Columnists

I wrote this article in June of 2012. This week the dream has finally come to be a reality. We are calling it the Big Piney Nature Center and Museum. And yes, it is much like the dream expressed in this column. On Saturday, June 28, we will open the doors to the public for…

Both of my sisters married Arkansas country boys, and I ended up with two of the finest brothers-in-law that I could have asked for. I don’t know if I could have done a better job of picking husbands for the two of them. One of the two became a highway patrolman. Billy Chadwick grew up…

One of my favorite writers who I loved reading, was Erma Bombeck. She always offered wise advise in clever, humorous situations. The other day I read an excerpt from her book, If I Had My Life to Live Over. Let me share with you some of her thoughts. “I would have taken the time to…

It’s likely no surprise to read that physical activity is good for us. In fact, it may be hard to go a full day without seeing something positive about exercise and physical activity on the news or social media. What can sometimes get lost in all that, though, is how wide-ranging the benefits of physical…

The idea of a bear season in Missouri was to make money for the Department of Conservation. It amounts to that and nothing else. There is no “wildlife management” or “For Nature and You” to it! To buy a bear tag you first had to get in the drawing and to do that you had…

As it turns out, at this particular point of my life I have many questions, but precious few answers. I have over the years offered my thoughts on balance – how much is too much, how far to the political right or to the left any of us should wander, even how elated or outraged…

At the end of the last column, brothers Roy Wayne and Tom Morton and I were sitting in a cave above the river praying the raging thunderstorm would end soon. I remember Chinese philosopher Confucius saying, “It is better to sit in a cave and watch the storm than to sit in the storm and…

“Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s end.” — Frederick Buechner When we are children, we are often asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I remember telling everyone I knew I was going to be a famous newscaster or on a Broadway stage. Whatever it was…

Squire Lee was an old country gentleman who lived on a sloping hillside above the river. His home was not far from the little cabin where my dad spent much of his childhood. In the river below his old two-story home was a deep eddy with a giant rock sticking out of it. Dad and…

I was speaking with a couple of Stanberry friends, a husband and wife who I have known for years, last week. I ran into them at the junior high track meet, where we were all gathered to watch our kids compete in several of the meet’s final events. They’re readers of our newspaper, and when…