RIVER CITY JOURNAL: ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT FOR HOMETOWN READERS

First, you need to know that your favorite hometown is about 80 miles west of Cape Girardeau in the Ozarks. It was in the national spotlight several years ago when some of the locals saw UFOs hovering over the old town dump.

You need to know that your favorite hometown newspaper includes neighborly news from country correspondents whose job it is to chit-chat on the telephone and type up the results for publication -- a party line in print, if you will.

You need to know that Lower Crane Pond is an area not too terribly far from your favorite hometown. As a matter of fact, Lower Crane Pond is where your very own father is from. The people there are good folks, and they tell good stories, but they would never conspire to hoodwink innocent newspaper readers.

You need to know that Anise Clemonds, a country correspondent, is honest and forthright in her writing. You know this, because folks from Lower Crane Pond wouldn't cotton to anyone making up stuff about what happens in their neck of the woods.

You need to know that Lower Crane Pond gets its name not from a pond, but from Crane Pond Creek, which meanders around the Ozarks and even drains some of Brushy Creek, where your mother is from. It is somehow significant that the clear, cool, spring-fed creek connects not only farms and hills but families and generations too.

Now you need to read the Lower Crane Pond news for last week. It is presented almost in its entirety, because to condense it would destroy the very elements that make country correspondence so readable, so enjoyable and so valuable. Here goes:

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Lower Crane Pond

By Anise Clemonds

First off, let me say, weather permitting, on Feb. 4, there will be dinner or supper at the Free Union Baptist Church on C highway out of Annapolis beginning around 3 p.m. Around 5 p.m. there will be gospel singing by several different groups and individuals. They are calling this a talent show, so anyone that plays or sings, just come on out and join in.

I had a nice surprise Tuesday evening when friends Bud and Pauline Stiener of Piedmont came by for a visit. They had been to the cemetery to see a new tombstone that had been placed at her grandfather's grave. I sure enjoyed their visit.

Nellie Hamilton is at home now and I've been told she is doing a little better. She has been a very sick lady. We hope she continues to improve. Her daughter Della Dudley isn't doing any good at all. She had to go back to the hospital last week.

Back at the first part of December, Loyd and Juanita Files experienced the scare and joy of having a UFO follow them from over on the river back to their home here. Others watching it were Wheeler and Jean Williams, Claude and Pam Files and boys and I think Glen and Dorothy Miller. Juanita tried to call me but I was at the church along with a few others practicing our Christmas program. They all enjoyed watching it but at the same time felt a little apprehensive. They said it hovered awhile over Harry Kunkel's house up by Crane Pond bridge.

Well, what do you know. I have a reader of this column at Grand Junction, Colo. by the name of Virginia Brown. She is looking for information on the Suttons and Brewers of the Annapolis area for her family tree. Her address is ... .

Belated anniversary wishes to Doodle and Karion Sutton whose 27th anniversary was Jan. 6, the day our ice fell.

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This was on page 5 of your favorite hometown weekly. The front page was full of mayor candidates and the local basketball rivalry.

By the way, please join in extending get-well wishes to Nellie Hamilton and Della Dudley and a happy-anniversary wish for Doodle and Karion.

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian. Not one word of this column was made up. Honest.