Believe it or not, the red, red robins were bob, bob, bobbin all over my front lawn on Valentine's Day, February 14th. (February 14th is the "old time" Groundhog Day and a lot of us old timers still favor using that date for that all-important weather forecasting event.)

But alas! Those "early bird" robins must have gotten their time clocks out of whack or something. (Although we got nary a snowflake, it snowed four inches in the Lafollette area the very next day.) It's getting so bad that you can't even trust groundhogs, robins, or any other forms of wildlife to predict weather. As bad as we may hate to do it, we may have to actually start depending upon weather stations, satellites out in space and all kind of expensive modern gimmickry to do the job that the above mentioned wildlife did for free for thousands of years.

Last week I reported that the mayor of Williamsburg had resigned that position. And in several past articles, I have mentioned that mayors resigning is a common practice all across the country. My favorite report of a mayor's resignation occurred four or five years ago in a nearby East Tennessee town where the mayor suddenly rose to his feet, announced loudly and clearly, "I've had enough!" and went home for good. That resignation may have led to the recall of one or more members of the city council who folks felt were not cooperating with his drive to improve their town. From all indications he was a very good mayor and doing a good job when he left.

Although under far different circumstances, Sweetwater, Tenn will lose its extremely popular mayor to resignation effective February 29th. The man some of us called "Mayor for Life" in Sweetwater is also resigning the job after 22 years of service in that position including eighteen straight years in office. Jellico High School graduate Billy Ridenour, the retired Federal Administrative Law Judge, has been called one of the best mayors anywhere in the state of Tennessee and had become almost unbeatable in an election. In fact he was reelected in 2001 with an unheard of 86 percent of the vote. But in an article carried in a local Sweetwater paper Ridenour stated, "There comes a time when an individual must change his or her lifestyle. I feel that I have reached that point in my life." The same article that cited his comments also lauded him for his great record of service and accomplishments toward the betterment of Sweetwater.

Mayor Ridenour once proclaimed me an "honorary citizen of Sweetwater with all of the rights and privileges thereto pertaining". So I was once tempted to go down there during an election and see if I could vote for him. (But I doubt that even with his popularity he could have gotten that approved. But it's for sure that he didn't need any extra help anyway!)

Congratulations to Judge/Mayor Ridenour! He has been a real credit to Jellico and Jellico High School and in recent years has been named as the recipient of our annual Alumni Award at the annual Jellico High School Homecoming. And it goes without saying that we will be glad to welcome him back home if at any future time he should become a little bit homesick.

I get a lot of e-mail and I appreciate every single piece of correspondence although I have very little time to respond. But several that I have received over the past few weeks and months stick out in my mind and I want to reply to them in this article.

Nancy Todd Overall, Louisville, Kentucky wrote to comment on the article that I did on the great baseball team that we had in the early 1950's that came so close to winning a national championship (as did a lady in Dayton, Ohio who had a confidentiality note attached to her mail). Nancy's dad, Banner Todd, was very instrumental in putting that team together and her brother Stanley was always around the baseball diamond.

Kay Daugherty Sturdivant in Chattanooga said that she misses Jellico at times and wanted me to tell everyone hello. (Kay also mentioned that she may have some property here that may be - or has been - placed up for sale.)

Bryan Hackler e-mailed to inform me that Dr. Wadie Moore, our former Jellico High School librarian and highly decorated veteran of the Korean War, has passed away. Bryan like several others also added a note to remind me that I had referred to Howard Dean as John Dean in one of my articles. But then with a touch of humor he added his own political persuasion by adding, "It's always entertaining to watch a Liberal suffer defeat (even at the hands of another Liberal".)

Kenneth Reynolds, Louisville, wanted to know if I or anyone knows for sure if a former resident named Eddie Lawson is now an actor with the professional name Kyle Maclachalan. (I knew an Eddie Lawson but I do not know the answer to Kenneth's question. Does anyone?)

I was unable to determine from one e-mail from Joan/Roger Steffen as to which served for twelve years as mayor of Alexandria, Kentucky. But the e-mail was complimentary of these articles and encouraged me to keep them up. And the writer indicated a possible stop in Jellico during two yearly trips that pass by our town. (I have received several comments in past months from other mayors of towns located around the country who have read these articles.)

And Donna Lambdin Stanley (JHS class of '80) and Josh Lay (JHS class of '97) point out the fact that these articles are definitely read all across our country. Donna writing from the extreme southeast says that "Miami, Florida is a long way away and it (this column) does seem to bring Jellico a little closer. Thanks so much!" On the other hand, Josh is located in Portland, Oregon three or four thousand miles to the northwest. Josh reports that he works for Nextel in that city by day and is a budding stand-up comedian by night. He was a good student with a pleasant personality and here's hoping he makes it big! I would like to attend one of his shows someday!

I have already mentioned the arrival of the robins which means it will not be too awfully long until spring will be here - even if those birds did happen to arrive a little early and before all of the bad weather ends. And it will soon be time to get back to our project to renovate and revitalize the downtown - and it's for sure that we can't start to soon. To prove that fact, Mrs. Bessie Steely recently gave me a copy of the Jellico Advance-Sentinel dated October 17, 1965. The article outlined a report from the Tennessee State Planning Commission which cited the fact that we had raw sewage pouring into Elk Fork Creek (only totally corrected within the past five years or so), residences located in the flood plain that needed to be removed (most if not all have been eliminated), inadequate utilities that needed extending (also completed in very recent years) and serious blight that could and should be removed quickly (much of which is still right with us.)

The report concluded that, "There is no area in Jellico which does not contain blighting influences; yet it is within the capabilities of Jellico to eliminate many of those blighting influences in a relatively short period of time……" (In case you haven't already done the math, that report was made thirty-nine years ago.)

A few months after I initially became mayor, a friend of mine informed me that I was being accused of just trying to do too much too fast to get our town looking better. That was thirty-four (34) years following that report and somehow I don't believe that that was too big of a rush. It is long, long past time that some of our property owners cooperate to renovate their buildings and clear vacant lots, etc. And this summer will certainly not be too soon - although better late than never.

It is true that the city of Jellico does have the authority to take legal action against property owners that will not act, but legal action is expensive and only gets the job done as long as a court order is in effect. We may have to finally reluctantly resort to such legal action in a very few cases, but far better if everyone will just demonstrate pride - pride in our town, pride in their property and just plain personal pride. That is the only long term solution that will get our town renovated and maintained in a presentable state.

In keeping with renewal of our drive to further improve our town's appearance, I am declaring the week of May 8-15 this year for our annual "Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up Week" and I hope that everyone will get involved - and especially our young people's organizations. We have scheduled weeks in the past during the month of April and more often than not, we have experienced very cold weather that prevented very much outdoor work. (But we will need to get dogwoods, Bradford Pears, spring flowers, etc in the ground much earlier than May.)

Final note: Time for me to take to my soapbox!

We recently had a reporter to come to Boston Elementary School from one of our local newspapers. He made photos of our kindergarten classes and then asked each child what she or he wanted to be when they grow up. The students gave the usual doctor, nurse, fireman, policeman, cowboy, "army man" answers - except for one fine young man barely all of five years of age who came close to putting all of us into shock when he responded with a big smile that he wanted to be a "hustler". Taken aback, the reporter cautiously asked if he knew the meaning of that word.

Staff members held our breaths while we awaited his answer. But we all breathed a tremendous sigh of relief and broke into big grins when he stated something to the effect, "Sure! That's ball players that play real hard and the motorcycle riders on television that hold their hands up in the air". Later he reportedly commented something to the effect that his daddy had used that work while he was watching a ballgame or a "motorcycle show" on television!

Whew! We were all scared to death that he had been watching too much of another kind of television programming. And its' for sure that the other kind of TV is readily available to kids of all ages whose parents don't regularly monitor their viewing. And even that is a very difficult task to say the least since the present day so-called "family programs" are now often filled with profanity, vulgarity and violence. Certainly as adults none of us consider ourselves as prudes and we all believe in free speech. But there needs to be common sense in all things especially where very young kids are concerned. I served in the Army many years ago and spent a little time on a naval base when language that was considered inappropriate even there is now common place in the media and easily available to the youngest of children.

But maybe the now infamous Super Bowl halftime show will finally bring some federal action to regulate some of that stuff as far as kids are concerned. And as I stated in an earlier article, I sure hope that it brings about a demand for protection of the American flag. Every time a lot of us see a replay of that guy with the flag being used for a poncho in such a disrespectful and scummy manner, it makes our blood boil! And as I also wrote in that article, we had troops being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan even as that show was being telecast to those areas! What a way to show them our appreciation for the extremely dangerous job that they are doing in helping to protect us from terrorists dedicated to the destruction of our country and our liberty! I just don't see how any American - Democrat, Republican or any other political persuasion - can watch the constant replays of that act and not be angered!