Twenty years ago, in 1998, The Atmore Advance had several stories on the front page.

Leading the news was the announcement that the Escambia County Superintendent of Education, Curtis Ray Parker, was planning on retiring at the end of the summer. He began his career in education in 1959 and had served as the superintendent for the past five years. The school board did not have a replacement for him at that time.

Two Atmore men were charged with murder in the death of George Henderson. The men were David Allen Wingard and Earl C. Gray, who were charged after a shooting incident in the Stallworth Cemetery using a small caliber pistol.

In another case, Chester Hadley, of Atmore, was found guilty in the death of Henry David Huckabee, of Nokomis. He received a sentence of 21 years for the offense.

Nancy Helton and Mike Digmon were the co-chairs for Relay-for-Life which was planned for June 9, 1998.

This is a worth while event every year and is meant to raise money for the American Cancer Society Relay-for-Life.

Judge Hugh Edward Rozelle died after a long life and a long-time career as a judge and legislator. He served Escambia County for more than 50 years.

A shooting incident at the Atmore Dragway left two people dead and one person charged with the crime.

There were 500 to 600 people at the races at the time.

Now the shooting was bad enough, but to have it while that many people were in the area was something else. It could have been so much worse.

A two car wreck at the corner of Presley and Cypress Streets sent four people to the hospital. Neither driver failed to stop at stop signs.

Watch those signs. I remember not too long ago I forgot to stop at a four-way stop. Thank goodness, no one was coming.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management announced that a grant of $285,000 would provide 5,000 weather radios for Florida schools so they would be able to track bad weather in the area.

I saw a write-up on the opinion page of The Atmore Advance by Michele Gerlach. It read like she was leaving and Ryan Carter was coming to the newspaper.

She wrote about the things she had enjoyed the most.

She said she loved the stories she heard from old timers and she told of the large vegetables, snakes and deer heads that have been brought by the newspaper over the years. I can attest to those things too. I have seen huge cabbages, turnips, watermelons and pumpkins. I can’t count the times we have gathered outside the office to see some weird thing that someone brought in.

Mary Smith Biggs was honored on her 90th birthday by her children. She wrote a community column for more than 50 years for The Atmore Advance and The Baldwin Times about the goings-on in the little community of Lottie.

I know her daughter and have heard some of the good things said about her mother. If she was as nice as her daughter, she was a treasure to know.