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.
Once upon a time, East Tennesseans shopped in a retail palace, dined in a culinary palace, and were entertained in an entertainment palace. Within a short walking distance of each other along Knoxville's South Gay Street, all three establishments sold an inexpensive product amid luxurious surroundings.
Back in Genesis, Eve had an encounter with a snake. It caused her and the rest of us a lot of trouble. I hate snakes. Oh, I know there are good ones, black snakes and such, that keep the rodent population under control. There is also the other kind. They are on my “kill now” list. They used to be on my “kill now” list, but since I am now on a walker, I seldom venture into their environment.
For those of you dealing with high wedding costs, I may have a solution. Instead of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars on a wedding dress that will be used once, buy some toilet paper and turn your imagination loose. A toilet paper wedding dress has many advantages. The total cost is under $20.00 and it doesn’t have to be dry-cleaned or put in storage. No hemming or altering is necessary. Just tear unneeded sections off. If you’re not satisfied with the design, just start over and make another one. And best of all, it can be recycled.
Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) is an imported ornamental that is very common in our area and is most noticed when it produces its fluffy pink flowers in the summer. Its commonness is worrisome from a forest health standpoint.
A new study confirms that rocker bottom shoes help strengthen back muscles, improving the spine’s curvature and thus reducing low back pain.
Sports physiotherapy researchers have confirmed, in a new study of their research work into back pain, that unstable shoes improve the strength of back muscles in order to maintain balance and stability when walking. This muscular strengthening contributes to reducing low-intensity chronic low back pain, which can be disabling for those who suffer it.
Most of us have a pound package of bulk pork sausage hiding in the freezer somewhere. If you do, that is the beginnings of a good casserole. I don't consider this recipe a breakfast dish. It is more like a weeknight supper.
Talking about sausage, I remember twenty years or so ago buying bulk pork sausage from someone over on Texas Valley Road. No boughten sausage tasted as good as that one. When I think of pork sausage, theirs comes to mind. Of course, stores sell their own bulk pork sausage in the meat case. That is good, too.
It might be a school record. Scholarships won by the Union County High School class of 2018 topped $1 million, and school counselor Jennifer Pointer said if it's not a record, only the class of 2008 would have come close.
In June, Ross Richnafsky left his own ducks, birds, chickens, snakes, and other animals to care for animals at Anderson County Hospital. For five weeks, Ross traveled to Clinton and that is where he met Smokey. The vet diagnosed Smokey with Canine Parvovirus. So Ross helped with the treatment of fluids and antibiotics as well as performing a variety of other tasks related to the various animals at the clinic. But Smokey taught Ross that animal owners do not always share his concern for animal care. Unfortunately, the owner removed Smokey before treatment was completed.
Voters filled the Union County Senior Center on July 10th to hear how candidates planned to improve economic development, education, and infrastructure in Union County. All seemed to agree that a positive working relationship between County Commission and the mayor was essential. All also believed that TCAT or some form of post high school trade school needed to be established within Union County. Most mentioned broadband and internet as essential to modern day business development and recruitment.
Historians will record 2018 as the second year in a row of a balanced budget for Union County; likely the most significant legislative accomplishment of the County Commission in a generation. Union County’s budget is one of the most important pieces of public policy the Commission enacts every year.