Saturday, October 17, 1998

Facts of life clear outside the Beltway

By Rheta Grimsley Johnson

FISHTRAP HOLLOW, Miss. -- Last night at pink twilight I arrived to find my neighbor Danny Barnes knocking down the field of dead sunflowers behind the house in the hopes a few birds will discover the seed before the dove season ends.

I mourned the sunflowers for about a minute, then got over it. I love to eat doves. Besides, I could smell the minty, crushed sumac, and the cut grass, and feel the arrival of the first days of fall, days that still sweat like summer.

Then Danny came and sat on the front porch for a while, passing the time the way neighbors should, telling me all the news that matters. It is refreshing to talk to someone so busy with his own life and work that he offers no opinion on Washington. God knows those are cheap these days.

Danny has about a dozen thriving enterprises, including making and delivering crushed ice for all the ice machines in this area. He gets around.

Soon Danny had to hurry on along; there are no lights on his tractor.

The neighborhood dog, Snuffy, came and spent the night under the house where the ground stays damp and cool. He spreads his watchdog abilities around, visiting the most needy. In the wee hours I could hear him through the old pine floors, rooting and groaning, chasing deer and squirrels in his sleep.

This morning I bought the Vidette, "The One Newspaper in the World Most Interested in This Area," as the banner says. Over my grits and Coke I read the news and found no mention whatsoever of politicians' sex lives.

On the front page instead was a big picture of Carolyn Brown, who has been my mail carrier the whole decade I've had this peaceful place on the rural route. She'd just been named Mississippi Rural Letter Carrier of the Year. They sent Carolyn all the way to Denver, where she was awarded a plaque and a watch.

Some days Carolyn's car was the only one to pass this place, but if a car just had to pass, hers was a good one to do it. You always could depend on a wave and a smile.

Once, when I spent a month in Holland, Carolyn kept an eye out for my house. The day I returned she somehow knew and brought a month's worth of mail to my front door.

The paper had other news, of course. Not all of it was good. A handsome young Delta man, Matt Hooker, drowned in a Mississippi River lake over the weekend. His grandparents used to live near here.

The circuit court is in session and heard some cases, mostly marijuana matters. Possessing. Selling. Possessing with intent to sell. There was also one guilty plea from a man charged with making harassing phone calls.

As I said, this is a peaceful county.

I think what those inside the Washington Beltway forget is that people beyond are well aware of the facts of life. You don't live in rural Iowa, or Wyoming, or Mississippi or Georgia and not figure those out.

But, thank goodness, it's becoming clear that ours is not a nation of Linda Tripps, pathetic and conniving voyeurs. That's why the majority said it didn't want to see the Clinton sexual inquisition on video.

Most, at least I believe, are more interested in the minimum-wage increase that the Senate killed. It would have meant $1 an hour more for those who need it.

People with real jobs, real debts, real tragedies and triumphs couldn't care less about a politician fooling around with the help.

Tell us some real news.

King Features Syndicate