Category: Uncategorized

We love to hear from our family, but rarely do the grandchildren call us. So I was a bit surprised when I answered the phone to hear, “Hi, Grandma. I have been in an accident. I need some help with cash to get home.” The caller sort of sounded like my grandson, but I usually…

Last week we held a cousin camp with seven grandchidlren ages 4 to 13. Enough children for everyone to have a playmate. The first day I said, “Those dolls in the bedroom need to be dressed for donation.” For the next couple of hours the girls combed the dolls’ hair and tried on outfits. “This…

One of my first assignments at the El Dorado News-Times required me to read the old newspapers to find tidbits for “Today in History in El Dorado.” Since I am no longer in the office, I only have my impressions of articles and comments I read. I am unable to provide specic dates, but the…

For months quarantine has closed the church doors. We mailed letters and activity sheets to Sunday School students and never saw their responses. We have listened to sermons over the Internet, sung from our lounge chairs and dropped our offering in the mailbox. We have missed fellowship. Fellowship involves personal interaction like I experienced last…

The orders to stay home during the pandemic shut down the sewing group at Marrable Hill Chapel as it did at many others. Stacks of fabric, boxes of thread, bags of lace, rick-rack and bias tape sat idle on shelves. A few members of the Thursday afternoon sewing group had taken home projects to finish…

My cousin’s first hint of something amiss began with daily long distant phone calls filled with angry rants. The parents on one side of the country looked at each other with astonishment and concern as their son once again dumped his rage on them from his side of the country. They carefully asked, “have you…

During quarantine, Mother’s Day looked rather glum until I read my daughter’s Facebook posting. I well remember this test of motherhood on a sleepless night with my youngest child. Happy Mother’s Day to my mom. Probably the most accurate depiction of the type of mother she is happened when I was a Freshman in college.…

Carrot Cake recipe from Cook’s Illustrated magazine Jan-Feb. 1998 edition 2 pounds of carrots grated fine (makes about 7 coups … a food processor saves a LOT of time grating and scraping knuckles.) 1 cup plus 2/3 cup granulated sugar ½ cup unsalted butter 1 cup light brown sugar 5 eggs 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla…

Prompted by the COVID-19 threat, my sister sent a face mask pattern. She said that face masks reduced the spread of a virus outbreak in Asia. She stitched a few masks for herself and friends. I looked at the email. I printed out the pattern. I left it on the sewing table. My son asked…

I never intended to form the “Hershberger Hippies Cub.” However, with three Hershberger family members involved in falls resulting in a broken hips, the club is here for good. In January, I slipped in mud, did a sideways split, fell and did not get up. My folks always said, “You’re tough. It doesn’t hurt that…

During this time of widespread closures and slower pace of life, we are allowed, even forced, to watch how differently individuals and governments respond to the time’s uncertainties. The email request for face masks sent me scurrying to the sewing room. Cheryl Splawn of El Dorado Connections said that local clinics and nursing homes had…

After reading the following on Facebook by Gordon Bell, I asked his permission to share it with my readers. He graciously agreed. My daughter lost a tooth last week. She gets all jacked up about losing teeth because she knows the Tooth Fairy will come and leave her bucks. She grabbed a Zip-Loc baggy and…

“During spring break we will paint your room,” Sharon and Jacob promised their daughter Caroline. Brother Eli asked to have his room done as well. The little sisters’ bedroom was painted last fall. They shopped for paint and found a dark gray “mistint” paint return that Eli wanted in a five gallon can that cost…

Sewing items from yard sales overwhelm my sewing room. Occasionally I acknowledge I must get rid of something. That’s how I recently met two lovely ladies. First I met a local seamstress who alters and sews clothing. For her, I opened the door to my sewing room excess when she wanted two large spools of…

Struggling through the daily routine of physical exercises to regain full use of my body after an emergency partial hip replacement, I understand the veracity of “to truly empathize with another’s pain or joy, you have to have gone through the same pain.” As my body knits back together and accepts the bionic part, I…