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Features

  • Bits, pieces and random musings...

    It seems the older I get, the less space I have in my brain, like all the file folders in the filing cabinet are full.
    More often than I care to admit, I’ll write myself a quick note intending to develop it into a column later, but when later comes I’ll have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote the note.
    However, all is not hopeless, as occasionally I go through my folder of assorted notes and cobble together a column of bits and pieces and random musings in the hope that something might be helpful to someone.

  • Hilda’s special memory of a...

    January, 1952: first day back to school after Christmas break. I was in the second grade and was I excited to get back to school.

  • LOOKING BACK

    Jan. 1, 1987 (30 Years Ago)
    The board of directors of the Bedford Loan & Deposit Bank has announced an addition to the bank’s staff. Effective Jan. 5, 1987, Jon A. Dunlap will be joining the bank. Jon interned at the bank last summer, familiarizing himself with bank operations and procedures. “We look forward to Jon’s employment with the bank,” said President Neil Bryan. “He comes to us with an excellent blend of local knowledge and academic achievement.”

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    DO YOU REMEMBER?
  • Bell choir

    I was recently invited to join the Bell Choir at my church. I have seen these choirs perform and I‘ve always enjoyed the experience. I was assured that I would be responsible for a mere two notes. Two notes? How hard can that be? I was in band in school and I was responsible for a lot more than two. Famous last words.

  • Joy to Charlie, joy to the world

    When I first met Charlie Campbell, he was at the end of his rope -- the end of his hope.
    Earlier this year, his wife had a series of strokes that left her paralyzed on her right side and bedridden.
    Himself disabled, he has been caring for his wife and two daughters, one who is autistic.
    A man in the community told me about Charlie and his need, among other things, for a wheelchair-accessible van so he could get his wife out of the house so she could feel normal again.

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    DO YOU REMEMBER?
  • Downsizing

    The candles were lit, my favorite dish was cooking, my wife had a smile on her face……no it wasn’t THAT- but thanks for the boost to my 62 year old male ego!!!!
    “Honey,” she said, (that was a good sign) “the kids are grown….and gone (we hope). It is time we began downsizing”—awwww, I wished it hadn’t been THAT.  “You start in the garage.”

  • Ruby’s best Christmas ever

    Our memories are the closest thing to time machines we will ever have. I am writing this, remembering my 10th Christmas when my grandmother, Ruby, told me about her 10th Christmas… in 1912. Those long ago Christmases consisted of horses and wagons, coal oil lamps, fireplaces and food grown in the garden.    

  • Bugs in the bathroom

    My bedroom and bathroom contain a portal to the reptile and insect kingdom. Specifically, the closet opens into the domain of the humble brown snake. My bathroom ushers in the stinkbug and his entourage of lady bugs. Once the stinkbug/lady bug contingent has arrived, the colonization process begins. The bathroom has fallen to the bugs and their sights are set on the bedroom.

  • God’s grace on parade

    We had been planning this particular weekend for months, Part One of our Christmas 2016 Celebration Extravaganza.
    Part Two happens on Dec. 24 with a trip to Orlando for a replay of a Christmas Eve we spent there two years ago.
    We had begun with a Christmas Eve service at a church near the downtown area, followed by pizza and hot, gooey garlic knots.

  • LOOKING BACK

    Dec. 18, 1986 (30 Years Ago)
    The 30th annual Christmas Open House of the Bedford Loan & Deposit Bank was held Saturday, Dec. 13, at the bank’s Bedford and Sligo offices. Over 1,100 people joined in the spirit of the season in the all day affair. Bank president Neil Bryan, executive vice president Jerry Powell and all of the bank family extended their wishes for a joyous Christmas season to everyone who attended.

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    DO YOU REMEMBER?
  • Passport

    Just as soon as I thought that I had finally taken my most humiliating picture, along came the passport photo requirement. I went to the post office to apply for this document with that familiar, sinking sensation I experience whenever a camera is pointed in my direction. My image ranges from goofy to ghastly; I simply do not know what happens within the recesses of the camera. Whatever it is, it’s nightmarish.

  • How to find the Spirit of Christmas
  • Party like a prodigal

    There’s a group of people in North Carolina who call themselves People of the Second Chance (POSC).
    One of the things they do is throw parties -- for people just out of prison, for recovering drug addicts, for misfits, for the discouraged, for the uncelebrated and forgotten, for the overlooked and hurting, for those bowed down with guilt and shame.
    What they do is backwards and upside down. The parties aren’t for the straight A student, the athlete of the year, the one who does things right most of the time.

  • LOOKING BACK

    Dec. 11, 1986 (30 Years Ago)
    Franklin Roark was returned to the Oldham County Jail 48 hours after he burrowed through a cell wall and escaped Thursday, Dec. 4. Roark is being held on grand jury indictments from both Trimble and Oldham counties on charges of rape, sodomy, burglary, robbery, and three counts of persistent felony offender and now an escape charge. He was picked up by investigators in Strongville, Ohio, near the home of an ex wife.

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    ‘A date which will live in infamy’

    Editor’s Note: Following is a transcript of the now-famous speech delivered 75 years ago today by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt before a joint session of Congress seeking a declaration of war against Japan on the day following the surprise attack on U.S. military installations in Hawaii.

    Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

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    DO YOU REMEMBER?
  • Ping Pong Weather

    “If you don’t like the weather wait a few minutes and it will change.” I firmly believe that this statement should be added to the signs marking our state lines. The past few years have seemed to become increasingly capricious. We apparently have run out of springs and falls and dive directly into summers and winters. Ouch! This makes me sad.