The old fox and the young duck walked the avenue to the theater to watch the people arrive for the latest Elvis show. The pair had become fellow travelers when the fox discovered the scrawny duck alone and looking lost and offered to help him find food. The fox remained in the shadows, as foxes are naturally shy, but he lost sight of his little buddy who moved in toward the crowd for a better view and in hope of finding a few grains of popcorn. The little duck unfortunately moved a little too cl...(click to continue reading)

I believe in freedom.  Freedom is the right to be one’s self, to act in one’s own behalf without interference.  Freedom provides wide latitude of action, but freedom is not free.  It must respect the rights of all other people.  Martin Luther said it well, “Love God and do as you please.” 

The problem is that there are many in our society who don’t love God.  Instead they love power over others.  This equals some freedom lost.  Of course some freedom must be forfeited t...(click to continue reading)

From Cumberland Gap, where three states join, to the Atlantic Ocean there is The Commonwealth of Virginia. Looking for a place of varied interests to explore? Don’t overlook Virginia. From its mountains in the west to bays and beaches in the east many sights and attractions await the traveler.

Traveling from the Gap up rural Powell Valley you follow alongside scenic Cumberland Mountain where the scene changes with the seasons from winter gray, to many shades of spring green, to the rich...(click to continue reading)

Green is the name of a color. It describes the most obvious commonality among nearly all growing plants. This is something I learned even before I went to school. In school I had a green crayon. Later I learned that it was next to impossible to start a campfire with green wood and that I was a greenhorn at most anything I tried for the first time. Sometime in my youth I learned that those beautiful plants could not survive without carbon dioxide.

It was discovered that the planet Venus ...(click to continue reading)

We’d had an especially pleasant trip back home from Zion, Illinois where we’d spent a week for Dorothy’s monthly series of treatments for her cancer. After a week at the hospital it was a pleasure to go home. The four-hour trip was usually somewhat of an ordeal, and we arrived home tired. This time, however, we both felt great and glad to be home. By the next morning Dorothy felt so well that she started calling her friends. She must have called every friend she had, for it seemed that she was o...(click to continue reading)

Many people of my grandparents’ generation lived on farms away from towns with industries and stores. My grandparents were of this ilk. They lived pretty much self-sufficient lives with little money to spend, save what little they got for products raised on the farm. They used the money to buy things they could not produce on the farm: flour, salt, sugar etc. Dad’s folks raised sheep in the hillside pasture for their wool for making clothes and quilts. They had a blacksmith shop for iron product...(click to continue reading)