Columns

Here at the Old Folks Hotel, unless they were lying, everyone enjoyed reading my article a few weeks ago about life on a farm in the old days. At my current lunch table, we all have two things in common.…

I’ve always had a healthy distrust of government. From the time as a college student working in the U.S. Capitol and state legislature, I have felt that many of our politicians are there to enhance themselves and not the public…

“Don’t forget where you came from,” Father used to admonish my sister and me going out the door. In time I figured out it meant more than the house number where we lived, just remember to bring honor, shame to…

Rouch Equipment would like to invite everyone to their Annual Fall Openhouse this Saturday, September 30, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Rouch Equipment is located at 56653 Abbey Rd., west of Three Rivers. There will be something for every…

The last 45 years for me have been spent in schools. From Clare to Alma College, a couple of districts in western Pennsylvania, two districts in southern Michigan, and back to Clare…you may get a kick out of the fact…

This is the time of year when we all long for a great color tour. A few years ago we planned to travel on the Color Tour Train along a section of the old Ann Arbor Railroad. These tracks still…

I’ve made some friends at the Old Folks Hotel. Perry is one of my GUY friends, and we are way outnumbered. Apparently, women live longer than men, but an argument could be made that it’s because women drove us to…

By Maggie ConklinEasy Stuffed DuckThe family story goes one long-ago night my parents were eating at a fine restaurant with some Dad’s business customers, Mom’s cousin Bob and lifelong friend Margaret.Mom Milley lectured Bob all afternoon long about how to…

By Scott SullivanEditorSaddling UpHe saddled up to the bar and gritted through rotted cuspids, bicuspids, incisors …“Aren’t you s’posed to sidle?” asked Zeke the Barkeep.“Buck you,” he spat through his bridge, spitting bloody Chiclets square into bullseyes of 12 dartboards.…

Mike “Dirty Jobs” Rowe wrote about work, “What’s happening now in this country that scares me to the core fundamentally is we have never had so much unrealized opportunity and little enthusiasm for it.”Since before European settlement America has been…

A few days ago, a story popped up on my computer screen entitled Michigan police rescue woman trapped in outhouse. It piqued my curiosity because the article proclaimed it happened in Otsego, MI, where we publish the Union Enterprise. After…

Because of the Internet, most folks don’t write letters and send them via the U.S. Postal Service anymore. If you need to send a package, you can use UPS, FedEx, or the Postal Service. If you do choose the Postal…

One of the most beloved saints is St. Francis of Assisi. I like St. Francis, not only because he loved animals, was simple, lived quietly, and gave up his earthly wealth, but because he could also misinterpret what God was…

I come from a long line of tree lovers of one kind or another. Great-grandpa Milt Beebe came to Osceola County as a boy with his father Raymond, in 1873. They settled in the well forested Highland Twp, chosen, in…

Time marches slowly over here at the Old Folks Hotel in Opelika. My daughters keep me company, and they’ve gotten really good at finding places to wheel me around. I’m always nice and patient with them, even when they tell…

By Maggie ConklinHungarian GoulashWhenever I ask my husband “What do you want for dinner tonight?” most times he will answer “Goulash.”I cringe, because I love it too, but can’t have just one bowl of my recipe. I sometimes wish it…

By Scott SullivanEditorLetters from HomeDear addled daddy, How did the base you start and go from become so scattered? You’re a deer, addled daddy, no one follows.“Throw them off scent,” you say? Who’s hunting you. “Not enough wild places to…

It’s no fun getting old. Although your mind remains sharp your physical attributes begin to deteriorate.In my case it is my teeth, that seem to be rotting away at a rapid clip. I’ve been to the dentist a dozen times…

    Every September my mother spent several dollars buying boxes of rolls of caps for my genuine Roy Rogers Six Shooter.  If we needed more ammunition she was more than happy to foot the bill.  The reason for this was simple:  starlings.  We were directly…

By Maggie ConklinBeebalmI kept driving by a field of spotted beebalm, aka horsemint, bergamot or the Latin binomial name Monarda punctata, and telling myself I’d go harvest it tomorrow.This had gone on for a couple weeks, OK, more than a…