Cherokeean Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 161, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Page: 3 of 16
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Clferokeeaij Herald ■ thecherokeean.com
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
3A
EDITORIAL BOARD
Whitehead Enterprises Inc.
publisher
MARIE WHITEHEAD
editor
TERRIE W. GONZALEZ
managing editor
FAST I )rward
Prank caller drives worried mom batty
One night in June
2007, my cell phone
rang at 1:30 a.m.
"This can't be good,''
I thought as I blindly ran
through a dark house to
reach my phone near the
kitchen.
As I said "hello,'' I could
tell the connection was
terrible. Between bursts
of static, I thought I heard
sirens and lots of people in
the background.
Adrenalin and outright
terror replaced my sleepy
stupor.
"Is this Lauren? Are you
calling on Lauren's behalf?"
My mind fixated on our
youngest daughter because
of her internship with
Boston University. For
three months, she entered
bat caves in Central Texas
around 9 p.m. and came out
just before dawn. Many of
these caves were small and
on private property in very
remote areas. My overac-
tive imagination lurched
like the Batmobile into over-
drive. There were so many
things that could go wrong.
Finally I pleaded into the
phone: "I can't hear you,
but I hope you can hear me.
I'm going to hang up, but
TERRIE GONZALEZ
heraid@mediac1r.com
you call me right back.''
Almost immediately my
cell phone rang again, and I
skipped "hello.'' I yelled into
the phone, "Are you with
Lauren, and did Lauren ask
you to call me?"
The cell phone connect
tion was crystal clear, and
I could hear my caller. "No,
man! I don't know Lau-
ren. I'm the Rain Man.'' I
mumbled something about
it being a wrong number
and thanked Rain Man for
calling me back.
"It's come to this,'' I chided
myself. "I'm talking to
prank callers in the middle
of the night.'' It was hours
before I succumbed to sleep.
Instead of sheep, I counted
bats as they flew over Lau-
ren's head,
Not long ago, the phone
rang around 10 p.m. There
was no "hello'' — only a wild
screaming of "I'm published!
I'm published!" Lauren was
calling to tell us that she
was listed as the second
author of a scientific paper
pubhshed in the prestigious
Journal of Mammalogy.
The hypothesis of Jona-
than D. Reichard's doctoral
thesis was that pregnant
and lactating female bats
need to consume more
calories each day than other
bats. His research team,
which included Lauren, cfip-
tured bats and took census
data before releasing them.
They confirmed the hypoth-
esis, which is now a "fact" in
the scientific world. In just
four months, more than 20
researchers have cited this
work in other papers.
Moments of "I'm pub-
hshed" certainly make
parents proud. But it's safe
to say Lauren's adventures
drove her mom a bit batty.
Rain Man, I wanted to
call and tell you all about
the Journal of Mammalogy
when you were asleep — but
I seem to have misplaced
your number.
Q | bctor
Musical memories
Congratulations to
the Rusk Eagle band
for their 13th con-
secutive sweepstakes
award and their 18th con-
secutive first division rating
in concert and sightreading
contest. As a former mem-
ber of a high school band, I
know the feeling of receiving
a first division rating.
I don't know what it feels
hke to get one 18 years in a
row, but our band wasn't too
shabby.
Any and all contests were a welcome
distraction from school, mainly because
we were able to get out of school for a
day. The added bonus was that most of
the time, contests/performances were on
Thursdays, so we got out of school, went
to perform, came back either right before
or just after school let out and the next
day was a Friday, Win/win situation for
the proud members of the Blazin' Blue
Brahma Band.
Being young and free also enabled us to
bond with the rest of the members of the
band with whom we normally didn't get to
talk.
Let me be clear: there are no real cliques
in a 2A band. You have the same classes
with everyone, you see everyone all the
time — it's impossible to say. "You can't
hang with our section" because you hang
with them outside of band anyway. In
truth, I've never really seen any cliques in
a band, but I haven't seen all bands, so I
don't know.
QUINTEN BOYD
chreporter@mediactr.com
Bus trips are good times
to get to know one another.
Most of our contests took
place in Glaclewater — an
hour and a half drive by car
that always seemed much
longer on the bus. We never
sat by class or by section.
It was always "just get on
the bus and if you can find
a seat, take it." The mix
made things lively.
Maybe it was just me. I
was a talkative person who
liked everyone else in the
band (for the most part).
Performances were great, too, because
you got to show your stuff to schools and
directors who never got to see you. The
best feehng in the world is to go to a
contest, look at that poster board with all
the ratings on it and see that you got all
first division scores from the judges. You
felt good because all the hard work paid
off and a part of you felt great because all
the other schools would have to see those
scores when they walked up to look at
their own.
You tend to forget your scores — well,
you tend to forget your scores when you
haven't won 13 consecutive sweepstakes
titles — but you don't forget all the memo-
ries. The bus trips, the laughter, trying
to meet people from other schools and the
excitement. The fun is in both the moment
and the journey.
Congratulations again to all the bands
in the county. Enjoy the memories you've
made and the memories you will make.
TAXING I thoughts
The party's over for required minimum distributions
After a one-year
hiatus, required
minimum dis-
tributions from
qualified retirement
plans and IRAs are back
in force for 2010.
In response to the stock
market meltdown of
2008, Congress sus-
pended 2009 required
minimum distributions
(RMDs), giving retirees
an opporlunity to leave
their investment accounts
intact rather than draw
them down at market
lows. But in 2010, taxpay-
ers age 70 and older are
required once again to
make taxable withdraw-
als.
Here are the details.
When individuals reach
age 70 Vz, they have until
April 1 of the following
year to take their first dis-
tribution. After that, the
RMD is due by Decem-
ber 31 of each year. For
example, if you turn 70%
during 2010, you have
until April 1, 2011, to take
your first withdrawal.
ANITA L. WOODLEE
CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
The next withdrawal is
required by December 31,
2011.
But with the resumption
of RMDs comes a little
twist. If you turned ftÜÉ
in 2009, you do not get a
three-month grace period
on top of the one year
pause. Your first RMD is
due December 31, 2010 —
the normal deadline for
RMDs each year.
It's important to re-
member that RMD rules
are not just for retirees.
Those who inherited a
retirement account must
also resume distributions.
Beneficiaries using the
fivé-yéar RMD schedule
pick up where they left off
at the end of 2008. They
still get five full years to
spread the distributions.
Those who are using the
lifetime payment method
simply resume using the
IRS life expectancy tables
as before. It's also impor-
tant to note that annual
distributions are not re-
quired for Roth IRAs.
Failure to comply with
RMD rules can result in a
50% excise tax, so careful
attention to the: regula-
tions is advised. For any
assistance you need to
make sure you are headed
down the right path on
these and other new IRS
rules, give us a call.
pd. advertising
ANITA L. WOODLEE,
CPA, PC
CERTIFIED PUBLIC
ACCOUNTANT
111 Henderson * Rusk • 75785
Phone: 903-683-1002
www.anitawoodleecpa.com
Visit our web site for new tax
tips and financial calculators
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Published weekly each
Wednesday by
WHITEHEAD
ENTERPRISES,
INC.
Texas' oldest continuously published
weekly newspaper, established as the
Cherokee Sentinel, Feb. 27,1850. Con-
solidation of The Cherokeean, The Alto
Herald and the Wells News & Views
CONTACT US:
Newspaper office located at;
618 N. Main in Rusk.
(903) 683-2257
FAX (903) 683-5104
(903) 586-7771 > Jacksonville
(903) 729-6889 • Palestine
(936) 858-4141 • Alto
Marie Whitehead
editor, advertising sales
(903) 683-2257 ext. 105
mwhitehead@mediactr.com
~H1
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Rates payable in advance:
Cherokee County $20/year
Outside Cherokee County $23/year
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Call (903) 683-2257
credit cards accepted
Terrie Gonzalez
managing editor
(903) 683-2257 ext. 107
herald@mediactr.com
Robert Gonzalez
advertising sales
(903) 683-2257 ext. 102
rgonzalez@mediactr.com
Gloria Jennings
general news
(903) 683-2257 ext. 106
news@mediactr. com
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POSTMASTER:
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CHEROKEEAN HERALD
P.O. BOX 475 •
RUSK, TX 75785
Periodicals Postage Paid at
Rusk, Texas 75785
Quinten Boyd
general news
(903) 683-2257ext. 109
chreporter@mediactr.com
Earline Bailes
classifieds, subscriptions
(903) 683-2257 ext. 101
ciassifiedads@mediactr.com
Tara Crosby
advertising sales
(903) 683-2257 ext. 103
sales@mediactr.com
HIGH POINTS I*- El Camino Real
Folks along El Camino
Real had some high
winds to deal with
over the weekend, but
nothing like the poor folks
over in Mississippi. We
were blessed with a little
rain and I am sure my gar-
den was proud. I guess this
is the first column I've ever
started from a hospital bed,
but I knew you folks needed
your four bits' worth of
news even if I was in Tyler.
I was told that Betty Tyler
passed away last week after a long illness.
Betty and Clinton have been regular fix-
tures in our town for many years. I guess
just about everybody knew one of them. I
certainly hope that you will keep Betty's
husband, Clinton, and the rest of the fam-
ily in your prayers.
All the waiting was finally over and on
Wednesday morning around 4 a.m., we
headed to Tyler to Trinity Mother Prances
to get this lesion, tumor, toenail or what-
ever it was cut off my right kidney, I had
been really pumped up about the event be-
cause of all the nice prayers that had been
said for me, but I nearly fouled it all up as
soon as I got to the hospital, and it wasn't
even daylight. The parking gate was
messed up, so I had to back in through the
pay station. The parking lot had plenty of
places in it and I was looking for one close
to the front door of the hospital. I eyed a
good one, but just as I turned into it, I no-
ticed three people standing under a tree.
Something about their appearance set
off my radar. I figured they were smok-
ing, but I didn't know what, and I figured
they were up to no good. I quickly started
backing out of the parking place, and my
wife asked me why I wasn't parking. I
told her that from the looks of those three,
they would steal everything we had when
we went inside. She looked up and said,
"Those aren't people, those are statues.''
I had insulted the Holy Mother and two
of her friends just before going in to have
surgery at a Catholic Hospital. We got
inside the hospital and it wasn't very long
before they had me stripped naked and
in a hospital gown with all sorts of wires
and tubes sticking out of everywhere. A
dozen different people asked me the same
questions over and over again until I
had enough and started making answers
up to gauge their response. They kept
asking me if I had anything to eat since
midnight. This question finally drove me
over the edge, and I admitted to chinking
two Dr Peppers and eating a large bag of
Cheetos on the way to the hospital, even
though I had done no such thing. The
wife assured them that I had not eaten
anything and the next thing I knew I was
getting an epidural hke a woman having a
baby. At this point the wife knows every-
thing, and the conversation turns to how
much more pain-tolerant woman are than
men. I don't remember anything during
the surgery. (Thank God for that). From
CHRIS DAVIS
elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
what I heard later it must
have been something. They
cut me from my breastbone
around towards my back
about 10 inches. Since I
am a rather thick person
and my kidney is on the
backside, they had to pull
all of my guts out. I figure
they had about a number
two wash tub full by the
time they got it all laid out.
I guess somebody held the
tub of guts while the doctor
trimmed on the kidney. He
said that it was a pict u re-perfect surgery,
so I guess the fellow holding the tub didn't
drop it. About 15 friends and family
members were in the waiting room during
the surgery. There was one emotional
scene in the waiting room while they all
waited. My friend Bascom Bentley was
there walking around clearly worried
about his dear friend. At one point he
started shouting and made a charge at
the surgery door. The Sheriff and Brother
Goforth pulled him back, got him seated,
and tried to console him and tell him that
I would be fine. It turns out that it wasn't
me he was upset about at all. The lady
in the hospital gift shop sold him a pack-
age of Baked Lays potato chips instead of
the fried ones and he was going after her.
The next thing I knew I woke up in a room
and they told me it was over. I tried to
be a good patient and do everything they
told me to do, but I had a few problems. I
had never had a catheter before and that
was something too weird for the imagina-
tion. I was connected to this big sack of
urine that had to be emptied throughout.
I thought of it as a fishing hne, and every
pull or jerk unnerved me at the thought
of it being removed. The next day it was
time to start walking and I knew that
was the key for early release. I painfully
got out of bed, unplugged the IV machine
from the wall, and hung my sack of urine
on the side and pushed the IV cart. I was
proud of myself for the effort I made. The
open back hospital gown and all the tubes
and hoses hanging out didn't bother me.
I trudged on. My wife kept trying to tie
it tighter in the back, but every once in a
while somebody got a flash and I imagine
some of the laches thought Matthew Mc-
Conaughey was walking clown the hall.
At some point they gave me a nun from
Poland as my nurse. I've never talked
to a nun or anyone from Poland for that
matter. She was a wonderful lacly but
she didn't speak good East Texan. At one
point, I was trying to get the nun to have
someone empty the urine bag because I
couldn't carry around four gallons. She
thought I was trying to get her to remove
the catheter. She was very disturbed that
I wanted her to take it out. I felt really
uncomfortable arguing with a nun over
a bag of urine and the thought of pulling
the catheter out was taking over my life.
See EL CAMINO, pg. 6A
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Whitehead, Marie. Cherokeean Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 161, No. 10, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 28, 2010, newspaper, April 28, 2010; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152936/m1/3/?q=music: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.