Stories from Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Area teams prepare for hardwood tournaments (12/18/12)
For high school basketball and wresting fanatics, next week's holiday tournaments offer a small piece of sporting bliss. Monett, Verona, Pierce City and Purdy High Schools will compete in three different tournaments playing a combined 28 games in a short 96-hour period...

My Christmas story (12/18/12)
It's February, 1962. As a 14-year-old girl, I sat on the floor in front of the cast iron wood stove, inside our unpainted, mostly unheated cabin in the woods near Noel, Missouri. As I put the kindling in the stove, I stirred the coals and watched the flame ignite. Looking deep within the fire, I vowed then and there that "I will rise up from whence I came."...