by Amanda E. West | Jun 11, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
“DO YOU want fries with that?” was a question Mike and Holly Rittenberry frequently asked customers while working at the McDonald’s on Madison Street during the early 1980s. What began as a friendship escalated into a marriage that has withstood the test of time — 40...
by Amanda E. West | May 14, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
AMERICAN NOVELIST Thomas Wolfe famously said, “You can’t go home again.” Our lives — and everything around us — change constantly. Family members and close friends pass away. Communities evolve. Unpaved country roads become four-lane highways dotted with subdivisions....
by Amanda E. West | Apr 9, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
THE SPEED limit isn’t the only change that has taken place on Fairfield Pike over the last several years. A once undeveloped piece of land is now a state-of-the-art learning facility. Cartwright Elementary School opened for the 2024-2025 school year with a capacity of...
by Amanda E. West | Mar 12, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
AVERY LANÉE Floyd slides another blue, velvety-smooth bead onto the wristlet, meant for holding keys, and lifts it up for her mom, Kelsey, to examine before she sells it. “This one’s gonna say ‘Dog Mom,’ and it’ll have an orange sparkly paw print dangling from the...
by Becca Roberts | Feb 12, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
THE YEAR was 1959. Elvis Presley and Frankie Avalon records were selling off the shelves, and the Ed Sullivan Show entertained families across America. It was here, in the era of soda shops and poodle skirts, that Mike Bone, a high school senior at Shelbyville Central...
by Amanda E. West | Jan 8, 2026 | Cover, Shelbyville
ACROSS THE aisle of the grocery store, 8-year-old Catherine Smith watched as a white-haired lady stretched her trembling hand toward a package of toilet paper before several rolls tumbled from the shelf and bounced silently to the floor. Desperation filled the older...
