Janet's Blog

We've been hearing a lot lately about the U. S. Postal Service's struggle to survive in this world of e-mail and online magazines.  Additionally, private companies, such as UPS and Fed Ex, have gradually taken over much of our country's package delivery.  Postal rates can only be raised so high, or the post office will never be able to compete with private companies.  Let's face it:  there is less mail these days, and more competition from the private sector than ever before.  Yet, even with all of these changes, most Americans insist that the U.S. Postal Service, as we know it, should not change.  We shudder to think that some postal workers may be laid off and some smaller post offices may need to be closed.   On a more personal level, we want to keep our mail service just the way it is; we like picking up our mail from our convenient front porch or roadside mailboxes, six days a week, rain or shine.  I don't have a solution to this dilemma...

My family has always raised horses.  My brother and sister and I all rode before we walked.  When we lived on the farm, Ginger and her newest foal were right there, ready to be petted and ridden.  Even when we lived in the hotels, the horses were close by. Ginger was Dad's horse, a shiny, black mare that he rode from the time he was a teenager.  It was rare to find anyone from outside of the family who wanted to ride her because she was half American Saddle horse and half thoroughbred, very fast, and more than a little bit feisty.  Man o' War was her grandfather.  We kids rode Ginger double with Dad, or Dad led her while we perched on the saddle high above the ground.  Ginger was not a kid's horse, but we loved her anyway. When we moved from the farm to Norfolk, Ginger lived in a rented pasture not too far from town.  Her buckskin colt, Mr. Ed, was born there.  (I wonder how many colts were named "Mr. Ed" in the early sixties.)  Unfo...

Magazines, TV, and the internet are wonderful resources, but I am convinced that children learn best by seeing and interacting with real, live animals.  Many parents and co-workers know how strongly I feel about having pets in my classroom.  It's amazing the way people will help out when they know about your passions. When I first started teaching kindergarten years ago in Michigan, I set up the ten gallon aquarium that Bill and I had received as a wedding present, and stocked it with a handful of tropical fish.  It wasn't long before my students' parents added a frog and other exotic fish to our tank.  After I let the children and their parents know that we would welcome additional pets in our classroom, someone donated a guinea pig, which was a wonderful pet because the kids could hold it comfortably, and if it got away from them, it was big enough for us to find easily.  Unfortunately, the guinea pig died when I sent him home with a kindergartner for the su...

I'm not sure why Dad decided to build a houseboat.  Although he refurbished many barns and sheds over the years, I don't remember that Dad ever built any other structure.  Perhaps he was influenced by our proximity to Gavins Point Dam, where many other home-built houseboats were moored.  The dam on the Missouri River, just fifty miles north of Norfolk, provided deep water, good fishing, and the opportunity to get away from the constant business pressures associated with running the Oxnard Hotel. My memories of the houseboat may stray a bit from the truth, since I was only six or seven while Dad was building it.  I remember that he bought an old rowboat and trailer, probably at an auction.   At first, he parked the boat in the vacant lot behind the hotel, where Dan and I enjoyed hours of playtime, imagining that we were fishermen or pirates embarking on a long voyage.  I don't know which came first, the rowboat, or the idea to build a houseboat....