Last Sunday we sang the hymn “Abide with Me”. That took me back to the church I went to in my youth. At Grace Lutheran Church in Dunkirk, we ended all Wednesday night Lenten services with that hymn. I knew the first verse by heart. The lights were dimmed so we had to memorize it. After ...

Last Friday, it was yet another foray into the piled-up boxes in the garage. I am determined to get through the last of my mother’s stored items that landed here last fall… from her last rented storage unit. Friday was a success. A friend and I emptied, sorted, and dispatched a dozen ...

Today I would like to try an experiment. Before you read this get a piece of paper and write down all of the simple games that you can think of. Many of them require a minimum of equipment. After you have made your list, then read and compare. First, I begin with a tag. There are all types of ...

Next week should be the big egg week, the week the chickens work overtime. But if I am to believe all the bird-flu news, these haggard hens have already been on time and a half – the struggling survivors of the national virus. They should probably create a hens’ union and demand to be paid ...

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the dramatic rise in autism diagnoses. In 2023, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 1 in 36 children have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a staggering increase from 1 in 10,000 in the 1970s. To understand this surge, we need to look at ...

Preface: It often takes a lifetime of interactions within one’s community and with loved ones to establish a philosophy that guides a person’s ethos for their professional development. I was lucky to come across the “we build up” theme in the summer of 1991 on the Pleasant Township ...