Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
I'm not sure which is sweeter, this photograph or the fact that the little boy in it has held onto it for more than 50 years. The dapper little guy in the picture grew up to be Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna, and the gentlemen standing with him is my dad. I'd been hearing about this [...]
The real magic in any river town happens smack in the fascinating intersection of history and progress. A paradoxical paradise, the river view changes with the current, and lasts a thousand years. I thought about this earlier this week as I enjoyed a paddle boat ride through my river town, Appleton, Wisconsin. Thanks to the [...]
It's amazing the things you learn paddling around a public swimming pool. There I was bobbing along Sunday afternoon, when my Mom leaned across a lane marker and casually mentioned that she and her sister had been among the first children to receive Albert Sabin's live oral polio vaccine. Our conversation developed from her initial [...]
We own a quiet chunk of heaven in Wisconsin's Northwoods and, when we go tramping through it, I like to imagine what life might have been like there before we came along. Thanks to a thoroughly researched paper Molly recently wrote for her University of Wisconsin Botany Class, we now have a pretty good idea. [...]
In a quiet corner of a busy nursing home, a young girl pulls a bow across a century old instrument and earnestly offers the twin gifts of music and memories. Her audience, an 87-year old birthday boy, grins widely and follows the notes back to a bustling house on Broad Street in Menasha where the [...]