Did Ya Know... Preschool Autumn Storytimes will continue through Dec. 17th. The Winter Reading Program begins Nov. 17th. To sign up, call the Young People’s Library at 358-2939.

Did Ya Know... St. John’s Annual Media Appreciation Social is Wed., Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Conference Center. RSVP by Mon., Nov. 10 at 625-2261.

Did Ya Know... Old telephone books will be collected through Nov. 15 in specially marked containers on the parking lots of Tapjac.

"Did you see how pleased Mrs. Smith looked when I told her she didn’t look a day older than her daughter?"

"I didn’t notice Mrs. Smith...I was too busy watching the expression on her daughter’s face!"

Adam and Eve were naming the animals when along came a rhinoceros.

Adam: What shall we call this one?

Eve: Let’s call it a rhinoceros.

Adam: Why?

Eve: Well, it looks more like a rhinoceros than anything we’ve named yet.

Adolescence is a teenager who acts like a baby when you don’t treat him like an adult.

The Masonic Banquet.

Carthage Lodge, No. 107, A. F. & A. M., held a special communication last night at their magnificent new hall, conferring the degree of Master Mason on Milton S. Campbell, a Carthage boy, now in the railway postal service, and running between Monett and St. Louis. All other Masonic lodges in the county were invited and were well represented - large delegates especially being present from Joplin, Webb City, Carterville and Jasper.

Upon finishing their labors at the hall the Masons marched to the armory where the ladies of the Eastern Star and wives of Masons had prepared an elegant banquet, which in appointments and service was highly complimented by the visitors. There were present over 300 people, 100 of them being from out of town.

It was late before the program was concluded and most of the out of town members went home on a car on the electric line.

City Administrator Settles In.

After being on the job for the first couple of weeks, Tom Short is enthusiastic about the future of Carthage.

Short says he sees his role as handling more of the day-to-day management tasks and providing information and guidance for policy decisions made by the Council.

The Administrator sees Carthage poised for growth but feels any expansion should be planned and controlled.

Building Permits Slow for Winter.

Three single family structures made up the bulk of the $850,655 building permits issued in October. The three were shown as having a value of $810,000 in the monthly Engineering Department report.

Approximately $9,500 in commercial alterations and additions and various smaller private construction accounted for the remaining amount.

Nine plumbing permits and four roofing permits were also issued resulting in a total of $1,858 received for the permits.

I see on the buildin’ permit report that one permit was issued for a child’s playhouse.

I imagined the codes inspector stooped down makin’ the inspection for final approval. Just struck me as an odd image.

‘Course in the rural setting of my childhood, the only thing that concerned us when building a playhouse was havin’ enough nails to hold the thing together. We didn’t plan the size or dimensions before hand, we simply gathered all the scrap lumber available and built until we ran out.

Usually there wasn’t any roof type materials and it didn’t matter much, ‘cause then the structure would just become a "fort."

Guys never had "playhouses" anyway. Anything resemblin’ a structure would be a "clubhouse" or our "hideout," even though there was no members and ever’one knew our location. Ever’one, that is, except the city codes inspector.

This is some fact, but mostly, Just Jake Talkin’.