The end of the year is fast approaching and that means I will have to take these old volumes back to the back room and dig out some more. Some of them are very delicate and have to be handled carefully. It amazes me as to how much history is actually stored on those shelves.  I learned to use them years ago while writing my genealogical column.

Anyway, this week I am looking back to 2000. In fact, it is the final pages of the year that caught my attention.

In 2000, 15 years ago, the biggest news besides Christmas and New Years would have been the battle for and the winning of the state championship in football by the Tigers of T.R. Miller High School. They won the game against Fayette County 28-9 at Legion Field in Birmingham. Rayvon Howard was chosen as the most valuable player and the Brewton City Council honored the team for the win. The Brewton Standard included a special section to the paper highlighting the season and how the team earned their win.

Although it had been expected that the new W.S. Neal Middle School would be opened by the new year, it was going to take a few more weeks to get moved.

That sounds very familiar doesn’t it? Everyone thought that the new construction would now be finished at W.S. Neal High School, but it will take a little bit longer.

The Brewton Police Department nabbed a federal fugitive at the local Family Dollar store south of town. In East Brewton the police arrested a robber of the M&M store. He came in, ordered a bottle of orange juice and grabbed the cash register drawer when it was opened. Although he did get away for a while, he was later apprehended. The clerk on duty either was very brave or very misguided, because she threw the orange juice bottle at the robber and then tried to prevent him from leaving the store.

I am sorry, but if that had been me, the robber could have had all the money and I would have been happy to see him go. I guess you never know what you would do in a situation.

The Escambia County Board of Education approved the purchase of six new school buses at at cost of almost $49,000 each.

The son of a (now) local citizen was chosen to be a contestant on Jeopardy. He could not divulge how the game ended, but he did say that the show was cheap and did not spend too much on him and his fellow contestants.

The Brewton Standard had several newspaper racks to be stolen from around town. Some of them were later found, but it just goes to show that some people will do anything for a few bucks. Those racks are chained down to make them harder to steal, but sometimes that is not enough.

Local artist Brian Lisenby, along with several other artists, were to perform to raise money for St. Jude Hospital. I remember other concerts held here in Brewton, but I must say that this one I do not remember.

One difference in this year of 2015 and the year of 2000 was the fact that snowflakes were spotted all over town 15 years ago. They did not last, but at least they were seen. This year will not be like that I am sure. It is much too warm for that.

Another interesting thing that happened in the last week of 2000, was the unusual occurrence when two county deputies were carried to a Mobile hospital to be treated for histoplasmosis. Now this is a decrease that is caused by the droppings of bats. The two deputies were involved in a search for a suspect that led them into Sander’s Cave. While searching the cave, the two were exposed to bat droppings causing them to have to be treated for histoplasmosis.

Now that doesn’t happen every day.

Also in the last week of 2000, a traffic accident at Douglas and McLellan knocked out power in that part of town for seven hours. All things considered, I imagine some homes were getting a little chilly after seven hours.

Let’s meet again next year and look back to more memories from the past.