Most of us have seen advertisements and articles about growing tomatoes upside-down in pots and many people have been buying "kits" for planting the tomatoes. Bobby Ansley says he's been doing that for nine years now and he didn't buy any kit to do the job. He takes discarded hanging baskets, fills them with dirt and widens the hole in the bottom. Then he puts a little insulation around the hole and plants the tomato with the plant coming out the hole. He hangs the basket in a not-too-sunny spot, and waits for the tomatoes to grow. He has four pots with beautiful plants and pretty tomatoes already growing on the vines. I've seen them, and they're as healthy as can be. I'm going to try it. Bobby lives on West Robert Toombs Avenue.

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Caroline Gentry, seven-year-old granddaughter of Susan and Ed Pope Jr., is featured on the cover of the May 21 issue of The Christian Index, Georgia Baptist Convention newspaper. In the picture, Caroline is preparing to decorate a veteran's grave at Mars Hill Baptist Church's cemetery in Athens. She is holding two American flags. Her dad,

Lt. Colonel John Gentry of the Georgia National Guard is currently training for deployment to Afghanistan next month after having been home from Iraq for a few months. Her mother is the former Katherine Pope, and she has a sister, 10-yearold Anna.

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The News-Reporter has always used high school students to help with assembling and delivering the papers every week. For the past year we have had one of the most efficient and conscientious crews that we have ever had. Never before have we had a crew that so thoroughly cleaned the back shop after assembling and delivering the papers on Wednesday nights. They are five high school young ladies, and four of them graduated last week. We cannot thank them enough. Needless to say, we will miss them tremendously, but wish them well in their plans for after graduation. Mariah Crew will be going to Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

Victoria McClendon will be a student at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Roshanda King will be enrolled at Georgia Perimeter in Atlanta. Noraé Early will be in the U.S. Army Reserve and attending Albany State University in Albany.

Mariah Jones is the one who will be with us for another year and helping the new crew which begins training this week.

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Joe Harris says there's an explanation behind that convict costume he was wearing in the picture in The News-Reporter last week. The picture was of his receiving an award from the CSRA Regional Development Center Area Agency on Aging. Joe says he knew he would have a good audience at the meeting and wore the costume to dramatize the way our culture treats old people. First they get a number which is with them for life, later given a special identity, becoming best known by the government, still later placed in a government facility, limited in their environment and social contacts, behavior controlled, etc. The costume has been used at a statewide meeting and may be used again, he said. He thinks it has gotten some people to thinking -- which is the point.

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A letter from Janice Armour Browning of Winterville says: "I have a subscription to The News- Reporter and enjoy keeping up with what's going on in Washington. I was very sorry to learn that "Miss Priscilla" [Maxwell] is no longer able to write the Tyrone News. Thank you for the write-up on her. She's a special lady."

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We keep getting letters and calls from people who would like to see the canopy of lights return to The Square for Christmas. Let us know what you think.

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When you are vacationing this summer or just out-of-town visiting, be sure to take a copy of The News-Reporter with you and get somebody to make your picture with it so that we can put it in The News-Reporter to see where it has been that week.

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Mike Hardy, electrical supervisor for the City of Washington, has also been watching the foxes which I mentioned in this column two weeks ago. He has made some great pictures of them, one of which you can see in this week's News-Reporter. Mike says that there were originally five of them, but dogs killed one. He had thought that the mama fox had moved them, and I did too, because we didn't see them for a few days. But last Friday they were back in their usual place, playing and having a good time. . . . Early Memorial Day, I saw a dead deer on the sidewalk across the street from the Episcopal Church of the Mediator on East Robert Toombs Avenue. There were no visible signs that it had been hit by a car, but I'm almost sure that it must have been. It was a beautiful young deer and looked like it was just peacefully sleeping.

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Some time ago I mentioned the

Curb Market that was in existence behind the Courthouse in the 1930s and 1940s. I could identify only two of the ladies in a picture that I had. Carolyn Gammon tells me that Myrtle Shipes also brought items to the Curb Market at that time. She is the grandmother of Dr. Tim Causey.

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I am collecting plans of high school graduates now that they have finished high school. Please remember to call me with plans. . . . Coty Denard will be a student at Augusta State University. . . .

Spencer Swinson will be attending the University of Georgia, majoring in business and pre-pharmacy.

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There seemed to be a good turnout of Wilkes Countians attending the open house at the new middle and high schools Sunday afternoon. It's all very impressive and functional. My favorite place was the library (or media center). It is so light and airy and has that huge and beautiful window looking out on the campus. Makes me wish I were either a student or media specialist.