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Community News

Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

Christopher Rowland celebrates birthday with pizza party

Many of us watched the State of the Union address by our president and others on TV. We should thank the good Lord every day for our wonderful country and our leaders. There’s no other place in the world as special as our USA. God has blessed us!

Say a special prayer for a former neighbor of ours, Henry Tutor. He is in the VA assisted-living home in Ripley. Last year, he drove me to the doctor several times and ran errands for me. Friends Bobbie and Steve Price visited him on Wednesday. He is a special friend, age 90.

We send our love and sympathy to the family of Mary Waurine Weir, my friend and former classmate for many years, in her recent death, from Bartlett, Tenn.

We also send our love and sympathy to the family of Ben Terry West, who are my friends, in his recent death.

I was also saddened to read about the death of Graham Miller. I remember how friendly he was to all of us when we brought shoes and etc. at his stores. We send love and sympathy to his wife and family.

Happy birthday to a friend, Jeaneatte Stone, on Jan. 30.

Fifth Sunday services of the Potts Camp Methodist Charge were held at the Cornersville Methodist Church with a breakfast, singing and preaching. Rev. Don Newton is the pastor.

Christopher Rowland, son of Jay and Roxanne Rowland, celebrated his birthday in Memphis, Tenn., at Ultimate Pizza with family and friends on Saturday.

The Touch of the Master’s Hands

It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it hardly worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. “What am I biddin’,” he cried, “who’ll start the biddin’ for me?”

“A dollar, a dollar and who’ll make it two? Two dollars and who’ll make it three, going for three.” But no — from the room far back a gray-headed man came forward and picked up the bow. Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer, that voice was quiet and low, said “What am I bid for the old violin?” and he held it up with the bow. “A thousand dollars and who’ll make it two, two thousand and who’ll make it three?” “Three thousand going once, going twice and going, gone,” he said. The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We don’t understand.

What changed the worth?” Swift came the reply, “The touch of the master’s hand,” and many a man with life out of time and battered and scarred with sin is cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin. A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and he travels on. He’s going once, and he’s going twice, he’s going and almost gone.

But the Master comes and the foolish crowd never quite understands, the worth of a soul and the change that is wrought by the touch of the Master’s hand.

Prayer list: Charles Henderson, Jo Ann Potts, Mary and Henry Jarrett, Henry Tutor, Diane Clayton, Jimmie Hart, Betty Rose Jones, Sank Owen, Betty Fincher, Pauline Hutchens, Lena Faye Work, Ann Boren Armstrong; others who are sick and people out of work and in nursing homes. Pray for people who have lost their loved ones. God answers prayers!

Memories

Back in my childhood days, we sat around the fireplace and listened to our dad, J.B. Potts, play his old French harp; he could play it by ear.

When he went to St. Louis every year for a check-up at the railroad hospital, we looked forward to his return. He always brought us some new Victrola records. The Victrola stood in the long hall near our bedroom. One of my favorite singers on the records was Jimmy Rodgers. We played his records over and over. My favorite was “Just Waiting For a Train.”

“All around the water tank, just waiting for a train,

A thousand miles away from home, just sleeping in the rain

I walk up to the brakeman, to give him a line of talk

He said if you’ve got money, I’ll see that you don’t walk

I haven’t got a nickel, not a penny can I show

Get off, get off, you railroad bum, and he slammed the box car door.”

People did not know that while Jimmie Rogers was dying from TB and needed to rest, he kept on singing.

A Jimmie Rodgers Day is held at Meridian every year in his memory.

Did you know?
Richard Simmons

Punxsutawney Phil

Not being a weather forecaster I could not correctly announce if the famous “Punxsutawney Phil” will see his shadow and run for cover or be a cool groundhog and relax in the shade. Will we have six more weeks of winter or will we have a second winter?

I have to ask myself does the Pennsylvania groundhog activities include me since I live in the good old South? After all, we have to consider “General Beauregard Lee” the Atlanta, GA, groundhog. Then there is “Staten Island Chuck” in New York City. Another thing is why they (whoever is in charge of Groundhog Day) picked February 2, as the day to watch out for the groundhog?

Well, here is what I have found out regarding the tradition. February 2 falls about halfway between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. The folks way back when watched for early appearances of hibernating animals, such as bears and badgers as a natural sign that winter was coming to an end and spring was just around the corner.

Some early religious beliefs observed February 2 as Candlemas, the day priests blessed the candles and distributed them to the faithful. Superstitions arose that if the weather was fair on Candlemas, the second half of the winter would be cold and stormy. An old Scottish saying was “If Candlemas Day is bright and clear; there will be two winters in the year.” In Germany, it was said that if Candlemas Day was bright enough to make a hedgehog cast a shadow, he would go back into hibernation until the first day of spring. Thus winter would last six more weeks.

In the early days of migration to America, many Germans settled in the Pennsylvania area so it is natural that “Punxsutawney Phil” resides there. I don’t really care if the groundhog sees his shadow or not. I am just tired of the cold and high heating cost. So come on spring, my mower is waiting.

Did You Know On

Feb. 2, 1876 – Baseball’s National League was formed with eight teams.

Feb. 3, 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified, authorizing a federal income tax.

Feb. 4, 1861 – The Confederate States of America was formed.

Feb. 5, 1901 – Edwin Prescott patented the “loop-the-loop centrifugal railway”—better known as a roller coaster.

Feb. 6, 1971 – Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard hit three golf balls on the moon.

Feb. 7, 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder was born near Pepin, Wisconsin.

Feb. 8, 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America was founded in Washington, D.C.

This Week’s Quiz

It is called New York City. What was New York’s original name?

Who designed and completed the world’s first movie studio?

Four black college students staged a sit-in for civil rights in Greensboro, NC. What lunch counter were they at?

Ritchie Valens and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in a chartered plane crash. What rock star died in the crash with them?

In 1964 “The Beatles” made their first U.S. appearance on what TV show?

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