Thursday,
December 24, 2009
Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery
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Thursday,
December 24, 2009 |
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Community | Obits | Editorial & Columnists | Society | Sports | Education | Classified Ads | Calendar of Events | Features | Newsbriefs | Legals | Archives | Subscriptions | Photo Gallery |
SocietyCity Personals Traffic issue causes major problems when rescue squad called to incident There was much excitement Friday night on Fant Avenue in Holly Springs. The Holly High Hawks were hosting Ashland for basketball games. I had been out and came home to a fire truck blocking the alley that runs from Salem Avenue to Fant Avenue (and the gym). This was not a small fire truck - it was the big one. Poor Adam Stone and his partner had scrambled to get to the gym, only to find there was NO possible way they were going to get near it. Why might one ask? Because there was not enough room for a Smart Car to get through with all of the traffic parked along the roadside, skewed in different directions. Turns out, some poor person had a seizure and the ambulance did find its way to get down the street, not without much maneuvering on the driver’s part. When the wonderful firefighters left, they had to back that big rig down the alley and into Salem Avenue because the ground was too soft to pull it in the lot and turn it around so they would be headed out the “right” way. Along with the fabulous direction of his partner, Adam Stone did a magnificent job of backing that big boy right on out into Salem. It was not an hour later and another roar of sirens came screeching by our house. This time, it was the fire rescue truck. In my mind, I figured that Adam realized that it was not going to be a fire and why risk the headache of bringing out the big rig? Grady naturally wanted to go back down there and see what the fuss was, so we headed towards the gym once again. The truck had been “parked” and the person was nowhere in sight. He must have made it inside the gym. This time, he pulled on through (I feel certain not without having to ride caddywompus in the ditch alongside the alley) and parked the truck, blocking traffic down Fant. There was a car full of spectators who were trying to leave. They asked me if I could “please move my truck.” Are you kidding me? Red truck lettered with Holly Springs Fire Department and all of a sudden, it’s “my truck!” I explained who the truck belonged to and that I was unable to move it. Apparently what happened that time was three or four spectators had “fallen out” because of the heat in the gym. It was not long after that, the ambulance showed, able to get down Fant and in front of the gym. Shortly thereafter, along came a couple of policemen - running. I mean, they were in heavy foot pursuit. Some person(s) had broken into a car, or several, and they were hot on their trail. Naturally, there was no way they could have gotten the squad cars anywhere close to the gym, so they took out on foot. The problem is now, has always been and I guess forever will be, that there should be no access to the alley for anyone other than those of us who live over here and, naturally, the people who have dealings with Montrose. Oh, and yes, emergency vehicles. It is impossible on a ball game night (or in the morning when folks are flying to get to school or in the afternoon when they are flying to get out of there) to get out of our driveway. We are literally prisoners in our own home during those times, which are frequent. With my husband working in Memphis, he needs to leave early in the morning to get there on time. There have been an awful lot of times that he has to sit and wait on traffic to get down to the school the wrong way before he can even leave! What if the gym had been on fire Friday night? Just suppose that it had and the fire truck could not have gotten there without crunching a few cars in the process. What then? I guess we would have all just sat and watched it burn to the ground because there was no way possible for them to get to that gym for all of the traffic. Something needs to be done about this situation. Who would one talk to about it? The mayor, the superintendant of education, the Holly Springs School Board, the principal of Holly High? Believe me when I say they have all had an earful from many concerned citizens in town and not one thing has happened. We have discussed the traffic issue with our wonderful alderman, Harvey Payne, who wanted us to go through the proper channels to get something done, which is the correct way to go about it, making sure all bases are covered and we weren’t “cutting corners,” so to speak. It has been discussed and talked about around here until I am blue in the face. I just hope that there is not some major emergency in the Holly High gym or auditorium one night and the emergency vehicles cannot get there in time. It is a crying shame that something cannot be done to remedy the situation - especially when it has been going on for years and years and complained about for just that same amount of time. Congratulations to Deer Slayer for popping a nice eight-point buck this weekend. Hank Wheeler of Newnan, Ga., arrived Wednesday to spend the Christmas holidays with his family, Mary Clay and Gene Brooks and children, Caitlyn and Grady, and Laura Wheeler. Let’s try to remember it is better to give than to receive this Christmas and remember those who have lost this year, those who have soldiers overseas fighting for us so we can have a memorable Christmas, those who are apart in miles for one reason or another and those who truly need. Let’s be thankful for what we have and not take a single minute for granted. Express your love to those around you this holiday season. Let them know how much you love them and appreciate them. So often, things like that go unsaid and before you know it, there is no longer time to let them know. Have a merry Christmas, everyone, and may no one find a lump of coal and soot in their stocking! (To put your news in City Personals, please e-mail maryclayb@yahoo.com; mail to City Personals, The South Reporter, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635 or call 662-252-4261. You may also e-mail your City Personal news to south@dixie-net.com). Museuming Remembering Christmas Day in 1907...
This is a photo of my Bonds family on Christmas Day in 1907. I am sure the photographer was a traveling one, going from place to place to take photos, so we get to enjoy the 1907 Christmas over a hundred years later. Although photography wasn’t new (it was invented in 1839) it was unusual for anyone to have their picture taken. Cameras were a rarity and certainly no one in Waterford owned a camera and if they had, it would have been developed by a glass negative. We have some glass negatives of places in Holly Springs, inside and outside. In the picture, notice the cook standing by the door. Uncle Joe Bonds, a Confederate solider at Vicksburg, is at the end of the chain. They came via wagon train. The whole family came, sons and daughters. At night they would make a wagon circle. They would build a bonfire in the center and eat together. On the way from South Carolina, my great-great-great- grandfather, Richard Bonds Jr. had won the land lottery of DeKalb County, Georgia. There were so many Revolutionary veterans that lots were cast for the new lands that were open to the west. Unwisely, he didn’t keep the property, but gave it up and moved on to Mississippi. DeKalb County is where Atlanta is today. They finally settled in southeast Marshall County. They granted the right of way to Spring Hill Church in a forever clause to be situated on the property. They owned a mill there on the creek near the church. My grandfather, James K. Polk Bonds, ran away from home and joined the Confederacy when he was sixteen and a servant his age went with him. Then he sent the servant home to tell his father that he had joined the cavalry because he had a horse. His first assignment was to take papers to the general across the river. He was familiar with the territory and as he got down in the woods, a Yankee sentry stepped out from behind a tree pointing a gun at him and said, “You are under arrest. JKP didn’t get to fire a shot in the Civil War. He was first imprisoned at Alton, Illinois. Because he was hot-headed, he was sent to Fort Delaware, which is still there today, the most northern point of the Civil War. The prison is on an island in the middle of the Delaware River. While he was there, he and a fellow inmate, his neighbor, Rufus Burris from Waterford, wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln asking to be released from prison as they had been there for so long. Lincoln wrote them back and told them that they could be free if they would pledge their allegiance to the United States. That they wouldn’t do, as they had already pledged their allegiance to the Confederacy, and they couldn’t pledge to two countries. Therefore, JKP had to stay until after the war was over. In June of 1865, he was taken by boat to Mobile and he walked home to Waterford from Mobile and never went anywhere again. In writings about Fort Delaware he told about games they played to while away the time. He also told of a fellow prisoner who was over seven feet tall. His prisoner clothes were all too small and he couldn’t get enough to eat. He was put on kitchen detail. JKP had stomach trouble all his life and he always blamed it on the Yankees. He died in Waterford in 1916. There was litigation with it last year and I am the last living heir. So it goes. |
     
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