By CHUCK OFFENBURGER IOWA CITY, Iowa, March 18, 2023 – There are some of us old-timers who thought we’d seen girls’ sports – and maybe even women’s sports – get about as big as they were going to get back in the late 1960s and 1970s. That’s when the Iowa high school girls’ state basketball…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, March 8, 2023 – We thought we were doing all the right things in trying to help the Juarez family find food, a home, jobs and to start settling-in here. Then they left. No phone call, no text, no email, no written note. And there’s been no contact from them…
By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, March 1, 2023 — I don’t have family dishes or silverware that were passed on to me by my parents. I was given a stack of sheet music, mostly hymns for the piano, because my parents Verda and Frank Riche witnessed music pouring out of me from the time…
By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 4, 2023 — I’m happy that the seasons change in this state, and I have spring fever. It’s that time of the year. I’m full of anticipation, even excited. I was thinking about that on a recent sunny morning, but still a cold morning, and here’s what came…
By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 19, 2023 — I love celebrating my birthday. And I like the pivot point of a birth date, giving me reason to reflect on the past year while dreaming about the year ahead. On my birthday in late 2021, there was absolutely nothing, not even a distant glimmer,…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 1, 2023 – As my wife Mary Riche has reported elsewhere, we recently spent five days in New York City – an experience that was my gift for her 75th birthday. It was as fabulous as you might imagine. We saw “Music Man” and “Funny Girl” on Broadway. …
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 19, 2023 – It was cold, gray and snowing in Iowa as I started writing this. The weather forecast was for up to a foot of snow in parts of the state. Mid-January. A perfect time in Iowa to, uh, be in Cuba. Know what I mean? In…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Jan. 8, 2023 – When your 97-year-old neighbor dies and you find yourself sitting in church at his funeral thinking “I want to be like Stephen Molle when I grow up,” that’s a pretty good measure of his life. Hundreds of us have been remembering and sharing our stories about…
PHOTOS BY MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 21, 2023 — There was a beautiful snow Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. We got four inches on our patio in Des Moines, eight inches around our apartment in Jefferson and nearly a foot in areas on to the northwest. That made Mary Riche decide to spend…
By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 30, 2022 – My husband Chuck Offenburger and I received so many wonderful holiday cards, photos and letters with personal messages that, yes, it seems a bit lame to send holiday greetings and recap our Christmas travels and celebrations in a column. I’m hoping you’ll indulge me in…
