I seem to have dreams every time I go to sleep. Usually I don’t remember enough the next morning to tell them to anyone, though occasionally a few will linger in memory for a longer period.

During the Great Depression, I remember growing up with the horrors of being quarantined. It seemed kids only caught the measles, whooping cough, mumps and such during the school year. Maybe the problem was the close contact we all had during the school day. If you or someone in your home had an infectious disease, the sign went on the door. There were no vaccines.

Have you ever made a jelly roll? I have made a few. My first one was for the fair in my home county. I was trying for the Homemaker Award that year in the early '60s. The person who won the most ribbons in the Food and Needlework categories would get the prize. I entered everything I could think of, including a jelly roll. It was my first one. I won the Homemaker Award as well as the silver tray for Best Cake. Guess what? My jelly roll beat out those fancy frosted cakes. Wedding cakes were in a different category.

Those trying in vain to keep a house clean detest house dust. It floats in sunbeams and accumulates on furniture. Most assume the dust comes from outside, and about 60% of it does in the form of dirt or pollen, but much of it is generated inside the home. If you look at floater house dust under a microscope, it appears to be small flat plates, usually six sided and slightly wrinkled on the surface. It’s is mostly skin cells from us or from pets. We shed them constantly in fantastic amounts, and it’s the body’s way of keeping itself clean and free from invading pathogens.

There is nothing more certain than the inexorable march of time, each second dutifully ticking ahead at fixed, predictable increments. It’s the one certainty in a world of uncertainties, right? How many times have our movie heroes “synchronized their watches” in order to meet at a precisely coordinated time in order to save the world from some nefarious villain or another? How many New Year’s Eve parties have culminated with delirious attendees screaming the countdown to midnight in a gleeful chorus, watching the final seconds of the dying year slipping away?

Janet’s Hair Salon is a remedy to style, beauty, and friendship within the Maynardville community. For nineteen years, folks have been visiting the salon for their beauty needs as well as laughter amongst friends. Janet Holloway, owner and operator of the salon, bought the shop in 1990, and business has been growing ever since.

The Horace Maynard FFA is a very busy chapter. Recently, the chapter was awarded a Yearlong Living to Serve Grant in the amount of $3,000 from the National FFA Organization. This nationwide program provides grant money to local FFA chapters to support yearlong service learning projects that address needs related to community safety, environmental responsibility, hunger, health and nutrition, and community engagement. The program provided over $260,000 to FFA chapters in thirty two states.

Gabriella Annaleese Aljumaily a/k/a Gabi from Luttrell, Tennessee will be featured on the big screen in the heart of New York City as a part of the National Down Syndrome Society’s (NDSS) annual Times Square Video presentation on September 14th, 2019. The Times Square Video presentation kicks off Down Syndrome Awareness Month on the morning of the NDSS Buddy Walk® in New York City.

Bobbi Phelps-Wolverton, an award-winning author, will give a book presentation at Farragut Pharmacy, 11424 Kingston Pike, Farragut TN, Monday, September 16, 10 am-1 pm.

Behind the Smile is about her years as an international flight attendant during the 60s and early 70s; a time when passengers dressed for the occasion, when smoking was permitted, and when pilots allowed in-flight visits to the cockpit. Phelps-Wolverton writes about babies born during flight, harrowing landings in blizzards, and terrifying episodes in Vietnam and Egypt war zones.

I am going to use the space for this first article to introduce myself and discuss some of the topics and sources I intend to cover and reference. I am Joel Collins, a history teacher at Union County High School for the past several years. I have come to this writing invitation through Aaron Russell and Bonnie Peters, because I've taught Union County history at the high school for a few years. I have to say that I didn't just stumble into this; however, I was kind of born into it.