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6 days ago | 
timesnews.net | Mark Rutledge
This is a shortened version of an article that was originally published on March 19, 2025, in Appalachian Places, a digital magazine published by the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University. Visit the magazine at AppalachianPlaces.org. A century-old photo album that traveled from the nation’s eastern mountains to the Mid-West before spending decades in California has returned to Appalachia.
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May 28, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
During a recent visit home, daughter, Noel, remarked about my routine of eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches without the bread. I like to put a glob of peanut butter on a spoon and smear some onto each bite until the banana is gone. “Do you still do that?” Noel asked. kAm“pC6 J@F <:55:?8n” x 2D<65 324<]k^AmkAmp 76H 52JD =2E6C[ x D6?E >J 52F89E6C 2 A:4EFC6 7C@> >J H@C< 56D< @7 2 A66=65 32?2?2 H:E9 2 A62?FE 3FEE6C ;2C 2?5 DA@@?] “~7 4@FCD6 x DE:== 5@ :E[” x HC@E6 :?
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May 13, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
“Nobody likes a braggart.” I mutter that under my breath and in jest whenever a younger and faster runner blows past me during the morning jog. They run. I jog. One thing the younger and faster crowd has in common, however, is that I don’t see them every day. Some are on the trail sporadically. Others never reappear. None are out there with me most every workday.
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May 8, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
Springtime mowing has always been troublesome for me. Between hay fever and sensitive skin, I really have no business going out to cut grass between early April and mid-June. When I was a teenager and responsible for the mowing at our house, I sometimes had to weigh the misery of an uncontrollable sneezing fit against the sweaty and mundane work of which my seasonal allergies could potentially relieve me. kAm“$@CCJ[ s25] x 5@?’E E9:?< x 42?
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May 2, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
Despite our never having been fish-tank types, my wife, Sharon, and I bought one for our daughters when they were little. Among the first batch of fish was a very aggressive one that took out every friend he had in his little glass-walled world. We named him Killer. He was black and gold with a turned-down mouth that gave him a permanent “leave me alone” expression. And that’s just what we did. kAmu@C D6G6C2= J62CD 96 DH2> 2C@F?5 9:D 7:G6\82==@? 4F36 @? 2 D:?8F=2C >:DD:@?
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Apr 23, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
Most people have had close encounters of the bloodsucking kind with ticks. The creepy, crawly, gnarly nasties hop on and it’s our job to knock them off before they can begin any extractive mining operations. There is ample advice for avoiding ticks. One thing that goes unsaid but that every human instinctively knows is that the only good tick is an absolutely-and-for-certain-dead tick. Otherwise, the little booger is liable to regenerate and go right back to work.
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Apr 15, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
When you live far from your hometown, every change in the landscape is more noticeable upon visits back. During my years of living away from Johnson City, one place that I could always count on being unchanged was Earl’s Barber Shop. Somewhere there is a lifelong customer of Earl’s putting off the next haircut until he visits home later this spring. He’ll be shaggy and disappointed, but not surprised. After 67 years of standing behind customers, Earl Rice has retired.
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Apr 9, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
Cutting the grass around my house recently, I gained a sense of what it must be like to do yardwork in Gilroy, California. Kind of gives new meaning to “working up an appetite.”I first passed through Gilroy in 1987 on a camping trip throughout California. In 1998, as part of a cross-country mission with a buddy to deliver a car to a mutual friend in Escondido, we also drove through Gilroy. kAm|J H:76[ $92C@?[ 925 7=@H? @FE E@ ;@:? FD 7@C E96 r2=:7@C?:2 A@CE:@? @7 E96 EC:A] xE H@F=5 92G6 366?
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Apr 1, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
When it became clear that my late father was in the early stages of cognitive decline, we began to attribute certain behaviors of his to that condition. I don’t think we were always correct. One behavior in particular that I often think of is the way Dad compacted his disposable packaging after a fast-food restaurant meal. It was a particularly ritualistic behavior after breakfast at McDonald’s.
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Mar 25, 2024 | 
dailyadvance.com | Mark Rutledge
It’s beginning to look a lot like a white Christmas. Unless there’s a freak blizzard, huge groves of trees in nearly every direction are not supposed to seem snow-covered this time of year. With these particular trees, it’s not a pretty sight. In the open fields and public spaces where no one is tending the land, wild and thorny invasive pear trees, offspring of Bradford pears, are taking over. It’s a growing environmental disaster and becoming more apparent each March. kAmq24< :?
