The Spring rain had been gentle and consistent that Saturday afternoon in March. The birds were rather raucous as if knowing that warming weather was on its way. Parisians were out walking, holding hands, and smiling. It had been a very long and frigid winter and all were ready for...
“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” – Rumi She was born Mary Granville in 1700 at her father’s country house in the Wiltshire village of Coulston. Hers was a well-to-do English family. She would hear first-hand the voyage of Captain Cook and be astonished by that voyage...
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” —Mark Twain Jennings Terrace operates as an independent organization at 275 S. LaSalle Street in Aurora. It received its charter as a non-profit corporation March 16, 1943. On July 5, 1943 the home opened after extensive...
It really is all right. Yes, Virginia, I have a sweet tooth. As a child if I had a Three Muskateers in my special cigar box of goodies, I was rich. I liked Double Bubble gum, Baby Ruth, Milky Way, Snickers, chocolate anything. My Father would stop at Prospect Bakery...
Maureen FitzSimons was born August 17, 1920 and grew up in Ranelagh, Dublin of an Irish Catholic family. Maureen was the second oldest of the six children of Charles and Marguerite. Her father was in the clothing business and her mother was a former operatic contralto and a successful women’s...
When Scott, one of my friends, said that he had been an engineer on the building of Symphony Center in Salt Lake City, I told my sister-in-law, Barb, in Utah. She, in turn, sent me a number of articles pertaining to that. I sent an E-mail to her son, my...
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was born September 15, 1890 and wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Her fictional detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have been read across the globe. In 1971 she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British...
Marie-Rosalie Bonheur was born March 16, 1822 in Bordeaux, Gironde. Her mother was a piano teacher and died when Rosa was 11.. Her father was a landscape portrait painter who encouraged his daughter’s artistic talents. Though of Jewish origin, the Bonheur family followed a Christian-socialist sect that promoted the education...
“Player with railroads and the Nation’s freight handler” —Carl Sandburg Railroads were freighted with destiny. Flumes of white smoke over the Rockies became the main symbol of the United Sates and its achievements. The nervous panting, that pam-pah, pam-pah, now slow and even, now hurried, came directly from the soul...
So many wonderful books to read. So little time! Here are some of the best books I read in this year. I have read others, but space constraints limit how many to recommend. • Stalin’s Daughter. The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva. An outstanding book written by Rosemary...
The tradition of a White House Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. was started by Benjamin Harrison in 1889. Theodore Roosevelt banned Christmas trees from the house because he believed that chopping down healthy evergreens for the holiday was at adds with his commitment to conservation. Of course, that didn’t stop...
I have a copy of “O.Henry’s New York” on my bookshelves and when I want a smile or two, I re-read it. His witty narration can be read and read again with enjoyment. So let us look this week at his short life of 47 years. William Sidney Porter was...
Oh, how I wish I could fly like a bald eagle. To soar as high as 10,000 feet and survey Earth. I would be a symbol of strength and courage. Or, how I wish I could be a Siberian tiger or a snow leopard or a panda. This week, you...
Welcome to the Christmas season: Full of jolly and gentle times. Here are the short bits and pieces of information to sparkle your day. Bits: Do you know which is the most common cultural activity in the USA? According to a Gallup poll, it is going to the library,…by a...
The Oswego Senior Center began in 2002 when a Senior Advisory Committee met under the auspices of the village government of Oswego. It then became the Village Commission and began to serve meals at Good Shepherd Church with congregate meal funding. In 2009 the group moved into the large space...
“Holy Mother hear my cry. I need a hand to hold, safe within your arms.” Song lyrics from “Holy Mother” My mother, Mary Ann Scherer, was born November 18, 1918 and died May 3, 2008. Her mother, Josephine, died of the influenza 1918 epidemic and my mother, Mary, was raised...
In a 2013 copy of “This England” magazine, I read about the Women’s Land Army (WLA) of World War II. It was a British civilian organization to bring women to the farms and fields to help the war efforts while their men were with the military service. The government wanted...
At least 7,000 years ago, based on archeological evidence, humans were present in the Des Moines, Iowa, and Raccoon Rivers area. At least 15 prehistoric American Indian mounds were observed in the by early settlers. City development eventually destroyed all of them. In May 1843 Captain James Allen supervised the...
Halloween tradition began with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The costumes included saints, angels, and devils. The Celts believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth on this day. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years...
It was time to visit Indianapolis and enjoy the libraries. “Patsy the Panda” was ready for her new homes there. It is a reasonable drive time at less than four hours. So off we went! Traffic was busy and crazy with cars zooming past me at unbelievable speeds. Saw no...
