“Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly, lolly, hey why did you turn that off?” Asher demanded as we entered the Marais des Cygnes Massacre Historical Site. “I turned it off because the sign reads to be respectful,” I told him. Like the Alamo, the Marais des Cygnes Massacre site is a place where people actually died. Unlike [...]
By Beth Gulley Frequently in my life, I am mistaken. As I pulled on to 169 highway to take my second trip on my summer assassination vacation tour, I mistakenly turned towards Louisburg instead of Osawatomie. Instead of getting upset, I chuckled to myself, and turned around. I chose the Adair Cabin and John Brown [...]
It isn’t difficult to find negative stories in sports these days. It has become harder and harder to find a reason to watch professional sports without feeling guilty for supporting over-paid, pampered rich guys acting like spoiled rotten teenagers. Owners and managers aren’t much better – the current NFL labor strike is a perfect example, [...]
You may not agree with him in general, but if you haven’t been watching the Ed Shultz show on MSNBC, you should. Schultz speaks straight about the dismantling of the American middle class, lowered spending on America’s Main Street, and about those of us who are finding it harder to shop there. “Wall Street’s going [...]
Once upon a time there was a woman named Mrs. Nelson. Mrs. Nelson and her family had recently moved to a new community and began attending a small church. When the church decided to have a bake sale for a fundraiser, Mrs. Nelson eagerly signed up, hoping to make a name for herself in the [...]
When I drove over to the Miami County Veterans Memorial site to cover the dedication of the new Miami Combat Veterans monument on Memorial Day, I kept wondering if I would find anyone representing Osawatomie’s home-grown heroes. As it was, three men who grew up in Osawatomie and had gone off to war – Ray [...]
As I exited the free bathroom finally able to concentrate on things other than getting to the bathroom, I noticed I was between a plastic version of the world’s tallest man and the world’s fattest woman. This is not what I expected to see at The Alamo. Of course, one of the great things [...]
Daisy, my Great Dane, can make a real mess of a garden in not very much time. My boys and I spent a weekend tilling and planting the garden, and Daisy took about 15 minutes to dig a large hole in the middle of it. So we replanted, she dug again, and I got angry. [...]
I finished the last century by attending the 1999 Iowa Summer Writing Festival or at least spent a week there to, well … write. More importantly, I went seeking readers and reaction to my scribbling. And came home wanting to do the same thing locally. But first, a story: Four years before, I had taken [...]
By Katie McDougal The green rolling pastures around our rural Kansas neighborhood are filled with baby calves sleeping contented under the watchful eyes of their mothers. The air is filled with the sounds of birds calling to one another, while others are floating high in the sky. Gardens are being planted and lots of flowers [...]