The Rock Wall

I was editing an obituary Monday when all of a sudden, I realized who it was. I always knew her as Sue Huff Brown. I had never known her to be called Margaret Suzanna Huff Brown.

When I was just a little kid, she lived with her parents, George and Clara Huff, about 3⁄4 of mile west of my parents farm where I grew up.

I don’t know that I saw Sue very many times, but I remembered her black hair and bright blue eyes.

I also learned from the obituary that Sue was a Picnic baby born on July 21, 1934, 12 1⁄2 years before I moved in down the road. When I mentioned that to her daughter, Pam McMurry, she wrote back that Sue’s mother said she caused her to miss the Picnic that year.

When George and Clara moved to town, as I recall he became the municipal judge.  I was too young to wind up in his court, but I heard he was tough on crime.

The family will have a memorial service for Sue beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at Bland-Hackleman.

There’s something sobering about having my childhood acquaintances passing away.

– Kimball decided to cancel the SCRG Chili Cook-off this year for lack of participation by cookers and sponsors. She thinks there are just too many demands on peoples’ purse strings. She said the Chili Cook-off will be back next year.

– Just saw Dr. Rick Casey Tuesday afternoon. He has fully recovered from his health scare, a stroke that left him in a coma for two days. His doctor administered the clot buster shot and it was a complete success, removed the clot and about $2,000 from someone’s bank account. He sailed through physical and mental therapy. When he worked an Einstein puzzle under the time limit, they told him he was good to go.

– Van will celebrate his first birthday on Oct. 20 with his proud parents, Cain and Adrian. He was actually born on Oct. 28, a month earlier than the doctor told the family to expect.

Haven’t heard anything from Erica and Davis on their coming attraction.

– Monday evening, the ambulance board elected Rusty Norval to the chairmanship. Good man. I’ve never known Rusty to be at a loss for words or even short on words. I think we can expect good things from him.

He will tell you that he had a close call when he got released from the Joplin hospital a short while before the tornado struck and actually moved it.

– The football game between our Bulldogs and the Skyline Tigers was a barn burner. The Bulldogs pretty well dominated the first three quarters. Then in the 4th quarter, the Skyline QB started picking us apart with his passes. It got to be 28 – 24 with them apparently headed for the winning TD with about a minute left to play. Then the QB made the mistake of throwing a pass in the area occupied by Preston Robison, who Coach Scroggins said has a way of intercepting the ball. A victory formation and a knee down ended the game. KL