For your reading enjoyment, we continue to publish Rambling Vines by the late Marylea Vines as she re-calls events and names of Corning folks from many years ago. We are currently in the year 1992

Does anybody know when Daylight Savings time starts this year? For several years the starting time was the last weekend in April, and it continued until the last weekend in October. But a couple or so years ago it was changed to the first weekend in April, which was just fine with me. But, in reading another newspaper the other day it was mentioned that DST would start the last weekend in April. Who is in charge of making this decision anyway? It’s sure not me or it would remain year-round. I prefer the extra hour of daylight at the end of the workday so I can do a few things around the place. I know that the main argument for not having DST year-around is on account of the school children having to get out before daylight, and I can go along with that too… so there you are, no way of pleasing all the people all the time!

It is time to stop joking around and get serious about income tax. I’ve got to hurry and get mine in the mail so a refund will get back in time to pay our county taxes! Or at least I hope I get back enough to get squared up with the county and have a little dab left over. As a rule, I get a little money back from the federal but always owe money to the state. But it could be worse, I could owe some on both federal and state.

Fishing season is just around the corner and that’s where I am going to be spending a lot of time this Spring and early Summer. This is a bonus year for me, I get to buy a lifetime fishing license. I’ve always had a fishing license, and only once has it been checked and that was during a fishing-camping trip to Little Red River at Heber Springs. That’s where the game wardens travel by boat and can sneak upon a person, I know. We were fishing and didn’t know there was another soul around until friend Beverly was changing her seating position and happened to see a boat easing up alongside us, causing her to blurt out, “My goodness, here is the law and they are wearing guns, real guns!” They were very nice and even listened and laughed as Mrs. Drilling lamented about losing her lifetime fishing license and having to buy a new one from scratch… we also good-naturedly told them they had better be good to us because Scott Henderson and Alan Carter who both have highup positions with the Game and Fish. Scott is from Tuckerman and is Beverly’s cousin and Alan’s mother is the former Doris Carter of Corning… we also tried to claim kin to Austin Arnold, Clay County game warden, because we figured they wouldn’t know the difference. They really were nice game wardens, and they found us amusing, mostly because we didn’t have the faintest idea of how to fish for trout… here we were a group of catfish people out there trying to outsmart trout. We took our own fishing poles, with catfish hooks, and once our guide saw them, he wouldn’t let us take them out of the car trunk. That’s okay, we may not know as much as they do about trout fishing, but I would like to see some of them trying to land a frisky five- or six-pound catfish with their style of fishing.

I expect anytime to see some folks breaking gardens. You know that potatoes are to be planted on February 14. If you miss that date, plant them on March 17 and if you miss that date, plant them anyway. Russell Duffer told me that one year, a long time ago, his father tried to follow the advise of all the so-called gardening experts and planted potatoes on three different dates… as it turned out, all three of them were good dates and his mother cooked potatoes every way possible trying to keep the family from getting burned out on them.

I’m soon going to be eligible for Social Security after years of working toward that goal… and you know what? I’m not ready to sign up. That’s right, I still like my work, and I still enjoy being with people even though they are a different breed of people than when I started working in the public many years ago… people used to be polite! I don’t have that much to do at home, and I am not a yard and garden person, so what else is there to do except sit with my hands folded? My work here has been my life, having started as a teenager. I’ve had lots of other part-time, weekend and no-pay jobs, but this has been my only real job… the one I depended on for money to make car payments, etc. Through the years I worked Saturdays at Ben Franklin, gift wrapped on special occasions at Grabers, worked at the doughnut shop, spent Friday and Saturday nights with an elderly neighbor while her family was away, picked cotton, pulled bolls, helped to weed flower beds and carried in firewood for neighbors… anything to make enough money to take in the Saturday and Sunday afternoon matinees at the State Theatre. Maybe someday, but right now I intend to continue like always… roll out of bed every morning, looking forward to another day.

Now that we have mosquitoes under control, the crops harvested and the holidays behind us, it is time to start thinking abut the 4th of July Celebration. This year, because this is Leap Year, the all-day celebration will take place on Saturday. That’s the ideal day; folks can come from everywhere and stay from parade to fireworks. This should be one of the better years in the history of the Chamber-sponsored Celebration which started back in 1944.

Ground Hog Day will be Sunday, February 2. Here’s hoping the little fellow doesn’t see his shadow and get scared back into hiding for another six weeks.