By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2018 — In late summer about five years ago, Scott Shriver and his crew from Shriver Farms had most of us in Greene County stumped about what the “new” crop was that they had coming up in a very visible field along Iowa Highway 4. First there were…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Aug. 13, 2018 – Inspired by a Smithsonian Institution exhibit examining the impact of sports on American culture – which is now on display at the Greene County Historical Museum in Jefferson – I have been diving into the history of sports in our little town of Cooper here in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER STORM LAKE, Iowa, Aug. 5, 2018 — The second season of the summertime Pioneer Collegiate Baseball League came to a crazy end — a crazy-fun end — here Friday night. Albert Lea’s Lakers clinched the championship with a 12-11 victory over defending champion Storm Lake’s Whitecaps. It was a storybook worst-to-first reversal…
WINTERSET, Iowa, Aug. 15, 2018 — Photographer Don Poggensee has been taking pictures of Iowa’s Amish people for years, most often in the rural communities they’ve established in northeast Iowa, like around Hazleton. But in early August, he spent a few days around Amish families in southern and southeast Iowa. “Every time I visit an…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 18, 2018 — My life seems to keep getting better. And I’m beginning to believe that it’s because I have cancer. Isn’t that odd? It’s my perspective, of course. I hope all those I know and love don’t have to get a cancer diagnosis to appreciate all they have.…