I just couldn’t think of anything to write about this week, and no volunteer guest writer showed up. But I thought maybe I shouldn’t just skip another week, so I went looking for some good news. Huffington Post has a section with that name, and sure enough, I found a fun story there.
It’s about a dog who has mastered Seattle’s public transit system.
Eclipse, a 2-year-old black Labrador mix, has become a regular fixture on the city bus that stops outside her home since she figured out how to ride it alone to the dog park.
“All the bus drivers know her. She sits here just like a person does,” fellow rider Tiona Rainwater told KOMO. “She makes everybody happy. How could you not love this thing?”
The dog’s owner, Jeff Young, usually goes along. But he said if he is not ready when the bus comes along, she just gets on and goes ahead of him. She has become a regular on the route, riding three or four stops, then exiting at the dog park. Continue reading “Around the Town: Dog Takes the Bus”
Sorry I’ve been skipping out on my column here lately. It’s just that I haven’t been doing a whole lot of interesting things, or getting out to where I would see other folks doing interesting things. I could use a little help in this for a while. I really appreciate Teri Caswell and Billy Bucher filling in for me. If you have something you’d like to tell the community, talk to me. We just might work something out.
It’s been a while since I’ve had anything new to write about my friend John Walker. He’s been visiting his son Nick in Chile for several weeks. I believe now he is in Washington State visiting his daughter, though maybe he is on his way back now. He’s not much better at letter writing than I am, though I did get one letter from him a couple of weeks ago. I’m going let him help write this column by reprinting part of that letter. Sounds to me like he is have a grand old time. Continue reading “Around the Town: A Letter From John”
Thank you, Loretta, for allowing me to be your “guest writer” this week. I don’t know if I can measure up to your many adventures, but I can let folks know what is happening with two of our nonprofits here in Malakoff.
It’s been quite a busy holiday season so far! The month started out with the sixth Produce Drop at First Baptist Church on Mitcham Street. Since July, the East Texas Food Bank has been delivering up to five pallets of fresh produce to Malakoff for anyone who needs it. The volunteers from Faith In Action Outreach, Care & Share Food Pantry in Gun Barrel City, Mabank Area Good Samaritans and Community Food Pantry in Tool have been distributing the produce. People sign in around 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. and the produce arrives sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. FBC Malakoff now allows everyone to wait inside their children’s building so they are not out in the hot sun, rain or cold. Since we began, there have been some “growing pains” as we have tried to improve the distribution system. Now we have it down to a drive through system which takes lots less time, and is much easier on our volunteers. We have been serving an average of 90 people each month. The next Produce Drop will be Tuesday, January 6, 2015 and every first Tuesday of the month, weather permitting. Continue reading “Around Town: Important Work Being Done in Malakoff”
I told you I’d have some good news to tell you this week. And here it is.
To recap: The active members of the Greater Malakoff Area Garden Club are -at most–a half a dozen of us, with all but two of us way past Medicare age. We are trying to preserve the Historic Bartlett House property as best we can. If you are new to the area and drive by for the first time, you may not think we’re doing much toward that end. But for our age and number, we really have done quite a bit. When a couple of members ponied up most of the money to buy it a few years ago, you could barely see the house from the road. The fence was falling down, the yard was full of weeds and bushes and dead trees. Two old cars full of junk were parked in the middle of it, and garbage was everywhere. The house was, and is, a beautiful ruin, with a huge crack running through the middle of it. On top of that, vandals had done what they could do to deface it. Through various fund raising efforts, we have managed to clean up to lot pretty well, plant some things, and fence three sides of it. We’ve even had some brickwork done. We little old ladies don’t know how to negotiate with fence builders, so we spent a lot more money than we should on the fence, and didn’t get the world’s best product. I wish we had used the Fence Contractors Geelong has because I’ve heard they’re reliable and professional and probably would have given us a better fence!
This last April, we brought the one-woman play, “O’Keeffe!” to Malakoff. Through ticket sales, a benefit reception given by Jim and Barbara Stewart, and the generous gifts of Christi Barrett and Cheryl Hicks, we cleared over $3,000, which we hoped would pay for restoring the verandah at the Bartlett House. We had promised a verandah, and looking at some verandah designs helped us decide how we would restore the existing one. We also hoped to finish the fence, which is a big order for $3,000. Then the person who we thought might be able to fix the verandah with our limited funds had to go work out of town, and every one of our barely half a dozen members either got sick, got really busy, or got called out of town. We wanted to keep our promises, but we didn’t know how. We were stuck. Continue reading “Around the Town: Big Gift For Garden Club”
The Spirit of Christmas continues on Saturday, Dec. 13, in Malakoff. Enjoy the Annual Malakoff Chamber of Commerce Parade and then travel on to the Malakoff Community Center for the Malakoff Mistletoe Market. Tons of vendors sporting their holiday best Snack bar provided by Malakoff Band Boosters. Parade is at 10 a.m. with lineup at 9 a.m. Market opens at 10 a.m. and runs till 4 p.m. Admission is free. .KCKL will also be there accepting toys for area children in need. For more information, call 903-489-8118.
