By Norma Blanton - Guest Columnist

Posters have been circulated announcing the National Food Drive on Saturday, May 10. Donations of non-perishable food items will be collected by letter carriers from the Bismarck Post Office, which is the center for collections. Items may be in a bag underneath one’s mailbox or hung in a grocery bag onto the mailbox. All donations will be given to the local food banks. 

The Bismarck High School Class of 2008 graduation exercise is on Friday, May 16 at 7 p.m. at Ouachita Baptist University. Congratulations to all graduates.

The Bismarck Lions Club is sponsoring a fish fry from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at the Bismarck Volunteer Fire Department, Hwy 7 South. There will be an auction of donated items at 5 p.m., with Dale Jackson as the Auctioneer. The  Club is still accepting items for the auction. Political candidates have been invited.

The 17th is also the day for the McDaniel Reunion and the One-Room School  Reunion.

The next meeting of the Bismarck Business Association is at noon on Wednesday, May 21 at the Bismarck Pizza Shack.

Thanks to Margie Hill for an invitation to the Tankersley Family Reunion on Saturday, May 24 at the Tankersley place on Amity Road. There are records for the late Benjamin Franklin and Malissa Moore Tankersley family back to the 1700’s. The potluck meal is at noon, and families should bring food, drinks, lawn chairs and pictures and stories to share. A quilt pieced by Mildred Burke will be won by the lucky raffle winner.

A recent cartoon, “Of course we’re middle class. We can’t afford to buy anything, and nobody gives us anything.”  Definitely not middle class is Ted Turner who is North America’s biggest individual landowner and owns the largest private herd of buffalo in the world (45,000)!

The annual decoration day for the Sweet Home Cemetery in Clark County is the Third Sunday in May, the 18th. 

The Decorations for the Shiloh Cemetery, with morning services at the Shiloh Church of Christ, the Oak Grove Cemetery and the Oma Cemetery are on May 25.

The Malvern Brickfest is June 26-28 at the Court House and nearby areas.

The Bismarck Barbeque Bash is on Saturday,  October 4.

The Spring Revival began at the First Baptist Church in Bismarck last Sunday and continues through Thursday, May 8. Guest speakers are scheduled for each evening. The pastor is Bobby Cook, and the speaker Sunday morning was from Conway. The Ray Lookadoos of Point Cedar, and a former resident, Carolyn (Small) and husband, James Richard Garner, attend this church. Others now attending are Patricia and Melvin Bingham and Mr. and Mrs. Mike Bingham and children.

If someone you know has been deployed to a small base in a Muslim country and has missed bacon in the meals served,  J&D’s Down Home Enterprises has a new product, “Bacon Salt, Peppered,” a vegetarian and kosher seasoning salt that has a real, delicious bacon taste.

The Health Brief in USA Weekend indicates that not only are smoking, hyper-tension and cholesterol dangers, but a greater risk may be from sugar which inflames blood vessels and leads to clotting, pre-diabetic insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity.  Avoid high-glycemic foods to keep waist size 32 inches for woman and 38 inches for men.  Read food labels and avoid saturated and trans fats. One recommendation for surviving a heart attack is to cough repeatedly and very vigorously, taking a deep breath before each cough which should be deep and prolonged, with a breath and a cough repeated every two seconds without letting up until help arrives. Coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure helps the heart regain normal rhythm.

Julia Adams, 68, of Lonsdale died May 2. She was born in Indiana to John R. and Luella Warble Harp. This family moved to our area when Julia and some of her siblings were young. Survivors include her husband, John Adams, three daughters and their families, her mother and a brother, John Harp who are in the community, and a brother Jim Harp and family of Georgia. Burial will be in the local Shiloh Cemetery.