Whether the issue is political or local gossip, there are a lot of knee-jerk reactions to commentary taken out of context. I know I was the object of a lot of community gossip when I served a church and a rumor got around town that I had refused a gun salute at a military funeral.…
Imagine my surprise when I got into college and adulthood and discovered that many of my girlfriends had already planned out much of their weddings even though they hadn’t met the man they were going to marry. Some of them had gotten the process underway and, encouraged by their mothers, had been putting away in…
It’s been 50 years since my husband Terry attended the 1965 All-Star baseball game in Minneapolis. He would have been 13 years old at the time. I’m told that tickets for the MLB All-Star game next Tuesday could be had for $300 if a person were really lucky (if you could get one at a…
I’m not certain when the word hate was introduced into my vocabulary. I attended Sunday School for as long as I can remember and, certainly, some teacher along the way must have told me not to use that word. But I don’t remember being admonished for it. It was bandied about our house religiously with…
I got called for jury duty last week. Now, for the record, I would really like to serve on a jury. But it seems it’s always just not now. Four years ago I was called for jury duty. I was working in a church in another county. Getting to the courthouse in my county was…
I never have far from my mind a certain legislator who served in the South Dakota House and later the Senate in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Marvis Hogen was among his many walks of life a rancher and hardware store owner from Kadoka. And Marvis will long be remembered especially among those in…
My high school class had about 500 kids in it. That means there were just under 2,000 kids in the school itself. When you have 500 fellow students in a class, there’s no way to know them all in a meaningful way. Many I got to know through our classwork, of course. Many others became…
I have been tempted to scoff, I must confess, at the idea, theology, doctrine, concept of something called “thin places.” The premise is that there are some physical locations on earth where the boundaries fall away between heaven and earth thus providing the visitor or resident an extraordinary experience of oneness with God. While the…
Back in the 1950s, a fishing show originated out of a Kansas City, Mo., TV station. It was hosted by Harold Ensley and the name of the show was “The Sportsman’s Friend.” It had a catchy and brief introductory and closing ditty with words, “Gone fishin’ instead of just a-wishin’.” Eventually, I think, the show…
Terry and I were 29 when we got married. I was thinking about it this week because we’re celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary on Saturday. He’s taking me to one of Madison’s premiere restaurants which I think is really nice. When we set out on our honeymoon on May 23, 1981, we had only the…