Features

Thirty years ago, the life of Grady Nutt of Hee Haw fame was cut short at the age of 48 in a plane crash, at the peak of his career as a preacher and comedian, an unlikely combination that Nutt credited to the people of Graefenburg, said his son, Toby Nutt.

“When dad started preaching at Graefenburg, the people there saw that here was a young guy with a lot of talent, and they coached him along, making him realize how special he really was and how much he enjoyed entertaining people as much as he enjoyed preaching,” Nutt said.

The new location didn’t deter them. The afternoon thunderstorms didn’t keep them away. The long lines of waiting cars didn’t stop the flow of some 900 families heading to Shelby Industries on Monday night to gather their Christmas at Claudia’s gifts.

Last Saturday evening, a handful of Shelby County families gathered in their homes around an ornate candelabra, called a menorah, and offered this prayer:

Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe

Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the lights of Hanukkah.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe

Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, ruler of the universe

“A monkey? What in the world do you want with a real monkey?”

The look of astonishment on Santa’s face and his tone of voice was comparable to when the Jolly Old Elf told “Ralphie” in the movie The Christmas Story that he couldn’t have a Red Ryder BB gun because he’d shoot his eye out.

Affordable Christmas are two words we don’t often place side-by-side. For many of us, the holiday season is anything but affordable.

But the folks at Graefenburg Baptist Church have a different idea. They have dreamed up a new program to help a handful of families have an affordable Christmas this year.

Saturday’s Christmas parade held special meaning for a select group of veterans.

This group of Vietnam vets who rode in the “Deuce and half” (a 2.5-ton Army truck) said seeing hundreds of cheering people smiling and waving at them was an experience that other veterans coming home take for granted these days.

But it wasn’t that way for them, coming home from Vietnam in the 1960s to an atmosphere of extensive antiwar demonstrations, to an American public who not only didn’t respect them, but also disdained them.

People with business at the Shelby County Judicial Center may have noticed a Masonic symbol on the wall of the building on a side entrance adjacent to the front door.

The depictions of the compass and the square, tools of measurement that are the logo of the Masonic fraternity, bear the inscription of Solomon 5, the Masonic Lodge in Shelbyville.

Why is it on the judicial center’s wall?

That’s simple, Shelby County Deputy Judge-Executive Rusty Newton aid.

Kathy Mansfield has been watching the Wheel of Fortunegame show since it aired in 1983, and she said she always wanted to be a contestant.

Little did she know it would take 29 years for her wish to come true.

She will appear as a contestant on the long-running game show tonight at 7 in the episode scheduled to appear on WLKY-Ch. 32.

Mansfield, a Simpsonville resident and librarian at Heritage Elementary School, said the children at Heritage are almost as excited as she is.

Two hundred twelve years is a milestone by anyone’s standards. This weekend marks the founding of the Olive Branch United Methodist Church in 1800.

But there’s more to celebrate in the little brick church on Zaring Mill Road.

 “One-hundred fifty years ago, we moved into our ‘new’ building,” said Judy Miller, a long-time member and church secretary. “It’s funny to think of it as the new building; it’s the one we’ve worshiped in since 1862.”