Most of us  learn things from our father as little children that we draw upon later in life, often coming to the realization that we learned patience, or fairness, or empathy from the man we looked up to the most. When I had a challenging day caring for my three ...

Auld Lang Syne began as a poem, penned in 1788. It told the story of two old Scottish friends with a history together that was worth remembering. As they sat and drank a cup of cheer, they remembered the past with fondness, for old time’s sake—or in their native tongue–auld ...

There was a time in history when making it to the teenage years was a milestone, a time when one in three infants died before they learned to walk. In the early centuries of American life, big families were the norm because all mothers knew that they would bury at ...

As the ship christened Wolf traversed the Atlantic in 1720, a young woman aboard named Elizabeth Wilson gave birth to a baby girl.   While she lay recovering from the birth, counting her little daughter’s fingers and toes and admiring her Irish red hair, a band of vicious pirates forced their ...

“Faith is like radar that sees through the fog—to the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.”   Corrie Ten Boom   As World War II raged on throughout Europe, Corrie Ten Boom and her family could not put their faith in what their eyes could ...

Ann was beautiful, with long, auburn hair and fair skin. She was kind-hearted, a soft whisper of a pioneer woman, like her name. She was 16 in 1829 when she traveled from Kentucky with her parents, James and Mary Ann Rutledge, and her nine siblings, to the open prairie of ...

Beginnings often hold the promise of good things. When my grandparents were married in 1927, it was a time of new hope for both of them.  My grandfather had finally regained his health after suffering from Tuberculosis brought on by weakened lungs after he contracted influenza during the 1918 pandemic. ...

Dessert has always been a favorite in my family. My great grandfather was known to sit down and eat most of a pie by himself.  My favorite cookie has always been sugar, because my grandmother made the best. She would sit a plate of fresh baked cookies on the table ...

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company in Manhattan produced women’s shirtwaists. The fitted, long-sleeved blouses with high necklines worn by women with their long skirts every day in the early 1900’s.  Most of the company’s workers were teenage girls and young women who had immigrated to America with their families, dreaming of ...

Canning before the long winter was once a part of life for most homemakers in America. My grandmother was one of those homemakers, living with my grandfather and her two little boys on a farm in northwest Indiana.  There, she had a large garden in the side yard, along with ...