Usually, the passage of time slips quietly by, unnoticed and unremarked.

Then, there are those moments that sharply emphasize time's passage for all of us. Moments, whether unexpectedly horrible or incredibly joyous, burrow their way into our memories with phosphoric vividness.

For example, those of us alive on Nov. 22, 1963, remember with uncommon clarity what we were doing when we heard the news that then-President John F. Kennedy was shot near a grassy knoll at Dealy Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas.

On a recent trip to visit family in that metropolis, our route passed that very spot two times on different days. Each time we passed, I noticed knots of tourists along the roadway, taking photographs of passing cars or peering up at the nearby fourth-story window in the Texas School Book Depository from whence the bullets rained down upon the passing presidential motorcade.

Closer to home, our collective memories are filled with assorted images when we note the passing of a family member or prominent community volunteer, as we are this week with the published obituary of ‘Marge' Taylor, who for more than 23 years, devoted her waking hours to volunteer work in the community.

Although confined to an electric wheelchair in recent years, she tirelessly maneuvered it through the cramped quarters in the very busy and productive offices of the Anderson-Cottonwood Christian Assistance, where she had spent between 80 and 90 hours each month helping keep the organization's prodigious mounds of paperwork straight.

Then, on the first Sunday of each month, Marge's ever-smiling face could be found behind the ticket table at the Frontier Community Senior Center, collecting $4 from anyone who wanted to partake of the all-volunteer prepared breakfast that is served there as a way to defray the self-supporting center's monthly utility bills.

We also remember the nearly 16 years that William ‘Butch' Schaefer served our community on the city council and, at times, on the Anderson Fire Protection District board.

Schaefer was part of the team that hired former City Manager Scott Morgan 16 years ago and brought him north from the City of Orange. Schaefer was Mayor when Scott Morgan resigned that same post just last year to move his family to Florida where they could all be that much closer to his wife's aging parents.

Many of us will also long remember the recent Tuesday night when Schaefer announced that he would not be seeking re-election to the Anderson City Council. Schaefer wisely said that he valued time spent with his teen-age son Evan, his wife Sandy and his aging parents above anything more that he might accomplish on the council.

Schaefer did leave the door open, however, for future service at a later time, given the time and energy that such a move might entail. But, for now, he prefers to spend his spare time traveling the country as a NASCAR race official when the city limits of Anderson grow too confining.