“Women and Little Kids on the farm typically did the feeding and watering of the animals, but milking was generally considered to be the lot of the men and the Big Kids. In our family, the milking was done in the cow barn on our aunt and uncle’s farm across the road, because that’s where […]
“Look not to the follies and pleasures of earth if you would inherit pure, heavenly mirth; but travel in righteousness, meekness and truth, and overcome all the temptations of youth.”
– Anonymous
With age comes wisdom, or so they say. Today, I am not buying it.
I was born April 8, 1959. So, according to […]
Some of the best jokes are those played out in real life. Many years ago, my father had an uncle who had married into the family. Ed was a hard-working man who also knew how to have fun as he enjoyed life to the fullest.
One weekday morning, Ed went in to work and said […]
“I have no Latin, but as I began to botanize, to learn to call the plants around me up here on my hill by their Latin names, I was diverted from my lack of wits by the wit of the system. There is a tree growing in the woodland with shiny, oval leaves that turn […]
Life is filled with choices — some of them minor, some major — and some that just seem to put everyone in a quandary.
I was in a nice shopping center not long ago, and decided to stop in the food court area for a bite to eat. It is not only nice to enjoy a […]
For those of you who have read this column for a number of years, stories of my great-grandpa Charlie are familiar fodder. It is with respect and sadness that I write of the passing of his only remaining child from our midst.
Just two days shy of her 91st birthday, my great-aunt Virginia Myers Patterson […]
“The snow holds for what seems to be forever in the valley and in the far pasture. As I plan my garden once again, we find our patience being tested as yet another snowfall is predicted. One day, we will see the finches and know that we have survived yet another winter. For now, we […]
One of the single biggest differences I have observed between the childhood of the older generation and the youth of today has to do with food.
In rare moments over the course of a lifetime, we cross paths on our journey with incredibly unique individuals. There are those who are blessed with a wonderful dose of grace, kindness, charm, humility. I was fortunate enough to have known one special lady who encompassed all of this and more.
Hornet’s nest
I was a […]
“Winter in Missouri. The coyotes are singing almost every night now down in the hollow, the creek bed that runs below my southern boundary. Their song is a chorus of yips, yelps and barks that increases in intensity and number as more and more join in, until it climaxes in a series of howled wails. […]
