By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Aug. 2, 2020 – Well, I’ll be damned. You’re telling me a business operates for 132 years in a solid, people-serving, community-building way in my hometown – including making the best malts on Earth at its classic soda fountain – and it’s now going belly-up? Not on my watch, brothers…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 30, 2020 — Throughout my adult life, gardening has been a real joy for me. Ever since I’ve had my own yard, I’ve been digging in the dirt, planting seeds and watching things grow. And I’ve been fairly successful at perennials, annuals and vegetables. I’m just getting started with…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 12, 2020 — Three things happened this past week that put me in a reflective mood: 1) Lindsay Offenburger, oldest granddaughter, turned 13 and I was telling her what I was doing at that age; 2) after too many years of forgetting to re-subscribe, my new subscription started up for…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2020 — As we were taking our traditional measure of the corn crop and the general health of agriculture on the eve of this Independence Day, our friend and neighbor Karen Lawton hit upon what may be the happiest thing you can say about it right now: “The farm…
By JIM ROSS LIGHTFOOT WHITE OAK, Texas, June 15, 2020 — My voice has been silent for quite some time. However, I am moved to comment on our current situation in this country we all love. Quite frankly, I am irritated, a bit confused, very tired of corona virus lockdown, appalled and, quite honestly, a…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, April 30, 2020 — When the advance agenda for this week’s Jefferson City Council meeting reported that one of Iowa’s greatest wrestlers, T.J. Sebolt, would present an economic development proposal, I immediately reserved a chair at the media table — although that really turned out to be a spot on…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, May 2, 2020 — This is way overdue and I apologize to all of you who follow my health updates. It was in January when I gave you my last update – four months ago. What have I been doing? I told you in January that I got a feeding…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER BANCROFT, Iowa, Aug. 17, 2019 – In this summer of mass shootings, suspicion of those different from ourselves, and outright hate, thank God for baseball, you know? Almost daily, the grand old game gives us good lessons – prepare well, get out of yourself, sacrifice for others, work together as a team,…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, June 20, 2019 — It was 30 years ago this summer when I decided to get my ear pierced and start wearing an earring. It was 29 years ago when I met Carla Burt during a bicycle ride on a recreational trail. Jim Green inspired both big moments in my life. …
By ROD WILLIAMSON NASHVILLE, Tennessee, Sept. 27, 2019 — From 1983 through 1994, I selected the National Anthem singers at Vanderbilt University athletic events. On the surface, this might appear to be a mundane task, but when your school’s home base is Nashville – “Music City USA” – the National Anthems are more scrutinized than…
