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Rounding Third: Laughter is consistent music of large families

Large families always made me jealous. I felt that I was on the outside, looking in. I was a happy only child, but life was quiet. Those laughing clusters of brothers and sisters looked like so much fun. Warm and cozy. Just recently I chatted with two friends who grew up in large families. At the end of the evening, I still felt envious. Children from large families have their support systems built in. They have best friends before they step into the world. That brother who dive-bombed you from the top bunk while screaming, “Chicken!” will also be by your side traveling life’s ...

View from Hickory Heights: Signs of Autumn

As I look out my kitchen window, I cannot help but see that Autumn is approaching. At first, I saw a patch of color in the Pin Oak. Now there are several patches of colorful leaves. Each day as I eat lunch I check my tree. It is too dark in the morning as I eat breakfast. It is strange but that tree is always the last one to lose its leaves. The dogwood tree on the upper side of the house has colorful leaves. The dogwood tree behind the house is still all green. Soon my fire bushes will be a bright red. Sometimes if it is windy the leaves from the locusts fall like snow. When Dick ...

The furry little man of the house

The veterinarian said something to Finian that I personally never heard in a doctor’s office: “You could stand to gain a little weight.” He removed our cat from the scale, announcing that he had lost ten ounces. That probably doesn’t seem like much, but it was 5% of his body weight. The physical that followed determined Finian is not ill. Maine Coon cats are typically big felines. They’re supposed to be square-built, sorta boxy. Although they have the graceful movements of any cat, they have a solid body. Finian’s daddy was an impressive 22 pounds. It seems our ...

Kinzua Youth Center promotes competition

By DENNIS A. JOHNSON The world’s elite athletes recently finished competition at the Olympic games in Paris. They came from all over the globe, attempting to go home with a gold, silver, or bronze medal or at the very least a personal best performance. Watching the games one might ask, ...

Some fun facts

“It may be well to remind the housewife that the Pure Food Laws of this nation do not guarantee the purity of food products. All they vouch for is that the food complies with the label outside.” I found this little tidbit in a book that I purchased about old-time brand-names. This book has a wealth of information in it. It is not all about food either. Women are described as having freedom in the kitchen and in the bedroom. Freedom in the kitchen is attributed to the invention of the freezer. Meals are frozen and ready to pull out and cook. The book was written at the close of ...

Rounding Third: Quick shopping trip turned out terrifying

Monday’s quick shopping trip was terrifying It was the last thing I expected when I entered Lowe’s on Monday. It was Labor Day. The Halloween displays are up, they are huge, and they stopped me in my tracks. I guess I’ve been living under a rock. Halloween has become our second biggest holiday. Only Christmas is bigger. All the trappings of spooky day have grown larger, scarier, and more expensive than I ever thought possible. What got my attention was the 4-year-old squealing at the displays. His mother watched as he pressed the buttons to operate each animatronic ...