With the first week in February past, another stormthreatened our hometown by week's end, and businesses readied for Valentine'sDay.

A visit to Manes Funeral home last Monday will lead us toa story of lifelong friendship and of an unusual occurrence shared with mefirst by our police chief. Fortunately, I was not visiting when the Toyota'saccelerator pedal allegedly stuck and crashed into the wall.

It was the hours preceding the funeral for Dean Shults thatI dropped by the funeral home after hearing of her death. As I told DavidShults and their son, Randy, that I always felt welcome and comfortable inDean's presence, especially at her business Ribbons & Roses. She was suchan affable person and good to the heart. She was a dear friend to the PlainTalk, having catered events here, and helped us in many ways and wereciprocated. I shared my condolences with her brother, Junior Stinnett, whowas greeting friends of the family.

Last year, Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults suggestedthat there is a story connecting his father and Hollis Allen, who lives not amile as the crow flies from Doyle Roger Shults, a man I've often heard about,good things, but never talked with so far as I can recall. Then last November,while sitting in my office Roger walked in and we began to talk. At 69, he isslightly younger than Hollis but neither looks their age, as chasing ornerycows keeps them in shape. Hollis lives on a portion of his late father's, FrankAllen, farm off O'Neil Road not far from Lower English Creek. Roger lives withhis wife, the former Lillian Teague, at 271 Friendship Road. This is less thana quarter mile from where he grew up by the Gray Graves home. She too wasraised in the neighborhood near where Sherry Jarnigan now lives. After seeinghow tall and attractive Lillian is, I can see where the children get theirlooks and height. Her Dad was Raymond Teague.

You probably know one or all of their children: ChiefShults, Detective Lynn Shults, who is oldest, Deborah Williams, and Denise, whoI know as a fellow Kiwanian and assistant vice-president at Greenbank's Newportbranch. Just a few days after this chat with Roger, I bumped into Judy Barnes,one of my former Cosby students, who told me of the connection between her andDeborah. She and husband, Timmy, run Jack's Market off Cosby Highway on the wayto the Sevier Co. line. Judy is married to Timmy's brother, Mark. Both men areCosby postal mail carriers. Roger has a gang of brothers and sisters, many ofwhom you and I know well and respect. They are the children of Ivan Shultz, whowas married to Mary Lee Bryant. She died in 1971 at age 49. Ivan then marriedLoan Phillips. They had two children, Benjamin and Henrietta. The family iswell acquainted with work, Ivan spending many years with Automatic Sprinkler,of Knoxville. One of Roger's brothers is a former East Tenn. Sheriff, HarryShultz, a retired state trooper. I think I always referred to him as "BigHarry," when gathering news in those years. Master mason Larry Shults isanother brother. Now let me say right here it is somewhat confusing thatmembers of the same family have chosen to use a "z" instead of"s," but, hey, that's their business.

Ivan's son, Jimmy M. Shults, is married to Dean Shults' sister,Betty, the older of the Stinnett sisters. Other siblings are Ivan Ray Jr.;Glenda Mayfield, who was married to the late builder, Lester; Dwayne, whofollow's Dad's trade in N.C.; Danny, a cook at Shoney's in Millington; andMarsha Thomas, who works in the Bent Creek office.

The family lived not far from English Creek Church justup the road from Ida B. Brown. Before I get back to Roger and Hollis and whatthey have uniquely in common, let me say that after graduating, Roger worked atBush Brothers and then spent about five years at Rhyne Lumber. But for nearly39 years, he worked at American Enka at Lowland and retired in 2002. One of hismain jobs was unloading acid and gases from tanker cars. Today, his workconsists of "piddling" on the farm, custom bush hoggin' andcollecting cast iron frying pans. I'm not sure but he may still be in therunning with Hollis for Farmer of the Year. Last Tuesday, I went over for avisit and enjoyed the talk, and especially seeing Roger's major project for thepast four years: a large cabin built from many kinds of wood throughout. It'sworth a story on its own.

If you stand at Lane's Market, facing English Mountain,and look towards Bogard Road, there is a now vacant lot where a large apartmentbuilding burned some years ago. This land was the site of English CreekElementary School. And in 1946, that's where our story of Roger and Hollisbegins. Perhaps they had been friends before this and thrown stones at eachother or accompanied their fathers to the stockyard and met. Hollis' latebrother, Hal, and Roger's brother, Jimmy, also started school together. Thechildren who succeeded graduated in eight years, like Lillian did. Roger shareda list of principals and teachers from that era of 1946 to 1954: PrincipalsGoldie Eisenhower, Neil Harper, Ray Pierce, Myrtle Hickey, and Dorothy Sutton.Other teachers he recalled were Delsie Bryant, Edna Spencer Clark, MableProffitt, Ida B. Brown, Elmer Lillard, and Estilee Prizer. Somehow, despitetheir pranks, and not being the book-smartest frogs on the log, they graduated.Then they both entered Cosby High School and graduated together in June 1958.Roger says that so far as he knows they are the only friends that startedEnglish Creek Elementary together and graduated together 12 years later.

"We were tight," said Roger of theirfriendship. Both liked sports and girls. Roger still remembers when Hollis(Buddy) borrowed Frank's 1956 Ford truck and the two rode to Cosby together. Iwonder if Frank knew this?

Roger remembers a lot about the old school, which hadseveral rooms and a cafeteria in the basement where children bought meals for20 cents. It was the time when a six-pack of Nehi grape sold for 25 cents,bread for 16 cents, and bologna, 25 cents per pound. I think that Roger musthave been the brains of the two as he was almost a B student and Hollisprevailed more with welder and machine tools in ag classes. William Hartsellwas their teacher and was still at the school, when I taught in 1972/73. Rogerrecalled that he and Hollis built snow sleds out of white ash and burned thegrain for an antique look. It was here that Hollis became a good welder, askill he mastered and that served him well for about 40 years at Stokelycannery, later operated by ConAgra. Roger still has one of their projects fromabout 1957, and it wasn't a modified Chevy. The boys built boom poles fortractors. Roger still has the one he put together. He also is proud of a heavysteel wood stove that Hollis hand built and welded years ago. Roger calls it the"Allen Stove."

In a rapidly changing world mostly made in China is itcomforting to see an enduring friendship grown in our nurturing mountain home.