Since I am pretty solidly Irish (my mother was a Kelly, my dad was a Sullivan – once upon a time, O’Sullivan), I have a love/hate relationship with the Brits. They were, as history points out, quite rude to the Irish back in the century when they ruled Ireland with an iron fist. I won’t […]
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Our children tell me often that I scarred them for life. When they were little, one of the lullabies I sang to them was Go Tell Aunt Rhody. Go tell Aunt Rhody, go tell Aunt Rhody, Go tell Aunt Rhody, the old grey goose is dead. The gander is weeping, the gander is weeping, the […]
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I’ve probably mentioned a time or twenty that Bing and I have five children. They are, of course, quite exceptional, or, as Garrison Keillor would say, above average. Three of the said children live in sunny California. The other two are brave Mid-Westerners, residing in Minnesota and Iowa. The three Californians are somewhat smug about […]
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Somewhere along the way, Bing and I failed as parents. Big time. All five of our offspring hate dolls. They call them “creepy.” How can this be? My childhood was awash in dolls. I had tea parties with my dolls. I wheeled them around the neighborhood in their little doll buggies. I dressed and re-dressed […]
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Wade, our last-born, texted from Los Angeles the other day asking if I knew what time he was born. I can barely come up with the year any of our five offspring were born – how in the world would I remember the hour? I suppose some super mothers do, but I probably wouldn’t like […]
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It occurs to me that I haven’t given you all an update recently on the stray cat family that dines on my porch every evening. Sorry to have kept you waiting. I’m sure inquiring minds want to know. If you are a latecomer to this column (please bring a note from home explaining why you […]
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Remember that wonderful old song by Tony Bennett, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco?” Well, I didn’t leave my heart there, or anywhere else over Christmas. But I left my wallet in Los Angeles. Not fun. Not fun at all. Also, it wouldn’t make much of a song title – too many syllables. When […]
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Last week, Art Cullen came to Algona for a book-signing event held at Algona Publishing. Art, as most of you surely know, is editor of The Storm Lake Times, and winner of the coveted Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 2017. He beat out all the biggies – the New York Times and the Washington Post, to name just two. […]
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When did we stop wearing hats? My grandmothers wore them whenever they stepped outside to go to church or shopping or calling on friends. They did a lot of calling on friends in my grandmothers’ time. I have a couple of their engraved calling cards, which they would leave at the callee’s home if said […]
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Treasured family writing from the past One of the great things about living in a house built in the 1800s by my great-grandparents is that it’s full of old family stuff. Okay, you probably already knew that. However, the old stuff here that I treasure the most are the letters and notes from the distant, […]
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