Were my mother still alive today, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, she would turn 81 years old. Sadly, she passed away in April 2004. Although by then she had several health problems, her primary one was Alzheimer’s.

At the time I had finished writing last week’s column, only the first week of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China and transpired.  With that much of the Olympics still remaining, there were too many moments to come worthy of mentioning, that I had to comment this week on the rest of this amazing 29th Summer Olympiad.  Last week, I spent so much time commenting on the cultural and artistic aspects of the Olympics that I only had space enough to mention two athletes in one sport.  While I enjoyed watching the outstanding aquatic efforts made by Michael Phelps and Dara Torres probably more than any other aspect of these games, there are many more great achievements made by our American athletes that are equally noteworthy.  Even though there are still too many to mention, I’ll do my best to touch on some of the highlights.

In 1989, a troubled man who hated women opened fire at the University of Montreal and shot 14 women dead before wounding 13 other men and women and then taking his own life.  He’s still famous for yelling, as he opened fire, “You’re all a bunch of feminists.”

Three Smyth County schools didn’t meet the adequate yearly progress set by the federal No Child Left Behind program. Marion Primary, Marion Intermediate and Sugar Grove Combined schools missed the benchmarks.

He was 102-years-old and wanted me to baptize him. Health troubles prohibited immersion, but that did not rule out baptism. I planned to sprinkle a small amount of water on his head, hoping that John the Baptist was not looking. Yet, before baptism, I wanted to talk to him about God. I wanted to know his story.

Hello my fellow Appalachian residents. Guess what? An article carried in the Bristol Herald-Courier, the daily sister paper of the Smyth County News & Messenger, on Aug. 27 contained a report released by the government. It seems there is wonderful news from our distinguished United States Census Bureau. At least, the agency seemed to think so. According to the recent release (reported by the Associated Press), median incomes are up in Appalachian. Of course, with the exception of Virginia, Maryland and New York (yes, a very tiny bit of New York lies in Appalachia), the median income is far below the national average, which is just over $50,000. Appalachia’s median income hovers around $39,000.

On Aug. 13 and 14, two walkers passed through Smyth County as part of a state-spanning stroll from the western tip of Virginia to the coast that is raising money for Hope Tree Family Services.
In September, local people will have an opportunity to walk for the organization but get back home in time for supper.

There are certain vegetables that I hate.  Asparagus is one of them.  While I have never eaten one raw, it is an especially foul-smelling vegetable when cooked.

I ate six ears of corn on Sunday, thanks to my neighbor’s garden.  It was so fresh that it reminded me of the first time I had fresh corn straight from my Uncle Joe Belton’s garden.  It also made me wonder if I should try to make a corn pudding with the rest of the corn that arrived Saturday afternoon like several yellow rays of sunshine.

For my money, the best part of the wedding had to be the blessing.
OK, so it probably wasn’t the highlight of anyone’s day, but it was pretty good. Though I didn’t quite make the promised, or was it threatened 45 minutes, I went well passed where “God is great …” would have carried me. I even managed a shout out to my late grandfather (the preacher, not the card-playing, moonshine making lumberjack for those keeping score) who ended every blessing of a meal for the food to be used for the nourishment of our bodies.