February 23, 2012, Spring Hill Informer

The most stolen magazine in the Spring Hill Public Library: Consumer Reports.
Running a close second is People.
"People who like people..."
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Much missed by some is the now-defunct Mule du Gras once held annually in Columbia. Organized in 2000, Mule du Gras was a celebration of the mule in Mardi Gras fashion. At first a private event, it "kicked off" January 24, 2004, for the public with a parade, tossing of the beads, and food and music on the square. Funds taken in from the celebration supported local charities. The event eventually moved to May, after Mule Day, and ceased a few years later due to a lack of help in staging the show. The last Mule du Gras Queen was Spring Hill's Rachael Ethridge, later honored as the 2009 Mule Day Queen.
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Bob Stahl once worked at the Saturn plant in Spring Hill. Later on as a car salesman in Nashville in 2004, he adopted a motto to help attract future customers: "I Built Them... Now I Sell Them."
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It’s a ways off but I’ve already marked July 14 on my calendar to see bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys in Leiper’s Fork for the annual Lawnchair Theatre presentation of “Gospel in the Fork." A chance to hear “White Oak on the Hill” and “A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave” is more than worth the effort to motor the 20 miles or so of scenic road to da Fork.
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How about those bluegrass dandies Simon Slick and the Grasskickers? Columbia-based, some in the group frequent the “Pickin’ at the Winchester” bi-weekly jams held every two weeks at the Winchester Community Center basement in Spring Hill… Bruce Peden, Phain Smith, Randy Drane, Eric Ivey and Tom Winters. The group entertains Thursday, March 29, beginning at 7 p.m. at Columbia High School as part of Mule Day activities.
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The Informer is fortunate to have regional columnists who faithfully and interestingly keep tabs on goings-on in their neck of the woods. I like to read them though I am not always familiar with the people or content. I attended a fish fry in Flat Creek a couple of years back after reading about it prior to the event in the "Bethesda News" column written by Joyce Smith. I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and the people I met that day. History capsules they all are for future generations to find and sort for books, family histories, and all sorts of uses.
In addition to Smith's column, we have "Theta - From the Top of the Hill" (Mary Adkins), "Thompson's Station Signal" (Kaye Gibbs) and "Happenings in Hampshire" (Laura Hayes). There was a "Culleoka Courier" by Sherry Creps, but she was a GM employee who shipped out to a distant clime. Previous to Creps, Jeanette Richardson tapped the Culleoka community for news of note. Neapolis once had a correspondent. There's always room for more. Might we end up with a return of the vacated outposts, and some new ones? Perhaps "Berea Briefs"? Southall Slants"? Flat Creek Friends"? Enterprise Entries"?
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If Thompson's Station gets the distillery now being discussed as a future business, then the town will suddenly have a rich liquor history. That's because the new distillery, if it becomes a reality, will be near another business coming to Thompson's Station. Mars Petcare. That company started out as a distillery on the Kansas-Missouri border many moons ago. The Old Rock Distillery was located about three blocks from my birth home. As a youth I remember neighborhood dogs becoming drunk after drinking from the stream behind the distillery. A member of the Doane family was an owner. People discovered that some of the "mash" left behind in the process of making whiskey was good stuff to serve to their dogs. Doane decided later on to shelf the whiskey concept and start making dog food.