Articles written by Jim Stanton
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We'll see many changes during our lifetime
I have always been a person interested in history and particularly my family history. When I first started doing research into my family a distant cousin who was also very interested in family history, told me that when I talked to the older people... Full story
Part 1: A brief history of Century High School
This is a brief history of the Century High School. This history would not be appropriate without a short History of the Century grammar Schools as taken from the minutes of the Escambia County School Board Meetings. In 1901 an almost square...
Geneaology in the times of COVID-19
With this Covid 19 pandemic just about everything has changed. One thing that hasn't changed that much thanks to the internet is doing family research. I've been able to continue my research at about the same as before the pandemic came about due to...
The debate on the dog days of summer
Most of this story about dog days is from a few years ago, but with us at the beginning of the meteorological summer that runs from June 1 until August 31 unlike the astronomical summer that runs from June 20 until September 22, 2020. I thought that...
Remembering the year without a summer
With these morning being a little cooler than what most of us expect for this time of the year it reminds me of what I heard my great-grandmother (1858-1964) talk about many years ago. She had mentioned on more than one occasion about hearing her...
Camping & spooked by the Pascagoula UFO
With the passing of popular Mobile television and radio personality Rennie Brabner I lost a opportunity to tell him something that I thought he would have enjoyed knowing about. As much as I had intended to email him and tell him about all the chaos...
Be wary of scams during this time
With this Covid-19 the world is now changing faster than it ever has before. By the time this is over there is no telling what kind of world we will be living in. I will be glad when this is over and maybe we can get to what ever the new normal will...
Improvements made to DNA testing
Several years ago when I first took a DNA test to trace my ancestors only a few hundred people showed up on it that I had shared DNA with. When I checked again just a few days ago the number of people in the world that I had shared DNA with was just...
Geneology searches look different now
I have written about family research several times but I'm always finding new information about not only my family but others in this area. I got interested in my ancestors at a early age. I remember talking to several family members about my family....
More people should be involved with radio
As part of a group of ham radio operators that enjoys experimenting with high attitude weather balloons we are now getting ready to try a new adventure, this will involve using special balloons that have been known to stay up for as long as two...
Remembering the joys of Christmas
With Christmas on us I think back to some of my first Christmas holidays, like most other kids the important thing to me was being out of school for a couple of weeks. Waking up on Christmas morning and coming into the living room and seeing all...
As football ends we turn to hunting
With the weather turning colder and football season coming to a close a lot of us begin to think about hunting and camping for the upcoming hunting season. One of the advantages of living in this area is the opportunities for hunting and fishing in...
The legend of the hoop snake lives on
While doing family tree research I was working on my mother's side of the family and specifically a grand uncle. I remember him telling me that he was chased by a Hoop snake when he was young. Apparently the Hoop snake was quite common a hundred year...
Black Cat football lives on in our hearts
One of the things I remember from years ago being from Century was Blackcat football. For years after we got out of high school, Friday night during the fall always meant following those Century Blackcats to places near and far for some great...
Weather balloon bursts over Flomaton
On August 31, 2019, a group of ham radio operators sent a weather balloon up from the Brewton Area YMCA. Our balloon adventure was a huge success. The payload package contain several instruments, including a repeater that was used to talk to each...
Watching the local news leads to trouble
While watching the local news one morning before going to work I heard one of the anchors use a word that I haven't heard anyone use for years, in fact about forty years. A friend that lived in Monroeville used the “made up word” one night while...
Mockingbirds change song during dog days
It sure is hot! It's hot! I'm betting that most of you have heard something similar to this if not these exact words during the past several weeks. I've heard people talk about dog days recently, that's a interesting subject. There are several...
Remember radios are not a thing of the past
Like millions of other people, fifty years ago this past weekend, July 20, 1969, I was watching world history being made on the television. The United States became the first country to put men on the moon. Like most teenagers of the time this got...
Several new sites available to search history
I have written several times about family history. Back in the 1980's when I was just getting started in family research it was trips to libraries other places where records were kept. Some time during the mid 1990's there was these things called...
Summer is the time for family vacations
When I was growing up it was just about a sure thing that during the summer we would take a family vacation. Most of our vacations were to the eastern United States, normally around Tennessee or North Carolina. Many of the memories I have of these...
Family research like simple detective work
I have been doing family research to some degree for about forty five years or so, some people have said it's similar to detective work and I guess there is some truth to that being you are investigating not only people from the past, but also here...
Sawmill Day and car show this weekend
This past weekend we had the Blackcat Reunion at Lake Stone. I got to see several old friends that I haven't seen in many years, and some that I see almost daily. This is a great opportunity to see some friends you went to school with that you may...
Springtime heralds outdoor adventures
With spring turkey season going at full speed right now and fishing and camping starting to get on the minds of many people it reminds me of a couple of camping trips that I went on several years ago. One of them was during the opening of Lake...
Do you know where you came from?
We have ancestors that some of us are interested in past. Knowing where they came from and how they lived can sometimes help us understand how we got to where we are. When you start researching your ancestors you may find some that you will be proud...
The balloon that evacuated a navy base
This week I'm going to be telling a little personal history as well as community history that very few people know about. The main event of this story happen back in the early nineties, 1991 I...