Are S&H saving stamps still of any value?

Today is Monday February 13, 2012. The birthdays for the week are: Feb. 13: Charlene Kraemer, Suzanne Ihlo, Mike Middleton and Melody Masterson.

Feb. 14: Marleta Chadwick, Monette Mathews, Mike Polley, Gretchen McNealy, Keith Keele, Sean Davis, Don Jordon and Mark Jones. It was the birthday of Mrs. Tom Foster. Feb. 15: Leslie Nixon Oates (the wife of my great grandson Stephen Daniel Oates) and Barbara Ballard Colderon. It is the wedding anniversary of Tom and May Jean Steele.

Feb. 16: Bruce Bradshaw. It is the wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. James Crelia.

Feb. 17: Chet Winger, Jessica Phillips, Virginia Bell and Nancy Perry. It was the birthday of D.I. Jimmerson.

Feb. 18: Carol Newman, Vickie Dawson Jones, Virginia Van Liem Johnson. It was the birthday of Nell Menefee. It is the wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Griffin.

Feb. 19: Yanci Watson Hendricks, Janet Forbes, Brenda Buckhalter Buckner and Joy Gregston. It was the birthday of L.C. Hufferd, Edgar Orran Doggett and Dudley Wood. It is the wedding anniversary for Mr. and Mrs. Everett Harbison.

Feb. 20: Inez Davis, Whitney Mahan and Keith Koonce. It was the birthday of Bobby Squires Carter, George Smith (former owner of the Rio Theater), Ople Huffard, Carlos Fox, Eula Russell, Alma Brittain and Jiggs Smith.

Feb. 21: Stevie Webb, Faye Huffman and Jewel Daniel Jones.

••••••• Birthday cards to Brenda Buckhalter Buckner on her Feb. 19 birthday.

••••••• The CHS Class of 1962 will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. The date of the 2012 Center homecoming will soon be announced.

The 1962 graduates include: Buster Bounds, Charles Delaney, Jerry Griffin, Newton Johnson, Lou Ellen Menefee, Margaret Ann Nix, Bonnie Sherrod, Judy Walker, Vickie Warr, Joe Yarbrough and Joan McCary. Most of these live in Center so they have a good crew to plan their big celebration. Let me know if you have a “stray” who you can’t locate, and we’ll put this column’s Bounty Hunters out for them.

••••••• I received a phone call Friday February 3 from Jimmy Choran in Moscow, Russia. He had read all the bad news in January about my family on ShelbyCountyToday.com. J.J. is doing an exceptional service with her news that is seen and read around the world.

Jimmy Choran said he misses Center and his family and friends here but is enjoying living there with his wife and friends in Russia.

Bobby Harkness, a former D.J. at KDET radio is a resident and patient in a Newton, Texas nursing home. He needs our prayers and concern due to his illness. His sister lives there and asks that we send him cards to her address, and she will deliver them to him.

The address is Bob Harkness clo Mr. and Mrs. George La Boxteaux, P.O Box 1478, Newton, Texas 75966.

••••••• Do you know if S&H saving stamps are still of any value anywhere? They were popular trading stamps about 40 or 50 years ago. Pete and I gave U.S. Saving stamps in our grocery store. They were turned in or mailed in for valuable gifts. When Kenneth Sanders had a grocery store on the south side of the Center square, he gave stamps and had a redemption store next door for the stamps. Fleta Thomason, Billy Bob’s mother, operated it.

My favorite TV shows along with Wheel of Fortune are The Pawn Shop and Storage Wars. It is interesting to see the buyers search for treasure as they tear through boxes and sacks.

We have lots of storage building businesses in our area and apparently people are keeping their rents paid up as we don’t hear of any auctions for them very often.

What do you know about these TV storage men and women who are always the same ones who bid on the contents? I think they are paid characters. How can we find out?

Local treasure hunters make their rounds of yard and garage sales in search of antique or valuable items. The Goodwill and Salvation Army stores are also good sources for hidden treasures.

We are having more and more garage and yard sales in our county on weekends and shoppers are finding a haven of valuable items.

The vendors welcome out of town shoppers to Center.

••••••• Do you remember when Mrs. Glenn’s Ice Cream Parlor was on the south side of the square many years ago? Her daughter Blanche lives in Houston, and we correspond sometimes.

Buddy Hancock is challenging us to name other businesses in Center that have remained in the same location since starting and with the same name.

He named the Farmers State Bank, the Rio Theater, Covington Lumber Company, Dr. Steve Oates Clinic and Mangum Funeral Home.

Can you think of other Center businesses of many years that have remained in the same location and same name and family ownership.

I read an article once about the disappearance of the old Ma and Pa businesses in towns. That’s where both the husband and wife operate the business. I compiled a list of former ones in Center that no longer exists like Joe Ramsey’s Cafe, his wife (seems like her name was Bill) was his partner. Others included Woolwine and Bessie Weaver Dry Goods, Gordon Parmer and wife’s Parmer’s Dry Goods, Bob and Mildred Pinkston’s The Champion, Fred and Ruth Hudson’s Hardware and Furniture and Pete and Mattie Dellinger’s Grocery and Market, Now, on the square do we have any? There is Mike and Nita Adkison’s Rio Theater operated by both. Are there others?

••••••• Is the Red Barn Store still operating? My mother and I used to stop there when we were driving in that area. I think it was near Carthage and was owned by the Kyles who were related to Mrs. Bennis (Gwen) Meeks. The store had a big variety of gifts and souvenirs and was fun to visit.

••••••• People collect all variety of objects, old cars, coins, guns, ceramic items like chickens, elephants, clowns, salt and pepper shakers, key rings, advertising matches, business cards, pencils, pens and others.

Dr. Jack Smith used to collect clown figurines. If you’re a collector, write and tell me about it, and if you welcome someone adding to it.

Many people collect recipes and civil war books, license plates and dolls.

I remember seeing Mrs. F.E. Emery’s bookcase shelves filled with her collection of salt and pepper shakers. Her daughter Edith Winningham inherited them. Edith collected Cupid dolls. I imagine that Edith’s grandchildren have these collections.

Write and tell me what you collect.

••••••• A reader called who asked me not to use his name, told me he had a donkey with a large black cross on his back. He planned to make a picture of the animal showing the cross. I told him to take the photo by The Light and Champion and give it to Colleen to print. I have heard that the cross can be seen on some of these animals.

This reader wants to know how to make hog head sauce. We have used that request before and obtained lots of recipes. My mother used to make it.

••••••• We are saddened with the death of our longtime friend Lucretia Leim Bussey. Another friend of mine who died recently was Lucille Gaddis.

••••••• Have you picked up your new Coffee Break news book? Vickie Dudley is doing a good service with the distribution of these free books. She leaves a supply at her advertisers for the public to pick up and enjoy.

You can go by her shop and register for a drawing for a free subscription to the Coffee Break. It’s on the corner of Tenaha and Hurst Streets.

••••••• What about Japanese persimmons? Are there any growing with fruit ripening now? I have a tree that produced about a dozen big persimmons this year. Now is the time to buy and set out fruit trees. The feed stores stock them. It is a good investment for old age enjoyment.

••••••• My mother had charge of the family garden and she used her annual almanac for the signs. She always wanted Irish potatoes and English peas planted on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. We had a big garden back of the big barn and car shed. Rufus Latham kept it plowed and did the extra hard work in it. It was fertilized with chicken house and cattle barn fertilizer.

We often picked the peas, butter beans or English peas in the late afternoon for shelling the next morning. It was a regular spring and summer routine to do the shelling while sitting on the front porch. “Uncle” Joe McKee came every weekday morning to sit with us and wait for the mailman. His box along with others for Collier Street were all together just across the street from us. “Uncle” Joe as everyone called him was a Confederate veteran and a Methodist minister.

He kept us listening with interest as he told of Civil War days.

- Mattie

(Editor’s Note: Mattie Dellinger’s “Party Line” column was a regularfeature in Center newspapers for decades before her death in 2013. The original columns are reprinted today without editing to reflect her style and commentary. All references are to the original date of publication noted at the beginning of each column, not today’s date. Send letters and comments to: Editor, The Light and Champion, 137 San Augustine Street, Center, TX 75935.)