Archive - Food and Leisure
December 21st
“Mission first, people always.”
Mississippi State University ROTC graduates repeated those words many times on Friday morning, as retired Col. Dwight Dyess stressed their importance to the cadets who received their first salutes as Second Lieutenants during the ceremony.
Dyess, who heads BancorpSouth in West Point, also serves as the Civilian Aid to the Secretary of the Army for the state.
His short but powerful commencement address drew from his years as a commander and a special forces solider.
December 18th
Daniel Inouye was not that far removed from his parents’ native land of Japan when Japanese air forces attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. A second generation Japanese-American, Inouye was born on September 7, 1924 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Inouye passed away on Monday at the age of 88. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1963 until his death.
This is not an easy subject to talk about at any time of year, but Christmas seems the most difficult time to try and wrap our minds around this while trying to deal with all of the“Whys.”
Seven years after loosing our son, we still have never found that answer, and after reading books and all of the prayer we will never know that most wanted answer to that question.
Prissy. a seven week old, female beagle mix puppy is ready to be adopted from the West Point/Clay County Animal Shelter. Prissy and her four siblings are very sweet, social puppies, they love to be petted and played with. They have had their first puppy shots and have been wormed. The shelter has over 16 puppies, different colors and types who would make wonderful companions. The shelter will be open Saturday 9 a.m. - noon and will be closed Monday, Dec. 24, and Tuesday, Dec. 25, in observance of Christmas Eve and Christmas. Normal operation times resume Wednesday.
December 17th
Christmas will be a little brighter for some area families thanks to the efforts of 4-County employees and members. For the fourth straight year, employees and members representing the cooperative’s Corporate Center and five Customer Service Centers dug deep and offered their time and money to do some Christmas shopping for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots. The efforts were a big success. Nearly 250 toys and over $400 in donations were collected. The toys will be distributed by Toys for Tots personnel throughout the cooperative’s eight-county service territory.
At a time of the year when we are thinking about the joy of Christmas and looking forward to sharing with family and friends the holiday cheer, our country mourns the loss of innocent children and adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
As superintendent and a parent, I too immediately think about what ifs as it applies to students and faculty safety in our schools. I assure you the parents and community that student safety is our number one goal.
West Point High School FCCLA students Laura Catherine Berry and Chloe Simmons will be competing in the State FCCLA competition in March. Their Chapter Service Project in which they completed a project that affects our community and involves students, teachers and the community. Their project was for Breast Cancer Awareness where they raised money to help women in our community that may need help in having a yearly breast exam and hopefully save lives. The money raised was sent to Susan G. Komen in the amount of $600.00.
December 15th
This tragic mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut is a clear indication to me of just how much evil there is in the world and how the devil does not care one single, solitary bit about whom he attacks. It is also an indicator that we as human beings must get our lives together righteously, serve God with love and joy and try with all our strength to elude what is evil, being cautious to avoid the devil’s tricks. To me it is also a sign from God that He can take you at any moment, and it behooves us to be ready.
In spite of Hurricane Issac keeping Carolyn Haines for returning for Luncheon with Books in August, Haines and her newest novel “Bonefire of the Vanities” were right on schedule Thursday at noon.
“I always look forward to coming to West Point. Issac would just not let up and the flooding around Mobile was relentless,” said Haines. “I’m really glad to make it here around Christmas. I’ve been in Columbus at MUW. I had never been to Columbus before and wish I had had more time to explore. With my animals at home I can’t be gone for very long at a time.”
It was heartbreaking to hear of the school shooting in Connecticut that took the lives of 26 people, 20 of whom were children. Adam Lanza is the person who decided that killing these innocent people and then himself was a good idea. All these parents put their children on a school bus or dropped them off at a place they considered safe. School. I take my own girls to West Point High every morning and fully expect to pick them up.
