Lost And Found

In today’s Gazette, I talk to Roy Porterfield who found a Bible in the middle of First Avenue East in Cedar Rapids on that unlucky Friday, June 13, at the height of the flood. That’s when the Cedar River hit its crest, when it flowed through thousands of city homes and businesses sweeping whatever lay in its path [...]

Kilroy was here

In today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette I mention that Linda Ferguson found ”Kilroy was here” graffiti behind a wall at her flood damaged northwest Cedar Rapids home.

I’ve always liked this little guy and knew that he evolved during World War II. But, I never really knew the story behind him.
If there’s anywhere to find out, it [...]

Criticized For Receiving FEMA Check

A handful of people have weighed in about my column in today’s Gazette about receiving a FEMA check for damage to my basement after my sump pump failed. They have called me names, said I have no right to accept such a check and tell me to give it to people who really need it.
I’m [...]

Flood Damage Gawkers, Pro and Con

My Gazette columns about flood damage gawkers that ran Wednesday (June 25) and Friday (June 27) hit a nerve. In the first, I talked to flood victims who resent people driving by to look at and photograph their homes and the damage rather than getting out to help. They feel a loss of privacy. In the second, I talked to people [...]

Cedar River tranquil in wake of raging Red River circa 1997

With the recent comparison of the 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids and the 1997 flood in Grand Forks, ND, I can’t resist running this Ramblin’ column I wrote for the April 29, 1997, Gazette. It ran with the headline “Cedar’s serenity a welcome contrast to raging Red River”
The Cedar River is a whisper to the Red River’s [...]

Tornadoes and Floods, Oh My

If it hasn’t been high winds, it seems to be high waters that are plaguing Iowans this year. Certainly a spring for the ages, bringing back memories of tornadoes that hit Oelwein and Charles City 40 years ago and the floods that swept through river communities 15 years ago.
Having been been to Charles City after [...]

Dewey Decimators - Do We Decimate?

The Dewey Decimators of the Coralville Public Library, featured in today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, may not have an original name but they were certainly original by featuring numbers from the Dewey Decimal System on the backs of their softball team T-shirts. The numbers coincide with the wearer’s favorite reading topic. Other Dewey Decimators [...]

Burma Shave Signs as Poetry

Mike Chasar, the subject of today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, had a fun time collecting old scrapbooks for his award-winning dissertation about how poetry influenced Americans from 1880 to 1945. While I was able to cover a lot of what he wrote about in that column, there’s no way to everything from a 225-page scholarly paper. [...]

A Small World At USD

While chatting with Blair Frank of Bertram about his Peace Garden, featured in today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, he said something about graduating from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Ah, hah. That’s where I graduated, in 1975. Blair earned a degree in biology in 1973. Since each of us finished college in four straight years, that means [...]

Indy 500 Iowa connections

Four West Branch buddies will be among the 400,000 spectators at the Indianapolis 500 automobile race Sunday. They’re reliving their youth, with three of them, David “Vid” Johnson, James “Boo” (now “Butch” Pederson, and Jeff “Whitey” Lathrop having gone in 1968 and a fourth, Glenn “Hink” Hinkhouse, joining them in 1969. (See today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette.)
 I’m [...]