Lois Ailene (Vassar) DuCharme, 87, of Waldron, Arkansas went to be with her Lord and Savior, Sunday, July 16, 2023 at her home surrounded by her loving family. Lois was born October 18, 1935 to Volney Vassar and Lillian (Nelson) Vassar in Florence, Wisconsin. She was one of fifteen children. Lois was married to Ned Charles DuCharme and together they raised six children and played a huge role in the lives of their grandchildren.
Lois enjoyed going to the Senior Citizens Center in Mena. She had many friends that she would play bingo with, listen to music and dance. She was a hard worker her entire life, she raised her six children while being a homemaker and doing farm work including tending to the cows. Lois loved baking and would bake cakes for her children’s afterschool snack daily. She enjoyed fishing and being with her family. Above all, Lois was a caregiver at heart and took care of her husband and daughter. She was a compassionate and caring person.
Lois leaves behind to cherish her memory four of her children: Glen DuCharme and Ressa of Butler, Missouri; Marie Himes and husband Bill of Waldron, Arkansas; Mark DuCharme and wife Kate of Las Vegas, Nevada and Barton DuCharme and wife Debby of Nella, Arkansas. Grandma will forever remain in the hearts of her ten grandchildren: Ned DuCharme, Preston DuCharme, Brandi Ortega, Cassie Beck, Celeste Ashford, Ridge Robinson, Koleman DuCharme, Daintrie DuCharme, Christina Metcalf and Candace Curtis; as well as multiple great-grandchildren and great great-grandchildren. Lois is also survived by one sister Linda Erickson of Connecticut and many nieces and nephews. Lois will be missed by all that knew her and those lives she impacted and cared for.
Lois was preceded in death by her loving husband, Ned DuCharme; her parents, Volney and Lillian Vassar, and her children Hartley Aaron DuCharme and Odette Louise DuCharme.
Lois’ memorial service will be at 10:00 a.m. Friday, July 21, 2023 at the DuCharme Family Farm in Nella, Arkansas with Rev. Mike Shaddon officiating. Arrangements & Cremation Services are being entrusted to the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home in Waldron, Arkansas.
Lucille Edwards, 85, of Mansfield, Arkansas, passed away July 14, 2023 in Greenwood, Arkansas.
She was an avid gardener, a member of Pleasant Grove #2 Baptist Church, and a devoted mother and grandmother.
She is survived by one daughter, Rosalee (Dennis)Townley, two sons, Preston Edwards and Gene Edwards, one sister, Florence Parker, seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
She is proceeded in death by her husband, Afton Edwards.
Visitation will be 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Tuesday July 18, 2023 at Martin Funeral Home Chapel in Mansfield with a graveside at 2:00 pm at Pleasant Grove #2.
Online condolences may be sent at www.martinfuneralhomes.com
ROGERS- Northwest Arkansas’ second professional sports franchise is set to begin play in the very near future. The Kansas City Royals’ minor league affiliate, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, calls Springdale their home, and soon to come, professional soccer is now on the horizon for the Northwest Arkansas city of Rogers.
The United Soccer League announced Wednesday that an exclusive partnership has been formed with USL Arkansas, a group that will bring a professional men’s and women’s soccer club to Northwest Arkansas, as the region’s first professional teams, a news release from USL states.
The league is owned and operated by United Soccer League and was formed as result of the merger of their USL First (USL-1) and Second Divisions (USL-2), following the 2010 season which saw neither the USL-1 nor the North American Soccer League (NASL) receive Division II sanctioning from the USSF, resulting in the temporary USSF Division 2 Pro League. United Soccer Leagues stated that the merger would strengthen the league’s position within the American professional soccer landscape through stability, commercial growth and the professional development of soccer in four main regions throughout the United States and Canada.[3]
USL Arkansas is led by co-founders Chris Martinovic and Warren Smith.
Martinovic, a longtime business executive in Northwest Arkansas with a lifelong passion for soccer, and Smith, a seasoned professional in the sports industry with a proven track record in building teams and stadium solutions across the country, “bring a unique blend of expertise and enthusiasm to the venture,” the news release states.
Image Credit: Odell Associates, Inc.
Founded in 2010, the United Soccer League has rapidly grown into a globally respected organization that is shaping the future of soccer in America as the first to build complete youth-to-pro pathways for men and women in one ecosystem.
The USL Championship currently features 24 men’s professional teams each playing a 34-game regular season from March to October and receives Division II sanctioning from the U.S. Soccer Federation. USL teams average more than 5,000 fans per game with teams such as Louisville City SC, New Mexico United, Sacramento Republic, and Indy Eleven regularly drawing more than 10,000 fans per game.
Kicking off its inaugural season in August 2024, the USL Super League will bring world-class professional women’s soccer closer to home for more communities across the country and plans to receive Division I sanctioning from U.S. Soccer. The USL Super League will play on an international “fall-to-summer” calendar to align with global women’s soccer.
USL Arkansas is committed to developing a 5,000 seat, multi-purpose stadium nestled in the Pinnacle Hills entertainment district in Rogers, Papadakis said.
“This move forms part of the wider vision of both Martinovic and Smith to embed the world’s game within the community and deliver an exciting, unique match-day entertainment experience for fans.
Image Credit: Axios.com
USL Arkansas’s goal is to begin play in the USL Championship before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in the United States and in the fall that same year for the USL Super League, the USL news release states.
USL Arkansas has begun a listening session campaign where the club hopes to learn from the community what it wants to see from their club. The official team name, colors, and branding will be developed through this process and over the months to come.
For more information on the United Soccer League, readers can click here to be redirected to the league’s official website: United Soccer League (uslsoccer.com)
Stay with RNN Sports as we bring you updates on this exciting addition to Northwest Arkansas and for soccer fans across the state!
BOONEVILLE- Bearcats running back Dax Goff set a Booneville single-season rushing record last year and led the vaunted Booneville rushing attack to a state record single season team rushing record. The Bearcats rushed for 5,956 yards as a team which was a state single season record.
Perhaps more impressive, the Bearcats played just 14 games last season (Cedarville forfeited their game to the Bearcats). So, the state total and average yards per game that is based upon fifteen games (10 regular season games and 5 state playoff games) was actually achieved in just fourteen games for the Bearcats. Of those fourteen, Goff played in thirteen, making his single season total even more impressive.
Individually, Dax broke the Booneville single season rushing record with 2,323 yards last season. In doing so, he broke the Bearcats’ Ronnie Littleton’s record from 1978 of 1,967 yards.
As a junior, the record-breaking year in 2022 set the Booneville running back up for a much-anticipated senior season in 2023. The Bearcats will be the prohibitive choice to win the 3A-1 conference and to make another deep run in the state playoffs. And driving the Bearcats all offseason has been the mantra “unfinished business” to erase the bad memories of the state title game from a season ago. But in 2023, Booneville will be the favorite to win it all at War Memorial Stadium.
Senior Dax Goff will be an important leader for the Bearcats this season. Goff, who committed last spring to play football at Harding University in 2024, will return as a three-year starter for the Bearcats. But Goff is much more than a running back that is virtually unstoppable to opposing defenses. Goff also plays linebacker for the Bearcats and that is the position his future college coaches at Harding have plans for him to play. Harding University is an excellent match for the gifted Bearcat athlete who also holds a 4.2 high school grade point average.
Booneville’s Dax Goff (34) projects as a college linebacker at Harding University in 2024 (RNN Sports File Photo / Jim Best)
Last week, RNN Sports had the pleasure of visiting with Dax over the phone for this story. Finding the opportunity to visit with him proved to be a bit of a challenge as he is a multi-sport athlete that is busy virtually all day practicing more than one sport each day. He has tremendous work ethic and puts in a full day everyday with practice and off-season conditioning. He is highly motivated, and putting in the work to be successful is just second nature to him. So, when we finally connected between football practice, basketball practice, and even golf, Dax spent about thirty minutes on the phone with me, and it was great to hear his responses and to get to know him a little better. One can hear the fierce competitiveness in his voice, and his attitude toward his approach to his preparation and conditioning. He is driven in his goals and intensity, and he is the consummate warrior and competitor.
I started our conversation by referencing a time in June of 2022 when I saw Booneville at the Charleston summer football camp. As we talked, I mentioned to Dax that Booneville impressed me that day as a team that already looked like they were in mid-season form. The Bearcats ran the ball and were very physical with their blocking, tackling, and with Dax running the football. Dax responded by saying, “This year we have been working a lot more on adding speed to my game. Last year, I was decently fast, but not like really fast. This year I am looking to add speed and not just physicality but putting on some more muscle.”
Undoubtedly, this is scary for opposing defenses to read. Dax was a devastating runner last year, and a faster and stronger Dax Goff in 2023 may set records that will not be broken for a long time.
The multi-sport, talented Goff set a single game rushing record last season against the West Fork Tigers. Goff rushed for 307 yards on just 16 carries against the Tigers. That night, Goff had long touchdown runs of 70 and 75 yards each, as well as a third long run of 63 yards. Goff’s record-breaking night broke the previous Booneville record of 298 yards that had been previously held by Colton Waters.
Dax Goff (34) holds the Booneville single season rushing record (RNN Sports File Photo / Jim Best)
For the 2022 season, Goff rushed for a Booneville single season record of 2,243 yards with 27 touchdowns on 144 carries in 13 games.
Adding speed to Goff’s game will benefit him and the Bearcats this fall but will also further his development into a college football player for 2024. Goff added, “If I can get good at it now (adding speed and muscle) I will be just that much ahead when I get to college.”
But as good as Dax Goff is at running the football, his Harding coaches plan to play him at linebacker. Dax said, “I am 100 percent a linebacker (in college). I asked them if I was going to play offense or defense, and they said, “you’re a good defensive guy for us.”” As a linebacker, Dax will need his new speed to cover backs out of the backfield on passing routes and to run from sideline to sideline against college athletes who themselves possess good speed.
Dax announced his college commitment immediately following the district baseball tournament last spring. Kansas State had been talking a lot to Dax, and many fans thought his future would be as a Kansas State Wildcat. But Dax committed to Harding University, and there he will receive an excellent college education and will have the opportunity to play NCAA Division II football in a very good Bisons football program. He is very solid on his commitment to Harding and can now just concentrate on his senior year of high school. “Actually, the Kansas State coach (recruiter) was coming to Booneville for spring football practice, but I was pretty solid with Harding, and I wanted to save him a trip.”
Looking ahead to the 2023 high school season, the turnover bug has hit the coaching ranks in the 3A-1 conference. Several of the member schools have new coaches entering the 2023 season. I asked Dax what, if any, effect that might have on the Bearcats’ preparation for the upcoming conference season. Dax responded by saying, “We talked about the head coaching changes and how they could affect some of the teams that we play (in conference). I don’t know if that is going to be better or worse for them, but we are not going to change our game plan. We are just going to keep it the same.”
At the end of the 2022 season, Booneville played at home in the first round of the state playoffs against Junction City, and then played three consecutive state playoff games on the road; in some cases, in excess of three hours away from Booneville. So, when the Bearcats arrived in Little Rock in December for the state championship game, the Bearcats were playing away from home for four consecutive weeks. It was impressive that Booneville was able to travel that much to play good teams in the playoffs and make it to the championship game. That much travel is hard to do at the end of the season as player injuries continue to mount along with the fatigue of traveling.
But the Bearcats run fell just short of a state title, and that is not lost to Goff and the Bearcats. So, I asked him simply, is that the goal for 2023? Goff shared that there are a lot of newcomers to the program that he thinks will contribute next season. The team is a little younger but will be extremely talented. The Bearcats will have to be relatively injury free going throughout the season. Injuries hurt the team last year, and as it is so many times in 3A football, a good football team can fall quickly with a rash of injuries. But this writer expects the Bearcats to win the 3A-1 and to make another run to the title game in 2023.
A multi-sport athlete, Dax Goff (21) earned All-State honors for the second consecutive year in baseball (RNN Sports File Photo / Jim Best)
Perhaps most impressive of Dax’s performance last year was the pressure that he carried in light of the injuries that hurt the Bearcats last season. With each injury, it became more important for Goff to have a big game and carry Booneville to a victory each week. I asked him if he felt the pressure or the expectation of others, looking to Dax to carry the load for the Bearcats. He said, “I felt some pressure, I knew I had to have a big game, but I just tried to get some momentum going for us. Once we did, we were unstoppable.”
As a football program, Booneville has never been afraid to play good non-conference opponents. Last year, it was Harding Academy. Two years ago, the Bearcats loaded their charter bus and drove to Texas to play a prominent Texas program. This year, Booneville will again play Harding Academy in their second game. “Our coach won’t back down from anybody. It’s more of a “We are Booneville, and we are going to play physical, and we are going to hit you in the mouth. Even if you win, you are going to go home with bumps and bruises.”
When I asked him about his goals for 2023, he told me that “In our locker room, there is a banner that has the score of last year’s championship score and says, “Unfinished Business.” So, the goal for this year is to blow everybody away and show them that we are back.”
Goff won the 2023 state indoor long jump held at the University of Arkansas (Image Credit: Booneville Schools / Glenn Parrish)
As a player, individually, Dax said his goal was to break Randon Ray’s career rushing record at Booneville of 4,342 yards. Ray set the records in 2021 when he broke his father’s record that was set in 1999. Goff has rushed for 3,270 yards in his illustrious career for the Bearcats and needs just 1,073 yards this season to break Ray’s school record.
He will have the benefit of running behind a returning offensive line that has a lot of experience. In addition to his returning starters on the offensive line, Dax mentioned that there are also some transfer players from Greenwood that will contribute on the line of scrimmage. Defensively, Dax said, “We are going to have a young defense. I think we will have two or three seniors on defense. The rest will be sophomores and juniors.”
Dax is a talented athlete who will play five sports in the 2023-24 school year: football, basketball, golf, track, and baseball. Last year, he won the state indoor title in the long jump and finished second in the triple jump. Openly, he is the type of athlete that I envied when I was in school. He can walk on and play any sport and instantly play well, regardless of the sport. The type of athlete that I always wanted to be but never was. Oh well!
Booneville’s Dax Goff catches a pass in last week’s 7-on-7 scrimmage at Russellville (RNN Sports Photo / Glenn Parrish)
RNN Sports will continue to follow Dax Goff and the Booneville Bearcats all season during the 2023-24. Our contributing photojournalist, Glenn Parrish of the Booneville School District, will publish stories all throughout the year, keeping the Bearcats fans base up to date on the latest developments. I will check back in with Dax later in the football season, and RNN Sports will feature him again during the Bearcats run to the football playoffs.
We would like to thank Dax Goff again for his time and contributions to this story. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Booneville Schools Director of Communications, and RNN Sports contributor, Glenn Parrish, for his contributions to this story, as well.
And on behalf of everyone at RNN Sports, we wish Dax and the Booneville Bearcats all of the best next season!
POTTSVILLE- After a two-week break mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association where athletes from across the state were not allowed to access school workout facilities or to participate in organized practices or games, teams returned to the hot summer grind in the next phase of preparation for the upcoming high school football season.
The Paris Eagles football team made the trip to Pottsville last week to participate along with three other schools in a summer camp. Paris, along with Lincoln, Hackett, and the host Pottsville Apaches, played in a camp format scrimmage for approximately 95 minutes. Although the day was overcast, the upper 80s heat along with very high humidity was a tough test for the players. In fact, some players showed signs of struggling with the heat. The coaches ended the camp a few minutes early, perhaps because of the heat and humidity.
The Paris Eagles, who will be young and talented in 2023, continued to show good progress and development. The Eagles have played in camps at Charleston and in Pottsville, and to this observer, the team continues to look better and better with each opportunity to play against other schools. The Eagles will be relatively inexperienced this season, although several of the players received significant playing time in 2022. There are only three seniors on this year’s roster, and only two of those three have played.
The Eagles will continue the final weeks of summer workouts before August preseason practices begin. Paris opens the 2023 season at home when they will host the Waldron Bulldogs in a non-conference opener for both schools. Paris will then travel to Mansfield on September 1 in another non-conference matchup with the Tigers.
Stay with RNN Sports as we bring you continued coverage of preseason high school football in the River Valley!
PARIS- The Paris High School girls basketball program hosted its annual summer youth game last week at Paris Gymnasium. Girls entering grades 3-7 in the 2023-24 school year were invited to participate in the camp.
Lady Eagles second year head basketball coach, Jonathan Vire, and his camp staff that consisted of Lady Eagles assistant Tatum Wilhite along with players from the varsity basketball team, provided instruction for the campers.
Approximately 25 girls attended the first day of the camp. According to Coach Vire, it was a good turnout given the complexity of schedules during the summer with students on vacation, playing on travel teams, etc.
The Paris staff took the campers through individual skill drills, competitions, and team play. A good time was had by all, and the 2023 edition of the youth camp was considered a success. The youth camp is an excellent opportunity for players to develop their skills, as well as an opportunity for the Paris high school program to develop its base of future players.
To be successful in most endeavors, it’s important to develop good habits — and that’s certainly the case for investors. And the earlier one develops these habits, the better. So, if you have teenagers who may be starting to work at part-time jobs, now may be a great time to introduce them to investing — and one place to begin might be a Roth IRA.
As you may know, a Roth IRA is a popular retirement savings vehicle — its earnings can grow federally tax-free, provided withdrawals aren’t taken until the investor is at least 59½ and has had the account five or more years. But because a Roth IRA is funded with after-tax dollars, contributions can be withdrawn at any time, penalty-free, to pay for any expenses — including college. Roth IRA earnings can also be used to help pay for college, although these withdrawals will be taxable. However, if a child is the account owner, a lower tax bracket will likely apply.
In 2023, up to $6,500 per year can go into your teenager’s Roth IRA, as long as the
amount contributed doesn’t exceed the amount of their taxable compensation for the year. And your child doesn’t have to put all the money in — you and the child’s grandparents can also contribute. In fact, you might want to “match” your child’s contributions up to the limit to provide an incentive for them to continue investing in the Roth IRA. Not only will your matching contribution help build the Roth IRA’s assets but it can also instill in your child’s mind the benefit of earning a match – which can prove valuable later on, when your child is in the workforce full time and has a chance to receive an employer’s matching contributions in a 401(k) or similar plan.
Your child may well find a job at a local restaurant or shop, as these businesses have experienced a shortage of workers the past couple of years. But if you have a family business, you can employ your teen to provide income that can go into a Roth IRA. Furthermore, if the business is one parent’s sole proprietorship, or it’s a partnership in which each partner is the parent, the payments for a child younger than 18 are not subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. As an employee, your child must perform reasonable tasks necessary for the business and be paid reasonable wages — that is, wages comparable to what you’d pay a regular employee for the same work.
But wherever your child’s wages come from, using some of them to help fund a Roth IRA can be a good move. For one thing, it gives you a chance to explain the value of putting time on your side when you invest — simply put, the more years you invest, the greater your chances of accumulating the resources you need to meet your goals. And by helping your teen open a Roth IRA, which holds stocks, mutual funds or virtually any other type of security, you can discuss the different risk/reward characteristics of various types of investments — the kind of basic knowledge that all investors should have.
Once your teen’s first paychecks start coming in, consider bringing up the idea of opening a Roth IRA — you may well be opening the door to a lifetime of consistent and informed investing.
This article is provided by Jeffrey O’Neal, Financial Advisor Edward Jones 20 N Express St, Paris, AR 72855 479-963-1321 jeffrey.o’neal@edwardjones.com edwardjones.com/jeffrey-o’neal Edward Jones, Member SIPC
Robin Yvonne (Howell) Helton of Waldron, Arkansas passed from this life, July 11, 2023 in Fort Smith, Arkansas with loved ones by her side. Robin was born November 10, 1960 to JT Howell and Sharon (Reagan) Howell. She was 62 years old.
Robin married the love of her life, Grady Helton, in 1981. Together they shared 42 years of love, companionship, becoming parents and then enjoyed the titles of grandparents. Robin enjoyed going to yard sales, fishing, and taking care of her home. Her true passion was being surrounded by family and making precious memories. Robin touched the lives of many young children over the years as she served as a teacher in the Early Child Development. She treated each child as her own and loved them fiercely. Robin had a sweet spirit and kind heart she shared with everyone.
Robin leaves behind to cherish her memory, her loving and devoted husband Grady Helton, her children: Brandi Wesley and Jay Helton. Meme will forever remain in the hearts of 5 granddaughters and 2 grandsons. Robin leaves a legacy with her siblings: Krystal Chisum and David Howell. Robin will be missed by all that knew her and the many whose lives she impacted including a host of extended family and friends.
Robin was preceded in death by her parents: JT and Sharon Howell, brother James Travis Howell and sister Cindy Howell.
Robin’s memorial life celebration will be 2:00 p.m. Monday, July 17, 2023 at the New Life Center in Waldron, Arkansas with Trey Broomfield officiating.
By Ryan McGeeney U of A System Division of Agriculture
Pasture managers across Arkansas are reporting extraordinarily low yields from first cuttings.
Kenny Simon, instructor and extension forage specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said growers are seeing yields from first cuttings of ryegrass and other forage grasses reduced anywhere from 25 to 75 percent of expectations.
According to the July 10 Crop Progress report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 81 percent of non-alfalfa hay was in good or fair condition, with 11 percent rated poor or very poor. The same report showed 24 percent at a second cutting of hay, compared to 50 percent last year. Ninety-eight percent had completed a first cutting of hay, just short of last year’s 100 percent.
Simon said that with record-high fertilizer prices last year — doubling and nearly tripling in some cases — many growers chose to put out less fertilizer in fields than they typically would.
“Or perhaps none at all,” he said.
“But this low fertility issue is not something that’s come about overnight,” Simon added. “It’s an accumulation of several years.”
Simon said that despite outreach efforts by the Cooperative Extension Service and other farming resources, there persists a widespread misunderstanding of soils’ true nutritional needs.
“It’s typical that a producer will fertilize a field with a complete fertilizer early in the season, then only come back with nitrogen as needed,” he said. “We’ve been doing our best to educate growers about the importance of soil fertility and the correct fertilizer applications.
“Of course, sometimes it’s simply the case that the producers understand what they need to be doing, but it’s just not economically feasible,” he said.
Other issues have conspired to affect the year’s hay crop as well. Les Walz, extension agriculture and natural resources educator,said the first cutting in the state fell victim to the “perfect storm.”
“Last year, we had the drought across a large portion of the state,” Walz said. “Nobody wanted to fertilize during a drought, especially given the high prices, so we had low-fertility fields going into the winter.
“Then we had that freeze the week of Christmas, where we had single-digit temperatures, and we got a lot of winterkill on some of our warm season perennial grasses, like Bermuda and bahia, as well as turfgrass and some ornamentals” he said.
This year’s notably wet spring was then capped off by an unusually cool May, with overnight temperatures consistently in the 50s in the northern part of the state. The southern portion of the state saw those cool temperatures during the first week of May, which Walz said delayed their growth.
“With 50-degree nights, the warm season grasses really didn’t take off,” Walz said. “All those things fell in line to add up to a really bad first cutting.”
Most cattle and hay producers in Arkansas tend to let cattle graze those pastures for much of the first half of the year, Simon said, executing a first cutting in the early summer and a second cutting three to five weeks later, depending on the grass variety. Producers who maintain dedicated hay fields may take as many as four or even five cuttings in a season.
For the majority of Arkansas producers, however, much is riding on this year’s second cutting. Simon said that the ongoing rainfall throughout much of the state will likely benefit most growers, provided they can harvest their grasses at the right moment.
“The nutrient value is largely tied to the maturity stage of the plant,” Simon said. “It’s the No. 1 thing that influences forage quality. In areas where we’re getting rain, grass is maturing quickly.”
In 2022, many cattle producers in Arkansas and elsewhere were forced to deeply cull their herds, selling off more than they preferred, as the year’s widespread drought made forage scarce. Simon said that despite a disappointing first cutting, cattle producers may yet be able to harvest and stockpile enough forage to avoid a second year of drastic culling.
Greener in 2023 “We’re a lot greener now than we were this time last year,” Simon said. “We might have a really good second cutting, or even a third.”
Going forward, Simon said that soil testing — and adhering to appropriate fertilizer recommendations in response — will be key for pasture managers hoping for a more reliable first cutting in 2024 and beyond. Additionally, managing the canopy height of grasses will also be essential to success, he said.
“When doing a hay cutting, we need to raise our mower to a 2 to 3-inch height,” he said. “A common thread I’ve seen in damaged fields is that they were scalped to the ground, cut at 1-1.5 inches, and cut late in the season.
“With the forage top growth, the root system is a mirror image of the canopy,” he said. “If you have 1-2 inches of top growth, your roots are going to be really shallow in the soil.”
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.
Hello everyone! I was on vacation last week, that is why I didn’t write my article. I took the week off. I had a nice week and only had one fall on Friday and fell flat on my back. I was pretty sore, let me tell ya, but I’m about over it. We took a little trip to Hot Springs and had a good time.
This week I am going to talk about my husband, Chuck. I could write for days on the things he’s done during our married life. I will never forget the first time I saw him. I wish I could tell you that there was Berry White music playing in the background and my hair was blowing in the wind, but that was not the case. Chuck had just got off work and was dirty, but he had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. He was a Yankee; he was born close to Pittsburgh. He never had fried okra or white gravy. Yes, you read it right. I thought he was crazy. He never learned to like either one. We had many travels, adventures and fights.
One Christmas we decided to go to his dad and stepmoms in Toledo, OK. We loaded up and away we went. Chuck Hopkins always, always insisted that he could drive straight through any where we were going. This caused endless arguments when traveling with kids, that is not a good practice. When we left, he says, we are driving straight thru and not stopping. My first clue that it would be an awful trip. When we were young, he would never let me drive because he said I didn’t know how to drive and when I backed up, I backed up by braille. He got tired that night and took an exit and stopped in a grocery store parking lot to get a few winks of sleep. When he woke up, he was behind the wheel, and he starts yelling at me asking “where in the world have you took us?” I yelled, “ME???! You’re the one behind the wheel, I don’t know where we are!” We finally make it to Toledo for Christmas, and I sure dreaded the drive back home.
One night we had a big fight, and I was going to leave (just for a little while) and he disconnected something on the car so it wouldn’t start. So, I marched in the house and got a skillet and whacked him with it. He laughed at me! Can you believe that? It just made me madder. One time we were not really fighting, he was just mouthing a little and I told him to hush. He proceeded to mouth, and we were bickering back and forth. I was cooking supper and had a can of green beans in my hand, and I threw it into the living room just to get his attention. Low and behold, it hit him right in the side of the head. It’s a miracle I didn’t kill the man. He didn’t laugh about that at first, and then we both busted out laughing.
Memories are all I have of him now. We had a lot of good times. He took me to Niagra Falls for our Honeymoon. We traveled a lot before we had children and saw a lot of sights. Trust me, he wanted to drive straight thru everywhere we went.
Just a FYI, anytime I take a road trip, I take my small ice chest. I guess I have PTSD from hardly ever getting to stop. Even if I go to Fort Smith, I put me some pop and ice in the ice chest and head out. When I went to Fayetteville, I had my ice chest in the car and Curtis was wondering where I was going. Just Fayetteville, Curtis. Can’t be took careful, you might get to needing a road beverage.
We had a tornado last night and I hope everyone is ok. We had several houses with damage. Be safe, more is on the way. This week’s recipe I got from Tawana Williams. It’s called Church Salad. Women used to take it to church dinners and such. It’s a nice treat for the summer. Hope y’all have a great week!
CHURCH SALAD 1 can of cherry pie filling 1 cup crushed pineapple 1 cup coconut (optional) 1 cup crushed nuts 1 cup mini marshmallows 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1 regular tub of Cool Whip 1 cup of mandarin oranges (optional) Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. I would mix the sweetened condensed milk and Cool Whip first then stir in the rest.
