Last week I put out a call for those interested in writing their memoirs. Beginning with “It was a dark and stormy night” as Snoopy did in the Peanuts cartoon series is NOT the way to go. It is too easy to get bogged down and lose interest in the project. Plus it might be repetitious and boring. Writing in episodes is the way. Each story of about five hundred words would be about one situation. In writing the story of your life, you are painting scenes, one story at a time. This is a proven method, tested with everyday adults writing about their lives.

Tennessee Williams once penned a play entitled “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. There was a 1958 movie based on this play starring Elizabeth Taylor (as Maggie Politt), Paul Newman (as Brick), Burl Ives (as Big Daddy), Larry Gates (as Dr. Baugh), and several others. Liz Taylor, who died of congestive heart failure at age 79 in 2011,

Do you smoke? I did. I quit on my thirtieth birthday sixty years ago. That is longer ago than most people are old. I started during the war, World War ll, that is. Most everything seemed to be rationed, but cigarettes weren't.

My dad smoked. During the Great Depression, he smoked a pipe. Cigarettes were around then, but pipe tobacco was cheaper than cigarettes. As a child I enjoyed the aroma when Dad lit up his pipe. His tobacco came in a small bag with a drawstring.

This recipe is from Lita, Jamie Porter's Filipino wife. They came to Tennessee to visit us a year ago. Lita made these for us. I wanted to chop the veggies in my food processor. She was horrified. They must be chopped by hand, she told me. Sorry, Lita. It's the food processor for me.

You can find the egg roll wrappers in the frozen food section of the grocery store. Or you can go to West Knoxville to an Asian store and buy the fresh ones. They are in a package, too, so I don't see any difference except taking more gas for the car to buy them from an exotic Asian store.

It’s not uncommon for a teacher to see two generations of students in his or her time in the classroom, but have you met a teacher who is on their third generation?

Union County Schools has one such teacher, Carolyn Murr, at Maynardville Elementary School. She’s seeing kids in her fourth grade class who are the grandkids of some of her previous students, and she’s not planning on retiring anytime soon.

Before everyone congratulates Alabama Crimson Tide, which team is really the 2017 college football national champion? The answer may not be as simple as many might think. There has been some animosity this season toward the College Football Playoff Selection Committee (CFPSC); Wisconsin, Central Florida, Ohio State and their advocates have a case for why they should have been selected as one of the four teams to go to the playoffs. Perhaps, if chosen, one of those teams would have won their playoff game and then the national championship.

Wild Blue Yonder Band will return to Union County with two dates to perform their Appalachian traditional music. The public is invited to hear their free performance at Lil' Jo's in Maynardville on this Friday night, January 12, from 7:00 to 9:00. Members and guests of the Union County Historical society will benefit from Wild Blue Yonder's entertainment on Sunday, January 21, at 2:30 at the Union County Museum.

My friend Pauline Sharp sent me a picture of Gladys Stooksbury Snoderly riding a jenny. The picture was made near the Dr. F. C. Bradfute home at old Loyston. Pauline fondly recalls opening a gate for Gladys so that she could go visit some of her relatives without having to get off and back on the jenny. Gladys was born July 28, 1908 at old Loyston, the daughter of John Franklin and Mary M. Stooksbury. Pauline thinks she was about nine or ten years old–1917 or 1918–when the picture was taken. Gladys grew up in Union County.

Several years ago a memoir writing class was offered at the Senior Citizen Center at Halls Crossroads. I had been trying to write about my past and needed someone to critique my efforts. I figured this would be a good place to start. I had no idea how much it would help. The classes met the first and third Tuesday of the month. Bob Farmer was the moderator. They ended when the class reduced in size because of deaths, relocations and other interests.

Today is January 8, 2018. The first week of the New Year has ended, and the second has begun with a small icing that has closed schools throughout East Tennessee and caused several wrecks. The New Year began with a week of bone chilling cold felt throughout most of the United States, particularly in the East and South.
I began my New Year with some reading. One thing I found was a reference to the location of beds in homes. This caused me to do some pondering and reminiscing.