Know Thy Neighbor ~ The Pattersons

Tommy and Patsy Patterson 

Tommy and Patsy Patterson moved into Woodland Hills Subdivision in 1992 and are the second owner to enjoy the “house in the woods” in the first bend of Ridgewood Drive. Patsy says, when sitting on the deck, one has the sensation of actually being in a forest, due to the woods that surround almost three sides of their house. The variety of trees includes cypress, cedar, pine, oak, and dogwood, which are plenty to provide an array of beautiful autumnal foliage and staggering blossoms of springtime.

When asked what has kept the two living in Woodland Hills so long, Patsy was quick to respond, “The neighbors. We have great neighbors, and we can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Tommy grew up in Ripley, Mississippi, and Patsy’s childhood hometown is Carrollton, Mississippi. Patsy is an Ole Miss grad, while Tommy smiles wistfully remembering his years at Mississippi College. I wondered how they found each other, having grown up one hundred thirty-five miles apart and having attended these separate colleges.

“We met as teachers in Aberdeen High School,” they chimed, almost simultaneously.

Tommy was one of the high school coaches there and also taught math in the junior high.  Patsy was perhaps the prettiest English teacher ever to grace the halls of Aberdeen High School. While neither of them said that, I imagine it’s true.

Working together and socializing, Patsy and Tommy soon began dating.  After deciding they were meant for each other, they married in August of the following year.

Patterson Place ~ pre spring

Patsy began teaching at Meridian Junior College in the fall after she and Tommy married.  Tommy found a coaching position at Meridian Junior High.

They had scarcely settled into their new roles as educators in Meridian, Mississippi, when Uncle Sam drafted Tommy into military service.

“Since I was a college graduate, I applied for Officer Candidate School in the Air Force, but it wasn’t long until they discovered I had a medical condition that prevented me from serving. I was given an honorable discharge,” Tommy recalled.

Patterson Place ~ summer

Both Tommy and Patsy returned to the Aberdeen School system, where they worked until Tommy accepted the position of Head Football Coach in Kossuth, Mississippi.

Tommy later accepted the head coaching job in Pontotoc, Mississippi, but after a couple of years left the ranks of coaching/ teaching and started a new career in the furniture industry, working first for Brookwood Industries, and later for Action Lane as their Human Resources Manager, a job that he was tailor-made for, or so it would seem.  He retired from Action Lane after having been there approximately 25 years.

Patsy continued to teach English in the Pontotoc City School system for a few more years, retiring in 2005. She found meaningful consulting work for several more years and still serves as North Mississippi Area Coordinator for the Mississippi Alternate Path to Quality Teachers.

The Pattersons are active members of First Baptist Church, Pontotoc, where Tommy is an deacon. They have two grown children, a daughter Sidra, and a son Hunter, both of whom are married and reside here in Pontotoc. Oh, there’s a cat in the house, which goes by the name Indigo…something to do with its eye color.

Tommy and Patsy enjoy numerous activities, one of which involves yard work, though Patsy is more into plant selection and planting than into maintenance and upkeep, with the latter being something at which Tommy excels.

Until recent years, Tommy refereed high school basketball and football games. He’s also served as alderman for the City of Pontotoc for the past twenty years and is a long-time member of the Pontotoc Rotary Club. Tommy’s interests include golfing and attending sports events at Ole Miss.

Patsy’s interests include exercising, reading, playing the piano, and playing bridge. Patsy is a member of the Open Gate Garden Club in Pontotoc. Like Tommy, she loves attending sporting events at Ole Miss. The Pattersons are season ticket holders for football, basketball, and baseball. A few years ago, Patsy travelled to Europe with friends to see Rome, Florence, Sicily, Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes, Barcelona, and even Tunisia in Africa.

The Pattersons have enjoyed visiting numerous areas of our country. They’ve been on an Alaskan Cruise, toured the Northeastern States a couple of times to enjoy the foliage of autumn, been up and down the West Coast, and attended more home games in major league baseball stadiums than you can shake a stick at, which include: Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, Braves, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Cardinals, Cubs, Rockies and the Oakland Athletics.

I have to share a Tommy story, courtesy of my niece, Felicia Brown Pollard. At the time, Felicia was still living at home with her mom on Highland Street. She would occasionally walk and/or jog into Woodland Hills, where her route always took her by the Pattersons’ home.

One summer day as she walking, she heard someone calling, “Help, help,” from some distance away. She looked and saw nobody, so she started to walk again, this time hearing, “Help, I’m over here. Help me.”

This time she saw who was calling for help. It was Tommy, perched on the rooftop of his house. He had climbed a ladder to clean out the gutters on the backside of his house and had climbed onto the roof. In so doing his ladder fell, leaving him stranded, alone on the roof, without a cell phone to call Patsy or anyone to help him. Apparently, he has learned from this mistakes and has not climbed onto his roof since.

Stop by sometime just to say Hi. It’ll make your day.