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Cemetery decoration day has endured through time
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This is a photo of the Mt. Zion Picnic from the mid-1960s. The annual celebration will mark its 98th year this Saturday, Aug. 2, with live music and its traditional cake walk. - photo by Photo provided

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Susan Martalla and originally published in the Aug. 4, 2000 edition of the Southern Standard. With the 98th annual Mt. Zion Picnic approaching this Saturday, Aug. 2, the newspaper is reprinting the article for its appropriateness.

As a college student, I once took a sociology course. During the lecture, my professor began to talk about an old tradition known as “cemetery decoration day.” According to this professor, cemetery decoration days were annual community rituals where groups of people, bound together by the common burial ground of their ancestors, came together to ensure the upkeep of the cemetery.
He said often there was a picnic and family reunion atmosphere, and that in later days the main activity was fundraising to support the maintenance of the cemetery throughout the year, rather than a full day of back-breaking work. The professor went on to comment that cemetery decoration days were common in the early part of this century, but to his knowledge, they had died out.
I was stunned by the professor’s report of the demise of the cemetery decoration day tradition and immediately raised my hand to correct this bit of misinformation. I said cemetery decoration days were alive and well in Warren County, Tennessee and particularly at Mt. Zion.
 The response I received from my classmates was not what I expected. Actually, I did not expect any response in particular. But I certainly did not expect my classmates to react with disgust at the idea of a celebration at the local cemetery. One girl said the whole idea was repulsive. Another said it sounded ghoulish. The professor, sensing an opportunity for lively debate, pushed me to describe the particulars of Mt. Zion Cemetery Decoration Day.
 To start with, I said we did not call our event the Mt. Zion Cemetery Decoration Day, though in reality that is what it is. Rather, we call it the Mt. Zion Picnic.
The repulsed girl snorted that she could think of any number of places to hold an annual picnic, and the local cemetery would be the last place on her list. I told her we did not actually sit and eat on graves. We have a wonderful little church, a picnic shelter, and a concession stand that turns out the finest hamburgers ever grilled.
     The professor was impressed with the concession stand. He said it was his understanding the food at cemetery decoration days consisted mostly of covered dish type meals.
     To be truthful, I told him the covered dish portion of our annual celebration had actually died out. I remember, when I was very small, the covered dish luncheon was a highlight of festivities. Just before noon, one of the local men would pull several flatbed trailers behind a tractor and arrange them in a straight line down the center of the field next of the old church.
     Within minutes, the wagons would be spread with tablecloths and the widest assortment of food you can imagine. There was fried chicken and garden-fresh vegetables of every variety and an entire wagon full of delicious-smelling pies. The only catch was that common varmints were considered company victuals to some of the regular attendees.
    My grandmother, who was terribly afraid my brother or sister would confuse possum parts with chicken parts, would go through the line with each of us and shake her head yes or no before we were allowed to put anything on our plates.
    At this brief account, the repulsed girl became sickened. She said she could not imagine why anyone in the world would ever want to attend such an event.
     I told her it had never occurred to me not to attend. It is a tradition that has been handed down through generations of my family. As we have become separated by time and distance, it is a bright spot on the calendar, a day when we know without question that we will all reunite. There is no planning requited. It is like Christmas or the Fourth of July. When the Mt. Zion Picnic rolls around, we honor it and attend.
     When viewed as a family reunion type event, several of my classmates could understand a reason for attending. However, none saw any benefit in attending to anyone outside the immediate families of those buried in the cemetery. So I enlightened them about the other activities at the picnic, from the political campaign stops in the morning, to the gospel singing, to the bluegrass band, to the cake walk and the raffle drawing at night. They were particularly curious about the cake walk.
     I explained that a cake walk is a game played around a big rope circle with numbers on it. Just like in musical chairs, when the band plays, everyone walks. When the band stops, everyone stops. Numbers are drawn and the lucky person standing by the drawn number wins a prize, usually a cake or other home-baked item. But our cake walk has reached such massive proportions that we have been known to give away candy bars and two liter Cokes when the baked goods run out. The catch is it cost a quarter each time you walk, hence the fundraising aspect of this event. My family has been known to drop two rolls of quarters with nothing to show for it but a two liter soft drink.
     To my classmate, I may have appeared to be a ghoulish idiot. In my mind, I knew I was fortunate to have a special date set aside on which to honor my grandfather and grandmother, my great grandparents and their parents before them. I am proud to pass this tradition to my children and hopefully someday, my grandchildren. It is one of those rare rituals that links generations in the present moment.
Whether you have any connection to Mt. Zion or not, we hope you will come out and help us preserve the cemetery decoration day tradition. Where else can you have a great time and the potential to take home a free country hand and a $20 two liter cold drink? Come to think of it, I think I’ll look up Miss Repulsed in the alumni directory and see if she has any plans for Saturday.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community