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A strange sense of humor is better than no sense at all

Do you remember the first time you told a joke and no one laughed? I don’t. It’s happened to me so many times I can’t remember the first. I grew up in a home with lots of jokes, teasing and laughter. Our mother’s family was full of jokesters and Mom kept us laughing, too. Our family’s sense of humor was earthy. Dirty jokes were strictly forbidden (when Mom and Dad were home) but we siblings joked about most anything else — a baby sister sneezing milk through her nose, accidental flatulence, even a father who stalked an annoying box elder bug on the kitchen floor to bring ...

Treating others with respect

I have always liked older people. My parents were close to many of their aunts and uncles so I got to know and appreciate that generation when I was a kid. I especially appreciate how many of those folks treated me as a kid. One afternoon when I was 13 years old, my Great Uncle Bill and Great Aunt Lena drove up our long farm lane. Lena wanted to visit with my mother in the house; Uncle Bill stayed outside and struck up a conversation with me. Uncle Bill was driving a late model General Motors automobile; I think it was a Buick. At 13, I was enamored with cars and I remember ...

Let’s take a train to Chicago

If you ask me, Webster City needs a passenger train to Chicago. The last train, Illinois Central's Hawkeye,* left Webster City for Chicago the night of April 30,1971. The next day, 182 passenger trains across America were discontinued, half of all trains remaining in service at that time. Amtrak, the new national passenger train operator ran only one train across Iowa — The California Zephyr. It was, and is, a perfectly good train with everything you could want: coaches, sleeping cars, a dining car and a glass-topped lounge car. It runs daily between Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt ...

He seldom met a meal he didn’t like

One word you won’t read in my obituary is “gourmet.” Not that I have anything against fine foods and good wines; it’s just that I’m content with meat and potatoes. Or casseroles. Or pizza. Or cheeseburgers. I wasn’t aware that people ate fancier foods until I was a teenager. By then I was hooked on Mom’s meat and potatoes home cooking which, by the way, I’ll put up against any other in the Midwest. Shortly before I left home, I foolishly began to tire of Mom’s cooking. Restaurant menus seemed more exciting. I’ll never forget the first time I visited my parents ...

What Ebeneezer Griper learned in school

My grumpy old buddy Eb Griper and I were chewing the fat in the post office parking lot when a big yellow school bus drove by. “Sure glad I’m not on that thing,” I said over the rumble. “You’re not alone,” Eb said. “I hated school.” “They had schools when you were a kid?” I teased. “Don’t be a smart aleck,” Eb snapped. “Of course they did. I went to Superior Township No. 3. A one-room school house out in the country — two outhouses, a swing set and a merry-go-round. And I learned more than kids do today with all their voodoo games.” “I think ...

The joys of fatherhood

One of the many joys of fatherhood is bringing home the occasional gift for my 2-year-old daughter. Most days when I walk in the door, she runs down the hallway to greet me, hollering “Dad!” the whole way. On those occasions when I come with something in my hand, she stops in her tracks when she sees the present and invariably asks in eager anticipation: “What is it, what is it?” Her joy and excitement in welcoming me home and her desire to know what I’ve brought her are treasured blessings. Our Lord Jesus Christ says to His disciples in Luke 11 that earthly fathers, ...