Lifestyle

Mesquite Fire Department held a promotion/ swearing-in ceremony on August 5 at the Mesquite Arts Center to recognize the recent promotions of rank and new members to the department. The event celebrated 28 firefighters who have given nearly 400 years of combined service to the community.

Barbara and Sherry and Pat and Billy Owen and maybe Debra in our neighborhood were all older than I and “old hands” at going to school. I was not, and they had told me all the bad things about going to school and how mean the teachers were and how other kids would “get you.” They had not told me about all the fun and interesting things, and that 1st Graders “got” four recesses, while the next few grades “got” three.

Baylor University has selected nearly 4,000 recent high school graduates and more than 350 transfer students as recipients of academic scholarship awards for the 2021-2022 academic year.

The Forney Education Foundation is looking forward to meeting all of the parents that are new to Forney ISD. The Foundation is also excited about all of the new schools that are opening and all of the new staff that has joined the Forney Family for this school year.

School offers much more than a top-notch education. Being an engaged student involves learning lessons in the classroom but also participating in the myriad activities that begin once the dismissal bell has rung.

Alex Payne, a current doctoral candidate within Texas A&M University’s Department of Entomology, didn’t always know she wanted to research honeybees. However, working in the Texas A&M Honey Bee Lab put her on a buzzing journey that would not only require her to focus on current honeybee concerns but also on research from influential Aggies before her.

Spending time outdoors is a summertime tradition for people of all ages.

Cooler temperatures and widespread rain events across Texas have forage and crop producers scrambling to fight armyworms, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert.

Several years ago while I was still teaching at FHS, we invited a Holocaust Survivor to speak to students at Forney High School, and he did a remarkable job of imparting to listeners just what had happened and its impact then and continuing. His parting words were the following: “We must never let the world forget the true story of what happened leading up to, during, and following the Holocaust!” For this reason, I impart the following story and hope that this helps keep alive this “true story,” even though the survivor/teller has recently “passed on peacefully” at age 96 years at the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg, Germany.

The City of Mesquite is seeking public input on a new Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan through a citizen survey available at www.cityofmesquite.com/ ParksMasterPlan until August 15. The public can call Parks and Recreation Administration at 972-216-6260 for more information.

Dinosaur Invasion is stampeding into Texas from Friday, August 6th through Sunday, August 8th at the Arlington Expo Center, 1200 Ballpark Way, Arlington, TX 76011. The attraction, which has had many soldout events across the U.S. this year with their drive-thru format, is today announcing their new indoor experience. The show will provide families with an interactive walk-thru dinosaur adventure!

Recently, I had a conversation with someone I care for dearly. The pleasantries led to a few “remember that time” chuckles, which led to memory lane walks, which led to a sort of state of affairs quid pro quo type of comment moment. I don’t know when we crossed that line, but we did. Suddenly, that unspoken fine line of speaking about Covid without speaking about Covid was traversed. We picked it up and used it like a jump rope, we representations of each side – the vaccinated and the non. Like 2 people who’ve been waiting for a final shoe to drop for over a year, we sensed the tension, our collective brain wheels turning. Words needed to be chosen with care. Nuances must be ignored. Emotional consideration should be taken. The thing is, could we do this? Right or wrong, the media has separated us into two distinct camps. Daily we are barraged with information that supports “us” and denounces “them.” If two opposing ideologies cannot both be correct, then wherein lies the truth? Cautiously, I ventured out onto the ledge, asking my comrade what cemented the desire against the vaccine. They responded, “Because this is America. I am not opposed to the vaccine. I just don’t want it, especially this mRNA thing. No one knows what it will do in the future. But, in this country, we aren’t forced to take a vaccine we don’t want. That’s not my country. America doesn’t do things like this.” Oh, mi amor, how I wish that were so. I am a proud American, daughter of a WWII veteran, sister of two amazing Vietnam Veterans, mother of a Navy veteran. In my brief one year pageant career of the early 80s, my talent was a dramatic performance of an original piece I wrote on patriotism viewed through the eyes of my grandparents. It garnered me 10th place, despite the fact that I had trouble making eye contact with the audience. Introverts unite. I love this country. I love those who champion and those who protect. What I love most, however, is that we still have so much room for improvement. We can still do so much better. But, our chain cannot be strengthened unless we can see the weakest of our links.

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” When Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King penned this novelty song in the late 1920s, the screaming they referenced was a cheer among students at a fictional college in a “land of ice and snow, up among the Eskimo.” For anyone who has gobbled up an ice cream treat a little too quickly, those screams very well may speak to the sharp headache that often comes from consuming frozen foods too quickly.