Thank you to everyone who came out for the Memorial Day Ceremony at the cemetery.
It’s fitting that we come together as a community to honor the servicemen and women who gave so much that we might enjoy the freedoms we have today.
Thank you to all who took time out of their holiday weekend to participate; Pastor Gerard Nsabimana for his beautiful prayer and former Senator and veteran Jason Smalley for his spoken words that reminded us all about the true meaning of Memorial Day.
Veteran Delmer Summers laid the remembrance wreath and Danielle Stangl honored our deceased veterans by playing taps.
A 21-gun salute was presented by local veterans Matthew Cockrum, Chuck Quinn, Brandon Quinn, John Palmer, Carl Robertson, Michael Horwath, Gordon Beck and Eric Bradley. American Legion Girls State Liaison
American Legion Girls State Liaison Pam Hunt introduced Stroud’s two Girls State Delegates, Aubrey Barrett and Madison Ham. These young ladies were selected from this year’s junior class to attend the Auxiliary’s week-long government camp, but it had to be cancelled due to the COVID19 virus. Both were awarded a one-year membership to the Stroud American Legion Auxiliary and were presented with membership pins.
Thanks to everyone who came out to help put flags on the veterans’ graves last week. Erin Bradley was on hand with her two children, Emeri and Creed, to help and former Stroud resident Vicki Case drove over from the Prague area with her three grandchildren to participate.
My mom, Aleta Smalley and her greatgrandson Gideon, worked together, too, while his mother C’Anne and Celeste Carpenter took care of the east side cemetery. It was great to see the older generation teaching the lessons of honor and respect to the next generation. A big thank you to Ken and Celeste Carpenter and Carpenter Insurance for purchasing additional flags this year.
They have purchased the flags for many years and replace the weathered flags each year. This is a big expense and one the Legion would not have the funds for so thank you to the Carpenters for their continued support.
Memorial Day weekend is always a bittersweet weekend in Stroud. We usually visit with alums and honor our loved ones who are buried at the Stroud Cemetery.
As with many activities, alumni weekend was cancelled but I still ran across former Stroudite and Stroud graduate, Steve James, who was in town to decorate his father’s grave, the late Richard James. Steve graduated with the class of 1973, a year before my class graduated, so it was nice to see him and reminisce about old times.
Town Talk is raising money to put public restrooms at the pavilion on Main Street. The cost of the restrooms will be $10,000 and Oklahoma Beautiful has donated the first $2,000 to get us started.
I am asking everyone to donate to this project and no donation is too small or as a matter of fact, too big! Let’s all work together to get this accomplished.
Thank you to George and Bobbie Unglesby Langley for reading about the project in last week’s paper and mailing me Town Talk’s first donation.
George graduated with the class of 1956 so if any of you other ’56 graduates are reading this, please follow George’s lead and donate to this worthwhile project.
For those of you reading your paper on Wednesday, May 27th, Town Talk is sponsoring a block party tonight from 7:00 – 8:30.
Join us on Main Street as we work on cleaning two blocks, the one east of the flashing stop sign and the block west. We will begin by tackling these two blocks first.
Bring your brooms, your weed diggers, your weed killer and any other tools you think you might need and help us ready our Main Street for all those summer visitors cruising Route 66. Together we can accomplish so much!
It’s not too late to donate to Town Talk and have your name placed in the drawing for a beautiful American flowerpot and a $10 gift certificate to Unique OK to help start filling your new pot with flowers. Stop by Unique OK or contact me on Facebook or by calling 918-527-9833 to get your ticket in the hopper.
Our merchants and restaurants are open and ready for business. The risks of shopping locally during this unusual time are probably less than if you were shopping in a larger, metropolitan area. Let’s stay home and give our local businesses our dollars.
So, as always, remember to shop and dine local……first!