Look Back ... to plans for the first Hi-Y Youth Legislature, 1949

Feb. 18—Feb. 18, 1949, in The Star: Nine members of the Anniston Hi-Y Club traveled to Birmingham earlier this week to attend a preliminary meeting that will set in motion steps toward Alabama's first Youth and Government Assembly to be held in the state Capitol April 22-23. This statewide project for Hi-Y Clubs will give boys and girls in these clubs an opportunity to take part in the various steps in the legislative process. Bills will be written in the local clubs and club members will be elected, two from each unit, as representatives in the state assembly. The kids who went to Birmingham came back most enthusiastic about it and "fired with desire to take part in it." [In the 1970s Anniston Hi-Y groups would be a dominant source of leadership in Youth Legislature, providing at least four governors.]

Feb. 18, 1999, in The Star: "Mayonnaise" isn't just an excellent tomato sandwich condiment, it's also the word that Tenth Street School fourth-grader Amy Strickland spelled correctly yesterday to win the district spelling bee. Linda Strickland says her 9-year-old daughter has been buzzing with excitement ever since she learned that competitors for the national spelling bee championship get to go to Washington D.C. and meet the president. Amy was one of the youngest competitors in the event held Wednesday at Frances E. Willard Intermediate School in Piedmont.