Saturday, February 15, 2025
Happy New Year! We hope you are planning to be in Pearl on Saturday for the monthly Pearl Bluegrass event and Pearl Cottage Bookstore Day! The stage show begins at 1 p.m., and bands are welcome to sign up to play in the Pearl Community Center. The bookstore opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 3 p.m. There are lots of new books and other items. Everything is “buy what you want, pay what you want,” and all money collected goes toward the store’s local charities. You can participate in the flea market by placing your booth north of the cabin and paying a small fee of $5. There is homemade food in the Bluegrass Kitchen for reasonable prices (cash only). Jamming goes on all day. It’s free to see the stage show and jam, but donations are appreciated to help pay the Community Center bills. There’s no place like Pearl, and everyone is welcome!
The next quarterly meeting of the Pearl Community Center board is Jan. 27. All are invited to attend. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Center.
We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Gwendolyn Smith Fleming who was a Pearl native. Mrs. Fleming graduated from Pearl School in 1946 and was a member of the basketball team. She was also a member of the Pleasure and Profit Club. Her services were on Dec. 17, and interment was in the Pearl Cemetery. She will be greatly missed.
We also extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Joe Lee who passed away just before Christmas. Mr. Lee was a great supporter of the bookstore and the Pearl Church of Christ VBS and always shared what was going on there on his Facebook page. Mr. and Mrs. Lee touched so many lives in Evant and Pearl, and it would be impossible to count the number of young lives so positively influenced by Joe and Linda Lee. We ourselves were taught by Mrs. Lee and then had children and grands who were taught by her. She and Mr. Lee were a huge part of Evant Baptist Church. Mr. Lee will always be dear to us. Please continue to pray for Mrs. Lee as she is still recovering from broken bones and other health issues. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever know, and she sure loves the Lord!
I have to share a Linda Lee story: In the olden days (1994), Linda Lee and I went to Waco together. Linda needed a driver as she was going to the oral surgeon to have a tooth pulled. She was going to be anesthetized for the procedure. Well, the procedure went well and was over very quickly. Linda said she felt like shopping in what I think was Target or K-Mart or whatever store there was back in those days. We had the best time shopping, and we even ran into other Pearl and Evant teachers while we were in the store. We joked that we were having an impromptu faculty meeting. Eventually, we got hungry and decided to go eat at Picadilly. When we got to the car, we discovered that “someone” had locked the keys in! This was way before cell phone days! Unfortunately, all our teacher friends had already left, and we had no idea what to do. As I recall, we went back into the store to the service desk, and someone called a locksmith to help us. Thankfully, help arrived quickly, and we did get to eat a good dinner. The funny thing was that Linda joked that we were so lucky to have gotten fast help and that we should buy a lottery ticket. And we did! We stopped in McGregor on the way home and each bought a ticket. Our luck ended there as neither of us won a thing. Linda made me promise not to tell anyone we did that. And I haven’t…until now. But this is just between us, right!? I won’t tell if you won’t!
This week’s Bible verse comes from Isaiah 43:18-19…Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? NIV
Be sure and like the Pearl Community Center, Texas Facebook page and the Pearl Cottage Bookstore and Resale Shop Facebook page! Please submit any Pearl news to betsyclark47@yahoo.com
