Since 1984, Huntsville's WLRH public radio station has given local writers three minutes every Monday morning to read whatever they chose, to show their lives in the beautiful Tennessee Valley. These are their stories from the remarkable year of 2021: The boy who felt the world change when Yuri Gagarin left the Earth. The wild boys from the hills who thought parrots were painted pigeons. The Madison teenager who is Indian in appearance but All-American as she travels the world. The flamboyant woman who insisted that her friend's coffin be large enough for her headpiece and ball gown, only to find it would not fit in the grave. A bittersweet tribute to our Zoom romances this year. And the sense of loss that can be preserved in a simple turn into a big box store. And much, much more as fifty-plus very vivid stories by Tennessee Valley writers try to make sense of it all.