Holly Ridge Happenings

The Most Beautiful Plant

A man had a garden that produced nothing but weeds. One day he obtained some seeds from a rare plant that he had heard wonderful stories about. He sowed a handful of the seed in his overgrown garden and left it to work its own way. He slept and rose, and knew not how the seed was growing until one day he opened the gate and saw a sight which astounded him. He knew that the seed would produce a dainty flower and he looked for it: but he had little dreamed that the plant would cover the whole garden as it did. The flower had exterminated every weed. As he looked from one end of the other, from wall to wall, he could see nothing but the fair colors of that rare plant, and the smell nothing but its delicious perfume. Christ is like that plant of renown. If he be sown in the soil of your soul, he will gradually eat out the roots of all ill weeds and poisonous plants, till over all your nature all that will be seen is Christ in you.
Tuesday visitors at the store were Lee and Melanie Summers from Arkansas, Geneva and Sherman Williams from Delhi and Tracy Pruitt.
Sue Best Jackson from Mer Rouge/Delhi stopped in on Wednesday. Also Mrs. Crystal Nichols Futch and her freind Pam from West Monroe and my home girls Linda Rice and Merle Parker were here on Wednesday.
Wade Green (who grew up here) and his friend David Whittington from Fairbanks were here on Thursday.
Bobby McCowin, who was here earlier in the week, just moved to Texas City but he and Rita were here for a few days.
Shelton Beach, the son of Monroe and Willie Mae Chamblee Beach, and his wife, Beverly, have been visiting with family and friends in the Holly Ridge/Rayville area this past 6 weeks. Beach Road, near Holly Ridge, was named after his grandparents – Albert Sidney and Emma Henrietta Beach. Shelton’s father, Monroe, farmed 80 acres near Bee Bayou. Shelton attended Rayville Elementary School until his family moved to Idaho in 1958.
After high school, Shelton joined the U.S. Army. During his 24 years of service, he served in Washington, Vietnam, Georgia, Japan, Maryland, and over 11 years in Germany.
After retiring, Shelton and Beverly settled down in Blackfoot, Idaho where they have lived the past 25 years.
This year Shelton and Beverly put into action one of those “going to do it some day” trips starting last September. They have stayed longer than planned at every destination and have loved every minute of it. They arrived in the Holly Ridge area about 6 weeks ago. As they drove onto the Mengel Road, Shelton remembered their neighbor, “Buddy” Kirk, who lived right there just across the tracks from Highway 80. Kirk later became the Commanding General of U.S. Air Force, Europe when Shelton was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany. While Shelton and Beverly lived in Darmstadt, one of the top aides to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Seventh Corps was a Master Sergeant Holloway. Master Sergeant Holloway, a next door neighbor to the Beaches was also from Holly Ridge. Shelton and Beverly always found it hard to believe that two families from Holly Ridge, Louisiana lived in the same building in Darmstadt, Germany at the same time.
Shelton and Beverly have enjoyed visiting with Shelton’s best friend from grade school, Kirby Hendrix, and catching up on their classmates and happenings of the last 55 or so years. The Beaches have enjoyed seeing the old places where Shelton lived and fished as a youngster. His old stomping grounds included Cow Bayou, Bee Bayou, and Cypress Creek. As a kid, Shelton enjoyed fishing trips with his father, uncles, and cousins to Horseshoe Lake, Crew Lake, and Clear Lake. Shelton has enjoyed recalling “the good ole days” when he and his brother, Delton, would walk to the store at either Holly Ridge or Bee Bayou for an Orange Crush or Delaware Punch.
Shelton and Beverly have really enjoyed getting to know his Uncle Mose and Aunt Rilla Mae as well as his cousins Mike, Kenny, and Sheila again. Shelton has especially enjoyed his Aunt Rilla’s hot biscuits and tomato gravy. Their daughter, Jocelyn, flew down from Las Vegas to join them for a couple of days. While she was here, Jocelyn and Beverly got a crash course in how to make Aunt Rilla’s famous biscuits and gravy – it is in the tomatoes and Aunt Rilla’s touch. Cookouts and fish fries have reminded Shelton of how much he has missed his southern roots.
The best part of the trip was camping out on his Grandpa Beach’s old home place and showing Beverly where the Beaches used to make sugar cane syrup, where his father raised cotton, and where all his aunts and uncles used to live.
Happy Birthday this week: Kellie Wynn Ryan, Peyton Thompson, Madeline Farmer on March 17th, Trigon Thompson on March 18th, Gaven Whittington, Stella McLemoree on March 20th, Danielle Walker Hamm on March 21st, Joey Payne, Sarah Millr, John Edge on March 22nd. May these celebrate many more!
Anniversary wishes to: Kay and Mike Silk on March 17th. I wish them many more happy years together!
Have a good week. Do call and share! Remember it is time to start mowing over at the cemetery so don’t forget your donations for the upkeep. Thanks.
Remember: Anger is like the waves of a troubled sea, When it is corrected with a soft reply it retreats and leaves behind both froth and shells. No permanent mischief.