For your reading enjoyment, we continue to publish Rambling Vines by the late Marylea Vines as she recalls events and names of Corning folks from many years ago. We are currently in the year 1990

Some of us have had a brainstorm… we think it would be neat for everyone to wear their red 4th of July teeshirt on Tuesday before the 4th. This way, any out-of-towners coming around would have no doubts about how we feel about our 4th of July celebration, the Liberty Bell, The Declaration of Independence, and Old Glory around here. Everyone is welcome to join us on our tee shirt day, next Tuesday.

Mrs. Edith Whitside of Lake Worth, Florida, is visiting in the Corning and Pocahontas area and hopes to stay long enough to attend the 4th of July celebration at Wynn Park. Another former resident who is proud of the upkeep of Corning Cemetery, stopped by The Courier to leave a check to be turned over to the Corning Cemetery Trust Fund. We appreciate all contributions, in any amount… they all go for a common cause, to assure that we will never be ashamed of our cemetery’s appearance.

I’ve noticed as I gradually grow older, strange things keep cropping up, such as this past week when I had a catch in my back that just about drove me mad. All in the world I was doing was filling Putter’s swimming pool when I reached over to turn off the water and it caught me. Boy, did it ever hurt! I spent the rest of the weekend lying on the floor with an ice pack on my side. Putter doesn’t understand what happened, but whatever it was, he is glad because he sure wasn’t wanting in that old swimming pool!

I’ve had back problems for years… since I fell from a tree and was out cold as a cucumber for several hours, then had to stay in bed for days. The doctor was pretty sure that I nearly broke my back, but we had no way of telling back then… only the very seriously ill went to the hospital and being unconscious wasn’t classified as “that” serious.

I think the people of Corning and surrounding area, as well as all our visitors, need to know that Corning Wal-Mart is the only Wal-Mart out of all the Wal-Mart Stores everywhere that will be closed on Wednesday, July 4th. Our store will close, and their associates will be right out there working from beginning to end of the big day. Besides that, they are always involved in on any projects which are for the good of the community… Of all the McDonald’s restaurants all over the world, the only one that will be closed on July 4th will be the Corning McDonald’s. They will be open for breakfast as usual, then close their doors so their workers can go to Wynn Park to help make a success of the annual 4th of July Celebration.

I got busy the other day and planted a small bed of Portulaca next to our driveway to remind me of my Grandma Clarkson. She always called it moss and it was only a few years ago that I learned it has another name. Portulaca is like Iris; you don’t have to have a green thumb to raise it… just set a clump of Iris down for two long and it will take roots and moss is about the same way once it gets it start. It used to be a big thing when visiting grandma to put a spoonful of dirt in an eggshell and plant a spring of moss in it. Many a time I have come from Knobel to Corning on the train carrying a match box holding moss-filled eggshells in one hand and my shoes in the other. My grandmother makes me board the train with my shoes on, but I took them off soon as she was gone.

It is six miles from Knobel to Corning via railroad and the trip took just a few minutes, but my grandmother wouldn’t let me come home on the train unless someone else would be responsible for me. A number of times we would walk all the way over to the Knobel depot and if someone she knew was not coming to Corning, she took me right back home with her and I had to take off my good clothes and put on my play clothes until the next day.

Of course, I had a history of showing out on the train. Once when my sister and I and her friend were going to Knobel, I asked to hold my ticket, then wouldn’t sit with them. When the conductor came through collecting tickets I looked him straight in the face, rolled my eyes innocently, and said that I didn’t have one.

Well, he knew better because we had both made the trip too many times. He became right testy, asking, “Well, how old are you little lady?” When I said that I was five, he said, “I betcha you go to school.” Of course I went to school, I was fixing to be in the Second grade, but I had already gone too far to back down so I said, “No, but I will next year, and Miss Jewel will be my teacher.”

By the time all this transpired, we were at Knobel, and I was still clinching my 13-cent ticket in my fist.

My sister never let on that anything out of the ordinary was going on until the minute our feet hit the station platform. She started yelling and swatting at me and she kept it up until we got all the way to Sellmeyer’s Store, which was a pretty good piece from the train station. I broke loose from her and ran hard as I could, hitting Grandma’s front porch screeching like an Apache, with my sister right behind me. She was so embarrassed that she was crying all over the place and the first 30 minutes of our visit found grandma trying to pacify her and scolding me. From that day forward I didn’t have to worry about my sister taking me to Knobel with her on the train.

I didn’t want to go with her anyway, it was more fun to visit grandma alone when we could do things like plant moss in egg shells, walk down the street to visit with Mrs. Douglas and other neighbors and look at gardens late in the evening, go to store to visit Miss Lora who just might be handing out free lollypops and sitting in the porch swing at night hunting out the Big Dipper, Little Dipper and etc. in the sky.