Granddaddy Wells set his first grandson on his knee and sang to him when he was but a little tyke, not yet in school. I was the little tyke. I have no recollection of what song he sang. He may have made it up on the spot. I remember hearing it said that Granddaddy once led a choral group in his younger days.

Momma sometimes sang a song that was so sad that it made me cry every time she sang it. It was a ballad about a child who took sick and died. The words were very sad and the tune wa...(click to continue reading)

1931: I’m just getting home from school. Home is at Grandma Wells’ house until school’s out. That’ll be a couple of months yet. I no sooner get home than I’m informed of the most exciting event of the season.

“Ol’ Pied had her calf last night. You can run down to the barn and have a look at the calf. It’s a heifer. That’s good; we can use another milk cow. Couldn’t tell you this morning cause it’d made you late for school,” Grandma informs me.

I’m trotting down the lane past th...(click to continue reading)

They were truly dragging the bottom of the barrel. Why else should they be trying to recruit young engineers at the local Westinghouse plant? There was no other answer.

A group of would-be thespians formed a little theater organization in the late 1930’s. They called the organization Amil Tellers, named after their hometown by spelling Lima backwards. They had been given the use of an abandoned carriage house. The building was dubbed Stable Gables, and used as a theater for several year...(click to continue reading)

Headline of short item on page 3 of local paper: “Slick Eludes Police Again” The item stated in part, “Police response to tips by citizens proved to be too slow…..”

Police may have considered the tips a hoax, or maybe they were on a coffee break, but it was no hoax. A warrant had been issued for the perpetrator.

For months Ms. Slick made small purchases at Kat’s Little Shop of Treasures, usually paying cash but with checks for larger purchases. Kat noticed that Slick carried a ...(click to continue reading)

Twelve-year-old Jack and his little brother Tom, a couple years younger, had been fishing in the creek most of the morning. Now they were on their way home and they were hungry for lunch. It was a fine clear day in early fall. The fishing had been fun but the few fish they caught were tossed back into the creek because they were too little to keep. 

Presently they came upon Mr. Miller’s apple orchard. The trees were a beautiful sight, loaded with bright shiny red fruit just right for pi...(click to continue reading)

World War II had been over only a short time when a union at Westinghouse staged a strike against the company. The war had affected everybody in material ways. Supporting the military caused shortages in many things people had taken for granted. Besides the big items, cars, major appliances and such, everyday stuff was rationed, for example coffee sugar, even shoes and of course, gasoline. Shortages of many items remained long after the war’s end. A line would form by the cigarette vending machi...(click to continue reading)