For many years, the ‘Democrat-Union’ had a program known as the ‘Over-80 Club,’ where people who were over 80 years of age could get a free subscription to the paper for life if they submitted a brief autobiography.

Most of these autobiographies are collected in the books ‘In Their Own Words’ and ‘In Their Own Words 2,’ compiled by Hazel Myhan and for sale at the Lawrence County Archives.

One of the most humorous autobiographies came from George M. Mattox, who joined the club in the early 1970s. An exceprt of his Over-80 Club autobiography is as follows:

“My name is George M. Mattox. I was born in Cullman, Ala. on October 5, 1891…

“I reckon me and my old gal have done a pretty good job. We got 30 cents in money we haven’t spent. We bought land in Lawrence County in May, 1920, and the fall of December 5, 1920, we landed in Lawrence County with the little we had.

“We cleared this land and made a farm of it. We have been married for 56 years. We have never argued in our lives, but sometimes you could hear us reasoning things for a quarter of a mile.

“I am in excellent health and could work all day. I have the majority of my farm sowed down and black angus walking all over it.

“I learned ten or twelve years ago that I could take it easy and live off the interest I owed.”