In 1994, 25 years ago, the old year was slipping away and baby New Year was taking its place.

Before the end of the year, we all have to go to the courthouse and pay our property taxes. If they are not paid by Dec. 31, we get put on the naughty list. I am exempt from the tax list as I have a homestead exemption, but I always find myself waiting until the deadline to get it taken care of. By the time you read this, you will be on the naughty list. Oh, they will give you more chances to pay the taxes, but your name will be printed in every local newspaper, so hop to it before too much time passes.

Atmore opened a new trash landfill, but only yard waste and inert debris and rubbish will be accepted.

Doctors in the area were seeing a lot of illnesses.

The word, flu, had been used but the doctors said it was a combination of several things. While the word flu was being tossed about, Dr. Mark Robinson said most of it was just bad colds, which he labeled “the crud.” He had been seeing a larger number of patients showing up at his office and instead of seeing 20 patients regularly, with these symptoms, he was seeing around 40 patients.

The Brewton Police Department and Police Chief Grover Smith were asking for volunteers with four-wheel drive vehicles and horses to help in the search of a missing woman, Kimberly Kirk. In a later newspaper, 400 volunteers turned out to help look for the missing woman, but she still hadn’t been found.

There was a featured story about Alyne Barnes and the quilts she was making. She said she started with one for each of her children, and then she made one for each of her grandchildren and then for her great-grandchildren. She guessed that she had probably made some 126 quilts.

There was also a feature story on a man who found out he had a half brother he did not know about. The Atmore Advance ran an article telling how the brother in Lubbock, Texas, was found and he was so excited he made the trip from Texas to meet with the rest of the family.