July 8, 1964 Jocie Brooke here, but not reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill. It’s 4-H Camp week. No time for reporting anything. Been learning to canoe today. Only flipped into the water once and that boy, Jarrod, who was paddling with me, he did that on purpose. He thought it was hilarious. I laughed too. It wasn’t so bad. I …
A Night at the Hollyhill County Fair
July 1, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from the Hollyhill County Fairgrounds. Once a year, the carnival comes to town and everybody goes to the fair. Dad says the fair is one of those good and bad happenings. Good because all the beauty contests and baby show pictures sell lots of papers. Bad because he has to be at the …
Raspberries in God’s Pantry
June 24, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Do you love raspberries? The kind that grow out in the fields. Aunt Love says those are part of God’s pantry. She also says that about asparagus and cabbage. That’s a shelf in His pantry I don’t care if I get anything off of. Yuck! People at church are always …
Eighteen Mile Binoculars and Other Mysteries
June 17, 1964 Jocie Brooke reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. How about this neat ad I found in an old comic book? The very thing I need if I’m going to keep an eye on what’s going on. The ad says you can see up to eighteen miles. I guess that’s if no buildings or trees get in the way. But …
Caught Eavesdropping
June 10, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill. This sign is awful. I took a picture of it to try to convince Dad to start a campaign in the Banner for new street signs. What will people passing through think of a town that has a rusty sign for Main Street? Most of the folks here don’t …
Wanted Posters at the Post Office
(Photo from Saturday Evening Post) June 3, 1964 Jocie Brooke reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky. Not much going on in Hollyhill this week except school’s out for the summer. That’s something, I guess. Gives me more time for helping Dad with the Banner and for trying to figure out what that Mr. Whitlow is up to at the Hollyhill …
Remembering Those Still “On Patrol”
May 30, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from the offices of the Banner on Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky, on Memorial Day. Mama Mae always called it Decoration Day when she took flowers to her husband’s grave. I went with her sometimes. Now she’s there in the graveyard beside him. I rode my bike out to the cemetery earlier today to …
A Stranger in Hollyhill
May 20, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill, Kentucky. A stranger checked into the Hollyhill hotel last week. So what’s so strange about that? The only person to check into that hotel in my lifetime is Bill Jackson who moved into one of the rooms ten years ago after his mother died. Bill’s neck is too long …
Locust Bloom Winter
May 13, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting for the Banner. It’s been a cool day here in Hollyhill. Way too cool. Last Friday it was 80 degrees and so hot that when I got home from school, I broke out my pedal pushers and wore a sleeveless shirt to the Banner office. Wes wanted me to help him clean up …
Cat Gets a Name
May 6, 1964 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Things have been really hopping around here since Cat showed up. I’m beginning to believe he is from Jupiter the way Wes says. Zella says she doesn’t care where he’s from as long as he stays away from her and for heaven’s sake, we’re a newspaper. We deal in words …