Visit with Lassiter family

April 24-29, 2019

I enjoyed walking about the farm where I was raised. The day of Suzanne's concert was rainy and stormy all day, but Friday, April 26 dawned as a beautiful and sunny day. This is a view of Dorothy's house from Bobby and Suzanne's. Garrett and Sarah are living there now.

I walked all around the house and by Brent's shop, and got this view of Bobby and Suzanne's house from the hill where the old barn was.

Suzanne drove us to Batesville to Fred's Fish House for dinner, passing through Jacksonport and by the big power plant and the town of Newark. I again enjoyed the fields and all the cows. We had seen a tremendous number of cattle on the way to Russellville yesterday. We had a great dinner and then toured a bit more on the way back.

After supper we went to the park along the river in Batesville. The most dramatic view in the little park was this giant tree. The span of its limbs out from the trunk was amazing.

We were intrigued by this massive oak tree in the park. It's variety is called a Chinkapin oak. According to an article in the Three Rivers Edition paper, it received a champion tree award in 2011 for its circumference of 212 inches, height of 102ft and span of 117ft, a "bigness index" of 343. The variety is also called a Sessile oak and is common in the UK.

We had a pleasant drive back through Newark and the nice green cattle country and stopped off at the park in Jacksonport.

We examined the cannon in the Civil War Centennial memorial there.

Brenda and Suzanne examine the Civil War Centennial monument. Jacksonport was a major port and troop location during the Civil War.

The Jacksonport Courthouse was restored in the centennial celebration and more recently to repair storm damage.

We got a nice view of the sunset over the White River as we traveled away from the Jacksonport State Park Visitor Center. We drove south along the river to the place where we had joined the Newport First Baptist Church on their Meet me at the River celebration.

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Brent and Mandi came by the house and we had a very enjoyable converstion till about 11pm. It was great to get together with them. Eli came by, and he is now about 6'1" and very athletic - enjoying his football.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Saturday was windy, but still a beautiful day. I spent a good bit of time walking around the farm. After the great tree in Batesville yesterday, I particularly noted our large oak tree next to the railroad track. This is a view under its broad limb outreach toward Bobby and Suzanne's house. I remember playing in and around this oak tree in my childhood seventy years ago. And it was about fifty feet out along the the path to the railroad crossing that our little dog found a copperhead next to the path. The snake might well have bitten Philippe or I, so we suddenly realized the wisdom of Mother's rule that we couldn't make the trip to the railroad crossing without our little dog with us.

Sunday, April 28, 2019

We enjoyed going to church at the First Baptist Church of Newport with Suzanne and Bobby, Brent, Mandi and Eli. That is the church where I was baptized, and it is always a pleasure to visit there again. Suzanne did a beautiful job at the piano, accompanying the worship music.

After church we all gathered at the Lassiters for lunch and had a good time of family fellowship.

It was a wonderful time of visiting around the table with Eli, Bobby's brother Galen and his wife Paula, Suzanne, Garrett, Brent, Mandi, Brenda, Bobby's Mom Genevieve and Bobby.

We continued our far-ranging conversations with Bobby and Suzanne on Sunday night and headed back to Georgia on Monday morning. We felt very blessed by the visit.