Heather Gates, Ep. HG 35, Heather Enjoyed After School Year End Activities

The best part of the new routine, Heather told herself was getting to spend more time with Cloud and Azuza, the new female foals at the stable. Azuza now was her foal, of course, but she was careful to balance her work time with each of the animals under her care, appropriately. She and Diane had discussed this and had come to a reasonable and responsible agreement on how this would work. There were now Trail Rides to lead and assist with, of course. The new season was already well under way. Heather looked forward to working with returning groups, especially. However, breaking in new groups was also a positive challenge that she looked forward to. Some of these would be ‘new regulars,’ of course, … and that was how it went.

Lyle Cunningham had announced that after being in the business for 42 years, he had sold his “End-‘O-The-Road” auction house business effective May 31, 1997. Lyle had thanked all his customers over the years and said the new owner would be making his own announcements shortly. When asked what came next with him, Lyle said he was pleased to say that he would be continuing, and very likely increasing, his volunteer work with the newly formed McDonald Conservancy. He felt there was much he could contribute as both a Board member and as a volunteer worker for the non-profit organization.

Among the several graduation parties for high school and community college graduates, the Bevins Trust was pleased to host one at the Homeplace Country Inn Heritage Room on a Saturday night honoring each of the graduates of workers of the Bevins Trust and affiliated companies. For the evening, Commencement Speaker, Dr. Raynor Crimmons, was the honored guest. He was pleased to spend some time with each of the graduates and their families.

Travis Inman, back at Inman Real Estate after his military service obligation, invited members of the community to join a tour of open houses of properties available on Sunday afternoon, June 1. The tour would begin at the Inman Real Estate Office in downtown Oak Springs, for the full tour. Community members could also join the tour in progress, with estimated arrival times at each home suggested. Five three-bedroom homes were being featured. Each home was of a similar size, but each offered differing amenities. The tour would start promptly at 2 p.m.

Mr. Brian Kirk and Dr. Jennifer Bevins were married at the United Methodist Church in front of close family and friends on Saturday evening, June 14th, with the Reverend Clarice McCauley officiating. Christopher Ogden served as Best Man and Nicole Ogden served as Matron of Honor in a simple, very traditional wedding. Don Kirk and Linda Ogden served as hosts at a reception at the church following the ceremony. Heather Gates was at the Guest Book and accepted gifts on behalf of the bride and groom.

At the reception, several people naturally asked Jennifer what name she would take now that she was a married woman. Jennifer was ready with the answer she had shared privately with family. She would continue to be “Dr. Bevins” in her professional practice, as many of her contemporary colleagues were doing. In private and personal life, however, she would be the traditional Mrs. Kirk. She was happy that friends had the courage to ask. Jennifer also confirmed that she and Brian would make their home at her apartment near her clinic, for the time being, following a brief honeymoon trip. The future would take care of itself, the two of them emphasized.

Penny Nixon, Associate Editor at the Oak Springs Enterprise, announced that the manuscript on the founding of Oak Springs would be published in Hard Copy. Two dollars from the sale of each copy sold would go to support the work of the Oak Springs Historical and Genealogical Society. Pre-orders were being taken at $42 per copy. When 100 orders had been received, the books would be printed. Subsequently, approximately 70 copies would be available to purchase at $49 each (about 30 of the second 100 would be distributed to libraries and other repositories).

[Editorial note: This, of course, was before ‘print-on-demand’ and ‘ebooks’ came on the scene.]

Jerry Sullivan announced that he would continue the auction schedule that Lyle Cunningham had previously used. Moving from Houston, Sullivan had been in the livestock auction for many years. He was looking forward to this new location. The site of the auction barn was actually first settled by his great-great-grandfather, Jourdan Sullivan, in 1852. Jourdan Sullivan had been the very first settler on that piece of land, and their home had been located the end of a long road off of what was then known as the Houston Road. It was now State Highway 24, of course. He invited everyone to come to the next auction and see the remodeling underway to improve an already great facility.

In a separate interview in the Oak Springs Enterprise, Jerry Sullivan expanded a bit on the early history of the auction house location and his family. He said that his great-grandfather, Julian, had left the valley with his family as a young man when the Civil War had started. Julian had then served with the Union forces, actually based right there in Houston. After the war, Julian stayed in Houston to raise his own family. However, his parents had returned to the Oak Creek west valley, rebuilt their home that had been burned to the ground, and farmed. Jerry said that his father, Jesse, had been born in Houston, of course. Jerry remembered hearing stories of visiting the family back in Oak Springs in the very early years. He was now very happy to be bringing his own family ‘home’ to the Oak Creek valley and Oak Springs.

This series of stories in the life of Heather Gates, a fictional character in The Homeplace Saga series of family saga, historical fiction stories (home blog found at thehomeplaceseries dot blogspot dot com), is being created as a way to use a minor character in the early writings to expand those stories and share details omitted in those earlier writings within the original overarching themes. These newly included details may have been left out of the earlier stories through editing or they may have seemed unrelated to central themes at the time. With the expansion of the entire Saga, over the years, it has become obvious that filling in some of the gaps in the story for overall better understanding of the individuals, their families, and their interactions would be useful to The Homeplace Saga body of work in total. The first thirty episodes ran in parallel with the timeline of the “Christmas at the Homeplace” novel. This episode represents stories following the end of the novel. These will run in parallel, starting with January 1997, with stories previously published on the home blog that ran monthly with new stories into early 1999. This provides the opportunity for new insights of events to be shared.