SPOTLIGHTING THE YEAR…1969 * And So They Say: Aggie Henry: “I took my first plane trip last week and now I can’t see why anyone wants to travel any other way.” Edna Blauer: “My week’s vacation will be over before Floyd and I make up our minds what we are going to do.” Bill Gouldman: “I have tomatoes on my vines as big as gourds—that’s halfway between a golfball and a baseball.” Pat Reed: “I was sure a good looking kid in that old school picture Dennis Reynolds found and I haven’t changed much.” Rita Palmer: “All four of my children started school with Mrs. Yocum and they all learned how to read.” * Nick Lowe had signed a letter of intent to attend Barton County Community Junior College on a track scholarship.

* And So They Say: Veda Van Horn: “Wouldn’t you know that I’d break my toe the first day of the week I took off from work?” Luke Mitchell: “I think I’m a little too old to enter a beauty contest now.” Mike Kreller: “I certainly want to thank whoever sent me a $5.00 graduation gift, but forgot to sign they card.” Mabel Nichol: “When you are getting ready for a wedding, I’m telling you, you don’t get much else done.” Lionel Carter: “Death and taxes are inevitable, but death doesn’t get worse every time the Legislature meets.”

* And So They Say: Leta Bouchey: “I got my hair wet and it shrunk!” Betty Harding: “I never saw such beautiful wild flowers as there are around here this spring.” Vernon Sammons: “Stockton looks better than ever to us after traveling over 3,600 miles on our trip.” Sarah Doughty: “It isn’t often a person gets to see two grandchildren graduate from high school on the same night.” Robert Scoby: “Kids can save money if they want to. David managed to save $40.00 for his trip.”

* And So They Say: Carolyn Fetterolf: “Since we’ve had a cat, I’ve come to realize that it is true you don’t own a cat—it owns you.” Pudy Larson: “All kids aren’t idiots. We’ve had some mighty smart ones come out of Stockton.” Jake Willis: “I’m retired and now I’m tired. My wife works me too hard.” Paul Marshall: “I never saw the wheat look better.” Neva Marshall: “A lot of people think I don’t work at the Pla-Mor any more because I wasn’t listed among those attending our birthday party. But I was there and I still work.”

* And So They Say: Jo Stewart: “I lived through the winter with a monkey in the house most of the time, and now that he is out of doors most of the time, I guess I can live through the summer.” Pat Reed: “I think the City should let me use the several thousand gallons of water I did not use on my minimum last winter for free this summer.” Floyd Blauer: “My flowers are going to have to wait until school is out for tender loving care.” Barbara Riffe: “I didn’t know there was so much to do to get ready for a wedding.”

* And So They Say: Bob Scoby: “My ear feels worse after my surgery—but then, the doctor said it would.” Bill Gouldman: “If I put all I know in a book, it certainly wouldn’t have very many pages.” Freddie Baughman: “I don’t know who invented daughters.” Lucia Hamilton (talking to Floyd Blauer): “What do you mean, you got a distinguished service plaque for teaching 40 years? It should have been a Purple Heart.”

SPOTLIGHTING THE YEAR…1969 * And So They Say: Blackie Randall: “The reason I get more rain than anyone else is because I’m the only person in town who knows how to put up a rain gauge.” Clark Stocking: “I don’t like the idea of my wife quitting work. All she will do then will be to stay at home and think up things for me to do.” Kenneth Buss: “It pays me to take my wife places.

* And So They Say: Meryl Hus: “It was worth the trip from Altus to Sulpher, Oklahoma just to see the redbud trees and lilac bushes in bloom.” Paul Ballinger: “I’m afraid my income tax return will be late. I asked my wife for four cents so I could mail it, and she wouldn’t give it to me.” Chuck Ostmeyer: “I sure hope I don’t grow up to be like Pudy Larson.” Doris McMichael: “We did have fun on our trip, but it’s wonderful to be home again.”

* And So They Say: Leta Bouchey: “When you can’t think of anything else to do—eat.” Beulah Waters: “I made that crocheted bedspread on the bed in the front of Smith’s store, and it took me 20 years.” C. N. Harper: “I’ve worked for the public for 37 years.” Matt Mullin: “My fishing fingers have been itching for quite a while, but I haven’t made it yet.” Royce Muir (14) after shooting a 76 at the golf course: “Why waste your energy playing 18 holes when you can get the same number of strokes in 9!”