Two Gents' Worth
May 17, 2025
Agriculture
My iPhone rang just after 10 this morning — Thursday. It was Donna — the treasurer of our condominium association here in Ames — asking if I could go downstairs, to the first floor, and help resident Mary Ann. When I walked down, Mary Ann was in the midst of a true crisis. Water from…
Read More about That Rainy-Day FeelingCivil Society
Thunderstorms here in the Heart of the American Heartland — Ames, Iowa — are not for the faint-of-heart. Though we’ve been here only a bit more than a week, we’ve already endured one of those “fasten your seat belts” weather-makers. This one blew in with quite a vengeance last Wednesday afternoon around 5. The sky…
Read More about Midwest Musings, 2018Civil Society
Traveling across country was incredibly difficult back in the early 1800’s. Just imagine — and it’s not easy to do — driving a covered wagon across rutted dirt trails that stretched thousands of miles from the Midwest to the West Coast. It took months, and many of those 19th-century travelers never made it. They had…
Read More about That Midwestern Feeling, AgainCivil Society
This week back in Fresno — several months after we moved to the Central Coast in retirement — has been busy, indeed. Some of what made it hectic were great get-back-togethers with old friends Al and Bud. Al is one of the people I’ve known longest. We go way back to Hamilton Junior High days…
Read More about Old Gents, Still GabbingCivil Society
My buddy Bud and I got together yesterday at a Starbucks in northeast Fresno. Bud is the “other guy” whose picture you see on this blog. He and I had not seen each other for a couple of months, since my wife and I pulled up stakes in Fresno and moved to our retirement home…
Read More about Two Old Guys, TalkingCivil Society
It’s no small thing, leaving the place where you were born and lived for half a century — even if your “new” place is only a bit more than 100 miles from your “old” one. You leave many things behind — including friends and a sense of pride that you had played a part in…
Read More about Living in a New PlaceCivil Society
Let me tell you a story. The first time I moved away from Fresno was around Valentine’s Day in 1973. I piloted my hotshot blue ’71 Ford Pinto up Highway 99 to Sacramento – then motored east on I-80 and over the snow-capped Donner Summit into Reno. I headed north on the 395 and –…
Read More about Farewell, FresnoFresno
I spent nearly four decades in broadcast journalism – both TV and radio. Right after I graduated from Fresno State, I moved to Susanville to become a radio news director and then – nearly bankrupt, since radio paid no money – made my way back to Fresno and somehow became the youngest TV reporter in…
Read More about My Biggest Story