Gail Boyd says she can understand "running into" people from Washington Wilkes when you're visiting in Atlanta, or St. Simons Island, or other places in the South, but she and Tom Bush, and Doug and Susan Abramson had an incredible experience while traveling in Montana. They had spent five nights at Glacier National Park in Montana, visited Great Falls, checked out the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition area, Custer's Last Stand, and the Battle of Little Big Horn. The temperature two mornings was 42 degrees, and here we are sweltering in 100-degree weather. They were sitting around fireplaces in Many Glacier Lodge one evening when Doug got acquainted with three little boys and was showing them card tricks. One of the Abramsons said that they were from Georgia and a young couple nearby picked up on it and the young man said, "Well, I'm from Georgia, but I'm sure you've never heard of my little town." Then Susan asked for the name of the town and the young man said Sharon. Susan said, "The only person I know in Sharon is Renee Brown," and the flabbergasted young man said, "That's my Mom!" He was Michael Brown -- now Dr. Michael Brown. Michael and his wife, Dr. Catherine Brown, were married in October, and live in Alabama. . . . Gail said there were hundreds of people there, but here they were meeting somebody from Sharon, Georgia. . . . As I said: "You had better be careful when you're out-of-town. Somebody is nearly always watching."

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Ruth Rogers attended a meeting of the Newecomers/Family Support Group at the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home in Augusta last week. Another member of the committee,

Ann Greene of Decatur, shared that her son was a cyclist with BRAG when they stayed overnight in Washington recently. He was very complimentary of Washington and its citizens and encouraged his mother to bring some friends for a visit here. She stated that she had been to Washington but not recently and would like to come again soon. . . . Ruth's husband, Grady Rogers, is a resident for therapy at the Georgia War Veterans Home. If you know Grady, you know that even though he's been there just a few weeks, he already knows half the people there.

. The News-Reporter has the greatest group of community correspondents to be found anywhere. They always meet any schedule we ask them to about getting their news to us. Last week was an especially difficult schedule to work with because we were getting out the July 2 paper on regular schedule and as soon as we finished that we jumped right in and put together the issue for July 9, so that everybody could have the week off. The correspondents brought the July 2 news in on Monday and then showed up again on Wednesday with news for July 9. We thank them. They are Carolyn Gammon, Tignall; Bonnie Boatwright, Rayle; Samille Sherrer, Lundberg; Sherry Newsome, Aonia; and Joan Drinkard, Heritage Healthcare.

. We've had two Wilkes County ladies fly long distances out-of-the-country in recent weeks. . . . Phyllis Scarborough has returned from a trip to Japan where she stayed a month with son Adam and his family. Her flight time was 15 hours going and 15 hours coming home. . . . Bobbie Sue Johnson left Friday, June 26, to fly to Romania where she is serving as a one-man mission team. This is her second trip to Romania in this capacity. She accompanied a group from Walhalla, S.C., on the first trip. This time she is in the hometown area of her daughter-inlaw

Angela's wife. She is in Arad, Romania, Angela's hometown, and Misca, Romania, where Angela's grandparents live. Angela is in Japan, so Bobbie Sue is on her own as far as language goes. She is picking and canning peas and beans; canning vegetables, hoeing gardens, and this week, she milked a cow. Bobbie Sue is a Registered Nurse (and more) and is doing some medical work in the villages, too. Her husband will pick her up at the airport about midnight on July 11 to come home.

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Our News-Reporter readers are great, too. When I appealed to readers to help me write two of these columns in one week, I got lots of calls and items in the mail and by email. Please don't stop now, though. Keep calling to tell me what you're doing. It's so much more interesting, and the summertime is a time when people do interesting things. Thank you to all of you.

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Bruce and Debbie Holes are home from a trip to Alberta, Canada, and other places in that area. Bruce told me about a stop at the Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise. It was a ritzie and costly place, but that's what you do on a vacation. Bruce had a Reuben sandwich at the restaurant and his comment afterwards was that it was good, but not nearly as good as the one he gets at Talk of the Town in Downtown Washington! Robert and Ed could get the "bighead" over that. Bruce and Debbie traveled on the famous Rocky Mountain Train. They were very cool, too, while we were enduring the 90s and hundreds here.

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In this column on June 11, I mentioned

Joan Cowen. There's no such person in Washington-Wilkes. We had a bad phone connection or there was too much noise in my background. It was Joan Higginbotham Bowen who was born and lived in Wilkes County all her life. (I don't think she used "Higginbotham" on the phone, because I would have picked up on that immediately.) Joan has an internet business called Jolly Rompers. She was asked to supply children's clothing for three boys and three girls (sextuplets) who were going to be on television's Larry King Live and the CBS Early Show. That's a lot more interesting than Joan Cowen, isn't it!

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The wedding of Bonnie Denard and Jason Hunnicutt on Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, is featured in the summer edition of the magazine, Weddings Unveiled. The sub-title is "Inspiring Style for Southern Weddings." The four-page article has two full-page pictures of Bonnie and Jason and nine other pictures of features of the wedding.

Kermit Hocutt is listed as wedding consultant. The wedding party, family, and guests traveled by ferry (the only way to get to the island) for the festivities. Bonnie and Jason are both employed on nearby Little St. Simons Island. Bonnie is the daughter of Judy and Greg Denard, and granddaughter of Gladys Hoffman, the late Aagee Hoffman, and Elizabeth and Randall Denard, all of Washington-Wilkes.

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