Smoke Signals and other news
Sitting with Doug in the rehab center, a lady stopped and asked my name. When I told her, she excitedly told me both of her daughters played softball under my leadership many years ago, and both now had college softball scholarships. She also remembered that we gave out free gloves the year they started. Another mom I encountered this week reminded me her son and nephew played baseball under that same leadership. One of her sons had received the Dizzy Dean Baseball Scholarship, presented to young men/women who play at least four years of Dizzy Dean Baseball/Softball and meet other requirements. These students remind us why we worked so hard to maintain this program for many years.
Battle Road Bridge opened on August 31-a bit later than anticipated, but it is officially open.
Located at 928 Quinn Road, Barton Trade Days are set for Sept. 16-17. Admission is free and something for everyone.
Mayor Debby Weathers was notified that the trucks should arrive next week to unload materials for the longawaited splash pad. Work should start as soon as the trucks are unloaded.
Your Byhalia Library offers more than just books. Other services include printing, copying, and faxing services, computer usage, Wi-Fi, programs, and activities for children, teens, and adults. They also offer books for sale. Some services require a small fee.
Marshall County’s 8th Senior Citizen’s Day, featuring fun, food, and prizes, will take place on Saturday, September 16, beginning at noon. The event will be held at St. Paul Outreach Center at 1393 Highway 309 South in Byhalia.
From the pages of history – Next, the account gives interesting details of the arrival of other Confederate commands, the surrender of the Federal infantry, the destruction of the vast stores accumulated for Grant’s army, and the excitement and confusion incident to the occasion. The scene was described as wild and exciting: Federals running, Confederates yelling and pursuing tents and houses burning, torches flaming, guns popping, sabers clanking, abolitionists begging for mercy, women in dreaming robes clapping their hands for joy and shoutingencouragement to the riders, a mass of excited, frantic, human beings, presenting in the early morning hours a picture which words cannot portray. Most of the stores around the public square were full of food, clothing, and medical supplies. A large livery stable had been converted into an immense arsenal for storage of arms and munitions. These long trains of cars were standing on the track, filled with supplies, ready to be sent south to Grant’s army. The settlers and small dealers who followed an army were richly supplied as if they expected to stay permanently in the sunny South. The cotton speculators were in a large force and had many hundred bales stored wherever they could find room. It was hard to realize that we were in possession of the greatest booty captured by any Confederate force thus far during the war. Everybody wanted to carry off something, but it wasn’t easy to make a selection. Like liquor, the boys did likewise materially reduce the visible supply of good edibles. People of all classes, without regard to previous conditions of mastery or servitude, were free to walk up and help themselves, which they gladly did. Children, too, reveled in the pleasures of the occasion. The grown people declared it was the grandest day that Holly Springs had ever seen.
Please share your news with me at jchwagg@gmail.com or text or call 901 246-8843. You can message me on Facebook as Clair Wagg.