Author: Living 50 Plus

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus Armed with a popcorn machine, chicharrónes, hot sauce and drinks, Maria Gonzalez set up her booth at Decatur’s first Dia de los Muertos celebration last year and waited. Soon, thousands of people flooded the streets of downtown Decatur and Gonzalez sold out within 45 minutes. The sight of the altars, the people dressed

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus In 1985 or 1986 — Wade Weaver can no longer remember which year it was for certain — he took a meeting with Trudy Grisham, who was then the president of the Decatur Morgan Hospital Foundation. In his small office in the Church Street warehouse he rented while starting Decatur’s Valley Budweiser distributorship,

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus Joyce Webster remembers the day 24 years ago in detail when a little girl with a baseball cap covering her bald head walked across the horse arena toward her. “She was so white and thin. She told me, ‘Before I die, I’d like to ride a pony,’” Webster recalled. When Webster asked the

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus Standing in his workshop, Linton Barron ran his hand across a plank of maple and admired the grain in the wood. “Look at this. Isn’t it just beautiful? This is all the good Lord’s work. He is the one who made this beautiful piece of wood,” Barron said. “I’ve always just been so

By Zane Turner | Living 50 Plus Impersonation scams and other types of fraud targeting older residents have become a problem, Decatur police say, and one scheme cost a local senior $150,000. Michael Ferguson has been a detective in the Decatur Police Department’s financial crimes unit for six years and said he sees people lose money from scams “more often than

By Deborah Storey  | Living 50 Plus Earnest Lee of Morgan County enjoys participating in a few — well, really most — of the activities in the Masters Games of Alabama, a sports competition for seniors.   “I play dominoes. I play checkers. I play three-on-three basketball when they have it. Sometimes I can’t find a team to play on,” said

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus Eleven years ago, a small group gathered inside the Carnegie Visual Arts Center to discuss ways to raise money for the nonprofit arts center. From that meeting came an idea for a Mardi Gras-style fundraiser. They called it Carnegie Carnival, which has become one of the most popular events in Decatur, attracting thousands