KILGOROUND

BILL WOODALL THIS WAS public food week in Kilgore.

VOLUNTEERS on Thursday hosted the 17th annual Oilman’s Chili Cook-Off to benefit the Community Crisis Center.

THE very next day, volunteers at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church offered the perfect counterpoint at their soup and pie luncheon.

MY sister describes Kilgore as “nifty.” There’s an understatement for you.

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SOME THINGS MAY be too good to be true.

ON Polk Street in Jefferson, there’s an eatery – a mother-and-daughter operation – called Kitt’s Cornbread.

AS it was described to me, “they just use cornbread instead of white bread. And it’s actually a little rich, if you can imagine that.”

PICK your meat – ham, turkey, whatever – and they wrap it in cornbread.

IT’S on my to-do list. And if it’s not what I’d

hoped, it’s across the street from a barbecue joint. How can it get any better?

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ON the subject of cornbread…

THE folks on the National Oilwell Varco chili team also make a crawfish cornbread that is astounding. Served up with boudin, rice and beans, it’s breath-taking.

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TENNESSEE Ernie Ford insisted he owed his soul to the company store. On the day of the East Texas Oilman’s Chili Cook-Off, I owe my soul to Prilosec. (The cheerful cooks in the booth at Eagle Fishing Tool offered free antacids, though they insisted they were only for “the other guys’ chili.”)

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MEMBERS of the Main Street Advisory Committee got a flashlight tour of the old Crim Theater Thursday night.

I grew up going to Saturday matinees at the theater in Jacksonville – a theater I thought was impressive. Having finally seen the Crim, I’m compelled to say my opinion of Jacksonville’s Palace Theater was based on insufficient information.

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TO THE host of volunteers who make the chili cookoff happen, our final paragraph this week must be this:

THANKS, folks. You make us all glad to be here.

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Celebrating birdays in the coming days are Paige Dawn Underwood, Haley Katherine Hinton, Bobby Mizell, Alan Light, Norma Loey, Beth Biersdorfer, Sherenna Rossum, Charla Starkey, Mrs. Travis Crews, Jonathan Lee Riley, Pat Canterbury, James Sanders, Chip Sullivan, Jerry Jones, Joe Bolt, Katie Wylie, Christa Starkey, Virgel Conner, Trynity Henderson, Charles Lower, Dillan Hale.

Wanda Conway, Mrs. R. D. Todd, C.W. Dusty Rhodes, Kaci Wiggins, Tara Pickens, Steven Leach, Lerla Lee, David Hampton, Ashley Gayle Smith, Dorothy Osborne Bates, Eric Smalley, Aladdin Shafer, Patti Schlair, Robbie Duncan, Deric Nowlin, Jennifer Pullen, James Rel Sharp, Donald Headrick, Mikah Sadler.

Alice Orange, Tai Duckworth, Laura Ann McDonald, Margaret McElyea, De De Cox, Donna Ann Canterbury, Susan Hooten, Penny Boone, Brandon Ott, Ken Becker, Mattie Coleman, James Henshaw, Shelton Burleson, Brandon Odom.

Julyann Barbee, Billie Jean Arden, Dicki Mallett, Kit Murphy Jr., Paula Lawrence, Bert Purvis, Charles Ray (Bud) Walls, John Hollis Jones, David Mercer, Sherra Poulter, James Wright Martin Rodriguez Sr., Eddie Adamson II, Mrs. Bernice Pyle, Hunter K. Walden, Becky Lake, Debbie Crews, A.P. Hooks, Becky Barton, Amanda Jones, Martha Knotts, Ed Page, Peter Keiser, Keith Peck, Thomas Cunningham, Jefferey Pace, Mike Hamilton, Terry Ammons.

Celebrating anniversaries in the coming days are Mr. and Mrs. Terry Pickard, Alejandro and Lori Rosas.

Mr. and Mrs. Steve Pritchard, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Hernandez.

Randy and Linda Barton.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Johnson, Melvin and Vicki Hawkins.