A spring trip through the Narrows along U.S. Hwy 25W, between Morley and Highcliff, aboard an ETHRA rural transportation van, was an unexpected treat for a local history writer. Since my release from a convalescent home in late September, I had not attempted to operate a motor vehicle.
My mother made the best chili sauce. I use her recipe, but you know how it is, two cooks can use the same recipe and it won't taste quite the same. Maybe it's nostalgia working on me, but her chili sauce tasted so good.
I know chili sauce is a condiment, but I like it on mashed potatoes. I have eaten it that way since I was a kid. Place a good pile (I mean heapin’) of mashed potatoes on your plate. Slather it with gobs of butter. The bed is ready. Add a generous topping of homemade chili sauce and dig in! Mashed potatoes and chili sauce is good eatin'.
It's another first for Union County, and a win for Union County's canine companions. The county is one of 37 statewide winners of the Boyd Foundation's 2018 Dog Park Dash grant, aimed at creating pet friendly spaces throughout Tennessee. Fifty communities applied for the grant.
Communities are keen to implement next generation fiber optic infrastructures, as they recognize such assets are crucial to economic development and growth strategies and are not merely an entertainment medium. Only about 25 percent of Tennesseans have access to fiber with rural areas lagging far behind, and that’s bad news for rural economies. Big Telecom has little interest in expanding to small towns and farmlands, as shareholders are out for a return on their investment; running fiber optic cable into rocky Appalachian soil isn't cheap.
As I read the morning paper, I was again reminded just how important our public records are. It is also important that our citizens have access to those records when they need them. The Tennessee Public Records Act allows access–but even so–sometimes that access is not easy. There are many exceptions to access–so many and so frustrating that the Tennessee Legislature has created the Open Records Ad Hoc Committee to review the why and the need for so many exclusions.
Gee, wished I was as smart as you all!
Then, I wouldn’t believe in God either. What a life we could then have. Let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.1 If it feels good, do it! After all, when we die we cease to exist.
It was in 1970 and I needed a job. My husband was sick and unable to work. A friend of mine drove a school bus for the school our children attended. She told me there was an opening for a bus driver. How hard could that be? I was to apply at the superintendent of schools' office.
Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Thirty-Two
I once had a student who said aloud quite often, “I’m skeered!” If you could have known that child as I did, I’m sure you would have agreed that in reality he was scared of nothing.
I was having a conversation with my nephew the other day and the question of when we were the most scared in our lives arose.
There have been many theories and guesses about conditions on the moon, such as: It’s a dead, dry world; that it has Earth-like mineral soil; that weathering doesn’t occur because the Moon is surrounded by a vacuum, and the like. Information retrieved from the Lunar Prospector probe launched to the Moon several years ago, along with long term study of lunar rocks retrieved from the Apollo missions, have turned up some interesting facts.
In my family, we called them “get togethers” instead of a family reunion. I can still remember the feeling of magic and anticipation of those special occasions.
When I was growing up, we got together right before Christmas with my Papaw’s brother’s family. I loved it when everybody came over to my mamaw and papaw’s house. My mom and my mamaws cooked in the kitchen as they whipped up the feast. The aroma was awesome. And they happily bantered and laughed as they worked.
Researchers have found that poor back muscle quality is not associated with worsening kyphosis (forward curvature or “hunch” of the upper spine) in older adults.
The researchers used computed tomography (CT) scans to measure spinal curvature in 1,087 men and women aged 50-85 years to determine whether age-related decline in trunk muscle size and quality contributes to the worsening of kyphosis.
Every pantry has a package or two of macaroni and cheese dinner in there somewhere. It is the good beginning for a quick supper. I remember that when I worked (it hasn't been that long ago) I needed a quick dish for supper. If I had a pound of ground beef defrosting in the refrigerator and I could find a package of mac and cheese dinner, supper would soon be on the table.
I was recently able to visit the Oakes Daylily Bloom Festival on June 23, as I have for several years now. Whether you take the kids to the kid’s tent or walk through the display of beds or just relax while listening to the music of local artist, it is a day well spent. With 6 acres of Daylilies in full bloom, the Oakes Farm has more than 1000 varieties of Daylilies and they ship all over the country. On the day of the festival, we visited a tent set up with a large variety of lilies on display where we could view and select lilies for purchase.
Gratitude and appreciation draped the last Union County Commission Meeting of the commission elected in 2014. The new Commission will have eight new members. Many commissioners expressed their gratitude for the honor of serving the citizens of Union County. Others mentioned their appreciation for the chance to work with people from all over the county to do some positive things. The citizens erupted in applause for the return of Commissioner J. M. Bailey who has been struggling with a serious illness.
The staff members of Willow Ridge Care and Rehab would like to thank all those who have so generously donated to provide a 19" wall mounted flat screen television for each of our resident's during their stay. The total cost of the television and mounting hardware comes to just under $100 each. For each $100 donation, we are placing a small sign on each television indicating who provided it. This is a daily reminder to our residents that they are cared for by the wider community. Over the course of a year, many people are touched by this gift.
Allyson Hanna has done her hometown proud by bringing home a state-level win from the Tennessee 4-H Round-Up and All-Star Conference. The 16-year-old homeschooler is a junior this year, and she won her division with a Senior Level 1 consumer education project on the Consumer Bill of Rights.
Hanna has been active in 4-H since she was in the fifth grade, and she credits the program with helping her grow as a leader and a team player.
The “digital divide” is the gap that exists between individuals advantaged by the internet and those individuals disadvantaged by lack of access to the internet. The divide has widened as technology has advanced with the advent of next generation fiber optic broadband that can make 1 GB broadband speeds available. The growing gap disproportionately affects rural areas as rural residents have few choices of internet service providers – or none at all. They pay higher prices for lower quality service.
In our time, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) remains as a residual reminder of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s alphabet soup programs created in the 1930s to combat the economic ills of the Great Depression.
Not everyone should take music lessons. There are some that have a hole in their bucket, like me. Mother thought it would be nice if one of her children learned how to play the Hawaiian guitar. Island music was popular back in the days before World War II. She picked the wrong kid, me.
Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Thirty-One
Hello, everyone. My name is Oak Grove. I am a two room school building in the Sharps Chapel area of Union County.
For the past two weeks my “scribe” Ronnie Mincey has written articles about me, detailing pertinent points of my history for school terms 1932-1933 and 1934-1935. His main source for information has been the old registers on file at the Union County Board of Education’s Central Office, my “diaries”.