Town Talk volunteers had a very productive day this past Friday.
Our volunteers, plus nine student volunteers from Creighton, worked on the miniature golf course all day.
Those volunteering included Julie Bivin, David Evans, Joe Bill Shelhope, Sharon Medearis and Bob Pearman along with the Creighton students. Drew (age 5) and Rae Bivin (age 9) were visiting their grandparents, Steve and Julie Bivin, and they spent the morning volunteering, too.
You’d be amazed at what those two little ladies helped us accomplish. We now have had volunteers from the age of 5 years to 91 years of age.
Just goes to show that there’s a job for everyone. You are never too old or too young to give back to your community.
Two other volunteers that joined us were Charlie and Donna Carney Webb. Donna told me they were driving down the street and Charlie looked and said, “I see only four heads over there. Maybe we should stop and help them.”
That’s exactly what they did.
When we are working on projects, we have lots of people drive by, give us a thumbs up and holler out their window, “good job” but nobody stops to help. I can’t say that anymore. Thanks so much to the Webbs for lending us a helping hand. With all these wonderful volunteers we accomplished loads. I think, weather permitting, we will be open weekends in November. Also, Happy Birthday to Charlie. He turns eighty-one this week and he still swings a mean hammer! The nine students who were in town
The nine students who were in town from Creighton this year were all girls. Different students from the University in Nebraska visit Stroud twice a year to help with Habitat for Humanity homes. This time there was not a house being built so they worked on various community projects.
They did scrape Willie D. Smith’shouse for him to get it ready to be painted. They were very hard workers and seemed to enjoy helping our community. I didn’t realize it, but the students pay a fee to volunteer and are chosen for the project. Not everyone who applies gets accepted by the University to participate so it is quite an honor.
They stay in the old schoolhouse out on Old Stroud Road which has been remodeled to serve as accommodations for the students. It is owned by Stroud’s Habitat for Humanity. While in town community members, businesses and churches volunteer to pay for or provide their meals. Thank you to Kim and Marilyn Wheeler, Joe Bill Shelhope and Sharon Medearis, Jason and C’Anne Smalley, RCB Bank, BancFirst, First Bank and Trust Company, Central Oklahoma Credit Union, Larry and Gretchen Harlow, Nate and Amy Shields, Arthur and Betty Thompson, Jimmy and Linda Smith, John and Charla Owens and First Baptist Church for helping with the expense this year. I treated them to ice cream at Unique Market after their workday at the golf course. I wanted to be sure they saw everything our small town had to offer.
Many of you long time Stroudites remember Jack Mercer. I certainly remember him, his wife Dolly and their two children, Paul and Peggy. Peggy currently resides in Florida. Paul and his wife visit Stroud often. In fact, I spoke to Paul Sunday evening, and he told me he and Lou Anne had been in town on Friday to eat at D’s Specialty House, check out the veterans’ banners on Main Street and visit Stroud’s Cemetery.
I called Paul to talk to him about his dad’s headstone. I told him my dad and I used to walk the Stroud Cemetery and reminisce and read the names and epitaphs on the headstones. We would always comment on his dad’s because it said, “I told you I was sick.” I asked Paul the history of why that was on his dad’s stone. He told me that after his dad passed away, he and his sister found a note Jack had left which was his handwritten will – just a few notes to his children to tell them some specific things he wanted. The last thing he wrote was that he wanted his headstone to read, “I told you I was sick.”
Paul said he had no idea why his dad wanted that only that it fit his dry wit sense of humor. Well, my mom had called me Sunday afternoon and was reading this month’s Oklahoma Today magazine. In it was a story about a cemetery in Granite, OK which is the latest home of the Comecos Cemetery. This cemetery is a collection of fake headstones (made of real stone) with epitaphs that range from the silly the groan-inducing. One says, “Here lies John Yeast. Pardon me for not rising.” Another one is a headstone for Mary Weaks that reads, “I told you I was sick.”
Both Mom and I immediately thought of Jack’s stone at our cemetery. We will never know if he visited that cemetery at one time, read an article about it or if his sense of humor allowed him to think that up himself but to the two of us who had always wondered, it filled in the gap.
The mock graveyard was originally created by a veterinarian and his wife, Dan and Eleanor Roberts, at their home and clinic in Wichita Falls, Texas. After Dan retired, the “cemetery” was temporarily moved to Iowa Park, Texas.
He later decided to relocate it to Granite in Oklahoma, the town where the headstones originated. The site was dedicated there on November 4, 2006. You might want to put that place on your Oklahoma bucket list.
Don’t forget Trick or Treat Main Street on Friday October 29th from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. There will be a costume contest afterwards.
Be sure to check out all our local merchants have to offer when you stop by their store for a treat. Have a great week and thank you for choosing to shop local………………first!