They approached me and plopped down in the chair next to me\u2014without permission. \u201cWriters, musicians, painters, one of the greatest bookstores in the entire USA, and such. The University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, is here and William Faulkner lived here and wrote novels. In fact, he won a Nobel Prize for his work. And my name is Randy, High, not Chuckie.\u201d Really?<\/em> \u2026and that\u2019s the View from The Balcony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Randy Weeks is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Shamanic Life Coach, an ordained minister, singer-songwriter, actor, writer, and a former triathlete. He plans to continue to \u201csticker \u2018round,\u201d sans highlighting. Randy may be reached at: randallsweeks@gmail.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was relaxing while smoking my pipe and sipping on a greyhound when I spied a figure walking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":118752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11902],"tags":[5,4,10286,10878],"class_list":["post-151948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-randy-weeks","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-randy-weeks","tag-the-view-from-the-balcony"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ViewFromTheBalcony-2.jpg?fit=996%2C650&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151950,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151948\/revisions\/151950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
(Sticking out their hand to shake mine) I\u2019m High\u2014High Light<\/em>.
(Shaking their hand) \u201cI\u2019m Randy, High. Nice to meet you.\u201d
(Speaking loudly, popping my left shoulder, and slapping one of their stickers on my chest) Randy High. Cute name. Man! It\u2019s a be-utiful day ain\u2019t it, Chuckie.<\/em>
(Looking disapprovingly at the sticker) \u201cYeah, sure is.\u201d
I ain\u2019t never been here before, Chuckie. Y\u2019all got a nice little setup here.<\/em>
\u201cYes. Yes we do. It\u2019s a lovely little town.\u201d
What ch\u2019all known for, Chuckie?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AdobeStock_yellow-flashlight-1024x559.jpeg?resize=640%2C349&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Ain\u2019t that novel, Randy High! A No-bell prize? Like no cowbells, huh? I ain\u2019t never read no novel. I mostly read comic books.<\/em>
\u201cNo doubt.\u201d
(Picking their teeth) Thank ya\u2019, Chuckie!<\/em>
\u201cYou\u2019re welcome, High. Now what\u2019s with all these yellow flashlight stickers?\u201d
Oh, that\u2019s easy. Since my name is High Light I like to highlight as many things as I can. It\u2019s a highlight here, a highlight there, here a light, there a light, everywhere a highlight. Ee i, ee i, o!
<\/em>\u201cAnd people are okay with that?\u201d
Some are, some ain\u2019t. But, hell, I don\u2019t care if they\u2019re okay with it or not. You must like the stickert. You\u2019re still wearin\u2019 yours.<\/em>
\u201cJust trying to be polite.\u201d
(Popping bubble gum) Now ain\u2019t you the nice one, Chuckie! Where else you think I otter put up some stickers?<\/em>
(I wanted to say \u201cOver your mouth and up you\u2019re a**, butt\u2026\u201d) I\u2019d like to see you put one on all four clock faces on the top of the courthouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReally.\u201d
Well shut my mouth!
<\/em>(I held my tongue.)
I could do it if I had me a good long rope to lasso the top \u2018a that thang.
<\/em>\u201cI\u2019ll run down to Shaw\u2019s Ace Hardware and get one for you if you want.\u201d
Naw. Not today. I got the squirts.
<\/em>(With that they blew a huge bubble with their gum. I ripped off my sticker and slapped it on the bubble, which immediately popped and covered their entire face, with the sticker planted firmly on their nose.)
You sure pulled the gum over my eyes, Chuckie! Now look, Chuckie, I gotta be on my way but I wanna leave you a stack a\u2019 stickers so you can highlight a bunch a\u2019 things.<\/em>
\u201cThanks, but no thanks.\u201d
Why? Don\u2019t ya\u2019 like \u2018em?
<\/em>\u201cFrankly, I find all this highlighting crap annoying as hell. No offense, of course.\u201d
None taken, Chuck. Not everybody\u2019s taste is that re-find. Some folks hafta acquire it.
<\/em>\u201cLike possum, coon, and chitlins?\u201d
Naw. I was borned likin\u2019 them. Speakin\u2019 of likin\u2019, I like this place, Chuckie. I may just sticker \u2018round a while. Get it, Chuckie? Sticker \u2018round?<\/em>
\u201cGot it. You can stay as long as you like, High. Stick it as many times as you wish.\u201d
Thank ya\u2019, Chuckie. I believe I\u2019ll do just that.
<\/em>\u201cSee that you do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"