Overheard, out and about, Mrs. Grundy sees all, tells all

Staff

Published Friday, December 12, 2008

Peeping through my Venetian blind, I stood and watched the rain this week and thought of that famous, old line, “It was a dark and stormy night!”

I hope you get out to The Nutcracker tonight at the community college. A Sunday matinee is also planned. Yours truly has a cameo appearance.

Sunday is also Alabama’s birthday (born l8l9). Do something to honor our dear home. Colonel Covington and his sisters are having a crowd of us for lunch Sunday in honor of Alabama. I wonder if our local schools did anything this week in honor of Alabama.

Alabama was the 22nd state to enter the Union. President James Monroe signed the resolution.

Did you know that Alabama was the first state to make Christmas an official holiday? We can therefore call Alabama “the Christmas State.”

Allow me to remind you, too, that this coming Thursday, December l8, at noon in the Alabama Department of Archives and History that a program is planned on “Winnie” Davis, the younger daughter of Jefferson Davis, only president of the Confederate States of America. This program is significant because 2008 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Davis.

The Covington County Chapter l408 of the American Association of Retired Persons met December 9 in the Dixon Memorial of the Andalusia Public Library for a Christmas buffet and installation of 2009 officers.

Sonja James, Joyce Leddon, and Holly Lord (in her Santa hat) organized a festive buffet of dishes brought by members. One of several outstanding dishes was the chicken-and-dumplings offered by Irene Davis, legislative chairman and past president.

Outgoing president, Joe Wingard, read Eugene Fields’s comical poem, “Jest ‘Fore Christmas,” about a boy who behaves well before Christmas for obvious reasons. Wingard also installed the new officers: Delores Gomez, president; Norma Jean Gavras, president-elect; Dallas Merritt, first vice-president; Evelyn Murphree, secretary; and Elizabeth Milhorn, treasurer.

The Dixon Memorial was decorated with Christmas cloths, swags, wreaths, and a tree.

Herb Jasper, member of the board, played the piano as the group sang “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

Mary Green, chaplain, worded a Christmas devotional; Wingard worded the blessing.

Clarence Trousdale led in the pledge.

The next meeting is set for January l3.

Everyone was offered a door prize.

Attending, and not already mentioned, were Alfred Perrett, Rebecca Nall, Bernice Livingston (senior member), Ollie Bell Landrum, Judd and Glenda Granger, Larry and Pat Scroggins, Anna Lois Nall, Rosie Blount, Merle Neese, Dan McLarin, and Bobby and Jean Davis.

Jeremy Boyd, a piano pupil of Mary Clyde Merrill, played “Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful” in the distinguished Baraca Class of First Baptist last Sunday. In the same Sunday-School assembly Dwight Crigger, minister of music at First church, gloriously sang “Ring the Bells,” accompanied by Mrs. Merrill, long-time, local, piano teacher. The regular pianist for the Baraca, Martha (James) Givhan, accompanied the men in two Christmas hymns.

In the morning worship service Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Givhan played an excellent rendition of an organ-piano duet of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

One Accord, a group of talented ladies at First Baptist, also provided music. They are probably the best ladies’ group in “the Dimple of Dixie.”

First Baptist is beautifully decorated this time of year with green swags and wreaths, red ribbons, and candles in each window, and pots of red poinsettias on the podium steps and altar.

The Covington County Education Retirees Association met December 3 in the Opp Chamber of Commerce for a Christmas buffet and a performance by the Opp Voices of Opp High School. Allen Miller, CCERA vice-president, scheduled the program.

Opp teacher, Olivia Ennis, only in her second year of work with this well-known, singing ensemble, long a part of Opp High School, led the group of five boys and five girls in an excellent performance of six, secular, Christmas songs, each accompanied by clever and eye-catching choreography. The young musicians, dressed in matching garb, sang well, danced well, and displayed superb discipline and professionalism. They are a credit to their community.

The retired teachers enjoyed a buffet, supplied by each one present, and exchanged gifts for fun.

Joe Wingard, president, led in the pledge, blessing, and devotional, based on a Christmas story by the late Lou Brown.

Harriet Scofield, treasurer, gave her report and the secretary’s minutes, in the latter’s absence.

Word came that Geraldine Boothe, immediate past president, was ill.

Committee reports were given by Kim Dyess, Mavis Smith, Dean Morris, Evelyn Larigan, and Nan Johnson.

Dean Morris arranged the refreshments.

The next meeting is set for February 4 at l0:30 a.m. at Country Folks in Florala. A Dutch-treat lunch is to follow the program. There is no meeting set for January.

The Portly Gentleman told me that he went to the Alabama Education Association Delegate Assembly in Montgomery last weekend. This is the annual meeting of representatives of AEA members from all over the state who meet to present, discuss, and vote upon resolutions, which will guide AEA’s actions for the next year.

Attending from Covington County was Jimmy Ponds, who serves as president of the county teachers and also as president of District 24 of AEA, which includes Covington, Conecuh, and Escambia counties. With him were Doris McDonald, vice-president of the Covington Education Association; Paula Simpson, secretary; Traci Locke, treasurer; and Denise Pearce of Opp City Schools. Sadly, there was no representation from Andalusia City Schools except for the Portly One, retired, who attended only as a guest, not an official delegate.

The Covington folks were honored by being seated on the front row in the convention center. This was a privilege given them by the outgoing president of AEA, Peggy Mobley, who taught in Covington County for years and has served AEA as president the last two years. Before that, she was vice-president for two years. Before that, she was president for two years; and before that, she was vice-president for two years!

Peggy told me that she plans to retire at the end of this school year and look for part-time work. She has already sold her house in Covington County and hopes, one day, to buy a house in Crenshaw County to be nearer her grandchildren. For now she’s living in an apartment in Montgomery.

The Delegate Assembly was attended in the new Renaissance Hotel, downtown Montgomery. It is connected to a large convention center, where AEA conducted its business, and a parking deck. The Renaissance has two restaurants. The larger is called The House, which offers expensive but excellent food and service in a fashionably decorated environment. Men who want to treat their wives for an anniversary could take them to The House. Go, but go by the bank first.

The Portly Gentleman spoke of a spinach salad, too large even for him, which contained quail’s egg, fried oysters, and a bacon vinaigrette. At the same meal he was served specialty breads, hot from the oven, and a flatbread appetizer, compliments of the chef.

He ran into Meri Catherine Bratton, formerly of Andalusia, now teaching in Hoover; Marion Wood, one of three coordinators of retired teachers in the state; and Joe Cottle, an AEA staff member and once the college roommate of our own Gary Harper, retired from Andalusia City Schools.

Thursday night, December 4, Dr. Paul Hubbert, long-time, executive secretary for AEA and one of the most powerful men in Alabama, spoke of the l03,000 members of AEA and how five million dollars had been spent on legal fees, defending teachers in trouble.

Hubbert painted a black picture of the immediate, financial future of teachers. He warned them not to worry over the little things but to concentrate on keeping their jobs and benefits.

Said Hubbert, “We’ve got to take care of ourselves!”

“I’ve never seen a time in education such as we are facing today,” said Hubbert.

He predicted proration, even with borrowing to the hilt all that the recently passed Amendment I allows, and a shortfall of 500 million in 20l0.

Hubbert suggested two ways to raise revenue: Exxon gas and gaming. He claimed that Exxon owes Alabama more money for the privilege of taking our natural resources. He said that gaming goes on in Alabama but that no taxes are paid to the state. He listed Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, our surrounding states, all as being taxed for gaming, leaving Alabama out in the cold. To those who oppose gaming on moral grounds, Dr. Hubbert reminded them that liquor is taxed and liquor may be a moral objection to the same people who morally object to gaming.

Hubbert told his educators that they’ve got to get mean and angry and tough and talk to their legislators and stand up for themselves. He urged educators to campaign for candidates who will support them. He said that legislators “leave their ears back home.” In other words, they listen to what the people who elect them say.

The Portly Gentleman added, “Of course, the educators must say something, not sit, as most do, like stumps on a log, expecting somebody else to do the dirty work for them. Such lazy educators deserve to lose their salaries and benefits.”

The AEA members met in three sessions, two on Friday, and one on Saturday morning, to adopt or reject resolutions. These sessions, said the Portly One, are the most democratic and exciting discussions he has ever experienced.

While in Montgomery the Portly Gentleman visited the Curb Market on Madison Avenue, a favorite scene of his childhood, a farmers’ market, where his mother had taken his brothers and him many a time.

The old place, dating back to the Great Depression, has changed little. An old metal building covers stout, wooden, green booths arranged in rows up and down a concrete floor, all warmed by an old space heater. These booths are taken by good-hearted, country folks to display and sell their wares.

Last Saturday morning was like walking through a Christmas card, the One Who Waddles said. It was a scene Charles Dickens could have used in one of his Christmas stories. Imagine the old place, crowded with goods, sellers, and customers, shoulder-to-shoulder, all in a festive mood.

There were pots of poinsettias, all colors and varieties; freshly made wreaths of pine, pine cones, holly, magnolias, boxwood, cedar, hemlock, nandina, Frasier fir, smilax (some painted silver), dried corn cobs, and cotton bolls; canned jars, shining on shelves like stained-glass windows, jars of peaches, jellies, jams, preserves, campstew, vegetable soup, pickles, apricots, and beets; baked goods – banana-nut bread, Italian cream cake, lemon-cheese cake, carrot cake, sausage biscuits, cheese biscuits, pecan pies, yeast rolls, pound cakes, cookies, tarts, divinity, fudge, cocoanut pie, fruit cakes, buttermilk pie, egg custard, sweet-potato pie, pumpkin pie, and red-velvet cake; fresh vegetables such as turnip roots and greens, rutabagas, mustard, collards, corn, onions, squash, and cabbage; pots of ivy, pots of pansies, pots of paperwhites, pots of Christmas cacti; apples, oranges, grapefruits, lemons; Christmas aprons on pegs; cracklings; boiled peanuts; shelled pecans and dried peanuts; homemade baskets; peacock feathers; stalks of sugar cane; kindling; and fresh brown eggs. Oh, what Dickens could have done with that!

The Portly One stopped to chat with several sellers, including a lady at one booth, Sherrell Smitherman, who has been selling her baked goods for 36 years at the Montgomery Curb Market.

If you’ve never been, gentle reader, you’re in for a treat!

Is it true that there was seen a Baptist deacon out dancing? I bet he was a Claptist, not a Baptist.

At this point I want to continue the report in last Saturday’s column from the Portly Gentleman’s cousin, Miss Jo Driggers of Lexington, South Carolina. “Miss Jo” went with Betty Mitchell’s bus tour to Vermont.

Wednesday, October 8 came. Wade Adams started the day with prayer. Part of the morning was spent at the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry in Barre, Vermont, with branches in Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Canada, and the Ukraine. Rock of Ages is the largest quarrier of granite in North America and the world’s largest manufacturer and retailer of granite memorials. Stone from here adorns the Morman Bountiful Temple in Salt Lake City and the new National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.. Workers in the quarry communicate by hand signals because of the noise.

The rest of the morning was spent in Montpelier, our Nation’s smallest state capital. The Busoteers toured the capitol with its gold-leafed dome, marble floors, granite pillars (from Barre), and paintings of Coolidge and Arthur, the two U.S. presidents from Vermont.

Admiral George Dewey, an American naval hero, was born and reared across the street from the State House and played on its steps as a boy.

After lunch in the State House cafeteria, some walked about town, seeing the Vermont Historical Museum, courthouse, and Episcopal church.

That afternoon brought a trip to the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, run now for seven generations by the Morse family, the oldest “maple family” in Vermont.

The travelers learned that each maple gives ten gallons of sap; it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. The visitors were given syrup and snow to mix into taffy, which they enjoyed with coffee, hot tea, and donut holes.

That night the group dined in the Comfort Suites Sunset Ballroom in South Burlington, meeting travelers from other states. Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains of New York could be seen through the restaurant windows. A DJ provided dance music, enjoyed, in particular, by Mark and Cynthia Gunter, Shirley Helms, Ed Bennett, Norma Gavras, Charlotte Smith, Thelma Glisson, Bobby and Alice Sewell, Kathleen Adams, Margaret Teel, and Bobbie Lambert.

Donald Kelley opened the group’s last day in Vermont with prayer. The group motored to Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center, where the owner, Paul Brown, explained the process of making apple cider. No apple that has dropped on the ground is used in the apple press; only tree-picked, hand-selected apples are. The favorite apple for cider is the McIntosh from orchards around Lake Champlain. Miss Betty’s group were given samples of cider.

Miss Jo wrote, “Miss Betty’s Buskoteers had no trouble parting with their money in the large retail store, buying maple products, Vermont crafts and gifts, and items from the baker, including legendary cider doughnuts.”

As a morning rain ended, the group motored to Stowe, a small village nestled in a valley draped with fall foliage, where they roamed about, shopping and lunching. Above the valley is the Trapp Family Lodge owned by the family that inspired The Sound of Music.

Back at the Waterbury Center at A Special Place, the “shopaholics” bought cheese and chocolate.

The next stop of the day was Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. There they saw a movie in the Cow Over the Moon Theatre that told how Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield took a five-dollar correspondence course on how to make ice cream and opened their first store a year later. A tour of the plant was followed by samples of strawberry-cheesecake ice cream.

Miss Jo wrote, “Dinner that evening was at the Stone Grill Restaurant in Morrisville. After all the tasting and sampling done during the day, the travelers still had room for a delicious meal.”

Friday morning Bobbie Lambert worded the prayer; and the Buskoteers headed home, stopping for brunch at the Cracker Barrel in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Some of the shoppers were teased by being told that their luggage would have to be left behind to make room for their decorative turkeys, apples, cheese, and teddy bears.

Crossing the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, Ed Bennett got all excited to see a billboard, picturing his heroine, Dolly Parton.

Supper was in the Old Country Buffet in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Bingo followed on the bus. The night was spent in LaQuinta Inn in Baltimore, Maryland.

James Allen opened the next day with prayer. Stopping in Alexandria, Virginia, the Buskoteers toured the George Washington Masonic Memorial, built by America’s Freemasons to honor the memory, character, and legacy of our founding president. This gigantic tower dwarfs the Washington Monument on the Mall. It stands on 36 acres, high above the Potomac River. The complex design of the tower was inspired by the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt, one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World.

Inside, the tourists saw columns forty feet high, marble floors, murals of Washington, a seventeen-foot, bronze statue of Washington, and a replica of his Masonic lodge room.

The lodge room included the original furniture and Master’s chair, used by Washington in his day.

Washington was a Mason and laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol in full Masonic regalia. The trowel he used for the Capitol stone was also used to lay the cornerstone of this memorial.

Washington was master of his lodge. His bedchamber clock, stopped at the exact moment of his death, is on display, as are his Masonic apron and the silver trowel mentioned above.

At the top of the tower on an observation deck the tourists enjoyed a panoramic view of Alexandria and Washington.

This memorial in Alexandria, next to Washington, D.C., is a sight every American should visit.

Heading south, the Buskoteers enjoyed snacks and a football game on the bus screens. A stop at a Burger King in Richmond, Virginia, broke the travel day. Dinner that night was in a Bob Evans Restaurant in Concord, North Carolina. Many enjoyed the famous chicken-pot pie at Bob’s. Their night ended in the Sleep Inn in Gaffney, South Carolina.

It was here that “Miss Jo” had to leave the group and make her way home to Lexington.

The Buskoteers had their own Sunday worship service aboard the bus with a devotional by Valinda Lolley and songs led by Valinda, Joyce Adams, Mark Gunter, Thagard Colvin, and Bobbie Lambert.

A late lunch was enjoyed in Greenville, Alabama. After that, it was only a short trip home.

Thanks were expressed to “Miss Betty” and her bus driver, Paul, for the wonderful time had by all.

I want to thank my friend, Jo Driggers, for the detailed notes she took and sent to her cousin and me for my column. She’s a wonderful reporter, known to some as “Computerella.”

Birthdays approaching next week are those of Jane Austen, English novelist, and John Greenleaf Whittier, a New England poet, whose masterpiece, Snow-Bound, is a good read on a cold, winter’s day.

By the by, Mr. Whittier, a poor, old bachelor (pity the poor things), celebrated his 200th anniversary of birth in 2007.

Well, gentle reader, it’s time to light the candles in the windows and on the Christmas tree and sit in their glow and enjoy some Christmas eggnog and sweets, hoping some carolers might happen by to share a song.

Fare thee well, for now.