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Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Self-Hypnosis For Well-Being Part II What do yoga, transcendental meditation and self-hypnosis have in common?  Only an expert could explain in a convincing, substantive way; but the Footloose Forester will venture his version of an answer : Each practice is a deliberate...

{source} I recieved a hand made card the other day and it moved me to write this story. A good friend, Kathy Larsen, lost her brother in the Afganistan war. He meant almost everything to her and I remember the time when she could hardly speak trying to come to grips...

HOW TO GIVE KEEPSAKES AND HEIRLOOMS AN HONORED PLACE IN FAMILY HISTORY Throughout the course of our lifetime we accumulate mementos and keepsakes. These special objects represent unique life experiences. The stories behind these keepsakes are often the difference between being tossed by the next generation or becoming an heirloom. The...

"Grandpa, do you really know Sinterklaas?"   This was the question posed to me by Zach, my five-year-old grandson during my visit with his family on December 6th. One of our family traditions around the Christmas season is that Sinterklaas' (Dutch name for Saint Nicholas) makes a visit to the homes...

Doug and I were married on March 30, 1996. This was not the first marriage for either of us and we came to the marriage having already lived a large portion of our adult lives. Much of our married life had been spent living and traveling full time in our 36...

Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Self-Hypnosis For Well-Being Part I It was back in 1974 when an entirely new way of thinking invaded the brain of the Footloose Forester .  That was the time when a traveling clinical hypnotist on a lecture tour came to visit the...

I have heard many people say the ramifications of this year’s presidential election (2012) will rival that of the 1860 presidential election. The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states'...

Ruth recalls her Christmas in 1974.

In his 96th year Bill has many Christmases to remember but here he shares his memoroes of childhood Christmases in Tarlee, South Australia during the 1920's. Christmas in the Army was different - he had 2 Christmases in Palestine, one in New Guinea and one in Borneo.    

Christmas is a special time of year and every family has its special memoroes. Here Jill Sayner shares her favourite Christmas memories.  

Joyce shares her Christmas memories. Many presents were hand made and paper came from the butcher....  

Annette recalls childhood Christmases and her 18 months in an orphanage  

Pat recalls Christmas 1938 which she spent in Nazareth House, a orphanage in Plymouth, Devon.

  This spring I was out walking my dogs for one of their daily trips near my vacation home in Lakeside, Ohio when I cam across an interesting find. Most of my three times a day walks come out rather normally, but this one was going to be different.    While...

  It is The Great Depression.   It is rural Redland Township, Hempstead County, Arkansas.   Crops have been planted and are coming up.   They look promising.  Cotton and corn.    Soon word comes from the federal government of new programs of how to deal with the overabundance of crops...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Environmental Disasters For much of the last 30 years, the issue of the environment has become a political football, with political parties lining up on opposite sides of that football.  That is too bad; although the...

One of the few seniors that was born and raised in Salem and still lives here is Richard (Dick) Hanks.  He graduated from 9th grade in Salem and Spanish Fork High School.  After he spent a couple of years with the people of California, he returned and entered BYU and started...

Jill shares the memorable things of her childhood and as a young adult.  She remembers the Annual John Martins Xmas Pagaent, the Royal Adelaide Show and the first Adelaide Festival of Arts.

This picture of my father, Harold Joseph Bennett was taken on an unknown island in the South Pacific while he was serving in World War II. It dates from about 1944. He enlisted into the SeaBees right after graduation from High School in June 1943. Daddy used to tell us about...

After their wedding, Annette and Gerry begin married life in their home in Watson, South Australia, on the Nullabor Plain. The home had large rooms and they decorated and made it their own.  In 1970 their first daughter was born and Annette had to make a decision about whether to stay...