The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 7

Political expert: Insurance commissioner race was the nastiest Page 2B She imes CONTACT SHERRY SHEPHARD 459-3245 or sshephardgannett.com TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2006 lit ta a a Fire safety something to sing about -I" National Fire Prevention Week When: Oct. 8-14 Theme: Prevent Cooking Fires: Watch What you Heat! Between 1999-2002, there were 114,000 reported house fires associated with cooking equipment on average per year, resulting in an annual 290 deaths and 4,380 injuries. program for Bossier children. "It was funny," said Kerr Elementary fifth grader Lyric Ti iL By Mary Jimenez maryjimenezgannett.com Rock 'n' roll classics and a rock 'n' roll legend Little Richard teamed with Sparky the Fire Dog, Freddie the Fire Plug and puppets to help teach Kerr Elementary School students about fire safety on Monday. Peering out from Sparky's fire house, puppets sang and clapped along with children to "Puppets in Black," based on the theme music to "Men in Black," to begin the Bossier City Fire Department's kick-off to their annual fire safety Access this story online for links to the Bossier Fire Department and National Fire Prevention Association sites.

rom cers will be taking the program on the road to approximately two dozen Bossier City schools and day care facilities, reaching more than 7,500 children. The program Greg PearsonThe Times Kindergarteners Justice Stamm (left) and Playboy Dunken-tell (center) have some fun with Sparky the firedog during an assembly focusing on fire safety presented by the Bossier City Fire Department Monday at Kerr Elementary. ew uses for oman, grandson injured cemetery's in school bus accident explored 4 V- Wiit- a 1 a Snellgrove who laughed with the show and will take something home to tell her mom. "We haven't counted or checked our smoke alarms in a long time, so I'll probably go home and tell my mom about that." During the month of October fire prevention offi- (i -it -i 'A Mi Mike SllvaThe Times By John Andrew Prime jprimegannett.com From a garden to an amphitheater, from a space to contemplate eternity to a place to scatter ashes of loved ones, uses for the overgrown hollow called "the Dell" at Shreve-port's Greenwood Cemetery were explored Monday. More than 40 people packed a large meeting room of the Ministry Center at St.

Mark's Episcopal Cathedral for almost three hours, exploring uses for the last unused corner of Shreveport's largest public cemetery. "This is the last piece of Greenwood Cemetery that's not highly developed," said Baton Rouge landscape architect Jon Emerson, who developed the first phase of Greenwood development and is now gearing up for its second phase. The first phase involved creation of a gatehouse, gates, fences, plantings and infrastructure improvement in a partnership between the cemetery boosters and Shreveport Public Assembly and By John Andrew Prime jprimegannett.com A Shreveport woman and a cliild were injured Monday morning when a Caddo Parish Head Start bus that had dropped its students off was involved in an accident on Linwood Avenue. The accident occurred just before 9 a.m. at the intersection of Linwood and Alma Street.

Police said the bus, driven by Charles Thomas, 55, of Frierson, pulled in front of the Protege, which was in the northbound outside lane of Linwood. "The bus tried to beat (the Mazda) across the intersection," Shreveport police Cpl. Steve Plunkett said after citing Thomas for failure to yield. Clara Butler, 49, of Shreveport was treated at the scene for unspecified injuries. Her 3-year-old grandson was taken to LSU Hospital, just a few blocks north of the accident site, for treatment of injuries Plunkett said were not life-threatening.

"His head hit the side post of the car and a couple of little teeth were knocked loose," Plunkett said. He said the child was properly restrained in a child seat in me passenger seat directly behind his grandmother, and that the seat did not appear to have malfunctioned. "Those seats aren't designed for side-to-side impact," he said. The bus, No. 1152, did not appear to have suffered much damage, but the Mazda was heavily damaged, its front end crumpled.

"If you look at the front of the car, you can see a real good imprint of the bus' tire," Shreveport police Sgt. Faye McGraw said. Teddy Allen COLUMNIST teddygannett.com Leave the train-hopping to the hobos We were 20 and should have already outgrown such torn- foolery, that night we jumped on that train. In those days there was an open, weedy area in the back of Wesley Chapel on a corner of the Louisiana Tech campus in Ruston, where the story begins. Railroad tracks there split the campus.

By these tracks stood three Tech dents: Matth (with a go figure) and Jaybo and me. We were possibly enjoying the early winter evening if you call "going to the bathroom where no one can see you behind a church on a college campus" enjoyment. You could say we were victims of circumstance. If that train hadn't come by at a I don't know who recommended we hop on. Possibly Satan.

But we did, with plans to ride over the Tech overpass and Tech Drive, then hop off and walk back from the other end of campus by the softba. Wait a second. Immediately, as if we'd stepped on the gas or poured the coals to it by jumping aboard, the train started moving remarkably fast. "This train's moving remarkably fast," Jaybo said. "It's really sort of remarkable," I remarked, It didn't stay funny long.

A lot of woods come up to the tracks as they run west from Ruston, so jumping off a train anywhere, unless you're a squirrel, is dicey. We also -began to freeze as we hadn't planned on being out long, or on a train. Because he wore it "after hours" everywhere he went in winter, Matth had on his terry cloth bathrobe that weighed about 289 pounds. It was like wearing medieval chain mail. He gathered us in, and through the north Louisiana night we sped, huddled on each side of Matth, his robe's bottom whipping in the air, us holding tight to a oil tanker's ladder.

The short version is we jumped and rolled, just as we'd seen it done in westerns, 20 miles later, near Gibsland, the same town in which Bonnie and Clyde died. For us, there was no romance in the comparison. Matth hit a rock with his head not surprising since he wears a size 8-and-five-eighths and was knocked wedge cold. So we had to drag both him and World's Heaviest Bathrobe several miles to and then east down Interstate 20 until the ex-husband of one of our English teachers what are the pulled over about dawn on his way to go fishing and gave us a lift to the Arcadia exit and the old Nob Hill restaurant. Jay and I were shaking and Matth was unmoving, face down on a table, as the waitress approached.

"Is he OK?" she asked. I sensed she asked not out of concern for Matth's health but more out of concern for how long her table might be occupied. We didn't exude the carefree air of big tippers. "He's fine," Jaybo said. "He just jumped off a train and hit his head on a rock.

We dragged him here." She looked at us like you'd look at a wart. "Coffee?" she said. It was our first and last time to train-hop. Today we are reformed one-night hobos with five children between us, and we try to train them right. But our real expertise, our true calling, is in poor training.

0 mazoa In i The I Ik" is done each year in conjunction with National Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 8-14. I See SAFETY 12B ein The dell at Greenwood, an area of roughly four acres, is a steep ravine that is heavily wooded in part and forms a cut on the east side of the cemetery. Not used for burials, a flat plateau on its south edge was the site of a storage building, Emerson largely conducted the meeting, with the assistance of facilitator Suzanne Turner, a fellow landscape architect and consultant for his historic preservation and interpretation. Turner was associate dean of the College of Design and coordinator of See CEMETERY 12B last year or 75 years ago.

Please send to krowellgannett.com or State Fair Memories, The Times, P.O. Box 30222, Shreveport, LA 71130-0222. We'll use as many as we can for a future story. Deadline is Oct. 13.

school stepped up." Johnson, who left after graduation in 1966 for California stayed there for 32 years, but like many others at the fundraiser Saturday, returned to Plain Dealing. "I love this country, and I spend a lot of time on the place I grew up," Johnson said. Johnson believes the name change, which is close to being proudly splashed across a new marquee has been positive for the community. "I think it sends a message, a positive one to the children," Johnson said. "It's not just changing the name, but teaching them where the name came from and the history behind the name." aN Cemetery rc Stoner Ave.

i HltS 5 A 2 a 3 3 I 14 mile Shreveport I 1 The Times i I IT Share your Fair memories mi 4 Herring said. The marquee is just one way the alumni are happy to give back, but not the only way they do. Lena Stromile, 75 and a 1960 alumna, is known as "granny" to just about every child in the Plain Dealing neighborhood. Wylie Ford, in his 60s, is a Cub master for Troop 71 at the elementary school. Johnson is active in the Read Across American program and other alumni, many still with children at the school, are active in the parent teacher organization.

"I wanted to come back to my community, and I wanted to give back to my community," said '68 alumna Faye Stromile Player, who like other Carrie Martin alumni feels strongly about her history. "With my own children I make it a point to let them know they have a heritage they can be proud of." But it wasn't until three years ago that Carrie Martin High 2, bates assigned to dealer. All Clara Butler, 49, was injured when the vehicle she was driving was involved in an accident with a Head Start school bus. Her 3-year-old grandson who was riding in the back seat was also transported to the hospital. Carrie Martin alumni stay active supporting The State Fair of Louisiana will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.

That's a lot of thrills and chills, cotton candy and blue ribbons. The Times would like you to share your favorite memories and photos of the State Fair, whether they happened there, but there was no record of existence," said Shirley Moody Walker, a 1966 Carrie Martin High graduate. Player added, "When integration came we lost everything, our school name, our colors, our mascot and our identity." In 2003 the alumni, led by Johnson, lobbied to the Bossier Parish School Board to rename Plain Dealing Elementary School to Carrie Martin Elementary to honor its founder a respected black educator. The vote in May was 8-3. Herring's been principal of the school since 1998 and grew up in the community.

When asked about the name change, he admits some feelings were mixed. "It brought the school back to its history, but there were people who were hurt and they lost some of their history too," he said. "But as long as it gets people involved, I'm all for it. We have people that have really Ali Whet! Drive OFF fsr. By Mary Jimenez maryjimenezgannett.com PLAIN DEALING A strong heritage has given one school a very active alumni.

Saturday four generations of families, all either graduates or current students at what is now Carrie Martin Elementary gathered at the Plain Dealing town square to sell catfish, barbecue chicken and sides to raise funds toward the cost of a new marquee for the elementary school. "We're just about $450 shy of our goal," said organizer George Johnson, a 1966 graduate of Carrie Martin High, which is now the elementary school. "We've been planning this for a long time, with the main reason to help recognize the students." The marquee will cost an estimated $4,000. The Carrie Martin High Alumni Foundation had reached $2,300 Player Walker graduates were again able to see their school's name across the front of the bricks. Carrie Martin, a respected black educator founded a K-12 school for blacks in 1952 near the south part of the town.

To the north was Plain Dealing High for white children K-12. Upon integration in 1969, the name for both schools was changed to Plain Dealing Consolidated with two campuses, one south and one north. The Carrie Martin campus eventually became Plain Dealing Elementary. "People would ask, Where did you We went Turbochargcd 274 HP Johnson Herring towards their goal and raised another $1,255 on Saturday. The marquee is needed, said Carrie Martin Elementary principal Al Herring.

"We're probably the only school in the parish without one." And Carrie Martin has a lot to be proud of. The elementary school is known for its success as grant writers, garnering $296,000 in a three-year period with from state grants called a 8(g) Competitive Grant. "We've completely revamped our technology, and we're one of the only schools with Promethean active boards (interactive teaching tool)," 03051 A. C. thru Mazda American Credit End of the Boring Sedan 18" Alloy Wheels LimMed BRAND NEW 2006 MAZDA.

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