Creating memories

July 25, 2025

Last weekend my family and I traveled south for my granddaughter’s wedding. She married a man she met at PSU. He grew up south of Pittsburgh. They have dated more than six years. When she graduated, he followed her to Texas while she went to Texas A&M Veterinary School. He worked in Houston, while she went to school. Carly chose to honor family memories during her wedding. She chose to wear my wedding gown which I walked down the aisle in more than 58 years ago. She had it professionally cleaned to whiten it. Her mother also wore the same dress more than 30 years ago. For pictures ...

Rounding Third: Caterwauling in the great outdoors

July 24, 2025

Finian, our Maine Coon cat, longs to be outdoors. He sits in the windows staring at the birds, the occasional chipmunk, and the resident bunny family. He paces, his huge furry tail swishing with urgency – the same swishing he displays as mealtime approaches. We have to work at keeping him safely indoors. Finian is not a warm and fuzzy personality. He’s loyal, just not cozy. He wants to be where I am, just not on me. When I head to the kitchen to prepare dinner, he follows. He follows me to bed at night, requiring five minutes of head and neck scratching before curling up behind my ...

View from Hickory Heights: Camping memories

July 18, 2025

Last week when I wrote about making coffee with lemon water it reminded me of the times when the family camped and had campfires. The campfires came first. Often, we went up on our hill. There was a spot where the trees opened up into a nice spot for a campfire. I remember when Todd had a friend come with animals for him to treat and we went up on the hill for a fire. What a nice evening. At that point we all came down to go to bed. The children camped with friends up on the hill too. They came down for breakfast. I recall one morning when I made pancakes because that was all I had ...

Speed demon no more with chores

July 17, 2025

Speed demon no more with chores Last week, I wrote about travel, the gift of a lifetime. This week, we’re time traveling, and I don’t mean science fiction. This involves the cold, hard facts about time flying at warp speed. And I’m mad about it. Just when we finally need life to slow down – so we can keep up – time revs its engine and almost takes off without us. The nerve of Mother Nature. Most days I think of her as wondrously talented. But now, there are times when she is downright mean. Take birthdays for example. When I was a kid, weeks crawled slowly to my ...

U.S. coming up short as great melting pot

July 12, 2025

By JAMES SPANGLER, OD A short time ago Times Observer ran a well deserved front page article on the book Rory Land by friend and Warren Area High School classmate TM Gay. It was about the ups and downs of a golfer, but also an honest look at the social mess of Catholic Ireland and Protestant England and the chunk of land in between Northern Ireland — Rory’s Land. England’s history is checkered with swings from Protestant to Catholic, acceptance to hatred, shifting to the whims and beliefs of royal regimes. The oppression of Catholics by Protestants was every bit as ...

Times have changed

July 11, 2025

I got a message on Facebook that said – and I am paraphrasing here- If you grew up in the era where you went out each morning and did not come home until dark you grew up in the best of times. I think that is true. When I think back to the way it was when I grew up, I am in awe of the things we did. When I got up, I had chores to do first. When they were done, I was allowed to do whatever struck my fancy. I had many neighborhood friends – boys and girls. We all played games together. In the evening when the weather got cooler, we often played kick the can. Someone raided their ...