When Mom and I pulled into my driveway, I knew something strange was happening. My daughter Sara was standing in front of my garage door and she was yelling at something and stomping her feet.

Unfortunately for me, I had already pushed the button to raise the garage door. I was riding with my mom and had the door remote with me.

“You shouldn’t have opened the door! I was trying to keep it from getting into the garage,” Sara yelled as I stepped out of mom’s van.

When my husband returned home from the Navy at the end of World War ll in 1945, jobs were easy to find. No experience was necessary for most of them. The first job this farm boy found was in a nearby factory machining automobile crankshafts for the Detroit car companies. He was still working there when I met him in 1947. With no experience as a machinist, he was soon looking for another job. Machinist training would have been an excellent use of his GI Bill, but that was not to be.

With a nod to the season of Halloween, I would like to share a tale about something that has creeped people out for centuries. A superstition that came across with settlers from Europe and established itself here in the eastern U.S. It involves death and a bug.

When my dad was stationed in Saigon during the Vietnam War, the rest of us lived in the Oklahoma City suburb of Warr Acres. It wasn’t far from where my grandparents lived.
Living in Oklahoma had me looking over my shoulder every time a storm came through. I had seen The Wizard of Oz every year on television, so I knew about tornadoes, right? Funny thing was, in that year there was only one time when a weatherman said there might be a tornado. Never saw one, and never saw a witch on a bicycle, for which I was duly thankful.

This is an easy recipe to fix the day before grocery shopping day. This is, if you still have some potatoes in the bin and sausage in the freezer.

This is as easy as a baked dessert can be. If you are looking for something different to take to a potluck, give it a try.

CARAMEL APPLE COBBLER
2 cans apple pie filling
18 1/2 ounce box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
1 cup butter, melted

Pour pie filling into a greased 9 by 13 inch baking pan or casserole dish. Drizzle with caramel topping. Sprinkle with dry cake mix. Pour melted butter over all. Don't stir. Bake at 350 F. for about 45 minutes.

At Wilson Park, over 100 vendors competed for various booth awards at the 2019 Union County Heritage Festival last Saturday. A&B Bookkeeping & Tax Service claimed The Rocky Top award for the best portrayal of the festival theme. The Best Heritage Award for the best example of Union County history portrayed in a craft went to Martin Shafer for making maul handles on an Ole' Time Hit 'n Miss Engine & Lathe. Ralph Webster of Webster's Woodcrafts won Best Unique Craft Item for his handmade Black Walnut Bowl.

There was “More Fiddlin' Around” as fiddle lovers of all ages welcomed competitors in Union County Heritage Festival's Second Annual Fiddle Contest on Saturday, October 5, 2019. Amateur fiddlers took the stage and performed their best renditions of some fiddle favorites. While the judges were wrestling with very difficult decisions, all of the fiddle participants and several of the guitar, string bass, and mandolin players leaped to the stage to entertain the crowd with an impromptu performance of several popular fiddle tunes.

The Union County Historical Society sponsored the Heritage Festival Quilt Show at the Union County Museum & Genealogical Library. More than thirty quilts lined the museum balcony. Ellen Perry and Patricia Campbell coordinated the event.

Connie Johnsey won Best of Show for her quilt entitled “Harvest Spice”. Best Heritage Quilt was Kim Beeler's “Diary Quilt” that reflected memories of loved ones that "walk beside us every day".

Other awards included the following:

My thoughts were of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Rumpelstiltskin” as Tim I walked down the line of vendors at the Union County Farmer’s Market. We were searching for the lady with a spinning wheel since I was to conduct an interview with her.

“There she is!” Tim pointed, but I still couldn’t see a spinning wheel anywhere; in fact, I didn’t notice it until we reached her tent. You see, I had assumed all spinning wheels were made like the ones mentioned in old fairy tales. I had assumed wrong.