Carol and I traveled down to our home county of Choctaw and town of Ackerman this weekend to participate in the 19th Annual Dawg Days of Summer festival which was held Friday and Saturday.
The weekend started on Main Street directly in front of City Hall with the Sunset Gospel Jubilee that featured two hours of entertainment by Sam Griffin, the Joyful Noise Quartet, the Spokesman Trio and yours truly. My time to sing came between 5:30 and 6:00 pm when the temperature was registering a blistering 109 degrees on the bank display about two store buildings away. It was a joy to proclaim the Gospel in song on the street where I held my first jobs over 40-plus years ago. My first job was cleaning shelves at Steadman's Grocery and the next was to shine shoes at Kelly's Barber Shop at 25 cents a shine. One of my part-time jobs during high school was at Rester’s Phillips 66 Service Station which was directly across the street from the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 (we called it the 10-cents store) where Carol worked. She recalls how I regularly made that trip across the street to purchase a popcorn snack from the Ben Franklin so that I could visit with her for a few minutes.
On Saturday the activities included a Classic Car and Truck Show on the Courthouse lawn. This event was sponsored by the Choctaw Cruisers and included 32 classes of vintage vehicles dating from 1900 to 1980. My dad, Marion Smith, entered his vintage 1927 Model T Touring Car and won a first place trophy in his division.
Read more about the 19th Annual Dawg Days of Summer festival in the Choctaw Plaindealer.
Here are some photos of the day (could that be Minnie Pearl in that hat) including the old Hotel Ackerman that is adjacent to the Courthouse property. We are so very pleased that our friend, Tom Sides, has purchased this historic old Ackerman landmark and will soon begin renovation. Read more about the Hotel Ackerman and its planned renovation from the Choctaw Plaindealer.
No comments:
Post a Comment