The Rock Wall

It’s been an eventful week.

– I started getting phone calls Monday about a massive fish kill at Shell-Osage. Davis recommended that I go take pictures. I did. He was right and so was everybody else who called.

Tuesday I received a press release from the MDC. Also on Tuesday, I received a call back from the author of the press release, Bill Graham. Nice guy who remembered me from my visit to the CWD testing station on the Chamber parking lot.

He said it will be something like a 7-year process – converting the west end of the north lake back to duck marsh, dredging the east half of the lake to make it deeper, raising the levees, closing at least the west part of the road that runs along the north dam. Time frame depends on weather and what they find.

– We learned Monday of the death over the weekend of our long time employee and friend, Fern Delk. She was quite a lady. She liked to work and totally enjoyed her friends here at the office on Wednesday morning. She finally had to quit because she kept breaking bones. When Fern and the others were working in the breakroom, I had to laugh at my desk. I never told Fern, but I told Kimball, I was afraid Fern would forget to breathe. That was her social time and she talked a mile a minute. But she didn’t slack off one bit on stuffing inserts into newspapers.

– We had another employee from the same era we really like, too – Moody Graves. Kimball even chose to be born on Moody’s birthday, June 3. Moody ran the office for several years. Probably still could. When we got ready to go to computers, Moody said, “If you try to make me use a computer, I’ll quit.” She was here for several years after some of us went to computer.

Her grandson, Andy Graves, told us he mowed Moody’s yard on a Thursday because she likes it neat for the weekend. The next week it was mowed when he arrived on Thursday, so the next week, he showed up on Wednesday. The next Wednesday, it was mowed when he got there. Andy gave up.

– The Picnic armband giveaway started this week. Davis put the clue on Facebook. Next week’s clue will appear first in the newspaper. We’ll give away five.

– Got a big, flat box from Baton Rouge Tuesday afternoon. The message in the envelope was, “Please enjoy this Father’s Day cod.” (Looked better than the fish in the north lake at Schell). Handwritten: “Happy 32nd Father’s Day & 1st Grandfather’s Day. We all love you down here. Love Adrian, Cain, Van and Merle.” Inside was a four photo collage – two of Van, one of Adrian and Van and one of Van and me at Christmas. Drop by sometime and I’ll be glad to show you. KL