As officially noted by the Walt Disney Company, November 18th of this year marks the 80th birthday of the animated cartoon character whom, since his conception, has not only become the company’s official mascot, but has turned into one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.  What was originally created by Walt Disney his animation partner, Ub Iwerks, to serve as a replacement for the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, has spawned a phenomenon that thrives to this day.  Mickey Mouse is now known to generation after generation as the best known cartoon character in America and, most likely, the world.

Change is inevitable, and as seniors we have certainly seen our share. The stars in the sky, though, have never changed throughout our lifetimes.

Walkin’ Jim Stoltz figures he’s walked about 20,000 miles in the past 35 years. He’s walked the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. He’s spent a year-and-a-half walking coast to coast. And he’s trekked from Mexico to Canada three times.

One Sunday, a minister and his wife were driving home after worship. He was reflecting on how well the day had gone, in particular how well his sermon had gone. In a rather pensive moment, the minister asked his wife, “How many truly great preachers do you think there are in this country?”
Without hesitating, she coolly replied, “One less than you think.”

Most folks who know me know I am, shall we say, a political aficionado. In fact, most of them would say I am an election junkie. I actually like the stuff, the campaigning, voting, the whole nine yards. But this time even I got tired of it. A presidential campaign that ran nearly two years is simply too much. Way too much. And because of that, there are a number of other issues, subjects, whatever one might wish to call them that have begun to bug me as well. And I can’t think of any better way to cure my “low-down, irritatin’, aggravatin’, I’m-tired-of-it-all-and mad-as-well-you-know-what blues.” So, at the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes, the sometimes news show, let’s say what we mean and mean what we say and clear my mind about some of this stuff.

Piney and She had an argument about writing. Was it better to plan what you were going to write, or to let your brain feed the story to you as it came out automatically?

My parents did not teach me to be prejudiced. I learned it on my own. I graduated from high school and college in Birmingham, Ala. The Magic City also had the claim to shame of being the most segregated city in the nation. The KKK brazenly stood at intersections collecting money in buckets from sympathetic motorists. They dressed in white with hoods, hiding their identities but not their maniacal purposes.

I’m fascinated by names of people and places and often wonder about their origin. Some names are fairly obvious such as Pleasant View with the beautiful view, Brushy Mountain covered with heavy undergrowth, and Camp Tuck-A-Way tucked between Giles County ridges. Terrains and geographic peculiarities influenced the naming of such places as Rocky Gap, Hillsville, Sand Mountain and Hanging Rock.

Lifelong citizens of Rural Retreat, Greg and Cheryl Hash have considered community hospitality to be of the utmost importance when it comes to running Duke’s Bar-B-Q.  As owner and operator of Duke’s since its conception in 2004, Greg and Cheryl say that one of the keys to the success of their business is making sure their customers feel at home in the restaurant, as if they were eating at the home of a family member.  That is expressed not only through their excellent home-style cuisine and exceptionally friendly, accommodating staff, but also through the nostalgic memorabilia that covers the restaurant walls.  Generated by items given to Greg by his mother and grandmother, this collection includes many old photos and newspaper clippings depicting the community over the last several generations. 

If we’re lucky, we know the name of the president-elect this morning.
If we’re unlucky, as we suspect as of this writing, we’re mired in a debate that will, if it hasn’t already, made the dangling, pregnant and other adjectival chad look like minor league stuff. In fact, lawsuits were filed before the first Virginia votes were even cast. The McCain team sued the state, saying all military absentee ballots should be counted even if it means extending the deadline. Lawyers argued that some servicemen and women in Iraq had received their absentee ballots less than a month ago, more than two months after they had been requested.