By Debbie Moore

With our homecoming parade comes class reunions. I received the following from Katherine (Katie) Ford about the reunion for the Bastrop High School Class of 2000:  “We will be holding a luncheon at Baxters on Main Street on Aug. 7 from noon to 5 p.m. The cost will be $16 and kiddos under five eat for free. Families are welcome.”

For details, contact Katie at  drkmford@gmail.com or (512) 657-0017.

Aileen Bailey Kelley sent the following regarding the 55-year reunion of the BHS Class of 1955 on Aug.7.

“We will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the corner of Cedar and Hill streets to ride in the Bastrop Homecoming Parade. After the parade, we will meet at noon at Texas Grill on Hwy. 71 for a cafeteria-style lunch and visitation. Visitors are welcome, especially schoolmates from the 1950s classes, to join us for lunch or just to visit.”

Aileen has all the details, and she can be reached at (903) 769-4634.

Besides Aileen, the graduating class of 1955 included Floyd Bartsch, Tommy Cassel, Delma Clardy Pfeil, Lona Crosby Hemphill (deceased), Wood Froehlich, Howard Gould (deceased), Kay Gore Caves (deceased), Eugene Grohman, Gerald Hanna, Clinton Hendrix, Fred Hoffman, Jimmie Joe Jones, Elaine Kreitz Weiss, Bobby Lee, Richard Martin, Barry Moncure, Merle Morgan Brown, Gloria Voigt Neuenschwander (deceased), Juan Perez, Margaret Pfeiffer Dickinson (deceased), Donald Reid (deceased), L. C. Smith, Gladys Streigler Wiseman, Gaylan Turner, Clara Willenberg Voigt and Jimmy Wright (deceased).

Playhouse Smithville

Jennifer Houlihan sent the following message about the play she and pals Farrah Massey and Danne Absher saw last Friday night.

“I attended the opening night of “Little Shop of Horrors,” which was also the grand opening of Bastrop County’s newest performance space, Playhouse Smithville.  The space at 110 Main St. is cozy and charming, with a wonderful old façade brightened with fresh paint and a pressed tin ceiling inside. Every seat in the house is a good one. We truly enjoyed the show, which starred award-winning local actor Kody Dyer as Seymour.  Kody practically grew up at the Bastrop Opera House, and he gets better with every show! Other stand-out performances included Christopher Bothwell of Bastrop as the very slimy, very creepy and very clumsy Mr. Mushnik (his duet with Kody on “Mushnik & Son” was one of our favorite parts of the show) and the adorable songbird, April Daniels.

Extra credit goes to the outstanding band, Vintage 259, featuring the show’s musical director Matthew Torrez on guitar and vocals, Michael McGary on bass and Joel Daniels on drums. And, of course, it wouldn’t be “Little Shop” without a man-eating plant that grows from the size of an avocado to the size of a Volkswagen…three cheers to Teri Dyer for her outstanding design and construction of the malevolent Audrey II and to Dalton Williams as the puppeteer who kept “her” perfectly in sync with Torrez’ vocals.”  The play is directed by John Daniels Jr. and runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. through Aug. 7.

For ticket information, call (512) 360-7397 or go online at  playhousesmithville@yahoo.com .

Calling all volunteers

The Downtown Business Alliance sponsors several terrific events in downtown Bastrop during the year, and the Halloween Fest is the best family event for miles around.  Several thousand ghosts, witches, ballerinas, and princesses come to Main Street on Oct. 31.  Martha Granger and I are the co-chairs for this year’s fun, and we held our first meeting this past Monday.  It takes lots of planning to make these events go as smoothly as they do, and we need your help.  We will meet every other Monday at 5:30 p.m. through September, and weekly beginning in October.  Not all meeting locations have been confirmed, so if you are interested in helping, please email us at info@bastropdba.org for details on how you can become involved.

An Upstart reminder

Carolyn Banks, our independent film guru, wants to remind everyone of Upstart’s birthday celebration on Aug. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at Bastrop Opera House.  She wrote, “We’re a 10-year-old nonprofit bringing community television and lots of narrative production to Bastrop. Our goal is to make Bastrop the Rural Movie Capital of Texas and we’ve started with ‘Invicta,’ a fun feature that your house is in! You’ll also see Jennifer Warwick, Kay Rogers, Sam Damon, Joe Tuck and lots of other people you know in the movie. There’ll be cake and lemonade, too!”

Tickets are $10 for high school students, $18 for general public. Send a check to Upstart, P.O. Box 365, Bastrop TX 78602 to reserve your spot or check our website, www.upstartbastrop.com. There will be a screening of “Invicta.” Come join the fun and support Upstart and BCAT, our public access television station.

How do you pronounce it?

Most of my life I heard the word “pecan” pronounced only one way in the South.  It is “puh con.”  Also, the sugary, wonderful candy made with these nuts was always pronounced “prah lean.”  If you heard someone pronounce it any other way, you knew they were either Yankees or some other Southern wannabees. However, of late I have heard both pronounced strangely and with more frequency, such as “pee can” and “pray lean.”

So, how do you pronounce “pecan praline?” Let me know. I will share the results in a few weeks.

Until next week

That’s all for now. Until next week, be good to yourself. Let me hear from you by email at mooreaboutbastrop@yahoo.com, so I can share the fun things that are going on in and around Bastrop.

Remember “Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes.”  Chinese Proverb