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Features

  •
    Shelby man turns crossroads in life...

    You can count this accomplishment in many ways: 178 days, 2,184 miles, 25 bears, 8 rattlesnakes, 2 copperheads, 1 porcupine, and one monumental feeling were some of the things Dustin Abild covered, discovered and gained when he completed his hike along the Appalachian Trail last fall.

    Starting out April 17 from Springer Mountain in northern Georgia, Abild journeyed on foot across 14 states, finishing Oct.11 on Mount Katahdin in northern Maine – a trek that took him just shy of 6 months.

  •
    Shelby Countians are fired up...

    Shelby County doesn’t have a large market for firearms, with only a few establishments that sell them, but people involved in the industry say public interest in firearms has been soaring in the four weeks since 20 children and seven adults were killed by a single shooter in Connecticut.

    That tragedy has really hit home for a lot of people in Shelby County, said Stewart Shirley, a former Shelbyville Police Chief who is a shooting instructor and teaches classes for conceal-and-carry permits.

  • STAPLETON: Your neck may cause your...

    One of the leading causes of a headache is tension in the muscles of the neck. And in this time of layoffs, foreclosures and shrinking retirement funds, who among us is without stress?

    Spinal manipulation, the primary art of the chiropractor, has been shown to be effective in easing the problem of tension headaches. Results of a Duke University study released in 2001 showed that spinal manipulation created an almost immediate improvement in headaches that originated in the neck.

  •
    Shaping Up Shelby: Shelby woman...

    What motivates Chandra Heath to get up every morning hours before dawn to run five miles?

    Her love for her family, she says.

    “I want to be there for them, and I always want to be healthy enough to give them a good quality of life,” she said.

    Heath and her husband, Jeremiah, have two young children, ages 2 and 3 years old.

  •
    Shelbyville’s new man behind the...

    Shelbyville rang in the New Year on Tuesday with a familiar face in a new place, when Mayor Tom Hardesty swore in Danny Goodwin as Shelbyville Police Chief at City Hall.

    Goodwin replaces Robert Schutte, who retired Monday after heading up the Shelbyville P.D. for the past 8 years.

    Schutte had recommended that Goodwin, his major, be promoted to chief, saying that Goodwin was not only well-respected in the community but had done a good job of serving as his assistant during his entire term as chief.

  •
    Shelby County's Fabulous 5 for...

    Tony Carriss

    Magistrate, community leader

    Many in the county know Tony Carriss, a lifelong Shelby Countian, as the longtime magistrate of District 6, which encompasses Waddy and Mount Eden along with much of the southeastern portion of the county.

    Many recognize Carriss as leader in the county, for instance his willingness to step up and organize some informational meetings about the late-November and early-December animal attacks in the Waddy area. Most also know him as a big sports fan and memorabilia collector.

  • Shelby Countians celebrated...

    What did you do to celebrate Christmas? Do you have long-standing family traditions? Did you begin new traditions this year? Did you spend the holiday with family? Or did you take an excursion to a far-off place?

    Not every family celebrates Christmas Day as Norman Rockwell might have painted it. Although, there are a number of families whose celebration center around a feast. Where Shelby Countians celebrate, and how they celebrate, may come as a surprise.

     

    The Waffle House?

  •
    VAN STOCKUM: BUTCH PARKER PART 2:...

    Rear Adm. Hiroaki Abe was dispatched with two battleships, one light cruiser and 11 destroyers to bombard and destroy the expeditionary airfield newly established on Guadalcanal by the Marine 1st Division. If he accomplished his mission, Japanese transports could land troops to retake the island, unopposed by American aircraft.

  •
    ‘Prime Minister of Humor’...

    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.

  •
    ‘Home’ from Africa for the holidays

    Wayne Myers said he always knew he was destined to do God’s work in Africa.

    “I got the calling to be a missionary to Africa when I was just thirteen years old,” he said.

    His wife, Barbara, said her calling was not as specific as far as location at first, but then her desire to minister in Africa began to parallel her husband’s after several years.

  •
    Drive-through Christmas provides...

    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.

  • So will it be Friday or the last...

    Will Friday be the day the world ends, or will it be just another day for us?

    There are those who prepare themselves for vast destruction and mayhem, and others laugh off dire predictions as poppycock. Still others elect to hedge their bets and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

    What’s the story behind this stir?

  • Hanukkah sparkles in Shelby, too

    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

  •
    Elf on a Shelf phenomena is hot in...

    Do you have an Elf on a Shelf?

    If you do, then you are part of the Elf on a Shelf phenomena that has been sweeping the nation since Georgia businesswoman Christa Pitts created the doll-sized stuffed toy in 2005.

    How popular is the little guy [or girl] in Shelby County?

    Responses from local people ranged from very enthusiastic responses about their “elf” to a moment of confused silence.

    “What did you call that thing?” asked Gail Renfro? “No, I don’t know what that is.”

  •
    Saturday with Santa

    “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.

  • Is 12-12-12 just another day?

    Today’s date is catchy numerically, with three sets of twelves.

    But how is the date significant?

    It isn’t.

    That’s the opinion of Shelby County High School science teacher Eric Herndon.

    The only thing even approaching an event of scientific significance in December is the fact that the sun will align with the center of galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    Is that significant?

    An expert in astronomy, Herndon, said no.

  • Graefenburg Baptist begins...

    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.

  •
    Last verse of Christmas Medleys

    For decades this has been the most wonderful time of the year for Joyce and Sam Medley of Finchville, with their holiday spirit shining from the brilliant lights glowing on their front lawn and from their eyes.

    But what is perhaps the most decorated holiday presentation in Shelby County is down to its last showing, when the Medleys stage what they say will be their final holiday open house at 5-8 p.m. Sunday

  •
    Vietnam vets ride in Shelbyville...

    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.

  •
    VAN STOCKUM: BUTCH PARKER PART 1:...

    When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor more than 70 years ago, on, Dec. 7, 1941, I was stationed aboard the USSWasp, an aircraft carrier, anchored in Grassy Bay, Bermuda. Having just returned from one of our so-called “neutrality” patrols, we found our attention, which had been focused on the Battle of the Atlantic, suddenly shifted to the Pacific.