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...

It has been several years since I lost a dear friend who once taught rhetoric at the University of Iowa. She told me that one of the first things she did in every class was to write on the chalkboard...

Most of us have three different vocabularies suited for different levels of communication. The largest and most sophisticated is usually the one we understand more than we use, developed through the...

In my early school days, there were a lot of kids who hadn't a clue about acceptable behavior in social situations. There were no preschools in those days, in fact, kindergarten was new and not required...

Somebody asked me why I became a columnist rather than, say, a poet, novelist or children's author. The first answer that comes to mind is, “Almost by accident.” As an artist, I tried to sell some...

May of 1952, the year I graduated from high school, is a blur in my memory. So many new and unexpected “firsts” happening too fast. Several weeks before, I'd happened to see a notice on the bulletin...

During the 1970's and 80's, Crockett's Victory Garden was a popular program on IPTV. Broadcast, I think, on Sunday afternoons, we watched it nearly every week and learned a lot of valuable things about...

At least one member of the Iowa House appears to live by the mantra “Do as I say, not as I do” as he demands access to sensitive personal information and commands silence as he trolls for documents. The...

My mother said that spring babies were “better” babies, easier to care for, generally healthier, and good-natured, all because of the extended sunshine of summer days. My older sister was born in November...

On the last day of April, we hurried home from school, changed from our school dresses to slacks and sweaters and piled into the car armed with empty jars, several pop bottles filled with water and a...