Sympathy is extended to the family of Milford Smith in her death.
Get-well wishes are extended to Barbara Self. She has been a patient in DeKalb Community Hospital after having a stroke. Her sister-in-law, Irene Kocsis,  is here from Florida to be with her.
Marie Walls visited her sister, Lila Rector in Springfield on Saturday at the home of her daughter, Kathy Norman. Her other relatives were present to help her celebrate her birthday. They all enjoyed being together.
Lu Autry Malone, Jaylene Vanatta, Rawlin and Jessie Vanatta, Jorden Melton and Suprena Hale went to Cookeville Sunday after church and ate lunch at the Olive Garden.
Joyce Wright spent Friday until Sunday with her mother Lu Autry Malone. They all ate at the White Possum Grill in Smithville Saturday evening.
New Home Baptist Church had their hayride and chili supper Saturday evening. There were several in attendance and everyone had a good time.
Haley House visited Bettie Cantrell Thursday.
Congratulations to Faye Adkins on having a great-granddaughter. She was born in Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro on Sunday. They named her Hope Linn; she weighed 6 lb. 4 oz.
Sue Arnold visited Rebecca Ervin Sunday evening. JoAnn Pittman, Kim Violet, Douglas and Barbara Ann, Hayden, and Lindsey Ervin, Mark Violet, Spencer Stanfield, Hunter, Ryder and Mac Stanfield visited also.
Get-well wishes to Roberta Ellis. She has been a patient in DeKalb Community Hospital.
Artie, Regenia and Nickolas Daw and Noel Dowling went to Alabama Sunday. They attended Redia Summer Ford’s funeral service. She was Lesley Pease’s sister.
Kolter Kilgore killed his first deer Saturday. It was a doe.
The little spooks were nice to look at Monday evening, dressed up in their costumes. It’s good to see them having a good time.
My son, Ralph, and I were recently talking about how people stay in touch nowadays through email and Facebook.  Well, I just don’t understand it all.  My telephone is important to me, but years ago, letter writing was my means.
Ralph and June have friends in Murfreesboro who are taking a year-long trip in their boat from Key Largo, Florida to up the east coast, by way of New York City, on into Canada, and then back down into America by Chicago and on the Mississippi River past St. Louis.  From there they will travel in their boat to Kentucky, then on the Tennessee River; traveling to Alabama near Mobile and later across the Gulf of Mexico to get back to Key Largo.
Ralph said it is called "looping." During their trip, they are writing what is called a blog on the Internet where family and friends can read about their travels each day.  Again, I don’t understand how the Internet works.
I told Ralph that I have always enjoyed writing letters, even to some people that I didn’t really know that well.  Back in the early 1940s during World War II, many soldiers were on maneuvers and trained in DeKalb County before going off to war.  When I met some of the young men, I promised to write them while they were overseas.
I wrote a letter every day to my brother, W.B. Cantrell, while he was in the Army, and also kept letters going every week to eight or 10 other people.
They were not "sweetheart letters," but letters to encourage the young men while in service.  I even wrote to some of their family members. I remember one lady in New Jersey that I wrote to for a few years while her brother was in the war.
When I received letters from the soldiers, most of them had been edited with a lot of information marked out where military secrets would not be revealed.
As I think about all of these things, I am so amazed about the Internet and how people keep in touch. It seems to me that letter writing is almost a thing of the past.