Nell McGowan presided over the teachers and students in the original high school building that housed sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The building consisted of two levels with about half the second...

Even the best salesman would struggle explaining away the reasons for the latest contradiction from the president of the United States. He believes crime in Washington, D.C., is so out of control that...

I could hardly wait for the first day of kindergarten. I had “visited” school on two separate occasions, both to my older sister's fifth grade classroom. The first visit had included the afternoon...

My first real date in high school had been with a boy in the class ahead of ours. Oldest son of a doctor, he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in what was then known as Iowa...

My mother owned three cedar chests. The first was built by her father from solid cedar wood, plain but beautiful in it's simple lines and glossy finish. Meant as a hope chest, in those days, intended...

One of my earliest memories of food preservation involves helping get peaches ready for canning. (That was before we had our home freezer, and I still prefer canned peaches to frozen ones in spite of...

Until I was about ten years old, nearly every birthday and Christmas brought at least one coloring book, paper dolls to cut out or other “activity” book. One rather short-lived version consisted...

I knew that some of my friends spent part of the summer vacation at camp – whatever that was. They stayed for, sometimes, two weeks or more and had 'classes' in crafts, sports, outdoor cooking and...

My hometown of Knoxville had a lovely swimming pool, built by the Works Progress Administration sometime during the 1930's. The project included a separate wading pool for small children and a shaded...

July 16, 1936, was the hottest day on record in Iowa and the day I became a middle child. It was a mere three months past m second birthday and I was blissfully unaware of what has become known as the...

On hot afternoons, long before television and air conditioned homes, we'd dig out the left-over school supplies and play “School” on the shady screened-in front porch. The list of required school...

My dad had a pretty sizable sweet tooth and that meant dessert with every meal – including breakfast. This was probably because, when he was a kid, the family ran a small grocery store and he and his...