YES, I AM still here, and I’m trying to guess where someone will put the first liquor store in Lockesburg.
That’s right. Liquor store. Lockesburg.
An article in a weekend issue of the ‘Texarkana Gazette’ tells us that there are groups in Sevier, Pike and Montgomery counties circulating petitions to call for wet-dry elections.
Each of those counties has an big interest in tourism, and a lot more tourist/tax bucks would be left there if the counties were ‘wet.’
At least that’s what some homegrown experts say.
Montgomery County is on a real nice lake, and it must compete with other boating and camping resort sites in nearby wet counties.
Pike County tourism would, in my opinion, benefit immensely if the county was wet. Imagine a civilized libation over dinner after finding a diamond at the Crater. But right now, lotsa bucks going to Footsie’s convenience store just across the county line bridge in Antoine, so I have been reliably told. We get occasional Footsie’s ads.
Over in Sevier County, the folks see how much eastern Oklahoma tourism has grown around the ‘wet’ Beavers Bend area. Lotsa dollars being left so close yet so far from the Sevier County line.
I cannot predict how elections in those three counties would go IF the organizers are actually able to get enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot. There would be plenty of opposition from churches and liquor store interests in adjoining wet counties, not to mention some fine folks who just do not want booze sold in their home county.
I understand both points of view.
Just supposing Sevier goes wet. By Arkansas’s strange laws, the county population would dictate there could be no more than three liquor stores (Little River County ended up with two package stores where spirits other than just beer are sold. Both are in Ashdown. I have been reliably told that Bogey ‘s package store is located on a street just off Hwy. 70. Bogey’s advertises occasionally in this newspaper.)
So, if Sevier County were to go ‘wet,’ and could have three package stores, where would entrepreneurs put those stores?
I’m guessing one would be in Lockesburg.
Lockesburg has recreation areas to the north and south, and Howard County (which will NEVER go wet) to the east. There is a highway crossroad smack in the middle of Darter Town.
This issue needs to be settled soon. I am already figuring out where I will go for snakebite elixir in March when the copperheads and watermoccsicans come out.
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HEARD FROM. A reader named RITA4573 emails her agreement with me that our Bluejay population has shrunk. She says she’s done some unofficial checking around and that the decline in the birds is widespread and may date back to 2012. There is no suitable explanation.
Peanuts still disappear from the little patio table where I leave a pile each morning, but when I put the raw in-shell peanuts out I don’t immediately see a swarm of hungry blue like I used to.
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ONE LAST PLEA. We’re already at the end of the first month of 2020 and the Howard Memorial Hospital board of directors has fiddled around and NOT taken action on my reasonable and farsighted suggestion of the area’s need for a Senior Citizens Nose and Ear Hair Clinic.
I am sorry to be so selfish, but it is getting more and more difficult to inhale through the silver briar patch located just inside my nostrils.
Also, if my ear hairs get any longer I’ll need to get an appointment at a beauty parlor. One that sympathizes with seniors and ear hair.
My regular barber just says he can’t bring himself to see any hair in my ears and nose. If I ask him for a nose and ear trim he says it’s time for someone else to sit in the barber chair.
“You can run along, now, Pappy,” he says.
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WHAT GETS ‘INTO’ PEOPLE? A news article says a Florida Feller was caught shining a laser beam into the cockpit of a passenger airliner, damaging the pilot’s vision and putting the aircraft in danger.
Why would someone do something like that? Indeed, why would someone take a gun into a church or school or Walmart and open fire on their innocent neighbors?
I know it’s politically correct to oppose the death penalty, but when people endanger the lives of others like this I am in favor of removing the bad seed from the gene pool. And quickly. No 20-years of appeals.
To that category I would add methamphetamine makers and sellers, scammers and computer hackers. Maybe even telemarketers.
Also, persons who don’t use their car’s turn signals because they are holding a phone in whichever hand is not on the steering wheel.
And maybe what our town needs is an officially deputized Downtown J-Turn Enforcement Officer armed with a laser pointer.
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THINGS I LEARNED from opening (and believing) email: “I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.”
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WORD GAMES. Another set of twins: Cheese and Crackers. Related to Peanut Butter and Crackers. Sometimes they’re a feast.
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HE SAID: “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” William Shakespeare, playwright
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SHE SAID: “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.” Sylvia Earle, marine biologist and explorer
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
