So...Weeden's a Dirty Name?

Kendy Behrends, outgoing superintendent of Florence City Schools, is proposing a name change for Weeden Elementary School; she suggests Singing River, a name that mirrors the official name of the Patton Bridge. John D. Weeden, for whom the small school was named, was the grandson of Gov. Robert M. Patton, the namesake of the Tennessee River island. At one time, Florence was also home to Patton School, but that too is now only a memory to Shoals adults of a certain age.

Gone are Coffee and Bradshaw High Schools, also the victims of Ms. Behrends' view of a modernized school system. Before Behrends' tenure, F. T. Appleby and Henry Grady Richards lost the educational monuments that were dedicated to them.

Time marches on; things change. Yet change for the sake of change is not profitable. We already have director Mary Day Smith of American Legion Post 11 in Florence recently commenting that the structure was built in 1936 by World War II veterans. We doubt that most Florence City School students know Mafeking from Mahjong.

It's our history. Let's hang on to it. It's not surprising that outsiders don't care about a former cotton town with a ten percent unemployment rate, but we should. Let's hope our next superintendent does as well.


What's up with this: Sex shop on Mobile Plaza? Let's hope no one tells TK the AG.

Shoalanda