APRIL 17-19, 2009

What a busy weekend! Friday afternoon I had several hours in the garden and I finally feel like I'm making progress. I've now planted broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, sugar snap peas and blackberries. My jalepeno, banana and bell peppers should be in this week and I hope to get those and my watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries in the ground before the weekend. Abby planted close to 90 gladiola bulbs last weekend and I still have more to plant. I have a row of daylilies and I've planted seeds for wildflowers and lavender. And my roses, of course. I still have several different kinds of flower seeds to plant once I re-line my coco baskets, along with some potato vine and purslane.

Saturday threatened rain all day so I was hesitant to get started on anything outside. I had no choice but to do the dreaded housework and laundry. Saturday afternoon I attended Brian and Leah Herndon's wedding at the Church of Christ here in Oxford and got to visit with many Aberdeen friends. Afterward Mike and Mona, Mike and Marie, Gus and Judy and Eden and I met for dinner and it was such fun. The Caysons had to get back to Starkville, the Jones to Tupelo and the Mills had an early flight to DC on Sunday so we had to say our goodbyes fairly early. Eden and I headed to City Grocery to meet up with the Herndon wedding crowd. By then it was pouring rain, but it didn't spoil our night. We had a great time.

Leslie and I both love to ride around and explore country roads, so since Nicky and Eden had gone to the farm and Abby had company, on Sunday afternoon we set out to see what we could see. I discovered while researching my family that Daddy's Maternal Grandfather, Eugene Riley Jones had been born in Sardis, MS and Mama's Maternal GGG Grandfather, A A Edmonson had moved his family to Saline Co. Arkansas from Coffeyville, MS. We headed to Panola County to Sardis initially, but we ran into wind, rain and finally hail. The sky looked much clearer the other way so we turned around and headed toward Yalobusa County. We took a detour by Enid Lake first(Leslie had never been there).

From Enid we took Hwy. 51 North, then cut through to Scoby to hit Hwy. 330 to Coffeyville. We passed this old cemetery somewhere near Scoby. There was no sign or marker of any kind. Some of the graves were way back in the woods and many of the monuments were on the ground. I'm sure I'll end up with a good case of poisen ivy because it was everywhere, but I couldn't resist traipsing through the neglected graves. Although several of the graves were well tended and cared for, I had never seen so many graves that appeared to be abandoned and forgotten. Some of the markers were very ornate and finely crafted and others were very roughly inscribed as you can see. It made me very curious.




I wanted to walk through some of the old cemeteries in Coffeyville to see if I could find any Edmonson graves. We stopped at the main cemetery in town, but never saw the name Edmonson. There was a very impressive Bryant famly plot, with some of the biggest monuments and markers I've ever seen. They were obviously a very important family in Coffeyville. I did notice that one of the Bryant men buried there was a Circuit Judge in Arkansas, which I found to be a little coincidental(he had every school he ever attended and every job he ever had on his tombstone . . . it was massive!). He was from Coffeyville and became a Circuit Judge in Arkansas; my mama's people went to Arkansas from Coffeyville; there's a town in Arkansas named Bryant . . . never mind. Anyway, it started to rain again so we had to cut our visit short. I've noticed that everytime I try to visit cemeteries looking for family graves it starts to rain. Leslie says it's a sign! Of what, she didn't know. I'll have to ponder that one.

We drove around Coffeyville for a bit and saw a quaint little town. I also located the Yalobusha County Courthouse. I hope to visit there on a week day sometime to do a little Edmonson research.

I'd never been to downtown Water Valley, so we drove over there. It's also a pretty little town with many nice homes and gardens.

I didn't make much headway in the genealogy department, but it's always a delight to spend a day with Leslie. I'm looking forward to our Sardis Sunday.