Columns

This weekend must have been prom weekend for nearly everybody. Lots of pretty pictures o n Facebook. Saturday was terrible weather. Coach Walker, one of the coaches at Stanley, had a tree fall through his house.

Abbie Wood and Lance Lafitte had their wedding Saturday night. I didn’t try to go as the weather was too bad.

Sunday afternoon at 2:00 we had Ellie Clark’s birthday party at an athletic place in Shreveport.

I went Friday for my MRI on my back, not realizing it wasn’t until Monday.

Thursday at quilting Johnny Gibb’s wife Nancy and said he had fallen in the floor and couldn’t get up. When she got home, they realized he had had a stroke, so they called an ambulance and took him to Willis Knighton North. Wednesday Susan Sibley had a stoke and was transported to Willis Knighton Piermont. At this time she is not doing very well.

Over the past several years I have written articles about many men and women that have had profound influence on the City of Mansfield and on DeSoto Parish. They should all be remembered but none would, in the opinion of this writer, be more deserving than Dr. George A. Ritchey.

Dr. Ritchey was born in Enterprise, Ms. and later attended Pearl River Com. College in Poplarville, Ms. where he lettered in football, baseball, basketball and track. He was converted while a student there in 1926. He later attended Mississippi College in Clinton, Ms. where he played football and pastored two churches in Duncan and Friar’s Point, Ms. He continued his education in the ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. And graduated from there with a Masters of Theology degree in 1933. He earned a Doctors of Philosophy degree in 1935 while a student at Louisville, Ky. and was a pastor of a church in Paragon, Indiana.

Learn To Cook

Not everyone loves to cook, but it isn’t difficult to learn. There was a joke in our family that said my sister Amie couldn’t boil water without burning it. Truthfully, she wasn’t that bad, but she wasn’t that good, either. Today, Amie is a Registered Dietitian and can cook with the best of them. Her jams and jellies are always in demand and she never hesitates to bring something delicious to any potluck. If Amie can learn, then there is hope for everyone!

By Raymond Powell

The American people have always been a generous people even in the early colonial days neighbors came to the aide of people in need. Some early examples were house fire victims, barn raisings, widows, etc. Mansfield even had the poor farm in front of the present day airport where a house and farm acreage was given to families for one year.

The ultimate in “good heartiness” of Americans was the Marshall Plan at the close of WW II. Most of our younger generation is not familiar with the program that helped devastated the war-torn nations get back on their feet. The close of WW II Europe lay in shambles. Cities and factories, especially rail transportation, were shattered and countless people faced hunger, most countries economic were on the verge of collapse. The stage was set for dictators and communism.

Even though doubt is sometimes looked at negatively within the Christian life, not all doubt is bad or harmful. In fact, how we handle times of doubt can actually deepen our faith in God.

Our ability to reason is a gift from God, so He can handle any question we come up with. After all, God did command us to love him with our minds (Matt. 22:37).

To gain a profound intimacy with God, we are to know what we believe and why. It’s important to know that Christianity is not based on emotion, but rather on evidence. Our feelings about God’s presence in our lives at all times may come and go, but that does not change the facts or the evidence.

Those who have solid reasons for God’s existence — for who God is and what He has done — can stand upon those unshakable convictions in times of doubt. And this is because those convictions are based on firm evidence, not varying emotions.

It is hoped that readers of this column have a wide range of historical interest. Today’s article deals with the Yellow Fever epidemic which is often compared to the Bubonic Plague which was so deathly in Medieval Europe.

Yellow Fever was introduced into the United States in the 1790’s along the eastern seaboard in ports such as Philadelphia and New York by sailors from ships that had come through the port in Haiti. Philadelphia was especially hard hit with the loss of life to almost one fourth of its population. Some historians contribute Yellow Fever to causing Philadelphia to fall behind in growth and never realizing its potential as a city that it should have been.

We ‘Boomers’ remember the ole Walter Lanz Saturday cartoons featuring that raucous (and annoying) red-headed woodpecker. AND I saw Woody earlier in the week pecking on the big ole downed virgin pine that the intrepid Donny Averitt felled for me last Summer. Actually this bird was a Pileated Woodpecker that dwells in our North American forests and exclusively eats insects in & under tree bark. They especially like to de-bark a dead or dying tree and eat the bugs they find. In fact, this one that I saw was de-barking the big pine log that Donny had felled and I watched him for about an hour on and off as he chipped and hammered away at the bark on about half of that log. Drive by my house on Laura St. in Mansfield, La. and you can see that for yourself. It was an inspiring site because he was so big and I sure hope he comes back to finish the job so I can see him again!

One of the most important non-federal projects in the United State is in our own backyard and is known as the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Historically the Rio de Sabinas (Sabine River) separated Spanish Texas from French Louisiana. Since rivers were early boundaries between countries it was natural for this river that runs north and south down to the Gulf of Mexico serve as the separation line.

In 1795 Crow’s Ferry was established at a narrow point on the Sabine where present day Hwy 6 crosses the river. James Gaines operated the ferry for 24 years when approximately 55,000 people migrated into Spanish Texas. After the Battle of the Alamo many left Texas by way of the ferry but after the victory at San Jacinto they returned by the same route.

We lost a very good and very funny sports writer and novelist last weekend when Dan Jenkins died at 89 (or 90 – he would have loved that ambiguity!) in his “favorite” hometown of Fort Worth, Tx. He kinda invented the one-liner back-handed sports reporting we know now.

Tip 6 – Financial Balance

Get into the habit of paying the bills on time. Those late fees will stretch your budget until it looks like a squiggly river with no end, and can easily make you feel like you are drowning in debt. I work hard to pay each one as it comes in the mail, but there are days when I have no choice but to pay them on payday.

One thing I have learned is to be careful with the ‘pay by phone’ convenience. Our electric company charges $1.85 each time I pay by phone, which equals $44.88 a year, with two electric bills. Instead, I mail it, and apply that money towards another bill, or on something I really need. Also take this into consideration – just because you have a coupon, doesn’t mean you have saved any money. Do the math. There may still be another brand cheaper.