Columns

“Out and About” County fair, aerators, and lead poisoning

“Out and About” County fair, aerators, and lead poisoning

Editorial StaffSep 29, 20233 min read

Rouch Equipment would like to invite everyone to their Annual Fall Openhouse this Saturday, September 30, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Rouch Equipment is located at 56653 Abbey Rd., west of Three Rivers. There will be something for every…

Proud to be a Pioneer: What Kind of Schools Do We Want?

Proud to be a Pioneer: What Kind of Schools Do We Want?

Editorial StaffSep 29, 20233 min read

The last 45 years for me have been spent in schools. From Clare to Alma College, a couple of districts in western Pennsylvania, two districts in southern Michigan, and back to Clare…you may get a kick out of the fact…

Postcard from the Pines: Twenty-three Smoky Miles

Postcard from the Pines: Twenty-three Smoky Miles

Editorial StaffSep 29, 20234 min read

AA Depot at Marion lqte 1940’s This is the time of year when we all long for a great color tour. A few years ago we planned to travel on the Color Tour Train along a section of the old…

Humor: BEING FUNNY FOR FRIENDS

Humor: BEING FUNNY FOR FRIENDS

Editorial StaffSep 27, 20233 min read

Reagan called it years ago None of us can hear Perry and I discuss Air Force vs. the Marines I’ve made some friends at the Old Folks Hotel. Perry is one of my GUY friends, and we are way outnumbered.…

Maggie’s Pantry

Maggie’s Pantry

Editorial StaffSep 27, 20232 min read

By Maggie ConklinEasy Stuffed DuckThe family story goes one long-ago night my parents were eating at a fine restaurant with some Dad’s business customers, Mom’s cousin Bob and lifelong friend Margaret.Mom Milley lectured Bob all afternoon long about how to…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffSep 27, 20234 min read

By Scott SullivanEditorSaddling UpHe saddled up to the bar and gritted through rotted cuspids, bicuspids, incisors …“Aren’t you s’posed to sidle?” asked Zeke the Barkeep.“Buck you,” he spat through his bridge, spitting bloody Chiclets square into bullseyes of 12 dartboards.…

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffSep 27, 20234 min read

Mike “Dirty Jobs” Rowe wrote about work, “What’s happening now in this country that scares me to the core fundamentally is we have never had so much unrealized opportunity and little enthusiasm for it.”Since before European settlement America has been…

Mike’s Musings: Nightmare in a latrine, lady can’t get out

Mike’s Musings: Nightmare in a latrine, lady can’t get out

Editorial StaffSep 27, 20233 min read

A few days ago, a story popped up on my computer screen entitled Michigan police rescue woman trapped in outhouse. It piqued my curiosity because the article proclaimed it happened in Otsego, MI, where we publish the Union Enterprise. After…

Out and About: Mailing rules and mothers

Out and About: Mailing rules and mothers

Editorial StaffSep 22, 20233 min read

Because of the Internet, most folks don’t write letters and send them via the U.S. Postal Service anymore. If you need to send a package, you can use UPS, FedEx, or the Postal Service. If you do choose the Postal…

May I Walk with You? REBUILDING THE CHURCH

May I Walk with You? REBUILDING THE CHURCH

Editorial StaffSep 22, 20233 min read

One of the most beloved saints is St. Francis of Assisi. I like St. Francis, not only because he loved animals, was simple, lived quietly, and gave up his earthly wealth, but because he could also misinterpret what God was…

Postcard from the Pines: Tree Time

Postcard from the Pines: Tree Time

Editorial StaffSep 22, 20235 min read

I come from a long line of tree lovers of one kind or another. Great-grandpa Milt Beebe came to Osceola County as a boy with his father Raymond, in 1873. They settled in the well forested Highland Twp, chosen, in…

Humor: FROM FARM TO FOREST

Humor: FROM FARM TO FOREST

Editorial StaffSep 20, 20234 min read

Scarecrows are the only old technique still around Hog Parts! Farming in the old days – no smiles to be found Time marches slowly over here at the Old Folks Hotel in Opelika. My daughters keep me company, and they’ve…

Maggie’s Pantry

Maggie’s Pantry

Editorial StaffSep 20, 20233 min read

By Maggie ConklinHungarian GoulashWhenever I ask my husband “What do you want for dinner tonight?” most times he will answer “Goulash.”I cringe, because I love it too, but can’t have just one bowl of my recipe. I sometimes wish it…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffSep 20, 20236 min read

By Scott SullivanEditorLetters from HomeDear addled daddy, How did the base you start and go from become so scattered? You’re a deer, addled daddy, no one follows.“Throw them off scent,” you say? Who’s hunting you. “Not enough wild places to…

Mike’s Musings: Pull them I say, if it means pain goes away

Mike’s Musings: Pull them I say, if it means pain goes away

Editorial StaffSep 20, 20233 min read

It’s no fun getting old. Although your mind remains sharp your physical attributes begin to deteriorate.In my case it is my teeth, that seem to be rotting away at a rapid clip. I’ve been to the dentist a dozen times…

Life as a Performance Art

Life as a Performance Art

Editorial StaffSep 20, 20236 min read

    Every September my mother spent several dollars buying boxes of rolls of caps for my genuine Roy Rogers Six Shooter.  If we needed more ammunition she was more than happy to foot the bill.  The reason for this was simple:  starlings.  We were directly…

Maggie’s Pantry

Maggie’s Pantry

Editorial StaffSep 14, 20232 min read

By Maggie ConklinBeebalmI kept driving by a field of spotted beebalm, aka horsemint, bergamot or the Latin binomial name Monarda punctata, and telling myself I’d go harvest it tomorrow.This had gone on for a couple weeks, OK, more than a…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffSep 14, 20235 min read

By Scott SullivanEditorhungry iGeometry, content, composition … click. Do a photo’s still subject objects move me after I process them, let the content cool, then return for reassessment and maybe revision. Still?The hungry i (1950-1970) was a San Francisco comedy,…

Mike’s Musings: A Mothers Cries Out for Help

Mike’s Musings: A Mothers Cries Out for Help

Editorial StaffSep 14, 20233 min read

I received a phone call from a distraught reader and mother a few days ago, that really hit home. She called me because of the strong positions I have taken in past columns about Big Pharma, opioids and doctors that…

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffSep 14, 20236 min read

    In 1951, the renown Protestant theologian, Richard Niebuhr published his important book Christ in Culture.  In it, he outlines the different ways Christ, and his church is in relationship with the secular world.  Seventy-two years later the book remains in print, and I…