If Grandma or Great Aunt Maude are constantly reminiscing about the good old days, why not preserve their stories for your children?  Every family should have an oral history tape library right next to the family picture album. Starting such a collection is easy to do with an inexpensive tape recorder. (Yes, tape recorders are having a rebirth but for […]

By Robert Reed  While the grand old pocket watch never got its start in the United States, it had certainly become a great American tradition by the end of  the 19th century. It adorned the outfit of every stylish lady and sat in the pocket of every dapper gentleman.  There was a gleaming and engraved pocket watch for every taste, […]

Who Started Earth Day?  Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was at risk. In 1969, Nelson, considered one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement, developed the idea for Earth Day after being inspired by the anti-Vietnam War “teach-ins” that were […]

 Nebraska was a largely treeless prairie region when, on April 10, 1872, it became the first state to celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees.  The celebration came a few months after J. Sterling Morton, a vice-president of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, first proposed to the Board that the day be set aside for tree planting and that they […]