Our USA Magazine
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For many years we lived outside a small town with a little more than a hundred people. It was a quiet, friendly town, between the mountains, and alongside the river. Here the children and the trees grew tall and strong. As the wind blew, and day turned into night, the children would play, laughing joyously.
Joe, a construction worker who happened to be off that day, was out in his garage. As he looked outside the window to the north, he saw a black wall moving rapidly toward his house. Joe was from Illinois and had seen tornadoes before, so he headed for better protection.
My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. - George Eliot
Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is, is change. - Edwin Way Teale
As I sit at my desk, I can’t help but overhear my coworkers talk about their Thanksgiving traditions with the fabulous food, the extra days off and visiting with their families. It has made me daydream and reminisce about my own Thanksgiving and why this holiday is my favorite holiday of the year.
With the school year in full swing, we got to thinking about our first forays into those hallowed halls and the materials teachers used to help us become the unique people we are today. Major among those were the series of Dick and Jane books, published between 1930-1965.
Coronet Films, which were shown in great regularity in American schools in the 1940s and ’50s, shows a completely different world of instructional videos for teens.
America is known as the great melting pot, where cultures from all over the world simmer and swirl together to share traditions, religions, and yes, food.
All totalled, we work with about 30 square feet of countertop surface area to prepare, from scratch, the 50 dozen raviolis needed to sustain our family through Thanksgiving and Christmas.It’s a paltry work space, complete with unreliable appliances and sections of wall where the red and white striped paper has been steamed off from the radiant heat.
Gazing into a root cellar filled with jars of canned treats from summer’s harvest gives every gardener a sense of pure delight and pride. It is nature’s work, yet we humans did get those vegetables into the jars and had a hand
in the growing.
Recently, a pretty strong cold front drifted in through Texas where the temperatures dropped sharply. With kids returning to school and grumbling because they have to wake so early, it reminds me that autumn is fast approaching.
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Our USA Magazine
PO Box761
Sidney, NE 69162
admin