I want to take this opportunity to thank, and draw attention to, those men and women who have served all of us by giving of their time in this life to the safety and security of each of us. All of them have, in their lives, taken an oath. The words have changed a bit over the years, but the ...
After landing a new job earlier this year my daughter moved from Wisconsin to the Twin Cities. A recent trip to visit her in her new home brought back memories of the first time I drove in the Minnesota metroplex. It was the spring of 1966 and I was an 18-year-old high school senior living in north central Iowa, nearly four hours south of the Twin Cities in the days before I-35 was completed. I had a summer job lined up at the county seat radio station IF I could obtain my FCC license. In those days one needed a Third-Class Radiotelephone Operators License to perform basic radio ...
It’s that time of year. At least it was until today. You’ll have to remember back a week, because I write these articles a week ahead. It’s been a beautiful fall, trees in all their colorful glory, shining brightly in cloudless blue skies. Temperatures that make it difficult to choose ...
At a local supermarket recently I was asked by the clerk how I was doing. “I’m doing well, thank you,” I responded. The gentleman in line behind me said, “You said it correctly. That’s how it should be stated.” “What?” I asked. “The clerk asked how you were doing and you said ‘well’ instead of ‘good,’” he explained. “That is the grammatically correct way to say it.” I wasn’t sure how to respond. “Thanks,” I finally said. “I had a great English teacher in high school who stressed things like that.” English — what a language. I’ve ...
I remembered an important lesson last week during Career Day at Webster City High School. Standing at the front of a room that was once my history classroom, when Coach Dick Tighe was my teacher, I recalled for the so-much-younger students whose attention I wanted to deserve the favorite story ...
Being an historian, even an amateur one like myself, so much time is required to collect the information on a subject or person you want to write about. I can remember, vaguely, those days before the advent of the Internet, when travel and time scouring, reading and taking notes seemed ...
