A history lesson on Memorial Day's Southern roots

Friendship Cemertery's memorial to both Confederate and Union soldiers. On Monday, May 30, our country will be caught up in hot dogs and hamburgers and picnics — all things distinctly American as we enjoy one of those Congressionally mandated three-day weekends. But while we party, we should stop and pause and say a prayer of thanks for those men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Memorial Day is a time when we honor our fallen ... all of whom were fathers and sons and brothers and mothers and daughters and sisters to someone. It's an observance that had its beginnings in Columbus, Miss. Back after the War Between the States, a group of mothers and wives and daughters had gone to Friendship Cemetery to remember their loved ones who had fallen in the great conflict. As the story is told, the women noticed a group of graves in a corner of the cemetery and went to see who was buried there. It was soldiers of the Union Army. You see, both Confederate and Union soldiers who died in the 1862 Battle of Shiloh are buried in Columbus' Friendship Cemetery. The women are said to have expressed concern that someone would have died so far from home, wondering what their loved ones might be thinking. They knew that if their loved ones had fallen far from home, they would want someone to remember them. On April 25, 1866 the ladies of Columbus decided to decorate both Confederate and Union soldiers' graves with garlands and bouquets of beautiful flowers. Friendship Cemetery has been called "Where Flowers Healed A Nation."  And, although other communities in the nation, some by Congressional proclamation, are said to be the birthplace of our Memorial Day, the truth is that it began in Columbus. On Memorial Day, take the time to give thanks for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. At 3 p.m., Americans around the world are asked to pause and say a prayer for peace as part of the National Moment of Remembrance. It's not really a lot to ask, is it? To take a few minutes away from hot dogs and hamburgers and fun and frolic to remember those who died so you would have the opportunity to take the day off? To speak your mind? To worship without reprisal? Remember to fly your flag and never forget that freedom is anything but free.

Water falling in Yazoo County

According to the U.S. army corps of Engineers (USACE) website, the Yazoo River is beginning to recede slowly.

Robert Simrall, chief of water control for USACE in Vicksburg and one of our sources for flood projections, said the river has dropped about six inches since cresting on Saturday at 38.4 feet.


Simrall said water is still rising on the backwater side of the Yazoo Backwater Levee south of Rolling Fork. Simrall said it will probably be June 20 before the Mississippi River drops enough to allow for opening of the flood gate to release  the backwater flooding.

As soon as possible, we will get an update from Harold Harton and our EYES on Wolf Lake to bring you up to speed.

Flood update from downriver - river reopened to traffic

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in New Orleans announced about 10 a.m. (CDT) that 16 gates have been opened at the Morganza Spillway  flood control structure. A flow of 108,000 cubic feet per second  is now being diverted from the main channel of the Mississippi River.

There are 125 gates at Morganza and the Corps expects to eventually open between 30 and 35 of them.

The flooding being created by the spillway's opening on Saturday has been slowed by the extreme drought conditions plaguing that part of the state./ The New Orleans District of the corps announced 16 gates have been opened at the Morganza spillway, moving water through the structure at an estimated 108,000 cubic feet per second.   Morganza has 125 total gates.   The corps began opening them slowly on Saturday.

About 115 river miles to the south, 330 of the 350 gates at the Bonnet Carre' Spillway are open at Norco, diverting water from the river into Lake Pontchartarin in an effort to keep the levees from being overtopped in the Crescent City.

USACE also announced earlier today that it was opening the Mississiippi to traffic north of New Orleans. On Tuesday, the Corps had closed the river at Natchez.

Updated photos from Wolf Lake and Good Hope Community are here

As promised, here are "current" photos from Wolf Lake and Good Hope communities ... there are six.


Also, here is an update from Harold Horton (from Monday) on the situation:

1.  Water can be seen directly in front of Dad's (Guy Horton's) house.  About 300 yards away.

2.  Water can be seen back at the wood's behind Mrs. Bell's.

3.  Water now covers the bridge at Shake on the Lake and likes 2 to 3 inches going in Shake on the Lake.  Water is over the road just past the bridge going toward Yazoo City from Good Hope Community.

4.  Water covers the road just past Club 21 going toward's Guy Horton's house.

5.  Carter Road is covered with water and the road is blocked  toward Good Hope Community. Water is going over the road at the end of Wolf Lake.

6.  Water is coming up the ditch beside the old Dubois house.

7.  Water is over the road going toward Lake City/Deerfield.

8.  Water is over the road at the Airport and water is up to the edge of Terry Horton's house.  Water is also on the runways at the Yazoo County airport.

Harold said, "Three days to go prior to the crest at Vickburg.  Can we make it?"

Carter to the left, Wolf Lake to the right
and water on all sides.

Turn around, please

Water lapping at Mrs. Bell's property

With all the water, the road
takes on a causeway-type look

Carter Road

Water creeps out of the woods onto the
road, like a thief in the night

UPDATED (3:45p 5/15) from Wolf Lake and the Goodhope Community

Sunday afternoon
We have been advised by Harold Horton that water flooding the area around the Yazoo County Airport is coming from Broad Lake.
He also said that water is going out one end of Wolf Lake faster than it is coming in the other, but that when the backflow catches up they are afraid the water will rise rapidly.


Saturday night's post
If you on If you are part of Harold Horton's Louise email list, you've gotten some of this already and I apologize for the duplication.

Shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday, Harold said officials had stopped all traffic into the Goodhope (Wolf Lake) Community as the water had begun its relentless rise.

At that time, he said, the water had started covering the road at his dad's place.

"It does not crest until Thursday," he wrote. "The water is coming out of the end of Wolf Lake and going across the road at a fast pace (at Carter)."

His brother, Terry, who was in the same grade with me, had left with a load from his home and, when he tried to return for more, was prevented from doing so by troops from the Mississippi National Guard. Harold said that at that time, Terry's yard was covered with water and there was a seven-foot alligator on the road!

With water crossing the blacktop, Good Hope Baptist Church is now in jeopardy and may already have water inside at this time. Based on Thursday updates, a flood elevation of 107 feet (2 feet of flood water) was anticipated, although Harold indicated the water was rising quickly. Most of the area is at 105 feet and the crest is not forecast until Thursday (May 19).

Harry Simmons, also in the same grade as Terry and I, built a levee around his home and 4 acres of catfish ponds in an effort to save his home and business (Simmons Farm Raised Catfish).

Highway 149 (what we knew as US 49) is now closed from the Whittington Flood Control Canal to Erickson Road, which is the road that runs alongside Wolf Lake at the old Wolf Lake Store and bridge.


Harold was not optimistic: "It does not look good for us and our old home place."

Prayers, please, for ours friends and families.

UPDATED (2:40 p.m., 5/17) Remembering Harmon Killebrew

Tuesday, May 17
Minnesota Twins Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew died Tuesday, ending his battle with esophageal cancer. Last Friday, Killebrew announced he was endingf his 10-year battle with the disease and going to a hospice facility.

Friday, May 13
I grew up watching baseball on Saturday afternoon with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese handling the broadcast. It was a rite of passage with my dad, who loved his baseball.

Harmon Killebrew

Dad loved the St. Louis Cardinals, and I remember meeting Ol' Diz at what they called the Major League Park in Hattiesburg once ... and it was like they were old friends. To a kid who lived for Saturday afternoon baseball with his dad in a hot house and a black and white television, having Dizzy Dean shake my hand, ask me "How yuh doin', pod'nuh?" and talk baseball with Daddy and me ... well, that was about as good as it could get.

One of the stars we watched was Harmon Killebrew of Washington Senators and, after they moved in 1961, the Minnesota Twins.

The "Killer" was one of those guys who gave it all he had. He wasn't a big bruiser, only 5'11" and 210 pounds, but when he finished his 22-year professional career he was second only to Babe Ruth in American League home runs (573) and retired as the AL right-handed home run leader, although that record has since been broken.

He became one of the AL's most feared power hitters of the 1960s, belting 40 homers in a season eight times. In 1965, he helped the Twins reach the World Series, where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had his finest season in 1969, hitting 49 home runs, recording 140 runs batted in (RBI), and winning the AL Most Valuable Player Award. Killebrew led the league in home runs six times and in RBI three times, and he was named to 11 All Star teams. He hit the most home runs for any major league player in the 1960s.

The interesting thing is, in an era when the pitching was better and players did not lift weights or use PEDs, these guys actually hit balls farther than players have since. Killebrew's famous homer at Metropolitan Stadium, still marked off at the Mall of America which stands on the site, is a great example. No one's hit one that far in Minneapolis since. No one hit one any further at Baltimore's old Memorial Stadium, either, and he is one of only four or five players to ever hit the ball over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium.

Oh, the Major League Baseball logo? The silhouette is that of Killebrew.

Because on Friday, he announced he was ending his fight against  his esophageal cancer and has settled in for the final days of his life, saddening friends and fans of the 74-year-old Hall of Fame slugger.

Killebrew was the model
for MLB's logo.

So why this love fest for the Killer from a diehard Yankees fan? 

In a statement released jointly by the Minnesota Twins and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Killebrew said "it is with profound sadness" that he will no longer receive treatment for the "awful disease."

He said the cancer has been deemed incurable by his doctors and he will enter hospice care.

"With the continued love and support of my wife, Nita, I have exhausted all options," Killebrew said. He added: "I have spent the past decade of my life promoting hospice care and educating people on its benefits. I am very comfortable taking this next step and experiencing the compassionate care that hospice provides."

Killebrew, who's 11th on baseball's all-time home run list with 573, thanked his well-wishers for their support.

"I look forward to spending my final days in comfort and peace with Nita by my side," he said.

When my time comes, I hope God allows me to accept it with the grace and dignity of Harmon Killebrew. He's my hero.

Morganza videos

Here are a couple of videos on the Morganza Spillway.


Video 1 is a Corps of Engineers video telling what it is and what it is supposed to do.


http://blackjackoak.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/morganza-spillway-video-from-u-s-army-corps-of-engineers/


Video 2 was shot by the Corps of Engineers today at 3 and fed live. This was the narration from WDSU, Channel 6 in New Orleans. The NBC affiliate. One mistatement from the reporter was that today was the first and only day the spillway would be open.

http://www.wdsu.com/video/27896061/detail.html

A recap:

• Morganza was built in 1954

• Opened twice ... in the flood of 1973 and now

• Corps considers opening it when the flow on the Mississippi River reaches 1.5 million cfs at Red River Landing. That is the trigger point because at flows higher than that, the integrity of the levee system south of Baton Rouge is in jeopardy

• Only one gate is currently open, diverting 10,000 cfs from the Mississippi. To put that flow into perspective, at that rate, the water would fill the New Orleans Superdome in just 28 minutes.

• The reduced initial flow was designed to prevent scouring of the levees and to allow wildlife and people to remain ahead of the rising water. All areas that would be affected within the first 24 hours were totally evacuated prior to the 3 p.m. opening.

• The release, as long as the Mississippi flows in excess of 1.5 million cfs, will eventually reach 125,000 cfs — which is one-fourth of Morganza's capacity.

• Krotz Springs is the first populated area in the line of the flood water. There is an 80,000 barrels per day oil refinery owned by ALON USA that will cease operation. A levee has been built around the refinery and National Guardsmen raised a levee to protect more than 200 homes.

• Butte a la Rose is the only community that lies with the Atchafalaya Basin and will be inundated by the flood waters. The community is located on a high point where the Atchafalaya River makes a sharp bend and divides into the Little Atchafalaya River to the South and the Upper Grand River to the North. About 800 houses, or "camps" are within the area, which is expected to be under water ranging from 15-to-20 feet in depth.

Morganza Spillway opened at 3 p.m. (5/14)

Announcement has just been made by Col. Ed Fleming of the US Army Corps of Engineers that the Morganza Spillway will be opened at 3 p.m. (CDT) today. It is the second time in history, and the first since 1973, for the spillway to be opened.

Fleming said the initial flow will be 10,000 CFS for the first 24 hours to prevent levee scouring, allow wildlife to flee and any remaining persons to get out of the Atchafalaya River basin.

At that rate of flow, the New Orleans Superdome would be filled with water in 28 minutes!

Fleming said based on the current river flow, a total of 125,000 CFS will be released into the spillway — or about 25 percent of the spillway capacity of 600,000 CFS.

He said based on current National Weather Service projections, the spillway in being opened two-to-four days prior to the flood crest reaching the Red River Landing and is expected to remain open for eight-to-10 days. The trigger point to open the Morganza structure is a Mississippi River flow of greater than 1.5 million cfs.

Fleming said state officials had checked and double-checked and all persons living in the area that would be reached within the first 24 hours have been evacuated.

He said the flow would gradually increase.

Just north of I-10, in the middle of the Atchafalaya Basin, the entire community of Butte LaRose, has been evacuated. The town is expected to be under between 15 and 20 feet of water in 36-to-48 hours.

UPDATED (5/17 12:30 pm) More on poor customer service (Tractor Supply)

Monday, May 17
Just met with Bill, manager of the Bogalusa Tractor Supply and appreciated his attitude. He had already gotten with George, but wasn't sure who the cashier was until I provided him with my register receipt and ID'd her.

Bill wanted to know what he could do to "make things right" and I told him he already had, by responding to my criticisms and reminding his staff of the need to interact with customers in a non-contact manner.

Those of us in business need to remember that for the customer or caller we just had, we may be the only contact they ever have with our company. A good experience results in a good recommendation and a poor one doesn't!


Saturday, May 14
Sorry, but poor customer service keeps raising its ugly head.

And despite being run into not once, but twice, before getting to the register, I still spent $16.36 at Tractor Supply (R) in Bogalusa, La! Is that stupid, or what?

I went into the store, newly opened this year, to look for an Ortho product that kills weeds, but leaves landscape plants alone. Despite seeing several red-vested employees visiting with one another, I never managed to catch anyone's attention to see if they might have the product hidden away elsewhere.

While looking around the store, I saw a six-pack of Westinghouse solar landscape lights for less than $2.50 a light. That was my impulse purchase.

After wandering through the store and passing several employees — at least they all had on red Tractor Supply (R) vests with neat little strips of tape on the front with their names scrawled on it — my presence in the store was never acknowledged.

At the checkout, I waited behind two customers, taking time to marvel at the cost ($1.79) of the 20-ounce Dr Pepper in the cooler and thinking that it was at least 30 cents too high.

About that time, an employee named George came around an aisle carrying what looked to be an upright barrel-type barbecue grill. Now, why he had to come between the check-outs is a puzzle, because it was clear that he didn't take the most direct route ... but despite the fact I was now rubbing up against the soft drink cooler, big George got in a pretty good lick as he passed and bumped into me.

No "excuse me" before or after, but I thought he might not have realized he hit me. I let it pass — until he came back through on his way outside and hit me again. Again, he was oblivious.

I started to say something to the checker, but decided against it ... realizing she probably didn't care and, if she said something to him, it would more than likely be of the "you're not gonna believe what that old guy said" genre.

The checker — I couldn't make out the name scrawled on her piece of tape — never said a word, other than, "sign there and hit okay" as she pointed to the transaction terminal. No "good morning," "did you find everything" or "thank you for shopping at Tractor Supply (R)."

Damn those neat looking little Westinghouse lights! If it hadn't been for them, I could have just taken my licks from George and gone elsewhere on my search for my Ortho.

But Tractor Supply (R) needs to stretch out that $14.99 (the other $1.37 was taxes), because the next time I spend money with them, there will just have been a cataclysmic event, as hell will have frozen over!


(Note: I need to point out that Tractor Supply is a registered trade mark and trade name. Any resemblance between the Bogalusa, La. store and one where employees acknowledge, welcome and appreciate customers as the reason for their employment is purely coincidental.)

For Morganza residents, flood's a certainty

Unlike places in the Mississippi Delta where residents are waiting to see how high the flood waters rise, those in the area of Louisiana's Morganza Spillway face a certainty.

IF the spillway is opened for only the second time in its 56-year history, there WILL be a flood of monumental proportions. The only real question is how deep the water will be, as projections range from depths of between 10-feet and 25-feet.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers considers opening the spillway when the flow of the Mississippi at Red River Landing, La., is greater than 1,500,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) and rising.

As the mammoth structure, located at mile 280 upriver from Morganza, is opened, water from the Mississippi will flow into the Atchafalaya River, Atchafalaya Basin, and Atchafalaya Swamp at the rate of 600,000 cubic feet per second.

Water that passes the Morganza Spillway first enters the Morganza floodway, which extends from the spillway at the Mississippi south to the East Atchafalaya River levee. It is 20 miles long and five miles wide, including a stilling basin, an approach channel, an outlet channel, and two guide levees. From there, diverted water enters the Atchafalaya River Basin Floodway near Krotz Springs.

Officials estimate a drop of from one to two feet in the Mississippi's level south of the spillway and, by dropping the river's level and easing the flow, the decision to open can also help keep the river from further changing its course and protecting people and property from Baton Rouge south.

But that doesn't make the decision any easier ... just ensuring a more cautious process ... because of the impact on those who live in the path of what will be a man-made flood.

Just as in the Mississippi Delta and around Cairo, Ill. and other locales where the water's on the rise, there are families impacted by the decision. And the decision, as hard as it is on those impacted, is really a no-brainer. Option 1 positions Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the eye of the flood ... and the world already knows what happens when levees are breached in below-sea level NOLA. Option 2 jeopardizes many thousands fewer people ... much more wildlife and smaller, more rural communities.

It shouldn't be an economic decision, but that's what it comes down to — and, as is usually the case, urban rules over rural.

In Krotz Springs, La., ALON USA has shuttered its refinery and the National Guard is helping raise a levee to try and protect 240 homes nearest the spillway ... in Morgan City, officials have called for an evacuation once the Morganza is opened ... and everywhere, people are wondering what to do — now and afterwards.

Corps of Engineers Morganza
flood projections

Prayers for Wolf Lake (Miss.) Community, please

Okay. It is Miss. Hwy. 149 now, but for all of us who grew up around Louise and Wolf Lake, we know it as Highway 49. Thursday evening at 6:43 p.m. MDOT (Mississippi Department of Transportation) posted on its website that the highway had been closed from near Whittington Flood Control Channel and Erickson Road, which runs alongside Wolf Lake.

Think about that. That road was already elevated ... the bridges well above the water ... east and west flood control levees to contain the water in the canal ... and the road is closed because of flooding.

We were through that area last Saturday and, although we went the backroads out by the Yazoo airport and not Hwy. 149, I remember enough trips over that road going to Granny Walker's in South Mississippi every weekend to remember how much the water would have to rise to cross over that road.

The positive, I suppose, is that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday that he had been told by the flood predictors to expect a lood elevation of 107 feet around Wolf Lake. While that's not good for everyone, it is good news for folks like Harold Horton and his sister, Hilma Horton Nibben. At 107 feet, the home they grew up in safe ... and higher, though, and it is not.

I wrote in an earlier blog that I simply couldn't wrap my mind around this flood. Now that MDOT has closed what we knew as U.S. Highway 49 West because of rising water, what little I had begun to grasp has slipped away in the flood.

Unimaginable.

Small towns like Louise hold their own

There's not much to Louise these days. Truth be told, there wasn't much to Louise back in its heydey. The 1950 Census counted 479 people and the 2009 estimate was exactly 200 less.

But back in the 1950s and 1960s, when we lived at Louise, we called it home.

You see, you don't need to live in some great metropolitan area to have access to what you need ... most especially warmth and friendship.

Last week, my sister and I returned to Louise to "see the flooding" in the Delta. We didn't expect to see water lapping at the town's edge, but we did expect to see people trying to secure their belongings out around Wolf Lake.

Sadly, we were not disappointed.

Even as they worked to protect Good Hope Baptist Church, Roy Lee Cleveland and Randy Hill took the time to stop and visit — hugging my sister and shaking my hand. A little ways up the road, Harold Horton and his sister, Hilma Horton Nibben, were busy trying to load their families' life history into a trailer so that it could be hauled to Harold's garage and stored safely. Harold took the time to visit and show us some of the preparations while Hilma invited Sarah inside to see the progress.

Even as they looked down the breech of what's projected to be the greatest flood in Mississippi River history, the graciousness of the people of the small town Delta rose to the surface.

In Louise, we drove street-by-street and spotted a lady walking along with her dog. We stopped, and my sister greeted her. It was Joanne Schoonover and we visited for a brief moment, then wished her well. She did likewise, and we drove off.

Out on the main drag, now not even a highway, we headed south and stopped in front of Hoover Lee's grocery so I could get my Dr Pepper fix. Hoover was stocking shelves and spoke to me, which prompted a, "I used to buy Blue Horse notebook paper here" from me.

After telling him who I was, he asked, "Where's Sarah?," followed by a, "Do you think she'd mind if I went out and spoke?"

Yankees don't do that. They don't do that because it requires personal interaction and connection. Those raised in the South, even the generations when there was so much violence, have a genteelness about them. Hoover, for example, asking before being friendly and welcoming.

After all, there are no strangers in the South, and perhaps that helps play into the warmth one feels even as they sit and look down a row of decaying buildings that were once thriving little businesses facing US Highway 49.

There's nothing left of Red Gum, out on Highway 14 where we lived, and there's little left of the school where so many of us spent time and build friendships that, as it has turned out, have lasted a lifetime.

Those friendships have lasted, as has the connection to that little town ... our classmates, our teachers and mentors, our churches and the values that were instilled in us by our parents as well as the parents of our friends. After all, we knew about being raised by a village long before the term was made popular.

No, there's not much left of the physical Louise, but the memories sure do fill one's mind.

I wish I was in the land of ... corn?

Okay, while Ohio-born Daniel Decatur Emmett, credited by most with the composition of the song known as "Dixie." wouldn't recognize those lyrics, it is what it is.

Corn is the cash crop king in the Mississippi Delta these days, adding a third "C" to the region's revenue producers. At one time, just like it says in the song, it was all about cotton ... then, catfish swam into the picture and now, corn.

Fields that not too many years ago would have produced bale after bale and left modules all along the roads, waiting to be loaded and hauled to the gins, on Saturday (May 7) had a beautiful stand of corn about three feet tall.

"Best looking corn in years," said Randy Hill as he and friend Roy Lee Cleveland prepped Good Hope Baptist Church for the coming flood. "And we've got this (the flood)."

My Daddy was a cotton farmer, managing two plantations — Red Gum, where we lived, and Good Luck, not too many miles as the crow flies from Good Hope. Daddy probably raised 2,000 acres or so of cotton, averaging better than two bales an acre with ease and as much as three bales in some years.

Daddy knew how to grow cotton — or just about anything else. Just as his ancestors had done, he watched nature's signs ... the moon, the clouds, the sunrises and sunsets. And he was successful as he grew cotton, soybeans, oats and wheat 

Nowadays, there's nothing planted that my sister and I could see as we drove down Miss. Highway 14 past Red Gum. It's more profitable, you see, to sign papers with the government promising to not plant a crop than it is to battle the bugs and the elements and the markets and imports.

In fact, harvesting subsidies is pretty darn lucrative.

It should be noted that from 1995-2009, 59 percent of all farmers in Mississippi did not receive a subsidy. However, 10 percent of the farmers received 74 percent of the total paid out in the state.

Daddy worked for the Seward's ... however it was they structured their name. Best I remember, it was Seward & Son and from 1995-2009, they received subsidies (conservation, disaster and commodity) totaling $8,620,289 (Source: Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database*).

That's a lot of cotton at $750 a bale ... a lot of cotton. Another associated company, Seward & Harris Planting Co., received $8, 077,955 for not planting.

Wouldn't that make it the Seward & Harris non-Planting Co.?

We lived out from Louise, Miss., which had a 1960 population of about 475 people. It's smaller now, but nine farming companies ranking in the Top 50 subsidy recipients in Humphreys County harvested $32.8 million between 1995-2009.

Think about that.

No seed. No fuel. No equipment. No insects. No employment liability. Heck, now that the government has done away with paper checks, you don't even need a pen or deposit slip ... just a tolerance for the cha-ching of the subsidy slot machine.

* - http://farm.ewg.org/top_recips.php?fips=28053&progcode=total&regionname=HumphreysCounty,Mississippi

Help Hardee's help our troops

Now, thru May 23, you can make a $1 donation at any Hardee's or Carl's Jr. fast food restaurant that will benefit our troops and their families. In return for donating to "Stars for Troops," you will receive a coupon book with $10 worth of coupons.

Funds raised during the campaign will assist troops and their families through two programs: Homes for Our Troops and USA Cares.

As the stepdad of a soldier who has done two tours in Iraq and a third in Afghanistan while his wife and two little boys were stateside, I'd ask you to help ... besides, their biscuits and gravy's pretty good.

Remember, this program benefits those who've got our backs.

God bless.

"How high's the water, Mama?"

In 1974, Johnny Cash sang the song, "Five Feet High and Rising" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91OIaPRrDts) about flooding on the family farm.

"How high's the water, Mama?" he belted out. "Two feet high and risin," was the reply, going on up the tape until it got to five feet.

And that's kind of the case out around the Wolf Lake Community thses days, where current and former residents have been advised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Wolf is rising at a rate of a foot-and-a-half a day. If it stays at two-feet and doesn't get any higher, a lot of folks will breathe easier ... but five feet? That's gonna be too deep.

The irony of everything is that some folks were loaded their belongings in trailers while others on the next place down the road were putting seed in the ground. I guess they were doing that "in case" the flood doesn't come although friend Harold Horton wonders if "they're watching the news on TV?"

Last Saturday (May 7), we got a shot of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad depot in Vicksburg, which sits outside the protection of the now-closed flood wall, and is in the process of being rennovated. As I took the picture, you could see water bubbled under a large, sqaure utility cover of some sort in the drive. On Sunday, a photo was posted on a railfan website I visit and the water was lapping at the steps of the depot.

As we drove into Vicksburg on U.S. Highway 61, we laughed about having seen this rather youngish looking ninny on WAPT-TV out of Jackson, who actually asked a park ranger at the National Military Park about the danger of the graves nearest the highway being flooded ... but we wondered about the truck after truck after truck of dirt heading north that we passed.

As it turns out, there were boils showing up along the levees in the Eagle Lake area and the dirt was being rushed out there to help secure the area. The Corps, you see, will cover the boils -- places where water seeps under the levee and starts to break through on the inside of the levee -- with the dirt, then allow water to cover the area in an effort to stop it by pressure.

Oh, back to the flooded graves question ... if that happens, nobody's going to be around to ask about the water's depth!

"The Donald's" first victim

No, it's not the president and it's not the first one who ever heard the phrase "You're fired!" on The Apprentice. It's Meredith Vieira, who announced live on NBC's Today Show this morning that she would be leaving in June "to spend more time with her family."

If she had been in the newspaper business, the line would have been "to pursue other career interests."

Poor, poor Meredith. I wonder what kind of buyout she got for her early retirement? I know, one normally doesn't get a buyout for an early retirement unless they are with a company needing to trim fat, cut expenses or get rid of overpaid 60-year-olds ... you know ... you're not dumb.

And that's the reason Meredith will get a package. It's because of her widely criticized "softball" interview with Donald Trump, where he was actually allowed to put forth his position on the president's place of birth in great -- and repeated -- detail. Viera, you see, failed to interrupt, attempt to disrupt or otherwise try to talk Trump down. Too much of a softie, I guess.

Over the next 72 hours, Trump was interviewed several more times with most being likened to the effort from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, who was credited with "being able to battle down" the birther issue. The translation of "battle down" means to continually interrupt, ask the same question in 13 dozen different ways and to try and keep your subject from getting a word in edgewise.

While you'll not see it happen, Vieira's interview of Trump could be compared to any of Katie Couric's interviews of the president -- from his days as a candidate until now. It had the tone of talking with a second grader about the Easter Bunny ... while Ms. Couric's take on more of a tone of an awestruck teen getting to interview the Beatles for the school paper.

I hate to see Vieira go. I like her and, despite what anyone says, her interview of Trump allowed him to hammer home the birther issue to the point that it got the president off his duff and provide the document that should have been provided the first time his eligibility was raised.

Will I vote for Trump? Nah. I'm still studying the qualifications of Larry ... since Moe's in the White House and we've been talking about Curly's interview with Vieira.

Thank a nurse this week

This is National Nurses Week and, I'm willing to bet, the very great majority of us have received health care from a nurse at some point in our lives.

My wife, Stephanie, in an RN and has also helped train nursing professionals as an educator in the Louisiana Community College System. Her daughter, Tanishia, has her BSN and is currently working as an LPN while she studies for her West Virginia state boards ... and my niece, Gale, has her BSN and is a nursing supervisor in the Morgantown, WV area.

All three love what they do and all three are really, really good at it.

My wife, though, gets special kudos ... she was my caregiver when we fought my cancer and she held my hand so many times when the poking and prodding was going on and she pushed me along when my legs couldn't do what my brain was telling them.

And all through that, she worked Critical Care Transport for Forsyth Medical Center — so, does that mean she was a 24-hour-a-day nurse?

Not only was she my nurse, but she was — and still is — my rock.

As an educator, she was tough and fair and those she taught, time and again, thanked her for being tough, because they learned things under her they learned from no one else.

Stephanie helped Tanishia take care of my late mother-in-law, Nora, during her four-month long illness. Tanishia logged long hours throughout, working to ensure her Nana was well taken care of.

Back when I had cancer, Gale was going to school and got to do a little nursing on me one time when I was all tubed up ... and wound up as an active participant in the care of her dad, my brother-in-law, Bob, as he battled multiple myeloma.

I know all three love what they do, but the reality is that none of them signed up to care for a husband, mother, father, grandmother — but that's what makes a nurse special. It's not just a job.

I love all three of "my" nurses and just wanted them to know they are appreciated.

"If the levees hold ..."

If we heard that phrase once, we heard it all day long as my sister, brother-in-law and I headed to the Mississippi Delta on Saturday to "see the flooding."

I know it sounds morbid, but we spent 20 years or so of our respective lives in the region where the flood forecast ranges from high and dry to up to four or five feet deep ... If the levees hold.



Good Hope Baptist Church



At Good Hope Baptist Church, in the Wolf Lake Community located between Yazoo City and Louise, former Louise schoolmates Roy Lee Cleveland and Randy Hill had just finished loading the central air units in the bed of a pickup to protect them from damage, but the outlook wasn't so good for the building, where water was expected to rise as much as halfway up the front doors.



"We're at 105 feet (above sea level) and the (Army) Corps (of Engineers) says we should expect it to go to 109, which would be about here," Randy said, making a slash type mark at his waist before adding the caveat, "if the levees hold."



Harold Horton

Power will be cut off in the area over the next few days and just up the road, familiy members, like Harold Horton and Hilma Horton Nibben were at the home where they grew up, gathering furniture and family mementoes and loading them to take them to safety.

"I'll take them home and keep 'em in the trailer, then bring it all back after the water goes down," Harold, who maintains an active email network of former Louise students, said. "How high do you think it will get?" my sister, who was a year behind Harold in school, asked.

"Well, we're at 105 feet," he said. "The Corps says it could go to between 107 and 109. At 107, the water's here ... holding a tape measure against a tree. We hope it's 107 because the house would safe ... but at 109, the water would be here and the house ruined because the floors are hardwood. We're hoping we'll be okay ... if the levees hold.

There it was again ... those four words on which the lives and hopes and dreams of so many now hang ... if the levees hold.

We followed the backroads into Louise, along the way passing many other families with trailers backed up to the doors and others heading toward the main highway.

It was, in a way, surreal. My sister and I grew up on Highway 14, west of Louise, and went to school with many of the folks now scrambling to save their belongings and the collections of a lifetime, such as Harold and Hilma of everything left behind when their father died at age 99 not too many months ago.

In Louise, we stopped and talked with Hoover Lee, former longtime mayor of the community and a lifetime resident.

"My daddy was here in '27," he said, referring to the great flood of 1927. "They walked over and stayed in a boxcar until they could get an engine to take them to Yazoo City. Mrs. Mecklin's house (Old Dr. Mecklin) still has the marks on it where they kept up with the water then, but they say we're safe ... that it won't flood here ... if the levees hold."

Between Louise and Greenville, my brother-in-law's hometown and where my sister and I claim, there was little to be seen other than barren fields or a beautiful, early stand of corn. Fields that once produced bale after bale of cotton now hold the promise of golden corn silks and ears full of kernels ... if the levees hold.

After an hour or two in Greenville, we headed south ... winding up in the Issaquena County seat of Mayersville. Driving past the community center, it looked as if most in the area had gathered for what had to be a meeting to discuss what was coming. We wound up on top of the levee, visiting with four other "gawkers" -- one from Little Rock, another from Florida and two from Jackson -- "My brother lives here," Little Rock said. "I brought them (referring to his three companions) to see it." He shared that locals had been advised to leave, but laughed and said his brother "would probably sleep through it."

Of all the places we went, only Mayersville was looking into the eye of a flooding certainty ... more even than the area around Wolf Lake. There's no "if" factor in play there ... because the levees south of town get a bit smaller and the water always rises ... and in this year when all the experts say record levels will be reached, there's but one thought that dominates ... what if the levees don't hold?

This Mississippi River flood is difficult to grasp

Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, and along the Mississippi River, it wasn't unusual to see high water in the spring, but I'm having trouble getting my mind around the flood waters heading south.

The 1927 flood ... known as The Great Flood ... is the benchmark in regards to water levels, yet the water moving downstream is forecasted to dwarf that one. Jeez!

If you haven't stood on the river's bank and watched the water flow past, I would think it would difficult to grasp ... but not unlike having grown up in the region and being familiar with a landmark and learning it is forecasted to be under water in a few days.

Every spring, when it rained and the water backed up the dredge ditches, we'd have flooding out on Highway 14 in Humphreys County. Never, though, do I remember the closing of major highways. Along US 49 West, between what we knew as Anchor Curve and Wolf Lake, there were a number of reliever canals dug in the late 1950s and early 1960s that were designed to bring high water between the retention levees, but this year, they are talking about closing that roadway!

There were always fields that would flood, but this year, the water around Wolf Lake is projected to get so high that friends are moving their belongings and officials have said they will cut electrical power to the area.

I've read the reports of the flood ... and I've read what I've written, and I simply can't comprehend it.
One thing I can comprehend, however, is the need for prayer ... for all who stand in front of the relentless flow.

Whatever happened to customer service? (Bob Evans)

Personal economist Clark Howard calls it "Customer no service" instead of customer service.


And if you've spent money lately or needed to return something or wanted to add something to the food order your server decided was closed, then you know what he means.


My wife tells me I'm impatient - and I am, but when there are six employees at the counter, a line of potential customers and only one serving their needs ... Well, that's reason to complain.


Perhaps or level of tolerance depends on our level of financial involvement. You know, we complain about poor cell phone service but will wait 20 minutes for a pre-cooked patty of something while the counter crew talks about their plans for the evening.


Our most recent episode came at the Bob Evans Restaurant on Hamilton Road near the Port Columbus (Ohio) Airport.


It started while the mousey little hostess was bogged down with trying to make change and we were waiting - and waiting - to be seated. When someone finally emerged from behind the counter, she asked the hostess where to seat us?


"Whatever's clean, I guess," she squeaked with an annoying little laugh.


As we crossed the dining room, she asked a server if booth such-and-such was okay. "I guess," was the curt reply as we walked past Mousey's room full of dirty tables.


After placing the order, my wife noted that the manager had just given the wait staff 10 minutes to get the tables cleaned. And other than customer movement, it had to have been the fastest that staff had moved since clocking out on their previous shift!


In the meantime, our food came. "Want anything else?", our server asked. "not right now." we responded, expecting to be asked about dessert as the meal progressed.


Wrong.


Never saw her again.


At the register, The hostess asked if everything was okay? "No," my wife responded. "the server never came back to see if wanted dessert."

"Oh, sorry," was the reply. "Did you want to order any?"

Jeez! Why mention it otherwise?

In the meantime, I wanted the manager. "I told her," my wife said, referring to mousey. I told her that was fine, but she wouldn't say anything to the manager. Mousey grinned.

"Anything else?" she asked as she added my wife's dessert order. 

"Yes," I said, I want to speak with the manager.

She called him, describing me as "some customer" and when he arrived, he listened intently, asked the identity of the server and apologized, adding that he would take care of it.

We waited several more minutes for the $3.99 slice of pie we almost had to beg for with Mousey getting in one more no-brainer question ...  "Wanna bag?"

In the meantime, I did two of the three things I had control over - I complained and the server got the tip she deserved.

Number three? I won't go back.

Extreme? Perhaps, but I work too hard for my money to be stressed over crappy service when I choose to spend it!