall” will be passing by Edwards. This is an annual memorial event, veterans of the Vietnam war band together… the event begins on the west coast and they pick up riders all along the way and ride to Washington to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall…. to honor their dead…those thousands of young men who died fighting for a cause that many of us of that generation….did not understand and grew very weary of…and began to ask questions…. Why? Is it a just war?

But no matter what conclusion you came to personally….It does not take away from the reality those men and women who went to Vietnam and died ….died for this country. This is America the president is the commander and chief of the armed forces, he can send our troops to the far end of the earth, he did …and they went.

It was a heartbreaking time in America’s history….the veterans of that war were not treated as heroes…no ticker tape parades for them as had been in previous wars. Many Americans treated the returning soldiers with distain….They blamed the soldiers….soldiers who thought they were fulfilling their duty to America.

And on into that long, long war…it became more and more unpopular among Americans…protests broke out in the streets. Protesters too, were wounded and some died for their cause…remember the young students at Kent State? Many young men of draft age went to Canada to avoid serving,

I shall get up from here in a few minutes drive to the Edwards, I 20 overpass, take photographs, and cheer for those aging, tattooed, pony tailed, bike riding, ole’ soldiers. On their way to Washington, to pay tribute to their dead. There will be hundreds of them…odds are I would know a few. Because my John was career army…. a Vietnam war veteran ..two tours….

At the time of the war, he was a soldier, but, he was also a father of a young boy. Once in a discussion with some of his army buddies, about the war, the protests and the protesters …John said, “I chose this… I will go where the tell me to go…but I will send Adam to Canada.” It was not an uncomplicated time for anybody….who was trying to be a patriot.

The war was hard for some the men who went, fought and came back too ….it did something to their mind… Many of the men, when they got back to the states were never the same. A few years after the war finally ended… John and I were driving past a food kitchen….scores of homeless men waiting on the sidewalk for the doors to open, waiting to get a hot meal. John said, with sadness in his voice, “Lots of those guys are veterans…that would be me if it hadn’t been for you and the kids” John’s heart went out to those men, he felt like they too give their life for their country.

When we began sending troops to the middle east, John and I were watching the news one evening, as young men were boarding planes to go…John began to cry…his big heart went to hurting again…War is hell….

I’ll see you next week

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette May 13 2010

2010-05-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

Jerry Gibbens passed away shortly after noon, Wednesday, May 5, at the age of 92. When Paula called to tell me about Jerry’s death, my mothers words on the death of old people came to mind, “ we can’t live forever, just because our kids want us too. We are tired and want to go live with Jesus.” I can not tell you how much comfort mother’s words have brought me.

And Jerry’s death like mother’s was not long and lingering, both were at peace and ready …Just a few weeks ago the little children from the church traveled to Raymond to Riggs Manor, to sing for the residents…Jerry was too weak to come down…so they went to her room to sing for her, weak as Jerry was she sat up on the edge of her bed and sang “Jesus Loves Me” with the little children. I did tear up and had to reach for a tissue when Reverend Rydbeck told that story at her funeral.

Jerry was such a lady, she and her husband Julian sat in the pew front of me at church, and they came to church nearly every Sunday, until just a few months ago. Jerry was a petite little lady, I doubt she was 5 foot tall, and she could not have weighed 100 pounds. Jerry, at all times, was dressed beautifully…. Jerry was at always flawlessly attired in her little pastel suits and high heels, and not a hair out of place. And Jerry was accessorized beautifully too, pretty scarves, handsome purses, I always told her, she looked like a little doll, somebody had stood on a stool and dressed….Jerry was a girly girl for sure. But Jerry’s loveliest accessory was her charming smile and sweet southern nature.

Jerry loved parties, so for the family meal after the funeral…When Jacqueline I were discussing what we were going to do, I declared, “We got to make it look like Jerry!” Jacqueline agreed…. I called Robert Edward asked him to come, and help me get the fellowship hall ready…we set up tables and spread on the sparkling white table clothes. Jacqueline came with buckets of pink roses, and queen Anne’s and when she finished her magic with flower arrangements…. the fellowship hall at the Edwards Presbyterian church looked more like we were fixing to have a tea party then a funeral meal.

I wish I had taken a picture of the room when the meal was being served…of two of the men, farmers, Jerry’s son, Lewis Montgomery, and one of the pall bears, Russell Cannada, in their suits and ties, sitting at the girly girl, prissy tables. I thought to myself, “Jerry got Lewis and Russell to a tea party“ It brought a grin to my face…

Love to all

Hinds County Gazette, May 6 , Christiansen's Comments ..

2010-05-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

Busy week in Edwards Mississippi,

Tuesday was the Grand opening of our newly renovated city hall….I didn’t get an invitation …But, I am sort of the press, remembering “freedom of the press” and all that… I went anyway.

I got down there at two…Tiffany, the water clerk, Leon (doctor Dirt) Goldsberry, alderman from ward 3 and Mayor Perkins…were the only ones at city hall…they all seemed quite happy to see me and my party crashing self…Alderman Goldsberry gave me the grand tour. It is a lovely building. And I saw the yummies on a table back in the boardroom. You all there was a cake, it was frosted…well it looked like city hall…I don’t know how they did that.

Way on after while, 2:15 then 2:30 ….nobody else came, it was still just, the mayor, Tiffany, the alderman and me…and to my disappointment they were not cutting cake…here I was the only one to show up and they were not offering me cake.

I got to thinking, When there is a cake involved and nobody shows something is wrong in Edwards Mississippi….Well…. come to find out the festivities didn’t start until 3. It was a lovely reception and lots of folks did come….Edwards citizens, government officials, preachers, bankers, and politicians.

Former mayor Narissa Smith was on hand for the festivities, Narissa was Edwards first woman mayor….I was glad to see her I hadn’t seen her in a long while. Narissa Birthday was last Friday she turned 94.

Front street and the area around the new bridge is looking so nice…..I do not know who is responsible for the beautiful knockout roses planted around the bridge…but, I have, from time to time, spotted Ruth Ann Schnell tending to them. The trees in the square and the flowers in pots on front street, Alderman Goldsberry planted.

Saturday was May Day in Edwards, there was a parade and lots of food being cooked up and down Main Street….The Bar-b -q at the bottom of hill was delicious…Jo Gayle went and picked up some plates and brought them up here and over to the Durens…Nancy has a broken arm…Jo Gayles grand daughter Stephanie and I were in the shop working on a project…..it is just swell being one of Jo Gayles friends…

I love a parade…Calloway High Schools band came and played….I was thrilled to see them…music/band should be a part of every school’s curriculum….as should speech, art and drama…But of course the folks in charge of Mississippi schools don’t care what I think for sure…..

Are the voles destroying your lawns, trees and flower beds? Do you want to know how to get rid of them? Do you know Fredna Dent over in Bolton? Have you noticed all the black plastic plant pots turned upside down around her place? Well, Frenda knows how to eradicate the pesky creatures…

Now, I might not have procedure precisely right….It is hard to listen carefully when you are laughing so hard that tears are streaming down your cheeks…and wine spewing out your nose…It was the way she told it…..you had to be there.

But what you do is…get a rat trap.. bait it with a pecan,(shelled or unshelled? I don‘t know .. missed that part) ….But when the voiles come to get the pecan and the trap slams shut …. Ending his gnawing career. Now about the black pot….Frenda to her distress found that if you don’t cover the trap and pecan with a pot all you trap is birds….so Fredna covered the baited trap with a black plastic pot……and as of Thursday, April 29, she had sent 100 voles to R.I.P.

Jery Gibbens obituary

2010-05-07T12:38:00.000-05:00

Geraldine Lovelace Montgomery Gibbens

Geraldine Lovelace Montgomery Gibbens, 92, died Wednesday, May 5, 2010, at Hospice Ministries in Ridgeland, MS

Mrs. Gibbens was a lifetime resident of Hinds County having graduated from Central High School, class of 1936, in Jackson and attended Jackson Business College. She was a member of Edwards Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Gibbens was preceded in death by her parents, John Edwin Lovelace and Willie Mae Lovelace; brothers, John Edwin, Jr. and Winsel Marion.

Survivors include: husband, Julian Louis Gibbens of Edwards; daughter, Barbara Mellon (Joe); son, Victor Lewis Montgomery, Jr. (Kay); and six grandchildren, Scott Mellon, Allison Mellon, Lisa Maddox, Drew Mellon, Victor Montgomery (Leigh), and Angie Zadrozny (C.J.), and Molly Montgomery.

Funeral services will be held at 11:30 AM Saturday, May 8, 2010, at the Edwards Presbyterian Church in Edwards, MS. Visitation will begin at 10:00 AM. Interment will follow the service in the Edwards Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to: The Hard Places, International Outreach Ministries, P.O. Box 2140, McComb, MS 39649.

Mrs. Gibbens granddaughter, Allison, founded the Hard Place Ministries in Cambodia to intervene in the exploitation and trafficking of young children.

Published in Clarion Ledger on May 7, 2010

The Edwards Luncheon Club in 2007
Left to right Peggy Hubbard Ditto, Jo Ruth McClain, Jerry Gibbens, Katie Angelo, Lucille Harpole,

Not pictured Peggy Cannada

Hinds County Gazette, April 27, Christiansen's Comments "Knocky is Gone." ..

2010-05-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

Sydney Knox Askew died the way he wanted to die, in his sleep, the morning of Friday April 16, at the age of 84. It came as a shock to the community…even though we knew he was having some health issues…he just that week had been to the doctor for tests….But Knocky was the Energizer Bunny…he never stopped. How could he be dead!?!

Mr. Knocky fo had an ailment that caused his bones to deteriorate, so he had been getting shorter for some years…But he kept on going. However, Knocky had begun to moved a bit slower… but never stopped. Edwards Cemetery Day he had commenced using a golf cart to direct the work being done. Then a year ago…he gave up the chairmanship of the cemetery. Just the week before Mr. Knocky died, Peggy Ann and I while strolling the streets of Edwards, saw Knocky and Roma in their beautifully manicured yard, we commented on how lovely it was…Knocky grinned, Roma said, “Knocky does it all“.

Knocky was part of a ever diminishing breed of men …who know what is good for the community… is good for him and his family….Knocky took his church, civic and community duties seriously. Knocky did not do his work to be in the spotlight…he did it, because it was his duty and responsibility

But, Knocky was a humble man…Under Knocky guidance the Edwards cemetery was transformed in to a beautiful, well care for, a final resting place….but he never took credit, he gave the praise to the guys who showed up with the heavy equipment to do the work, the people who sent memorial money to make the work and up keep possible …I said to him “But Knocky somebody has to get us organized, send out the cards and tend to the details“

His answer was, “Roma does that.”.

To hear him tell it…he did nothing. Knocky brought to mind this quote, “It is amazing what can be accomplished, if you do not care who gets the credit.”

Knocky’s funeral was at the Edwards Presbyterian Church, it was standing room only….and the lines were long at the visitation the evening before….

Reverend Whitworth began Mr. Knocky’s funeral service with this very appropriate and comforting quote from the Bible. Ecclesiastes 7:1 “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death better than the day of one's birth“.

Sydney Knox Askew, was buried in his beloved Edwards Cemetery , April, 19, 2010.

Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette April 15 2010

2010-04-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

Good morning, what delightful days we have been experiencing of late…cool mornings, breezy warm afternoons…it is hard to stay in the house…I would take my computer out to the front porch and write, but the pollen, heaviest in we have experienced years, is falling….it so heavy…I am afraid it might my clog the keys up on the computer…..The front porch floor is yellow from all of the dropped pollen…quite the color of summer squash.

Friday evening, I went with friends, to the latest and regretfully, the last play for the Clinton Brick Street Players…. until the find another home….Mississippi College bought the old school, they are now using. They are searching for another location. No luck so far….

Merry Ellen Stockwell, a friend of mine, is in this production, she plays the part of the old lady, Merry Ellen in real life is a very attractive red head. But, I must say, she is very believable in her role as “mama“, costumed out in a grey wig, pink quilted robe, and bedroom shoes.

The play “The Watch They Keep” by Judy H Tucker a Mississippi playwright, is about an old woman who is in the latter stages of Alzheimer’s, and how her children are dealing with it. And the second act they are coping with death of their mother.

The premise of the play, adult, middle aged children dealing with their parents is so timely. They will be performing “The Watch they Keep” again this Friday and Saturday. April 16 and 17.

Saturday morning, I went to Raymond to participate in the Friends of Raymond, Park Day. It was an historic day for this organization….they installed ten, of 22 cannons that will ultimately be placed on the battlefield As I understand it, when all twenty two cannons are placed, Raymond’s Civil War battlefield will be the only one in the nation with it’s full complement of cannons.

It was fascinating to watch the men place the cast iron cannons…They used a backhoe to place the cannons ….you all, I have just about decided after years of observation…there in not much ,a team, of determined men can’t do if they have backhoe. And do it with precision!

The cannons were to be placed on three concrete pads, 2 for the wheels and one for the hitch. The three pads were not big, maybe a foot wide and 2 foot long. The cannons, full sized, constructed entirely of cast iron, were attached by chain and straps to the bucket of backhoe…were lifted off a flatbed trailer, and placed on the pads. You know it had to be done meticulously and gently …in order not to drop the cannon or crack the concrete… while placing the big guns

The men used hand signals to communicate….some of the moves were quite diminutive…at one point I saw a young man, hold up an arm, and using his pointy finger and thumb, he signified a move to the operator….and there was not but about an inch in the gap between the fingers….the move was executed with faultless accuracy and the cannon lower softly into position.

I have come to believe men from the time they are born they know how to speak “Backhoe” because all of this was accomplished…not by professionals …but by a rag tag team of doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, college students etc. With a retired general, Parker Hill, directing the order of placement and a banker….Dick Kilby, he was operating the backhoe.

Over 50 volunteers came to work Park Day…. Much was accomplished besides10 cannons being placed, the walking trail was spiffed up….lots of weed eating and brush trimming took place….One cannon did get painted…before the work day ended.

This park is a jewel in Hinds county, Mississippi and the nation…..you do not have to be a Civil War enthusiast to appreciate the park…and it’s contribution economically and Historically to Hinds County.

call if you need me.

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com

Knocky Askew died Friday April 16 2010

2010-04-17T10:22:00.000-05:00

Mr. knocky will be missed by all who knew him.

Knocky overseeing the work "Cemetery Day" 2006.

Knocky had a passion for the cemetery and it's up keep...

Sidney Knox Askew, Jr.

Sidney Knox "Knocky" Askew, Jr., 84, died April 16, 2010 at his home in Edwards.

Visitation will be held Sunday, April 18, 2010 at Wright & Ferguson Clinton from 4-6pm. The Funeral Service will be Monday, April 19, 2010 at Edwards Presbyterian Church at 11am with Visitation held one hour prior to the Service. Interment will follow at Edwards Cemetery.

Mr. Askew was a lifelong resident of Edwards. He graduated from Edwards High School and attended Hinds Jr. College. He was a Veteran of WWII, serving in the Air Force. Upon leaving the Military, he became a self-employed cattleman and merchant.

Knocky was a lifelong member of the Edwards Presbyterian Church where he served as both a Deacon and Elder. He had the honor to serve as Caretaker of the Edwards Cemetery and he was a former Mayor of Edwards. He also served as State Director for the Mississippi Good Sams Club.

Knocky was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He loved people and enjoyed numerous friends from all walks of life. He never met a stranger and he will be truly missed.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Alline Luster Askew and Sidney Knox Askew, Sr.

Survivors include his loving wife of 62 years, Roma Hubbard Askew; children, Sidney Knox "Sid" Askew III of Raymond, Jo Askew Blasingame of Edwards, and Daniel Hubbard Askew of Edwards. He is also survived by his grandchildren, JJ Worrell Bonner, David Exum Worrell, Blair Blasingame Thomas, Ginny Askew Odom, Anna Askew Butler, and 4 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, Thomas Luster Askew of Greenwood.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested memorials be made to the Edwards Cemetery (PO Box 596 Edwards, MS 39066) or the Edwards Presbyterian Church (PO Box 347 Edwards, MS 39066).

Pallbearers: David Worrell, Johnny Hubbard, Pete Hubbard, Pat Hubbard, Tim Hubbard, Monty Montgomery, Jeff Montgomery, Bill Montgomery, Mike Ratliff

Mary Jo Sabinson

2010-04-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

Mary Jo Sabinson... on the right. I took this picture last Easter....

Mary Joe Sabinson, 70, died Thursday, April 1, 2010, at her residence.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 3, 2010, at 2:00 pm from the Chapel of Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home Raymond, MS. Visitation will be from 12 noon until 2:00 pm Saturday at the funeral home. Burial will be in the Edwards Cemetery.

Mrs. Sabinson was a native of Vernon, Alabama. She moved to Edwards, MS in 2005 from Columbus, MS. She was a member of the Fairview Baptist Church, in Columbus but attended Edwards Baptist Church. She was a life member of the V.F.W. Post 4272, Bolton Edwards Garden Club, Edwards Friendship Club and the Katie-Did Red Hats in Columbus, MS.

Survivors include her son, Thomas Dean Noblin (Dale), Ashville, AL.; daughters, Dr. Lena Noblin and Vi Noblin, both of Edwards; grandchildren, Tommy Lee, Tifanie, Tyler and Skylar; and great-granddaughter, McKenzie Noblin.

Memorials may be made to the Edwards Baptist Church Charity Fund.
Published in Clarion Ledger on April 2, 2010 e-mail print

This picture I took this morning of Mary Jo's grave being opened

The man digging the grave told me his name is Tang.

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette

2010-03-29T15:09:00.000-05:00

March 25 2010

Of course, I do not remember Edwards as it once was, but as I was working on the hedge at the bottom of the hill last week, I went to remembering how it was when we moved here 23 years ago. Main street was quite lively back then, there were three of four pool halls, a TV repair shop, a couple of grocery stores, a dollar store, a dry goods store, hardware, Drug store, dry cleaners…and a full service bank….. Down town Edwards.

I went to thinking, as I was snipping the elaeagnus, how much Edwards has changed….I don’t want to be one of those old people who preach that things were better “back in the day”.

But time has changed small town America, back when I was growing up, on the Nebraska plains, we lived locally….small towns were self-contained communities…with full services, clothing, drug, grocery, restaurants, plus Doctors, lawyers, car and farm implement dealers….Little Palisade Nebraska with 695 people even had a hotel.

The schools were local, situated inside the city limits, teachers lived in the town they taught in….the teachers, principal and superintend were friends or close acquaintances of your parents and/or grand parents…maybe they sit in the pew behind you at church.

Back then everybody had more “Skin in the game” so to speak. Not only did we know that the teachers, knew our parents, we knew they were not above telling on us… therefore, we put more effort in to behaving…and I can’t help but think, the teachers felt more responsibly about getting us educated for the same reason…they knew our parents, they knew the school board members….They knew what was expected of them….teach!

I forgot where I was going with this…I called myself going write some profound comments about Facebook, the on line social network….

So I will say this, then go mop the kitchen floor….We may not be able to go back in time…but to stop the unbridled deteriorating, for our schools, one thing is clear. All of us have to get more “skin in the game”…. as it is nobody has to take responsibility…Every body has some one or something, they can put the blame on…the system, the parents, the teachers, the students, sugar, junk food in the vending machines, too much technology, not enough technology, Bush, Obama, money...…

But it should be apparent by now money, will not fix, the epidemic lack of individual accountability, the lack discipline, or sloppy curriculum….

But not all is lost….we can still do, what we do best, when it comes to our schools, and we can do it with and with out money…make excuses. Because…excuses are cheap…in fact free. And we are so very, very good at making excuses and passing the buck.

Love to all, call if you need me

Claude Lord Pennebaker

2010-03-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Claude Lord Pennebaker

Published: Vicksburg Post

Thursday, March 18, 2010 1:14 PM CDT

EDWARDS — Claude Lord Pennebaker died Friday, March 12, 2010, at his home at Riverside Farms. He was 61.

Mr. Pennebaker was a native of Edwards and a graduate of Yazoo City High School. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Da Nang, Vietnam. He was a retired groundskeeper with the Vicksburg National Military Park.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest Lee Pennebaker Sr. and Velma Lord Pennebaker; and a sister, Lynn Pennebaker Birdsong Strate.

Survivors include his former wife and close companion, Lisa Heaney Pennebaker of Clinton; two brothers, Lee Pennebaker Jr. of Bolton and Jon Pennebaker of Vicksburg; and nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Christiansen's Comments Hinds county Gazette 3/11/2010

2010-03-14T15:17:00.000-05:00

HCG March 11 2010

Here in mid Mississippi, we at long last have had some delightful sunny days, I have been able to get out and get some yard chores taken care of, such as picking up sticks, trimming shrubs…Nothing any body would notice except me…..well, you might notice the poison ivy on my arms.

Friday I was riding up Old Highway 80, I saw tractors in the fields, plowing the ground, preparing the soil, for planting. After all of the rain and snow, it is finally dry enough the farmers can get in the fields. The air was bursting with the smell of rich, fresh plowed, ground….I love the scent of fresh plowed earth …smells so good I am sometimes tempted to taste it. I have heard of folks eating dirt….I can see why, the aroma is almost irresistible

Recently, Peggy Ann, Isla and I, went to Terry to see the actress, Jo Ann Robinson, in her one woman play, Eudora Welty’s “Why I live at the PO” You may recall last time the three of us struck out to Terry to attend the Friends Of Terry, dinner theater, at the depot, we got lost….with a GPS in the car. So, this time, we were accompanied by Peggy’s husband Keith …. Keith drove us…and we stayed on course the whole entire journey to Terry and we did not get lost….On the way home however, it was dark and were not always on the road we intended to be on…but we were never lost.

We had a grand time, the food was wonderful, the play was fun and I enjoyed Jo Ann Robinson…but Miss Welty was still the star of the show…Miss Welty has a knack, more then a knack really, more even then a talent, she had a God given gift, to show us, the uniqueness in ordinary people and everyday events.

We all know people very similar to those Miss Welty brings to life in her stories. That is why Eudora Welty has stood the test of time.

Our families, friends, and acquaintances, be may eccentric headed toward full blown crazy, and they may sometimes embarrass us with their antics….but they are characters in our life story…and we in theirs. It seems impossible but, there may even be times our family, friends and acquaintances are not be real proud of us and our behavior. People even the irritating ones are the jewels…sometimes rocks…..in our existence…..to be, if not treasured, at least recognized as a natural part of our life story….and life would not be nearly so interesting or as much fun with out them.

Could it be if we looked at others, as actors, characters in our life story, people to be enjoyed, to learn from, or at the very least, try to find ways to tolerate them…as individuals, …. would we be, happier, more contented with our own life?

I have noticed, when I get out done with folks…they don’t care that I am out done….I am in a stew and they are going on with their happy little lives. Have you found that to be true too?

I got to go…I am making cupcakes for the Women in the Church meeting/Bible Study, we are having Wednesday evening…It is beginning to feel like Spring, so I am planning to decorated the little cakes with flowers. Posies fashioned from gumdrops. If they turn out…They may just become my new favorite dessert…and I shall carry them to all the Spring events…cemetery day, old People club…Have them for Easter.

I have been reprimanded many times for calling, the Edwards Fellowship Club, “Old People Club” But for me it is a term of endearment…I often referred to mother as “My old Person”.

Call if you need me

I have been to the Doctor, I have been poked, I have been scanned and I have been declared cancer free! Thanks for all the prayers over the years. I love you all, God bless you.

Christiansen's Comments Hinds county Gazette

2010-02-28T09:33:00.000-06:00

HCG February 25 2010

That beautiful snow we had, well, it was the cause of me not being here last week. It was beautiful and it was fun, but it was that heavy, moisture laden, kind of snow. There was no wind with it, so it came straight down and what ever it landed on it stuck to. It was the wire snapping kind .…

Here at 201 the wire from the pole to the meter, became quite fat, weighed down with the snow and ice. And I remembered from Katrina that when the wire came away from the meter…It was the home owners responsibility to get it fixed And as the day and the snow wore on, the wire became fatter and fatter…Until, I was afraid it was going to pull away from the meter….I went to imagining., how much getting that wire connected back might cost.

Grandson Garrett, happened to be here for the weekend….. I know we are not suppose to touch the electric wires…. never ever. So he and I went out and threw objects at the wire… potatoes, blocks of wood, the broom to relieve the pressure….It worked!

Don’t know if throwing stuff at a live wire is against the rules or not…But, strictly speaking it wasn’t alive wire anymore….the electricity went out here, very early into the snow event…..Stayed out for over 24 hours….Caused no hardship here…Garrett didn’t seem to mind being severed from TV and the internet….

Also visiting at the time were my grand dogs, Gabby and Tessa…Gab and Tess are no particular breed, they are dogs, that had been abandoned, just needing home. But Daughter Angela is extremely proud of her dogs, she believes her dogs are high-class …..as high class as any of those doodles, poodles or sheppards…Angela doesn’t mind that they are not a pure breed. When questioned about their background, and lack of pedigree, she lifts her chin, squares her shoulders, puffs out her chest, and declares, “They are designers dogs…. They were designed by God“

Gabby and Tess are the real reason I wasn’t here… They really enjoyed the snow!!!! And the wet snow on top of the already water logged back yard…quickly turned to mud…soupy mud…and they romped and rolled in it…for the three day they were here….of course when they came in the house…they left muddy paw prints everywhere , and believe me they went every where…well, no, they didn’t….I had the living room and dinning rooms blocked off….mother always said, “You need to keep one room neat, in case the preacher comes to visit.“

Oh! they would shake too! causing mud to splatter ….the back door, it was….lets just say this…. my house looked like a crime scene when they left out of here …...But instead of blood ….I had mud….So I had to clean….the floors had to be swept, vacuumed, then mopped…TWICE!

Then ! I discover my computer didn’t work! I called Garrett and fussed at him…I just knew he had messed it up…I had let him touch it…when I bought this computer, I vowed and declared I was not going to let the grandchildren use it.

Well, way on after while, I noticed there were a breaks in the power cord…I called Angela told her the power cord to my computer had breaks….”Looks like it’s been chewed to me.” …..of course she never admitted guilt on the part of her precious dogs, but with out me even asking…she quickly come up with a power cord for my computer. Come to find out, this was not their first taste of computer cord….a while back…they had chewed up Garrett’s.

Angela makes no claims that her dogs are smart….Just the cutest, etc.... etc.... etc... most lovable...etc...etc....etc..

See you next week, call if you need me.

"Christiansen's Comments" Hinds County Gazette

2010-02-18T13:35:00.000-06:00

HCG February 11 2010

Here is the recipe for the dumplings…some of you have been asking for….

My, “Mrs. Smith’s, Suzanne’s grandmother’s Dumplings” In Mrs. Smith’s own words.

“Dumplings”

Sift about 3 cups of plain flour in bowl. In the center of the flour put one large tablespoon of shortening,

and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix with spoon until it is like meal- gradually add 1 cup of sweet milk. Mix until dough is smooth and firm enough to handle. Place in refrigerator for a while and when you roll out sprinkle board with flour- roll real thin. Have broth boiling big and drop dumplings in slowly.

Suzanne also remembered her grandmother using this dumpling dough for her chicken pot pies too. Grandma Smith, lined, what Suz described, “as a tube pan without the tube.” she then Poked the crust with a fork, placed it in the oven until it had browned nicely….then Mrs. Smith filled the pan with chicken and dumplings, laid on a top crust…put it back in the oven until the top crust turned brown…..I am going to try it.

God blessed me with incredibility good health, I am almost never puny…In fact, back when I was diagnosed with cancer, John and I were in the oncologist’s office, the doctor was in the mist of explaining the chemo treatments, when abruptly, while looking down at some papers he had in his hands, made this statement, “You are remarkably healthy.” John eyes got big and he made a disbelieving sound…something between a growl and a cough, the doctor hastily added, “well, except for the cancer”.

But a miserable cold has jumped on me, it put me in the bed all day Saturday and a great deal of Sunday. You all, I have begun to question, was I really so sick that I needed to be in bed?…Or has all the rainy, cloudy, chill filled days finally gotten to me?…. Not to mention the brown grass and leafless trees. My projects were finished…The birds weren’t singing.

So did I stay in bed because of the depressing weather? Or because my projects (bookcases in the Ms. Mama room and tile off the ceiling in the Lucille Room) were completed, therefore had no pressing reason to get up? Was it just too easy to gave in and take to the bed?…. And consider this….there were warm, purring cats sleeping at the foot of the bed, that may have some bit of influence on my decision to stay in bed …. Well perhaps not, as I have cats in my bed every morning.

Well, I have a reason to get up and get going now! My sewing machine gave out months ago… Lindsey Noble is sorting and distributing some of her mother and dad’s (Bob and Betty Kemp) things…. getting the house ready to sell….Lindsey gave me Betty’s machine…I am thrilled! I have a curtain to make…then aprons will be next on the agenda . Unless the sun comes out and it warms up…then the plan will have to be hedge trimming.

Call if you need me.

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette

2010-02-18T09:13:00.000-06:00

HCG February, 4, 2010

You all, an unmade bed is not nearly so unattractive… when you have two magnificent cats curled up in the rumple. The timing of my making of the bed, is based solely on when Scout and Harper decide to get up and begin their day… I mention the cats on the bed, because I have the office in a tangle, so I have moved my writing to the “The Lucille Room”. (My bedroom).

The Lucille room is just back together, I was moved out of it, for about two weeks, taking down the acoustical ceiling tile, the wall paper and cheese cloth that was under the tile, in order to expose the beautiful old wood beneath the layers. The walls are the old exposed wood too….so you feel like you are in a cave if you don’t put trim at the wall tops…the ceiling is right at 12 feet…pretty high up for an old person.

Way back, when John and I were looking for a house buy, the realtor showed us a house that belonged to two older ladies …they had always tended to much of the home’s repairs themselves….well, as the realtor told it, when the ladies got up in their 80s, the family, worried for their safety, came and took their ladders away. As I recall, to change a light bulb, they put their heads together and rigged up something to climb on in order to reach the bulb…, there was accident with broken bones…the ladies had to leave their home…..I have never forgotten that story….

The older I get the more careful I am becoming…The thought of falling and breaking bones and having to go stay with daughter Angela while convalescing is enough to make me think cautiously…You all, she would make me do all of the physical therapy mess….no matter how severe the pain.

The morning I planned to begin the work, in the Lucille Room, I went to thinking of those ladies who had to leave their home… And concluded Twelve feet might not so high if you have a really good ladder. I had very sturdy 6 and 8 foot ladders…but my 10 foot, aluminum ladder ..it was sort of quivered when you reach out to pound a nail. I called Gaddis see did they have a good sturdy ladder, Nettie went and checked… they had one… it was quite pricey…I hesitated, but only briefly. It was a no brainer, when suddenly came the mental picture of me having to go to recuperate at Angela’s ….…. Charlie and I scampered out the door, jumped in the truck and went after that ladder…

My bright yellow, heavy duty, Werner ladder is my new best friend…I can pound nails to my hearts content and it does not shake or go to scooting side to side or back and forth..

I was not going to start a new project…not with Spring so close…there is much to do in this yard before Spring arrives. But it turned cold…my new ladder and I conferred we decided to move on in to the office, (The Ms Mama Room” ) and build a set of bookcases, one on each side of the fireplace…we believe we can squeeze in one more home improvement adventure, before the days begin to get warmer.

Yellow Werner, my new ladder, is very cooperative, and supportive when it comes to projecting…I hope we have many happy, productive years ahead of us. And when it comes time for my ladders and I to be separated, I pray Adam and Angela let us make that decision….

I would like, my truck, my lawn mower and my ladders to be with me right to the end.

call if you need me

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette

2010-02-07T15:39:00.000-06:00

Hinds County Gazette
January 28 2010
Christiansen's Comments

Remember back several years ago, when I made ambrosia? I added unflavored gelatin to the juices? What a fiasco that turned in to!….I believe received more comments on that column then any other I ever wrote. It felt like I heard from very grandmothers’ child and grandchild south of the Mason Dixon line.

Seems ambrosia is made in a particular way, the southern way, of course. Oranges, maraschino cherries, fresh coconut… a few minor variations are allowed, such as the addition of pineapple and a sprinkle of sugar…But the addition of gelatin was just to much of a violation of a time honored recipe ….The ladies, out of respect for their grandmothers, mothers and old aunties, just could not hold it in, they had to call and let me know where I went wrong. I learned from that incident “Don’t mess with a traditional Southern recipe.” There will be consequences.

To me southern chicken and dumplings tasted just like my mother’s chicken and noodles. Her noodles were eggs, flour, salt and water. Mother’s Dumplings, on the other hand, were fat and fluffy, about the size of tennis balls. Well, Angela immediately up on arrival to the south took to the southern taste. She ate my chicken and noodles, you understand, until she had a taste of southern chicken and dumplings. I tried to make authentic southern dumplings a time or two…then just gave up.

Until very recently, when I made another attempt. Grandson Garrett was always talking about the Chicken and dumpling he had at his grandma Rigby’s. Well, Garrett was coming for the week end, his grandma Rigby passed a couple of years ago….I wanted to surprise him with authentic Chicken and dumplings. I know you can buy frozen dumplings and they are perfectly good, I guess…I don‘t really know. But in for a penny….in for a pound…It was going to be scratch dumplings for this southern culinary adventure..

I was telling my friend Suzanne Harpole of my plan. She said, “my daddy’s mother made the BEST chicken and dumplings,”, she got up from the couch and went to the kitchen and came back with a 3 ring binder that held photocopies of her Grandmother Smith’s hand written recipes.

I said to myself, “ this has got to be an authentic, unadulterated recipe!“ The instructions were very detailed. Suz shared, and that’s the recipe I went by, to concoct Garrett’s surprise meal..

When Garrett arrived, I told him I was making Chicken and dumplings for him…he was skeptical that I could get it right….he went to telling me, again, about the ones he had eaten at his Grandma Rigby’s….he didn’t know how they were made, but he knew what they looked like on his plate….they were kind of thick…and creamy….he didn’t know if there was cream in the broth, but it looked like there could have been.

On after while, I set the bowl of chicken and dumplings down in front of him…he cautiously, like he might be biting in to a live grasshopper, took a tiny bite…then he took a whole bite…and announced, “These are Good!”.

Grandma Rigby, I always suspected was Garrett favorite grandma and I had a feeling her chicken and dumplings were a big part of the reason. A little afraid of the answer…I asked, “As good as grandma Rigby’s?” .

“Better. Grandma Rigby didn’t make good chicken and dumplings

Shocked I said, “You and your mom were always bragging on the chicken and dumplings you had at the Rigby’s!”

“Mamma Rigby didn’t make them…. aunt Lilith did” Seems Ms Rigby used the flour tortillas for her dumplings. I called Angela to confirm all what Garrett had told me, “Yeah, and Ms Rigby’s Chicken and dumplings were great, right up until she told us about the tortillas.”

So anyway, my attempt at southern chicken and dumplings received a passing grade, from Grandson Garrett. Puffed up, proud as a peacock, and full of such confidence, I decided to go public….. I carried, my “Mrs. Smith, Suzanne’ Grandmother’s Chicken and dumplings” to fellowship club last week…I passed there too!!. …Rave reviews! Really! And I know they were not just being polite, because I found out, in a hurry, from that ambrosia fiasco that southern ladies ….will not hesitate to set you straight when you go to making changes to our revered southern cuisine.

One of these first days, I will undertake the frying of some green tomatoes…we will see how that goes.

Love to all, call if you need me

I hope to have the Lucille Room project finished and be moved back in this week.