Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Thirty
Hello, everyone. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Oak Grove. I am a two room school building in the Sharps Chapel area of Union County. Let me tell you a little more about myself.
Our house on Lee Road, near Michigan Center, had aluminum siding. It was the newest thing. Before that, there was only wood siding or brick. Aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity as we would discover.
My father had wired our home at Pulaski. He was an electrician, but had passed on by the time we moved to Lee Road. The lumber yards were not yet selling how-to-it books. Anyway, my husband would never admit he didn't know how to do something. He just tried to bull his way through a problem. Pug wired our house on Lee Road.
I had something growing up that most people don’t have: a Mamaw Girdle.
Actually, her name was Myrtle and she was my great-grandmother. I don’t know why I called her Girdle. The only thing I can think of is that it rhymed with Myrtle. My family didn’t correct me and other people began calling her Girdle as well. So I really believed that was her name.
While I was growing up, my family generally went 4 places: church, the grocery store, Mynatt’s funeral home and Sears. One fateful day we were in the unmentionables section of Sears where my mamaw Girdle bought a girdle.
Some landowners will no doubt frown when I say that a grown-up fencerow is desirable, and I’ll admit I’ve done my share of cleaning them up. But from a wildlife perspective a brushy fencerow can do some positive things.
Anyone who knows about Stuffed Cabbage will understand what Unstuffed Cabbage is all about. There are several ways to fix Stuffed Cabbage but only one way to do Unstuffed Cabbage. The great thing about this recipe is that it is easy to prepare. There is no boiling the cabbage, separating the leaves and then filling each one with a ground beef and rice mixture. Nope. This one is easier. Just shred or chop the cabbage and start in.
Union County's senior citizens have had an eventful summer. Melanie Dykes, director of the Office on Aging said this year's election has brought lots of visitors to Union County's senior centers.
"We have just been blessed with political candidates all summer," she said. "The seniors have just loved it. They've gotten to know who all the candidates are. A lot of them didn't know who the candidates were, especially in the mayor's race."
Union County 4-Her’s had a blast at 4-H camps this summer. Junior 4-H Camp was held June 4-8 with a record of forty Union County 4th-6th graders attending. This was a large increase in attendance over past years. Junior High 4-H Camp was held July 9-11 with five Union Countians attending, including two teen leaders. Both camps are held in Greeneville at Clyde Austin 4-H Center, Monday through Friday annually.
Having access to high speed broadband service is quickly becoming the most important differentiating infrastructure of our time. A 2016 report from then Commissioner for Economic and Community Development Randy Boyd, found businesses in Tennessee said broadband enabled 43 percent of all net new jobs and 66 percent of revenues. In addition, 34 percent of businesses classified broadband as essential to selecting their location, and 56 percent noted that it was essential to remain in their location.
I drive down east Emory Road about once a month and pass Block Springs Baptist Church in Blaine. Every time I pass the church, I fondly remember my husband’s Aunt Phoebe Peters who along with her husband, Ed Peters, and daughter, Mary Peters DeVault, were many years members there. Sadly, that family has died, but when we visited about twice a year they always had something for a treat. In summer, it was a start of Aunt Phoebe’s plants.
A number of celebrity suicides have been in the news lately. As a Christian, suicide is not an option for me, but who am I to judge? I was talking with my daughter, Anne, this evening and mentioned an episode that happened to a man I knew years ago. “You should write about that,” she said. I said that I would. Not to make me look good but to show what an influence you can have on another of God's children. Sometimes there are warning signs and sometimes there are not. There was this time. Here goes.