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Gone but not forgotten

Each summer my family — siblings and their families — get together in a town park back home in northern Iowa for a big potluck dinner and an afternoon of conversation. For many years we met at Christmastime but the family has outgrown most of the potential indoor spaces. Summer reunions can better handle all the many Huismans. In addition to the opportunity to see my siblings and their spouses, I enjoy seeing my nieces and nephews and their families. They are all great people. At each year’s reunion, however, an important someone is missing. My oldest nephew, Mark, died in a ...

Is Bigfoot for real?

A few years in the news business transformed this naïve country boy into a skeptic. I want proof. Journalists live by the creed: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Over the decades sources have told me incredible stories that, upon investigation, proved to be nothing more than a rumor or a straight-out lie. In retirement I watch the YouTube channel on television and of late I have seen some fascinating programs about Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch) — a large, hairy creature believed by some to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest ...

The fall

I fell last week. It’s not the first time, but this time I had a cake in my hands and, boy, was it a mess. I stepped on stones I couldn’t see and they rolled on the concrete like marbles. As I hit the ground, I thought, well, at least I’m not alone; it’s Market Night and there are people everywhere. Someone will surely come help me. But no one did. I was hurt, bleeding and embarrassed. I had vibrant green and blue icing from my nose to my chest, and I was holding back tears. But the cake only lost a bit of the frosting, and the plate didn’t break. So slowly, after ...

A euphemism is an agreeable expression

Okay, I will admit it: I enjoy studying euphemisms. Euphemisms are those words we use as a substitute for a word that may be unpleasant or offensive. Many years ago, for instance, a proper farm wife wouldn’t say “boar” or “bull.” She would euphemize with “the male animal.” The late British raconteur Quentin Crisp described euphemisms as “unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.” Euphemisms pop up early in our lives as our parents attempt to prevent us from embarrassing them. Often the euphemisms parents teach their little ones are more embarrassing than the ...

Has it really been eight months?

My plan was to give a six-month update into how the position of sheriff has been going, but when I looked at my calendar and it was already August, I think I finally realized that time was slipping away from me as fast as I could think. I wanted to give the citizens of Hamilton County an update on what we have accomplished at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in my first six months, but now that is eight months. But it has been an incredibly busy and productive eight months. We have accomplished a lot, and I have nothing but praise and admiration for the staff that has been ...

Friends and explosions

As we near the 80th anniversary of the explosion that ultimately convinced the Japanese that World War II was lost to them, I am reminded of another, far less volatile explosion, that perfectly illustrates the relationship between the Curtis family and the Dinsdales. Dad, as in my father, Leonard Curtis, returned from the Pacific Theater of the war having served with the Air Apaches, the American 345th Bomb Group. It was, according to military historian Jay A. Stout, “legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the ...