The End Is Near

The end is in sight. Thursday is the last full day of classes and then summer break begins! Here’s all the things that have been going on to wrap up the school year.

AWARDS. I am proud of all three of my kids, but Jenna has distinguished herself particularly well this year. Last week she was among 18 students from across all five high schools in the county who were recognized at the school board meeting for having made a 30 or above on the ACT. She scored 31 on it back in the fall. The ACT is the popular college entrance test for this region of the country. According to ACT’s website a 31 is roughly equivalent to a score of 1380 on the SAT. Jenna was further honored at the East Robertson award ceremony for earning the highest average in each of her classes. Rest up over the summer, girl. Your senior year is coming.

Ben was also honored the East Robertson award ceremony. He was one of eight students in the eighth grade who scored high on the PLAN test. This is a middle school precursor to the ACT.

Speaking of Ben, he tried out for the high school basketball team last week and was one of five rising freshmen to make the cut. Now we have summer practice to build in to our schedule.

It is not my intention to ignore Nate here. He simply hasn’t had the opportunities for recognition come his way this year. He is doing well and excited that school is just about out.

CONGRATULATIONS. East Robertson held its graduation exercises Friday evening. Among the 70 seniors receiving their diplomas was Bonnie Jones, our cousin and neighbor. Bonnie recently signed on to play volleyball for Brescia University in Owensboro, Kentucky. Way to go, Bonnie, we’re proud of you!

ROBERTSON COUNTY YOUTH LEADERSHIP. Jenna is also wrapping up her involvement with the Robertson County Youth Leadership program which is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. She was one of two students from East Robertson chosen to participate in the program back in the fall. (A total of 12 students were in the group.) I may be simplifying this too much but essentially this experience has amounted to monthly field trips from school where the group got to see various aspects of leadership in our county. Each month focused on something different including agriculture, county history, health care, government, law enforcement, and manufacturing. They also took part in a project to give back to the community, in this case, raising money for books for elementary age children. Given all the things Jenna has talked about she’s had some neat exposure to things high school students don’t normally see in our county. We went to a dinner last night celebrating the end of this adventure. I enjoyed hearing the impressions of all the participants, many of whom did not realize how much Robertson County has going on.

A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. A week ago Friday (the 8th) a friend of ours called and said they had two extra tickets to see Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion the next evening at the Ryman Auditorium and asked if we would want to go. Well of course!

Saturday afternoon found us driving to downtown Nashville to take in the show from the Confederate Gallery. Guest stars were Ricky Skaggs with his wife, Sharon White, and band, Kentucky Thunder. Also there was Blues singer Keb’ Mo’, Stuart Duncan, and Christine DiGillanardo. If you are familiar with the show then you know we enjoyed the regular things like the Guy Noir sketch and The News from Lake Wobegon. It was all good, but the highlight was Keb’ Mo’ and Ricky Skaggs doing a song titled Infinite Eyes.

If you are interested show is archived here for your listening and viewing pleasure. The evening was certainly a pleasant surprise for us and a memory we will treasure.

Joe

The End Is In Sight

The April showers are making way for May flowers and all the farmers are trying to make up for lost time planting their corn.

RESIGNATION. Vicki was hired as the children’s minister at church back in 2008. She submitted her letter of resignation to the church last week. She decided to do this after a lot of prayer and soul searching. She simply feels it is time for her to step down. Vicki will continue work until the conclusion VBS in July. We are praying her replacement will be onboard a few weeks before VBS to allow time for a smooth transition. The future is unknown but we are confident that God will continue to lead and provide for us as He has been faithful to do all these years.

END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. We have three weeks of school left and Jenna is already breathing a big sigh of relief. Last week she turned in a research paper and delivered a speech, two big projects that have been hanging over her head for weeks. By Tuesday both of her dual enrollment classes will be over. Then she’ll only have a couple of finals left before what has proven to be one of the hardest semesters of her high school career comes to a close.

We recognized our graduating seniors at church this morning. Seeing several of the kids that Jenna has grown up with stand there on stage in their caps and gowns made it really hit home for me that next year is it for Jenna.

SWING SET. Speaking of growing up, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago when I was putting up the swing set behind the house for the kids. I completed it a few days after Jenna’s birthday in 2001. The kids quit playing on it several years ago so it sits as a monument to days gone by. Since no one is swinging on it I have hung two “Topsy Turvy” planters from the swing arm that I picked up from a benefit sale last year. One of the planters has a tomato plant and the other has strawberries. If my mini-garden doesn’t work out I think I’ve only sunk about $25 into the deal so it won’t be a huge loss.

THE CAT/DOG. I’ve mentioned before that we have a cat. It turns out that the cat belongs to our tenants and has adopted us as a second family. This cat, who we haven’t named, thinks she is a dog. She still has a lot of feline characteristics like purring and rubbing your legs, but she scampers around the yard like a dog and will even flop down in front of you and expose her belly expecting to be rubbed just like a dog. Yesterday I was about to open the back door when I looked down and found her curled up asleep on the mat in front of the door just like a dog. Her mannerisms really remind us of Faith, our dog we had 20 years ago. Hopefully she will not share Faith’s fate on the highway.

MEMORIES. Back in March I wrote that I had transcribed an interview with David and Betty Jo Thompson. I ran across another story that David tells on the tape that I wanted to share here.

Well, I guess the biggest excitement, a tragedy that ever happened, and I never will forget, I was…I couldn't have been, aw, five or six years old, and they had been baling hay, lespedeza hay, and they filled up the barn down there at Paul's, where he's living now, the old Cook Place, and they put so much hay in there the loft fell in. And they had filled up the barn up there at the home place. And of course, it was green, lespedeza hay.

And they had two old mules there. And I remember Joe Caner use to carry me riding on Old Nell. I don't know why. It was Nell and Queen. But I thought Queen was a light looking old mule and Nell was dark. But Joe Caner would always take me and go riding on that old mule and I thought that was the grandest old mule I ever seen in my life. Old Nell was great.

Well, all of the sudden Bonnie Swann went out the back door—I can remember it just like it was yesterday—said, “Lord, the barn's on fire.”

Well, this green hay created a spontaneous combustion and caught afire, you know, and started blazing. It all started burning. Well, Mama Swann, she run out there and it was an old sow, and the mules—Nell and Queen were in the barn—and all the harness[es], and some calves. She went out there and of course none of the men-folks were there, they were down at the Cook Place, where Paul lives now, trying to get the loft straightened where the loft had fell in. Well, she got the cows out, Nell and Queen, the other two mules—and said she liked to not never got the old sow out because they had a big hump in the barn where you have to get the old sow to go over the hump getting out the door—hauled out all this harness.

And of course, Bonnie was out there, I never will forget it, was ringing that dinner bell. Of course, back then every house had a dinner bell. And at twelve o' clock, when they wanted people to come in for dinner, they'd ring the dinner bell. But if an emergency happened you'd ring the dinner bell. Well boy, people started coming. You've never seen as many people. It was about…it was in the summertime, of course, and it was about sundown, I'd say six o' clock, and people came from everywhere.

And of course, I was running around there screaming—I never will forget it—I was eating a peanut butter and cracker. And I was worried about Old Nell and Queen, especially Old Nell. And I remember Jewel Freeland said, “Doc, don't be crying. Old Nell's alright.” Says, “Aunt Joella got her out of the barn.” And I can remember that just like it happened yesterday.

But that was probably the biggest excitement that happened up there when the barn burned. And of course, the neighbors all came in. Wasn't nothing [they could] do, just stand there and look at the old barn burn. And I forget how many bales of hay was in it, but it was all destroyed. But Mamma Swann got everything out. Boy, she was something. Got all the harness out. Livestock out. Of course, the barn was destroyed.

If you’ve never heard of the spontaneous combustion of hay here’s the simplified version of what happens. This is something that happens due to microbial growth in hay that was put up when it was too wet. As these bacteria colonies grow they generate heat. If the hay bales are very wet when they are stacked the process can run away until the temperature reaches the flashpoint and the hay ignites. This is why curing time out in the field between cutting and baling hay is important.

David was born in 1930 so this fire took place around 1935 or 1936. My grandfather had a sawmill at that time and cut all the lumber for the barn that was built to replace the one that burned. It was rebuilt on the same spot and still stands at the corner of Highway 25 and Simmons Road.

Joe