Often in life there are obstacles which we can never foresee coming our way. It is often during these times we really come to know what we are made of, whether we can overcome adversity or simply crumble beneath the weight of whatever is thrust upon us. In the valley below the Gravelly Spur, the […]
One of the more interesting characters I have met in my life is my second cousin twice-removed Rufus A. Doolittle. No matter how many times the family removed him he just kept coming back. If you meet Rufus on the street, he will always have on his old blue Bibb overalls covering nearly 300 pounds […]
Hearing great news often makes me smile, a joke can bring a chuckle, a funny sight can bring a belly laugh, but the writing, singing and antics of the consummate entertainer Ray Stevens, for me, brings all of the above. I was smiling ear to ear when I heard the news that my fellow alumni […]
I will never forget when I was about 9 years old, I began a fascination with learning more about family history. It began with a third-grade book report on World War I hero Sergeant York. As I read his story, I was taken by the similarities between the area of his living in the Valley […]
All of us are blessed with lives that within our days are the moments which make up our story. From our personal perspective, we might see our lives as something which would not warrant the pages of a best-selling biography or novel but the minutes of each passing day make up our story. In the […]
The water whished over the rocks below creating a gurgling sound as I sat dangling my feet off the bridge. I was just high enough above the water where if I could stretch out as far as I could I still couldn’t touch the water but I dreamed of the day when I would be […]
Communication – the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. Most of us begin this process from the first time we point at something to indicate we want it. After we slowly master “Mama” and “Dada,” we eventually grow our vocabulary and with the right training we become equipped […]
When the morning comes, we will start a new day. The sunrises up to greet us pushing away the darkness that flooded the night. The worries we had in the depth of black time fades away with its first rays. Oh, the pain and grief that we shared, that enveloped the river of thoughts that […]
I recently found myself sitting in the doctor’s office for an annual test that I take. This was the first time that I noticed that the waiting room had been divided into two. On one side it was marked well side and on the other side it said sick side. I figured that I should […]
Sometimes in life we have a sense of foreboding, a phone rings and we know there is bad news on the other end of the receiver. Do we pick it up and find out the feeling is true? If we don’t, we will never know. If we do and it’s not what we expected, we […]
