It's CHRISTMAS PARADE time and we will step out this Sunday from Jellico High School at 2:30 PM.. (Line up units starting at 2:00 PM). According to Tourism Director Jake Bennet, we have had a very good response and expect to have a large number of units. All churches, schools, groups, activities, individuals, etc. are invited to enter and the more the merrier. Just contact Jake Bennett at 784-3275 as soon as possible to register so that he can finalize the order of march. The weather forecast at the time of the writing of this column called for possible showers with a temperature high of 46 degrees. But keep your fingers crossed because we all know how quickly the weather can change around here. (It sure won't hurt to get out the thermals and have 'em ready - just in case a blizzard should hit us.)
Our Grand Marshal(ette) this year will be Stacy McCloud, a native of Campbell County who now serves as News Anchor and Reporter for WVLT Channel-8 TV Volunteer News.. It's always good to see the achievements of Campbell County folks and we are glad to have Stacy in our parade. . World War II veterans are invited to occupy a place of honor in the Parade and we are still hopeful that we will have returning 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment troops who have just returned from Iraq here also. Jake needs to be notified well prior to Sunday of all that will enter units so that a place can be reserved for them close to the beginning of the column. (But all can be entered in the column at some location.) And all need to be clearly marked with signs.
And it would be especially meaningful to have a very good representation from our local area churches this year. With the war currently being waged against Christmas by some of the liberals around the country, what better way to express our opposition to what they are trying to do?
As I wrote last week, we for the very first time as far as I know, will have Mrs. Claus to accompany Santa to Jellico for the Parade. He had better bring a lot of money because they will fly over a countless number of shopping malls between here and the North Pole. If she stops and spends as much time in them as most members of the fairer gender, here's hoping he gets back home in time to get everything in order for his big Christmas Eve delivery
(Maybe we won't have a BIG problem like the one that was reported at the Elk Valley Parade where Santa had grown so large since last year that he couldn't get into his suit and Marsha Dobson Walp had to fill in for him. Like some more of us Santa, you had better start pushing away from the table! And especially watch that Christmas dinner.)
We don't miss the water 'til the well runs dry! And we don't miss the electricity 'til the lights go out! Our recent power outage for whatever reason, affected a large area of East Tennessee and Southeastern Kentucky.. But again we were very fortunate that our utilities department was able to restore it here much earlier than in some other areas. In fact one local TV station was reporting that not all power had been restored throughout the area at the time of the evening news.
I recently received an e-mail from James Ridenour, EMT with the Jellico Ambulance Service who also serves as Vice-President and Treasurer of the Jellico Life Saving and Rescue Squad.. James writes:
I have a little problem that I think you may be able to assist me with. As an EMT with the Jellico Ambulance Service I have seen numerous instances where we have responded to calls within the city of Jellico only to find that either the street we are looking for has no sign marking its location, or the house we are looking for has no box number visible costing us valuable minutes trying to locate the person having the emergency. On a few instances we have responded only to find that the houses are marked with the old 911 addresses, and we are looking for the new box numbers. This adds to the confusion and could one day cost a life.
I would like to ask you to check and see if there is any way the city could replace the signs inside the city that are missing or faded. Some are there, but they are covered with
shrubbery and obscured from view. Also could the city somehow get the people to post their Address Numbers in large (at least 3 inches) letters on the side of their house facing
the road, and/or on BOTH sides of their mailbox? Preferably in reflective lettering. At night it is extremely difficult to locate numbers that are non-reflective.
Thanks for your help, and if you have any questions or comments please fell free to contact me at 423/784-7569 or by e-mail."
Apparently our minds run on the same track James, and I had recently discussed the problem with street signs with citizens who earlier brought that problem to my attention. And I have already asked City Recorder Linda Meadows to place it on the agenda for discussion at our December meeting of the City Council.. We do have signs that have become almost unreadable and there is a great example of one such sign on Kentucky Street that has become very rusted and virtually unreadable - and of course there are numerous other examples.
And hopefully running your e-mail in these notes will make residents aware of the problems that sometimes occur for emergency personnel in trying to locate addresses that are not well marked - if marked at all. (And I am one of the worst offenders.)
It would pay us all to help the Ambulance Service, Rescue Squad, Fire Department, Police Department, etc. to locate our residences very quickly in case of emergency by clearly marking our house numbers and/or our mailboxes (preferably both). We never know when we will be the subject of an emergency call.
In that same vein, I have been asked what preparations our town has taken to deal with a major disaster in the event - God forbid - that we should ever have one..
George Deuel is our Emergency Management Director and he heads up a team consisting of our fire, police, rescue squad, ambulance service and hospital. Meetings are held on a call basis.
(The City Council has also been discussing purchasing a new system for sounding alarms since our present siren has been in use for many years and is not sufficient for today's needs.)
Due to the fatigue of a very hard previous week, a long weekend trip and further fatigue brought about by an extremely stressful day on Monday due to the loss of power at our school that required getting students returned home and insuring that there was ample parent and/or adult supervision for them when they arrived at home -not to mention the lingering affects of a "bug" that I had endured for several days - I just was not up to attending the third Winter Concert at Cumberland College sponsored by the Jellico Hospital Foundation.
But from Jenny's glowing accounts upon her return from the concert when she awakened me and kept me awake for some time praising the event- as well as the later equally favorable accounts of several other Jellicoans in attendance - it sure must have been a wonderfully entertaining experience as well as one that benefited our Jellico hospital.
My sincere apologies for my absence and my congratulations to those at Jellico Community Hospital who annually organize and conduct such an outstanding event.
Had your flu and pneumonia shots yet? It seems that the threat from Avian (Bird) Flu has an awful lot of folks interested in getting the shots - although from all reports there will be absolutely no protection added from that deadly strain of the flu virus. And now we hear on the news that the vaccines once thought to be at least of some help in combating the affects of Bird Flu may be useless or next to useless.
But I have taken both immunizations in spite of that fact. The old fashioned strains of flu have always made me sick enough without even mentioning the more deadly strains. And some of my folks have had a susceptibility to pneumonia including my parents so I am fearful that the susceptibility could be genetic and a little added protection never hurts.
We have been blessed so far to have had no instance (to the best of my knowledge) of the deadly strain of Bird Flu being found in birds and poultry in this country. But most health organizations say that it is only a matter of time and we can only hope that it does not mutate to the point that it can be passed from person to person. According to all that I have read, it could take the lives of far more people than the estimated 60 to 100 million people world wide who died from the influenza in 1918 - including a large number of folks in our area.
On a different and far less serious note, it seems everybody in the South is talking about what happened to Tennessee's football season. We were in the very heart of Bulldog Country, Athens, Georgia, last weekend and it appeared there were as many folks there wanting to discuss what happened to Tennessee as there were concerning Saturday's UGA game with LSU.. According to them, prior to the start of the season Georgia fans figured that the Tennessee game would be one of their toughest and that they would be very lucky to win.
And we stopped Sunday in Atlanta where the SEC Championship game had been played the night before and won by the Dawgs. A UGA fan in town for the game that I met, lived on the Georgia/South Carolina border and he said that the Gamecock fans are as shocked as everyone else at what happened to our Vols. I told him that if anyone figures out what happened to let us know in Tennessee. We would like to know too! But according to the poet, "hope springs eternal in the human breast" and hopefully things will go much better next season.
A lady who happened to overhear our conversation and who must have been a Yankee, asked why football is so popular in the South. My answer was that it's not just popular - it's ingrained in our culture and a very important part of our way of life. (I'm kinda proud of that answer! Sounds almost sophisticated doesn't it?)
Final note:
Where will the political correctness thing ever stop? A report on one of the Internet news services stated that a selectwoman (member of council) in Provincetown, Massachusetts wants to remove an oil painting of the Pilgrims voting on the Mayflower Compact in the 1600's from city hall because it doesn't have any women or American Indians participating in the process, according to the Provincetown Banner..
Wonder if she would like the painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence removed from walls as well? If I remember my American history studies correctly, there were no women or American Indians there either.
(Thankfully according to the report, three of the four town selectmen initially supported removing the oversized painting by local artist Max Bohm, but relented following public pressure and will now leave the painting where it is. That indicates that we still have folks with some common sense in this country although they seem to be well on the road to becoming a minority!)
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