Mena Elks Lodge holds Memorial Day presentation ceremony

Article and photos by Ethan Nahté

The Mena Elks Lodge No. 781 held their annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Polk County Court House Veteran’s Memorial on a pleasant Monday morning. Amongst passing traffic and train horns Elks’ secretary Phyllis Caldwell introduced Chad Goodner, who welcomed the crowd of a hundred or so, expressing what Memorial Day means and the purpose for the ceremony.

Joe Evans then gave a prayer, followed by Mike Hooper leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Hooper then introduced Laura Spencer Lawson to sing the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She was joined by the audience.

Retired 1st Sgt. Russell Carmack provided the special presentation. Caldwell returned to the podium and proceeded with the Presentation of Wreaths, announcing the names of each wreath being presented as several members of the Elks took turns gathering the wreaths and escorting a representative for each of the two dozen wreaths, placing each before the war memorial with flags flying half-staff before them. The wreaths were individually saluted.

Lawson sang once again before each of the five military branches were individually called to stand up: Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.

The ceremony was closed out with taps.

The crowd was invited to stay for a free cookout. Many went to look at the memorial and wreaths, some touching the name of a friend or continued on page 22

By Richie Lawry

“Wow, that looks great,” I thought as I pulled into the driveway. For the last week, Jason had been building a short retaining wall across the front of our property to create a boundary between our front yard and the street, along with flower beds in front of our house. The stone blocks were replacing old landscape timbers. It was nice to see the project completed.

All the old landscape timbers were stacked in the backyard, and I thought about what to do with them. Could I get anything out of them? Would anyone be interested in buying them? Maybe someone I knew had a use for them, and I would give them away. I would need to do something with them after the holiday weekend.

The weather over the weekend was beautiful, with warm temperatures and sunny skies. It was perfect for driving my ‘57 Nash Metropolitan convertible. We drove the Metropolitan to Papa’s Mexican Café on Sunday, meeting family for lunch. I took photos of my granddaughters in the Metropolitan when we finished eating.

After leaving Papa’s and going to Walmart, we headed home. When I pulled into the driveway and got out, I heard someone calling my name. I looked up and saw that it was Tim, my next-door neighbor. He was at the end of the cul-de-sac and asked if I could come to help them. I walked to the end of the street to see what he needed.

When I arrived, I saw that my neighbor, Phil, had gotten his riding lawn mower hung up on some exposed tree roots. At first, Tim and I tried to lift the mower to free it, but it was much too heavy. I thought about the landscape timbers in my backyard. Maybe we could use one of the timbers to pry the mower off the root.

I walked back to my house, chose one of the timbers, and carried it back to where the mower was stuck. Tim and I placed the timber under the mower and heaved on it but could not dislodge it. As we pushed on the timber, it snapped in two. I thought about going to my shop and getting my floor jack, but before I did that, we tried another approach.

Placing one of the timber halves in front of the wheel on the stuck side, we attempted to drive up on the timber, raising the height enough to dislodge the mowing deck. But when we tried, it would kick the timber out instead of driving onto it. I took