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“Did you know Herbert Hoover was the one who standardized screws, board lengths and much more for industry?” my husband asked recently. “Herbert Hoover? The United States president on Black Friday in 1929? That president initiated industrial standards?” I was skeptical. I soon learned he did that and much more. Hoover, born 150 years ago…

Peggy Head has built many memories during her nine decades on earth. I have known her for about half of those years. With retirement we have shared events and excursions. One of our first excursions took us east to Jerome and Rohr where Peggy lived as a child on the cusp of World War II.…

Summer camp fun began the year I finished second grade. I went alone my first year. That year I lay on my bunk staring at the bare rafters feeling the breeze through the screens only windows and fought back waves of homesickness. By design daytime activities distracted me. Where else but at summer camp does…

At five years-old, fire burnt 75 percent of Kyle Hebert’s body. Strong pain killers got him through two years in the burn center. At 7 and back in school, classmates taunted him for his scars. Enraged, he responded with both fists flying. At 10, his parents decided playing football and other sports would counteract that…

Before our first baby, Hubby remodeled our kitchen to accommodate a stacked washing machine and dryer. In that era before disposable diapers, he knew we would need one. When the infant woke me in the middle of the night, I transferred clean clothes from washer to dryer and shoved dirty clothes into the washing machine.…

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…