I had the privilege of seeing several of my elementary school classmates last week. One of them, my friend Kevin White, reminded me of a circumstance that happened in third grade.
That was the year we received new reading books. We began the year with a book titled Looking Ahead. This book was the first of two third grade reading books from the same series as the famous (at least to my generation) Tip and Mitten. I loved that series—even the books had a special smell, and the pictures were inspiring in ways that I cannot explain. The first story in that book was “Eddie and the Desk”.

I have been hungry for cookies lately. Today I broke down and made some. They were from an old cookbook I found somewhere or other. What a disappointment, I have many tried and true recipes that turn out just fine every time. Why, oh why, do I continue looking for new ones. Anne reminds me of that fact every time I have a cooking disaster.

I will give you a little history as to why I am so eager to try new things. It runs in the family. After the war in 1948, a new car was offered in America. It was the Tucker. Wow! That automobile had more bells and whistles than could be imagined. “The Tucker is the car of the future offered today,” they said. Dad wanted one. He could taste it, he wanted one so badly.

Let me tell you about the Tucker. The engine was a rear mounted H-6 (horizontaly opposed, ohv, 335 ci, 166 bhp and 372 lbs/ft torque), whatever that all means.

In an earlier column I wrote about our version of English I like to call Mountain Speech, a unique and very old dialect that has been retained through mountain isolation to this day, though much has been lost. I’m going through a book called Smokey Mountain English that has thousands of words and phrases collected from mountain people throughout our region by linguistic experts. I’m going through the book looking for words I heard my parents and grandparents use and thought you might enjoy seeing how many you’re familiar with.

I have celebrated Independence Day in some amazing ways. When we lived in Athens, (Tennessee, not Georgia), there used to be an awesome fireworks display every 4th of July. The first one I remember seeing was in the Proffit’s Shopping Center on Decatur Pike. It was fairly small, but several people, including the Proffit’s family, forked out for the town to see some nifty fireworks. Later when the city built a park out near I-75, the display was held there. Much bigger, much more impressive. The fireworks were shot off to music played on the local radio station.

In June of 1869, the Warwick’s Chapel Community in Luttrell was blessed with a new place of worship. The first church gathering for Warwick’s Chapel Baptist Church was held at the home of John Ferguson, near the site of the old Curtis Phipps home. There were more than thirty-five constituent members who convened and organized the church, twenty-three of whom were from Cedar Ford Baptist Church, three from Cedar Grove Baptist Church, and nine from Powder Springs Gap.

County Commission rejected a request regarding sick leave accrued during a previous administration for employees who continued to work under the current sheriff. Sheriff Billy Breeding stated that the employees were requesting over 7900 hours of sick leave to be used for retirement credit only.

Summer is in full swing and Union County has a festive, family friendly event planned in the near future. The City of Maynardville along with Maynardville Public Library is sponsoring a Movie in the Park night at Wilson Park on Friday night, July 19, 2019.

Mother never made candy. During the Great Depression, we appreciated the occasional sugar or molasses cookies Mother did make. She always bought chocolate-covered fondant from Woolworth's Five and Dime, the only candy we had, except hard Christmas candy and one Hersey Bar. (That is another story.)

Mother worked in a candy factory as a teenager. She dipped chocolate-covered fondant drops. That remained mother's favorite candy throughout her life. I am not so prejudiced. I like lots of different candies. I think my favorite is Peanut Butter Fudge.

Chairman David Coppock called the June 20th meeting to order in the UCHS library due to water damage in the auditorium. With the agenda approved, Dr. Jimmy Carter shared announcements that the UCHS football turf is complete and the track part of the project will begin next week. Superintendent Carter also notified the board that the Five-Year Strategic Plan would be on next month’s agenda. Saying that Tim Hopson was a “trusted and dedicated bus contractor”, he led the Board in a moment of silence as a tribute to Mr. Hopson, who had succumbed to cancer that morning.