DOGWOOD ACRES, 09/08/08

DOGWOOD ACRES, 09/08/08

Hello friends. Labor Day really came fast this year, didn't it? In fact, so fast that the early publishing deadline caught me and there was no Dogwood Acres last week.

Rick and I went to Silver Dollar City on Labor Day for the Southern Gospel Picnic Festival. We didn't make a full day of it as we wanted to have enough energy to stay that night to see Jeff and Sherry Easter at Echo Hollow and what a blessing their concert was! Sherry had just had her first chemo treatment and was thrilled to be in concert with her family. Their faith and strength are surely an inspiration. We were told there was a record crowd in the amphitheater that night.

Thursday night Christie and I went to Springfield to see our cousins in concert at South Haven Baptist Church. The Waymakers were celebrating 50 years of gospel singing and their kids, Big Smith, also sang, adding their youthful energy to the concert. It really was a very special evening and another time that Bilyeu cousins enjoyed some time together. I also got to visit with Garland and Marilyn France, some of our Taney County folks who attended.

Betty Lou (Keithley) Sackett asked me to announce the Keithley Reunion to be held on September 27. It will be in the air-conditioned Rockaway Beach Community Center and starts at 2:00 p.m. No meal will be served but feel free to bring snacks or finger foods.

Miss Jayne Meadows has been visiting in these parts and brought me a sign to put at our corner announcing the Meadows School Reunion. This Bi-annual event will be on Saturday, September 27. The day that Jayne brought the sign she had been in Branson to attend the funeral of Wade Meadows. Wade was at the last reunion two years ago and will surely be missed this year.

Rick Crum has been scouting for buck rubs and has seen one big enough to get his buck fever running. Bow season opens next week, so he will be on the lookout for that big one.

Debbie Lathrope called to let us know she has shingles and they are sure not much fun. She is just hoping to be well enough to attend the Lone Star Homecoming in October.

A Lone Star alumni has been called to his eternal rest. Rick's Uncle George (Bodie) Stolpe passed away recently at his home out West. We had not seen him for many years, but his daughter Evelyn and her family usually attend the Lone Star Homecoming.

Christie Biggs, Ashton and Erin Crum and I traveled to El Dorado, Kansas, Saturday to attend the wedding of our cousin, Brady Whitson. We made a turn-around trip, leaving at 7:30 a.m. and got home just before midnight. Mother's brother, Walter Davis and his wife, Nadine, were there, also Nadine's sister, Agnes. When we saw Uncle Walt last year he was recovering from an illness and moving pretty slow. He has had a good year and was quite spry, climbing up and down stairs as though they were nothing. It was good to see him and his family again. Bye for now.