Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
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What do you dream about? If you're like me, you don't remember dreams long enough to know what they're about. Sometimes my night dreams and daydreams run together, and then I really get confused! Hopefully I'm not the only one with these problems. I've been a daydreamer all my life. When I was in grade school, I often got in trouble for not paying attention to what was going on in class. I would sit there and try to listen to the teacher or work on an assignment, but something would invariably...
Robert Frost has a poem talking about promises to keep and miles to go before you sleep. Do you ever think about the things you need to accomplish in your day? It’s not such a big deal for me since I’m retired, but there are still days I wonder if it’s possible to accomplish all the things that need to be done. After a long winter, springtime is finally arriving. There will be lots of mowing, trimming, planting and fertilizing needed to make our corner of the world a prettier place. I still...
Recently our writer’s group worked on our own obituaries. It may sound strange, but we determined that some printed obituaries don’t necessarily match the person they’re written about. Who knows you better than you know yourself? It sometimes appears that obituaries are on file to be drawn out of a hat randomly when a person dies. Writing your own would eliminate that. As I thought about my own obituary, some needed facts came quickly to mind: Name, birthdate, parents, siblings, spouse, child...
It has been said that grand parenting is the reward for putting up with your children all those years. Some have said they wished they could have gone to grand parenting right away, and skipped raising their own children. I believe those statements both have merit. Thinking back, I have a lot of memories of my grandparents. Part of the reason is that they lived nearby, and we saw them quite often. Our farm was located less than five miles away from my Hembd grandparents, and about 12 miles away...
Christmas is over for another year, but the memories still remain. This year, for example, it rained on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I don’t recall that ever happening, though my memory isn’t that great anymore. The grandkids wanted to go sledding, but there wasn’t any snow. I know I’ll remember this rainy Christmas for a long time, but in years to come if someone asks me what year it occurred, I’ll be stumped. That’s just the way my life goes. One of my Christmas memories from an unknown...
It is said that you are as young as you feel. I have yet another birthday coming in a couple months, and I don’t feel young at all. As a matter of fact, if someone were to sneak another 20 candles on my cake, I probably wouldn’t know the difference. Oh, who am I kidding, they don’t bake cakes big enough to hold that many candles! Recently I spent a couple of days pheasant hunting with a group of guys that come to our area from Ohio every year. A couple guys in our area organize the weekl...
There are moments in my life that stay with me for no apparent reason. Some are national events that everyone seems to know about, and some are personal events no one knows about. There are also moments I can’t remember, but others won’t let me forget. I have been around for several decades of our nation’s history, and probably the first big news story I remember was the Russian launch of Sputnik. There was a lot of talk about a Cold War and a space race, but as a young boy, I didn’t underst...
Some things in life just seem to run their course. I don’t know why that happens, but it does. I’ve noticed I have a lot more aches and pains as I age, and things just aren’t as important to me as they once were. With those thoughts in mind, I decided not to work at high school track meets anymore. I’ve always been a sports fan and have enjoyed watching sports on all levels. I didn’t participate in many sports growing up, simply because organized sports weren’t part of the curriculum at the paro...
Recently my wife, Rita, and I decided to start looking for a new car. It isn’t that anything is wrong with our old car, but we think we want an SUV instead of the sedan we are driving. Our Toyota car is seven years old, has 90,000 miles on it, and has nothing wrong with it that a $9 car wash won’t fix. We do regular maintenance, have replaced one set of tires, but it rides comfortably and gets great gas mileage. So, why do we want to buy another vehicle? It’s complicated! We try to be savvy...
My parents both were savers. My dad always said, "I might be able to use that someday." If my mom would throw something away that she didn't need anymore, my dad would sometimes take it out of the trash and they would have a discussion about it. That didn't happen very often, though. One of the things I remember my mom saving was worn out clothing. I'm talking about clothes that had gone from sibling to sibling after coming from a cousin or two. If Mom determined they were worn out, they were...
I have taken a lot of road trips in my life, and some of them were even enjoyable. I was watching TV the other night and saw a movie advertised that starred Chevy Chase. He has some interesting and funny movies out there, and in this one he was planning to take his family on a vacation to Wally World while enjoying some sights along the way. They arrived at Wally World after a number of mishaps, and discovered it was closed for repairs. Boy can I relate to that! Recently my wife, Rita, and I ret...
My earliest memories of the farm always involve livestock. There were always chores to do, no matter what time of the day or what day of the week. The earliest chore I remember was washing disks for our cream separator. I was 5 years old and my sister, Darlene, was my boss since she was 6. We were supposed to use hot water, but we waited for the water to cool off so we wouldn’t burn our hands. By the time we got done, I don’t think there was enough hot water to kill any germs. My brother, Gle...
Everyone who owns an automobile knows that regular maintenance is required. You need to keep the tank full of gas, the tires full of air and the engine full of oil. People also need regular maintenance. They need food to eat, clothes to wear and a place to sleep. Growing up on a farm, I always had food, clothing and a place to sleep. I had duties around the house, as well as chores around the farm. I attended school during the week and church on Sunday morning. As far as I knew, I was living a n...
Every Christmas movie on television has a perfect Christmas tree. Usually the tree is live, rather than artificial, and it comes from a tree farm or a downtown tree lot. The trees are somehow perfectly shaped to fit into the house, and beautiful ornaments and lights are waiting for their arrival. Hot cocoa and cookies complete the perfect holiday ensemble. After the star is placed on top, the people look out the window to see snowflakes floating in the air. You can almost hear Bing Crosby...
My kids and grandkids, and even my wife, shake their heads at my choice of electronic entertainment. I have a Zenith radio that I got in 1967 as a graduation gift and it is perfectly usable. I’ll have to admit that it doesn’t fit with the décor inside our house, but a few pieces of duct tape and splotches of paint don’t bother anything in the garage. It was a good unit in the day of mostly AM radios, and through a little TLC and coaxing, it’s still a good unit. Besides, if it dies tomorrow...
attended a Parochial school located about a mile away from our farm. I graduated from eighth grade in 1963, and had not yet adjusted to high school when President John F. Kennedy was shot. The world was turned upside down, and I didn’t know what to do about it. High school was a struggle for me. I had to work hard to get good grades, especially in math and science classes. Sports were just as difficult for me, partly because we didn’t have organized sports in Parochial school, and partly bec...
We live in an age of digital cameras and smart phones. It has become easier to record history, both with pictures and videos. Gone are the days of clipping articles from the newspaper, photo albums sitting on the coffee table and carrying snapshots in your wallet. I may be a bit nostalgic, but I believe we lose something in today’s electronic world. My great-grandparents all died before I was born. The only thing I know about them are names, dates and residences that are available on public r...
The use of fences around cemeteries has changed over the years. I’m not sure what the trend is for cemeteries these days, but if you look around, you will see a lot of different kinds of fences. All cemeteries seem to have trees and flowers, but not all are fenced. My wife, Rita, and I both come from large families. Rita was the youngest of five children, and there were six children in my family. My dad had six kids in his family, and my mom had seven. Rita’s dad came from a family of seven kid...
A triple play in baseball or softball is a very rare occurrence. Though I don’t have the statistics to prove it, I believe it is more likely for a punt to be returned 90 yards for a touchdown in a football game, or for a 75-foot shot to go through the net in a basketball game. None of these things happen very often, so when they do, I remember them for a long time. I like to think of my children as a triple play since there are three of them. Justin is our oldest child, and only son. Our m...
The only real trouble I had in school happened when I wasn't paying attention. This might occur in the spring of the year, when a young boy's fancy turns to anything but the three R's. Sometimes the winter gets boring, and it's easier to think about basketball games than it is to concentrate on schoolwork. Then there's autumn, my favorite time of the year – not because school has started, but because football games and hunting seasons are underway. How can a person concentrate on schoolwork w...
I have never been obese, at least in my own estimation. There have been times, however, when I put on extra weight, often showing up on my stomach and thighs. This usually happens in the winter when I'm less active. Early one spring when I was about 14, it was pointed out to me by my grandfather that I was getting a bit chubby. That bothered me some, so I decided to go on a diet. I would eliminate sweets from my snacks and replace them with fruit. The other meals would be normal, but without...
