By Aaron Bridges | Guest writer for The Sunday Column OPINION – When you're a child, you often wish your life away. You can't wait to grow up because you want to do adult things and be able to make your own decisions without someone constantly telling you what to do. Then graduation arrives. You make it to 12th grade after traveling the long road from kindergarten through high school, and now you're preparing to graduate. When I think about graduation, I see it as the moment

By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent OPINION – While not everyone is cremated, many people (and pets) most certainly are; my dog Yogi Bear is, too. Yogi Bear died at the ripe old age of 16 ½, five years ago, on June 13, 2021. I keep him on a shelf, in the memorial container I was given when I received his ashes. Some might think that’s weird, but anyone who has the ashes of a loved one wouldn’t think so. I just can’t bring myself to spread his ashes or bury them. The ot

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION — Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to summer, with trips to the beach, a lake, the mountains, or just having friends and family over to your home to grill burgers and hotdogs in the back yard, and while most people seem to forget the 1,200,000 Americans who died while serving during conflicts, but they seem to remember them more than first responders who, while maybe not in combat, definitely in conflict, died protect

By Wes Westmoreland | The Sunday Column Wes Westmoreland Listen my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of… Captain Jack? It was late May in 1775 when Captain James Jack left Charlotte Towne, North Carolina, and set out on a long journey on horseback to meet fellow North Carolinians in Philadelphia. The document he carried, dated May 20th, stowed inside his coat for protection, was of the utmost importance. And it was treasonous. By carrying the document, he ca

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION — Happy Typhoid Fever Day! You can thank Typhoid Fever for Mother’s Day. As grim as that sounds, it’s true; to an extent. The holiday, where we honor mothers and grandmothers across the United States, we can trace the origins of the holiday back to a typhoid outbreak during The American Civil War. Ann Jarvis, the mother of Anna Jarvis, who would later be given credit for creating what we know as Mother’s Day, organized Mother's Da

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION – With the war in Ukraine and the War in Iran, we are just one step away from World War 12. At least according to one U.S. House of Representative Member from Minnesota. Most others have laughed in astonishment and joked, "Where's World War 3-11, I never learned about those?" And history scholars might say "4-11" but that's because they know that World War II (that's a two, not an eleven) was mislabeled and technically the 3rd wor

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION – We all grow up learning what we can and cannot eat. We are educated by our family, friends, in the classroom, the news and because of those nifty little warning labels that have helped spread the survival of even the lowest intellectual among us (mainly me). ‘DO NOT CONSUME LYSOL.’ Unsurprisingly, there’s a history behind just about every warning label; even when food must be refrigerated or frozen. Directions on the food packag

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION — A few months ago, I wrote about the state-wide Five Hour Bingo play limit law. I can’t seem to let this one go. It still haunts me that nobody can explain why it’s illegal to play bingo for more than five hours. In North Carolina, you can drive barefoot and swim naked (Don't try it in public, but in seclusion at an uninhabited pond, or at home in your pool, is your business). You can eat while driving, you just can’t hold your p

By Wes Westmoreland | The Sunday Column | Special to The Shelby Independent Westmoreland April 12 marks the 250th anniversary of a largely forgotten, but significant date in American history. On this date in 1776, the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina met in Halifax and unanimously passed a measure instructing its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote to declare independence from Great Britain. With the Halifax Resolves, North Carolina became the first co

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column Easter was always a big deal with my family when I was a kid. As a child, until maybe early teenage years, every Easter, my family would gather together in greater numbers than we would at Christmas. Everyone would come to my parents' or my grandparents' for Easter lunch / dinner. Aunts and Uncles, and cousins that we only saw at birthdays or funerals would come for Easter dinner. It was tradition for all the kids to go play outside; We w

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR — Recently, beaches across America have made the news for their ‘Spring Break’ uncouthness. Rowdy brawling drunk college kids acting a fool, having a great time, and ruining one favorite beach spot after another. It happens every year. Maybe it’s worse and maybe we’re all just getting older, but after looking back at some old news clips, there has always been news from college spring breaks where coeds who are briefly m

By A thankful educator | The Sunday Column | Special to The Shelby Independent OPINION – Some days come and go without much notice. And then there are days that stop you in your tracks, days that remind you just how fragile and how strong life can be at the very same time. Recently, our community experienced one of those days. What began like any other quickly turned into something none of us ever want to face. In a moment, routines were interrupted, classrooms grew silent, a

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION – Feelings over facts seems to be the preferred way of doing things in media nowadays, but that's not journalism, although, that is what you see and read in the mainstream media every day and that is called 'propaganda' and 'activism' disguised as journalism, as many of you have learned over the years. Some seem to think journalism should be regulated based on what people do and do not like, because it actually does happen ever

By Sara Triplett | The Sunday Column | Special to The Shelby Independent OPINION / HUMOR – Time is a funny thing. It’s not like actually funny, but it’s one of those things you can wish away, beg to stay, try and pass, try to pause, seems to fly, all while standing by. And every year, without fail, there is a day when the world suddenly feels a little more generous. That day, of course, is the return of Daylight Saving Time, and in my opinion, the most underrated, unofficial,

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR – There’s a reason you always see people smiling, it’s friendly / warming, healthy and contagious. People are more likely to buy a product or vote for a person that smiles than not. Miss America contestants don’t smile because they want to; they smile because it makes a difference to the judges and the audience. Smiling can also be comical, depending on the situation. In the movie Elf, staring Will Ferrell, his character

By Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR – Pants and politics go hand-in-hand. They do. It’s true. Pants and politics go “hand-in-hand,” even though you wear them on your legs; I guess one could say they sometimes can help get a leg up on the competition, and other times they’ll have you tripping over your own feet, so to speak. There’s so many sayings / puns / metaphors associated with pants: Caught with your pants down Keep your pants on. Fly by

Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR – We're all critical of something, whether we admit it or not; sometimes it's warranted and other times it's just biased thought. I’m so biased when it comes to politics, yeah... that’s why none of my Sunday Columns are about politics. – Look in other publications if you want to read political columns on a Sunday. The Shelby Independent is so biased... Well, some like to say so, but they don’t read everything and they only

Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column It's not really a Super Bowl column... All I’ve been seeing and reading, this week, as far as op-eds and columns are concerned, are mostly Super Bowl this or that – and look at me complaining even though I’m reading them. That’s not a bad thing but do you really need one more column about The Patriots or The Seahawks or the halftime shows? No. There’s no more room on that bandwagon. In a post Belichick - Brady world, it’s nice to see New

Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR – A while back there were a few teenagers or college kids who were asking people in the parking lot of the grocery store if adults were jealous of young people alive today - it was obviously for a social media thing or whatever. They didn’t ask me but the answer I heard was almost exactly what I was going to say: No . And though the woman didn't expand on her answer, I'm sure what she was thinking was along the same lines as

Chuck Thompson | The Sunday Column OPINION / HUMOR – First, you have to understand that while you’re reading this on Sunday (or later) during Icemegeddon, I am writing this on Friday night, eating all my winter storm snacks and typing away, having no clue more than the weatherman on what would actually happen by Sunday. As a friend mentioned to me today, "Being a weatherman is the only job where you can be wrong most of the time and not get fired." By the time you read this.