I just wrapped up several days covering and photographing area youth at the Poweshiek County Fair. It is one of the highlights of my year.
     I am sunburnt, tired, my feet hurt and I am ready for an extra nap. But I’m not hungry thanks to the Crazy Granny’s Kitchen at the fair. They kept me well fed and happy.
   This is my 23nd Poweshiek County Fair to take part in and my 26th overall since moving to Iowa in December 1997.
     I take great pride in playing a part in the lives of area youngsters through my camera, pen and paper and photography judging work. I also take great pride in encouraging area youngsters and congratulating them on their hard work.
     That is what the fair is about, at least to me, giving youth a chance to learn and grow through their 4-H and FFA projects, both livestock and indoor judging.
     In addition to my work at the county fair, I have served as a 4-H photography judge since 2012. I have judged every year but one during that 11-year span.
      I have judged in Poweshiek, Mahaska, Davis, Washington, Warren, Marion, Iowa, Benton, Johnson and Linn counties. I also judged 4-H photography at the Iowa State Fair in 2019. Every photo that advances to the state fair is judged a second time. I have also been the open class photography judge in Poweshiek County for about 10 years and twice in Iowa County. I enjoy working with 4-H’ers.
     I’ve received my share of awards and honors through the years, but the best honor is being a difference maker and helping youth grow and go on to do great things in this world.
     When I look back on my life, I am amazed what God has done. He’s been so good to me. I could share so many stories of working through challenges and having a “can do” never give up spirit to see projects through to the end.
      I’ve shared this story before, but it is a good reminder that opportunities still exist in our world.
     It was in my second semester at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I was working nights for the postal service as a temp employee and going to school during the day. It was a challenge.
       Anyway, MU had hired a new chancellor, Dr. Charles Kiesler the previous summer.
     Many students were complaining that he got a car and other benefits and that it raised their tuition. Money has to come from somewhere, but I don’t know the connection.
       I decided to write Dr. Kiesler a letter and thank him for the opportunity to be a student at MU. I told him I came there to earn a degree. I also said that I think students don’t understand that he was in their shoes one day years ago.
      I sent the letter off and about three weeks later, I received a personal response from Dr. Kiesler. He wrote to invite me to his office in Jesse Hall, the main administration building on the MU campus, to visit. He wanted to try and help me.
     You can’t get any better than having the university chancellor write you a letter and offer to help. Here I am a city boy from Tulsa, Okla. attending college in my 30s and I had an appointment with the university chancellor.
      I remember my advisor calling me when he heard about my meeting. “Do you know that the vice provost of extension services can’t even get a meeting with the chancellor,” he said.
       I think he was amazed.
      All I did was write a letter.
      It would be another six weeks before I could get an appointment to the chancellor.
     I remember the day. I believe it was a Tuesday. I wore my jeans and pullover shirt and carried my backpack with me.
      I stepped into his office. He offered me a cup coffee, which I kindly declined. He asked how he could help me. I told him a needed a job and that I had applied at the university before.
      “You have the employment office send me your file,” he told me.
       I had applied for jobs before at the university and they kept a file on me.
      So, I stopped at the employment office and made the request. I think the fellow behind the counter that I was some kind of nut.
      I don’t know what happened, but somehow the chancellor got my file and it wasn’t long when I was hired to push a broom and clean toilets. I went on to hold that job for more than four years while working toward my degree.
      I always said that I swept my way through journalism school.
     Whatever it is that you want out of life, go for it. Turn off the television and quit listening to the naysayers. You have what it takes to see your dreams fulfilled.
      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

     It was a hot July 4 afternoon and Debbie and I were rolling along the Farmhand Road south of Grinnell on our way to the parade.
      I was noticing how tall the corn was getting and somehow it made me think about my dad.
     “If my folks lived in Iowa, my dad would enjoy watching the corn and crops grow,” I commented to Debbie.
      She agreed.
     He’d like to drive the countryside and look at the crops, the farms, the cattle and soak in God’s beautiful creation called Iowa. I’m sure he would want to stop and visit with the farmers and maybe ride in the combine during harvest, or watch as they planted the soil in the spring months. He would enjoy every minute of it, too.
      It is hard to believe that it was 12 years ago that dad died on July 10, 2010. I was there and watched as Jesus slipped in the in the room and took him to Heaven.
     As for my mom, it will be 13 years since she passed on Sept. 27, 2009. Just more than nine months between the two.
        My dad knew no strangers. Everyone was a friend waiting to be met.
       It didn’t matter if we were at a fishing hole, eating at a restaurant or stopped at a store, my dad would strike up a conversation with anyone who had an ear to listen.
      He had the uncanny ability to find someone with a connection to his upbringing in the Verdigris River bottoms east of Tulsa or the old Oak Grove School, where he attended through the eighth grade and spent part of his boyhood days.
       He loved going back to the home place and visiting with the good folks he grew up around. I’d drive and he’d tell me where to go.
       Every place we stopped, I always found a comfy chair while dad visited. It never took long and I was fast asleep. Dad would wake me up and off to the next family we’d go.
       I remember the story he told me about the time the river got out of its banks and knocked the corn down. They had about 40 acres of corn near the river.
       The river went down and came back up a second time.
       “It only knocked the stalks down, not the corn,” he told me.
       He and his brother, Charley, picked that farm by hand and sold the corn, making enough money that my grandfather bought a used Allis Chalmers tractor and a plow. I think I have the receipt for that tractor in some of the things I inherited from my dad.
      I also have a set of harnesses that his dad used on a team of horses during the WPA days helping build roads in Oklahoma. 
    We also took several trips together including visiting the Chalk Pyramids in western Kansas, the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore and a movie set in southeastern Utah.
       I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the many family vacations we took through the 1970s to places such as San Diego, Calif., Nashville, Niagara Falls and may trips to see family on my mom’s side in Southeast Missouri and the fishing trips to Greenleaf Lake in southeast Oklahoma.
       Life gets busy for all of us. There is always going to be something vying for your time and attention. There never seems to be enough money or time to get it all done.
      I encourage you to take time every now and then to do something fun with your family. It’ll pay bigger dividends than an hour or two of overtime or another meeting or deadline or whatever else comes along in life.
       And it’s a great way to make some memories to store away in your heart.
      Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

       I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful and blessed Fourth of July.
    I hope you took time to attend a parade, enjoy a cookout with the family, go swimming and take an afternoon nap. I love naps!
      Now that we have celebrated our many freedoms, it is time to get into fair mode.
    The Poweshiek County Fair is a week away and in about five weeks, actually a little sooner, folks will be packing their campers and headed the Iowa State Fair, which is slated for Aug. 11 – 21.
     As anyone who has followed me in this column knows, the ISF has a special place in my heart as it was there that I met Debbie in August 2003. I just happened to walk by the Tindle family camper while doing a story on state fair campers from the Montezuma area and there was Debbie. 
     The story idea was a last minute move on my part. I think there was divine intervention in my decision to attend the fair and do the story that year.
     I had visited the campground by mistake my first year at the fair in 1998 when I got on the wrong tram, thinking I was headed to the parking lot. Of course, I didn’t have my hand stamped at the first gate as I thought the tram would eventually get me to the parking lot.
     I got to the second campground gate and almost had to pay to get back into the fair so I could leave the fair. Thankfully the ticket seller let me back in so I get back out. I ended up hitching a ride to my vehicle on police golf cart after asking for help.
     The next year, 2004, I found myself camping at the fair, and have done so every year since.
     Having grown up in Tulsa, I enjoyed the annual 11-day Tulsa State Fair, which kicks of the fourth Thursday after Labor Day. This year’s fair is slated for Sept. 30 – Oct. 10.
     I grew up about two miles from the fairgrounds and typically attended the fair with a friend and also with my family. I lived close enough that I could hear the fair in the evening if I opened my bedroom windows.
     Back in the day, all Tulsa Public School students received the first Friday of the fair out of school and a free ticket to the fair. 
    I have lots of great memories of walking the midway with a friend, riding the rides, attending a show, touring the Expo Square, an 8.1 acre column free building on the fairgrounds that first opened in 1966 and was used for oil expansion shows at the time, and just being a kid.
    When the fair wasn’t going on, myself and a friend would sometimes ride our bicycles to the fairgrounds and ride through the horse and cattle barns. We’d go in and out of the maze of animal pens and had a blast.
And for years, Bell’s Amusement Park was on the westside of the fairgrounds. The park first opened in 1951 and featured Zingo, the iconic wooden roller coaster, the log ride, the Phantasmagoria, and the Himalayan. There were two miniature golf courses, a Ferris wheel, the wildcat and much more. A visit to Bells was an evening full of fun.
The popular Tulsa attraction, which was owned by the Bell family, lost its lease in 2006 and closed after 55 years. There have been efforts in the years since to bring Bells back, but nothing has developed. Lots of great childhood memories.
I leave you with this. Folks are busy these days running here and running there. There is all kinds of stuff going on in this crazy world to cause worry and concern. My advice, something I need to listen to myself, slow down, take it easy every so often and don’t forget about those dreams.
No matter what is going on in the world, there’s still a place for dreams and a place for peace from above. Today is the day to make a step in a positive direction and see your dreams come to pass. Keep walking and keep believing.
Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.