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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…
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Christ’s body and quid pro quo
Read MoreQuid pro quo basically means that “if you this for me, I’ll do this for you.” It is what elected officials practice from the day they announce their candidacy; they promise to lower taxes, provide free medical care or higher education, increase employment opportunities jobs…
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American Penmanship’s father had a famous daughter, too
Read MoreEllen Spencer Mussey: The Father of Penmanship’s Trail-Blazing Daughter Ellen Spencer was but 12 years old when she went to work in the penmanship school of her famous father, Platt R. Spencer of Geneva. She was the youngest penmanship teacher in Ohio, and her father,…
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Visiting with West Virginia’s last living Tuskegee Airman
Read MoreYou can trust a secret to Clifton E. Brooks Sr. Information that Clifton decoded back in the 1940s remains known only to Clifton, a resident of the county seat of Mineral County, Keyser, and West Virginia’s last surviving Tuskegee Airman. Clifton is getting up there…
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Ashtabula stockholders invested in Normania
Read MoreThe shipping season of 1909 delivered nothing but progress to Ashtabula Harbor. The first four of eight Hulett electric unloaders went online that summer at the Lake Shore’s (New York Central) Superior extension docks on the river’s east side. As the operators became comfortable with…
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A castle, commissioner & cemetery
Read MoreIn a typical year, I would make my first West Virginia/Back Roads journey in early May. But so far this year (2016) I’ve made two trips, one in January and one in March. The January trip, to the Eastern Panhandle, was during a weekend when…
