Columnist John Moore cuts and bales hay on the homestead he shares with his wife. A remnant of the hard work he was taught growing up. Courtesy John Moore Hard work has a way of shaping a person that no shortcut or modern convenience can replicate. In an era when many...
My grandfather was a blacksmith. To supply his shop with the metal, wood, and other materials he needed to operate, he attended auctions. Auctions that sold all types of items. Since his shop was located in Ashdown, Arkansas, that gave him close proximity to the...
My mom and her mother saved 7-1/2 books to get us that swing set. Just three years before in 1966, my parents had saved to buy their first house. Money was tight, so, if my sister and I were going to have that new addition to the backyard, Green Stamps would be the...
Ask Rusty – Retired federal employee has small Social Security benefit Dear Rusty: When I started getting Social Security at 62, I was told by the SS office I would get a smaller monthly amount because I worked for the Federal Government and received a Civil...
For those who know me, it’s no secret that I enjoy perusing the classifieds for yard or estate sales. But a recent online visit to the local Craigslist site led to the purchase of a manual typewriter. A 1958 Remington Quiet-Riter, to be exact. This column was written...
I have no clue why we’re told to say, “cheese” when preparing to have our photos taken. I do know that I often said cheese when asked as a kid what I wanted to eat. Specifically, cheese toast. That was my go-to quick meal growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas. I wasn’t...
Once upon a time, kids used to get bored. Before cell phones, video games, and 4,000 cable channels with nothing to watch, there wasn’t much to do. And kids got bored. I was one of them. It was bad enough to have a deep, endless chasm of time swallowing you (think...
My mother must’ve kept everything my sister and I ever made for Christmas. Some things were put together in school, but most were done in Sunday School. Same is true for anything we ever made, regardless of the time of year. Decades later at a Christmas gathering, if...
It was Flag Day 1987. I was opening the mic for the first time as a new announcer on KTBB AM 600. It was the early part of my radio journey, and I was excited to be moving up in the industry. KTBB was the second radio station to be licensed in Tyler, Texas. A station...
