Growing up in a family with hunters, the fall season leading into winter was always a busy time. From the day the small game season opened until the deer hunting season closed, there was usually some …

Songs, memories, reenactments, biographies and sometimes parents and grandparents occasionally talk of bygone years of school. Occasionally, there are calls to have only the three Rs on the …

Looking at a map of Avon, one sees a variety of naming patterns. Early maps show a tendency, still followed, of giving streets numbers. That pattern is seen on one of earliest plats of the town, …

I could go on and on about the activities that kept us busy on the farm as kids, but individually and collectively, none used up our time as much as sports. This past weekend, the Zierden family …

A recent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report from Thailand told of a way to level anxiety by analyzing sweat. That is not the first time humans sought to use an “outside the box” …

“Do you want to bowl with us?” Linda Athmann asked me Thursday night as Melrose Bowl and Schif’s Bar & Grill filled up with bowlers while I and fellow Melrose Riverfest committee members …

Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, somewhere between 38% and 40% of the U.S. population was not alive at …

Growing up on a farm, was there ever any time to get in a little fishing? You bet there was. It might have been in the morning before the dew was off the hay or during a light drizzle or strong …

There were thing we were taught growing up; some are life lessons that have stuck with me. The past few weeks, I have been making a list. Not a physical list like Mom would do on her grocery …

I can see the benefits of the various “tap and pay,” self-checkout, pay-at-the pump and online payment services. The convenience and ease of such systems have been promoted since their …

An inside ad in the Aug. 9, 1951, Melrose Beacon shows an elevator being used to move bales of hay into a barn. The copy around the ad includes a smiling farmer and the phrase “Your neighbor is …

Once the cows were milked, we headed inside for breakfast. Mom didn’t always have breakfast ready. It was her job to keep the youngest one happy. Being the third oldest in a family of four boys and …