KILGOROUND
BILL WOODALL

RANGERETTES, and Forever (former) Rangerettes, are pretty much everywhere.

LAST Saturday the drive motor on our printing press burned up. Electrician Grady McBride hooked us up with Industrial Electric in Lone Star.

THEY worked through the weekend rebuilding the motor so that we could run the presses again on Tuesday.

THE company, it turns out, is owned by Rangerette Forever Krystal Bunt. In addition to being a Rangerette, Ms. Bunt - I've failed to remember her maiden name - was Miss Kilgore during her time here in the late 1980s and was among the top ten finalists in the Miss Texas competition.

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THE Union Pacific Railroad track maintenance crew that worked its way through downtown Kilgore a couple of weeks ago left an astonishing volume of litter in their wake. Sandwich wrappers, plastic bags, drink bottles, ciga-

rette packages ...

AND this after they watched while volunteers from Kilgore Improvement and Beautification Association spent the day collecting litter from downtown, including areas immediately adjacent to the tracks.

THOSE railroad guys really are good neighbors, aren't they?

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THIS OMINOUS email message arrived in our email in-box Monday, May 5:

"ON MAY 10, 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau's population clock will reach 6,666,666,666; is the end upon us?"

THE message was sent by an on-line gambling house offering 500/1 odds that the world was going to end on May 10 and 1/1000 that it would not.

IF you're reading this on Sunday, the answer to their question is "no."

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MAUDE LAIRD middle school art students have their works on display in the lobby of Austin Bank.

SOME of them are pretty darned good. All of them are better than I could turn out.

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AS residents of "historic downtown Kilgore" we get birds-eye views of a bunch of events ranging from snow hill to chili cook-off to taste of Kilgore and even the occasional "fifth-quarter" event during football season. That part of Commerce Street in front of The Depot is almost like our front yard and we really like sharing it.

OUR favorite downtown event, though, is Jazz Under the Derricks. The event is hosted by Kilgore Historical Preservation Foundation as a way of encouraging you to use the World's Richest Acre Park and to appreciate the historicity of the derricks assembled (properly, re-assembled, I guess) there.

THE JAZZ Professors, talented musicians from several area colleges, will again perform at Jazz Under the Derricks Thursday night at 6:30.

YOU'RE invited to come, listen, appreciate the milieu, even get up and dance if you're moved. But bring a jug of iced tea and a lawn chair.

IT'S all good and, except for your investment in tea and something to sit on, it's all free.

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JEAN Laird, our uber-gardener/ columnist who broke hip back in early April, is getting around -- walker and all. She tells us she's covering about a half-mile a day, but nobody has volunteered to measure it.

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HAPPY birthday today (Sunday) to Louie Jordan, Annette Castles, W.R. Crim, Bart Crowley, Nannette Wickham, Judy Sheffield, Darryl Primo, Mrs. J.C. Manning, Susan Metcalf, Lane Barrett, Anna Mae Smith, Rena Dykes, Mrs. J. Robert Mc- Collum, Devin Warren, Joseph Sullivan, Lindsey Toon, Keli Cole.

BLOWING out birthday candles on Monday are Bill Brantley Jr., Martha A. Clark, Gypsey JoAllen Jones, Brialyn Mellucca.

HAPPY anniversary Monday Mr. and Mrs. Fred Brantley, Jack and Mary Bernethy.