I love, love, love Dolly Parton. I saw this today and I had to write a post:  Drunk History of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagner I already knew the story about Porter Wagner, one of her earliest mentors and I’m glad that the History channel decided to make that video about it. Imagine, having your own…

Hi y’all. There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I’m always reminded of it when I drive to Knoxville, which is often. Traveling down I-40 W will lead you past several billboards touting different types of moonshine that you can actually buy at a distillery or at package stores. It’s still unsettling…

When I was little, my mother taught me the importance of paying respect to those who have died. She took me to funeral homes any time a friend or acquaintance or family member of a friend or acquaintance had passed away. Sometimes we just went after she picked me up from school to sign the…

Hi everyone. I wrote a post about healthcare a few weeks ago. It was a personal post about a situation that affected me directly. I have employer provided health care that I still pay a sizable chunk each month for, right around $500. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford that for my…

Both sides of my family are from Bean Station in Grainger County, TN so I’ve been there many, many times. Several family members still live there, but most of my parents’ siblings left there between the 1940s and 1960s. My parents left and moved to a bigger town across the lake. So I have cousins…

This weekend was the Annual Homecoming for the church my dad grew up in. In fact, he helped my grandfather build part of it a long time ago (the old part as he calls it). We’ve been attending this homecoming since I was a little kid. We used to eat outside at the picnic tables,…

I should’ve already done this, but it just hit me that there is so much going on this weekend! First of all, the local high schools are holding commencement ceremonies tonight and then tomorrow, there are 3 festivals in the area I wanted y’all to know about. The first one is the Morristown Strawberry Festival:…

Well, it’s almost time! The local Farmer’s Market is getting ready to open and I’m gonna be all over those Grainger Co. maters! If none of you have tried these wonderful, delectable tomatoes, you’ve gotta do it this summer. They are the best tomatoes in the world, hands down. When I was a kid, my…

We moved a few months ago and so, we have new neighbors. Nowadays, I understand that most people don’t want to have anything to do with their neighbors. This is quite different from how I grew up. In the trailer park, we had lots of neighbors who we knew well. We helped each other out…

Recently, I attended a one year old’s birthday party. There were tons of people there who I didn’t know and no one was really saying hi. It was cliqueish, actually. So, we ate and hung out and I watched the guest of honor get passed around through 20 different people’s hands. Finally, it was time…

Today I ate lunch with my first grader and her classmates. This is something I do often and I truly enjoy the time I get to spend with her. Also, talking to first graders about anything is quite fun. However, one of her classmates began telling us how he and his parents are currently living…