Aren’t we all different! To me the perfect vacation is lying on the beach in the sunshine reading a book and listening to the waves as they roll upon the sand until I fall asleep. Then there’s Jill Breazeale who mapped her vacation plans, along with her roommate, to Egypt so that they could ride an elephant! After renewed terrorists attacks and threats from her parents, Carol and Mundy, Jill changed their location to Cambodia where there are not only elephants but beautiful beaches as well. Jill and her roommate, El, both Ole Miss graduates, are now living in Chicago where they are flight attendants with United Airlines.
Staying in a “cute little inn” on the Mekong River where the staff bows to the guests, Jill e-mailed home, “I could get used to this. I see why Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie like it here.” The main attraction in Cambodia is the very mysterious, beautiful ancient Hindu temple of Anckor Wat built in 1131, construction time 30 years. The temple is located 10 miles outside the city. I don’t know whether they have cabs in Cambodia or not. No matter. Jill and El are taking an elephant!
I can’t think of a nicer birthday party than the one Pat Woodrick had last Saturday night in celebration of her May 10 birthday. The party was hosted by her children and grandchildren, Becky Woodrick of Hattiesburg; Woody, Melanie, Ben and Banks Woodrick of Madison; and Debbie and David Hall of Tupelo. Pat and Lavelle greeted their guests in and around the family Fair cabin located on the square of the Neshoba County Fairgrounds. The birthday cake(s) was a triple treat – one caramel, one strawberry and the traditional birthday cake. The sum total of friends, setting and refreshments add up to a great beginning for the first year after 70.
Have you ever seen a flamingo that wasn’t right at home in the water? It was truly a flamingo’s party last Tuesday afternoon when Evelyn Perry and Alice Ebba Rowe hosted their annual (their friends have come to expect it) Flamingo Fling in Evelyn’s backyard during a torrential, blowing rain. The guests took cover but the flamingos stood their ground in the beautifully decorated backyard setting.
Margaret and Robert Thomas were in Columbia, Tenn. last weekend for the annual Walk in the Park Tennessee walking horse show. Margaret won a blue ribbon riding Look of Masquerading in a class of mixed gender of riders 50 and over. The winning six-year-old horse was named for his father, Masquerading. Our local award-winning equestrian won third place in the Amateur Specialty Class, riding Strong Arm, a horse she and Robert trained in the Bloomo community. Margaret reminded me that the Neshoba County Classic Horse Show will be held June 3, the first Saturday night in June, in the Neshoba County Coliseum beginning at 5:30 in the afternoon.
Mickey and Jerome Warren were featured one day last week in Bobby Cleveland’s week-long series “A Week on the Water 2006” in The Clarion-Ledger. The brothers were pictured fishing for crappie on Okatibbee Lake, a 4,144 acre U.S. Corps of Engineer waterway near Meridian. While the brothers insisted that quantity outranked quality when fishing, Bobby said he enjoyed hearing the brothers pick at each throughout the morning.
Fair-time is fast approaching. Natalie Posey and Madison Posey were my first fair guests of the year last weekend. All I had to offer them were chocolate cookies, Diet Coke and Cheetos. We talked about the good ole’ days when Sleepy (Posey) would have his kitchen stacked with everybody’s favorite treats. “Nobody cared as much as Sleepy,” we all agreed.
In the gallery at the Regions Charity Classic golf tournament on the seniors tour in Birmingham were LeeAnn, Jim and Kip Fulton and Tyler Moore. They were houseguests of Jim’s sister, Jan. Brad Bryant won for his second Champions Tour victory of the year.
Millie Howell was one of the founding members of the Mississippi Art Colony, established in 1948. At the foundation’s 50th anniversary in 1998, Millie was recognized as having received more awards than any other member. She has gotten off to a good start in the second half of the centennial, having won the coveted Halcyone Barnes Award at the recent workshop of the Colony held at Henry Jacobs Camp outside Utica. Her prize-work “Arabesque” was so named by her son, John. “I was going to call it Arabian Nights,” Millie laughed. The painting will become a part of the Mississippi Art Colony traveling show which was to begin in Vicksburg and Jackson. Boots Howell was there for the Saturday night finale, as was Lallah Perry, well known Mississippi artist from Jackson, formerly from Philadelphia, whom we claim as our own.
Frances Molpus, Billie Latting, Avon Wroble and Rachel Evans toured the home and gardens of Eudora Welty in Jackson last week. Miss Welty was 16 in 1925 when her family moved to the newly built home at the end of the trolley line in Belhaven, Jackson’s first subdivision, across the street from Belhaven College. She lived there untl her death in 2001. She left the house and all of her books to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Welty family donated her furniture and works of art, making the Welty House one of the nation’s most intact literary house museums. The Eudora Welty House is a National Historic Landmark.
Congratulations to Ashley Thomas who graduated from MUW with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. The pinning ceremony was held Friday night, May 5 in Whitfield Hall on the MUW campus. Attending were her parents, Randy and Cindy Thomas, and sister Hollie of Philadelphia; and grandparents, Max and Virginia West and Rhonda Thomas of Philadelphia; Bill and Ali Thomas of Bush, La.
Other family members and friends included Penny Dickerson, Phil, Carol, Rebecca and Cullen Thomas, Buck Bounds, Drew Breland and Alan Taylor of Philadelphia; and Bob and Karen Thomas of Vernon, Ala.
Ashley begins her career in cardiac care at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo later this month.
“The Leonard E. Warren Memorial Run from the Sun had a 20 percent increase. 394 up from 324 last year and significantly more than the 284 the first year,” Keith Warren told me. Keith and his business colleague, Marshall Ramsey, at The Clarion-Ledger, started the race to benefit melanoma cancer research. Keith’s father, former Justice Court Judge Leonard Warren, died of melanoma, while Ramsey is a melanoma survivor. Keith also revealed their plans to possibly conduct a similar race in Philadelphia this fall or next spring, “depending on whether or not we can find enough sponsorship money.”
Philadelphia participants in the race this year were Corey Sharp, Michele Maxey, Betty Richardson, Larry McCullough, Angie Fry, Charles Johnson, Samuel Martin and Allyson Burnett.
“Here are the volunteers with Philadelphia connections who we could not do without,” Keith added: Ruthie Mae Warren, Yvonne Warren, Ashley Warren, Kevin Warren, Blake Warren, Janice Warren, Debbie Peebles, Ricky Peebles, Ben Peebles, Ashley Peebles, Vickie Sharp, George Burnett, Catherine Burnett, Amy Copeland and Gwen Ryals.
