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Columns

  • Grateful for their service

    The black and white picture of the B-24 on the front of the time-worn postcard caught my attention. I flipped it over to find my dad’s barely legible handwriting, smeared as it was by an aged water stain. It was postmarked, Dec. 12, 1944, from San Marcos Army Air Field, San Marcos, Texas.

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  • Are you a good citizen? Take the test and find out!

     

    We all like to think of ourselves as patriotic, and good American citizens.
    When they play the national anthem at a sporting event, we stand up and remove our hats. When we say The Pledge of Allegiance, we put our hand over our heart. We’ve always done these things because we were taught as children they are the proper thing to do, and they are ways to show respect for our nation and its treasured symbols.

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  • Vacation without Cindy

    . . . is seldom a vacation.

    Cindy couldn’t go on our annual pilgrimage to Dollywood this year in Gatlinburg due to her new job.  I hated that, but she sure didn’t.
    For some reason the idea of missing out on walking all day in 95-degree heat with a pack of howling kids while going from ride-to-ride that astronauts would think twice about getting on didn’t seem to bother her.  I warned her how lonely it would be in the house all by herself for five days, and her smile just seemed to get bigger.
    Go figure.

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  • Moving Mom and Dad

    As I walked away from the emergency room, I felt a heaviness for my friends who had just brought in their elderly father. They were rightly concerned about his health issues. But their dad wasn’t. In fact, he was angry that his adult children had insisted on admitting him to the hospital.
    There he rested on the gurney, pouting because he wasn’t home. His lower lip was turned up, childlike, which enhanced the scowl on his face as he weakly waved me away.
    It’s not easy parenting parents.

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  • A great night at the ball park

    “When they start the game, they don’t yell, ‘work ball.’ They say, ‘play ball.’”
    Willie Stargell, 1981

    And play they did.
    “The Big Red Machine” rolled out to Idle Hour Park the other night for a softball battle with the mighty Braves. The Reds and the Braves are part of the 11-and-12-year-old girls’ softball league, and it was a heck of a game.
    The Reds were led by pitcher Elizabeth Medley, and the Braves by pitcher Anne Tayler Redmon.

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  • Pornography: Unplug the drug

    Why did the news that the Osama bin Laden’s residence contained a sizable amount of pornography grab our attention? After all, our culture is saturated with pornography; it’s everywhere; it’s even an accepted part of life for much of society.  

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  • Looking at Earth Day history

    The first Earth Day was officially held on April 22, 1970. However, this day evolved over seven years when Sen. Gaylord Nelson in 1962 encouraged President Kennedy to spotlight the environment in the U.S. At  Sen. Nelson’s urging, President Kennedy, in 1963, went on a five-day 11-state conservation tour and planted the seed for the eventual Earth Day as we know it.

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  • Dandy Dan and Fat Sam

    “If it was raining brains, Roxy Robinson wouldn’t even get wet.”

    Fat Sam

    Bugsy Malone Jr. and his hoodlums are riding into Springfield’s Opera House on May 13 and 14 at 7 p.m.
    This play is being performed by the Bluegrass Kids section of the Central Kentucky Community Theatre group. All 26 youngsters in this play are from local elementary schools and adjoining counties as directed by our own Jan Fattizzi.

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  • A musical spectacular

    “Music speaks what cannot be expressed
    Soothes the mind and gives it rest
    Heals the heart and makes it whole
    Flows from heaven to the soul.”

    Unknown author

    One thing that always irks me is when people feel like they have to leave the county for fine entertainment. You know what I mean? It’s as if it can’t be good or you can’t have great talent if you come from here. Baloney.

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  • Open your home to an exchange student

    4-H International Programs have given thousands of youth and families through the years and throughout the United States the opportunity to open their homes to an exchange student and their lives to the world.  Washington County has a rich tradition in the past of hosting exchange students both, nationally and internationally.

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