It’s good to be back. The flags are flying proudly, snapping in a wonderful Iowa breeze. I’m enjoying that first cup of early morning coffee, waiting for the sun to slowly light up Our Neighborhood with long shadows, turning the acres of grass to brilliant green. The birds are just waking, ...

Dang … I missed it. National Doctor's Day was observed on July 1 and I missed it. This annual observance, which is new to me, honors the dedication and contributions of doctors to society. I’m a supporter. As I grow older I am appreciating medical doctors more each year. Sure they get ...

Murray would have loved every minute of it. I was a few years too late to meet the original Murray McMurray, but from what I have learned about him over the years tells me that he would have thoroughly enjoyed and approved of every minute of the inaugural Murray Fest Midwest held this past ...

My first wife, Cindy, and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in 2009 with a trip to Niagara Falls. It was an attempt to compensate for the low-budget honeymoon we experienced in 1969 when we were a pair of nearly broke newlyweds. The year 2009 was about the time that a few friends our ...

People who study those things tell us that the sense of smell is most closely related to our memory. An odor or fragrance can trigger a memory more quickly, they say, than sound, sight, touch or taste So it is with the smell of fireworks. For me, the first whiff of an exploding firecracker ...

What’s hardbound, full of photographs and more embarrassing the older it gets? Your school yearbooks, of course. Can you believe that you ever looked like you do in your school yearbooks? Flat tops, DAs, “cat-eye” glasses, bee-hive hairdos. I came across my old high school ...