By Donna Traywick

Mt. Olivet News

I was so surprised a couple of weeks ago when I turned on the Today Show to see a familiar face and hear a familiar voice.

Most of you know by now that is was Batesville’s own Jameson Rodgers. I believe that he was signing an original song. His daddy, John, was an interesting piano student of mine. Maybe the apple really doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

After publishing the column about the difference between using “y’all” and “you guys,” I saw on television where Hoda Kopt and Jenna Bush Hagar (daughter of the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush) discussing their trials and problems when they were starting out their careers in the broadcast business.

There were not many womenåç in the big time broadcasting industry, so they had to work extra hard to achieve the status they now have. Jenna said that she tried to talk like Dianne Sawyer.

She related an incident that happened when she first started to speak on the radio and television. They asked her why she said y’all. She replied that she was from Texas and people there say it. They asked her not to say y’all on a broadcast any more.

She called her mother crying and told her the producers said not to say y’all again. Her mother, Laura Bush, replied that the young woman shouldn’t let anyone take away her y’all.

It looks so good driving down the roads and highways and seeing all the hay being baled. The smell is refreshing and the hay being cut seems to send a message that it’s time to get ready for fall which is finally here on the calendar anyway.

I noticed the little hummingbirds are beginning to hoard around the feeders getting ready for their long trip to Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean Islands.

When George Thomas was living we had cows and show horses. He baled his own hay. When we had been married seven years we decided to give each other a diamond ring for our anniversary.

He chose a cluster with seven diamonds to represent our first seven years together. He never pulled it off no matter what kind of work he was doing. One day when he was in the hay field baling he lost one of the tiny diamonds off the cluster.

When he came to the house and told me I was frantic and wanted to go look for the missing diamond.

“Are you crazy?” he asked me. “You will never find a diamond in a bale of hay.”

I wanted to go so bad. I imagined that I would find the diamond, shining in the sun. Did I go? Did I find it? The rest of the story will be coming up next week.

I really appreciate the comments readers send to me by text and the phone calls I get about the column each week. Please keep calling in your news and reading each week. Cell phone number is 901-828-8824.