A phone call with my daughter early last week initiated an unscheduled long weekend in Louisiana.
The private art show she was curating and showing in, along with nine other artists, ended Friday night with a question and answer session. During the week, she had heard from long-time friend, Billie Anne Hill, who was going to be in Monroe visiting her parents this weekend. Chelle and Kenny wanted to come to spend some time with her and wanted me to meet them here. Because of the Friday night session at the show, they couldn’t leave Southaven until Saturday morning. I decided to take a couple of days off work to have a little time there before their arrival.
I left out Thursday morning in an effort to beat the heat, and it was much better than the last time when I arrived late afternoon. I was there before lunch and relaxed the rest of the day until my sister Pat was off work. Pat had come on Wednesday evening and lowered the thermostat from the 84 degrees I leave it on each time, to about 10 degrees lower. Returning was pleasant, despite the heavy, humid heat outside. The last time I was here, it took about three hours for the mobile home to cool to a tolerable level, because I did not think to ask her to adjust it.
Northeast Louisiana heat is even worse this time of year than East Mississippi’s. The humidity seems to fall heavy upon the body, like a damp, wool blanket. But on Friday night the rain came. Saturday night and Sunday morning, we were able to comfortably sit on the porch to visit for a while before turning in.
Billie Anne arrived in the afternoon on Saturday with her granddaughter, whom she affectionately calls “AJ.” AJ calls Billie Anne “BB.” Billie Anne now has a charming five-year-old clone in AJ. Billie Anne lived with our family in Monroe during her senior year of high school. Our sons, Travis and Sam, were twelve and eight years old at the time. Billie Anne’s mischief kept us laughing much of the time. She would walk up to one of the boys, bopping them on the back of his head Gibb’s style (NCIS, long before there was a Gibbs or an NCIS). He would say, “Hey, what was that for?” She would answer, “You were thinking evil thoughts!”
You never knew what she would do next, but her antics kept things lighter during times when the exhaustion of a long day’s work and often calls from one or both boys’ teachers. It was really good to spend time with her and to see that the legend lives on in AJ, who candidly recorded much of the conversations of the reunion, giggling as she played them back for her “BB.”
There is magic in going “home.” The home there is uncluttered and open, different from my crowded space in Union which cries for reorganization and discarding of the stuff of years-long accumulation.
Since my vacation time is spent in West Monroe, there is no immediate target for getting things thinned out in Union. Maybe I will schedule a couple of rooms each weekend until all of them have been done. Meanwhile, I enjoy my siblings while we have one another. I had lunch with Pat at Newk’s Deli on Thursday, joined her and two of her sons, Steven and Bret Hollis, and Steven’s friend Lisa, on Friday for Mexican food at El Jarito.
Pat and I breakfasted at IHOP on Saturday morning. I went to see Carol as she was getting ready to go to the weekly dance at the VFW Hall in Monroe. She and her friend Bill visited me at my home on Saturday afternoon. It was a busy weekend, and filled with good love and food and memories being made.
A little taste of the Fair from a Unionite’s perspective is provided by Stacy Turner:
On Thursday, July 27 Nick and Stacy Turner took Stacy’s father, Louis Skinner to the Neshoba County Fair. First, they heard Commissioner of Agriculture Cindy Hyde-Smith speak and chatted with her afterwards, thanking her for her service.
Next the trio caught the speeches of Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn and Gov. Phil Bryant. Then Nick, Stacy and Louis trekked to the barns for the dairy cattle show. While watching fine specimens of Holsteins and Jerseys parade the ring, they visited with former fellow dairyman, Bunkie Smith and son-in-law Bob, and enjoyed a cold glass of milk, courtesy of Beason Family Farm. Lunch was a burger from Joe Williams’ Piggly Wiggly stand. Stacy enjoyed a stroll through the exhibit hall to see the fine fruits and veggies as well as arts and crafts entered in competition. They finished out the sweltering day slurping snow cones in the grandstands as the race horses thundered through.
Remember to get your news/items of interest to me at gingersnapwelch@gmail.com or leave a voice mail for me at 769-222-7055, and do so before the 6 p.m. deadline on the Sunday before you want it to run on Wednesday. I pray blessings on all of you until we meet again next week.
