Last night around 11 p.m., we heard a familiar noise from the darkened hallway outside our bedroom door. It was part moan, part growl and part muffled meow. Tom and I glanced at each other because we knew what that sound meant. Percy had another mouse. more

Thank you, Myron Hartzel, for introducing me to this fantastic term to describe retirement. I've heard retirement described in many terms, but this is my favorite description thus far--glorious retirement. more

Door to door salesmen are a thing of the past. But I can remember when they were regular visitors. Today I will start off this column with encounters with three insurance fellows. The first one came here, some 40 years ago. What is memorable about him, he was here the evening the house down the hill burned. We were in the dining room, when we looked out the north window and noticed huge flames; something big was burning. The fellow left, and Terry and the children drove down there to see what was going on. Oh, goodness, the entire house went up in flames. It was so sad. more

March 6, 1971, I married an 18-year-old girl from South Dakota. I barely knew her, but in the span of three months I’d learned all I needed to know. more

It’s true. Once you reach a certain age, you no longer care what the people around you think. I’m that age. I wish I had come to this realization decades earlier. more

When there’s a bomb threat or, God forbid, an explosion, we run away and report it so attackers can be arrested and punished.  more

It is the fourth subzero day of January as I put pen to paper, every day of which I have devoted to mining for inspiration for my February columns. more

The first snow fell on December 27th. According to an old wives' tale, whatever day the first snow falls is how many snows we will have that winter. Whew! 27 snows. I sure hope those old wives' are wrong. more

I didn’t know that families did not reuse, renew and recycle. All households did not practice conservation. I thought saving and reusing things was as normal as having salt and pepper on the dinner table. more

I’ve never depended on farming for my bread and butter, but I can thank FFA — Future Farmers of America, in my day — for launching my career as a journalist. more

Dear readers, I’m taking some time off this week to help my mom during her cancer treatment. But while I’m away, I’m sharing a column published nearly 14 years ago about a topic that has boomeranged back into pop culture in a big way. In a few weeks when the Academy Awards are handed out in Hollywood, the movie “Barbie” will be one of the films in the running to take home the Oscar. I watched the movie with my 17-year-old daughter, and we both laughed and loved it. more

I'm old enough to remember drive-in theaters. They were in full swing when I was a teenager. more