Is it Groundhog Day all over again in our hometown with another blast of cold and snow this weekend, as folks beat it out of offices to the mountains before the roads got covered?

If you have been out and about the past weeks you will have noticed the state and county workers were ahead of the snow and ice with salting and scraping. They must have been working a huge amount of hours to keep traffic moving. We appreciate their efforts and begin to doubt Mr. Hog's prediction of an early spring. Yet despite the weather there is always work getting done. I saw a new structure going up for Pepsi's barbecue off Knoxville Highway.

Last week we visited with Roger Shults and wife, Lillian, who live off Friendship Road in the Bogard community. Before moving on to some other stories and things I've seen, let's complete that visit here, the unusual point being that Roger and Hollis "Buddy" Allen started together in 1946 at English Creek Elementary and graduated 12 years later from Cosby High School. "We were tight," said Roger of their friendship. Both liked sports and girls. Roger still remembers when Hollis borrowed Frank's 1956 Ford truck and the two rode to Cosby together. I wonder if Frank knew this?

Roger remembers a lot about the old school, which had several rooms and a cafeteria in the basement where children bought meals for 20 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 must have been the brains of the two as he was almost a B student and Hollis prevailed more with welder and machine tools in ag classes. William Hartsell was their teacher and was still at the school, when I taught during the 1972/73 school year. Roger recalled that he and Hollis built snow sleds out of white ash and burned the grain for an antique look. It was here that Hollis became a good welder, a skill he mastered and that served him well for years at Stokely cannery, later operated by ConAgra. Roger still has one of their projects from about 1957, and it wasn't a modified Chevy. The boys built boom poles for tractors. Roger still has the one he put together. He also is proud of a heavy steel wood stove that Hollis hand built and welded years ago. Roger calls it the "Allen Stove."

Those of you who still work on a farm, feed cattle, and slog through the mud and cold can appreciate what Hollis has been doing of late on a John Deere tractor covered with mud. And his cattle got their ration of hay and silage. I finally got to chat with him Friday night about the years he and Roger have been friends. Like Roger, Hollis worked in a plant all his life. But he started while still a student at Cosby doing seasonal work at the Stokely cannery. He recalled that his sister, Ada Hardin, who worked in personnel and hiring, helped him get the job. Hunley Keller was supervising the labeling dept. where Hollis worked. After graduation, his seasonal job eventually turned into fulltime work in the various departments whether shipping or the lower shed where kraut was prepared. A couple of seasons in the 1960s he worked on the Jack Farm. The plant became unionized and that's when there was a posting for the maintenance dept. Hollis applied and got hired along with his friend, Lucas Coggins, who died recently of Lou Gehrig's disease. Oakley "Oak" Cureton ran maintenance and many of you recall him and his son, Herbert, who became plant manager. The late Gene Rice led the dept. for years, as did Jim Hunter, who I understand has been ill these last months. In 1962, Hollis entered the Army leaving Newport with Wilbur Taylor. The two were sidekicks for almost a year at Ft. Lewis, Washington. In 1964, Hollis returned to Newport where they were holding his job at the cannery. He put in 44 years. As childhood friends, Hollis said he "spent many a night" at the Shults' home, which was located across from English Creek Baptist Church but was razed years ago. One of the highlights of school, that Hollis recalled was during the senior trip to Washington DC, when they slept on a golf course. You will probably have to get the rest of the story from them. Another interesting connection I learned about was that at Ft. Lewis, Hollis and Roger's brother, Ray Shults, served together. I think Hollis summed up Roger and their friendship when he said, "He's a good man."

In plain talk, in a rapidly changing world mostly made in China is it comforting to see an enduring friendship grown in our nurturing mountain home.

Some weeks ago we spent time strolling around Eastport and talking to Paul Gregg and others who grew up in the neighborhood. You recall that I mentioned coming across an amusing tale about Hugh L. Gregg Jr., who lives at 648 East Broadway between the bridge and the BP station and deli. I called him and did manage to talk a few minutes though he had suffered a heart attack in December that required stents placed in his heart arteries. Then in late Jan. he had a set back because of emphysema. He is 77 and not as spry as I recall from talks years ago. He mentioned several things of interest to me such as his Dad, Hugh L. Gregg Sr., operating business jointly with Col. Charles Rhyne, of the Rhyne Lumber Company family. Before I forget, here is the tale told by Hugh of an event some 70 years ago that places in time about 1940. It will be a way to learn more about the people times he shared during a visit last Thursday. He was a typical feisty fellow who carried a slingshot and befriended many folks you know and we will talk about here. A couple names he mentioned in our first chat were A.C. McGaha and Zeke Webb. "Hugh Boy" was given the idea to carry lunches down to the workers at the Stokely cannery at the foot of the hill from his house further southeast off Lincoln Avenue. Workers on the line often did not have the time to walk home and back to work and wanted a fresh lunch made by their wives. Hugh announced to his Dad "I got a job" and it required a Billy goat. Hugh Sr. pointed to a nearby lot and said there is a Billy goat. Hugh made his services known to neighbors that he would for two to five cents per lunch carry these to the workers on a daily basis on his wagon. The key was to get the Billy goat to pull the wagon and lighten his load and speed up the service. Ransom Click owned the goats so Hugh decided just to borrow one, though he admitted to his Dad later that Hugh Jr. did not get permission. "I put a rope around it and hooked it to my wagon." This part of the plan was late morning preparing him to go pick up the lunches and fill his wagon with at least a dozen. Bad news the first day. The wagon broke but Tom Edwards of Filbert fixed it in his machine shop with steel wheels at no charge to little Hugh. Let me say the bill goat was a big fellow with plenty of power that required a harness. Hugh just borrowed some of his Dad's belts and made one. "I had it all planned. I picked up all the lunches from Seventh and Filbert." On his way to the cannery he saw his friends, B.B. Johnson, Fred Johnson, the James Boys, and others shooting marbles. He tied the goat to the hedge and played a few rounds of marbles and then was brought back to his chores when he heard the lunch whistle blast. "I jumped back over the hedge" and that's when he was shocked to see the Billy goat with a tin bucket in his mouth. "He ate every lunch. It scared me to death." Needless to say, Hugh didn't make it to Stokely's that day but went home and tried not to say anything about his failed business plan. Hugh Sr. saw the goat outside and asked if he had paid Ransom for its use. Which he did not and then Hugh told of the disaster. "He whipped me and told me to go see everyone and pay them back." He learned a lesson in business and never tried delivery again in Eastport.