The conditions of the Dust Bowl pressed the farmers and ranchers into despair. Too many days with the sun blocked out by the Black Blizzards. Fine grains of sand covering everything, including the linings of the lungs. A losing battle with locust, grasshoppers and drought that devoured any hope of a crop. Watching children lose […]
“People are beginning to realize that American sign language is a value added.” -T. Alan Hurwitz,Past President of Galludet College It all started in the hallway. My fourth grade students lined up in the cavernous entry to the school. Our classroom door opened on the opposite side of the walls from the entrance to […]
What can be done with a shovel and a wheelbarrow? Last Saturday, my husband, Vernon, and I joined other green thumbs in the Oak Lawn area to create the first Community/Pantry Garden. Under the direction of Dolly Foster, Oak Lawn Park District horticulturist, the plan for the morning involved building 12 raised beds, setting up six […]
“A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy.” -John Sawhill Photo by Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter My husband and I visited friends in the northern part of rural Illinois. As with most retirees, the endless battle of getting rid of a life time of […]
“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.” – Alice Walker Life on the Florida reservation brought challenges to the women who faced the hardships of Everglade living. Resources were few. The threat of depression hung like the billowy clouds overhead. In the Seminole Indian homes called chickees, the women […]
School librarians are the main line of defense in the battle for literacy in this country. They are the ones who find the books that will peak the interest of even the most reluctant reader. They are the ones who stock the shelves with all of the wonders that kids want to explore: the stars, […]
The latest movie, Monuments Men, will be released on February 7 and I hope to be one of the first to see it. The Monuments Men were 345 men and women from thirteen nations who banded together to preserve the world’s cultural treasures from the hands of the Nazis during WWII. As an unsuspecting group of museum […]
The bright holiday lights of the Christmas season did not shine for 27 minutes in Oak Lawn, Illinois starting at seven o’clock on December 27, 2012. All over the city, residents unplugged their Christmas tree lights and other lawn decorations. Block after block of darkness wrapped the city with a sober tone. Couples, families and […]
“I know every engineer on every train, All of their children and all of their names, And every handout in every town…..” -Ralph Miller, King of the Road Maralyn Dettmann No one wanted to be a hobo. But choices lessened as the Great Depression of the 1930’s deepened into a decade of drought and despair. […]
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” -Maya Angelo Veteran’s Day. A time of remembering. A bitter sweet day because I do remember. I cannot stop remembering Dave. Some of the details about Dave Nelson’s physical attributes are sketchy. Like his height, the exact color of his hair parted […]