By Rachel Barduson of Alexandria I remember one particular “first day of summer” when I had just finished the second or third grade. Of course, the first day of summer was the last day of school. On this particular day I remember that I had decided that it would be the summer that I would start digging a hole to China. You know, where all of the starving children were. You see, any time I was stubborn about not cleaning my plate at the dinner table, mom or dad would remind me

By Tim King Perhaps I shouldn’t be writing about this now. After all, winter is finished and summer is just over the horizon. I should, instead, write about Beardsly, in Big Stone County, rather than Tower and Embarrass in St. Louis County. But the subject has been nagging me since a friendly mechanic at my favorite gas station had the courtesy to pump the gas for my car last Feb. 2, Groundhog Day of 2026. “I was there,” he told me. “It was like a party.” It’s hard to imagine

By Nancy Leasman of Long Prairie I lost the Turkish puzzle ring I had worn on my right pinky finger for about 20 years. It was a gift from my middle child. It had replaced one my brother had given me in high school – one I had also lost. A Turkish puzzle ring is made of interlocking rings, usually four but sometimes eight, that when assembled form one ring. Legend has it that a ring such as this was also a loyalty or fidelity ring. Given by a man to a woman who, if she remove

Article written and provided by Jessica Landucci, Au.D., CCC-A, at St. Cloud ENT Jessica Landucci, Au.D., CCC-A, at St. Cloud ENT. Contributed photo Patients often ask whether wearing hearing aids will make their hearing worse over time. The good news is that when hearing aids are properly evaluated, fit and programmed specifically for an individual’s hearing loss, they do not cause further damage to hearing. In fact, hearing aids are designed to amplify sounds comfortably an

By Jan Stadtherr Dear fellow golden-agers! If you’re over 65, you may have entered a new chapter of your life as I did in April. Are you squinting as you read this and the letters look like hieroglyphics? Can’t see the road signs as you drive, especially at night? Those are some of the first signs you may need to have your cataracts removed. Ah, yes! Many of my friends have had the procedure done and they say, “There’s nothing to it! Everything will be brighter!” The surgery

Today’s Wisdom: “Wounds heal; the memory of them fuels her journey.” –Virginia Woolf By Bill D. Ward I have a very old memory of a night back in my police days. I was dispatched to a bar late in the evening. Arriving, I found a few folks milling around a car parked on the street in front. As I approached, I noted that the car windshield had a three-foot gash down its center. It didn’t take a trained detective to figure out that the pool cue laying by the car was the likely we

Old Course redesigned to provide easier recreational opportunities, experiences By Jim Palmer Late last year, The Old Course in Sauk Centre unveiled its new executive 18-hole course, starting a new chapter in the course’s 105-year history. The golf course is now open for its first full season, which will include some new features, new improvements and a new general manager. “We’ve had positive feedback on the course which was great to hear,” said Steve Klick, who has owned Th

By Larry Kiewel of St. Peter I learned a lot of things from my dad. That was how the world worked in the 1950s when I was growing from one to 10 years of age. It was a little different in the 1960s. In those years of my growing from 10 to 20 years of age, I added teachers from all over that were not my dad. But now I am as old as my father’s oldest age. What I learned and who I learned it from seems important. Larry Kiewel with his dad Bob, son Christopher, and grandson Benja

By Bernadette Stein of St. Cloud “June is bustin’ out all over! All over the meadows and the hills!” was first heard in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel’ in April 1945. It became very popular and introduced the season of summer. The whole summer – June, July, and August – were one big season to me as a child. I remember Sunday nights walking with Mom and Dad and siblings out to the fields to check the crops. Uncle George, my Dad’s older brother who was a business owner,

By Marilyn Salzl Brinkman of St. Joseph Dads are precious. Sometimes they say or do things that forever change your life. When I sit back and think about my dad, I think back to one specific day. In the mid-1970s, when I was a beginning writer, I wrote monthly history columns for an agricultural magazine. While visiting my parents one warm sunny day, (By then, they had retired from the farm to the small town of St. Martin.) I noted one of my articles lying on their living roo

By Susan Lorenz of St. Augusta We have been hosting a pair of Pheobe birds for about 10 years. Phoebes are a grey-green bird about seven inches long with dark wings, and light olive-green bellies. Each spring in mid-April, we see the pair arrive as they have a permanent nest high in the eaves of our house, near a big window. They keep the same nest, year after year, doing a bit of remodeling each year on the nest. The nest is mostly mud, grass, feathers, and moss. The nest is

By Nancy Leasman We hear so much about artificial intelligence (AI), what it can do, how we may use it, the future of using it, and the dangers therein. I do not use AI in my writing other than as a research tool. Pop-up boxes and icons offer their assistance, which I often take as an affront to my ability. Am I not doing well enough on my own? After hearing a radio discussion of the future of AI and whether AI is able to be creative or come up with new ideas, I decided to co

Forada Tornado, Memorial Day weekend, 2022 By Joe Steinhagen I don’t remember it being at all hot and muggy, just rainy. I was upstairs in the living room looking out the south-facing windows and standing in front of them. Suddenly, a tree branch came through one of the about eight windows in that row. I wasn’t really surprised because it was really windy outside and I had about 40 trees on my one-acre lot, just thought that now I’ve got something to fix. Then, all the window

By Jim Palmer With Memorial Day coming up at the end of the month, cemeteries across this country will “come alive.” It is a time when we as a country shine an extra spotlight on the men and women of the military who sacrificed a portion of their life, or gave their entire life, to our country. Flags will be placed, flowers will be displayed, and grass and dirt will be brushed off grave stones. Back in 1868, our country set aside this day to remember the fallen and salute the

By Jan Stadtherr Looking back at my last column regarding the season of spring, I said that pink flamingos pop up in yards before the flowers do. The pink bird is usually standing on one leg. Do you know why? The lanky bird is trying to stay warm by tucking the other skinny leg into its feathers. Ah, yes! Welcome to senior trivia 101! When you share such tiny facts, it makes you feel smarter whether with family, friends, in the local coffee shop, or at card club. For me, triv

By Russel W. Olson By Russell W. Olson of Lac qui Parle Village Martin McLeod was a fur trader and explorer who became the territorial representative for Minnesota in the area known as “Lac qui Parle.” He served from the First Territorial Legislative Session in 1849 through the Fourth Territorial Legislative Session in 1853, acting as presiding officer in 1853. He was very influential as Territorial Representative. As chair of the “Schools” committee, he helped pass highly im

By Carl Gadow Minnesotans don’t look on the bright side. “A yacht would be great,” someone might say, “but where would I store it? Lake Minnetonka is an hour away—without traffic.” Or: “Yeah, I won the lottery, but now I’m going to have to pay more taxes. It’ll probably push me into a higher tax bracket.” I come by this instinct for practical realism honestly. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression, and some of the habits they learned seem to have been passed down

By Sharon Sannerud Relaxing in our new home in our corner of the world, the wind is howling, birds are singing, and trees are starting to show a tint of green. I began to get excited for spring as it is showing itself to me. Our spring awakens the beauty of so many things. Instead of listening to all of the horror in the world at this time in our lives, I am trying to look for beauty in all we can see from our little corner. As I began the day by taxi driving for my husband,

By Annette Gagliardi Pull several (about 8 to 10) Big Boy and Roma tomatoes from your fridge and chop them into a big soup pot. Dice an onion and add to the tomatoes. Stir in red pepper flakes. Chop garlic. Find the oregano and parsley. Sprinkle these so the top of the tomatoes are covered, then stir these into the pot. Take the sauce tasting spoon away from your oldest child. Shred carrots and zucchini. Add all these to sauce and begin simmering. Say, “No you can’t have more

By Carrie Classon There’s a reason I don’t write about current events. The news flies at me faster than I can absorb. I cannot make sense of it all, and it feels as if I should always be doing something more, knowing more, helping more than I am. The parable in the Bible that made the biggest impact on me as a child was the story Jesus told of how, when the master went away, he gave his servants talents to safeguard. Of course, in the literal sense, a talent was a large amoun