Slim Randles We all watched as the flag came by. It was the first thing in the parade, of course. Great big one, carried by two of the kids from the ROTC at the high school. The bands followed, along with the mounted patrol, the ski patrol in their summer-weight jackets, the float with the…
Let there be peace in America this July 4thGadsden County News Service When our Founding Fathers spent weeks drafting the Declaration of Independence, they ignited a war to secure America’s freedom from Britain’s control. In an interesting twist, the process of creating this groundbreaking document also laid the foundation for a more peaceful society for…
I Wanna Be Pretty Judy Conlin All my life, I’ve lived with this perennial femme fatale, my alter ego, Nurse Judy. She won a few beauty contests in our younger days ( nothing major, only local community or school events) but she lords it over me like she was some former beauty queen or celebrity….
Slim Randles We weren’t at all sure why Doc did it. Well, yeah, maybe human curiosity was the answer. Doc seemed to hate unanswered questions. It was about Sarah McKinley down at the Read Me Now bookstore. And yes, it was about the sign. Inside, you see, on the end of one of the stacks,…
When our faith is tested again and againSheryl Boldt You’ve noticed something different about yourself. Previously, when you faced obstacles, you’d give up. Now, you persevere and see the project or trial through … … even when it feels as if you’ve been “waiting on God” forever. Is it because, after years of lukewarm quiet…
Cleaning the porch Judy Conlin I have a large screened in porch that stretches across the whole back of my house. Wanting it to be pretty, I paid big bucks to have the concrete floor painted with sparkles. It looked nice but then I inherited a little dog who, before I got to know his…
His law is love Nancy Kennedy This summer, my church is doing a sermon series about the Ten Commandments. The pastor team titled it “Thou Shalt,” as opposed to “Thou Shalt Not,” because even though most of the commandments begin with a negative (“Don’t do this”), there’s always a positive aspect to all of the…
I had a dream Judy Conlin I dream a lot. I dream about every mistake I’ve made in life and it’s a good thing I’m so old or I wouldn’t have time for all those dreams. I often dream about driving a car and being lost. An analyst would probably give serious thought to my…
The last, best word Nancy Kennedy When I first started writing professionally, I mostly wrote humor stories for magazines. That meant I always wrote the ending first — the punchline. The whole story hinged on the last (hopefully best) words.Although I don’t write humor stories anymore, whenever I write a newspaper story I still write…
Slim Randles It’s the heat that defines us this month. It greets us at daybreak with its promise, but in an hour or so, it bears down on our shoulders and makes us dream of shade and something cold to drink. The best thing about our hot season, however, are evenings when most of the…
