Thanks for the memories

It’s that time of year again—a time to gather family and friends, make some time-honored recipes and give thanks. I have so much to be grateful for that I hardly know where to begin.

First and foremost, I am grateful that I’m still here to celebrate the holiday. Having survived (over the years) three stomach surgeries, a small heart attack, esophageal cancer and a stroke, it’s a miracle that I can still be such a pain in the neck, but (fortunately for me) my family and (oh, so special) friends still want me hanging around and, apparently, I have a lot of unfinished business.

My doctor seems to feel that I will “still be yakking it up, even as they lower me into the ground” (nice, huh?) and I am determined to keep talking (and writing) until such time.

go to column

Engagement party

Over the years, friends fall out of touch. These things just seem to happen. Times change, people grow and sooner or later you just aren’t that close. Phil is one of my oldest friends, of which there are not many. We’ve been very good friends for 15 years.

Phil and I were in the same class in third through eighth grade in Narrowsburg. We played on numerous sports teams together: baseball and basketball, and I spent many, many days at his house. He had/has a large and loving family and I remember fondly summer birthday parties in his backyard pool, weekly dinners at his large dining room table and tons of movies on his couch.

go to column

Literacy: don’t take it for granted

By Molly Rodgers

Congratulations! You are reading. You see printed symbols, your brain is processing those symbols into letters, letters into words, and words into meaning. You’ve demonstrated a degree of literacy. Did you know that 13 percent of Pennsylvanians lack those basic literacy skills? They cannot read this newspaper.

But wait. Before you get too content in the knowledge that you have demonstrated core literacy, what kind of a grade would you give yourself on economic and financial literacy? How about civic literacy, health and wellness literacy, and online literacy?

go to column