Bank of Holly Springs

Fielder’s Choice

Snow takes different path

Friday morning, our son Andy called his mother to report he was driving to work in the snow. He lives near Canton and works in Pearl.

He said traffic on I-55 was going at about 30 miles per hour.

The day before I read where schools in the Hattiesburg area were already planning on shutting down Friday in anticipation of the winter storm.

Then Friday, I retweeted a few photos from my friends down south. “The Rock,” the football stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi was blanketed in snow. Hatties­burg received more than five inches.

Noxapater, on the southern end of Winston County, reported three and half inches.

Good friend Layne Bruce, executive director of the Mississippi Press Association in Jackson, showed off a photo of his snowman.

It’s an unusual thing, when the Jackson area and south gets snow and Holly Springs doesn’t.

But, it’s perfectly fine with me if it stays south the entire winter. Temperatures in Holly Springs dropped into the 20s Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. I looked ahead a bit – on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there’s chance of wintry mix here.

We never know what we will get this time of the year. And that’s OK.

One thing about it, the snow south of us and the cold temperatures here help make it feel a lot more like Christmas. And that holiday is fast approaching.

Another thing that makes it feel a lot like Christmas is the arrival of Santa letters at The South Reporter office.

The deadline was Friday, and the first batch actually arrived Thursday afternoon from H.W. Byers Elementary.

The newspaper’s annual Christmas edition will be published next week, December 21, with Letters to Santa, holiday-related photos, and Christmas greetings from businesses, industries and elected officials.

I’ve been asked a lot lately, “Have you finished your Christmas shopping?”

The truth is, I don’t do a lot of Christmas shopping. I leave that up to my wife Pam, except for buying her gift of course.

Last week I did stop in at Booker Hardware and make a purchase for one of my family members in Alabama. Booker’s is just one of several businesses in Holly Springs where you can most likely find the perfect gift for someone or everyone on your list.

It was great to see the success of the Holiday Open House in downtown Holly Springs in November, the Shop Small Saturday (after Thanksgiving) and other promotions to boost shopping in downtown Holly Springs and at other small, home-owned businesses throughout Marshall County.

I grew up in a small town, a little smaller than Holly Springs. I recall with fondness our family trips downtown to do our shopping. We knew the business owners personally, and they knew us, too.

There are many, many reasons to shop local. But more than anything else, we have to support one another.

We’re Holly Springs, Byhalia, Potts Camp, Marshall County. We’re in this together.

Holly Springs South Reporter

P.O. Box 278
Holly Springs, MS 38635
PH: (662) 252-4261
FAX: (662) 252-3388
www.southreporter.com