In a family where Mama (Shawn) plays flute and Papa (Lannie) "plays everything", brothers Casey Byars and Cassidy Byars play drums. Casey missed the Fair this year as he was touring the country with the rap super star Snoop Dogg on the Blazed and Confused Tour. Casey was responsible for the video backdrop and the twitterfeed for the bands on tour. The other bands on tour were Mickey Avalon, The Marley Brothers and Slightly Stupid. Casey is a graphic artist, lighting designer and drummer living in Austin, Texas.
Cassidy, a junior at Mississippi State University, is captain of the tenor section of the drum line with the MSU band. He is studying to be a graphic artist.
Since a little girl, Emily Dees had wanted her family to go on a trip together. All her dreams came true last Saturday, Aug. 8, when she and Pete Boulden were married on the Caribvean Island of Anguilla in the British West Indies. "In a setting so beautiful, I think I got a glimpse of what heaven will look like," Peggy told me. Emily and Pete were surrounded during the beach ceremony by their loved ones who included Bud and Mandy Dees, Caroline Dees, Chip Dees, Pat and Nancy Hardage, Peggy Dees, Allen, Jane, Chad and Clay Crosswhite, Johnny, Lynn, John and Nancy North, Jamie Martin, Brian VanDevender, Travis Sledge, Liz Phillips, Ashley Breland and Ken and Patrice Turner. While enjoying Emily and Pete's destination wedding nuptials, Ken and Patrice were also celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary.
Don't we all love a romantic story. Josh Atkins, who came from Bakersfield, Calif. to play in the Philadelphia Country Club 4-Ball Tournament last weekend, was the big winner, even though his name will not appear on the championship trophy. Enroute to Philadelphia as weekend guests of his Ole Miss classmate and friend, Chris Posey and April, Josh and his friend, Jackie Smith, stopped for a stroll on the beach in Lake Tahoe. Josh dropped to his knee in the sand, asked Jackie to be his wife, and she said yes! On their first morning in Philadelphia, after April left for work and Chris and Josh went to the golf course, Jackie went for a walk in the neighborhood. Getting back to the house, the door was locked. That's when good neighbor Ken Lewis came to her rescue. Ended up with Ken taking Jackie to lunch at The Coffee Bean and to two of our favorite tourist attractions, Jerome Tanks and Williams Brothers. "She was amazed by it all," Ken told me.
While Tiger was winning the Bridgestone Invitational for the seventh time, Josh and Austin Posey won first place in the fifth flight in the Philadelphia tournament. Chris and Jesse Yates captured first
place in the fourth flight. But remember, Josh got the girl! Josh came to Mississippi as a college student when he played basketball at East Central Community College in the class with Chris Webb and Kellis Greer. He later transferred to Ole Miss. His grandmother was Jewell Colson Atkins of the Neshoba Lake area.
Attending Tex James' Woodfin family reunion in Marble Falls, Texas, Tex and Sybil went by way of El Paso, Texas for a visit to The Lucchese Boot Company. If you know Tex, you will understand this detour. Sam Lucchese came to America in 1880 when he was only 16 years old. He and his brother Joseph chose to make their living as boot and shoemakers. They became masters in their creative profession. A very dedicated, determined man, Sam Lucchese poured his talents and soul into making every part of the boot, from the tip of the toe to the top of the pull straps. In making a pair of boots or shoes for a man, he was always aware "that our product is his foundation."
Tex and Sybil were traveling with Misty and Scott Bernard of McGee who shave their love for boot mastery. Misty and Tex worked together for years at Boots & More in Jackson. As a lover of nature who had never seen the desert, Scott worked in some interesting side trips. They visited the Guadalupe Mountains located along the New Mexico border which are the highest peaks in Texas. They questioned "is this really salt or is it sand?" as they looked over the Great Salt Flat. "It's salt!" Scott confirmed, licking his finger.
Some 100 family members attended the reunion. Tex, his brother, Jack, and their Aunt Minnie Edwards were the senior members of the family. Tex's daughters and their families were there. Carol and her husband, Jim Anderson, came from Anchorage, Alaska, with their daughter, Amy Gardner, and her husband, Dewayne. Bonnie and her husband, Tim Halsted, also traveled afar from Minnesota for the family gathering.
Tex visited his old homeplace in Radium Springs, N.M. where the fence he helped build and the cottonwood trees planted in 1941 marked the spot of his former home. What's the saying about "a leopard never changes its spots." A parallel to Sybil who took six of her delicious cakes with her, and was fascinated with the shopping in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels, Texas. "It was like the Fair with no houses," she said, at a loss for words to describe it.
While the Boy Scouts motto is "Be Prepared", perhaps the Girl Scouts is "Remember to say thank you." Former Girl Scouts, Carolyn Majure Dearman, Carol Graves Ratcliff, Martha Freeny Cummings, Ouida Yates Moore and Jane Coghlan Holland did just that on Tuesday of the Fair in 2008, and again in 2009. They took their former den mother, Hazel Allen, to lunch at The Great Wall as a way of saying "thank you" to her for being "the greatest den mother ever and the sweetest lady in the world!" "She put up with us, loved us and has been our friend since grammar school," Carolyn told me. They remember Richard as a good den dad, too. "They all got their dance badges while dancing with Richard when we lived on Breland Street," Hazel laughed.
