On this day, a white '57 Bel Aire with a red interior and "57 Kool" on the tag was hauled across Alabama. The owner said the car ran like new as he stopped to get gas and relief from his sciatica. A cup of grapes was dropped and left on a gas station floor, and the parking lot was full at the Funderdome skating rink.

A bike wobbled on the shoulder of a highway–the rider wore a shirt that read "Slay all day.” Cars from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee packed with bags and beach gear drove north. A car broke down on the side of the road; the passengers had York Family on their shirts. Further up the interstate, a driver walked away from his car as dark gray smoke rose from the engine. Flaming pieces dropped to the ground.

“Some guys didn't like to go on alert because it was more risky than the average bombing of the jungle. There were bad guys down there who wanted to kill us. We had to kill them first.”

Gen. Guy Hecker

On this day, clothes hung on the lawn to dry. One shirt read, "The nightmare isn't over." Children dressed as spaceships or stars and listened to stories on an out-of0-this-world literacy day. Coffee was sold from a shipping container–a business project started by a mom for her home-schooled kids.

Two women talked about turning fifty, losing their parents, and feeling like orphans.

Crowns were worn and My Sharona was played as a whole town danced to an 80s cover band. All on this day.

On this day, a girl wrote, "I love you like all fire" on her leg, and a book advised, "Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be." 

Hints of humidity returned, and gray roots were covered. Stories were told of cancer, a marriage to TG Shepard, and a necklace from Elvis. All on this day. 

On this day, a Vietnam veteran told about almost dying in a ship fire, and a tire blew out on a uHaul van. A mockingbird flew twigs to her nest, and a baby squirrel escaped a cat. 

Wisteria covered trees in the back of a pasture, and the temperature went to over ninety on a backyard thermometer. 

A man died. He called himself Ronco, and one of his last Facebook posts was: "I am enough, Who I am is enough, What I do is enough, What I have is enough- Unknown."  All on this day. 

On this day, a housekeeper greeted guests on her floor: "Good morning my loves." She gets up early to care for her sick mother and then cleans motel rooms. She said her finances aren't lining up–life is hard, but others must be struggling, too. Making them feel better makes her feel better, too. 

A college student missed a meeting because of a "messed up car." A gas station cashier said, "We've still got a little sense left, but it doesn't always go in the same direction."

On this day, a journalist tapped his cane with a gold alligator on the handle as he told stories of sitting on the roof of a cinder-block hotel in Somalia, watching tracer fire below. And of a dead body, tear gas, and chaos as Mississippi fought to keep integration out of Ole Miss. 

A man sang "Amazing Grace" to his wife at breakfast, a crop duster sprayed a Delta field, and an odometer hit 100,000 miles, all on this day.

A normal biological event for half of the population, menopause has been dismissed, ridiculed or overlooked for generations. Adding to the confusion are symptoms that vary with each woman. It can be unclear when menopause starts, how long it lasts, or the correct names of treatments to use.

“It was a loving feeling that felt like everything was going to be okay,” he said. “We call that chasing the dragon because you're chasing the first high that you ever got. You will never be able to reach that first high, but psychologically you have to try.”

Prosecutors showed pictures of Kelsey’s lifeless body on the bed. One photo showed the tattoo on her side that read, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” above a flower.

The Our Southern Souls book sold out from bookstores and online sales, but it is now available on Amazon.

There are about 10,000 graves in the 18.5-acre cemetery; military veterans are in more than 800 of them. Volunteers documenting Oaklawn predict that number will increase as they move deeper into the uncleared acres.

The 89-year-old cemetery, located at 1800 Holt Road, is non-perpetual care, meaning families of the deceased are responsible for maintaining the burial plots. Through the decades, the graves became covered by bushes, vines and weeds or upended by trees.

The veterans buried at Oaklawn served in World War I and World War II. They fought in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A diagram of a fire ant now hovers in the skyline of downtown Mobile. Located only a few blocks from the port where the stinging insect first entered the U.S., the recently painted ant is part of a four-story mural honoring Dr. E.O. Wilson.