My Portfolio

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Sleeping In Graveyards (On A Visit to See George Stidworthy—American Rifleman)   A Footloose Forester who wanted to be… On the road….again! ...by choice, very often elected his own adventures.  So it was that he...

  On The Topic of Death …             It is natural for the living to seriously contemplate death from time to time.  Very few will challenge the fact that in this life, youth is the natural beginning and death is the natural end.  The only real "experts" on death… I suppose…...

  On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Seek …And Ye Shall Find One of the things that slows us down as writers is our inability to immediately think of the right word to use in a planned zinger campaign.  More constraining...

  SHOW AND TELL …             One day after I returned from work, Michael, my youngest, came up to me bashfully and asked me if I was going to be busy Friday.  I thought about it a moment.              I told him that I was doing something, but asked what was...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   We May Never Meet Again   Older folks tend to look back in time more often than youngsters do.  The older we become, the more time we have to devote to our private thoughts and...

I met Mom working at the Harry Doehla Greeting Card Company [local company started in the 1920s: see article from 1962 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19620630&id=xrUrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1v4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5126,5946058 ] My first impression of her was that she was silly but not a wise guy and fun to be with; easy to please, but noisy; willing to do...

  The Gift of Life… It Ain't What It Used To Be … I work with a great guy, and he is the first one to volunteer to help around the community.  He has his reasons for not supporting some organizations, as he will tell you.  But get him launched on...

  ALBERT BIERSTADT : On A Grand Scale So, you say you never heard of Albert Bierstadt, eh?  That's what you think.  You probably know his work, though you may not think of him right away.  His story is unusual.  No starving pauper, this artist; no tragic life to season his...

This month we would like to spotlight Bart and Linda Mortensen.  Bart was born in Carbon County and moved from Wellington to Salem when he was in the 7th Grade.  Linda grew up in Salem.  Bart is 71 years old and Linda is 70.  They went to school together in Salem...

  I was walking through Cabelas the other day and passed these wintergreen mints. It immediately triggered a memory of my Grampa Grant, who had a stash of these always on hand in a little dish by his lounge chair. We even referred to him as Candy Man! Grampa was always...

  It was April 1954 and Don had just arrived home from a 3-year stint in Europe as an Army PFC. He had been lucky--of the 1000 men in his group, 800 went to Korea and he spent the entire 2 years in Salzburg as acting sergeant in charge of the...

  This gravestone rubbing is one that I made in the summer of 1989 when my dad and I drove from Massachusetts to Vermont on an ancestor hunt. We knew the cemetery was on the "Old Niles Farm," which, of course, no longer exists, but undaunted, we headed out to the small...

Alice shares her views on life and why she is where she is today.  

This week's topic is Childhood Routines and Graham, like many others, chose to focus on bathtime which was usually a weekly occurence.

Household routines are part of growing up and they change with each passing decade. From times when washing was done by hand in the copper and squeezed through a mangle to the autmated washing machine sof today. Ruth talks about the routines of her childhood.  

Margaret was born in 1925 and her she recalls the household routines of her childhood in Lincoln, England.  

Helen, who grew up in Whyalla, South Australia, talks about her memories of bathtime and bedtime.  

How things have changed. In this week's story Joyce recalls bathtime as a child in Peterborough. The weekly bath on Saturday and the rituals associated with it.  

As Nazareth House, the orphange in which Pat lived, had a no pet policy Pat has chosen to talk about the people who she looked up to at the Orphange.