PUMPKIN TRADITION CONTINUES WITH BABY EVERETT REID OLIVER

PUMPKIN TRADITION CONTINUES WITH BABY EVERETT REID OLIVER COME SEE DR. LAMPTON AT THE FRYE/MAGNOLIA CLINIC BUILDING LOCATED AT 111 MAGNOLIA STREET!!! I left the U.S. military on a Friday morning in 1971, departing Naval Air Station-Albany, Georgia, and going to work three days later as a sportswriter for the Jackson Daily News. Some 50-plus years later, I still perform that type of work on manifold forums, watching and occasionally writing about Mississippi sports figures from famous coaches like Johnny Vaught to famous athletes like Walter Payton. I’ve also written about some infamous coaches and athletes, or, shall we say, some notorious coaches and athletes, none more so than Lane Monte Kiffin, who has left a successful sixyear run as Ole Miss’ head football coach for supposed greener pastures at LSU. Certainly because there are so many more breeds of media outlets and platforms than ever before, Kiffin has become this state’s most noted sports figure ever in terms of state and national media attention and fan enthrallment, and not always in a good way. He coached the Rebel football program to 11 wins this season, their most ever, and the team could smell victory over mighty Georgia, leading the Bulldogs by nine points early in the final quarter, only to lose the handle and the game. For their breakthrough efforts, the Rebels are among the 12 teams selected for the college playoffs. Yet, Kiffin abandoned the team to accept the job at LSU. Both parties could have waited until the Ole Miss season was completed before finishing their deal. They desperately wanted and, apparently, needed each other. Thankfully, Ole Miss had a seasoned assistant coach in Pete Golding to take the coaching reins--good for him and the Rebels. This was the right thing to do in the case of Ole Miss. This way, the university’s administrators know that Kiffin won’t be recruiting for LSU while simultaneously attempting to coach the playoffbound Rebels. During the prolonged period that Kiffin mulled over the LSU offer, much of the season’s joy was drained from it due to the nationally-publicized, divisive discussions between Kiffin, the Rebels and the Tigers. For his part, Kiffin, 50, has been called everything from a drama queen to a villain to even worse but I won’t use that word here. And it’s all been said and done in the great wide open spaces of the sports universe. We are required to ponder what his father, the late and legendary pro football assistant coach, Monte Kiffin, would think of all of this theater (much less his late mother). Through these last six years while Kiffin was coaching in Oxford, I’ve often been asked my opinion of his coaching prowess. I’ve admired his bringing in talented players through the transfer portal and his knowledge of the intricacies of the passing game, but that I didn’t trust his hard-and-fast rule to almost always seek a FELDER’S UNWANTED GUESTS From ants and lady beetles to lizards and a possum, a cascade of critters can always find their way indoors... ...See Page A3 EVERETT REID OLIVER CELEBRATES THE GAZETTE BIRTHDAY AND THE SEASON IN A PUMPKIN---

The first issue of the MAGNOLIA GAZETTE published by Dr. Lampton on October 29, 1997 featured a photograph of his son Crawford sitting in a pumpkin patch. Over the years, the GAZETTE has featured annually a child amidst pumpkins to celebrate the birthday of the new GAZETTE and the birthday of the old GAZETTE, which is December 7, 1872 (Pearl Harbor Day long before that tragic event in 1941). This year, the GAZETTE features Crawford’s six-month-old cousin Everett Reid Oliver of Mobile, Alabama not only among pumpkins, but inside one!

Parents are Amy Lampton Oliver and Christopher Chase Oliver of Mobile, AL.

Maternal grandparents are Theodore Dudley “Ted” Lampton, III, of Flowood, MS, and Anne Ricks Lampton, of Brandon, MS.

Paternal grandparents are Stephanie Oliver Scarborough, of Pearl, MS, and the late Randy Jay Barnes, II, of Byram, MS.

Maternal great grandparents are Sara Lea Lampton of Magnolia and the late Dr. Bob Lampton of Tylertown, MS, and Dr. John and Elaine Ricks of Cochran, GA.

Paternal great grandparents are Debbie Oliver of Pearl, MS; Steve and Debbie Warren of Bolton, MS; and the late Randy Barnes of Byram, MS.

Everett Reid also wanted us to mention his dear friends, the family dogs: Ollie, Sunnie, and Tealie. Rebels Rise, Coach Bolts: