Gaithers help the Helping Hands Foundation!!

I had a delightful conversation last week with Sherry (Mosley) Wallace. Now I know you remember her and her brother, Andy. At least if you lived here 50 years ago. Sherry and I have been having Facebook conversations about the first residents of my house, Frank and Merlie Stokes. I occasionally have visits from them both, at least I think that's who visits me.

Sherry has been sharing stories with me of her memories of the two of them. Sherry used to live across the street and shared a party line with the Stokes. She and her friends used to keep Merlie entertained when she would listen in on their phone conversations. I won't go into detail about the things they told when they knew she was listening, but it was certainly juicy, probably the Rector equivalent of "Sex In the City" 50's style.

So when I answered the phone and heard a female voice say, "Christa? This is Merlie calling from the grave," it took me less than a second to make the right connection. Anyway, I really enjoyed hearing from Sherrie and look forward to talking to her again. And of course I always enjoy my visits from Frank and Merlie.

Speaking of visits that don't originate from the other side, Demetra Shultz had company last week. Her son Douglas from Springdale spent several days with her. As always she and her daughter Terry enjoyed spending time and visiting with Doug. And as always it was hard to see him leave this morning. With school about to start those visits will be further spaced out for a while.

Steve Malin slipped into town Sunday. He spent some time visiting with Rob and Cathy Louder and his mother, Jessie. He returned to St. Louis on Monday.

Georgia Sallee, Jessie Malin, Carol Stone, Paula Benton, Lane Wozniak and I enjoyed another performance at the Imperial Theatre in Pocahontas yesterday. "Plaza Suite" may be the greatest performance I have seen there so far. We all enjoyed it and laughed until we hurt. The next play will be in October and it will be "Dracula". I can hardly wait for that.

Coming up is another fun entertainment event. "The Ultimate Oldies Show #6" will be at the Collins theater in Paragould this month. Friday and Saturday, August 20 and 21 there will be evening performances at 7:00. Sunday, August 22 will be a matinee performance at 2:00. Tickets for this show are $13.00 and are now on sale at the Lantern Bookstore. If you haven't seen this group, you should really go this time. It is really a fun experience and every show has different songs from out pasts. If you have been to see them before, I will probably see you there this time too.

Wow there is certainly a lot going on around here right now.

The "What's Behind the Bricks" Committee has placed another order for memorial bricks for the Downtown Park. They should be laid before Labor Day. We noticed that several graduating classes have purchased bricks to memorialize their high school graduating class. If your class doesn't have one and you would like to buy one you can contact Jacinda Welch at 595-2300.

Well, it is getting late so I suppose I had better wrap this up. Let me know what is going on in your world so I can share. Write me at 514 W. 3rd St., Rector or call me. My phone number is 595-3173. Email address: porchswing@newwavecomm.net.

Bless our soldiers.