Most of the young people today have no concept of hand-me-downs because we live in a throwaway society. They do not think about preserving things and passing them on to someone else. Oh, they may go through their closet and decide to give something away when it is Goodwill Day at a local store, ...

Tragedy strikes us all now and then, once in a lifetime, maybe a few times. When it does, we are sent reeling for quite a while, longer than seems reasonable, longer than we ourselves admit. The landscape itself seems slightly off, unfamiliar. The daily road is rocky. Even the beauty of sun and ...

Editor's Note: This is the fifth column in a series featuring the author's travels along Route 66.This was our eighth day to travel The Mother Road, The Will Rogers Highway, The Main Street of America, all names given to Route 66 over the years. This day could be described as a reverse scene ...

I want to tell you a story about a man named Sam.He might be characterized as a "regular Joe." He worked responsibly his entire life. He came from an impoverished background. From a monetary standpoint, he earned enough to purchase a home, pay his bills and enjoy life. Family took center stage ...

The news about rural America - a place I consider to be the heart of America, where values and traditions endure - is, in a nutshell, not good.Or better put: a lot of it is bad, but some of it is good.For one thing, the Census released data earlier this month showing that everyone else in ...

If there's one thing I seldom write about it's sports. I love watching sports, especially football and hockey. Baseball can be fun to watch, too, however, as a native of a city without a pro team, it's hard to root for an out-of-market franchise. I don't mind the Pirates, though.That all being ...