KILGOROUND
KATHRYN MARTINEZE

Maybe sports don't belong in Kilgoround when I write them, but I am a mother - first and foremost - and I have bragging rights.

As the parent of an 11- 12 Kilgore Boys Baseball Association CUB I must say our team is off the a great start. The boys learned a lesson about comebacks at their first game when they were up by four and slacked off just enough for the other team to pull up to a tie. Fortunately they had one more at bat and beat the Cardinals 9-8. At game two they beat Tatum 19-2.

Game two was also the game where my son earned his first career home run (which just happened to be a GRAND SLAM!); and Bubba Reyes, son of Sandra and Manuel Reyes, hit his first career home run!

GO CUBS!

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We all know about Boo, the Irish Wolfhound that is more or less owned by Ronnie Spradlin, councilman and local business

owner's. Now, there is a new addition to the Spradlin- East Texas Lumber family, Sammy II.

Spradlin found Sammy, a red-tailed squirrel, when he was just a baby. Sammy has been bottle and hand fed so long, now he just is not interested in leaving the lumber yard. When I stopped in this week, Sammy was asleep in a pipe. If you see Ronnie, don't be shy about asking him what that lump is on his shoulder. It is Sammy. He likes to sit on Ronnie's shoulder, under his shirt.

When Sammy isn't in Ronnie's shirt or on Ronnie's shoulder, he finds other places to perch. Ronnie was the computer the other day with Sammy sitting comfortably on his hand.

(By the way, Boo was named Yard Pet of the Month by Pro Sales Magazine, a trade magazine published for lumber yards. And, Sammy I -- Ronnie's earlier squirrel -- was also featured in that magazine.)

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On this day in: 1909 - Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome; 1923 - Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," opens; and in 1949 - The aircraft carrier USS United States (CVA-58) is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding.

+++ Born on this day in: 1857 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (d. 1938); 1915 - Joy Gresham, American writer (d. 1960); and in 1947 - James Woods, American actor.

Happy Birthday today Friday toTim Ford, Rosalie Abraham, Tommy Craver, Kay Howell, Tobie Vaughn, Callie Robinson, Mary Ann Cooper, Choyea Keith Hancock, Shawna Bass, Ida Wood, Zane Brannon, Bill Waldo, Alan Ledet, Mike Bassham, Wanda Salyer, Lisa Mitchell, Kimberly Robinson, Kay Torrence, Cassidy Nicole Hodges, Chase Vinson, Regina Williams, Wanda Salyer, Clayton Villyard, Jackson Gattis Tyra.

Celebrating another year together on this day are Marvin and Marguerite Avance.

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Blowing out the birthday candles on Saturday are Mark Charchio, Whitney Keeling, Helen Goodwin, Ronnie Shaw, Patty Bone Clayton, Dorothy Brown, Lisa DeGraffenfried, Ray Wilson, Zach Barnes, Ian Bass, Chris Kennedy Jr., Staci Cooper, Robert Reed, Lossie Hudspeth, Denson Bishop, Staci Johnson, Jeremy Dean, Rick Dillard 29?, Claudia Clark, Russell Morris, Collette Miles, Scott Hinton, Virginia Conner, Cleo Mumphy, Ronnie Chappell, Katherine Barker, Marcy Whitmer, Audrey Bell.

Happy Anniversary on Saturday to Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Burton.