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Coming Home
Read MoreAt 3:36 p.m. November 14, 2020, my 2013 blue Scion XD crossed the state line on Interstate 79 north of Morgantown, West Virginia. As the WVU billboard near the state welcome center declared, I was home. Finally. My parents left West Virginia in 1956 and…
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Labels dehumanize people, justify hatred
Read MoreOur “traveling road show” culture loves to put labels on people, especially people who refuse to buy a ticket to their show. As a retired reporter, I understand the value of tagging people. Labels make it possible to study and write about wide swaths of…
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Mourning a tree in blossom
Read More(May 2020, Geneva, Ohio) Its five main limbs resembled the biceps of a circus weightlifter. They emerged from the low-set trunk just a few inches above the former orchard’s soil; twenty-inches in diameter at their widest, the limbs rose like a worshiper’s arms and terminated…
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Mail Pouch
Read MoreIt was the summer 1985. I was in my second year as a photographer and occasional writer for the Ashtabula Star Beacon while, when searching for feature art in the Rock Creek area, I came across a barn being painted. The barn was just north…
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The lost skill of frugality
Read MoreFrugality. There’s a word you rarely hear on YouTube or see on electronic screens these days. With the alleged booming economy, I suppose most Americans don’t have much need for frugality in 2020. But it hasn’t been that many years ago when being frugal was…
