Beyond 20 Gallons of Milk

Wearing a Buster Brown outfit to his first day of school in cowboy country, earned Ralph Moody, 8, the nickname ‘Molly.’ He wanted to fight the teasers, but his mother not only insisted he wear the suit, she also forbade him to fight back. The other boy pummeled him. The end of his first say…

A locked door with no key can be a frustrating situation.  My granddaughter, as a toddler, locked her room door with no way to open it. Her mom grabbed the drill and began turning the latch into metal shavings. Later her mom glued the shavings onto a tiny canvas into the shape of a key…

Decades past his retirement, my junior high English teacher, Mr. Nosky (who passed last week), still held the title as “The Best” teacher. He taught some 30 years at Jasper Central School in New York. After he entered a nursing home, a former student organized the “Friends of Mr. Nosky” Facebook page where former students…

Sticker shock at the grocery store reflects the 9.9 percent increase in food costs in 2022 and the 2 percent increase in 2023. Feeling the financial pinch, families have begun reconsidering their shopping strategies with discussions from places such as the Facebook page “Budgeting, Saving, Frugal Ways, Grocery Hauls, and Homemaking.” That popped up on…

During Autism Awareness month, the following events in a loved one’s life seem pertinent. As the third child, Lucas’ parents (Alex and Lindsay) attributed his delayed speech to his premature birth. That reasoning worked until their fourth child’s speech outpaced Lucas’. Having a brother with autism, Alex recognized characteristics in his son that reminded him…

Animal behavior fascinates me. From the window at my daughter’s house, I saw a robin in the backyard fluttering around the backyard fence tugging and pulling. What was he pulling on so mightily? I squinted my eyes before I realized he held a strand of a very long rope in his beak. That bird worked…

Eclipses with their total blocking of the sun can trigger alarm. With knowledge of when an eclipse will happen, the ignorant can be fooled. This happens in Mark Twain’s satirical novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” The main character Hank Morgan uses an eclipse to escape being burnt at the stake and becomes…

On sewing day, Enelda finished cutting out the fabric for a tote: a rectangle with two corners cut out. She picked up the four 2 inch squares and said, “These are too small for anything.” She headed toward the trash can.  “No, don’t.” I stuck out my hand.  “I’ll take m them. My sister makes…

Steve Schmidt wants your Bible. Not the one that you use every day, or the one that you take to church. He wants the one gathering dust on a shelf. He wants the one that your child once carried or the one your late mom or dad carried to church. Schmidt wants Bibles to give…

The tall step ladder hovers over me every time I enter the garage. It lurks like a bird of prey ready to swoop. It used to lean against a wall like a kid on the street corner. Then Hubby began finding a place for everything and putting it all away. The experts on YouTube showed…

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the actual experience is priceless. For instance, consider seeing the Grand Canyon. I have seen many pictures of it. Once I glimpsed the Big Hole in the Ground during an IMAX movie. That fell short of the awe I experienced the day I stood on the rim…

At times, I catch myself  daydreaming up ways to help my adult children through the typical financial straits of adulthood. I want to simply give them a house or car rather than wait and watch them learn to not fritter away what they do have. Sometimes I think, “if I helped them financially, then they…

Sitting at a table in the gym at Champagnolle Landing, we nibbled on the cake for Bill Howard’s 100th birthday. A man with a cane wandered over to check out the action. Not recognizing hat the birthday cake celebrated 100 years, the elderly man proudly announced, “Well I am pretty old. I have had my…

         The kids ran in the door with their bags of Valentines from the school party.“Look what I got!” they grinned as they emptied their bags. Red, white and pink cards with cute and funny pictures littered the floor. We looked at each card, talking about the party. Nate stopped and looked up with a sad…