Bonnaroo
Oh my gosh, y’all. Bruce Springsteen is going to be in my backyard this June. Well, my 
parents’ backyard, really. And actually not their backyard at all, but at least in my hometown of Manchester, Tennessee. That’s where the four-day music festival Bonnaroo is on a 700-acre farm every second weekend in June. Bonnaroo started in 2002 as a jam-band gathering and now tens of thousands of fans jam the festival grounds to hear some of music’s best. The first couple years, my dad’s Rotary club helped out with parking. Now, my parents usually head out of town when it’s Bonnaroo time, although the crowds generally don’t overflow to Manchester proper. And I am sort of kind of somewhat seriously thinking of trying maybe to go this year, although tickets are at least $250 (am I the only one who remembers when concert tickets were less than $25???) and it’s hot and that’s my fifth wedding anniversary weekend and I could probably talk my husband into a really nice evening out instead. Hmm …
Newspapers
When I worked at my college newspaper some 30 years ago, we 
were in an office above one of the school cafeterias. We had rickety typewriters and iffy lighting and most days had to steal chairs from other rooms down the hall. Today, my university has a whole new building dedicated to the communication arts. I think I’m jealous. In a good way. Because if the next generation of journalists is getting support, encouragement and quality training, then I feel better about the future of newspapers. Read more at my column today in the TimesDaily, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090206/ARTICLES/902060302
About
Cathy Wood is a freelance writer and columnist based in Muscle Shoals, Ala. For more than 10 years she was a features writer and columnist for the TimesDaily, in Florence, Ala.,
Me and my messy bulletin board.
after first starting work there in 1997 as an advertorial writer and then as a clerk. Her writing has appeared in many newspapers across the country through the New York Times Regional Newspapers Group. Her areas of specialty include fashion, books, food, decorating, shopping, entertaining, local personalities and arts. Her weekly column, which appears on Fridays in the TimesDaily at www.timesdaily.com, is a humorous look at her life –- and the lives of her two 20-something daughters, four cats, one dazzlingly cute grandchild and her husband of four years, a sports editor who is kind and well-meaning but often befuddled about such things as women’s shoes and which day to take out the garbage. She also writes for Shoals Woman and other TimesDaily and regional magazines and has recently dipped her (monthly pedicured) toes into the blogging world. She’s a 1979 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tenn., where she was editor of the school newspaper, Sidelines. She also has worked at the Manchester Times, in Manchester, Tenn., and the Daily-Post Athenian, in Athens, Tenn. E-mail cathylwood@gmail.com
– John Lewis Pitts
