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  • On the Moraine XXXIII

    When it came to working in the fields, I had three favorite seasons. Soil preparation, especially plowing; hay-making and wheat harvest. I usually did not get to participate much in the fall harvest, for that was going on while I was in school.
  • Feeling overwhelmed?
    Despite all the computing power, it is up to you as an individual to police to what you listen and watch. That includes (ahem!) this column. As a writer, I feel the burden of doing my very best to write material that is interesting, of good content, and perhaps, entertaining.  
  • On the Moraine Part XXXII
    Along about February 1965, Mother started getting sick. She wouldn’t tell John and me what was going on, but she called Dad in Troy, and he came home early. John and I knew it was very serious.
  • Frugality as a virtue
    Today’s Washington politicians seem to be in a contest to see how much of the taxpayers’ money they can shovel at the population. I assume the unspoken reason for this is to bribe the voters.  
  • On the Moraine, Part XXXI
    It was the winter of 1964-65. Living in the “barn” of a house on the Beaver Farm, I never liked winter. It was cold and dark. The wind howled through the window cracks. Now 75, I still don’t like fall, for it portends winter.  
  • Just nasty
    We have a political party in this country that has become just nasty. And yes, the opposition gets in this gutter just a little bit once in a while, but nothing like the party of the donkey does.
  • On the Moraine, Part XXX
    In order to get to Hillsboro High School, which started in the fall of 1964 for me, we have to back up to the fifth grade in Troy.  
  • Freedom of speech
    The Left, in particular, has been gravely harrumphing about any attempts to silence people making nasty comments about the murder of Charlie Kirk. In the name of free speech and the First Amendment you can’t silence them, they say. I ask, please tell me the difference between silencing them and murdering Charlie Kirk. Wasn’t that an effort to permanently silence Charlie Kirk? Besides murder, wasn’t that a violation of the First Amendment?
  • On the Moraine, Part XXIX
    Spring of 1964 meant the McNary Farm was done with the Federal Reserve program and was eligible to farm. Dad had bought another old unstyled John Deere A, so now we had two John Deere A’s and the Case DC. We had sold the old Farmall.
  • It’s my baseball
    Taking a baseball away from a boy on a birthday outing is certainly not generous by any measure.
  • On the Moraine, Part XXVIII
    One day in November, John and I were both home sick with colds. We were listening to “Everybody’s Farm” on WLW radio. NBC broke into the program to tell us President Kennedy had been shot. It was Nov. 23, 1963. We spent the rest of the day listening to the radio.
  • Majority under 40 want socialism, really?
    Here we go again…Rasmussen is out with a survey whose results says 53% of likely U.S. voters ages 18 to 39 would like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election. Really?
  • On the Moraine, Part XXVII
    The Highland County Fair, 1963: The balance of the summer of 1963 went by in a bucolic manner. The weather was unremarkable for summertime. My 4-H pig, Julius Caesar, grew nicely, innocently unaware of this fate. I treated him like a pet and mentally ignored the coming end.
  • Maybe it is just too much spare time
    Free time and greed, in its basest form, results in murder. Cain used a rock to kill his brother, Abel. It was cheap, just pick it up off the ground. Today, our weapons may not be so cheap, but they are designed to be impulsive.
  • On the Moraine, Part XXVI
    We farmed mostly with the Case that spring, but I would run the John Deere dragging after Dad had plowed. Dragging plowed ground is a rough ride. You know what I am talking about if you have ever done it.
  • Cracker Barrel: Another failed narrative
    So, there is a lesson here for all of us. The way we see the world is not necessarily the way the majority sees the world. I am not saying we should change, but we should at least be aware of our surroundings. 
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