Mayor’s Row……………by Ned Mitchell
Veteran’s Day ceremonies for 2005 were hosted by Sesser and the event was well attended. All American Legion and VFW Posts in Franklin County join together each year to honor veterans of all wars and cities and villages in the county take turns hosting the event. High school and grade school bands perform at the annual parade and this year’s participants did a great job. The weather was perfect and attendees joined together to pay tribute to our veterans as they should.
Veteran’s Day was first started in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson to mark the end of “The Great War”, World War I. The war officially ended when fighting ceased and an armistice was signed between the Allied nations and Germany. The armistice or treaty was signed at 11:00 am on November 11, 1918 and every year since then has been marked on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. This is a history lesson that needs to be taught to our students of all ages.
President Wilson said “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
Prior to “The Great War” our county had other battles and other Presidents honored veterans of those wars. Our first President, George Washington, said after the Revolutionary War “we owe these veterans a debt of gratitude, indeed a debt of honor.” President Abraham Lincoln in honoring veterans of the Civil War said during his second Inaugural Address that we must “care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.”
Down through the ages and for over two centuries now Americans from all walks of life pay tribute to veterans and rightfully so. We pay tribute to the 50 million veterans of the United States, honor the 1 million who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their life to defend our freedom, and especially think about the 1.5 million who have borne the wounds of battle. Franklin County had a parade and brief ceremony, others had their own way of paying tribute. It could have been just a handshake, pat on the back, or a simple thank you to a veteran. With all that is going on in the world today it is good to see Americans pause and join together at 11 o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month to take a step back from our busy lives and pay tribute to those who have served us so well. I know there are a lot of opinions about the war in Iraq, I have my opinion about it and you have yours and well as our friends and neighbors have theirs. The bottom line is that we have men and women on the battlefield right now trying to bring liberty of oppressed people in distant lands. Respect for their commitment should be taught in all of our schools, from day care to universities and it begins with each of us doing our part in our own way to thank a veteran. Not only on Veteran’s Day, but we should honor and respect them every day, it is the least we can do.
The Sesser Area Chamber of Commerce recently held it’s annual dinner at Valente’s Terrace on Main Street in Sesser and it was a well attended event. Our guest speakers for the evening were Mariah Hayes, director of the CASA program in Franklin County and she did a great job promoting a very worthy cause, helping abused children. The main speaker of the event was former Sesser resident Keith Kirkpatrick, son of Bob and Lucille Kirkpatrick. Keith was very informative and kept the crowd tuned in to what he had to say. He focused on small things that we can do as residents of our cities and gave us some good pointers on how to make our towns better. I liked the fact that he did not focus on making our towns bigger, he focused on taking what we have and making it better. That is something each of us can do every day. Keith advised us to stay away from the negative things and focus on the positive. That is good advice in life in general and he made it clear that we could all do something to make Sesser better. It is always good to have speakers who were born and raised in Sesser come back and honor us with their time and let us take a look at their life now. We were honored to have Keith. Of course his brother Rick is doing well as is his sister Cathy, but this night we focused on listening the elder statesman of the Kirkpatrick kids (Rick will love that one!)
Honored as Sesser’s Citizen of the Year was Delbert Brown and his recognition fit in very well with Keith’s comments. Every year we look for a citizen who is not involved in the main stream of Sesser activities but yet who in their own way do little things that when rolled together turn into big things that make Sesser the great place that it is. I like to call that “thinking outside the box” and the first person that came to mind was Delbert Brown. Delbert mentioned to me one day at the post office that the trees we had planted several years ago in our city park and some low branches, suckers as a lot of people call them. He asked if he could cut them off and treat the wounds on the tree. I was taken back for a minute. Sure, I had noticed the suckers too but with a two person street department, we have major issues to deal with such as streets, sidewalks, alleys and other big jobs. So here was a retired member of our community who took the time to notice something that needed to be done, had a plan and put it in gear. To me that was a great moment in that instead of a resident saying “you need” to trim those trees in the park, Delbert Brown said he would like to take care of the problem for us. There is a lesson for all of us to learn here and we wanted to honor Delbert for teaching us about the simple things in life that when all added together become great.
It has been a busy week around the Mitchell house as we took time to visit with wife Aisha’s dad Richard, wife Becky and sons Michael and Jessie. They were in town to visit Richie’s parents Dean and Margaret Goessman but I think mainly came to see their new grandbaby, our daughter Carrigan. We celebrated an early Thanksgiving at Dean and Margaret’s as well as had fish fries, wiener roasts and breakfasts but the highlight of the visit was the picture celebrating five generations of this family. Josephine Goessman, Dean Goessman, Richard Goessman, Aisha Goessman Mitchell and Carrigan Aleta Mitchell posed for the picture to mark the event. Five generations are rare and we were fortunate to have everyone together to mark this milestone in their family.
Special thanks to Dot Ann Dale who has donated several old pictures of country one room school children to us. There are pictures from McGlasson, White Oak, and East Center schools as well as some old year books, Woman’s Club books, and Sesser memorabilia. Dot Ann’s parents, Albert and Venita Dale lived in Sesser for many years and it is good that items they save through the years have been donated so that generations to come can research them and know our history first hand. We are always on the look for old Sesser pictures and memorabilia and are grateful when we find these treasures. Don’t throw it away, let us look at it first! We have a great historical society that is very active and we will find a place for any item that has to do with the Sesser area.
If you need us, or want to volunteer like Delbert Brown, give us a call at 625-3611, 625-5322, or 625-5788. We also can be reached at nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org which is our web page. Look us up on the web!
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