Gleamings

What is a Gleaming, you may ask? It's what I hope will become a recurring segment: gleanings from the Advertiser-Gleam, the semiweekly (Wed, Sat) newspaper of Guntersville, Alabama, a small lake resort town outside of Huntsville. Mostly these will be items selected from the community pages of the paper, in which a local posts a column of updates on her co-locals.

PLEASE NOTE: The intention here is not to mock small-town life in general or Guntersville in particular. I just see something intriguing, evocative, poignant, or unique in the use of language in these, read singly or as a narrative. Sometimes the level of detail (or omission) is particularly striking.

September 3, 2005

ASBURY
James Earl Rians and some of his family attended a walking horse show in Shelbyville, Tenn. Mr. Rains' wife Maria is a resident of the Albertville Nursing Home.
Matthew and Courtney Davidson have moved into their new mobile home. They put the trailer on the same place they had their old trailer.
Seventeen youths of Asbury Methodist Church went skating and reported having a good time.

MARTLING
The annual gospel singing at the Ed Otinger place on the Blue Bend road will be today (Saturday) starting at 4:00. All singing groups are invited, along with the public. It will take place under the trees. People should bring lawn chairs. Fish and barbecue plates will be available. Those who want to bring a dessert or other dish should do so. This singing has been going on for many years. For more details or instructions on how to get there, call ______.
Gainnell McClendon's son David and his family live at New Orleans and they didn't have to leave their home. They had some damage from Hurricane Katrina. They had a generator to run some of their appliances.
Lulu Belue, Joyce Windsor and Betty Hammock attended the Sand Mountain Association at the New Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church at Section. There were so many ministers they couldn't preach all those 2 1/2 days.
S.J. Childress has had 3 bypasses. He is home and doing fine. S.J. and Louise had company. They went to a horse show.