Peeping through my Venetian blind, I stared at the roses I know as Seven Sisters, given me so long ago by Jim and Eva Maloy. The pink blooms cascade in a beautiful arch.

Tomorrow is the first day of May. Sunday week is Mother’s Day. I hope those with mothers, still living, will wear red roses and those whose mothers are deceased, will wear white roses, as tributes.

Irene (Davis) Butler played hostess at a picnic, Tuesday, April 26, for her Sunday-School class and other guests.

The setting was the patio of Mrs. Butler’s countryside home, surrounded by bouquets of Nature’s own, spring-time flowers.

It was a perfect day for a picnic with sweet, April breezes, plenty of sunshine, and singing birds, including bluebirds.

Mrs. Butler’s Sunday-School class at First Baptist Church, Andalusia, is named for the late Mildred Hart and Opal Couch, former members.

Class members attending were Margaret Eiland, Vivian Hickey, Dr. Barbara Linder, Bea Miller, Linda Finlin (the class teacher), Rebecca Kinard, Lucy Martin, and Voncile Newman.

Guests included the following: Brother Richard Pass (retired Baptist preacher, aged 94), Joe Wingard, “Chuck” Patterson (tax collector for the county), Charlie Cope, Janna Curtis, Linda Westbrook (Janna’s mother), and Byron B. Mathews, Jr. (semi-retired attorney from New York City).

Mr. Mathews’s father owned a feed-and-seed store like Mrs. Butler’s late husband, Ray; and they were friendly competitors.

Mrs. Butler welcomed all and read an inspirational essay. Mr. Patterson read 25 tips for enriching life. Mrs. Butler followed with an expression of gratitude for her 90 years of life. Introductions and comments were made.

Mr. Patterson worded the blessing, followed by a cornucopian buffet, which included the following: camp stew, chicken tenders, chicken salad in pastry “puffs,” potato salad, cabbage slaw, fried slices of sweet potatoes, grape salad, potato chips, Italian cream cake (with alternating red and white layers), pecan clusters, brownies, peanuts, marshmallow logs, and tea.

The ladies had a class meeting after the picnic.

A small group of guests enjoyed anecdotes, told by Byron Mathews. One listener said, “I could sit and listen to his stories all day.”

Mr. Mathews once was a ghostwriter for President Clinton.

Recently I enjoyed another evening of singing around the piano over at Covington Hall. This time we sang songs by Victor Herbert, some of the loveliest music ever composed. Miss Dora Covington played for us to sing.

Gentle Reader, have you seen the red Knockout roses along the fence at Springdale? What a sight for sore eyes!

Once again, I ask the citizens of Andalusia to join the Covington Historical Society and pay its annual dues of $25 to help preserve the history of our county, whether you attend meetings or not. Mail to P.O. Box l582, Andalusia, Alabama 36420.

The new mysterian is an Andalusian buried in Mentone, North Alabama.

A recent birthday is that of Edward Gibbon, an English historian who wrote perhaps the most famous history in our language, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Orators, especially preachers, like to compare the fall of the United States to the fall of Rome, pinpointing similarities that led to the fall of both.

One quotation from Gibbon’s masterpiece will give an idea of his writing.

“It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State (nation), without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.”

This seems to be fit commentary on our national debt and welfare system; or, as Bill O’Reilly would say, “or am I wrong?”

April is Confederate History Month. How many men lie unburied, having seen their families for the last time, once they left for the War, never to return?

Well, it turns out that I can live without the Montgomery Advertiser after all. The question is whether the paper can live without customers.

Now, Gentle Reader, allow me to join Buffalo Bob Smith in encouraging each of us to be in his place of worship this weekend, Lord willing.

Fare thee well.