Wednesday, October 23, 2019

The long-awaited, long-anticipated opening of Curtis Family Pharmacy in Many will take place on Monday. Hours will be 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The business is owned by Moses and Leslie Founds Curtis, and is located on Hwy. 171 Bypass. A Grand Opening is being planned for November.

Pharmacist Leslie Curtis grew up in the medical profession, as the granddaughter of the late Dr. Warren Founds Sr. and a niece of Dr. Greg Founds. While still in high school she worked with her grandfather. Her parents are Warren and Ann Founds. She was graduated from Many High School.

Ms. Curtis studied Pre-Pharmacy at Northwestern State University and received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Louisiana in Monroe. She has 17 years of experience as a pharmacist at Sabine Medical Center, Medical Center Pharmacy, Schumpert Medical Center, Valentine Pharmacy in Mansfield, LTC Specialists in Stonewall and North DeSoto Drug in Stonewall. She owned LTC Specialists, which was a closed door pharmacy for assisted living and nursing home patients.

“I’m excited to be back in Many,” Ms. Curtis told Observations. The company has 11 employees and Monday was the first day of employee training. “We have a great staff,” she commented.

John Curtis will handle the business end of the operation. He grew up in the grocery business having first worked for his father Doug Curtis Sr. when Curtis Super Market was located in downtown Many. He purchased Big Star in 1974 and sold it in December 2011. 

“I will be assisting on the business side, and supporting her in any way I can,” John stated.

“We want to invite the whole of Sabine Parish and this area to come by and visit with us,” John stated. “I look forward to renewing some old acquaintances of people that I knew when I was in the grocery business.”

John Curtis is highly respected as a man who provided service to his customers while he was in the grocery business. “Service is a priority,” he stated. “You can expect it to be fast and professional.”

Curtis Family Pharmacy will make it easy for people who wish to move their prescriptions there. And there are two ways to do so. Persons may come by the pharmacy and give their information to the staff to take care of it, or by telephone. Call (318) 273-2650.

In addition to being a first-class pharmacy, the business will offer gifts, a wide selection of over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements. “If you need it and we don’t have it, let us know and we will get it,” John stated.

Moses is the Assistant Principal at Many High School. He and Leslie have four children: Gunner, 23, who will be working at the Pharmacy; Carson, 19; Tackett, 16; and Lola, 12.

I guess it was the winter of 1946. I remember the ground was wet and it was a little chilly. Our family of six was living in an old three-room wooden house in the woods in Bethany, a few miles from Marthaville. We were poor folks. The house was small and in the winter time it was cold. In the summer it was hot. We didn’t have any screens on the windows, but that’s another story.

I was about six years old and one afternoon, my Daddy got his axe and asked if I wanted to go with him. Naturally I did. We walked to the corner of our property and he started cutting the oak and sweet gum saplings that covered the area. 

Daddy showed me where he was going to build a new house. He had worked at Pennsylvania Ship Yard in Beaumont, TX during the war and had managed to save a bit of money.

The thing I remember most vividly about that day was that he took me to the front of the property and showed me a little post oak tree. It was about five feet tall. He cut all the other trees from around it.

He then trimmed some of the lower limbs off the tree with his axe, and he told me, “I’m going to leave this little tree for shade. One day its limbs will reach the house. You will have a swing on it one day, and the time will also come when we will sit around under its shade and visit.”

I listened to him and wondered. Although I didn’t tell him, I questioned what he said to myself, “There’s no way the limbs of that little tree will ever reach the house,” but it did.

My Daddy built a four-room two-story house. He was not a carpenter, but he did the best he could with limited tools, limited materials and limited money. As the family grew – marriages, grandchildren, in-laws, outlaws and all the rest, he added to the house. It eventually had 11 rooms.

In order to make the post oak limbs spread out and grow, my Daddy would cut the top out of the tree every few years. This caused the branches to grow outward instead of the tree growth going upward. To my surprise, one day the branches of the tree reached the house. I sure was surprised, but my Daddy was right.

And the little tree grew as the family grew. The kids played under it, climbed it and put all kinds of swings on its limbs. In the summertime, we had a swing on the biggest limb, and we often brought out chairs to sit in its shade. We’d talk and talk and had so much fun visiting. That was in the days when all my parents’ children and later grandchildren would come home quite regularly on weekends.

In the summertime, my Daddy would bring out the old hand-cranked ice cream machine and we would have a great treat. We’d enjoy watermelon in the summer. Daddy always saved the seeds with the intention of planting them, but he never did.

My sister Lucy Jennings of Shreveport recently wrote me about the tree:  “The little tree was like a soldier on duty – always watching, and the duty was done well. Over the years, different swings swung high and low, fast and slow, and the little tree approved as the branches never broke. Watching over four generations was a tough job, even for a tree. We loved to eat and drink outside and what better place for a Sunday dinner picnic than under the little tree. Untold numbers of friends and visitors enjoyed the shade.”

Lucy continued, “I hope everyone has a special memory of the little tree. I remember one night long, long ago.  It was in the Springtime – the time of new, happy beginnings and also the time of sad new endings. Because I felt the need to be home in the peaceful country, I was there for the weekend. After the family had gone to bed, I stayed outside alone under the little tree for a long time. It was just me, the tree, the moon and the dark night. Just thinking and pondering where the next path would lead. I do not remember getting an answer, but it was a moving experience.”

After my parents died, I eventually ended up with ownership of the old homeplace and the old oak tree stood there as a sentinel, always on duty. Always watching.

As winter turned to spring earlier this year, I noticed new leaves coming out on only one side of the tree. The other half was dead. Then, the leaves on the other half died and turned brown. The old tree had given up the ghost.

The tree and I are about the same age. Our lives were somewhat parallel. We shared many of life’s adventures together. Now it will be no more. Its death was like losing a member of the family.

My granddaughter, Alyssa Collins, of Tega Cay, SC and her fiance Raul Zambrano have been planning their wedding for over a year now. It will be Saturday, Oct. 26.  And they want the ceremony to take place under the old Oak tree. Alyssa’s roots run deep here, just as mine do and just as those of the Oak tree. It made me so happy that they chose to take such an important step at the old homeplace.

We will go ahead with the ceremony under the tree. And perhaps fittingly, standing silent witness to Alyssa and Raul’s love will be the old Oak tree’s final act. After that I will have the tree cut down. 

Maybe sometime Alyssa and Raul can return to plant a new tree in the front yard of our old family home to commemorate the happy memories we will all make together this weekend.

Chris Abrahams, who ran fourth in the race for Sabine Parish Sheriff, has endorsed Aaron Mitchell in the run-off. Mitchell was the top vote-getter in the first primary with a whopping 44.03 per cent of the vote. Abrahams said, “I fully support, endorse and back Aaron. Vote Nov. 16 and get us a real change for Sabine Parish.”

Last week the third running candidate, Frankie Howard, stopped short of endorsing Mitchell but stated there “will be a change in the Sheriff’s Office.”

Sheriff Ronny Richardson ran second in the primary.

Speaking of the Nov. 16 election, the last day to register online to vote in the election is Oct. 26. Early voting will start Nov. 2 and continue through Nov. 9. Early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. daily. The Registrar of Voters Office is closed on Sunday. It’ll all be here before you know it.

The Sabine Parish Board of Election Commissioners met last Thursday for a recount requested by Georganne McNabb, who ran third in the race for Police Jury, District 5. She was only six votes behind Matthew Murdock Adams who ran second.  He received 254 votes to 248 for Ms. McNabb.

The top vote getter was Jeff Gillian Davison who received 422 votes.

Almost two years ago in Sutherland Springs, TX, a gunman walked into the worship service of a 94-year-old congregation, killing 26 people and leaving another 20 wounded. The quiet, rural community outside of San Antonio was left to mourn their dead and in need of physical and emotional healing. While the headlines have faded with time, the process of healing has continued. And it will  continue in the years to come.

In the wake of the tragedy, bicyclist Ian Goff decided to turn a personal challenge into a public event – to help remember and restore the victims of the shooting which occurred at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church nearly two years ago. His inspiration is as impressive as his twenty-eight-day, two-thousand-mile journey. With his bicycle trek across the nation, Ian has chosen to honor and remember the individuals who lost their lives in the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Texas. Ian Goff will arrive in Many this Friday, Oct. 25 as part of his 2,000-mile bicycle ride across the U.S.

After his planned arrival in Many during the afternoon hours of Friday, Oct.26, the Town of Many, Mayor Ken Freeman and the Cultural District’s Advisory Committee will host a showing of a half-hour documentary at the Many Community Center (Sabine Theater) on San Antonio Ave.

The event, which will begin at 7 p.m., will also provide an opportunity to interact with Ian through a question-and-answer time as well as an opportunity to speak directly with Ian after viewing the short film.

There is no charge to attend the event. Refreshments will also be available for purchase during and after the documentary.

Ian and his family have been involved in the healing process within the Sutherland Springs community. His first encounter with this group of survivors was during the memorial service the Sunday after the tragedy. As a nurse, he met others in hospitals as they battled to regain the strength they needed to return to their homes.

He was also privileged to work with a group to retrofit homes of survivors to be able to accommodate the new challenges to their life and mobility. He and his family helped renovate an empty commercial building to be used as a worship center while the church constructed a new place of worship.

All of these experiences have led Ian and his family to become inextricably linked with this group of small-town heroes. They have also become members of Sutherland Springs Baptist Church since the tragedy of Nov. 5, 2017. In spite of the events of that day and through the healing process, the church continues to be a thriving community of faith.

As he has witnessed the healing and restoration within the community at large and, specifically, within the community of faith at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, Ian was inspired to make this personal goal of riding a bicycle from Canada to Mexico a reality. His motivation, though, was not for a sense of personal accomplishment, but to share the story of hope and healing in the face of great pain, sorrow, and loss.

The 30-minute documentary highlights the process of healing over the last two-years for the people in the community of Sutherland Springs. In the short film, viewers will discover what is possible when one chooses life over death and despair. In spite of the pain and grief they experienced, the residents of Sutherland Springs, TX declared with one voice that evil did not win and have chosen the path of healing, forgiveness, and love.

About the documentary, Ian says, “I hope it will encourage those who view it as they face whatever personal challenges they may be personally tackling.”

Residents of Many will have new garbage and trash collectors beginning Nov. 1.

Many Mayor Ken Freeman announced that the town has purchased a new garbage truck and hired three operators who will begin their collection routes on Nov. 1.

“I am especially pleased about this new endeavor because we think it will result in a savings each month on our residents’ water bills,” said Mayor Freeman.

Freeman explained that the town’s new contract with the private company it has previously used for garbage collection would increase by 20% in the first year and 7% each successive year. Freeman said he thought they had priced themselves out of range for the Town of Many.

“We just couldn’t see paying that kind of increase which would have to be passed on to our residents. That’s when I carefully started researching the merits of the town going into the garbage business. I found that it would result in a savings for the town and our residents. We hope that we will have a savings each month which will be reflected in the December water bills,” said Freeman.

Freeman said the new garbage collection truck is a state-of-the-art truck which cost $140 thousand dollars. However, it is expected that the truck will be paid for within three years, and a second used truck will then be purchased as a back-up collection truck.

The mayor said, “We have three new city employees who will be in charge of picking up all trash throughout the town. Travoris Garner and Dominique Green will be our sanitation specialists who will make the actual trash collections. Mark Oxley will be the sanitation supervisor and will also drive the new truck on its different collection routes.”

Trash collection will begin on Monday, Nov. 1, and the truck will follow the same schedule with pick-up days on Monday and Thursday, Tuesday and Friday.

“Our crew and truck will begin pick-up of trash at 4 a.m. each morning,” the mayor said.

“This, we believe, is a win-win situation for everyone. We will be providing a good service to our residents and we believe we will also be saving them money. We work hard for the citizens of Many to make their lives better in our community. This is a good example of accomplishing something that benefits everyone,” concluded Mayor Freeman.

“The Avengers: End Game” is the Movies in Many adventure film that will show this Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Many Community Center (Sabine Theater.)

The movie starts at 7 p.m., and admission is free. Concessions are only $1 each.

The film is the last in a series of hero-action movies produced by the Walt Disney Company.

Adrift in space with no food or water, Tony Stark sends a message to Pepper Potts as his oxygen supply starts to dwindle. Meanwhile, the remaining Avengers – Thor, Black Widow, Captain America and Bruce Banner – must figure out a way to bring back their vanquished allies for an epic showdown with Thanos — the evil demigod who decimated the planet and the universe.

”Avengers” is a movie where good people do good things and good things happen to good people.

It’s a big plot with big characters with big things happening to them.

Considered by critics to be the best movie in the Avenger series, it has an ending that will leave everyone satisfied. It’s also movie with lots and lots of action, a good story line and hero characters.  The good guys win and the bad guys lose.

“The Avengers: End Game” is brought to you by the Town of Many, Mayor Ken Freeman and the City Council, and The Many Cultural District Advisory Committee.

It is part of a carefully planned program designed to bring activities and events to Many that families can enjoy and afford without having to travel to other areas for entertainment.

As always, thank you for reading. I welcome your thoughts, suggestions and ideas for future articles. Call me at (318) 332-8653 or send an email to robertrgentry@gmail.com. To see Observations of the last year, please follow the pages below. To see older ones, visit our Facebook page, where they are listed under Photo Albums. To save, send or print this week’s column, click on the appropriate icon below.

-30-