My father was a whistler. You seldom hear a man whistle these days. Maybe to call a dog or to get someone's attention, but not to whistle a melody. There was a time when cell phones, CDs and DVDs were not available. Whistling was a way to amuse or comfort yourself with a familiar song or hymn.

How do you whistle? It takes some practice and can be either harsh or harmonious. Just put your lips together and say “two.” Now blow. It will take some practice but eventually you will get it right. It will take a while to make enough variety of sounds to whistle a tune.

A major contributor to kids’ back pain is the backpacks they use to tote their stuff, researchers in a new study said. Those who used one strap to carry their packs reported significantly more back pain than did those who used both straps. Those who used rolling backpacks reported back pain the most often. It wasn’t clear whether pain prompted their use of the rolling packs or whether the rolling packs contributed to their pain.

Humans are apparently hard-wired to love seeing rainbows, as proven by all the Facebook photo postings that pop up whenever one appears in our area. But have you ever wondered if, say your dog sitting beside you, sees the same rainbow you do? Or how about other animals? Let us delve into color vision by various residents of our planet.

Maybe I should have been a stunt woman. Since I have tripped and fallen most of my life, I have become an expert at it. Especially on stairs.

When I was 12 years old, I sang in the seventh grade choir. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I can’t sing. At all. I basically was in it for my mom’s sake. She loves music and studied it in school, so she was always excited when I joined a choir. Also, it was a good excuse to drag my dad to a concert.

When my father retired and moved to Paradise, Utah, he wanted to grow anything and everything. And he was pretty much successful in most of what he planted. The man had a green thumb! I especially remember the delicious fruit: cherries, apples, sand cherries, strawberries, peaches….

Today, I am going to completely mess with your mind. That’s not a threat. I’m not going to hurt you, but I might really make the rest of your day seem like a fog because you are not going to be able to get this idea out of your head.

My daughter Anne goes to the Union County Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. Today she brought back some beautiful fresh peaches. Naturally, I had to make a peach pie. This is a pie that can only be made when peaches are in season. Canned ones won't do. I make it with a baked pie shell. It could be done with a vanilla wafer crust, or to go all out, an uncooked pastry lined pie plate with a lattice top crust. In that case, arrange a lattice crust pattern over the cooked and cooled filling. Cover pie edges loosely with foil. Bake at 400 F. for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

In an effort to promote college awareness and access, Union County High School will participate in College Application and Exploration Week, a statewide initiative sponsored by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and CollegeforTN.org, on September 16-21, 2019.

Tennessee Congressman Chuck Fleishmann and Representative Dennis Powers made a visit to Union County on Monday, August 5, 2019 to present an honor to a local family and give an update on projects in Washington, D.C.

Aug. 5, 2019 - Tennessee Housing Development Agency has awarded a $500,000 HOME Program grant to make much-needed repairs to substandard homes for elderly and disabled residents of Union County.

The HOME program is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is administered in part in Tennessee by THDA During the most recent funding round, THDA awarded 13 competitive HOME grants statewide totaling $5.5 million. Six of those 13 grants were awarded to local governments and nonprofits in East Tennessee.