This week I visited the Kendall Young Library here in Webster City. In the past I would browse the books and look for a few DVDs to borrow for long winter evenings. This time was a bit more focused; I’ve decided to expand the resources I utilize to write this column. I settled down in ...
Early in my youth I developed an interest in radios and electronics. When I was five years old I sat in front of our RCA console radio and tuned in programs of interest. I was fascinated with the loop antenna hidden within the console. We got our first television when I was almost nine years old and I learned to replace burned-out tubes. For Christmas the year I was 10 my parents gave me a crystal radio set which allowed me to listen with a headphone. When I was 13 I saved up enough money to purchase my first personal radio — a two-transistor blue “pocket-size” radio for ...
There was love in those donuts. I'm sure of it. If you ever met Pete, you would know. The humble man who made beautiful donuts died this week, just when he was about to return from a break. Just as he was about to crank up his commercial mixer and make some more magic. Pete opened ...
Fair Week is over for Hamilton County; the State Fair begins next week. In part, this means now is the time for that annual event known as “Back to School Shopping.” This is a ritual that has grown over the years into a 2 billion website hit in .5 seconds thing on the internet. I remember, ...
School kids won’t be eager to read this, but summer vacation is about two-thirds over. Classes resume in less than a month! Before kindergarten summer vacation doesn’t mean much because life is pretty much a vacation every day anyway. And after you get a job as a teenager, summer vacation generally means work. But during those wonderful years in between, summer vacation means, well, it means summer vacation. It’s been many years since I enjoyed a summer vacation but I remember them well. (I am retired but retirement is not as fun as summer vacation.) The first hint of ...
The world around us seems to be changing every day. This makes us appreciate life’s constants even more. One of those near constants is the Grand Ol’ Opry. The weekly radio broadcast from Nashville began nearly a century ago on November 28, 1925. Thanks to cable, satellite and streaming television it is possible to watch the Grand Ol' Opry on television each week. Of course, you can still listen to the Grand Ol’ Opry on WSM Radio. I discovered the Grand Ol’ Opry on the family’s old console radio as a kid. My first full-time job was at a radio station in north central Iowa ...
