Editorials

I was 10 years old when Iranian students broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran and took American workers and military personnel hostage.
Every night for 444 days, Walter Cronkite gave an update in our living room. It was never good news -- the hostages were often blindfolded or shown in distress. Later, as many suspected, it was revealed these men and women were tortured, beaten, abused, threatened, isolated and mistreated.
I didn't understand why someone couldn't do something. After all, we were the United States of America.

Spring has arrived and Mother's Day is just a few weeks away which means the Blooming Festival is just around the corner.
Folks working on the Nashville Blooming Festival are in full swing these last few weeks leading up to the 28th event. It seems no matter how far in advance things are planned, the last couple of weeks are always complete chaos when weaving together all of the many threads involved. As you can imagine, an event as large as the festival takes a lot of team work and volunteers. The Nashville Chamber of Commerce has certainly been blessed to have so many folks who have continued to volunteer to plan the event since 1997.

This photo, dating from the Oct. 31, 1968 Nashville Graphic, shows Julian Aldridge (left), owner of Nash County Equipment Company, congratulating W.H. "Bunky" Reges on the purchase of one of the largest farm tractors sold in the area at that time. The new tractor, at left, was reported to weigh 12,000 pounds. Pete Hinton, sales rep, is shown at right.