YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and here’s what I’m worried about these days.
Not the squandering of America’s prestige abroad; not the puzzling pardons for insurrectionists; not the abduction of another country’s leader, as evil as he was; not the threat of military force to ‘take’ Greenland; not whether it was a Minnesota homemaker or a terrorist that was shot in the face by ICE; not if Franklin County will be forced to host a state prison; etc.
NOOOOOO! What I’m worried about is the loss of a community tradition I’ve held dear for mucho years.
It is the announcement that there will be no 4-H BBQ Bowl this year.
It was a great community event, and I thank the 4-H’ers for having this event for so many years.
In case you didn’t know:
Moms and Dads in the 4-H Foundation would gather up all of the portable smokers in the county and line them up at the fairgrounds or beside the radio station on a cold Saturday morning.
Cornish game hens were donated by our good neighbor industry, Tyson, and the 4-H program purchased the ribs. Lots of preparation.
The cookers were fired up at about 5 a.m. by the Moms and Dads. It was usually raining or sleeting. The meat smoked until about 11 when purchasers dropped by to pick ‘em up.
For many years this went on until rib prices skyrocketed.
“We’ve just got to do something else,” County Extension Agent-4-H Samantha Horn explained to me this week about the need for a 4-H fund-raiser.
If I remember correctly, the event was originally called the Super Bowl BBQ because it was held on the Saturday before the Super Bowl by the late great Nashville Kiwanis Club. Maybe it was the late great Nashville Lions Club.
The late great Norman Adamson would notify me when to start publicity.
We lovingly keep some events — like the Golden Gathering — and some gradually go away — like the Evelyn Ramsay Tasting Brunch.
It is really important for a community to put forth great effort to keep events and organizations alive.
Without them we’re just an empty shell of a town.
I speak with such 4-H BBQ Bowl knowledge because I myself am a 4-H alumni.
It was long long ago, I admit.
In fact it was so long ago that it was just 3-H.
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ONE THING you can count on is that as soon as you get a little confidence in the Razorback Basketball Season, the team goes to Auburn, Ala., and plays like they made pregame bets on the Tigers.
It’s taken a long time but I’m pretty confident now that we’ll give up late-game TDs in football or not show up for a hoops game. I hope to goodness this doesn’t continue for baseball.
And I’m afraid I’d jinx the Lady Razorback basketballers, volleyball and soccer teams, softball team, tracksters or water polo team.
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WHERE IS SHE? I sometimes still lose sleep over the whereabouts of Amelia Earhardt and Jimmy Hoffa.
If you have any information please call the Lost Sleep Hotline.
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VETERANS, circle Friday, Feb. 13, on your calendar. It is the date for the annual Texarkana area veterans chili and gumbo cookoff/contest. Last year the group added the gumbo competition. Admission is $8 and proceeds go to purchase of a van to take veterans to VA offices in Shreveport.
Originally this event was sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in Texarkana, but veterans organizations of all eras were later added.
I’ve gone for my fill of chili for at least a decade, and I plan to go again. The event is held in the Truman Arnold Student Center at Texarkana College from 11-1.
The campus cops there are no longer looking for me, but the Shore Patrol may be lurking in hopes of taking back my Navy Good Conduct Medal which the Navy insists was actually — and obviously — issued in error.
Maybe THIS Friday-the-13th will be lucky for me and the Navy will declare that I really was an ideal sailor. Then those pesky Shore Patrol guys can go home. I’m getting tired of dodging them.
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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from opening an email: TOOTHACHE — The pain that drives you to extraction.
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WORD GAMES. I love oxymorons: When I demanded proof that the world was flat I only got an Eloquent Silence.
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HE SAID: “Women, the way I see it, are very evolved people. They’re more mature, they’re more aware of their feelings, in touch with their feelings. They’re connected to things that matter more in life. They know what’s important. Men basically run around like idiots until we meet somebody who can show us that those things are important.” Rob Reiner, actor and director
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SHE SAID: “You don’t see too many atheists on the deathbed. They all start cramming then.” Dolly Parton, singer and actress
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
