Opinion

Spring has sprung and that means there is a lot of activity around the ball fields in east Pocahontas. Two of my children are playing baseball and T-ball this season, which provides me many opportunities to keep up with all the onlooking parents and kids on the field. My oldest is 10 years old, so this is his first year of kid-pitch. He really enjoys playing real baseball and has a heart for competition. It is a delight to watch him get butterflies before a game and focus his concentration on the sport, all while experiencing the thrill of victory or the dreaded agony of defeat. I do not really follow sports, so I leave coaching and critique of their gamesmanship to those better suited for the task. It is no small feat to mentor a child in sports and we certainly appreciate all the parents and little league coaches that sacrifice their time to teach our kids how to play these sports with integrity and effort.

Quite the party in St Louis this past Sunday night as the Card’s cruised to a 15-6 blowout win over San Francisco. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina set a major league record for wins by a starting battery as St. Louis took two of three in the series over one of the hottest teams in baseball. And as if that wasn’t fun enough, Albert Pujols made his first career pitching appearance to close out the game. In doing so, the 42-year-old Pujols became the oldest player to make his pitching debut since 1929. If this trio of grizzled veterans can stay healthy, this October could possibly be one for the ages for Redbirds fans.

Tuesday night, on my sweet Presley’s 14th birthday, we attended her little brother’s kindergarten graduation at Paragould High School. Watching little Rockwell, who was the smallest kid up there, walk across the stage to get his diploma took me back to 1989 to when I was a kindergarten graduate at Delaplaine Elementary School.

Have you ever had ideas, dreams of what downtown Pocahontas might look like? I think it looks wonderful now. Others do as well.

Meeting my cousin Ed Long of Rockford, Illinois for breakfast at the Maynard Cafe gave me inspiration for a column. Ed left Randolph County in 1954 at age eighteen after marrying Wanda Milam, daughter of Grover and Pauline McIlroy Milam of Stokes. At age eighty-six the Palestine native loves to reminisce about kindred and old family stories.

Things You May Not Have Known About Randolph County Randolph County is chock full of interesting facts, places, and people. These random tidbits tell of a few of them.

I got to thinking how I can just lay out an outfit for Mike and he will wear it. No questions, maybe a little growling at times, but usually he will just put them on and be done with it. It’s like playing dress up Barbie when I was a kid, except with GI Joe. And then Joe goes home with me afterwards...