A community shows its strength when it works together to do good things. That's what Union Countians are doing. When the new bridge opened over Clinch River/Norris Lake on State Highway 33 between Maynardville and Tazewell and the old continuous truss bridge was being taken down, Preservation Union County worked with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to salvage pieces of the old structure. On May 24, 2016, we met with TDOT District 18 Specialist and the contractor that was removing the steel and acquired several pieces of wind bracing beams and bridge railing.

Annually, the Union County Soil Conservation District sponsors a poster contest at Paulette Elementary School. This title, “Watersheds: Our Water, Our Home”, was the theme for the 2018 contest.

Union County’s own Jason Earley has made a name for himself once again; this time on the Nashville scene. Fortunately, for his fans in this area, the results are available locally.

Knoxville TN: Local author Jim Hartsell will hold a book sale and signing at the Ijams Holiday Market Sunday December 9 for his Boone series of novels, Pushing Back, Matching Scars and Keeping Secrets. The books will be rereleased with new covers through a new distributor December 1. The genre is coming of age Appalachian Fiction.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Six

As I was thinking of what to write for this week, I remembered an assignment I did for my Introduction to Education class at Lincoln Memorial University. I have many of my college papers in a file cabinet in my lawnmower shed.

One of the more popular Christmas carols is “The Christmas Song”, sometimes called “Chestnuts Roasting”. The first line goes (sing it with me): “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”. It occurred to me that most folks sing it with only a vague idea of what it means, so allow me to illuminate.

Brandon Drury plays baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays, having been traded in July 2018 from the New York Yankees. Prior to his stint with the Yankees, he had been afflicted for years with migraines and blurred vision. He finally told the Yankees and their medical team identified the issue—a nerve between the back of Drury’s head and neck—and established a plan to manage it.

We went to Destin for a short family vacation August 2-6, 2012. My oldest nephew, Dakota, wanted us to go as the entire Wilson family had never all been on a vacation together. It just so happened the previous week, that my brother-in-law (my wife’s sister’s husband, Bob) had discovered a cannot turn down deal on a 2006 Sea Fox 2360 Center Console boat. Bob and I, along with my wife’s cousin Ken, went in together to purchase this boat. Since my trip was already planned, I got to take the boat on its maiden voyage. Lucky me!

When I think about it, I still have to shake my head.

Many people called my papaw by his initials: E.O. Years ago, there was a little neighbor boy who called Papaw “Eeyore” instead of E.O. While we all thought it was so cute, it really didn’t fit Papaw. He was nothing like the Eeyore of A. A. Milne’s creation in “Winnie the Pooh.” Papaw didn’t go around grumbling and he didn’t have floppy ears or a tail that that kept falling off. Instead, he had a positive attitude and a heart of gold, but he was also very accident prone.

I remember growing up on the farm. It was a boring time for me. That is until I discovered my escape in reading. I read most anything that had words I could understand, and I especially liked to read funny stories. When I heard the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, the gears of my bored mind began spinning. What fun I could have with that scenario: