Official Friona weather guy John Gurley, with that big National Weather Service rain gauge in his backyard, reports 2.53" from Tuesday evening's mini-monsoon that blessed our town. Heard a few late scanner reports of a vehicle getting stuck in a ditch and a semi- jackknifed between here and Bovina. There were some high water spots along Highway 60 that Sheriff Geries and deputies and TxDOT tended to. Nice rain. All rain is good. It's fall ya'll. Enjoy.
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According to a couple of young folks from Amarillo that stopped by our office this week, the new Sam's Club on Soncy in Amarillo will open for business on November 5. It is back there behind Home Depot I think. They were in town going around to businesses passing on the news. On my last trip to Wal Mart in Hereford there was a table selling Sam's Club memberships. Guess they need a lot of new members to support the new store in Amarillo.
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I have tickets here at the Star office for the Noon Lions shotgun raffle. They are $10 each to win a Browning Citori 20 gauge over and under shotgun. Drawing will be in December. Come by the office or call me and I will deliver. Two $100 gift cards will also be given away in the drawing.
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Cargill Friona general manager Matt Leu has been transferred to a Cargill plant in Fresno, California. His replacement as general manager here in Friona is Jamin Phipps.
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Received a note from former Bovina resident now in Hollywood, Ben McCain: "Ron and Friona Star staff, Thanks for all you do! I sure enjoy reading your paper and catching up on Parmer County news."
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You might not have noticed but our Friona Star office building got a new paint job last week. Not sure how old the building is but the Star has been here at least 40 years. Our landlord and building owner is the Victory Family Worship Center. The church office occupies the other half of the building. They are nice landlords. We appreciate them.
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Anniversary congratulations to John and Sherrie Baxter celebrating 5 years and Clint and Shannon Hurst had their 18th anniversary and Shirley and Noel White arrived safely at 25 years. Congrats all.
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One lucky guy. Don Hoover, FHS Class of 1967, was in town for Maize Days and the All-School Reunion. In the city park Saturday he bought at least one ticket from the fire department for their 4-wheeler raffle. The drawing was at 1:00 p.m. and he was the winner. Don currently resides in Gainesville, TX.
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Connie Slagle asked us to tell you that The Book Shoppe's new hours will be 2:00 - 5:30 p.m. beginning October 7. There will be occasional evenings and weekend hours which will be announced in the Friona Star and on Facebook. Connie says she will be happy to open the Book Shoppe for out of town visitors when possible. She says the hours change will mean more school kids and she would appreciate donations of children's books.
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The Main Street Market at 301 Main St.in Hereford is holding an after-hours shopping event Tuesday September 29 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The owners at Main Street Market are Friona residents Deirdre Osborn and her daughters Adrienne Osborn Vazquez and Amy Osborn. They have some great stuff there so go by and check it out.
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Even though I'm not a Friona graduate I enjoyed attending the Saturday night All-School Reunion. Some great BBQ from Desperadoes. Rickey Rector accompanied the group with his trumpet in singing the national anthem. The room was decorated nicely and the tables were organized into classes by year. They sang the school fight song too.
A big thanks to FHS ag instructor Tracy Blount and his FFA students for volunteering to set up the tables and come back Monday to take them down again. Many others volunteered their time and talent to organize the event. Thanks to you all.
Recognized as the oldest alum attending was Valoris Osborn. She is 95. The classes with the most attending were 1960 and 1965, each with 24 members present. Lillie Baxter won a Chieftain painting provided by Bobby Thompson from his new sign printing machine at his Glass Pros business. Needless to say there was a lot of talking going on. Thanks to all ex-students, especially those from out of town.
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The late June Floyd wrote a Friona Star column called Town Talk for many years. We started this back up several years ago and called it Town Talk II in memory of June. One of my first duties 20 years ago when I went to work for Bill and Carol Ellis was to go by June's house and pick up her weekly column. If she wasn't home she left it in the screen door. Saturday night at the All-School Reunion I had the privilege and fun to meet and talk to one of June's daughters, Geneva Floyd Osborn from Tipton, Oklahoma. Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Osborn. Thanks for the memories.
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When I was a boy in Hillsboro I spent many hours listening to New York Yankees baseball games on the radio. It was magic to me to be able to hear something going on so far away. One of those Yankees was Yogi Berra. He was the catcher and a Hall of Fame Icon. Yogi died this week. He was 90 years old. Among his many often quoted Yogi-isms was this one, "Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too." RIP Yogi. Until then!
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