A trip to the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleasant is always in order following the Iowa State Fair.
         I love steam engines and taking a walk back in time and the Old Threshers is always a good experience. Plus, I get to meet and visit with a lot of new people.
        This year we (my family and I) spent time going flea marketing, antiquing and touring the museums. I started working on a Old Threshers photo trivia contest that I plan to post on Facebook in the near future. The idea is to see if folks know where the photos were taken. Some will be giveaways and others will be more challenging.
         While visiting the Old Threshers Foundation Office, Debbie and I visited with Melinda Huisinga of Mount Pleasant.
        Melinda currently serves on the Old Threshers Board. She and her late husband, Alan, who passed earlier this year, worked hard to make the Old Threshers one of the best events in the State of Iowa. Melinda and her family are featured in our 2008 book, “Family Reunion, Midwest Old Threshers.”
         Debbie and I knew that Melinda’s Methodist Meat Loaf was an Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon winner. What we didn’t know is that the tasty meat loaf earned the honor at the 2017 ISF in a contest that we sponsored for several years. The contest asked entrants to create a food that would be served at a threshing event back in the day.
        The meat loaf, along with some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten, is served daily at the Methodist Church tent on the Old Threshers grounds.
       While touring one of the museums on the Old Threshers grounds, I met a fellow from Missouri who struck up a conversation with me. I learned that for about 20 years, he sponsored a farmer’s challenge at the Missouri State Fair. The event was also held for three years at the Iowa State Fair. When asked, he couldn’t remember what years.
        I found a video from 2011 showing young people participating in a farmer’s challenge at the ISF. It was similar in nature to Ag Olympics where folks flip tractor tires, drive through an obstacle course using a wheelbarrow and roll a large bale of hay.
          I’m not sure it is one in the same, but it’s fun to find out.
        I also visited with Kyle Waldeck of Illinois in the stationary steam area on the Old Threshers grounds. Kyle is a yearly volunteer at the reunion and we first met in 2007. A photo I took of Kyle and his mother are featured in our Old Threshers book at the button collector’s forum. The button collector’s forum is held on Sunday morning of the reunion and gives a chance for OT button collectors to talk all things, “buttons” while buying, selling and trading with each other.
       The reunion, which was first held in 1950, has produced a collector’s button every year. Some of the older buttons, mainly the 50s, bring $200 - $400 each. I have several from the time period, but not the more expensive ones.
     On Monday, I took the electric trolley to the 1856 Log Village on the south edge of the Old Threshers grounds, where I milled around, took a few photos and met some new people.
      The log village features volunteers dressed in period clothing, cooking meals over an open fire, spinning yarn, playing musical instruments from the time period and doing things the old -fashioned way. There’s a school, barn, woodworking shop, blacksmith shop and lots of demonstrations and more.
       While there, I met a former co-worker at Marengo Publishing who was talking with guests about her and her husband’s team of mules. I shared with them the story of my grandfather using a team of horses to build roads in Oklahoma during the WPA days.
      I also visited with a mother and her two daughters who were churning butter the old fashioned way. I remember my mom had a churn and she’d make butter and cream by hand. That brings back a lot of memories.
       I met another young lady who grew up in Mount Pleasant but now calls Texas home these days. She was using wedges of various sizes and a sledge hammer to split logs. She was one tough gal who knew how to swing a sledge hammer.
     If you’ve never visited the Old Threshers Reunion, I recommend it. It opens on the Wednesday before Labor Day with a horse pull and wraps up five days later. There’s lots to see and do.
      It is the small things in life and connections made along the way that make every day a new venture and opportunity.
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

     While in journalism school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I was required to spend time working the Columbia Missourian news desk.
    Part of my duties including answering the telephone and helping customers. I was also required to call families of loved ones who passed away.
      The idea was to learn more about that person and possibly turn an obit into a feature story.
Anyway, I called this family and a man answered the telephone.
      I explained that I was a student at MU and I was calling to learn a little bit more about the gentleman who had passed.
       “You caught me a little off guard,” the fellow said, explaining that he was the brother of the deceased.
       I said a few more words and he went on to tell me that he didn’t have much to say.
       “No story there,” I’m thinking. 
       It bit later that day, I received a call from the son of the deceased man that I had earlier called his brother. Apparently, the brother called the son.
      The son, who was calling from Kansas City, said he appreciated my call and was honored to share about his father.
       When it comes to death and religion, people can sometimes get a little awry. 
      I don’t remember much about the story today, but I ended up writing a nice feature about the man. It seems that he was a long-time milk man in Columbia.
       I think newspapers should do more of that. Calling families and writing about the person who passed. I think it is a great way to honor someone, especially a city leader, business owner or military personnel, who has passed.
       Someone once told me that way back in the day, local newspaper editors wrote obits, not the undertaker. If they didn’t like the person, they didn’t say anything nice about him or her. I’m glad they don’t do that today.
      Those who know me, know that I love to visit. I have no problem talking to total strangers. I always say, “you don’t get to know people if you don’t talk to them.”
       I visited with a lot of people at this year’s Iowa State Fair. On the afternoon of the last Friday of the fair, Debbie and I found ourselves in the Agriculture Building as heavy rains and lightning rolled through Des Moines.
       Debbie had earlier found a bench and I joined her. 
       It wasn’t long until a family took a seat next to us on the bench. I struck up a conversation and found out they were from Marion and that they had a son who was a police officer in the area. They said they were enjoying the fair and afterwards they were headed to Kansas City to see family.
       After they moved on, another couple found solace on our bench. It just happened they were from Kansas City and made the trek to Des Moines to attend the fair.
       There were three of them, two men and woman. I mentioned I was from Tulsa and one of the men said he knew a lot about Tulsa. He said he knew author Jim Stovall, who resides in Tulsa and has written a number of Christian-based books including, “The Ultimate Gift,” “The Ultimate Legacy,” “You Don’t Have to be Blind to See,” “The Executive Entrepreneur,” and much more. He also has several movies out.
        This fellow said he was a cousin of Jim. He was talking about all he had done and the money he had given to the Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
      Stovall, who is blind, donated more than a million dollars to the ORU to create the Stovall Center for Entrepreneurship. According to the website, the vision of the Stovall Center for Entrepreneurship is three fold: to equip entrepreneurs through a blend of both theory and active engagement, to positively impact our city through social innovation projects and to empower change agents to transform communities all over the world.
       It was nice to meet these folks and visit. We told them about our books and the lady gave us her email and asked us to send her some information about Debbie’s novels.
       I leave you with this. You may not be able to donate a million dollars, but you can buy a neighbor or family in need a sack of groceries, volunteer at a community event or the local food or clothing pantry, mow someone’s yard or offer to give someone a ride to the doctor or to the store.
       I encourage you to take time to say hello or share a good word with someone you meet. The world is full of people from all walks of life and some have a story to tell and some just need to hear a good word.
       Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

     Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, once said, “Whether you think that you can or that you can’t, you are usually right.”
      Life is like that – if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish great things. If you doubt what you are trying to do, you are in for a tough ride or worse, you won’t get off the couch and get going.
      Thirty years ago on Aug. 13, 1992, I loaded a rented Budget truck and my Chevrolet S-10 with most of my belongings and left my boyhood home of Tulsa headed for new pasture.
        I wasn’t unhappy in Tulsa, I was ready for a change.
       It all started in the early winter of 1983 while working in the circulation department for Newspaper Printing Corporation (NPC) in Tulsa. NPC oversaw the printing and distribution of what was then two Tulsa papers, the World and the Tribune.
       I was an assistant district manager and my job was to make sure the daily newspapers were delivered to the customers on time.
        I met John, who had moved to Oklahoma in April 1982 from Riverside, Calif. Ironically, John was born in Iowa and lived in Burlington before moving to California with his mom and family at age 3.
       We had a bet. The goal was to see how much weight we could lose in a two-month timespan. The bet started on March 1 and went through April 30 of that year.
           The winner would receive $50.
        I won with a weight loss of 39 pounds to John’s 26 pounds. I got into short-distance running (2-6 miles daily), quit drinking Pepsi and changed a lot of my eating habits.
            At the time, John didn’t have an extra $50, so a couple months later, he gave me his old camera, a Konica FP-1. The camera paid far greater dividends and opened more doors than $50 could have ever done.
         I had an Argus twin lens reflex camera that I was given in junior high school by the neighbor family to the south and I used it a lot through the years, but never took the art of photography too serious. This new camera was like a piece of gold.
          I started with some adult education photography courses through Tulsa Community College and that led me to enroll in Rogers State College (now University) in Claremore, Okla.
      I started part-time at RSC in August 1987 with a black and white class at the recommendation of the teacher. I then ventured into color photography. This was back in the day when film was king. I learned a lot about photography working in the darkroom developing film and making prints. That led to me taking more classes such as English, humanities, history, speech and science.
            While at RSC, where I earned an AAS Degree in Graphics Technology in 1991, I begin to believe in myself. Growing up, I was shy and didn’t always see myself in the best light.
            That was changing.
          It helped that I was attending a God-centered church where I was learning that all things are possible and that my past wasn’t my future.
            I learned early on in life that struggles and challenges were there to propel you into a better life. And so was the paddle of love my mom shared with my backside many times through the years. I’m thankful for every spanking I got.
          Anyway, while at RSC, I decided I wanted to earn a bachelor’s degree. That led to me applying and being accepted to the University of Missouri-Columbia.
            I never took an ACT test, but somehow got into the school. I enrolled in the Agricultural Journalism program.
           It took me three tries to get into the journalism school. I worked at night as a custodian and went to school during the day. I got involved in a church and made friends. I listened to Bible teaching tapes while sweeping floors and cleaning toilets. I associated with people who believed in me and prayed for me. And most importantly, I believed in myself.
        I asked for help and I took advantage of it. Thinking back, I remember the many struggles I had with algebra. At one point, I was getting tutoring from a friend at church twice a week and I was spending Sunday afternoons attending math tutoring at the university. I passed.
          When I failed, and I did many times, I got up and kept walking.
        After graduating from MU in 1997 at the age of 38, I returned to Tulsa briefly before making the move to North English, Iowa on Dec. 27, 1997.
         Looking back on all of this, I’ll never forget Aug. 13, 1992. My brother, Tom, drove the rental van and I drove my pickup on that hot August early evening. We stopped for pizza and then hit the turnpike to Missouri.
           After spending the night in Springfield, Mo., we rolled north and east and arrived in my new home, Ashland, Mo., 15 miles south of Columbia, in the late afternoon of Aug. 14, 1992.
           What I great ride these past 30 years have given me.
        I met my wife at the Iowa State Fair, published two Iowa photo books, co-directed a writing workshop for 10-years, bought a house. I believe I have made a difference through my pen and camera in the lives of many.
           And there is so much more to come!
          Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.

        I grew up attending the Tulsa State Fair.
      I always looked forward to the fair as a youngster because I got a free day out of school and a ticket to attend the fair. The Tulsa State Fair opens on the fourth Thursday following Labor Day and runs for 11 days.
     I usually went once with a friend or by myself and a second time with my family. We enjoyed touring the animal barns and I liked walking through the midway. The Tulsa fair features the IPE (International Petroleum Expo) Building on the fairgrounds. It is more than eight acres under one roof. During the fair, the building is filled with vendors, food and fair contests. You can spend an entire day in that building.
      I grew up about two miles from the fairgrounds and on any given fall evening, I could open my bedroom windows and hear the noise from the fair.
      I had never heard of a butter sculptor or the famous Butter Cow at the Iowa State Fair until I moved to this fine state and attended my first fair in 1998.
     And the campground is like a small city with transportation, a grocery store and electric and sewer hookups. I enjoy being in the campground where I get a chance to renew old friendships and make new ones.
      During my first year at the fair, I got on the wrong tram and ended up in the campground by mistake. I was trying to get to the parking lot and ended up getting more than I bargained for.
      I failed to have my hand stamped at the gate as I thought I was going to the parking lot. I almost had to buy a ticket to get back into the fair to get out of the fair. The ticket taker let me in after a little persuasion. 
      Once back on the fairgrounds, I ended up hitching a ride on a golf cart with two policeman after asking for directions. They were nice fellows, but the one cop must have been having life problems of some sort because he was talking about it as I hung on to the back of the golf cart for my dear life.
      It was quite an ordeal and made for a great newspaper column. It was also a precursor to being in the campground five years later in 2003 where I would met Debbie, who would be become my wife just more than a year later. It’s a match made in Heaven, via the Iowa State Fair Campground.
     My favorite things about the fair are people watching, visiting with total strangers, taking naps on fair benches, spending time in Pioneer Hall where I enter antiques each year, staying in the air conditioned buildings as much as possible and eating at Beattie’s, better known as the watermelon stand. They serve tasty tenderloin sandwiches as well as beef and ham sandwiches. They are a great family.
     There’s also a family-owned polish sausage stand behind the Varied Industries Building that makes the best polish sausage sandwiches. Toss in a glass of ice cold tea and all is good with the world. Last year, Debbie and I purchased large drink glasses for $10 each from Hardenbrook Concessions. They have two food stands on the fairgrounds. We get free refills of ice tea for the entire fair. A fun fair fact, Hardenbrook Concessions also sets up at the Tulsa State Fair.
     I enjoy eating at the Iowa Pork Producers tent and a trip to the Cattleman’s is a good choice. And I tried the pizza last year and plan to eat a slice or two again this year.
     Here are some things you may not know about the Iowa State Fair. The Pork Producers serve approximately 48,000 pork chops during the fair. I wonder how many pigs it takes to have that many pork chops?
     Also, more than 40,000 ribbons, rosettes and banners are awarded annually at the Iowa State Fair. I have a tough enough time sorting out the awards and honors at the Poweshiek County Fair. I can’t image sorting out that many awards and honors.
      The heaviest pigeon on record at the fair weighed in at two pounds, 7 ounces in 2014. The biggest Big Boar was 1,335 pounds in 2012. The World Super Bull chimed in at 3,404 pounds in 2009. The Giant Ram weighed in at 507.5 pounds in 2014. And the Largest Rabbit was 22 pounds, 5.5 Ounces in 2012.
      About 1,600 tons of animal bedding is hauled away each year from the state fair barns.
Approximately 500 exhibitors and concessions operate daily at the Iowa State Fair. This includes food (cotton candy to corndogs), merchandise (T-shirts to tools), craft and exhibit vendors (farm machinery to hot tubs).
      The first Hog Calling competition was held in 1926. Check out the Pioneer Hall for a long-list of competitions from cow chips to fiddling.
      And the toilet paper used each year at the fair stretches 1,818 miles. That is five trips from Des Moines to Chicago or one trip from Des Moines to Los Angeles.
       That’s a lot of miles and a lot of toilet paper!
    And lastly, here are the lyrics to the song, “Our State Fair,” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein music titled, “State Fair.”
       “Our State Fair is a great State Fair,
       Don’t miss it, don’t even be late.
       It’s dollars to doughnuts that our State Fair,
       Is the best State Fair in our state!”
      Life is about living and making memories with family and friends. If you have a little extra time, take a trip Des Moines and enjoy the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 11 – 21.
     Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.
 
 
 

     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.