The neighbor two houses up the road from me moved here several years ago.  I heard he had come from Russia and I found out how to say “good day” in that language, though...

My parents met around the punch bowl at a gathering of the Newman Club in Madison, Wisconsin in the early 1930’s.  My dad had perfected a southern accent and when my mother asked him...

The people on my father’s side of the family came from Land’s End, the very southwest tip of Cornwall in England — very close to the village where the public television show Doc Martin is...

I sat in an office waiting room the other day, with one other person.  The man initiated a conversation by remarking that he intended to go up to one of the local mountains for...

We turn around and all of a sudden wonder who the old dude is, sitting in the car or on the sofa next to us.  And there’s a fair chance that he might occasionally...

I went to the feed store yesterday and when I walked in, there were two beautiful, large web footed birds in a big enclosure at the front of the store.  “Hello, geese,” I said...

Do you believe that we’re all doing the best that we can?  I mean each of us.  Every single one.  It’s one of the subjects that Brene’ Brown covers in her most recent book,...

We have a bunch of deer that come and go, jumping easily over our fence when they visit.  Around the back of our property is what I call field fencing, four feet high and...

Lately my neighborhood seems to have been targeted by missionaries from a couple of different religions.  They show up sporadically, sometimes ringing the doorbell and handing out literature, occasionally stopping their car to chat...

I was thinking this morning about the telephone party lines in the really small town where I grew up.  A lot of people had phones that were on a party line — especially families...