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Can’t control vanishment powers

I was about 6 years old when I discovered that I have an extraordinary talent for making things disappear. I owned a Barlow jackknife that had both a long blade and a short blade. This meant that I was prepared for anything from fending off a ferocious tiger to cleaning my fingernails. That pocketknife was my constant companion. One day I decided to try my hand at whittling, having found a funky stick that looked as though it could be carved into a likeness of the Statue of Liberty. I reached into my jeans pocket and found… nothing! Well, not exactly nothing. There were a few old ...

Prep for your field dog this fall

While soaking up the last rays of the summer sun on the cabin deck and watching the boat of four anglers explore the breakline just out from the dock, that familiar loud “slurp, slurp, slurp,” of my old lab drinking water broke the afternoon silence. Of course it wasn’t from the ...

Learning never ends

Well, here we go again. It's the beginning of a new school year which invites us all to learn something. For you parents with children going back to school, I can hear you taking a few deep breaths to calm yourselves. A new learning year not only has classroom teaching, but also includes sports, music, theater and speech events to name a few. Speaking from personal past experience, it got a bit hectic now and again, but it was so rewarding. We parents got to watch our children expand and develop all types of passions. Yes, at times, the family schedule got crowded, but so what? Our ...

Getting history straight during trip to Europe

When I write one of these, it’s like sewing a rug. I take a bunch of ideas and stitch them together till I have a column that I can shake outside and put on the floor. Today, I have a lot of loose ends. These are remnants from our trip to Europe in June. Instead of rug, it might come out looking like a bunch of rags. We spent a week in the Czech Republic and a week in Poland with two daughters, a son-in-law, and a 10-year-old grandson. Part of that was seeking ancestral places. Part of it was touristing. Both those countries were behind the Iron Curtain 50 years ago when I ...

Railroads anchored the economy of rural America

In our local area Labor Day corresponds to railroads and Tracy’s annual Box Car Days. It’s a very appropriate connection because of how railroads shaped our region, its farms and our communities. Development happened quickly in the late 19th century. It was spurred by rail expansion. Our town street configurations were based on railroad designs. We had through towns with development on both sides of the tracks and T-towns, which had a street parallel to the tracks and a Main Street branching off. Residential blocks were laid out on both sides of the business district. There ...

Country School Kids – Larry Van Moer – Special days at District 64

We have been learning about Larry Van Moer, the second of five children born to Marie (Marcotte) and Herbert Van Moer. Larry and his siblings grew up on their family farm north of Amiret. Larry attended the nearby District 64 country school. He estimated their average enrollment at 15 ...