A brand new year is upon us; a blank slate fresh with no mistakes (yet). For many people, New Year’s Day is a time for resolutions, turning over new leaves, numerous weight loss and exercise commercials, etc. The new year is also a time to analyze the previous year to decide what can be improved upon, forgotten about or remembered. While many take a look at his/her future year, it is also a great opportunity to propose some New Year’s resolutions for the media, Hollywood, and the NFL through the lenses of improving, forgetting or remembering.

Every Thursday, a cross-denominational group of Union County church leaders meet in Bible study and prayer. Their titles are Pastor, Reverend, Father, and Brother, but all have one thing in common: an abiding love for Union County and a desire to share God's word.

They meet privately for three weeks of the month, and the last Thursday they take their meeting to Hardee's in Maynardville, and they're always ready to accept more church leaders, whether they're pastors, music ministers, lay ministers, youth pastors or any other calling, into their group.

Since 2009, the Union County Lions Club has sponsored and conducted eye screenings for Head Start children. Usually with this testing, four or five children will be identified to have vision problems–problems that are not found in your pediatrician’s office testing. If these problems are identified and treated before the child is six years old, 70 percent of blindness can be prevented. Although Union County Lions Club is still a young club, several projects have been completed. Just before school began, Pre-Kindergarten children were tested.

Here it is New Year's Eve. I have experienced a lot of them. The earliest ones I remember were during World War ll. Being a teenager during wartime was no fun. Celebrations had changed, were cut back or eliminated. My folks tried to keep some in place to give us a normal home life. Dad, in his forties, hadn't been drafted since he worked in a defense plant. Our family was intact, but not much else was.

Last time we started with 2 Timothy 2:15 and talked about rightly dividing the word of truth. We surmised that the proper way to do this was by following the example Jesus illustrates in Luke 24, in particular verse 27.

Luke 24:27 KJV
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Brrrrr! It's cold outside. Christmas is over. I am ready for spring. I have never liked cold weather. Growing up, Mother would send my brothers and me outside to get us out of her hair. Each of them had on a jacket, toboggan, boots and gloves. I was shrouded in a sweater, “ski pants,” heavy coat, toboggan, big scarf, boots and mittens. That made me the last one out the door.

For as long as he can remember, Union County Sheriff Billy Breeding has wanted to go into law enforcement.

Perhaps that's because his father made a career in law enforcement. When Breeding was growing up in Maynardville's Green Acres subdivision and later on Hines Creek Road, his dad was a law enforcement officer of many stripes, including the first salaried police officer for the city of Maynardville, an arson investigator, work for the Tennessee fire marshal, and a criminal investigator for the Union County Sheriff's Office.

First, I have more questions than answers about my subject! When attempting to track down an historic site that is long since gone, it is hard enough to get a mental picture of the location and site. When there are several places with the same name it’s double or triple trouble to figure out accurate information. Nonetheless, in pioneer times, mills were very important to the livelihood of the people and an economic benefit to the local communities. In Frances Waller Skeen’s writings she noted that in 1857 mills were taxed in Union County.

Some of my fondest Christmas memories as a young child were traveling to downtown Knoxville to watch the annual Christmas Parade. While bundled in a winter coat and sometimes a blanket, I would huddle with my younger brother or sometimes sit on the curb to witness the amazing floats and colorful bands.

What did country people do when they needed a Christmas tree? They went out into the woods and selected a nice cedar tree. There were always some nearby. That is what Dad did. He brought it in the house, placed it in a milk pail and surrounded the base of the tree with rocks. Then Mother filled the pail with water to keep the tree fresh.