Well, I hope you all survived the heat from What-a-Melon Festival. It seemed there was a big crowd and everyone had a good time! Hats off to Joanna Martin, Ann Bowen, Lynda K. Russell, Tonya Bailey, the Rotary Club and whoever else had a part in organizing this event. If for no other reason, it was so hot this year. But that makes watermelon even better! Good work to all who grew those big melons and won awards and a little money for their effort.

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a visit with Chris and Josette (Taylor) Hughes and their son, Conner. Jordan, Uncle Rich tried to see you out at Randy’s, sorry he missed you!

During the What-a-Melon Queen’s pageant, I enjoyed a visit with young friend, and former co-worker, Rebecca Oliver. She and Travis were there with their little, gorgeous, Gretta.

While at lunch on Friday the 11th, we visited with friends, Don and Sandie Samford. They were having lunch at the same restaurant as we were. They were in town for the funeral of Don’s mother, Mrs. Mary Samford. Don’s Dad, Joe Samford, and their daughter, Amanda and husband, were with them also. They all live in the Bryan/College Station area now. Sandy works for Texas A&M and Don’s is the sales manager there for Campbell Portable Buildings. When they lived here a few years ago, Sandie and I were in various organizations together.

Richard visited with Dub Clark, Everett Harbison, Jimmy Matthews and his brother, Johnny on Tuesday the 15th. He took some pictures of their reunion and I was happy to record their story to keep a source for future history. Richard said that he will never forget the first time he saw Dub when he walked into Hughes Furniture, a family business that the family operated on Shelbyville Street back in the ‘60s. Richard said he looked 10 ft tall, cowboy boots and hat, gun, white shirt and shining star and that there was no doubt to the, then, teenager, that this was truly “a Texas Ranger.” And – he still looks like a Texas Ranger!

Well, I know you all have probably seen or heard about all the hullabaloo about the videos of the truck and travel trailer hitting the Texas State Bank. So, I will just address it here. Since we ran the news story about it - when you went to Youtube to see some of the videos (there were several); there some references to the story we did. One person even made a Youtube video out of some of our photos.

Now, let me say that we had nothing to do with posting this. But – we were inundated with emails and phone calls from various sources wanting the story. We were contacted by the Associated Press, Discovery Channel and CNN, to name a few. We told them we did not post or own the video. It general is our policy to be considerate (if that is the right word) of our business neighbors. But, we are still getting contacted. I understand it is now being shown on the major TV networks. This was an unfortunately incident and while it is rather unbelievable; I know we are all just thankful that no one was seriously injured.

This week we would like to thank Teresa Jackson of Color Me Beautiful for becoming one of our sponsors. Teresa’s new business will be in the Trends Building on the north side of the Center Square. Teresa is an independent consultant for Color Me Beautiful and sells skin care products to maintain and revitalize your skin. Please thank Teresa when you visit her business.

Richard has been hard to live with the last few days (three weeks!) He is still un-patiently waiting for his birthday present. I hope it will arrive sometime this week. I still won’t say what - but it was built in 1964 and finished right about the date of his 13th birthday.

For my reading friends; I had told the story previously about my long lost, and found, book that I had when I was young. Most young ladies probably started out with a book of nursery rhymes or something like Nancy Drew. But for me it was A Woman Named Fancy (written in 1951) because it was left at my house when I was ten years old. I told you that I had finally researched the author, Frank Yerby, and found that he had written thirty-three novels. He was born in Georgia in 1916. Many of his books are out of print but some can still be found by various sources. I was fortunate enough to find several at resale shops. I think I have seven in all now, although, I admit that I have only read one other so far.

Many of Yerby’s early books are written about southern life in the mid 1800s. They are about the lives and loves of his various characters. Yerby later complained that his publisher cut out much of his historical facts of his novels. Now to me, this is what is remarkable about Yerby writing several books about white southern life - Yerby was of mixed race. In later years, he changed his subject matter to a wider range including books about Europe including the Dark Ages. In 1982, he even wrote a western: A Saga of the Great Plains . He is best known for The Man from Dahomey (1971) but his best selling novel was The Foxes of Harrow (1946) from which the movie Foxes was made. It was nominated for an Oscar in 1947 and starred Rex Harrison and Maureen O’Hara.

Yerby eventually left the USA in 1955 to live in Spain where he died in 1991.

If you would like to find out more about this interesting author click below.

Frank Yerby's Novels
Overview of Frank Yerby's Writing Style