I was reading the Courier's Progress 2006 section in Sunday's paper when it dawned on old, slow me that in all the years I've lived in Saline County, never have I seen so much investment and civic enrichment as we are now experiencing. I'm not usually a “homer," writing goodies for the only reason that it is in the county, like Wally Hall enhances a complete and final exhaustion of any Razorbacks sport into a Second Coming on the heels of an embarrassing loss.

Not too many years ago, most of us joined a men's or ladies' civic club, the veterans gravitated toward the VFW and American Legion, the golfers and gamblers wrapped their fingers around a Jack Daniels or a Budweiser at Trace Creek Country Club and then we all participated in miniscule increments of time in the church of our choosing. Something happened along the way that became a diminishing of influence of the G.I. generation, the joiners. Demographics show that all old, main-line religions are in decline, as are civic clubs and adult team sports. The two premier civic clubs of Benton, the Benton Lions Club and the Benton-Bauxite Rotary Club, are today only shadows of their former glory. Fortnightly and Junior Fortnightly are thin today, a far cry from their super-human efforts to plant crape myrtles on every unattended weed patch in Benton.

What we have today in the county is a new awakening of spheres of influence for almost every interest of everyone. Got a green thumb? There's Master Gardeners. These folks don't need Rotary or Lions any longer. Got an old car that you love to keep running? Try Dixie Car Club. Why join the Ben-Gay church league when you can work on your 1957 Chevy in your own garage like Sonny George? Remember when Sonny was a fire-brand civil rights activist at the municipal swimming pool back in the 1960s? Well, today that passion is wrapped around a 283-cubic-inch Chevy motor.

Like to daub around on canvas? Try the Saline County Art Guild, the hangout of talented folks who apply paint and other media to panels Š and who have never been caught chalking railroad cars down on the siding.

During the 100th anniversary of the War Between the States (that's the Civil War for you folks from north of the Mason-Dixon Line), there was really no place for history buffs to gather except for Pat Dunnahoo's Shoppach House and the Rev. Bernard Self's weekly Courier column on the war in Saline County. Today that is certainly not true as the crowd of musty fingers have forged several avenues of experience for the researchers and history imbued scholars.

There is one area, however, that is still a holdover from the restrictive past Š if you want to dance, you'd better draw your blinds tight or get on up Interstate 30 because it is still illegal to two-step within the city limits of Benton Š the po-lice chief may have to arrest your sorry old hide for breaking the law if he catches you in a boogie mood. We'll get around to discussing this little bit of nonsense in a later column.

Today there is place for almost everyone of every interest. Nobody is left out, shanking the need for public gatherings that we once found in churches and civic endeavors. This will continue to expand as more buildings are offered for folks to meet and pursue their interests Š sometimes at the expense of your hamburger.

One of the success stories in the county is that of the Republicans. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, these diehards found themselves a vacant telephone booth in which to meet and draw straws as to who may be appointed postmaster during an infrequent national Republican administration. After Barry Goldwater's defeat by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the press was flush with predictions of death knells for the Grand Old Party. Didn't happen - the old boys went to work. In Arkansas, Winthrop Rockefeller made it fashionable to say the word Republican without a hip flask of Listerine. Old line conservative Southern Democrats became instant Republicans Š and they were not embarrassed to play the race card when it suited.

So I'm told there are even folks who get together to watch porn movies; gays and lesbians don't hide any longer; satanic cults are few and far between, but they are here. The new generation of young folks are just as comfortable with a DVD as we were in some organized nocturnal respite. Two of my old drinking buddies were talking one day when one asked, “Who took our place on the wild running drunks?"

We still find ways to entertain our youth and the youth are just as resistant as they were 50 years ago. Kids still gather on parking lots, just as their parents did, but they are more mobile now. Look at the parking lots at Bryant and Benton high schools Š cars, cars and more cars.

WHAT'S THAT? ... When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat this problem, NASDA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down on almost any surface, including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

WD-40 ... I've an acquaintance who feels that WD-40 is the elixir to cure all ails. He has come a long way since he first sprayed his Nikon camera with the oil - and ruined it.

As rheumatism taxes his aging joints, he just pulls up his pants leg or shirt sleeve and sprays on an application. Dumbest thing I ever heard of; I use carburetor cleaner. Must work, though; he still has all his original equipment joints and God-given hips and that's more than I can say.

He maintains that WD-40 is gaining in acceptance with medical technology and that physicians now advocate the use of the blue and yellow can when you have a ring stuck on a finger, a toe stuck in a bathtub faucet or a finger wedged in a soda bottle.

He also says it is a must for young parents as it will remove chewing gum, crayon, tar and Silly Putty. Just spray it on and wipe. Kids have also discovered that you can spray your car hoods and grills and then wipe off the deceased insects without damaging the finish.

Spray WD-40 on the underside of your lawnmower housing and blade, he says, and grass will not clog it up any longer. Got dogs, cats, coons, maggots and flies in your garbage can? Coat the cans with WD-40 and forget about them.

Got grease stains on your best linen? No problem, according to Slick Jim. Just coat the stain liberally, rub it in and let it soak for a few minutes, then run it through a regular wash cycle.

Remember when you used to taunt a poor, unsuspecting soul into licking a frosty pump? Stuck like Gorilla Glue. No problem today. Just coat the area with WD-40 and the poor soul is jabbering and running for home.

Ever stepped in gum on a hot summer's day and tried to get that stuff from between the treads on your new Nikes? Just spray it, according to old Jim, wait a few minutes and then pull the gum free.

I WONDER ... I get up in the morning and read the Dem-Gaz just as I do the Cooyer in the afternoon. I have noticed, though, that what I read in the mornings I get a big dose of on the 5, 6 and 10 o'clock news. It happens far too often to be happenstance. I began saving papers to check out my hypothesis and found that, on most occasions, these were by-lined stories that had been dug up by some inky wretch and then later slathered to us by young blonde reporters with a ton of hair spray and a camera man. What happened to press ethics?

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