Opinion

Our first child has officially left home to attend the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

She and I took to the road first Friday morning for move-in day at Mississippi Hall, the Honors College dormitory at USM. Pam and Andy followed later. Both vehicles were filled with supplies, clothes and other what we considered dorm necessities.

I have to admit that the normal chaos and trauma of “back to school” has been a little different around our two houses this year.

Not only do we have a “patient” camped out in the living room, we have all these bandaging supplies, etc. stacked everywhere. Pop is well on the road to recovery, but we still have all this “stuff.”

Churches will soon be cranking up their Sunday schools for the fall. Some grand old customs are still in use. Many churches still have Sunday school superintendents—whereby a lay person holds a position of great honor which sometimes also involves responsibility to organize and oversee all that goes on during that important hour.

Letters To The Editor

Health care bill is bad:
To the Editor,

Everybody better wake up! The health care bill is bad for everyone. Don’t be fooled, I have seen it.

Let your voice be heard — check it out for yourself.

Clyde Ellzey
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Seeking information:
Dear Editor,

I am searching for information on my great-grandparents, Andrew Jackson Brooks born in about 1853, and died November 1939, and Annie May (Swan?) Brooks born in about 1873 and died in 1966. They are buried in the Potts Camp Cemetery.

My grandfather spoke of having half-siblings, but I can find no information. I have also been told that my great-grandmother, in her later years married a Mr. Mullins? Any information on the Brooks or Mullins family would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Sharon Robertson
Conway, Arkansas
501-327-0870
|raylene@conwaycorp.net

Those were the days:
I enjoy reading The South Reporter online. You do a good job.

I grew up in the Marshall County area and graduated from the old M.C.A.H.S. at Slayden. I am retired military and retired from the state of Alaska. I now live in Portland, Oregon.

I don’t get back much anymore, but I love to read your paper and revel in the old days, growing up in Marshall County. Working weekends at Bud Bolden’s service station, or Lowlers Grocery, draggin’ my ole 1957 Chevy on Friday nights at Gossit’s dragstrip on Highway 72 at the Tenn. State line, only to blow up the engine and tow it home to fix it again.

Ah -- those were the days.
Julian Smith

Brief history of M.A.:

I read the article about the renovation of the M.A. building and saw a line that said it was “built in 1974.” I’m not sure where that came from as I was the manager of the project and member of the board’s building committee. The first building was built in 1968. The second building was done in 1974.

Bob Dent, who was general manager of Wurlitzer at the time, and I explored the property and located the building and, after the shell was erected, he and I marked off the layout of the inside walls of the office and classrooms.

The office was finished first so the admin could have a place to get started while the main construction of the interior was finished. The first year, the students met for classes in the local church Sunday School rooms.

What some might still remember with much pride is that students came to the campus to assemble the desks, hang the boards, and do many of the other tasks that got M.A. started. Many do not know how much of the original building’s materials were donated by understanding, large companies. The door frames were donated by Fisher, the paint by Seabrook’s and the hardware by Orgill Brothers.

In 1969, the gym was started and the floor has quite a story. It seems that A.Q. Greer’s uncle in Potts Camp had an old pecan orchard that had outgrown it’s value and a deal was made with Memphis Hardwood Flooring that they could have it if they provided enough to do the gym floor. The flooring was delivered and a local flooring installer supervised the installation as students formed a “chain gang” that walked it in, placed it in place and used his nail guns to install it.

A side story is that in the first year, Ole Miss’s gym floor got some damage from a roof leak and they asked to practice on ours. When they arrived, they had some doubt as to the quality until their coach walked in, saw a solid pecan floor and dropped his jaw.

The rest of the construction of the gym’s seating frame, bleachers, hand rails, and other things were nearly totally done by students and their fathers. The class of ’71 was the first to start and finish at M.A.

From the pictures it seems that some of the student pride is still alive and well.

Tom Stewart

Please take time to remember our local “heroes” who are serving in war zones around the world.

If you’d like to add a name to this list, please contact The South Reporter, Attn. Linda Jones, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635; 662-252-4261; or email: south@dixie-net.com


Thursday, August 20, 2009
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