I have a friend. His name is Ken Brigham and among other things, he is a Vietnam War veteran. He is a former rock-‘n’-roll band member who plays both rock and religious music now. He is a lover of antique and classic automobiles (including Studebakers). He is a biker. He is also far more religious than I am. He lives in Oregon. 

“Is he going to die?” The wide-eyed 6-year-old caught the mission teacher off guard. She and her mission’s class were visiting residents in a local nursing home. The other children had already rushed into the room, entertaining the delighted resident. However, this child remained in the doorway. I am sure it was the hospital bed and the medical paraphernalia in the room that prompted the question, “Is he going to die?”

Cox began making instruments when he was 15.

While we had some blessed rainstorms last week, NASA was discovering water molecules within the dirt of Mars. Officials celebrated with champagne (from earth), but I found myself wishing they could also make a link between this extraterrestrial discovery of the most precious substance known to man—and our handling of water here, on the planet lying so close we cannot see it.

With another Fourth of July having recently passed, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about the annual traditions in which they use to take part every Independence Day.  In nearly every case, it seems that everyone I spoke to about these traditions was talking in the past tense.  Unfortunately, people do not seem to celebrate the Fourth of July, or any other holiday for that matter, in the invaluable traditional sense they used to.  My dad told me that when he lived in High Point, N.C., long ago, he would come home to my grandparents’ house in rural Grayson County for a cookout and croquet tournament.  My clearest Fourth of July memories include going to the home of my late great-great-aunt Hazel in Austinville for an annual neighborhood barbecue and fireworks display.  Hazel’s neighbors, Kirk and Carmen Burkett, hosted the event, which was held in the old ball diamond behind her house.  Today, that ball diamond no longer exists, as the up and coming New River water treatment plant is now being built there. 

I have to call it just a coincidence. It is simply too much to think that God had anything to do with the events at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in the last week.

It’s that time of year when the landscape is a bakery of divine smells. A few come to mind. Ready to inhale?

One of the best days I’ve had in a long while was spent with my friends Shane and Jeff as we headed to see the popular comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham in concert at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, N.C.  This was the first time I had been on any such trip with friends and there wasn’t anyone else in the world with whom I would have rather made the journey.  It was a day spent in the company of exceptional people for which I will forever be grateful.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
The paper you hold in your hands today is smaller than the one you held just last week. Actually, it’s the exact same length but an inch less wide. What it does, besides, we believe, fit very nicely in your hands, is save the company a whopping 8 percent off its annual newsprint bill. That’s big. Paper prices are now running at more than $700 per metric ton and anything we can shave off that bottom line helps us do our jobs better. 

For probably the past decade my family and I have enjoyed listening to the live sounds of The Coastline Band when they have performed during our town’s annual Chautauqua Festival.  When Wytheville’s recreation department began their After Hours summer concert series in Withers Park in 2000, The Coastline Band has rightly become a staple at this event practically every year since.