There are many definitions of “news,” among them something considered unusual, unexpected or out of the norm.
In that respect, there were several news stories that, although they can’t be described as life-altering, never the less captured our attention.
In that “not-something-you-see-every-day” category was a coin that Barry Ferrow had long been wondering about and a deer in an unlikely setting. Likewise, the news brought us the story of a Starkville man who was trying to sell a used stripper poll on Facebook and the city of Macon’s efforts to sell off a mysterious machine gun. A wandering cow lead to a shootout in Noxubee County and an odd pet was the subject of much discussion in Columbus.
The ‘thrifty’ deer
For years, Palmer Home has operated thrift stores in Columbus and Starkville, which has proven to be an important fund-raising strategy for the home. Over the years, the stores have attracted all kinds of visitors.
But only on the rarest of occasions do the stores have an unwelcomed visitor. Such was the case on Jan. 16, when a deer somehow managed to get inside the Columbus store on Main Street a little after 9 a.m.
It jumped through one of the 10-foot wide windowpanes and landed in the store’s register area.
“I just looked up and saw this deer flying toward my manager,” said Josiah Andrews, who works at the store. It went toward the back of the store.
Heidi Herron, an employee who was in the back of the store making her way to the front, saw it galloping down an aisle and said to herself, “Oh my sweet Jesus.”
After scampering around a bit and leaving some drops of blood, it finally ran out of an open back door. From there, it crawled beneath a fence and ran into a field. It wasn’t seen again.
According to most employees who witnessed the incident, it was the first time a deer had visited Palmer Home Thrift Store.
“And hopefully the last,” said store employee Shadeka Neal.
Although Palmer Home’s thrift stores remained deer-less for the remainder of the year, other animals made news in 2014.
Wandering cow leads to Noxubee County shootout
This sounds like a story from the Old West.
On Oct. 27, Bill Randall, a Noxubee county farmer/rancher, was trying to pen some of his cattle when one cow escaped and wandered over to an adjacent property where 53-year-old Elizabeth Guyton was living. What might have been an easily-settled matter quickly disintegrated into a heated argument, then gunfire, according to authorities.
“She came out raising hell and shooting at us,” Randall said later.
A 911 call sent Noxubee County Sheriff Department residents to Guyton’s residence, but efforts to diffuse the situation ended when NCSO officers say Guyton began firing at the deputies, who returned fire. Both Guyton and NCSO deputy Eddie Franklin suffered from gun shots, but recovered.
Neighbors said the incident was the culmination from what they described as increasing erratic behavior by Guyton, who awaits trial.
A sugar what?
Sugar gliders are a small, furry bug-eyed marsupial. They can be found in Australia. You can also find one in Justin Wheat’s pocket if you happened by Rae’s Jewelry in downtown Columbus, where Wheat worked as an intern.
The sugar glider – thus named for its fondness of sweets and its ability to glide through the air as far as 90 meters – became quite a conversation piece at the jewelry store this summer.
Wheat said he bought “Zoe” at a flea market in Mobile a year earlier and has been his pocket-companion ever since.
Although Zoe is free to run around his apartment when he gets home, she is quite comfortable spending the work-day in Wheat’s pocket, wrapped in a piece of cloth. Usually, she’s quiet and still. Sometimes, though, she shuffles around.
“It’s sort of like how I imagine a pregnant woman feels a baby inside of her,” Wheat said.
A tale of two tails
Curiosity finally got the best of Barry Ferrow.
About 10 years ago, a friend presented Ferrow with an unusual gift — a U.S. quarter with “tails” on both sides. Ferrow, who collects coins on a modest basis, dismissed the quarter as a gimmick, but he was never quite sure. But this year, when he heard that a two-tailed quarter had been authenticated and was worth $75,000 to $100,000, he decided he had better investigate.
He took the quarter to Pete Creekmoore at Rae’s Jewelry, who examined the coin. While Ferrow didn’t strike it rich, he did get a crash course on coins. Creekmore found that the quarter didn’t have the proper weight or other characteristics of an unaltered coin. In short, the coin was a gimmick. He learned that many two-headed or two-tailed coins are made as magician’s props or novelty items.
“It’s too bad,” said Ferrow, 69. “I could use the money.”
For sale: Stripper pole
Moving can be such a hassle.
Often you find that there are any number of items you just don’t need anymore as you make that transition.
For 24-year-old Jarrod Jordan, one of those items was a stripper pole – to be more specific, a Carmen Electra portable model. Jarrod advertised the pole on a Starkville buy-and-sell page on Facebook in May.
He bought it for his brother’s bachelor party last year and has kept it up since.
“I kept it for the memories,” he said. “I’d look at it every now and then and laugh.”
Machine gun Macon
It is not uncommon for cities to sell off what officials consider surplus or unwanted items. But when the city of Macon announced that it was accepting bids from a World War II-vintage Reising Model 50 machine gun, it qualified as news.
The machine gun has been sitting around collecting dust in a locked area of the city’s offices for years.
“It’s been back there forever,” said Macon mayor Bob Bykin.
No one seems to know anything about how the machine gun came into the city’s possession. A former chief of police can confirm it was there when he came on the job in 1967. Beyond that there is only speculation.
In August, the city finally decided to sell it.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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