By Ricky Swindle

Muffler Shop Musings

Howdy, friends!

Civitan Radio Day is Saturday, Nov. 27. We will be live on 105.5 FM and Undefined Radio 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. from our Civitan building downtown.

We are in the process of gathering auction items and are expecting another great year. Civitans are coming around now and getting radio ads from our super loyal sponsors, who are so generous to support the Civitans year after year.

This year we will be donating a portion of our Radio Day funds to help our friend, and yours, County Emergency Operations Director Daniel Cole.

As you may know, Daniel is on the liver transplant list  and he is preparing himself healthwise to receive a new liver when his number comes up. 

This is a very expensive process and the Civitans want to do our part to help this good man, as he has always helped everyone he could in our county.

Keep Daniel on prayer lists at your church as he and his family battle through his upcoming medical procedure. Pray for Civitan Radio Day too, so that we may raise enough funds to lessen the financial burden his family has endured so far and will linger on in the future.  

Years ago, Mr. Wallace Cochran came by my store and asked if I would like to be a Civitan. I didn’t know much about the Civitans, but at the time I was under the impression you needed to be older to be a member.

Mr. Wallace laughed and said age had nothing to do with being a member, though most of them were certainly very long in the tooth when I joined. 

My teeth are not as short as they used to be these days so I may be hitting up some younger folks to join in with us in the coming year.

I have enjoyed watching our Mississippi teams play football this season. They have not been short on excitement for sure.

Both big schools made good coaching hires a couple years ago with Lane Kiffin and Mike Leach. We have signed footballs from each team to auction off on Radio Day, and are looking forward to the friendly competition that should bring out among our bidders.

This may ruffle a feather or two, but I agreed with Coach Leach calling out his kickers for the Arkansas loss. The man has a job to do, and he gets paid to motivate players however he can and to win games.

There are too many participation trophies these days. A loss can teach more than a win at times and there has to be a distinction between the two. 

Where is the motivation for winners if everyone walks away with a trophy? Where is the motivation for losers if they know they get a trophy with less effort?

When I was a boy at the Pentecostal Youth Camp in Raymond, they had a greasy pig contest one year.

They took this pig and greased him down all over with Vaseline. That pig was slick as snot on a doorknob.

One hundred and fifty of us boys gathered around on a hot mid-June day in a circle on the baseball field, and they opened the crate and turned this agitated, pre-slicked pig loose. We all ran for it as it attempted running away from us.

As boy after boy missed that pig coming by, the slimy bovine headed straight for me. Instead of trying to reach out and grab the pig, I dove right on top of it and over that dirt we rolled, me and the pig both squealing, but I wouldn’t turn loose.

Our camp counselors knew full well the contest was over because the little skinny boy from Batesville was not turning loose of that greasy thing, and they called me the winner.

I was mad because they gave me a certificate for being the greasy pig winner. I wanted that pig. I caught him fair and square, and that pig belonged to me in my mind.

So, I took my greasy pig certificate and my greasy pig story home to my Daddy and Momma. They we’re proud of me and also proud of the fact they gave me a certificate instead of the pig.

They could have given every boy out there a certificate for trying to catch the pig, or almost catching the pig, but there was only one that caught the pig and that was me. 

Those other 149 boys knew who caught that thing and their piece of paper would have been worthless.   

Folks take care of yourself and mark down Nov. 27 on your calendar to tune in to Civitan Radio Day.