Last Wednesday morning, I looked down Amory Main Street knowing that’s the day I would’ve seen the Ferris wheel from a few blocks away. I would’ve gotten apple fritters the next night, sang along to “Strawberry Wine,” gotten up the next morning and learned something I didn’t know about one o…

The new universal buzz words of recent weeks include “unprecedented times,” “social distancing,” “sheltering in place” and more.

I’m glad it wasn’t just me and my friends who were mischievous when we were in junior high and high school. In college, though, when I started making friends with a group of guys from Smithville, I realized they took it to a whole other level.

To the Editor:

To the Editor,

You can shock yourself learning to be an electrician and you can cut yourself learning to be a butcher. Someone teaching you skills like these can only do so much explaining of what you should do, but you’ve got to take the lead to do it yourself eventually.

To our readers:

I was just talking a couple of weekends ago about watching it on ESPN. It was a Thursday night game, and Mississippi State hosted South Carolina. What made that game so special, and patriotic, was it was the first college football game after the Sept. 11 attacks.

After 25 years of kicking the butts of tobacco industry leaders, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is now leading the way to Take Down Tobacco.

I’m almost positive I wouldn’t be at the Monroe Journal had it not been for Don Rowe. Back in the summer of 2009, he told me about a part-time staff writer position for the paper I was really too busy to even think about having.

A couple of Saturdays ago, the same conversation came up twice with two different groups – the bigger number of young families that used to live in Aberdeen.

To the Editor:

Am I ever full of flaws? I’m running one week late to make that obvious statement widely known. About this time last week, you may have spent the day fasting and in prayer or you could’ve been somewhere else recovering from Fat Tuesday.

How did AmFed, a workers’ compensation insurance carrier, get involved in arts and education? The same way it’s gotten involved in all its community fundraising efforts – by listening to its employees and embracing its mission to support the people who share the place they call home.

I sometimes miss sleeping in until noon, not caring about a credit score and dreaming big about even bigger places. Everyone goes through a stage when the world’s opportunities seem so reachable that you can almost touch them. At the same time, though, it overlaps a stage of not really carin…

To the Editor:

Most of the time, I write columns in my head and have it down pat exactly how they’ll read before I even pull up a blank Word document. Sometimes, though, the subjects get a little twisted – in a good way.

The end of winter promises to be an enjoyable time at the Amory Municipal Library. Tuesday, Feb. 18, is a special Lunching with Books, with Hatley native and retired intensive care physician Margaret Watkins talking about her books.

Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like a fresh bouquet of flowers. Make sure your gift provides many days of enjoyment by selecting the freshest flowers and providing the best possible care.

Love them or hate them, you’ve got to admit Adam Sandler comedies can be really dumb. That’s exactly why “Billy Madison” sucked me in and why “Big Daddy” references come up in conversation from time to time.

All I first knew about Mardi Gras in high school was one of my friends had a pair of tan Timberland boots that came back a light gray because of everything he walked through in the French Quarter.

I know how to make a cup of coffee specific enough to my liking. I haven’t been electrocuted (yet) jumping off another vehicle. One time I even changed a broken part inside my washing machine so it could drain water again.

Maybe you needed to check a second, third or fourth news source Sunday afternoon when you heard the news that Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash. You definitely weren’t alone.

To the Editor,

As much of a thing as my grandparents not having to lock their doors back in the day was, being worried about falling prey to a scam is as much of a thing now. The past couple, three decades have taught us to keep our doors locked tight, but how do you keep predators out of your life?

If you read into this week’s 1A story about the transition of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office into a new term, you can see the message of people coming together for a common cause.

Improve your indoor and outdoor container gardening success with a quality potting mix. This can be more difficult than it sounds since you can’t see or feel the product you are about to buy. Ask your gardening friends for recommendations and once at the garden center, check the package and …

There are things we all want to run from and run towards. For so many people, both of these things meet somewhere in the middle two or three weeks a year when cashing in on vacation time.

Strawberry, lemon, mango, blueberry, cinnamon and cheesecake all sound like great flavors of your favorite sweet treat. The bright colors and smells can make your mouth water for a snack or give you the urge to take a drag from an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette).

I was born on the tail-end of the disco days and raised on the glam and glitz of the next decade. Life experiences started to trickle in as grungy and loud as the following decade could be and ever since the millennium rolled over, not quite as much has stuck out through life stages or pop culture.

Define the holiday season from Halloween to New Year’s Day however you’d like – turkey, fireworks shows or church services, and you get joy. Think back to this time of year any other month and you get the same thing – joy.

To the Editor:

Editor’s note: This column was written days before registered Amory voters decided if their town would allow alcohol sales or not.

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

I love telling the story about one day my junior year in high school when one of my Aberdeen friends happened to be in West Point for something and came to my school to hang out in the parking lot during break.

Wedged between a spike in Halloween activities and the onslaught of Thanksgiving and Christmas events, it’s assuring to know Monroe County stands behind its veterans by offering an increasing number of Veterans Day events.

Politically speaking, about this time next year is going to feel like you’re five leftover turkey sandwiches into wanting to forget about Thanksgiving food for a while. The way national politics is already tracking, it won’t take long for most of us to be just as burnt out by the time Electi…

We all take way too much for granted. Technology has led us to expect instant results at the touch of a button. A few times in my life, I have been reminded how important it is to have a “Plan B.” Times do come when the conveniences we take for granted don’t work for us for one reason or another.

I spent many of my formative and awkward years growing up in a great neighborhood surrounded by friends my age working out their awkward years too. It’s hard to believe all that peaked nearly 30 years ago before we got our driver’s licenses and slowly drifted in our separate directions.