Opinion

I have been many things in my life, but without a doubt being a father was the hardest and yet the most rewarding. My daughter suffered my teaching as I had grown up in a home of men. I guess all children need discipline,...

Never let it be said that I travel light. I always aspire to travel lighter, but thus far it has never happened. “Oh, you’re checking a bag?” people ask me, as if that is a ridiculous concept for such a short visit, wherever I’m...

Editor's Note: We welcome Letters to the Editor of local and general interest to our readers. Letters should be typed and include the writer’s first and last name, home address and phone number for verification. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters may be edited...

It was ending up as a regular Sunday — for some a long holiday weekend even! Our old Queensland had been struggling for a while. Not running down the meadow like he used to or playing chase around the pool with the other canines,...

To the Editor: I am writing because I feel so sad and anxious about the violence at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday (Jan. 6). President Trump gave vocal encouragement and support to armed protesters who then stormed the Capitol; this was an act of sedition.  Watching...

Today is a day when my dad would greet everyone he met with the most common phrase in the farmers lexicon. “Hot enough for you?” Actually, he didn’t say that very often. When you wake up over in the San Joaquin Valley, summer is...

There’s a plaque leaning up against a tree in my front garden. It’s old and weathered; but the message remains solid — “Enjoy the Journey.” It will always live with me. It reminds me of my sister Rosie and her successful efforts to enjoy...

If any of you readers have paid attention over the past few years, you know I do not include a lot of family stuff; we all have family stories, so my use of space in a newspaper as a journal about my family seems...

Way back in the mid-60s when just a lad in Greenfield, I owned a “skurfboard”; you read that correctly, a skurfboard. This was one of, if not the, earliest skateboards sold to an unaware public. The name an obvious combination of “skate” and “surf,”...

The other day Lorraine and I were talking with a family friend about my column. The friend said she particularly liked the articles about the military, not because she served but because she had loved ones that had served in that little skirmish 10,000...