Have you ever had to call the plumber to unclog your toilet? I asked Tom Brooks of Baraboo Plumbing for the craziest thing he’d ever found blocking one. He described going to an elderly man’s house and working on his…
Do you ever think about how people will remember you? What your friends and family will say about you after you’re gone? If you live to be 100, what are the adjectives an interviewer might use to describe…
“What are the chances we’ll get dumped?” I asked Bob, the owner of Sylvania Outfitters in Watersmeet, Michigan. “Let’s just say you shouldn’t worry about fixing your hair tomorrow,” he replied. The following day my husband, brother, and sister-in-law joined…
“I arrived at a little town on the Wisconsin River,” Frederick Louis Haeberle wrote in his nineteen-page essay, “Why I Came to America.” He arrived in early March, 1884, after immigrating from Germany. “It was very cold, and my clothing…
We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling.—Jimmy Neil Smith, Director of the International Storytelling Center. Since human life began, we’ve shared stories. Whether the details of…
Hi, it’s Josie the Cockapoo, hoping to get this into the paper before Mum-Amy catches me. She doesn’t let me write often—something about too many run-on sentences and getting off track—but I’m turning 12 on the 12th of this month…
Think about a pleasant memory you have of your grandparents. I’m guessing it isn’t opening a Christmas or birthday gift from them, but it’s a fun experience you shared. That was my hope when I set out to spend a…
My husband’s and my 45th wedding anniversary is days away. Our older granddaughter has a boyfriend and is the same age I was when Frank and I married. The world has changed dramatically in 45 years, but the basics of…
It was 2007, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked into the funeral home for my beloved step-father’s visitation. He’d married my mother a few years after my father died, when I was in my late twenties.…
On a beautiful spring morning at Baraboo’s International Crane Foundation, friends and I talk about people who have recently passed away. One friend says, “I told my husband we’re at the age when we need to check the obituaries every…