Guest Blogs
Times photo/Jessi Dreckman A hands-on exhibit in the Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium allows young visitors, and those young at heart, to touch rays, horseshoe crabs and other aquatic life.
I had just entered Springfield’s new Wonders of Wildlife museum, stopping to admire the massive short-faced bear perched at the entrance and continuing on to read the plaque of a white-tail deer headdress at one of the first display boxes, when a teenage girl and two adults made their way up the...
Rural Missourians need action from the Missouri legislature on a number of issues this session, but two issues stand out as being critical to our long-term success.Road and bridge funding is rural Missouri’s top priority. Missouri Farm Bureau members have long supported increasing funding for...
This Honeywell brand electric radiant heater, model HZ-709-WMT, caught fire in Times’ reporter Jessi Dreckman’s living room recently.
Space heaters can be a lifesaver during extreme weather conditions, but it’s important to ensure that any heater you might have is safe to use. My husband Drew and I recently had a scary experience with an electric radiator space heater that caused this warning to become a reality for us.
We...
Jerry Crownover
An old friend recently sent me a picture of the present his wife gave him for Christmas last year. It was a sweatshirt with a picture of a couple of calves on the front, accompanied by the words, “Sorry for what I said when we were working cattle.”
Bud said it worked great because he just had to...
Remembering the big snow of ‘77
To read more of retired Gainesville educator Jane Elder’s blog, Ozark Road, visit gainesvillemo.blogspot.com. To her most recent post, she added this disclaimer: I know there are some people out there that might add to ... or correct ... some of what I remember. I can plead old age ... or some such...
This column is reprinted with permission from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The writer is the husband of Ozark County native Marla Morrison Messenger and the son-in-law of Gainesville resident Carlene Morrison, who owns the farm where Ruby is buried.
After more than 30 years of parenting, I...
Jerry Crownover
When it came to Christmas gifts, Dad was all about practicality. I know I must have received some toys or other impractical gifts when I was very young, but from age 9 or 10 onward, the gifts were always things I needed: coats, shoes, shirts, jeans, etc. There was never money to waste on...
Editor’s note: To read more of retired Gainesville educator Jane Elder’s blog, Ozark Road, visit gainesvillemo.blogspot.com.
Tis the season. Ready or not, here it comes. I stepped outside this morning to do some chores. The sun was just starting to come up in the east. Slanting light sparkled on...
Fred Smith is the little guy in the white shirt and light-colored overalls on the right end of the front row in this photo of the Upper Brixey school that was probably taken in 1917 or 1918. Most of the other students are unknown, but Beulah Collins Smith, the teacher, is the dark-headed woman standing in front of the door of the school, which still stands on Highway 181 south of Rockbridge.
Editor’s note: To read more of the reminiscences of Ozark County native Ronnie Parsons, now living in Texas, visit his Facebook page: facebook.com/ronnie.parsons.
Back in my childhood days in Brixey Holler, people seemed to be driven to fulfill, to the highest degree possible, the expectation...
If someone blindfolded you, took you for a ride and then took the blindfold off after they led you into a house, you would still know if you were in a farmer’s home.
Coming in the back door, whether through a garage, porch, mudroom or utility room, you would most certainly see a row of muddy (and...