Walter S. Nicholes slid into the school bus seat next to me, nodded and asked me where I was from. Walter is from Shaker Heights. He is a World War II veteran. He served in the Merchant Marines; entered the academy in July 1942. He saw the world...
The fireworks in the neighborhood didn’t keep me awake, much. I was tired. I am tired. Working on a 100-page book about the county where I live and work is a wearisome, worrisome task. It has consumed me for three months now, and it will...
I have two rather prominent scars on my face, both of them acquired in my early years and both of them of my own stupidity. There is one above my eye and one on my chin, both of the same side of my face. Both came when my parents were living in...
Sometimes good things come out of the blue. Such was the case Saturday when John Lilly stopped by in Geneva to have lunch with me at Mary’s Diner. John was editor at Goldenseal Magazine for the entire time I wrote for the magazine. He was a...
My church, Friends Cornerstone in Madison, Ohio, a Quaker congregation, held its annual Easter Egg Hunt and Spring Carnival on Saturday. I had the honor of manning the photo booth, where a youngster could be photographed with the...
In a typical year, I would make my first West Virginia/Back Roads journey in early May. But so far this year I’ve made two trips, one in January and one in March. The January trip, to the Eastern Panhandle, was during a weekend when the...
I generally don’t like church signs. Not the ones that identify the church, but the ones that preach, cajole and attempt to convict people who really ought to be focused on their driving rather than their spiritual condition, although...
As 2015 comes to a close (sigh), I am reminded that we never know where life is going to take us. A year ago, I was living in a tiny house on a dead-end street in Ashtabula. Two bedrooms, a postage-stamp sized lot. 700 square feet, two people...
My pastor, Mark Winner, is one of the wisest persons I’ve ever met. His sermon on Sunday, which was about peace, especially in the setting of family relationships, was incredibly insightful. First, he pointed out that war and strife are not...
I spent a few hours this past weekend sorting through equipment that I purchased several years ago for the freelance photography business I launched way back in 2000. The art and retail photography markets were much more hopeful and inviting back...
West of Clarksburg, W.Va., a few miles off U.S. Route 50, is the Fletcher Covered Bridge. I first visited this bridge in April 2012 and scouted it as a location for a night-time, Night Crossings image. The opportunity arose in...
Last month marked a 65th anniversary for Henry Ruppenthal III of Wheeling, W.Va. It was the 65th anniversary of his becoming a cooperative weather observer. At the time, Henry was living in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., where his father was the...
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