Nothing seems more vulnerable than children, the disabled/elderly, and pets. They so often have such limited ability to defend themselves. It is a truly evil person who intentionally mistreats defenseless people and animals.
If you watch television like I do, you have undoubtedly seen commercials for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Only those with “hardened hearts”, or little or no conscience, are unaffected by witnessing the suffering of the patients and their families. It is made all the worse when we think those sick children are so young. They haven’t had the opportunity to live their lives and make their marks on society.
One thing brings me a measure of comfort—some of them are so young they will not remember much of the suffering they endured when they were infants or toddlers.
That brings to mind the question, “What are some of the first things you remember?"
My mother told me that lots of times when I was a baby I used to stand in my bed during the night. She was afraid I would break the window pane with my bottle, so she moved my bed against a wall. She said I would never sleep in that bed again.
But I don’t remember that.
There is a black and white picture of me as a baby sitting on my father’s lap. He is sitting in an armchair. In my mind, I see that chair as covered in green, perhaps with a spread.
Do I actually remember that, or does the picture make me think I remember?
I’m not sure.
I don’t remember anything before age three. At that time, we lived on Main Street in the McDonald rental house, across from Maynardville Baptist Church (now First Baptist). All the rooms were white. I remember once when Ann Richardson visited, and we were on the front porch. There were evergreen bushes on either side of the front steps. I remember getting stung while Ann was there. I don’t remember Dad having the bushes cut down, though that happened.
Main Street Maynardville was at the time part of the main highway that connected our fair city to Halls and Tazewell. It was busier than now. I remember playing in the dirt at the corner of Main and Church streets. This seems odd, because my parents were so overprotective, and I was mere inches from fast-traveling cars.
I also remember the rock wall that enclosed part of the front yard. It was undoubtedly constructed when the road was built. I remember Mother and Dad mowing that yard. Dad kept the red lawnmower with the white engine under the house in the dirt-floor “basement”. I remember Mother had asthma and wheezed when she mowed. I was always afraid she would die every time she “had a spell”.
I remember walking across the street to church with Mother on Sunday evenings in winter. There were so many stars glimmering all around the spire of the church steeple. Nothing seems more beautiful to this day.
Leon Campbell’s garage was elevated on the other side of Church Street above the McDonald house on the kitchen side, and Dad was afraid that a car parked at the garage might “slip out of gear”, “run down the hill” across the road, and “crash through the house”. (That did happen sometime after we moved, but there was little damage as the car only hit the corner of the very small back porch.) Accordingly, when I was about four we moved to a rental house on Academy Street owned by Jessie Monroe Buckner. Older folks who attended Horace Maynard High School knew Ms. Buckner as an English teacher.
I learned years after we lived in the Monroe house that it was one of many that were built by Ms. Buckner’s father, Judge Press Monroe. The judge built as many houses as possible on subdivided acre lots, and that area of Maynardville became known as Chinatown. I remember nights when I lay in the back non-air-conditioned bedroom and listened to the neighbors argue.
One of the most terrifying parts of life at that house for me was Judge Browning’s daily walk home from the old jail building that now houses Travis Patterson’s offices. I never knew Judge Browning’s first name—I learned years later he was nicknamed “Jiggs”. I was fascinated by him, probably because he was old. Mother possibly told me that “he’d get me” when I misbehaved, and that caused me to fear him. I don’t remember the man ever speaking a word to me, for I’d hide when I saw him coming and stay out of sight until he was gone.
The yard at the Monroe house didn’t seem to grow much grass. I remember the house was heated with coal, and our coal pile was in the front yard. Once I fell from the front porch into the coal pile and “skint” my knees. I also once fell off the back porch. It was higher than the front porch (I’m beginning to realize why I fear heights), and I guess I opened my mouth to scream while I fell. That resulted in a mouth full of mud. I didn’t so much mind breathing dust and eating dry dirt, but wet mud was unpalatable.
I remember for a while that Jim Sturgeon, his wife Betty, and their children Patty and Greg Wyrick lived next door. Patty came home from Headstart one day with a beautiful picture of a garden she had painted with water colors. It had lots of green and was impressive. From that experience I learned what a garden was.
After the Sturgeons moved, the Johnsons took their place. (I might possibly have that backward—the Johnsons might have lived there first.) I don’t exactly remember it, but according to Mother I got into trouble for running around the block unsupervised and without permission with Joey Johnson. I also don’t remember hitting Mother with a rock, but she said I did and that she whipped me for it. I don’t remember that whipping, either.
I remember the first time I saw the Jack Warwick rental house on Old Luttrell Road. I was just about to start first grade. I immediately loved the place. Most memories of my childhood are from the time we lived there.
Hopefully, the young children who are St. Jude patients will not remember a lot of pain and suffering when they are older. Hopefully, most of them will experience complete recovery and live long lives filled with an abundance of happy memories.
Hopefully their future memories will be like those referenced in the Alan Jackson’s Remember When. (Source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/alan_jackson/remember_when Retrieved July 7, 2026)

Remember when I was young and so were you
And time stood still and love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
We made love and then you cried
Remember when

Remember when we vowed the vows and walked the walk
Gave our hearts, made the start and it was hard
We lived and learned, life threw curves
There was joy, there was hurt
Remember when

Remember when old ones died and new were born
And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged
We came together, fell apart
And broke each other's hearts
Remember when

Remember when the sound of little feet
Was the music we danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give it up
Remember when

Remember when thirty seemed so old
Now lookin' back, it's just a steppin' stone
To where we are, where we've been
Said we'd do it all again
Remember when

Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and move away
We won't be sad, we'll be glad
For all the life we've had
And we'll remember when
Remember when
Remember when

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 92
As one gets older, what’s the problem with hidden talent? (ANSWER: Remembering where the talent is hidden.)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 93
If you are an average American, in your whole life, how much time will you will spend waiting at red lights. (See the next “Mincey’s Musings” in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)

REMEMBER—It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.