Cherokeean Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 158, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 16, 2007 Page: 3 of 18
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Whitehead Enterprises Inc.
publisher
Marie Whitehead
editor
Terrie W. Gonzalez
managing editor
Texas' Oldest Continuously
Published Weekly Newspaper
Established as the
Cherokee Sentinel, Feb. 27,1850
Consolidation of The Cherokeean,
The Alto Herald and
the Wells News &Views
COLUMNS
cherokeean
HERALD
Page 3A
Wednesday, May 16,2007
www.thecherokeean.com
From The Top
Is it harder or easier to
be a high school student
than it wag when we
were in school? Be careful
about how you answer.
In covering school events
for Alto High School, I am
reminded of something said
by Principal Donald Patton
during a board meeting.
"We're getting a lot of
mileage out of these kids."
Alto High School has
football players qualifying
to participate in a program
with NASA, that, if they
succeed, they may work for
NASA.
They have softball players
who are also very involved
in agriculture, academic
honors programs and
various other academic and
athletic events.
Alto students are called
upon to excel on the TAKS
test, not only to pull Alto
High School back up to an
"acceptable rating," but also
to create more collegiate op-
portunities.
The attitude in Alto is "We
can do this," and they do.
Very well, I might add.
Alto ISD is not alone in
this either. Jacksonville,
LELAND ACKER
chreporter@mediactr.com
Rusk and Wells are all see-
ing students becoming more
involved.
What is happening?
First of all, there is in-
creased competition. College
is becoming the new high
school, thus making a col-
lege degree that much more
vital to a successful career
than it was 10-20 years
ago. More kids are going to
college, thus increasing the
competition to get into the
top-tier schools tougher.
In athletics, participation
in "select" sports is rapidly
becoming a prerequisite
to being successful at the
varsity level.
Second of all, high school-
ers today are inundated
with information. There
are hundreds of TV chan-
nels, radio stations, plus the
Internet has opened up an
entire world of information
(some true, some false).
When you take these
factors (and many others),
you begin to See that high
schoolers today are living
very hectic lives.
The truth is, we have
never been 18 years old...
at least, not in the time
these students are 18. It is
different for them. Most are
handling the pace of hfe just
fine. So, what can we do (be-
sides banishing Al Gore for
inventing the Internet?)
Encourage them. Stud-
ies show that the one thing
missing in the life of a
teenager is meaningful in-
teraction and guidance from
adults. Another thing they
desire is acceptance.
"Train up a child up in the
way he should go, and when
he is old, he will not depart
from it." (Proverbs 22:6).
Happy graduation, se-
niors! Next week, I'll give
you my rendition of "Don't
ask me how I know!"
Jim Hogg
Historical Park,
Rusk
Caddoan Mounds
State Historical Site,
Alto
Texas State Railroad
State Historical Park,
Rusk
GO\US
To PVa.
GOOD NOfS
IS \T
WoWT Ba
OKI OUR
SU\FT.
Wells News 'n Views
By Roy Lenard White
Special Contributor
In keeping a little social
activity in our lives,
Laura and I stepped
out to mix with the movers
and shakers of Wells night
life. In doing so, I pondered
what happened to my acting
career. It seems that in the
hustle and bustle of feeding
and sheltering offspring,
I let stardom fall right
through the crack.
My first introduction to
the bright lights of cen-
ter stage occurred in Mrs.
Dolvis Walker's third grade.
Twelve of us were chosen to
represent the months of the
year. I was the shortest boy
in the class so I was picked
as the shortest month, Feb-
ruary,
Mrs. Walker sent a note
to my costume designer,
mom. Mom spent nearly 40
minutes making my cos-
tume, She cut three val-
entine shaped hearts from
some bright red material,
which she had dug from her
stash of quilting scraps. She
sewed two of them on the
knees of my jeans, where
holes had recently appeared,
and the third on the left side
of my shirt. February was
ready for action.
I had no hnes. When
January was through and
back in line, I was to move
to center stage while one of
the girls read the hnes about
February. I then returned
to my original place while
March advanced — and so on
and so on.
Having tasted the lime-
light, later in the year I
volunteered to read "Little
Black Sambo" to the class.
Near the end of the story, I
became nauseated and vom-
ited in front of the teacher
and everybody. As I tried to
return to my seat, I vomited
again in the aisle.
Little Black Sambo has
long been banned from
school because some black
Americans thought it was
racial in title and content. I
didn't understand that ac-
tion because I didn't recog-
nize any racial slurs in the
book. It was the first tale I
had read about an African
kid. Little Black Sambo was
a hero because he brought
tiger butter home so his
family could eat it on their
pancakes.
I have since been to Africa
many times and have friends
from several countries
there. I found that he most
likely used the butter on his
pounded yams instead of
pancakes. I still think it was
a good story about diverse
kids in the world. But I sup-
pose a book that makes a kid
sick from reading should be
banned.
For me, passing Mrs.
Mills fourth grade hinged
on standing in front of the
class and reciting a poem
that I was to have memo-
rized. That was the hard-
est thing I had ever done
up to that time. I had been
broken from wanting to get
up in front of the class in
Mrs. Walker's third grade.
Dangerously close to the
end of school, I realized that
without an effort, I might be
detained in the fourth grade.
I told the teacher that I
would try to recite the poem.
It was a short poem, the
shortest that I could find.
It seemed that I had to be
prompted on every other
word. When I struggled
through the last hne, Mrs.
Mills scolded me, saying that
was the worse recitation
she had ever heard. I never
viewed Mrs. Mills as hav-
ing mercy but, in retrospect,
through her mei*cy was the
only way I got credit for that
rendition. My show business
career was down the tubes.
That said; we went out the
other night to dinner and a
show. Project Celebration, a
Wells High School parents'
organization that sponsors
a clean, non-alcohohc, drug
free graduation party for
the seniors, hosted the gala
evening. For a nominal fee,
we were treated to a tacó
salad dinner with a choice of
drinks and dessert.
After dinner, Mrs Wendy
Collins' theater class per-
formed a skit of a classroom
setting that reminded me
of my first year as a school
teacher. The finale was a
real treat. Four theater
students. Tara Greenville;
Leah Nguyen; Brittany
Morton and Angeles Hernan-
dez performed brilliantly in
their production of "To Burn
a Witch."
The four girls were
selected as an all star cast
in dislriel competition and
the play was selected as
First Level Alternate for the
dislriel.
Check the Wells ISD web
page www.wells.esc7.net.
for the school calendar or, if
you are in town, check the
bulletin boards at the bank
or city hall for events that
are entertaining and sup-
port school activities. You
don't have to use up a lot of
your hard earned gas money
either.
Scene in Passing with
Marie Whitehead returns
next week.
High Points From El Camino Real
Folks along El Camino
Real were plenty busy
last week getting
ready for the all important
Mother's Day. The right
gift had to be bought and
lots of thought put into the
cards and flowers chosen
to honor these very special
laches in our lives.
The weather couldn't
have been any better to
honor mothers than it was
on Sunday. My wife was
milking it for all it was
worth, and I had to remind
her several times that she
wasn't my mother. She
has three boys to wait on
her for Mother's Day. I've
got four bits' worth of news
to get written and I don't
have any extra time to get
bogged down in "honey do"
deals.
The Alto Yellowjacket
softball team had a great
season this year, but it
ended in a playoff game on
Saturday night. The Alto
Yellowjacket baseball team
was doing really good too
until Saturday night. I
wish that I could tell you
who they were playing and
what the scores were in the
games, but I'm not a sports
writer.
I tried to call the Scott
kids for information since
Abbey was on the softball
team and Clayton played
baseball. They didn't know
anymore than I did and
they were on the teams. We
had several kids participat-
ing at the state track meet
in Austin, but I haven't
gotten any results from
that either. I'm proud of all
CHRIS DAVIS
elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
the kids and the great job
they've done this year in all
the sports activities, but if
you want details you'll have
to turn over to the sports
section.
It's graduation time and
a few of our young people
have already received their
diplomas. Alicia Johnson
Adkison graduated from
Texas A&M on Saturday.
Her mom, Rosa, was tell-
ing me what she got her
degree in, it Bounded real
important, but I couldn't
remember it all. Alicia will
be starting nursing school
in San Antonio.
O.T. Allen graduated from
Lon Morris in Jacksonville
and is continuing his educa-
tion at the University of
Texas at Arlington. Aaron
Low and his wife Amanda
both graduated from Sam
Houston State University
Bryce Penn graduated
from Stephen F. Austin Sate
University on Saturday
also.
I know that we have some
more young people in our
area that have received
college degrees this Spring,
but I don't know who they
are without your help.
Congratulations to all these
fine young men and women
on their big accomplish-
ments.
The local elections are
over and some new faces
will be appearing on our
city council and school
board. These are very
important positions in our
community and the people
who serve on them have
some tough decisions to
make.
Serving in either of these
positions can be thankless
jobs, and I want to thank
everyone who signed up
and ran for office for being
willing to serve. Sometimes
it seems hke it is getting
harder and harder to find
folks willing to run for these
offices.
Good luck to everyone
who got elected and hope-
fully the ones that didn't
get it this time will think
about running again when
the time comes up.
Please give the new of-
ficers a little time before
you start calling them about
stray dogs, pot holes and
cheerleader tryouts.
The mother-in-law and
my wife caused some confu-
sion at our house on Satur-
day night. I was cooking
some steaks for supper and
they had been shopping.
They told me that they had
strawberry shortcake for
dessert.
I like strawberry short-
cake and was pleased with
their thoughtfulness. Later
I noticed that my wife had
biscuits laid out on a cookie
sheet and I told her that the
steaks were almost ready
and she didn't have time to
cook biscuits.
She said that they weren't
biscuits they were straw-
berry shortcakes. When
it got time for my dessert,
I picked up one of the
strawberry shortcakes. It
smelled like a biscuit, and
when I pinched the corner
off and tasted of it, it tasted
like a biscuit. I didn't want
to spoil dinner by com-
plaining, so I asked where
the whip cream was. The
mother-in-law said that she
didn't buy whip cream, but
bought ice cream instead.
At this point, I lost it and
told them that this wasn't a
strawberry shortcake.
We had a biscuit, some
strawberries, and ice
cream. The mother-in-
law started in defending
the wife and said that a
long time ago people made
strawberry shortcakes out
of biscuits. Then she said
that whipping cream or ice
cream didn't make any dif-
ference because they were
both cream. I didn't need a
history lesson, I just needed
a plain old strawberry
shortcake.
I ate the stuff without
anymore argument, but I
was not impressed.
The next morning I heat-
ed up one of the shortcake
biscuits and added butter
and jelly for breakfast.
When supper i i me rolled
around, I grabbed a couple
of the shortcake biscuits
and poured gravy over them
and had shortcake and
gravy. It tasted just like
biscuits to me. I'm not a
picky eater, but there has to
be some kind of normalcy in
any kitchen. A strawberry
shortcake is cake, strawber-
ries and whipping cream
and any other combina-
tion is just Wrong. I don't
care how many times the
mother-in-law says it's not.
I'm not a cat lover, but I
ended up with a stray cat a
few years ago and she had
kittens and then they had
kittens. We have about four
cats now and I figured as
long as they stayed outside
and killed snakes and rats
it would be alright. Things
aren't working out like I
planned. The other day I
caught a big snake right
by the cat food bowl and
the cats were just laying
around paying no attention.
I turned on the light at
night and there are pos-
sums eating the cat food.
The other night I looked out
and a big raccoon was fill-
ing up on cat food. Sunday
night I turned on the out-
side light and I here was a
big grey fox eating cat food
with the cats laying a foot
or so away watching him.
I guess we've been stuck
with a family of worthless
cats. I might just cut back
on the cat food and see if
that will make them hustle
a little more to do their part
around here.
I guess I've complained
enough for this issue.
Maybe I'm just jealous
because the mothers got all
the attention over the week-
end. If you have some good
news that needs telling, be
sure and keep me in mind.
I'll see ya next week! And
remember. A mistake is
evidence that somebody
has tried to accomplish
something.
Cljerokeeaij
HERALD
Published weekly on
Wednesday by
WHITEHEAD
ENTERPRISES, INC.
Texas' oldest continuously
published weekly
newspaper,
established as the
Cherokee Sentinel,
Feb. 27, 1850
Consolidation of
The Cherokeean,
The Alto Herald and
the Wells News & Views
USPS 102-520
POSTMASTER:
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CHEROKEEAN HERALD
P.O. BOX 475 • RUSK, TX
75785
Periodicals Postage Paid at
Rusk, Texas 75785
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(903) 683-2257 ext. 105
herald@mediactr.com
Terrie Gonzalez
managing editor
(903) 683-2257 ext. 107
herald@mediactr.com
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Whitehead, Marie. Cherokeean Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 158, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 16, 2007, newspaper, May 16, 2007; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152782/m1/3/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.