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The years pass but the impressions still remain

The 1964 death of Kitty Genovese profoundly affected my life. I never met the young woman, but her name has lived in my heart for 60 years. So, when CBS Sunday Morning mentioned her name last weekend, it got my attention. Big time. I sat straight up in my recliner. The show airs a short history piece each week. This past Sunday, the segment highlighted the February 16th anniversary of 911, our emergency number. Much of the urgency toward creating a centralized crisis line was fueled by the high-profile rape and murder of Genovese in New York City. In March of 1964, the New York ...

Making whine from sour grapes

We in Chautauqua County know all about grapes and wine, and for more than 150 years we supplied the world. But now we have a new product from individuals in CHQ who have perfected the art of Making Whine from Sour Grapes. The Sour Grapes were grown in the soil of the November election, where the Left’s “sharp-as-tacks” candidate got beat by a convicted felon, simply because the felon’s policies didn’t insult working Americans like policies of the Left. Hope now exists to eliminate the Marxo-Fascist parasite we have endured for 12 of the last 16 years. Whine-makers ...

View from Hickory Heights: Fact of longer lives

In one of my old cookbooks, I found this quote about the length of a human life. It is dated 1898. “The average of human life is about 33 years. One quarter die before the age of six, one-half die before reaching 17. To every 1,000 persons only one reaches 100 years of life. To every 100 only six reach the age of 65 and not more than one in five hundred live to eighty years of age.” This got me thinking about Social Security and the impact our age has to do with it. When the Social Security Act was passed in 1935 those age expectancy rates had not changed much. FDR signed it into ...

Rounding Third: An evening with Jonathan Winters

The fog hung over the airport, in fact all of San Diego Bay was socked in. Visibility for takeoff or landing was zero. It was 1967, and I was commuting to my stewardess job in Los Angeles from San Diego. I needed to arrive at American Airlines LAX operations before 0700 to work the first morning flight to New York City. That foggy evening, I was a ticketed passenger despite wearing my stewardess uniform. As I stood at the end of the check-in line, I heard laughter at the counter ahead. Then I saw him. Jonathon Winters, the world-class comedian, had just checked in, received his ...

Another disappears

People often ask me where I get the ideas for my column. I tell them sometimes they come from conversation with others. Sometimes they come from reading things. Sometimes they come from life experiences. Sometimes they come from exposure to something. Today’s column comes from something that came across my desk recently. I saw a picture of cloth diapers blowing in the breeze. I used cloth diapers for my little ones. The disposable ones were new at the time. They were paper, but they did not have plastic on the outside. I took them with me when I went out of town or visiting. That ...

Rounding Third: New rides in the big old city

Small town living seldom requires the services of Uber or Lyft. But I was in New York City last week and had the opportunity to be a newly savvy traveler. I became an Uber user. I am a verified rider. I am so cool. It was fun, it was safe, and I enjoyed my drivers. And yes, it is fairly expensive. But, in New York, with all the traffic, toll bridges, tunnels, and parking there is no wallet-friendly way to get in and out of Manhattan. I stayed with my BFF, Ginger, who has lived in leafy Forest Hills, N.Y. for decades. Forest Hills is in Queens, the other side of the East River from ...