KILGOROUND

LINDA Ballard called in tired this week. She promises she'll be rested soon.

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DURING a weekend visit in Atlanta with my Iraqbound son and his family, we day-tripped to a concert and laser light show at Stone Mountain. That is a seriously impressive state park. Even if Jeff Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were ultimately unsuccessful, the tribute is worth the price of admission.

WE'RE not fans of the cause which earned the three men their spot on the rock, but the bas-relief chiseled into the mountain is remarkable.

THE granite 'boulder', by the way, stands 825 feet higher than the surrounding terrain. Below the surface, the rock spreads into several neighboring counties. Officially, it is not a mountain, but a monadnock — a chunk of protruding rock harder than its surroundings and which has

survived erosion.

AND — to answer your question — no, we didn't do the walk-up trail.

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CONCERNED about the volume of Gustav-evacuation traffic and the potential for nasty weather, we opted to drive home from Atlanta during the night/morning Sunday/Monday. We were surprised to find evacuees crowded into East Texas, including 163 from Beaumont at First Baptist of Kilgore. I would have sworn all of Louisiana had decided to go east to wait out the storm this time.

THE middle-of-the-night traffic racing toward drier spots in the east was, if not bumper-to-bumber, at least continuous.

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THE city of Kilgore -- and the evacuee community -- is blessed to have First Baptist Church and volunteers from across the city's churches available in an emergency like this one.

BUSES to take the evacuees home to Beaumont were expected this morning. But the bus was late and so the volunteers and the Red Cross were preparing sack lunches for the travelers.

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I'D have questioned your sanity if you had told me, back in the 60s when I got my driver's license, that I'd ever be grateful for the price of gasoline dropping to $3.52.9.

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HAPPY birthday today to Sheila Baty, Nona Taylor, Debra Renae Jentes, Kari Ann Guess, Clint G. Howell, Brent Beane, Travis Thompson, Pamela Peterson, Scott Scribner, John David Nix, Donna Young, Margaret Roberts, W.W. Roberts, Kevin Dorsey, Travis Driver, Billy Bynum, Ray Haskins, Jo Lynn Brasher, Paul Hanover, Scott Barber, Everett English, Theresa Hearne, Starr "Rainy" Burdwell, Anna Bess Hedrick and Ralph Plaxco .

CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries to Mr. and Mrs. James C. Waggoner, Mr. and Mrs. Danny Strickland, Mr. and Mrs. Ross Webb, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Madden.