JT got a good chuckle recently while speaking with Mayor Lee Posey. It was not a laughing matter, but you can’t help but laugh at some things. The mayor was telling how the fire department had to be called yet again to use their “Jaws of Life” (term used loosely) to extract a person from the infant/toddler swings at a City park. Yes, you read correctly. Some too large for the swings became stuck and had to have themselves cut out – literally. And this was not the first incident. It happened a few weeks before. Lee was throwing around the idea of having a sign put up stating the infant/toddler swings were only for – you guessed it – infants and toddlers! All included in the conversation agreed the sign should also state anyone having to be cut out of the swing, which renders it useless, should be responsible for reimbursing the City or replacing it. Not only were the two swings destroyed, but the fire department spent time and resources and as every mama knows, when a toddler wants to swing and there is not one available – tantrum time is only a breath away.
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One of JT’s favorite projects is the L. P. Vaughn School of Fine Arts that was started a few years ago by music teacher Danny Von Kannel, with much assistance from the staff and faculty at the school. Danny and the school have raised $50,000 over the last four years to finance the school, an extraordinary amount for such an undertaking. This year alone, they raised $14,000 through individual and corporate donations. The money is used to pay NSU students in the Dept. of Creative and Performing Arts to teach the lessons. The money also gives L.P. Vaughn students scholarships to the after-school fine arts program that provides lessons they would otherwise not be able to afford. The CAPA dept. at NSU plays a big role by recruiting its students to teach the fine arts classes. The school of fine arts and the elementary school will present the annual talent show April 19 to showcase what the students have learned since they began classes in January. Highlight that date to attend the talent show and see what a burning desire to bring the fine arts to school kids can accomplish.
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This social media sure has gotten JT’s attention. Fake news and now a security breach are about to force JT off of Facebook. For those of you who are thinking…that’s a good thing because JT is too old and doesn’t belong of Facebook, well you’re probably right. He has hit a wrong button here and there. He hasn’t found the undo button either. Anyway, as a means of keeping up with friends and family, it was ok. That is until he kept getting bombarded with friends requests from people he doesn’t even know and posts from people’s he’s never heard of and just lots of junk videos and the like. Now with all this stuff coming out about your privacy not being very well protected, it’s got JT a little rattled. That’s why JT is about ready to pull the plug on Facebook. He’ll go back to the old days when if he wanted to know something…He’ll just ask them…in person. Thank goodness he still remembers how to use a telephone.
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This weekend is the start of some exciting times for local folks. We have the Jazz/ R&B Festival this weekend and then next weekend is the Melrose Arts and Crafts Festival. JT hears there will be four stages set up on Saturday with 29 musical groups performing throughout the weekend. Four will be on Friday night on the Main Stage beginning at 5:05 p.m. The rest will be on Saturday starting 11:45 a.m. and the music won’t stop until 10:30 p.m. when Starship, featuring Mickey Thomas closes out the event. Then next weekend, April 21 and 22 is the Melrose Arts and Crafts Festival. As of early this week, over 80 vendors had been assigned booth space for the two-day event. JT hasn’t listened to the weather forecast, because he doesn’t have a lot of faith in the accuracy of the meteorologists in Shreveport. He’s just hoping we have great weather for the two weekends.