This is the second in a series of five. In this article we focus on Courage. Perhaps a quote from the well-known exchange in “The Wizard of Oz” provides insight into this quality. Listen in as Dorothy challenges the Cowardly Lion.
Dorothy: My goodness, what a fuss you're making! Well, naturally, when you...
Following wild reports of a mystery fluid leaking from crypts at Cullman Memory Gardens, I decided to go out to investigate this peculiar claim.
Upon arriving, Ron Foust, owner of Stone Bridge Farms, was speaking with a local police officer and a former employee of the now seemingly deserted mausoleum...
Dear President Obama,
I supported you in both elections, with my vote and financial giving. When you were elected, I was overjoyed that the US had a leader in the White House who was bright, articulate and honest. After the Bush years, many of us were very discouraged about our...
Morning listeners! This morning's selection also has a trivia question...Anyone know whose father was the lead singer of this 1973 hit song by the Main Ingredient? Here's a hint...the son is a very well-known movie star whose most famous line to-date is, "Show me the money!" from the 1996...
Over the next several days leading up to Christmas, Tribune columnist Loretta Gillespie will be sharing Christmas tips with our readers. They will include recipes, craft projects, unique home decorating ideas and more.
Most people start out with good intentions about holiday spending, but by the time Christmas Eve gets...
Since the early part of 2020, Covid-19 has been a major element in our daily lives. It’s rare to speak to a neighbor, coworker, family member or church member that hasn’t lost someone to the Covid-19 virus. Altogether, the U.S. has had 80 million documented cases with over 984,000...
I have been tasked with the insurmountable feat of summing up motherhood, in honor of
Mother's Day. For reference, I like to call myself an "amateur" mom. My journey of motherhood began in February 2021 when I found out I was pregnant, and I have considered myself a mother ever...
March marked the 150th month of the war in Afghanistan. Since October 7, 2001, U.S. troops have been deployed there. Their primary task had been to eliminate Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorism, specifically the bases used to train and harbor those implicit in the September 11th attacks...
CULLMAN, Ala. - The Health Care Authority of Cullman County/ Cullman Regional Board of Directors this week announced that they have received Emergency Alabama Certificate of Need (CON) approval to add an additional 30 beds to the hospital, including 13 additional critical care beds.
During the final months of 2020...
Dear Editor,
On September 12, 2020, a horrendous crime was committed to someone very near and dear to our hearts. Herndon “Junior” Self was a hard-working and outgoing husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, and uncle whose only fault was putting his trust in the wrong person.
The shocking part about this...
In January of last year, Governor Kay Ivey awarded $18.2 million in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to fund infrastructure improvements and upgrades all over the state. The grant gives local governments the ability to provide water service to homes, repair roads, upgrade sewer and storm drainage systems and...
In the five years since I became Chancellor of the Alabama Community College System, nothing has been a higher priority than making sure we provide world-class, affordable education and training so our students have the skills to succeed in a constantly evolving economy. During this time, we’ve successfully aligned...
Georgia Peach Heuchera, or ‘Coral Bells’ perform well in Southern humidity. / Loretta Gillespie
This charming little plant will soon become part of a heuchera collection, if you are anything like me. I started off with Plum Pudding and then had to have every new color the breeders developed.
Georgia Peach...
It was a horrible, sickening phone call. Within a few seconds, my hopes and dreams were crushed like someone stepping on a Coke can. And to think my mom did it!
Let me elaborate. Growing up, I was a comic book kid. Beginning about the age of 8, I began...
I would like to let your community know they have a coroner they should be thankful for. After losing my wife Ruth of 38 years in an auto accident, I was contacted by Mr. Jeremy Kilpatrick. He was most helpful in guiding me through what was needed. He went...
Attendees gather outside Church 212's "Nightmare on Old 69" Friday evening (Maggie Darnell for The Cullman Tribune)
“We want people to think,” Church 212 Pastor Chris Harrison said Friday to a crowd of participants at “Nightmare on Old 69,” the church’s Halloween event put on to raise awareness about addiction.
Nightmare...
ODE TO FOUR, JOYFUL SEASONS
Spring is joyful, then there is also this,
Summer is such sunny bliss.
Autumn is a sweet molasses kiss, and
Winter is time to joyfully reminisce.
THE FOUR SEASONS: spring, summer, fall and winter were mostly named for “planting times.” The word “seasons” comes...
To gather the fullest employment picture in Alabama – and across the nation for that matter – we must shift our focus to labor force participation.
Alabama’s current unemployment rate is at an impressive and historic low of 2.2%. In fact, almost all of the 10 states with the lowest...
I’m not a handyman. I truly wish I was, but it’s just not in my DNA. I can’t make a straight cut on a 2x4 to save my dog’s life. If you give me a hammer and a handful of nails, all you’re probably gonna get are bent nails....
If you gonna write for us, I want you to write positive. Anytime the commission name is in an article, it’s all positive. No negatives.”
Cullman County Commission Chairman Kenneth Walker
Editorial- Noah Galilee, Cullman Tribune publisher
Amendment I
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free...
While it sounds simple, creating places where neighbors get to know neighbors is the key to growing a thriving place to live. That’s what Dr. Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist, describes in his book, “The Great Good Places.” If first places are our homes, and workplaces are second places,...
My legislative district is rural, therefore my voice in the Legislature is for rural issues.
We’ve had significant success for “rural Alabama” in the Legislature in recent years, primarily because of a focus lead by the Rural Caucus in the Alabama House of Representatives
One member of the Legislature told me...
Good morning, Cullman! If this song doesn't make you feel good, you should make an appointment with your doctor because something is wrong! It's a classic feel-good love song with Hall & Oates singing their usual brand of hip swaying, up-tempo music.
Hall and Oates
From their official website, www.hallandoates.com
Since the...
Obamacare or the “Affordable Care Act” continues to be highly debated four years after being signed into law. Conservatives present it as the poster child of liberal big government overreach. Liberals defend it as the reason they see for government to exist, to protect those with less, and to...
Here are three books to consider adding to your summer reading list, reviewed by Cullman County Public Library Director Sharon Townson.
"Daisy Jones & The Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In the 70s Daisy Jones is a well-known party girl on the Sunset Strip club scene. She is a songwriter and singer,...
“Blessing of the Lost Girls” is J. A. (Judith Ann) Jance’s latest book. As the title indicates, this novel is about missing and murdered Native American women. Few people realize the problem of these missing and murdered women. While a work of fiction, the fact is many missing and...
The Protestant Church is in greater need of reformation today than the Roman Catholic Church was in the 16th century. Absolutely true!
“The Emperor's New Clothes” is a Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1837. The phrase “the emperor has no clothes” is often...
CULLMAN – Ten years waiting for the announcement that there would be another movie. Waiting a month and a half after purchasing tickets for the day to arrive. Three hours waiting in line to grab a seat. Waiting through thirty minutes of previews. But when the timeless opening theme...
Cullman County desperately needs to vote to keep an appointed superintendent in the next election for Cullman County Schools.
I have heard so many people say they don’t have a voice or vote at all with what happens in the school system. We have a county school board where everyone...
With any issue, finding the right balance is the key to success. The prison/criminal justice system issue is no different.
The purpose of prisons, in my view, is to keep the public safe! And, provide the opportunity for inmate rehabilitation when possible. We have to be careful with that one.
Innocent...
“When do we learn that the world, like any diner worth its salt, is open 24 hours a day?”—Daniel Handler
American diners are the perfect place to “open up” and share “The S.U.N.S. (Smile-Making, Uniting, Neighboring, Spellbinding) Joyous Aging” wisdom.
S.U.N.S. DINERS, my selections for each of the 50 united states,...
Moving forward...
CullmanSense was launched on Dec. 31, 2010 as a daily e-publication and quickly grew into Cullman's only Monday print publication in less than one year.
On April 1, 2016, CullmanSense acquired The Cullman Tribune, Alabama’s oldest continuously published weekly newspaper.
For the last year, CullmanSense has been the online presence...
The time has come to paraphrase the lawyer Joseph Welch in the famous Joe McCarthy hearing and address Governor Kay Ivey instead: “Have you no sense of decency, ma'am, at long last?”
Alabama’s coronavirus infections and deaths continue to climb. And among the victims are poor people who fell below the...
The collector’s edition of “WUNDERGARTEN,” the folktale I set in 1870s Colonial Cullman, was birthed this week. (Signed copies available at Leldon’s in the Cullman Warehouse District by April 25, in time for Mother’s Day gifts.) Saluting the forested hills of north Alabama, it has an engraved wood binder,...
The Dripping Springs Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution presented Good Citizens Awards to Owen Griffith Lovell, of Cullman High School, Jefferson Lee Wayne Boyett, of Cold Springs High School, Taylor Lee Dover, of Fairview High School, Dawson Foust, of Holly Pond High School, Hannah Nicole Sumner,...
This will be a cross between a sports story and an opinion
piece. When you first start reading, you may ask, “Why is this in this
paper? This isn’t about a local sports player.”
Read to the end, I think you will understand…..
Kaetlyn McGriff is a volleyball player from Huntsville
Junior High School...
Good morning!
I have a HUGE project that needs publicity within our Cullman community. I am the librarian at East Elementary and I have a group of advanced sixth graders who have just completed a project-based learning unit where they researched “summer slide” and the benefits of summer reading.
These students...
Cullman Memory Gardens update from Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Fairview:
The situation at Cullman Memory Gardens has been a long and frustrating turn of events to say the least. Hopefully, this is the year families and the community will see the cemetery begin to return to the dignity all involved deserve.
I...
I drove by our community ballpark the other day and saw that the All-Star baseball games were well underway. It’s hard to believe that the Little League baseball season has already come and gone. Has it already been two months since Opening Day? It seemed like I just saw...
The summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, are the setting for this book, which is about three women in three different eras written by three different authors. Money, old and new, and secrets held in the boathouse dominate the story.
The first storyline is set in present-day Newport with Andie Figuero, who...
Census 2020 kicked off in March, shortly before the word “coronavirus” entered our everyday vocabulary and upended life as we then knew it. And while the Census is not presently on the forefront of the vast majority’s minds, it is enormously important to Alabama’s future.
Alabama is currently reporting a...
Three: One: Six—3/16—Is it just another day on a calendar, a random series of numbers or something much more?
Two years ago, on March 16, 2020, we received instructions to shut down everything involving the gathering of people. Schools, churches, businesses and more shut down in fear of a new...
This question has numerous answers, but I would like to hear your answer or answers.
I firmly believe education is important to our future. The very first economic development project during my time as mayor of my hometown was to recruit a high-quality preschool, Early Years Preschool.
Education continues to be...
Remember when America was all about freedom-loving fun and people fought for “The Right to Party?” Even in 1773 (evening of December 16), our royal-bashing, founding parents were dressing up like their Native American neighbors on a warpath; whoopin’, hollerin’ and tossin’ boxes of inflation-pricey, not-made-in-the-USA tea into the...
Over the next several days leading up to Christmas, Tribune columnist Loretta Gillespie will be sharing Christmas tips with our readers. They will include recipes, craft projects, unique home decorating ideas and more.
Brussels sprouts are ridiculously cheap so it makes good sense to adapt them into recipes that...
ODE TO JOY BIRDS
The singing kind are such joy birds,
One rarely hears a whiner.
Chirping, tweeting, hummingbirds
Make a fine day even finer.
My family’s Alabama farm was a certified Audubon Sanctuary. We didn’t just love birds and protect their habitats; birding was like breathing—literally a natural...
CullmanSense reporter Will Hogue, based in NYC, has some thoughts on Kanye West, and he wants you to hear them.
NEW YORK CITY - There was something picturesque about Kanye West standing at Madison Square Garden with his laptop in front of him, his successful hip-hop friends behind him -...
My family is full of cancer patients and survivors. Access to timely treatment, affordable medications and regular screenings/doctor visits are essential and the reason why those that I love are alive today. Any breaks in coverage could mean delayed care, not just for my family, but for our entire...
Iraq veteran and commander of Cullman VFW Post 2214, Brian Monk, and wife, Rachel Monk, president of the VFW Auxiliary, pick different dates and locations every year to collect Buddy Poppy donations for the VFW. The money raised goes back to helping veterans in need.
We set up at Warehouse...
America’s Founders regarded a free press as so vital to the new nation that they took care to include that right in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Founders spoke glowingly about the press as a pillar of democracy and guarantor of liberty. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, famously wrote in...
I have a serious problem. Well, serious might be an overstatement, but it is as least an uncomfortable situation. I live in the deep-south, summer has arrived, and my home’s air-conditioner keeps going out. The breaker keeps tripping. The first time this happened, I didn’t realize the problem. A...
CULLMAN, Ala. - National Agriculture Day, commonly referred to as National “Ag” Day, is coming up on March 24, and Cullman County’s Farm-City folks are gearing up for a series of events around the day and through the season to celebrate farmers and agriculture in Alabama and the Cullman...
Local legislation is often required to authorize a local entity to do something specific that otherwise is not authorized by law or the state constitution.
Local legislation can usually be passed if all the local legislators, House and Senate agree or at least do not oppose the proposed local law.
For...
Here’s a question for you: Why do we, as humans, feel the need to go completely overboard when it comes to everything to do with our children? Somewhere along the way, it seems we have forgotten the joy in simplicity. From over-the-top gender reveals to lavish birthday parties and...
F-WORDS are not used frequently enough. At least that’s true for some F-WORDS. There are so many FABU F-WORDS, I’ve FINAGLED them into two fragments, 25 in this installment and 25 MORE F-WORDS in the next.
To fortify your familiarity with the four basic facets of “The S.U.N.S. (Smile-Making, Uniting,...
I love plain brown wrapping paper, or plain white, because you can dress them up so cleverly that they look like artwork or arrangements made from clipped greenery.
First wrap your gift in either of the above papers, or with burlap, if you are really adventurous. You can even use...
ODE TO AUTUMN
Autumn days are here, blue sky clear and dear.
Let’s harvest a bushel of joy and fall cheer.
Our S.U.N.S. (Smile-Making, Uniting, Neighboring, Spellbinding) group this first week of fall shared joyous memories from many previous autumns and how each of us is adding joy to our life this...
“Love & Saffron” was written by Kim Fay, who is from Washington state. Her previous books are “Communion: A Culinary Journey through Viet Nam,” which was a Gourmand World Cookbook Award winner and “The Map of Lost Memories,” an Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel. “Love and Saffron” is an epistolary (a...
Ah, Christmas.
This writer has never seen the community of Cullman pull together so tightly until wreaths are strung amid streetlights, the Warehouse District is beset in Edison bulbs and the sound of Christmas classics follows you everywhere you go. The entire tone of our town switches from a busy...
Mark Wilson, M.D., health officer, Jefferson County Department of Health
Ray L. Watts, M.D., president, University of Alabama at Birmingham
As parts of Alabama’s safer-at-home measures relax Monday, May 11, health experts — including public health officials and world-renowned UAB infectious disease doctors and researchers — urge extreme caution.
According to...
