Jack Duran visited with Beamon one morning while his better hail Melba ate lunch at Mar Teres Tea Room. Enjoying the great food also were Melanie Stubblefield, Monica and Lyndsey Little and Debra and Haley Palmer. Met Marie Belk in the store one morning and we talked forever. She finally stopped substituting at the elementary school but sometime misses seeing all the teachers and students. The bad thing is that all the teachers she had worked with are now retired arid she certainly misses them. I wonder if you ever stop missing those you worked with for so many years. Marie was telling me that her grandson Ryan Wilcox of Dallas went with Joe Belk to South Texas to hunt Axis deer. They had a great time and as long as you could stay in the shade it was not nearly as hot as they had expected.

Years ago when we traveled down that way we stopped in a roadside park and there was a sign warning one to 'watch for rattlesnakes and other signs warning folks to be leery of hitchhikers. 'Nuff said for me so I never set foot out of the big truck nor our personal vehicle. I do not have to be warned but once! When we were kids and went squirrel or coon hunting, I was too busy watching where my feet were stepping to have a goodtime hunting four footed prey. Folks are trying to get in all the fun time possible with hints of school getting ready to start. Next door neighbor Sharon Berry was in Houston for several days of a math seminar, back home she was only here to change luggage and took off to New York City.

She and teacher friends Cindy Nerren, Nicki Butler, Mona Waggoner Angela Dean and Terry Windsor met Terry's daughter Julie Windsor who lives in the big city and she was their personal tour guide.

They saw a Yankees game with the Yankees winning, were at Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, saw the Statue of Liberty and saw a play "Wicked" which was about the witch on Wizard of OZ. Julie took them to dinner at the Blue Water Grill. They had a busy several days.

Not even home long, enough to rest, Sharon and Jessa were off to Six Flags with the Harmony Hill church youth group for a long day fun fest. Nothing like a couple of weeks of cramming as many activities as possible.

Jack and Melba Duran, Monica and Lyndsey Little and Melanie and Mike Stubblefield got away from the heat of East Texas by going to Red River, New Mexico. Jack gave himself the job of co-pilot while Monica did the driving. She totally ignored his advice and directions of which he gave freely and often. At some point in our lives, most of us who have children know they are grown up but advice still flows from our lips.

Doyle Cummins was laid to rest last week after 89 years of a wonderful life. He was a cousin to Beamon and I met him when I decided to get the remaining Scogin cousins together for a reunion. Luckily his name was one of the first that I came across and from there he helped tremendously by putting me in contact with other kinfolks. We had several successful get-togethers before folk became too old and too sick to attend. Doyle never failed to attend and when his wife Frankie felt like he came along with him.

Doyle's mother Clara Scogin was already deceased by the time I got in the family but his dad Zack lived to be 96 years old and was enthusiastic about the reunions.

Doyle was a people person, pastored several churches, the last being Prairie Chapel Baptist Church in Diboll. We visited often by phone and he loved to talk. If I needed family history, he knew who belonged to who and any other pertinent information one wanted. At the visitation my cousin Syble Russell and her husband William Mangrum were there and they had attended another church with Doyle. Everybody acknowledged that Doyle was a wonderful person and he could entertain because he had stories to tell.

There is nothing that will wreak havoc in a woman's life like the water going off at the beauty shop. Early on my day Melinda Harris called with that news. Nothing to do but wait until it was fixed. Bertie Walker decided she would shampoo her own hair and then Melinda could roll it.

Good grief! It has been so many years since I bought shampoo and washed my own hair that I could not even remember such. Evidently the repair people were really afraid of us women because it was not too terribly long before the call came to head out. Those were smart men not to want the customers wrath upon their heads.

Not hardly in the shampoo chair, the lights flickered with an upcoming storm but luckily, the electric folks knew not to push us that day so they made sure the electricity stayed on. Even with all our problems thank goodness we have gotten little showers and big rain. We still need every drop the good Lord sends us.