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Opinion
Should a prom just be about being promotional?
Sometimes ideas for columns for me are like the story about Sir Isaac Newton and the apple which fell on his head and knocked an idea like gravity into his mind. This week’s just walked up to me while I was taking pictures at North Surry’s Prom. I expected something related to youth in finery, the decorations or a timeless lesson in chivalry or the reason behind dressing to the nines. What came up was a pretty straight forward meditation on...
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Maybe leaving YVEDDI is right move, but county should be cautious
Monday night several members of the Surry County Board of Commissioners expressed displeasure with the Yadkin Valley Economic Development District Inc., and even talked about parting ways with the organization. The organization, known as YVEDDI, is a regional agency that oversees a number of human service and community development programs through its use of federal, state and local money. It also receives some funding from the United Fund ...
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Cruisin’ the streets of Pilot Mountain
As I do most every first Saturday of the month from May through October, this past weekend I made a pass or two down Main Street in downtown Pilot Mountain to ogle over the beautiful classic cars lining the street and filling the neighboring parking lots. Sometimes I get an opportunity to take time and park and get out and walk up and down the road, take in the shiny rides and rods and listen to good music from a live band. Unfortunately th...
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Childhood’s getting smaller and why I don’t dance with wolves
I recently had the moving experience of attending Central Middle School’s Holocaust Project judging. The morning at that point suited it. Dark, brooding clouds loomed overhead. The rain had left the morning air damp and just enough chilly overnight temperature remained to remind you winter was off somewhere glaring and waiting to return. The uplifting effects of my morning coffee and southern-style chicken biscuit were nullified. Yup. I’m uno...
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Shepherd’s House plans fill a critical local need
This past weekend was a big one for the Shepherd’s House, and by extension a big one for the community. The Shepherd’s House, a homeless shelter in Mount Airy, marked its 10th anniversary on Saturday with a community-wide birthday celebration at Riverside Park. There was live music, games, activities for the kids, food and birthday cake. It was, as birthday celebrations are supposed to be, a time of fun and laughter commemorating a key da...
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Thumbs Up
To the folks who have organized and operated Operation Katie. Regular readers of The Mount Airy News will recognize Katie Bledsoe as a local young lady who received some catastrophic injuries in a car wreck in 1994. The home she and her family live in is not handicapped accessible — her wheel chair won’t even fit through the doorways — so a group of local residents started an effort two years ago to raise money to build her family a new hom...
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Politicians not keeping promises on jobs
It’s funny how politicians at virtually every level of government always pledge to create jobs, yet their actions seem to involve everything but the economy — whether it be a preoccupation with gun control, gay marriage or other irrelevant social issues. This really hit home with me the other day while researching some old newspaper articles. It was one of those situations where you’re looking for one item and stumble onto something else en...
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Early memories of the library
Some of my most vivid early memories are of the Mount Airy Public Library, the earliest from when it was located on West Pine Street, in the former home of E.H. Kochtitzky and his wife Mary Sparger Kochtitzky. I remember when I was only 2 years old, in the upstairs children’s room at the library, my mom standing behind me and helping me take a book off the shelf. My memories of that old house are vague — a fleeting memory of staircase, a me...
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GOP lawmakers should stay the course on illegal immigration bill
A few North Carolina Democratic lawmakers seem to have a problem with pending legislation proposed by some GOP members. While that’s not exactly news, in this case the legislation centers around the hot-button issue of immigration. North Carolina legislators have approved a bill that allows the granting of restricted driver’s licenses to those living in the country illegally, but that same bill authorizes local and state police to detain an...
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The siren’s song and when to call Fescue 911
Lawns and myself have a history. Early on general consensus, using the extremely scientific litmus test of popular discussion, tagged me as a book reader and not the sort of person you want to sink time into teaching a trade. It was just understood Ted’s boy (that’s how I was most often referred to) was goin’ to college. For what, the town didn’t say. My father’s worries over me daydreaming and pulling a mower over my toe were more than he ...
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Writing the letters the old-fashioned way
Texts, emails, instant messages — those didn’t exist in my years as a youth, but I was what my mom called her “social butterfly” and that meant finding a way to communicate with others. We would frequently go on camping trips to state and national parks as well as private campgrounds, and I was always making new friends who lived far away from the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. So what did we do to keep in touch? We exchanged addresses...
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