By Pauline Tom
You cannot find M C Forester in Mountain City. Forester is connected to Mountain City through Mountain City Montage.
An opportunity came my way to share M C’s delightful response to the April 27 column (“Old Lady Forester, roadrunners, rattlesnakes) when Editor Moses electronically touched base when I was lounging under a grass-roofed “shade hut” on rocks by the sea in Negril Jamaica. Minimal keystroking, while sipping soursop fruit nectar with lime, did not convey, “M C does not live in Mountain City.”
Oh, what a hearty aloud laugh the column gave to me on Sunday when I returned.
M C’s laughter had her rolling on the floor. “Oh, Lord!! I sure did laugh for the longest and just couldn’t stop. That poor editor is in the dog house, got readers REALLY confused of where I live. Well, we do need a good laugh anyway. Take care and do come and visit me. Love, MCL”
Oh, what a week RonTom and I had “celebrating our 45th” in Jamaica. (Thank you, Southwest Airlines.) Never before have I been so heartsick the morning after a return. I longed to hear birds singing above my head and through the shutters before my eyes opened. A $1,103 shared breakfast of ackee with saltfish, callilou, and johnny cakes did not await me by a sea. (U.S. dollars, $9.35, with tax.)
I did not detail to Moses that our “45th anniversary celebration” will not finish up until December 11, the birthday of Beth Smith and Karen Herrmann. For our 40th, we started with a series of elements 40 weeks out. Come 50th, it’ll start Christmas Day. Whatever we do this year, even sipping a Slurpee, we are “celebrating.”
We departed Mountain City the morning after the ferocious wind-and-rain storm, so it wasn’t until Sunday’s walk that we took in the damage. In the Coffey’s front yard, side-by-side (seemingly grafted, but not) trees separated, almost at ground level. The oak still towers while the cedar elm sprawls across the lawn out to the street.
The city council decided that limbs will not be picked up now. Rather, each homeowner will deal with their own limbs. Burning is okay.
June 30, two months after the storm, is the end of the “not safe” time span, which started February 1, for intentionally pruning or wounding live oaks according to Oak Wilt Information Partnership, a project between the Texas A&M Forest Service, the Forest Health Protection branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
June 4 is City-Wide Garage Sale. Each household sets their start time and end time.
June 11 and 12 are Dumpster Days, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
July 4th Parade is July 4, 10 a.m..
Anyday at anytime is a good time to send tidbits. Email to ptom5678@gmail.com (subject: tidbit) or 512-268-5678. Thanks! Love, Pauline
