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View from Hickory Heights: Show your love

I got to thinking about Valentine’s Day when my son’s bedroom stove overheated. When they got home from work their bedroom was more than 90 degrees. When he told me about it my mind went back to a Valentine’s Day many years ago. My first husband was never big on Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, he remembered but more often than not he forgot until he came home to a special dinner that I fixed for him. This event happened when we were dating. He came up to my apartment on a Wednesday night to visit and brought me a Valentine. It was a pretty box of candy that was shaped like a ...

Fraud can be an early morning felon

The phone call came at 6:10. In the morning. I know there are people who are awake and have begun their day by 6:00 a.m., but I am not one of them. I especially didn’t like hearing the voice that was on the other end of the receiver last Friday. “This is the fraud department at Barclay’s Bank Mastercard. Is this Marcia O’Brien?” Oh, rats. Victimized? Again? And is it really the fraud department? I was waking up faster than I wanted. My red flags began flapping. “Yes, this is she.” I mumbled, trying to come to. It was one of those sleepless nights and I had hoped to ...

Is Warren Worx duplication?

I would like to add my comments to the current public discussion regarding the Warren Worx initiative. I live in the Warren community and welcome the thoughts behind what the WCCBI is attempting to do and it brings up a few questions. First, isn’t that what the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry is supposed to be doing already? Aren’t they the entity to already address those job generating and business expanding opportunities in our area? Secondly, isn’t the Warren County Visitors Bureau supposed to be our marketing entity for the county? If so,then why are Jim ...

Taking a virtual tour

A piece on the news caught my attention last week. A teacher in Texas was featured for an activity that she did with her class. They took a day away from their studies and “visited” Mexico. She had travel documents for each student as well as a passport. The children were really enthused about their trip. My mind traveled back nearly forty years ago. I was teaching at a small school with only one of every grade there. We planned a day to explore the countries of the world. I chose France for the second grade. I took French in high school and I had a foreign exchange student from ...

Our opinion: Focus on youth, not timelines

Warren County School District board members did the right thing pushing a decision on restoring girls basketball at Sheffield High School until after this year’s season. The last thing anyone wants is thoughts of next season taking away from anyone’s commitment to the 2023-24 season. Board members will have a difficult decision when they do discuss the matter fully. Despite strong interest, Sheffield still has barely enough girls to field a varsity and junior varsity team. And, it will cost more to field a team at Sheffield rather than field a combined team at Warren Area High ...

Rounding Third … Exciting moments as curtain goes up

“Annie,” the musical, is coming to Erie. We probably won’t be buying tickets this time around, but “Annie” holds a special place in our family’s memory. My two grown children probably don’t often think back to their first theater experience, but I’ll never forget it. My son, Bart, was 5 years old on our first foray to Shea’s Buffalo theater. Alix, his big sister, was 9. We had purchased four front balcony tickets to make sure they could see well. The children were seated on either side of me. Separating them was always a good idea. When the theater lights dimmed ...