Historic Union County

The Cradle of Country Music

Folks often call him Speedo, but his real name is Mr. Earl, but you can call him Wendell if you like. Wendell Earl (Speedo) and Judy Stowers love to spend time with friends and are always up for a good joke, hence the name Speedo for Earl.

“I earned that name back when the Cadillacs had the hit song,” said Earl. “I guess it kind of stuck.”

Call him whatever name you want, just don’t call him late for dinner. When it comes to community service, well that’s no joking matter.

At Paulette Elementary School, they know that some of the most important lessons don't happen within classroom walls. Getting kids into nature, digging in dirt, and learning about plants, animals and agriculture, can provide experiences many students these days don't get at home. The Paulette Outdoor Classroom has been a vital part of that learning, a space for community gardens and wildlife habitats alike.

Is there a child who doesn’t want to ride a pony? From all indications there isn’t. I’m basing this on my seat at my book table at the 13th Annual Red Gate Festival and Rodeo this past weekend, and by the way, my latest book is here - More Tales from the Hills and Hollows of East Tennessee.

Billingsway Farm of Wytheville, Virginia brought their ponies and set up for this festival. From about 4:30pm to dark, little ones lined up with a parent or grandparent who had brought these little ones for a pony ride–or maybe a return for a second ride.

Late one summer several years ago, I had the opportunity to walk into history-to explore a historical site that has been inaccessible for years. Sealed off from the public not by walls or fences but brush and bramble the interior of Knox County Potter's Field had been impenetrable for decades. In recent years, a trail had been blazed to the monument erected to indigent dead in 1937, but by spring of 2007 it had also become impenetrable.

Some say there is nothing new under the sun. I disagree. There is always a new diet making the rounds. You can be sure that after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season the television will be overflowing with them. Old diet plans resurface with a new twist. Who do they think they're kidding? Those slim adolescent beauties were never fat. Put a fifty year old overweight mama of six kids on their diet plan and see if she is not a bunch of wrinkles. That is, if she is able to stay on their diet.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Seventeen

There are times in everyone’s life at church when there is a strong desire to laugh, but it would be most inappropriate.

One of my very favorite services is the Lord’s Supper (otherwise known as “communion” to some believers). At Maynardville (now the First) Baptist Church, this service has always been conducted with the utmost propriety. This is the service that commemorates the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus, sacrificed that the world might be saved.

As a wildflower enthusiast and more recently a student of medicinal plants, I keep running across plants with recurring name components. The terms balm, bane, and wort come up often, so I decided to see why. Prepare to delve into the world of ethnobotany, the study of plants used by humans.

New research reveals that a bad digging technique can as much as double the load on the joints in the body, leaving people susceptible to chronic injuries.

The results reveal the risks that gardeners might be running if using a bad digging technique and comes at a time when more people are recognizing the health benefits of gardening.

There are many places in the Scriptures where God through His prophets details to varying degrees the terms and conditions of His covenant with mankind. The very first place He speaks of it is during Moses' summary of the creation story found in Genesis Chapter 1.

Zap! Boom!

My mom has an awesome superpower.  She can respond with clever comebacks at the speed of light. Seriously, it’s like a lightning bolt comes out of her mouth.  Zap! Boom!

She’s got you.

One time she had two Zap! Booms! in a row. 

We were at a nice restaurant with some friends. Mom ordered a side of coleslaw.  They served it to her in a scoop on top of a leaf of lettuce and in a small white bowl.

Soon after we started eating, my mom said, “Well…lookie here!”

About twenty years ago, I was the kitchen manager at the Hickory Star Restaurant on Norris Lake. Always looking for new recipes, I came across this one. With a little tweaking, it became my own. First, let me tell you about my time at Hickory Star.

Mindy Grimm took over as Union County's ICare Drug Coalition coordinator in July 2017, and while she's hosted monthly meetings and a couple of tailgates during football season, events haven't been her focus. Instead, she's hard at work gathering data on youth drug and alcohol abuse to build a program targeted at Union County's unique needs.

"We don't know what we don't know," she said. "We're reassessing the whole framework to try to build a foundation for the kind of change that we need."

Be the Good Lord willing and the creek [not the Indians] don’t rise, I’ll be signing books–including my new book More Tales from the Hills and Hollows of East Tennessee at the Red Gate Festival and Rodeo.

God willing and the creek don’t rise is a saying I remember from my childhood. However, most of the folks in my family replaced “God” with “The Good Lord.”

After hearing them blurt out this saying, I often asked my relatives what they meant. Most were so shocked that a child had listened to what they said an answer was not forthcoming. Others mumbled something about having a plan to do something but knowing that their plan could be interrupted by fate.

A new study examines what may cause chronic back pain in runners and the exercises to help prevent it. The study, published in the Journal of Biomechanics, suggests that runners with weak deep core muscles are at higher risk of developing low back pain. And, unfortunately, most people’s deep core muscles aren’t nearly as strong as they should be.

Lefty Frizzell sang a song about Saginaw, Michigan. He sang about the fancy houses the lumber barons of yesteryear built on Mansion Row. We didn't live in that part of town. We lived on the west side. Our house was the only one on a block in a working class neighborhood that never really took off. There was only one tree.

The tree wasn't a stately oak or a majestic elm. It was a young box elder tree growing near the driveway out near the street. No one planted it there. It just grew. That was a set up for trouble.

Don’t you love getting tickled in church? The worst times are those during an actual service when it would be most inappropriate to laugh; also, these are the times incidents seem funnier than they might otherwise.

But sometimes we get lucky and funny things happen in church when we can laugh and not be inappropriate. I hadn’t been driving long, and I still had my first car. It was a 1967 Chevrolet Impala that I inherited from my father. The car rode low on its springs, so roads with unexpected dips could be challenging. The car also seemed as long as a small bus, and I tried in those early days of driving to park it where it would be easiest to pull out for the ride home. My choice parking space at that time was at the edge of the parsonage driveway, directly under a cedar tree.

In the months leading up to the American Civil War, Isham Harris, the first West Tennessean elected to the governor's office, championed secession.

Mountains seem to be a universal attraction to people no matter where they come from. To we who were born and raised in them, they are especially endearing because they were the constant backdrop of our lives: their beauty, their challenges, and their molding of the culture of our ancestors that was passed on to us. Mountains are special, but what is it about them that everybody falls in love with? This will sound over-simplistic, but the answer is their 3-dimensional terrain. Let me explain.