Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898
Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898
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Dear pandemic-battered readers, as you try adapting to the New Normal, just hope no diehards are waiting to confuse you with a plethora of ADDITIONAL configurations. It’s best just to suck it up and accept the NEW Normal rather than navigating a world of Classic Normal, Zero Calorie Normal, Satin Finish Normal, Fun-Size Normal, Gelcap Normal, Crunchy Normal, Non-Clumping Normal and Extra-Absorbent Normal with Wings. Ever since getting assigned to inventory control at my day job, I’ve suf...
The First Amendment has had a landmark year — and it’s only June. The devout invoke religious freedom while debating whether it is appropriate to ban in-person religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The socially conscious assemble to protest en masse against police brutality and to affirm that Black lives matter. Journalists risk their safety to exercise the right of the press to report on matters of public interest, even though they risk wrongful arrest or assault by officers in riot gear. Progressives and conservatives alike have ta...
I want to wish everyone a very happy and safe July 4th. Our country needs the prayers of all who believe in our nation and in God. Our nation is facing some trying times, but it has in the past and survived. We can do it again by electing leaders who will stand for the right and hold up the constitution of the nation as it has been in the past, and should, for it was set up by leaders who believed in God. Be safe in all you do and remember to follow guidelines for safety as set forth by the health professionals. Those who are sick or shut-in...
The personal finance website WalletHub recently released its ranking of the “patriotism” of all 50 states. In an era of toppled statues, kneeling athletes, microaggressions, border wall controversies and globalist agendas, trying to define and quantify patriotism resembles voluntarily crisscrossing a minefield. We’ve settled for a society where the “melting pot” is less important than “TAXING pot”; but once upon a time, patriotism was easier to recognize. Good Americans knew that true patriots...
This is the beginning of summer and the temperatures show that to be true. The days have been in the upper eighties and low nineties and nights have dipped into the fifties a few times and low sixties other nights. The waterways and creeks have been utilized by many as the water, especially in the creeks, is cool to cold most of the time and when you get hot working or just being outside it is refreshing to enjoy. Several in my family were doing just that on Saturday with some kayaking and others just enjoying a picnic and swimming along the...
My wife and I experienced some vicarious living when our son Gideon (finishing up his junior year of high school) attended the senior prom. (Yes, VICARIOUS living. It’s not like we got him out of the house, jumped with glee and yelled, “Date night!” It was more along the lines of “Aw, but I yelled ‘Date night’ LAST time. Can’t YOU say it this…ZZZZZZ….”) You see, we had to experience a high school milestone through Gideon’s eyes because neither of us went to our proms. My wife’s high school ho...
This has been another week of summer weather with the nights being in the upper fifties and days into the eighties and low nineties. The humidity for the most part has been low, making for great days and a beautiful time to see the sights of the season. I understand there was hail in Centerville on Sunday and it got cloudy and windy and thundered here. I thought we would get a thundershower but did not rain any so guess it missed us. Hopefully there was not much damage from the storms in other places. If it does not get really dry there will...
Speaking as a father (“What -- am I made of money? Go ask your mother! When you have your own roof, you can make your own rules! No, my abs aren’t flabby, they’re just meditating…”) No, this could go on forever. Start over. Speaking as a COLUMNIST, with a strict word limit, I agree good fathers should be loved and respected; but they shouldn’t take for granted that they will receive the obligatory World’s Greatest Dad merchandise. Seriously, they should actively DREAD such a last-minute,...
It was a wonderful week for farmers who were working in hay. May could have been a little cooler, but it was dry and that is what it takes to get hay cut and ready to put in the barn or storage area. There were many who were doing just that. I know it is hard work and tiring, but has to be done to feed cattle during the winter months. We had some showers earlier in the week and some scattered in other areas during the week, but most did not hinder the farm work. Those who are sick or shut-in and in need of prayers for whatever the need: David...
A man’s home is his castle – but sometimes the crocodile in the moat decides he wants to try out the bathtub instead. At my day job working in Inventory Control, one guiding principle is “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Too bad wild animals aren’t as easily pigeonholed as nuts and bolts. A string of recent events helped me settle on this week’s tirade. My wife replaced the window screen that had been shredded by an impulsive raccoon. A bird kept flying down my mother’s ch...
Still summer-like temperatures in the daytime but nights have been in the fifties which seems to make beautiful mornings with the fog laying in the bottoms and over the waterways. Then the sun breaks through and washes it all away to reveal the sunshine of a warm day. This has also been a dry week and that is good for all those who are cutting hay and getting it ready to go in the storage areas for the summer. Days have been warm enough for many to seek the coolness of the creeks and other natural waterways in the area. Those who are sick or...
“Late at night when it’s hard to rest/I hold your picture to my chest/ and I feel fine, I feel fine/But it’s a rainy night in Georgia…” – written by Tony Joe White and performed by Brook Benton. I need your input. I know this is a terribly personal question, but which songs make you cry? And why? (And would you be miffed if you suddenly, inexplicably started receiving spam emails for Kleenex and Visine?) I could name a dozen or more songs that reliably put ME on a spectrum of emotional r...
It is beginning to be more like summer have been. Temperatures in the upper seventies and eighties in the day and staying in the sixties at night. Of course, this brings many of the young and young-at-heart to the creeks for a dip, especially after some strenuous activity like chasing cattle. We have also had several thunder showers pop up, mostly in the afternoon and evening. Maybe the cooler temperatures of thirties and forties are gone for the summer. Those who are sick or shut-in and in need of prayers for whatever the need: David and...
One of the most awkward, self-conscious incidents in my life occurred when I was shopping with a group, and one of my companions blithely continued browsing long after the store doors were locked. I have done assembly-line work, junkyard work and freelance writing; but I have also punched enough cash-register keys and worked around enough clerks-slash-sales-associates to know that the retail life isn’t all skittles and beer. (Okay, maybe there IS a lot of Skittles and beer, in the sense of ...
The temperatures have been more like summertime and it really feels good. Of course, when it gets really hot, we will be saying it is too hot. It is just human nature to not be satisfied with what we have at least for the most part. If the rain keeps coming, there should be an abundance of blackberries for the blooms are really full and plentiful. With the warmer temperatures and some showers, the gardens and pastures are beginning to grow. That is good for I know lots of people enjoy fresh produce from their labors. Those who are sick or...
One of my biggest pet peeves: people who can’t hold up their end of a conversation. Oh, I’m not saying that every single human being is obligated to bring jaw-dropping factoids, whimsical quips and provocative perspectives to every mundane conversation. But listeners could at least honor speakers with something more interactive than banal “filler” material like “Uh huh,” “Well, I’ll be!” and “How do ya like that?” If you reveal, “I lost my wallet on vacation, but a former U.S. president voluntee...
We have been thrown back into winter with temperatures in the thirties around the area and frost to many places, but maybe it will soon be warmer day and night at least a little, not ready for the eighties and nineties but fifties at night and upper sixties to seventies would be nice during the day. It is so you never know what to put on or carry if going somewhere of course that has been somewhat limited anyway with the quarantine in place. We have also had lots of rain and sometimes even getting the creeks up a little but rain is something...
Murder hornets. (Not to be confused with their close relatives: accessory-to-murder hornets, involuntary-manslaughter hornets, justifiable-homicide hornets and turning-state’s-evidence hornets.) Killer hornets. Asian giant hornets. Or the more politically correct Continent Which Must Not Be Named giant hornets. The invasive insects go by a confusing array of names; but the New York Times, National Geographic, NBC News and other sources are warning Americans about the potential impact of their spread. A colony of murder hornets can wipe out a h...
I guess it was blackberry winter we jsut finished because the vines are really pretty with so many blooms on them. As far as other weather goes, we had a thunderstorm Sunday night which was pretty fierce with high winds and hard rain, thunder and lightning. There were trees down and power outages everywhere and even in surrounding counties. As I was going over to Selina’s to check on things, I had to ease around a tree with some pretty big limbs. Jesse came and cut it up and we got it moved off the road so people could get through without hitti...
“Look around me/ I can see my life before me/ Running rings around the way / It used to be…” – Crosby, Stills & Nash I couldn’t eat at my favorite Chinese buffet, attend the cinema or even hang out at the public library; but in mid-April, I celebrated my 60th birthday, bolstered by the love of my family, the companionship of my pets, an impressive degree of health and the guilty pleasure of newspapers being stuck with conveniently OUTDATED photographs of me. (Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome...
I don’t know what weather the last few days has been unless it is blackberry, but it has been cold at night - even in the low thirties and not above the mid-fifties some days. I, for one, am ready for spring and the temperatures to stay above forty at least during the night. Even some early gardeners have had plants bitten or killed by the frost we have had which is kind of discouraging when one works hard to start a garden to help feed the family and then it gets killed. This is the last week in April and one would think it would begin to warm...
"I would probably still be there, but Mr. Mellon was made Ambassador to the court of St. James (England), so we were all let go except for the butler who was also his valet. We had a large staff at Mr. Mellons: a butler, three footmen, a chef, housekeeper, pantry girl, parlor maids, chambermaid, houseman, cook, kitchen maid, and night watchman. The food we had to eat was plentiful and delicious. The pay was good, and the men were supplied with their morning work clothes, the footman's uniforms,...
“Never in history has such ruination – physical and moral – been associated with the name of one man.” – Sir Ian Kershaw, English historian. April 30 marks the 75th anniversary of the suicides of Adolf Hitler and his newlywed bride Eva Braun. Historical milestones seem to be a dime a dozen in today’s hectic world, but Hitler’s impact was so great that each of us should pause to remember the Nazi dictator’s legacy in one way or another. (The six million victims of Hitler’s genocidal program...
Still Tennessee weather. One day begins with temperatures in the thirties and the next will be in the fifties, even early morning. Days have been better with some up in the seventies and we have had several showers during the nights and days. One night we were sitting outside after 7:00 p.m. and listening to the sounds and talking to my sister and then, all of a sudden, it rained a hard shower. It was surprising because it did not even look really cloudy. Those who are sick or shut-in and in need of prayers for whatever the need: David and...
On a recent Saturday afternoon, 86-year-old Uncle Doug shared a bit of family lore about his grandfather (my great-grandfather). When great-grandpa Henry Lee Gipson was four years old, a stranger came knocking on the door. The visitor introduced himself to great-grandpa and went inside to conduct his business. As he was leaving, he apologized for using a pseudonym; he confided that his real name was Jesse James! (This was when Jesse and brother Frank were living in Nashville, and three or four...
