Saving Seeds

Do you save seeds? From the time of Noah and before, people have saved seeds. They saved seeds, swapped seeds, inherited seeds, sold seeds and, yes, maybe even stole seeds. We still do. The rage today is over heritage tomatoes. Those seeds had to be kept year after year for them to still be around today.

I remember when we saved tomato and cucumber seeds. We avoided the hybrid ones They wouldn't reproduce true to form. It was like saving hollyhock or petunia flower seeds. After a couple of years, their flowers turned to a washed out pink shade.

The Hamilton-Tolliver Complex

The fourth property in Union County to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in March 2010, was the Hamilton-Tolliver Complex located 4-miles north of Maynardville. This place is near and dear to my heart because it has been owned and occupied by both sides of my family, the Hamiltons and the Tollivers. The complex is comprised of a saddle-bag style log house, store building, dairy, smokehouse, milk house, and site of the Norris Dam Brand Tomato Cannery. The property exhibits significance in the history of the area in both agriculture and commerce from 1825 to 1974.

Corned Beef Hash

Do you want a quick and easy dish for supper tonight? Here is one for you: “Corned Beef Hash.” Don't turn up your nose yet. It can be delicious, not like that awful canned stuff you tried years ago. But don't buy the corned beef brisket, either, that you see advertised at umpteen dollars a pound at the grocery store. It is not only expensive but it takes forever to cook. There is a better way.

Hard Work, Common Sense Highlight Janet Holloway's Career

If you've met Union County Commissioner Janet Holloway, you might know her as a kind, thoughtful woman, full of smiles and good cheer. While all of those are true, this business leader and politician has a deeper story to tell, one of perseverance and hard work, even in the most trying circumstances.

Memoir Class

I have a memoir teacher – I will pass She has me read my memoir Aloud, before the class. Shows me how to write a story true, With homework only I can do; A story from my past.

Political Correctness and Gun Control

The turn of the century has brought many changes to American culture and the common-sense world we once enjoyed. One of the most controversial and large-scale changes is the political correct landscape that everyone must cultivate. Political correctness is everywhere. It drives the media, and the media drives it. It determines what flags we fly, when we fly them and how we fly them. Political correctness attempts to censor entertainment, dumb down education and criticize patriotism and religion.

Gwen's Playhouse moved again!

Gwen’s Playhouse moved again! Saving History One Piece at a Time. August 5, 2008 was a special day for Ruth Gwen Hubbard Sharp because her playhouse found a new home where it can be enjoyed by thousands as they come to visit the Smithsonian Affiliate Museum of Appalachia each year.

Wash Day

Monday is wash day. Everybody knows that. It always has been. I remember, when I was little during the Great Depression of the 30's, what it was like for Mother. Dad didn't help. After all, it was woman's work. I was too young to help, but I did watch. This is what I remember.

When the Past Meets the Past

Mincey’s Musings Year One, Week Nine

On Sunday afternoon, February 18, 2018, my Sunday School class from Loveland Baptist Church went to the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Museum of East Tennessee History, located at 601 Gay Street in Downtown Knoxville. For any reader who has never been there, I highly recommend the trip. If you love local history, you will not be disappointed.

The Curiosity of Contrails

You may not have realized it, but if you look up on a clear day you will likely see a man-made cloud somewhere in the sky, trailing behind jet aircraft high up in the atmosphere. Contrails, short for condensation trails, are formed from the water vapor found in aircraft exhaust as a byproduct of fuel combustion. Natural clouds form from the same process of water vapor condensing in cool air as it rises, so technically contrails are clouds, just from an unnatural source.