The fruity, warm, and gently erotic scent filled the sultry May evening air while tiny lights blinked on and off across the yard as lightning bugs ascended from their daytime haunts in the lush green of the lawn. It was the perfect ending to a long day spent in the wet morning tobacco plant bed and in the hot afternoon tobacco field.

As Howard and Ann walked to the house from the tractor shed, he paused for a moment to pick a yellow honeysuckle bloom. Carefully, using his thumb and forefinger, he pinched the base of the bloom and slowly pulled out the filament with the tiny drop of the sweet nectar of the blossom. He held it just high enough for Ann to wrap her lips around that succulent drop of honey.

Childhood memories came flooding back of standing at the school bus stop with the other neighborhood children in the early morning dew. Honeysuckle lined the irrigation ditch which followed the edge of the state road bed.

To pass the time and to satisfy a sweet tooth, they would pick the blooms and suck that honeyed nectar until the bus would come in sight. Cultivated flowers were not in every country farm yard, but sweet, bright white and yellow honeysuckle grew on fences and trailed up trees. A bouquet of vine, stems, leaves, and flowers would make the perfect table centerpiece and perfume the house as well.

Many different cultures have revered honeysuckle as a symbol of uniting in love because of the vine’s clinging nature, a clinging which does not harm. During the Victorian era in England and in the rest of Europe, a suitor would give a honeysuckle bouquet as a promise of his true love.

The French planted honeysuckle in the cemeteries believing that the scent of the flowers had more religious powers than incense. Others planted it so that it twined around the entrance doorway to ward off witches and evil and to bring good luck to the household. Bringing the blooms into the house would bring money.

The leaves and flowers are sometimes used to make teas and jellies and sorbets. Some use these delicacies as home remedies for headaches, colds, flu, and fever.

Community Communiqué

The Glenn Memorial Senior Adult Ministry will host their senior meal this evening Friday, June  26, at 6 p.m. Bring a covered dish or two and a friend to enjoy an evening of good food, fellowship, and musical inspiration with Allen Cooper.

 Mt. Lyle Baptist Church Scholarship Fish Fry will be this Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Tolley’s Market parking lot in Pamplin. They will be selling fish, chicken plates and sandwiches. Come out and join them. They look forward to your support but most importantly your fellowship.

Prospect United Methodist Church will have their monthly Cowboy Church on Saturday,  June 27, rain or shine. The chuck wagon will be at 6 p.m.  Please bring a covered dish and a two liter soda to share. Following dinner, there will be music and a message  around the campfire. The Rev. George Schaefer is pastor. For further information, please call (434) 352-4273.

Pamplin Town Council will meet Thursday, July 2, at 6 p.m. in the Town Office.

Celebrate the Fourth of July, at the Old Time Picnic and Dance at the Pamplin Depot Freight Room on Saturday, July 4, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The picnic fare will include hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, baked beans, potato chips, cole slaw, and possibly summer squash fresh from the garden, with apple pie for dessert.

Soft drinks and water are always included.

There will be a Sesquicentennial Poker Run to benefit Pamplin Volunteer Fire Department and EMS on August 1 with rain date on August 8. Registration will start at 9 a.m. with first group out at 10 a.m. Come join them for a beautiful country ride and explore 150 years of the history of Appomattox on the ride and support a great cause. The Pamplin Fire Department will have available  a barbeque lunch.  There will be door prizes and a 50/50 drawing. Stops will be at historical sites.

For more information call (434) 609-6939. Donations can be mailed to PO box 1099, Pamplin, VA 23958, C/O Ride for Funds.

The Pamplin Post Office welcomes its new postmaster Tawana Booth.  She has been OIC (officer in charge) not only in Pamplin but also in Arvonia, Crewe, Chester, Prospect, Midlothian and other locations. She began her postal career as a rural carrier.  She is a member of the Voices of Unity in Farmville and serves at High Rock Baptist Church in the choir and in the youth department.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, Paul and Ann Greene traveled to Highland Springs for a family get together and wonderful meal from Paul’s daughter Margie G. French and her husband Neil French, Jr.  Also visiting were Paul’s son Bobby Greene and aunt Mary S. Williamson of Green Bay, and Neil’s father Neil French, Sr. and his mother Judy French of Highland Springs and others.

Kevin and Erica Foster had weekend visitors Beth and Andrew Cox of Salem. They came to enjoy rural Virginia for the weekend and also to partake of the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary’s meatloaf dinner.

Sheri Hicks of High Point, N.C., spent Wednesday to Monday with her parents Kenneth and Bettye Brisentine.

Bag Ladies Bingo met Saturday at the Farmville Moose Lodge for lunch and fun and games. Their charities this month were the American Red Cross and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

The Prospect Happy Hats attended the meatloaf dinner at the Prospect fire house on Saturday evening. Those in attendance were Hilda Allen, Rita Rountree, Pat and Jeff Smith, Margaret and Richard Stockton, Betty Sumner, Jeannette and James Tarleton, Elsie Wilson, and her guests .

Phyllis Turman was a Monday afternoon visitor with Dorothy Womack.

Please keep the following people in your thoughts and prayers:  Betty Meadows, Betty Jean Bolt, Elfrieda Kerns, Gary Fiscus, and Vicki White.

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.” – Langston Hughes

If you or your local organization has news or announcements to share with the community, please call Edwina Covington (574-6576) or email her at ecovington@centurylink.net with the subject line Elam-area news.