A Happy New Year to everyone.
    I have intended to write again but kept putting it off. I always read the column first. It is interesting to read something instead of death and destruction and sordid news. The letter from Mrs. Lora Moore of Jasper interested me, as it brought back memories of days gone by.
    She spoke of her mother being a Rutledge. I live two miles from the old Rutledge homestead. It was a double log house. I think Jeff Rutledge lived there. When I was a girl I remember Mrs. Daniels. I knew her as Darthula.
    These folks attended church at Cave Hall. We lived near there.
    I remember a few years ago visiting a small burial plot near here. On one of the tombstones was an unusual inscription of a young bride. She was a Rutledge. It gave the date of her marriage and death but not of her birth.
    Yes, these old timers are fast passing on. They worked hard to make this a better place for us to live and enjoy and those who are left should not be forgotten. They wanted their children to have things better than they.
    I wouldn't want to trade our way of living now for times back then. I do believe most folks were happier and more contented than folks are today. The mode of travel was slow and it seems nobody was in a hurry.
    I remember families going to spend the night with neighbors. It's not done today. My grandmother was a pioneer woman and it was very interesting to hear the stories she would relate of her life and those she came in contact with. I wish I had written down all the experiences she told me. It would have made an interesting book.
    The old log houses are being torn down, for time has caused many to decay. Those old houses had a fascination for me. I tried to picture in my mind the people who lived in them, what hardships they experienced, also the happy times they had together as a family.
    Let's love the old folks who are still living, visit them, and discuss with them the living conditions of their time. If we compare them with times now, I'm sure it will make us appreciate the progress that was made and is still being made for others to benefit and enjoy.

Mellie Cole
January 1956