Possum Town

To enlighten some of you as to why I am "The Bishop of Possum Town" instead of "The Bishop of something else", maybe the picture will do the job.

I understand that one of the early settlers of this area, Spirus Roach, who came to this area around 1817, and built a tavern, was an old gray, bent over man that reminded the local Indians of an opossum so they began to call the settlement Possum Town.  And that is how it got its name.  Actually, there are quite a few possums in this area so; the above could be an old tale. Anyway, in 1821 the North Carolina and Virginia immigrants that followed the original settlers to this area to grow cotton on the Black Prairie fertile soil showed their dislike for the name Possum Town, and renamed it Columbus.  It is also called "The Friendly City".

So,  living here, and having the name of Bishop, I naturally should be the "Bishop of Possum Town".  At least that is the way I see it.  If you see it different, please leave a comment.

Ham Radio

Most of my ham radio friends have had their licenses much longer than me.  I am a relatively young ham, having received my ticket in March of 1993.  I did have a novice license back in 1965, but was unable to advance, and it expired in 1966.

Then in the later part of 1993, almost thirty years later, a local ham persuaded me to try for it again, stating that the test was much easier, and that you did not have to draw diagrams or schematics of the different radio items.  Since I took my test , the written test are even easier to pass, and now you do not have to take a morris code test at all.

I have really enjoyed this 17 years in the hobby, and have met some really fine people.  Some I have met in person, and some I only know from talking to them on the radio during one of the two times we meet each day to chat. These chats are called QSO's, and somewhere between two of us and a dozen or so meet each day from 6:30am until 8:00am and again from 6:00pm until 6:50pm.

Our group is very conservative and we do a lot of talking about politics.  I'm surprised that some of them have not ran for something. It may happen.  Also, we do discuss our radio equipment and antenna's quite a bit.  Of course the conversations can run about anything anyone wants to bring up.  Long live ham radio.