Remember the old fellow who wouldn’t take the flag pole down on his Virginia property a few years ago? You might remember the news story about a crotchety old veteran in Virginia who defied his local Homeowners Association by refusing to take down the flag pole on his property along with the large American flag […]
One of our daughters is a “Cat Rescuer” – I cannot count the number of stray, abandoned, furry critters that she had brought home in order to nurse them, care for them, and, ultimately find good homes for them. She will be happy to read that we actually have a National Cat Day to celebrate […]
The hardest part of the Oregon Trail emigrants’ journey was the descent. In addition to the swampy bogs and dense forests, there was the infamous Laurel Hill. The pioneers mistakenly called the rhododendrons that were clinging to the steep slopes “laurels.” In places the grade on Laurel Hill was 60%–more vertical than horizontal. Here the […]
The road building was slow. The emigrants had only axes and saws and only one grindstone in the entire company, therefore much of the clearing was done by burning. From mid-September through December, they battled their way through the thick timber of the Mountain’s southern flank. They realized they would not have time to finish […]
Autumn of 2020 marks the 175th Anniversary of the first attempted crossing of Mt. Hood’s Oregon Trail and the 173rd Anniversary of the first toll road—known as the Barlow Trail—over the Cascade Mountain Range. The Barlow Trail was the final overland link of the Oregon Trail that allowed emigrant travelers a cheaper, quicker but still […]
Improbable, if not impossible. How could a people who’d been scattered for two millennia reestablish a homeland on their ancient soil? Against all odds, an irresistible desire to return grew in courageous Jewish men and women who set out to rebuild their decimated homeland. A few weeks into his fourth term, Franklin D. Roosevelt died, […]
On July 10, 1944, equipped with only a mirror and hand-made semaphore, U.S. Navy Radioman First Class George Ray Tweed signaled: “I have information” to the U.S. fleet as they approached Guam for the Second Battle of Guam. From his vantage point, Tweed conveyed information about Japanese defenses that he had gathered during his seclusion […]
When I was a teenager, my Dad bought a Willys “station wagon.” It was a great little vehicle and I loved it! Mom and Dad would load my girlfriends and me, along with picnic baskets and coolers, for our day-at-Zuma-Beach (just north of Malibu). What great times we had. In those olden days, if you […]
The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was LAT 0o 31′ N and LON 179 30′ W. […]
Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 – December 23, 1973) was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent, and actress. She is best known for creating, producing, and writing several of the first American daytime radio and television soap operas. As a result of creating some of the best known series in the genre, including Guiding […]