Jason PattersonThe Herald has a mailbox out front where you can send a letter directly to Santa at the North Pole. So many local children are filling up that mailbox that I’ve decided I better go ahead and get my wish list in before it gets lost in the shuffle.
Dear Santa:
My friends and family continue to try to convince me that I’ve gotten too old to ask you for presents, but I have managed to ignore their unsolicited commentary for yet another year.
After all, I have been good. Well, at least some of the time. OK, maybe it was only every once in a while, but I’m going to do a lot better next year. This time I mean it.
There’s really only one thing I want for Christmas this year. If I don’t get anything else for Christmas this would make me a very happy man: NO MORE TORNADOES!
Some readers have suggested that perhaps the Witch of Yazoo has gotten loose again. If so please bring her a new chain.
It would be just fine with me if I went the rest of my life without another tornado in Yazoo County, and I hope to be around awhile. That’s the only thing I’m asking for, so hopefully you’ll have room in your bag. The rest of my wishes are for others:
n Please tell Yazoo native Sgt. Major James Allen and all the other men and women fighting for our country how much we appreciate them.
Better yet, bring them home safely so that we can tell them ourselves.
n Please consider doing a little shopping in Yazoo for all of those gifts you’re going to be delivering. Too many of our own citizens fail to recognize the importance of keeping their money at home. Just the other day I was telling a friend about a gift I’d purchased here, and he informed me that he’d found the same item for nearly five bucks cheaper in Jackson.
I started to explain that the cost of the drive more than made up for the difference, but it’s hard for me to engage in such a discussion without going on about all of the benefits of at least seeing what your neighbors have to offer (such as your tax dollars being spent on services you’ll actually use and the fact that local prices are usually competitive) but there is only so much time in a day.
n If you’re going to bring my son James fun toys like those monster trucks you brought him last year, you might want to bring me some too. He gets frustrated when he has to wait for me to get through with my turn so he can play.
Of course I’m kidding about keeping him from his toys, but I count my ability to enjoy playing with him like a child as one of my greatest blessings. I work very hard at my job so at I can play just as hard with my family.
n Please bring some class to all of the people who insist on leaving deer carcasses on the ground in front of county Dumpsters and in plain view on public roadsides.
Their actions not only demonstrate a total lack of consideration of others, but it also does serious harm to the future of deer hunting. Obviously they don’t realize that the majority of the population doesn’t hunt, but they tolerate it because it doesn’t affect them. Forcing nonhunters to step over rotting carcasses to throw away their trash is a great way to turn them into hunting opponents. Maybe you can help them realize this fact.
n I know you’re probably tired of getting sports-related requests with all the Ole Miss fans begging for some good recruits and all the Mississippi State fans pleading to keep their coach, but it sure would be nice if Delta State’s football team could have another national championship. DSU fans have been celebrating the school’s first national football title for 10 years now.
Considering our entire newsroom is made up of Statesmen fans, that would make for a very Merry Christmas around here.
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Jason Patterson is the managing editor of The Yazoo Herald. He can be reached by e-mail at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .