The Friends of Cossar State Park have been busy! They had a paint day recently and updated all of the playground equipment. It looks brand new. We know it is at least 40 years old. My son Jim had his 5th birthday party at the Park and the children played on this exact equipment. It was memorable because there was apparently a wasp nest in the merry-go-round and the birthday boy was stung.
The Friends group is also planning for the Cossar Fall Festival scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. on Oct. 31. There will be a costume contest, cake walk, hayride and more. The Friends will be selling barbecue and there is also a campsite contest, and the winners will be announced during the festival. Admission is $2 per person with free admission for children. All these funds help with projects designed to improve the park.
The Friends are a hard-working group led by Terry Jones, who serves as the president.
Coming up is Oakland Day on Oct. 17. Billed as “A Day to Celebrate Our Hometown,” this year’s event kicks off at 10 a.m. in downtown with food, music and antique cars. There are T-shirts available and anyone wanting a booth or a tailgate space should contact Sharonda Jones at 662-589-0040 or Vera Walls Tellis at 662-709-0440. Also, check the Chamber’s Facebook page for their flyer and more contact numbers.
We took a little drive over to Vardaman last week. Mother loves an outing and she decided we needed to get some sweet potatoes straight from the Sweet Potato Capital of the World. I’m sure she was motivated by the dozens of sweet potato trucks crossing the railroad track every single day in Oakland! Sister-in-law Jennifer joined us and we explored a bit, stopped by the Sweet Potato Sweets and loaded up on a variety of interesting items. I even bought some sweet potato dog biscuits. Sam likes them!
I told David Herron, who stopped by Mother’s for a visit, that it reminded me of that scene in Forrest Gump where they rattled off all the things you could make with shrimp. There were sweet potato cookies, pies, cakes, treats (get the Yums-Yums!), breads, fudge, cheese straws, and even sweet potato sausage balls. I love to do a little research on various topics and found that sweet potatoes help with eyes, digestive system, heart and brain. I sure hope the Yum-Yums work on all that because I ate a lot of them. I’m pretty sure I’m feeling a little smarter, so I should probably stock up on those!
We may be the only “tourists” who love going in small-town grocery stores, but we loved Mounce Supermarket. It’s family owned and was clean as a whistle and had everything you could want.
We enjoyed Patrice O’Brien stopping by at Mother’s and bringing a few books and some wonderful croissants from the Hummingbird Bakery in Water Valley. Patrice and I started first grade together, so we have known each other for a few years now!
Kay Conner Peeples stopped by with a wonderful chicken and rice dish and some delicious garlic bread.
I enjoyed lunch and a walking tour of Water Valley with my friend Meagan Vaughn Backes last week. I love how connected everyone feels in Water Valley and all the wonderful things going on there. Meagan and her mom have purchased Lamar Block, which has had quite the life over its 100+ years. I know it was a car dealership and a furniture store and there were rooms above the main floor.
It is now The Furnishing House and is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It’s a really cool place, especially if you are looking for Victorian or mid-century items as well as local art and architectural salvage. Meagan and I are both W (MUW) alums and her sister is our alumni director and got us connected even before Meagan moved back to Mississippi.
While our downtown project won’t quite be ready for Oakland Day, we continue to move forward on transforming the old Herron Hardware Store into an open-air park and event space. As I shared in an earlier column, Supervisor Eddie Harris sort of challenged me to have it ready by Christmas, and I believe we will.
I was trying to figure out the correct wording for what we are doing since we aren’t really restoring the building to an actual building, but changing its form and use. I found these are the proper terms: restoration returns a dwelling to its original state, renovation updates and modernizes, and remodeling changes the structure or form. I guess we are doing renovation and remodeling, but that doesn’t seem to quite capture what is going on! We are reimagining.
Don’t forget October is the best month to get flu, COVID and RSV vaccinations. Flu has gotten off to an early start in some western states. Current recommendations for those adults 65+ who receive vaccinations are once a year for flu, once a year plus a booster for COVID, and once a lifetime for RSV. For all others, check in with your health care provider. There are different recommendations for children, adults under 65, immunocompromised and health care providers.
I’m off on my grand adventure to South Korea and Hong Kong. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to have a column while I’m traveling, but I’ll try. I have ChatGPT figuring out when I should try to sleep on the flight to best adapt to the time differences because when I tried to figure it out, I just got confused. But, that was before I had eaten all those sweet potato Yum-Yums. I could probably do it now!
Y’all take care of each other. Check on your friends, family and neighbors. I’ll see you soon.
Share your news with me. You can text or leave a message at 601-853-3942. You may also email me at oaklandareachamber@gmail.com.
