Both Hazel and I were raised as country kids. Hazel was raised on a farm in Shiawassee County. My folks moved every two years to farms west of Durand, where Dad worked on the railroad. But we never had Durand as a hometown The reason: Durand was the second largest railroad center in Michigan, which […]
The media, politicians, medical interests — in fact the whole world — is taken up with abbreviations. They’re like those hand-held gadgeteers who brag, ‘I’ve got an app for that.? Sitting here in front of my screen, I came up with my own abbreviation. FFOC Fastest Finger On Clicker. There’s more and more stuff that […]
A long time ago publishers of The Old Farmer’s Almanac had The Oxford Leader on its mailing list. Which means each year, I got a free copy. I don’t know why they quit, and I don’t know why I didn’t start buying it at the local drug store. Daughter Luan brought me the 2015 Old […]
Recently President Barack Obama asked each of we U. S. citizens: ‘Are you better off today than you were six years ago?? Others have asked the same question. But it’s such a broad question there can be no single answer. What does the president mean: better off? Does he mean financially? Health? Securer? More comfortable […]
If you stop exercising, start cigarette smoking, discontinue your prescribed cardiac medications, and increase your daily intake of high calorie and fatty foods, you’ll definitely have enough retirement money to last you the rest of your life. * * * A father buys a lie detector robot that slaps people when they lie. He decides […]
Several years ago I asked in a Jottings, ‘Why do so many tv sports stations have so many people covering a football game and reviewing every activity during every play?? In the beginning, they were said to add ‘color? to a game. Now, there may be three people at microphones in the booth and an […]
I was born and raised a country boy on a farm without tractors, plows or cultivators, but with a mother who learned the ways of a farmer’s wife. Which means her Albion College degree didn’t help much in the kitchen. Of course, my dad’s University of Chicago degree didn’t help him until several years after […]
Back in the 1970s, we put an awful lot of thought into building our Oxford Township home. We thought of things like a 2-car garage, garage door to the lower level and even an outbuilding with wide garage-type doors. At the time, we had two cars and lots of covered space. We couldn’t possibly have […]
Many times during the pre-election days, I worried about the future of television. After all, the air was filled with political stuff, so where was the money going to come from to assure tv’s survival? Thank goodness the lawyers took advantage of spaces to tell us they have court time to help about ignition problems, […]
I was born August 10, 1926. And, contrary to most American’s perceptions of Christmases from the mid part of the last century, it wasn’t all like the black and white movies of the time. For my first 10 or more years, no one in our home said, ‘Merry Christmas.? My father was a Jehovah’s Witness. […]