My trip to Nebraska, my 15 minutes of fame..Vicksburg Post and Hinds County Gazette

My Picture as it apeared in The Vicksburg Post......

We ate a hot dog here, The Coney Island in Grand Island

Blurry sunset,,,I am not use to my new camera yet.

Cows

My sissy and her lab Brook shoveling snow....I am on the inside where it was warm taking the picture.

Good Morning! Good Morning! Long time no see…What have I been up to? Well, for one thing, I have been to Nebraska tying up some loose ends. Very cold up there…highs in the teens most days during my visit.

Mother the entire time she was with us, here in Mississippi, (10 years)…she complained about Mississippi being the coldest place she had ever been…well, she was right, when it is 20 degrees in Mississippi it feels much colder then 20 does in mother’s home state of Nebraska, that is if you can stay out of the wind….Staying out of the wind can be quite tricky…Nebraska is very windy.

For another thing, since being here …I had my 15 minutes of fame…Twice! Thanks to Gordon Cotton writing about me in the Vicksburg Evening Post, then my very own editor and chief , Mary Ann Keith, reprinting it in the Hinds County Gazette.

It took me a bit of time before I could read the article all the way through myself….I would start to read it…then I would stop…put it down……it was kind of like hearing my own voice on a recording…I would think “That’s not me, Gordon is writing about.”

I was aware of most of what was said in the article though…Because my friend Peggy Ann came by one afternoon right after the piece came out, she commenced to reading it out loud to me, such nice things being said about me.….I would get embarrassed…make her stop….She could not understand why because, “It is a lovely article.”….she would read to herself a minute and go to reading out loud once again…I would protest she would stop…this went on, stopping and starting… until she had read the entire write up….and my ego was full, swollen up like a hot air balloon.

It was super flattering, and such an exciting event to have happen in ones life….except for the photo…Gordon told me I might not be speaking to him after I saw the photo…Me with my mouth flung wide open…Like I was fixing to swallow a sword….or consume a dozen tea cakes all at once. I must say my hair did looked good though.

I must confess people did recognize me from the picture…folks I did not even know!!!! You all, I felt like a rock star! The whole experience was quite intoxicating….. But I am hoping fame will not change me…and I will continue to be my sweet, humble self.

Thanks Gordon and the Vicksburg Post, Thanks Mary Ann and the Gazette….I had a grand time!
Love to all
Call if you need me

Charles Rather Alderman at large...Edwards Mississippi

For some reason,the pictures are not in order. So beginning at the end....
The above is Mrs. Rather congradulating her husband.

Mayor Perkins shaking hands with the new alderman at large Chasles Rather.

Judge Ivory Britton swearing in Charles Rather, our newest town board member.

Hinds county Gazette

Christiansen's Comments

Non voters want and demand their rights and privileges, but it is said, “If you don’t Vote, You can’t complain.”

Well, fact is….This is America….therefore even if we don’t vote, we are nevertheless allowed the same privileges of those who do vote. This is America so Everybody in America entitled to representation, the young, the old, all races, all religious faiths, even the unborn are represented.
One of the privileges, we have as Americans, is to disagree with those who are elected to offices…someone who has never cast a ballot, for what ever reason…In many cases it is just because we do not want to be inconvenienced, has the same right to protest, to whine and complain…. as those who do vote. And the same right to call elected officials to beg for help.

I said that to say this: when we do not make the effort to vote, when we do not take any responsibility .…. we are free loaders, we are parasites, we want, demand and expect something for nothing.….Americans who do not vote are riding on the backs of those Americans who do vote, of the citizens who see voting not just as a right, an honor and a privilege…but also as a responsibility …..it is by the voting and holding our elected officials accountable for their action that American is free.

I am on my soap box this morning because , we in Edwards had an election, December 2, to fill the Alderman at large seat, left vacant by the late Robert Jack Smith …Lots of folks did not vote…The election did come up with out much notice so maybe that is why…But there will be a run off Tuesday December 23...so we get another chance to have our say in our city’s government.

Another thing, when we vote especially, in our local elections it shows the men and women who are willing to take on the job of directing our cities, that we do appreciate them and their willingness to serve. Please vote.

I know you have noticed, you just can’t buy good souse anymore….. you have noticed….Right? As we speak I am making a batch of ….I am thinking this might be my best batch yet….I added a bit more vinegar….In a couple of hours it will be set , I can cut off a slice, lay it on a cracker and I will know for sure.

That’s it from here…201 Luster Street….call if you need me.
PS if you have a good souse recipe email it to me, GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com my goal for this winter is to perfect the perfect souse recipe.

Thanksgiving in Raymond Mississippi

This is the Hales home on Main Street in Raymond Mississippi, where I enjoyed lunch Thanksgiving day. Of course this picture was taken last Spring.

HCG December 4 2008
Thanksgiving day, I was invited to have lunch with the Hales, Cliff, and Nancy, and their children Carolyn, Joel and Blanton over in Raymond. This time of year…well, all through the year…but especially at season, the holiday season, I become nostalgic for a time that has passed by…wishing today’s children could have the uncomplicated childhood I knew…..a life lived at a slower pace…Such as when I was a kid, the whipped cream on top of the pie, came from a cow that had been milked that morning…..ran through the separator on my aunt and uncles back porch and whipped fresh for lunch. …It didn’t come from an aerosol can.


I drove over to Raymond ….The drive was beautiful, there was still lots of fall color, I pulled up and parked in front of the Hale’s home, a beautiful old home, two story, with a wrap around porch, dressed in white wicker furniture. The children were in the front yard playing kick ball with their grandparents Keith and Peggy McKey, watching from the porch swing was Keith’s mother, Carolyn McKey.

Little Carolyn came to greet me…I was carrying birdhouse, a hostess gift, I handed it down to her, Her eyes lit up, “We get to keep this?” It was just a simple thing I had made in the shop, but she was thrilled… I spoke to the ball players on the lawn and the one fan in the swing…Then went into the house passed through the front room, into the dinning room, the table was beautifully set , I found Nancy, in the kitchen, pretty as a picture, calmly engaged in preparing a meal for her family and guests. .


A colleague of Cliff’s, Tony, joined in the festivities of the day…Tony is originally from Oregon, so this was his first time to experience a southern Thanksgiving meal…Tony being from Oregon I doubted he was familiar with cornbread dressing…so anxiously I watched Tony, waiting for his reaction when took his first fork full of cornbread dressing….The Southern Thanksgiving meal is not all that different from the Midwestern ones I am familiar with…..except for the dressing…..I like it now, But years ago when I took my very first bite of cornbread dressing…I just about could not swallow it…I was so startled by the texture. But Tony liked it straight away.!


The meal was lovely, as was the company. When I left the Hales to come back to Edwards, I dove up Main Street, looped around the square and passed back by Cliff and Nancy’s…as I passed I saw the children on the lawn playing, men folks on the front porch….dogs romping in the yard You all, right then and there I had an epiphany! I came to realize, A 2008 Mississippi thanksgiving was not all that much different then a Nebraska Thanksgiving in 1948. On Thanksgiving Day Carolyn, Joel and Blanton’s they were surrounding by family, food and friends….……


And ,the Hale children when they grow up, no matter where they go, they will take their very own memories….of Thanksgivings spent on the front porch, the sound of screen doors opening and closing, dogs out in the yard catching Frisbees, and of course cornbread dressing. They do not need my old memories about cream separators…they have their very own.


The Hale Children may or may not recall my being with them this thanksgiving and that’s okay….But I can think of an honor no greater then to be part of someone’s childhood memories….

Love to all and call if you need me