Mark Douglas Thompson's column in the Morning News for January 20, 2008

I've talked to nurses and doctors who work at the veterans' hospital in Fayetteville in past months as well as a retired worker from the VA and several aging current patients.
All say our local VA does a great job. I had been asking the question with the idea of commenting. So now that something to balance the perfect reports has become available I can offer something fair.
A popular columnist for the Morning News has featured a story about how the parking rules at the VA appear to be giving one aging veteran a difficult time. Please read
Mark Douglas Thompson's column on local VA victim for the rest of the story. It isn't the kind of horror story we read about from other parts of the nation about vets newly brought from the battlefield who are being slighted, but it is outrageous to imagine an 87-year-old getting a $50 ticket if he had parked in the middle of North College Avenue or North Street.

Pre-Halloween softball game starts at about 2 p.m. Sunday

Click on photo to enlarge

Top photo Winning team pauses for a photo after a 2004 Sunday afternoon softball game in Walker Park.
Photo below A youngster named Russell await a pitch at a pickup softball game in 2004 at Walker Park's field 8 in south Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Sunday's annual pre-Halloween game celebrates the October-November birthdays of several who have played the game in past years.

Bring a whole team or just your whole family. We bring a lot of gloves, balls and bats but shoes suitable for running are recommended.

No fee, just fun! Enjoy the feeling of being in the World Series without the stress!

This game is the direct successor to the Sunday afternoon softball games at Wilson Park often populated by Dickson Street restaurant workers who never got off on Saturdays and others who just happened to be enjoying the park on a given Sunday. In the 1990s, we had a list of more than 200 people who sometimes played. Ages ranged from 7 to 70!