A frequent observation, particularly after a winter storm, is that roads are cleared much sooner than in the past. That is not an accident, and a big reason for that was touched on in an April …

Fires in local communities are not new. A century or so ago, rarely a month went by without the story of a fire in and around the area. The use of wood, coal or oil-based stoves and heaters …

I warned my sister, Kristy, last week that we still had gopher traps in the field. They had begun to plant oats, and I didn’t want them driving over the stakes and traps or burying them in the …

We sat around the table at Timpy’s Corner Pub in Freeport April 7: Shirley, Jean and the birthday girls, Claudette and me, chatting like we do once a month, reminiscing about the good old days and, …

From the start of the United States, there has been a postal service. There have probably also been complaints about it for just as long. Still, the service has a long tradition of getting the …

Stories have abounded in oral history, books, articles and documentaries about how people produced, sold and consumed homemade alcohol during the 1920-1933 Prohibition Era. Prohibition law, also …

Maybe Punxsutawney Phil was right in predicting winter would hang on a little longer this season. After all, we did have a couple of snow events so far this April. Yet, we also had a few days in …

I’m going to take you back to a time — at least 40 years ago — when an Easter egg hunt was a true Easter egg hunt. The Saturday before Easter, the Melrose Jaycees — I’m pretty sure …

Today is the day to be especially wary of something seemly out of the ordinary. April Fool’s Day is a tradition in many parts of the world, but just how it started is not readily known.  …

I have been approached many times over the years by people asking what they can do to make their home safer from being a target for burglaries.  The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal …

Chances are few of us have seen a 1926 Oakland Six automobile. Fewer have ridden in one. Still, 100 years ago, the cars were considered among the best in the United States, and it was available …

I must admit, when I was much younger, I never paid any attention to birdhouses. Robins, sparrows and swallows came and went, and sometimes, we would find their eggs in nests and, less often, the …