It’s our birthday! This week’s edition marks the start of the 138th volume of this newspaper. Every year we reach this milestone with a sigh of relief. We made it another year, thanks mostly to all of you, our readers, advertisers and subscribers.Birthdays and anniversaries are a good time for[Read More…]
Tag: Column
The Baby Survival Package ~ Part One
Years ago, I started a tradition of giving a gift basket to expecting parents. It was for the firstborn child of couples we knew well. It started out as both practical guide and a source of humor for nervous new parents. I always asked that this letter be read at[Read More…]
Editor: Prioritizing = putting first things first
“Put First Things First! These four words cover an entire philosophy which can be applied with profit by every business leader, by every executive and by every employee.” ~ Thomas J. Watson (1874 – 1956), Industrialist, Former President of IBM Change is hard, and letting go of things is harder[Read More…]
21st century citizenship: four civic skills we need to keep our democracy
As primaries roll out around the country, we’re tracking voter turnout. Raised on Schoolhouse Rock’s cartoon civics lessons, I know that being a good American means voting. Those 1970’s cartoons weren’t wrong. Voting is the most fundamental act of democratic citizenship. That’s why it has been fiercely contested throughout our[Read More…]
Ditches are a vanishing paradise
Annette Choszczyk lives in rural western Colorado these days, but when she was a kid, the Highline Canal in Denver was her summer paradise. “To us, it was river and a playground, complete with rope swings, swimming holes, crawdads and a trail alongside it that adults and kids could walk[Read More…]
Family reunion brings wisdom for marriage
A few weeks ago, I attended a family reunion. This year, we were encouraged to share with the others how many years we had been married. I don’t know most of these distant relatives on a personal basis, so I was amazed at the number of couples who had passed[Read More…]
A closer look
“Same old, same old” and “It is what it is” may be two of the most annoying phrases that have seeped unnoticed into our daily conversations. So many of our exchanges with family and friends have become laced with cliches, idioms, or all sorts of space fillers. It is an[Read More…]
Classic toys tell a tale
Trolls are making a comeback! Toys, in some form or another, have always been a collectible, not because they were fine art or even rare when they were made. They become collectible and valuable because they were loveable. Loveable toys get loved, hard! Well-loved toys rarely survive beyond one or[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Attitude
The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand? ~ Captian Jack Sparrow We all know them… those folks for whom every perceived problem is a catastrophe, an apocalypse, the end of the world as we know it. Sometimes we are them.[Read More…]
Loose Ends: A closer look
Babies and puppies are a number one draw at any parade. Our community’s Fourth of July celebration offered so many examples once again, as a huge crowd of visitors and residents alike took advantage of the great weather. Most of them staked a claim to the few shady spots by[Read More…]
Labor-saving devices of yore
The White River Museum is a wonderful way to spend an hour or two. Teresia, Kevyn, staff and the Historical Society have organized it into a place full of ooohs and ahhhhs. I highly recommend a visit if you haven’t been in for a while to see new things and[Read More…]
EDITOR’S COLUMN: Nostalgia
Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins. ~ CARLOS SANTANA Nostalgia is defined as “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable[Read More…]