Economic growth for Union County will be the topic of conversation at the 10 July Candidate Forum at the Union County Senior Citizens Center. Sponsored by the Union County Business and Professional Association, State and local candidates have been asked to respond to a number of questions at the 12 Noon forum.

In one way or another, Bill and Debbie Morgan have spent most of their lives involved in UT Extension and 4-H. In fact, that’s where the couple first met, as Agent and Assistant Agent at the Union County Extension Office. And their four kids have gone through the program, inheriting a love of rural life and rural skills from their parents.

“How can you put 85 years on one page?” Wanda Cox Byerley asked me at the end of our interview, right before she asked me who’d want to read it.

I told her I’d do my best, and the audience would probably surprise her.

It’s probably an understatement to call Wanda a walking contradiction. On the one hand, the twice-widowed mother of two and older sister to seven brothers calls herself “tough,” and she is. But in the same breath she’ll tell you how much she loves all seven brothers, all her children, step-children, grands and great-grands, and every student she ever taught.

Hickory Star Resort and Marina will be celebrating its 75th anniversary in a few years. The history of the marina goes back to 1947 and possibly further, but no one associated with the marina today can recall. Justin Noah is the current manager.

“I have a photo dated 1947,” said Noah. “The marina may date back before that but I can’t find any records or older photos.”

People who were not there at the beginning, but who have gained their knowledge from stories passed down told this history to me. If it differs from what our readers know, I apologize.

For me, my cousin Sharon DeVault Roach was the next best thing for an interview on Chester Atkins. Her father, who was also my great uncle Buster DeVault, was Chester Atkins’ best friend. They grew up together as neighbors in a Luttrell holler and stayed best friends the rest of their lives. Sharon said they talked every Tuesday on their ham radios. No cellphones or emails in those days.

Robert Wilson Johnson 1930 - 2018 Through the prolific Heiskells, I have many favorite cousins. Bobby Johnson is certainly among them. My first real remembrances of Bobby and his parents, Robert and Ella Wilson Johnson, is when we needed to go to Knoxville to shop or to the dentist. Robert was frequently our ride as he went to his job as Treasurer of Winter Garden Frozen Foods. Later, the Johnsons moved to Fountain City so Bobby could attend Central High School. My grandmother Heiskell and Bobby’s great grandmother were sisters–Sarah McClain Heiskell and Emma McClain Chesney, so the families stayed close over many, many years.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Twenty-Seven

The title of this week’s article is based on part of the lyrics to a song that was popular during my college days, “Let’s Get Physical, Physical.” The obvious reference in the song is to sensual pleasure. Such a view reflects a great portion of the world’s view of love, the satisfaction of desire without commitment.

A call to action on lower back pain remedies has been issued by prominent international researchers in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. They recommend:

• coordinated international leadership to drive transformational change across health and social services and occupational settings to stop fragmented and outdated models of care

• development of evidence-based medical responses to low back pain emphasizing the concept of ‘positive health’—the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical and emotional challenges

We had a dog named Buster. He was a beautiful dog of questionable breed, but we loved him. Isn’t that the way it usually is? I remember him well. He didn’t start out being my dog. When Patty and Don Irwin moved in our middle house, Patty got a puppy and named him Buster. He was supposed to be a little dog, not the monster he grew into. Again, isn’t that the way it usually is?

On the last day of May in 2015, as a gentle off and on rain fell upon the tin roof of an open air shelter, a window into times past opened at a place called Mossy Springs. While seated in the picturesque setting, overlooking the clearing near the spring from which the sacred place takes its name, time seemed to come to halt and at times flow backwards-to the time before “the move”- to the time before the “water came up”.