RSS 2.0 NEWS FEEDSStay happy, stay rural
Posted 11.28.06 at 11:20 AMBy Sheryl Riley
I have spent all but eight years of my life outside the city limits of Paris, Texas, in the small community of Powderly. As a student, I couldn’t bring myself to leave this beautiful rural area. I figured that if I left and moved off to a busy city like Dallas, I would never be able to ponder, as I do, on the vast countryside.
When I ride along with someone going north on Highway 271, east or west on Highway 82, or hit the back roads, I always daydream and think about how people in the “old days,” two to three hundred years ago, even got around.
Looking out through my car window, I cast my eyes upon grassy hills and flat land, and I think, just how did they ever manage?
Sometimes, I look at the world as it is today and dream about being back in those times. I see families in their wagons with white canvas tops, being pulled by teams of oxen, and I see rough-knuckled cowboys parading around on their horses, hooping and hollering. I see girls in long dresses and boys in trousers and shirts running on the hills, rolling down them, and racing barefoot across open land. I dream about those day, and then I realize that the closest I’ll ever got to being free like that is if I stay in a rural area.
Never could I leave and move to a haze-filled, overpopulated city when I can stay in an open country area. This is why I choose to attend Paris Junior College, my hometown school. Here, I can move on with my life and still be able to dream and reflect about the “old days.”
Sheryl Riley is a freshman business administration student at PJC from Powderly, Texas.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »The cause of school violence
Posted 11.28.06 at 11:16 AMBy James Buchanan
An issue that really seems to bother me is where people put the blame for all the student violence in our schools. They want to point the finger at the media, popular music, and video games. These nationwide attacks haven’t been caused by these things. I believe that these attacks have been the aftermath of simple bad parenting.
Think about it. Thousands of children listen every day to “violent” music or watch “violent” movies, but only a handful of kids take guns to school. I’m a prime example. If this were true, I would be the modern day Rambo of school shootings because of all the violent movies I watched when I was younger. However, I had two amazing parents, and that’s what made me what I am today. TV didn’t make me; Mom and Dad did.
The point I’m trying to make is that if parents would just spend time with their children and show them that they care a little more, this would improve next to all the problems we have with our youth today. All I ask is to stop pointing the finger and just show your kids that you care about them. It will make a difference.
James Buchanan is a PJC freshman criminal justice student from Hugo, Okla.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Home … where there’s water
Posted 11.21.06 at 1:59 PMBy Natasha Anderson
Something that I particularly like about my hometown in California is the water.
I like to surf because the water affects my emotions. Most of the time it’s calm with real radical waves, and this allows me to just let loose completely. Then, at other times, the water seems to be mad and gives me waves that are pretty dangerous to surf, but that’s the thrill of surfing.
I can’t really describe how that rush feels, but it feels so good sometimes until I’ve stayed out there all night, not even surfing, but just listening to the water.
I would trade a lot of things to go home again just to hear the water for just five minutes. To me, the water is like meditation for my soul, and it’s really good to my heart. This is why I love my hometown in California, because the water is where my heart is one hundred percent of the time.
Natasha Anderson is a Paris Junior College freshman.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Skating in that comfortable place
Posted 11.17.06 at 10:14 AMBy Winter Lockett
Have you ever had a place where you could go and just feel free from all the frustrating and stressful events that occur in life, and just get away from it all?
Maybe it’s a book in which you are absolutely engulfed and don’t want to put down because just maybe the characters’ lives seem a lot better than your own. Also, a simple walk down the road to clear your mind can make you feel as if you were free from it all. Or pick up a guitar and strum away a little bit, making a song from the heart that only you can hear. There are many activities that clear the mind and escape from the drama in life.
My place, or as I know it, my safe hold, my sanctuary, is the local skating park in downtown Paris. It is hidden behind the public library and snuggled against the farmers’ food market.
When you see it, you may only see graffiti, ramps, and kids. When I see the park, I see artwork, history, and ramps that are calling to me. I also see the group of friends waiting to show me their new skating tricks.
When I throw the board down to the ground and jump on it for the ride, feeling the cool breeze hit my face and the wheels rolling over the pavement, I am suddenly free from all thoughts of job, school, and bills. It’s like time has stopped to let me enjoy these simple things. It’s one of the greatest feelings on earth.
Winter Lockett is a PJC freshman from Malvern, Ark.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Of bikes and inventions
Posted 11.17.06 at 10:11 AMBy Jennifer Nelson
In the 1940s, when soldiers were stationed at Camp Maxey north of Paris, a man named John Alexander owned a building downtown in Paris. It was then known as Alexander’s Bicycle Shop, but is now known as the Texas Spud Shop.
Mr. Alexander worked on anything (but mostly bicycles). He was very talented when it came to bicycles. If you knew bicycles as well as my family does, you might know that he created one of the world’s most expensive bicycles - the Rocket bike. He built this bike and rented it out for $25 a day. Only 25 of them were ever made. He also invented the first flashlight holder that soldiers mounted on the sides of their Jeeps.
Jennifer Nelson is a freshman nursing student from Paris.
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