When we’d visit our grandparents in North Dakota, there was one item that I was locked in on finding – Grandpa’s pith helmet. Adventures seem bigger when you wear a pith helmet. At grandma’s house in Kansas we’d lock in on a set of blocks where you could mix or match the face, torso, and […]
You’ve probably heard the word dibs, like I have dibs on that piece of apple pie. Or shotgun, which you yell as you approach the car so you can sit in the front seat of the car instead of getting squeezed in the back seat. Well our family used the phrase – Tick, Tick, Knock, […]
Had a conversation with a man whose wife had recently died. She was a vibrant person – high energy and full of life. She developed dementia and he told of his daily visits, her decline, and how the disease took her vibrancy, her energy, and eventually her life. But the saddest part was he shared […]
It hit me the other day, many of my blog posts are from my childhood and none have been from the experiences of our own children. I think there are three reasons. One, I’m old so my memory skips from back to way back. Two, I’m still traumatized by their teenage and college years. Three, […]
We had a huge parsonage in my high school years. On the second level was a pull-down set of steps to the attic. One day I decided it needed to be explored and I found a beautiful pair of frames. They were solid oak with pewter trims. They were remnants of someone who had lived […]
Parade magazine comes in our Sunday newspaper and they publish an annual salary report. Every single time it comes out I say, HOW MUCH??? Miley Cyrus is estimated at $75,000,000 for the year. Seriously? How much??? Here’s some others: Sandra Bullock – $63M Beyoncé – $46M Payton Manning – $43M Top 25 baseball salaries – […]
I believe we all seek community. Dad and mom talk about the community getting together during harvest time to help each other. When I was growing up, the church and school were pretty much the only game in town so much of what happened in our life, happened there. When our kids were involved in […]
In the northwest part of my hometown was Newman’s Field, the site of neighborhood baseball games. The chicken-wire backstop formed the home plate area while the back of a gray barn followed the third base line and an alley followed the path along first base. The left field was defined by a town street, center […]
In my journeys I have met some interesting people. A number of years ago I met Abraham Lincoln. Serving at a soup kitchen in Chicago, I was standing by a stage and a man came by. I introduced myself and the man said in a very matter of fact way, “Good to meet you, I […]
I was visiting a large city for a conference and decided to go out for a morning walk. A scruffy man was walking toward me and I forgot that I wasn’t in the Dakotas and gave him a cheery, “Good Morning!” He stopped and said, “Thank you and good morning to you.” I was feeling […]