Category: Art

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Straight Talk

Gary Furr

Listen to the podcast Many years ago. I came across a movie character actor I really liked. Veteran character actors are people you see over and over again in different movies and shows, making it more challenging for them to convince you that they are a different person than the last time you saw them. This actors name was Richard Farnsworth and the movie was “The Straight Story.” The Straight Story was released in 1999. It was directed by David Lynch, of “Twin Peaks” fame. It had the same pace and odd cadence of Billy Bob Thornton’s oddball flick, “Slingblade.” Slow, rambling, full of peculiar small-town characters that felt familiar to me. All these … Continue reading Straight Talk

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NAIL-PULLING

Gary Furr

I spent Labor Day pulling up a rotten 16-foot-long board on our deck. I pulled all of the nails out and bought a replacement from Home Depot. I am a machine at pulling nails, thanks to life experiences in my early twenties. I learned how to pull a nail with a clawhammer, a nail puller, a flat nail puller, a crowbar, sometimes twisting sideways to get it going. If it’s rusty and stuck into some particularly hardwood, if you yank too hard., you are liable to wind up with only part of the nail and the rest of it stuck deep in the board. And then good luck to … Continue reading NAIL-PULLING

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Walker County Kids Food Program Gets $5000 Grant

Gary Furr

Birmingham, AL, July 8, 2024The Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children is pleased to announce the presentation of a $5,000 grant to Backyard Blessings, a community-based nonprofit organization in Sumiton, Alabama. This grant is part of the Coalition’s ongoing commitment to supporting initiatives that improve the health and well-being of mothers and children across the state. Backyard Blessings is dedicated to combating food insecurity and providing essential resources to local families. Weekly, the organization distributes bags of food to needy children to ensure they have enough to eat over the weekend. During the 2023–2024 school year, Backyard Blessings served … Continue reading Walker County Kids Food Program Gets $5000 Grant

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$5,000 Grant to West Alabama Food Bank for Summer Feeding Program  

Gary Furr

Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children PRESS RELEASE   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children Awards $5,000 Grant to West Alabama Food Bank for Summer Feeding Program   Birmingham, AL – July 8, 2024 The Alabama Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children (ACHMC) has announced a pivotal $5,000 grant awarded to the West Alabama Food Bank, in partnership with the Sumter County School District Child Nutrition Program. This grant is dedicated to supporting the summer feeding program, filling a critical gap left by the Alabama legislature’s failure to fund such initiatives for 2024. The … Continue reading $5,000 Grant to West Alabama Food Bank for Summer Feeding Program  

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June 6, 1944

Gary Furr

In 1963, I was in the third grade. We moved from my hometown in North Carolina to Clarksville, Tennessee. We lived near Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Fort Campbell is home of the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne –-the Army’s only Air Assault Division. World War II was still in living memory all around us, and we had books and toys to reflect it—plastic toy soldiers, cap guns, and I think I remember having a toy mortar, of all things. We re-enacted D-Day and Iwo Jima, Wake Island, Pearl Harbor and El Alamein. The 101st Airborne was famous: they were parachuted … Continue reading June 6, 1944