Fourth of July activities enjoyed by all

Patricia Berry

Published Friday, July 11, 2008

Greetings from the Berry Patch. What a busy week, and I love it. I enjoy holidays. I enjoy entertaining and being entertained and I had a chance to enjoy both this past week. I was invited to join my neighbors, Janice and Freddi Cason for dinner on Wednesday before the fourth. Freddi fried up some fish and frog legs and Janice made some awesome hushpuppies. They introduced me to a couple of neighbors I hadn’t met before. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening. Then on Thursday night I prepared a fresh vegetable meal for Terry and family members visiting from out of town. Following dinner we went to enjoy Rex Cosby and his wife, Melanie. Rex was doing the Elvis thing at Tim’s Bait Shop out on Hwy. 50 South. There was a good crowd and we enjoyed the performance. Then on the fourth my friend, Debbie, and I attended the block party here on Shady Point, an annual event hosted by James and Robbie Jones. This was my second year to attend, and this gathering of family, friends and neighbors every July 4th is reminiscent of the old days where everybody brought covered dishes and the men cooked the meat. The ladies brought whatever dish was their specialty and everybody caught up on what was going on with everybody else and that’s the way it was at Ms. Robbie’s. As I sat there watching and listening it brought back good memories of days gone by. Thank you again, Ms. Robbie, for your generosity.

I stopped by Mr. Paul and Ms. Janett Peoples house on the fourth. They were grilling out and enjoying friends and family. It was great to see them both. As my friend Debbie and I were walking back to my house from Ms. Peoples, Deb said, “What a beautiful lady,” talking about Ms. Janett, and I agree. We asked Mr. Paul later how he ever managed to snag a beauty like Ms. Janett. He kidded it was the other way around, but we know better!

I heard that the fireworks show went on as planned but here on Shady Point we had a lot of rain that evening, finally about 11 p.m. I heard people shooting off fireworks. We grilled out on the covered patio and then watched movies. I hope everyone had a great fourth.

I hate to end the column on a bad note, but Monday morning I went to the rescue squad to clean up and found that someone had illegally dumped large trees there on the property. Whoever did it had to have been in a very large truck. We are asking anyone who sees this illegal dumping to please call the Sheriff’s Department. We have cleaned off the land and we are preparing it for the squad’s use and now we have to pay someone to come in and remove these large logs. It’s not something we can just drag off. It will take heavy equipment to remove it. I can’t even think of going up to someone’s property and doing something like that. We worked very hard to improve that property and this is very upsetting. One of our members thinks he knows who did it. The right thing to do would be for the person who dumped the logs to come back and remove them.

I talked with Hayward Clanton this morning. He said they will be making music again this Saturday night, July 12th starting at about 5:30 p.m. So grab your lawn chair and go listen to some good down home country music. They are located on Hwy. 280, just west of Dadeville. Tell Ms. Marie (Red) and Hayward that I sent you. I won’t be able to make it this Saturday night but I’ll be thinking about it and wishing I could be there.

On our prayer list this week we have Lamar Walls, Hayward Clanton, Janice Cason and Brandi Landenberg.

Remember our men and women in service and our veterans everywhere.

“There are no atheists in foxholes.”

God bless and keep you and hope to see you here in the Berry Patch again next week.