The temperature on this late July day again was edging toward 95 degrees when I eased into a slot at the Sonic. It was past time for an icy drink to wet my dry mouth.

After pushing the red button, I watched several youthful car hops hurrying back and forth, delivering one order after another.

In this group of uniformed employees was a pleasant-looking, heavy-set woman who walked with a slight limp.

She stood out from the rest as clearly as a teacher in their late 50s waiting in a high school graduation line. She could easily have been the grandmother of one of her co-workers.

Although not moving with the speed and urgency of those mostly late-teen counterparts, she was steadily fulfilling her responsibilities as she deliberately performed her job between the drive-in and vehicles.

As I watched her work in the heat, I developed a profound admiration for this woman with collar-length reddish hair whose name I didn’t need to know.

I did know my respect for any lady (or person) of her age and condition to be doing this job at a time when so many younger ones lacking a solid work ethic wouldn’t consider such work, especially under these circumstances. And yet she continued trekking back and forth, dutifully delivering meals, hoping to collect pieces of richly deserved gratitude from those she served.

I felt certain from her altered gait that she was feeling every step of these assignments. Yet, throughout the 20 minutes I watched, she maintained a pleasant and resolute expression.

It’s people like this determined lady I so admire based on what their choices and actions reveal about the content of their character.

Board chooses wisely

Regards to the new and clearly much-improved board of the Huntsville School District for having the wisdom to accept Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen’s generous offer to settle the recent Title IX lawsuit for $1 plus offering regular in-house training on provisions of the law designed to protect students’ rights.

Closure is well overdue for the community. There’s no need to rehash the sordid details of the 2019-21 locker room sexual abuses involving certain members of Huntsville’s junior high school basketball team.

I’d rather point out the invaluable contributions a dedicated newspaper publisher and staff like Ellen Kreth’s Madison County Record can make in a community when they are not reluctant to dig into and report truth to their readers, as the First Amendment intended.

And yet again I’d cite McCutchen and partners Chip Sexton and Steven Napurano as positive examples of attorneys who care deeply about transparency, Title IX, student safety and the Freedom of Information Act, and who aren’t reluctant to confront who choose to violate this important law.

As a result of what our state learned in the Huntsville scandal and this beneficial outcome, hopefully other Arkansas school districts will see the wisdom in closely following our Title IX laws and the FOIA.

Farewell to Wally

My lifelong friend Dan Timbrook of Harrison lost a dear friend the other day. Many older than 65 likely also knew of Tony Dow, the fresh-faced teenage brother Wally in the 1957-63 sitcom “Leave it to Beaver.”

A career disc jockey who began his career in Harrison and rose to prominence in his field at some of the nation’s largest stations, Timbrook said he met Dow when interviewing him in Kansas City.

They immediately forged an enduring friendship between themselves and wives Susie and Lauren. “They had just gotten married about the same time we did,” Timbrook said.

The Timbrooks moved to California for years, then back to Harrison. Their relationship blossomed over the years to the point where the Dows would visit Harrison.

“They were living on the beach in Venice. We had so many good times together. Around that time, Tony also got the chance to do ‘The New Leave It to Beaver.’

“The Dows moved from the beach to Topanga Canyon. I lived in their beach house and visited Universal Studios so much during the filming that guys at the gate would wave me through. I spent so much time on the ‘Beaver’ set that I got to know the cast very well. One of my favorite memories was when on a break one afternoon me and Wally, Beaver and Eddie Haskell were sitting at the kitchen table set. Ma Beaver [Barbara Billingsley] came in and, just like my own mother would have, served us cookies and milk.

“I recall saying I could die right now and be happy. They all looked at me like I was crazy. It’s one of my favorite lifetime experiences and memories.

“We stayed close as friends and after we left California for Arkansas. In fact, we spent our last night in California at Camp Dow, as I’d named it years earlier. We always planned a road trip back for a long visit, but it didn’t happen. However, Tony and Lauren did make it to Harrison over the years.”

“It’s so hard to lose a good friend. It hurts deeply,” he added. “The memories will never fade and someday we all will meet at the big Camp Dow in the sky.”

Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.