The Chatter Box
By Deborah Bennett

Is there such a thing as a "cone-less" pine tree? If not, there certainly should be!

I had the pleasure last week of having to pick up what appeared at the time to be endless buckets of pinecones so that we could cut the grass in our yard.

Now, I have nothing against pine trees. They are beautiful and green year-round and provide shade in the hot summer. I would not even dislike the cones they produce were it not for the fact that I have to pick them up.

Stooping, bending and standing on my head tends to make me dizzy, not to mention the havoc it reeks on my back. By the time I was through picking up all the cones, I thought I was going to have to "crawl" back into the house.

The task led me to wonder what might be the purpose of all those pinecones, so I looked it up. Pine trees have no flowers or fruit. Rather, their seeds are naked and wedged between the prickly scales of a cone, and it takes "two years" for the cones to mature to the point where they open, release their seeds and then fall from the tree.

For two years all of those pinecones have just been hanging around in the trees in my yard, waiting to fall off - and that just had to happen during grass cutting time. Why not in the winter? Then, they could have just lain on the ground until they rotted.

I think those pinecones have been planning their revenge on me for two years. In fact, I am sure of it. It was just their way of getting even for the time we were burning off the pasture and let the fire singe the bark of their trees. Talk about holding a grudge!

But that's okay. The last laugh is mine. We used them to fill a hole in our driveway, and I can't help but smile every time I run them over with my car!

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Happy birthday this week to: Celess Deal, Gloria Mock, Brad Davis, Riley Padgett, Josh Lee, Wesley Godbee, Heather James, Tyler Rich, Phyllis Williams, Krystal W. Chance, Norma Clifton, Lee Wilson, John Weston Bragg, Hayden Garvin and Joe Wilson Jr.

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Military Active Duty List: Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, BAFB, LA; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1st Calvary Division, Camp Taji, Iraq; Capt. Donald Slade Burke, Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, Calif.; SPC Grade E4 Arthur Lamont Milton Jr., HHC 1-36 Infantry Support, Friedberg, Germany; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th Field Artillery, Ft. Stewart; Petty Officer 2nd Class Jamie A. Yager, U.S. Navy, Maryland; Petty Chief Officer Andy D. Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; Stephanie Crosby, R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer; LCPL Dwain "Cade" Lee, 1st Marine Division Combat Service Support Group II Security Element, ArRamadi, Iraq; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf ; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul, Korea; Capt. Andrew P. Thomas, U.S. Marines, 2nd Marine Division, F.A.S.T. Company, Yorktown, VA; Sgt. 1st Class Steven Yager, 362nd Sig. Company, Korea; MM3 Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/E-Division, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark, U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Kuwait; SFC Ronnie Perryman, E-7, Georgia Army National Guard, Battery A, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas.