By Jeremy Weldon

Editor

At the risk of writing the most prole thing ever to appear on these pages, I can hold my peace no longer about price gouging at KFC.

Understand this is painful because of the deep roots the Colonel and his delectable bird have in my memories, beginning very early. My family always stopped at the Batesville store on our way to Ole Miss football games or outings at the State Park – both big doings for country kids from Clarksdale, and so I associate Kentucky Fried Chicken with the happy and carefree days of my youth.

I’ve been a loyal KFC man for more than 40 years, although I think the Colonel has made some goofy commercials the last couple of years. Now he’s on TV dancing with the Mrs. Butterworth syrup lady and acting foolish for a man of his age. All of this I can look over, but I’m most agitated about the pricing of my favorite item on the menu.

Here’s the problem. KFC has something called the Famous Bowl and it is fabulous. It’s a base of mashed potatoes, a layer of whole kernel corn, cheddar cheese, five or six bites of fried chicken, all topped with a little brown gravy. (It also comes in a nifty container that I put in the dishwasher at home and then use again to take salads to the office. It’s perfect.)

The cost is $5 plus tax – and that comes with a drink and a cookie. Mrs. Editor doesn’t want me eating Famous Bowls at all, and certainly not with a soda and cookie, so I order them alone with nothing else. Guess what? If you leave off the drink and sweets, it costs more. Almost a dollar more.

How can this be? KFC already has me hooked with the Famous Bowl so they don’t have to throw in a drink or cookie, but it’s very rude to make customers pay extra when their wives won’t let them get the extra high-calorie stuff.

This is going on in Batesville right now! How there’s not a line of protestors is a mystery. I tried to talk to the woman at the window about it, but she was bigger than me and looked like she wouldn’t mind coming outside to discuss it further, so I paid the extra money and left.

Maybe just getting a Famous Bowl here and there is enough, and I shouldn’t complain. But, I have to wonder if the Colonel is aware of this confiscatory pricing happening under his banner. Actually, I think Mrs. Butterworth’s got him so charmed he’s not paying attention to much else, judging from the commercials.

One person I do know that loves fried chicken from way back is Paul Abraham and I see that Ricky and Johnny have him booked for the Saturday radio show. You absolutely don’t want to miss Paul – the guy has stories about stories.

He was with Lynyrd Skynyrd for a long time and then with Billy Ray Cyrus. He’s from Leland and I know his whole family well. His mother was an angel and was also useful to a younger editor who needed some background information for a story.

Paul will be on with the Local Yokels with others talking about that tragic plane crash so long ago that took lives and forever altered Southern popular music. One thing I bet won’t be covered on the show was a little tidbit that my sportswriter let slip.

Greer said a boy he went to church with in McComb, maybe his cousin, went poking around the plane wreckage as many locals did over the next couple of days after the crash. The kid shows up at school wearing a new pair of shoes that his family obviously couldn’t afford. He had found them among the debris. Said he wore them almost two years.

I hope each of our readers has enjoyed a good week of work and has plans for a nice weekend with family and friends. I hope Panola’s County’s churches are filled on Sunday and the police and firemen all over our county have quiet days and nights.

For us it will be baseball. First with the South Panola Tigers battling the Hernando Tigers in the second round of the high school playoffs and then Saturday night at American Legion Park in Batesville when the Ole Miss and Miss. State Club teams will take the field for a double header beginning at 6 p.m.

It’s a free event and the concession stand will be open. The weather is supposed to be nice so plan on swinging by for some great family fun. Don’t forget that next week is Flint Hardware’s big celebration. Be sure to make time to go by and shake their hands and tell them we all appreciate the Flint Family and their part in Batesville’s history.

Be sure to thank your TVEPA lineman, too, when you see one. Those guys have been keeping the lights on around here for 80 years come Monday.

And if anyone wants to sign my petition to get the price of the Famous Bowl corrected just drop by the office. Have a great weekend!