One photo put things into perspective.

As Saturday’s Jingle Jam 10K approaches, I’ve admittedly been getting a little obsessive. After years of letting my health and fitness decline, I made a turnaround and earlier this year ran in my first 5K race. I’ve since run two more, and several months ago decided to up the ante by running in the Jingle Jam.

It’s tough, everyone told me. The 6.2 mile course starts and ends at Evans Towne Center Park, but to get back to the finish it follows mostly residential streets with lots of hills.

Eight years ago I started another chapter in my life. Angela Blair asked Jason Smith to give me an interview for The McDuffie Mirror office manager position.

That was a very good day for me. I can’t tell you how nice it was working for a newspaper that truly cared about what was being put in it.

The next exhibit coming to the Museum will have a portion of it devoted to the 1996 Olympics. The first Olympic Torch Run originated with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and during the 1996 torch run, the relay came through Thomson and Dearing. We’ll have on display some artifacts from both Olympics. Five of the six community heroes who carried the torches in 1996 are now in the same Sunday School class in Thomson. One runner was Darrell Wells, who represented Dearing, and the other five are just by accident in the Friendship class at the First United Methodist Church.