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View from Hickory Heights: Cold stirs soup season

Yes, the cold weather brings thoughts of homemade soup. Last week I found a ham bone in the freezer so I took it out and made soup. Usually when I have a ham bone, I make yellow split pea soup. I remember eating it at Aunt Emmy’s house when we visited. Using yellow peas is a Swedish thing. Actually, when I buy them in the Swedish store, they are whole, not split. I prefer the split ones if I can find them because they cook so much faster. I remember asking Emmy how to make the soup because my daughter liked it a whole lot. She still likes it, her brother not so much. Don ...

Life-changing chance only knocked once

When I first read about the impossibly generous trip opportunity, I couldn’t believe my eyes. An out-of-the-blue, life changing possibility. The challenge was selling the idea to my husband. It was mid-March in Boston where Tom was finishing graduate school. I worked for American Airlines at Logan Airport and occasionally read a copy of an airline industry magazine. Each issue offered travel deals for airline personnel. That spring, Pan American was offering a cheapie around-the-world trip. Whoa! But of course, they had lottsa rules. You had to travel for a minimum of four weeks, ...

Can’t decide on candidate? Look to the party

By RALPH KENISTON Midterms are fast approaching and there may be some fence sitters who are undecided about which candidate or party to support in the election. If you are one of those, here are a few suggestions to help you decide: ¯ If you like wondering how high prices can go, how bare the shelves can become, where you will find the money to keep up with it from now until 2024 or longer, especially if you are on a fixed income — Vote Democrat. ¯ If you like watching your hard-earned, lifelong savings and your children’s or grandchildren’s 529 accounts melt away due to ...

Caution urged in state bus decisions

The Pennsylvania Bus Association wants to alert you to a troubling trend we are seeing across the United States regarding a new type of “bus company” primarily marketed to school districts. The problem is that these are not bus companies at all, but artfully created websites that imitate a bus company, using various names and websites. They do not own any buses or motorcoaches, or maintenance facilities, nor do they employ any drivers, mechanics, or typical support staff. Simply a phenomenon of the internet, these “companies” are known as brokers and, once they capture ...

The impish card sender from down Texas way

His name was Bruce Smith, and by telling you that, I am breaking my personal rule of writing only first names. Bruce and I never met. He lived in Garland, Texas, and yet he became important in my life for 13 years. He died last fall, and with it, a very special voice and heart passed from my world. I found Bruce by accident. I was nosing around on the internet looking for an old friend by the same name. I had no idea that Bruce Smith was one of the most common names anywhere. Looking by age produced a few possibilities so I decided it was worth a quick inquiry. The Bruce I dropped ...

Don’t miss out on downtown delights

Warren’s central downtown is glorious. It emits beauty and restfulness. It is welcoming. Who wouldn’t want to stop and linger? It has a “come join me” appeal. It is a far cry from our 1960 introduction to Warren when we had to drive through a winding street amid newly produced concrete septic tanks. A few years back, towns across America started to remake their outdated and depressed inner core. In the early 1990s, Warren obtained grant money and created its Main Street Program. I briefly served on David Winans’ Building Facade Subcommittee. ...