My friends - I want to give you latest numbers as we look toward a Jackson Purchase Homecoming event. As of now, we are standing at 71 subscribers who have responded affirmatively with an intention to be present when such an event occurs in the year 2000. I think we will now easily reach our starting goal of 75. If we count family members, as well as subscribers, we are past the 80 mark. I think it would now be worthwhile for us to discuss dates. I have had private messages from many of you, with thoughts about that. We do have the Weakley County List's gathering occurring over the first few days of September of 2000, and some effort could be made to "piggyback" on that, although the starting of schools and colleges may make that unworkable, from the standpoint of those who teach and those who have children who must return to school. We will very likely want to avoid the week in June in which the Samford University Institute is held, as well as the week in July when the NIGR is held(I'll get those dates shortly). A few folks have said that they would prefer to come when the weather is not too hot. So, we have preferences all over the board, as is natural. In the near future, I would suggest that a small "committee" be formed to handle the planning and arrangements for this gathering. We will need at least one person who resides in the Jackson Purchase region to be on such a committee(and more than one if we can have it). There will also have to be some research done into the matter of whether there will be a need for a small fee to be paid by each of us to provide for a banquet or other such activities. We should also be giving some thought to where the "hub" of the gathering might be. Murray comes to mind at once because of the Forrest Pogue Special Collections Library at Murray State University, in which many of you may wish to do some research. Murray also has a fair number of hotel/motel rooms available. Of course, that is only a suggestion. We have much to do, and I look forward to seeing discussion on this topic as we go along. -B ============================================================