The rain did fall, leaving over an inch of rain and more some places in the county. It was a very welcome sight. It didn’t put a damper on the fourth’s display of fireworks, as they could be seen and heard going off around the Bend. The rain sure helped in keeping down fires, which made for a happy fourth.

Tommie Cobern reported that her daughter Tanya and her husband Jeff and grand daughter Ashley Chalfant of Cedar Park visited over the weekend. She also reported that they watched the beautiful fireworks that was being shot across the river.

OraBeth Hicks reported that she had a phone call Thursday from Jimma Hicks who has been in Spain since the first of June. It seems Jimma has really been enjoying her stay in Madrid, Spain. She is teaching English to school children there. There are several more girls from different parts of the U.S. also there doing the same as Jimma. On the plane over to Spain she sat by a girl who was from California and was in the same program as she was. Jimma was home sick when she first arrived, but that didn’t last long as she spent two weeks taking Spanish lessons and was assigned six students to teach English to. She has been eating lots of lamb and reports that she really likes the way it is fixed.

Jimma and some of the other girls made a trip to Morocco. They did lots of sight seeing and even rode a camel. Jimma never liked riding horses, but went over seas across the world to ride a camel. Some of the other girls marveled that Jimma didn’t ride horses. She also attended her first Bull Fight and didn’t care for that too much. She was complaining about how bloody it was and the girls said "you have rodeos in Texas, don’t you"? Of course Jimma had to explain that the animals were not killed in the rodeo. She reported to the girls that her home town news paper "The San Saba News" was a small weekly. They just couldn’t believe that a newspaper could be that small, because some of the girls came from cities that had a daily newspaper. Makes you wonder what planet the girls are from?

The other outing planned will be a visit to Portugal. She is really enjoying her time there and will be there until the end of July.

The granddaughter of Lola Morris made the front page of the Lampasas Dispatch Record this last week. It seems that Jamie and her husband Dave and Kim Garret agreed to let a film crew film a remake of "True Grit" on their land. The movie was based on a novel by Charles Portis, and John Wayne appeared in the first "True Grit" in 1969.

The work day began with food preparation at 3 a.m. The crew of 150 to 200 received a call to breakfast about 6 a.m. and the Garrets ate the same catered meals crew members enjoyed. Jamie reported that was her favorite part.

The Garrets received a call sheet each day and were invited to watch filming, which began about 8 a.m. and usually continued until 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. It must have been quite an experience to observe the filming process.

Amanda Morris has taken a job teaching in Lampasas and was out Sunday along with sister Deidra Nixon and boys Sean and Ethan of The Woodlands who was in over the weekend visiting her parents and grandmother Lola Morris.

Katherine Hicks spent last week in San Saba visiting Lewann Turner and Elizabeth Bryant. She enjoyed attending vacation bible school held at the Methodist church while there.

John Brooks spent last week at Mary-Harden College in Belton. He participated in a speech and debate team from Lometa. He came away with a second and a fourth place. Congratulations John!

Jim and OraBeth attended the fireworks display at Lometa and reported that it was about 40 minutes of beautiful fireworks. They reported that it was bigger and better than last year.

Sunday before church a birthday party was celebrated at the Methodist church for Ceila Kitchens.

Happy birthday greetings go out to Chelsea Lemons who will celebrate a birthday July 10, to Emerson Brister and Larry Brister whose birthdays are on July 13.

Congratulations to Sammie and Bobbie Johnson who will celebrate their anniversary July 15.