TBY: The Best Years

Sarah Geringer lives on the same square mile near Tilsit, Mo., where her ancestors first settled when they immigrated from Germany in the 1880s. She is the fifth generation to live there, and her children are the sixth. An author, blogger, speaker and artist, her roots in this region and admiring the geography of Southeast Missouri while taking walks inspired her to write her latest book about using the objects around her as prayer prompts. ...

Recipes tell the stories of communities and the people who shape them. Each recipe is more than a list of ingredients and steps; it is a written legacy of the individual who created the dish, their family and history. This monthly series highlights one of these legacies and gives readers the chance to create the recipe themselves...

One of my favorite resources is Dr. Michael Greger. He has dedicated his career to validating research, as it relates to nutrition and our health, preventing diseases and reversing them, if at all possible. He has written several books, all of which are research-based, including, “How Not to Die,” “How not to Age” and “How Not to Diet.” He also has a valuable website, NutritionFacts.org, that provides updated, interesting new information on how we can help our bodies live longer and better...

At 12 years old, Fran Scholl knew she wanted to be in the military. What she didn’t know was how unusual that was for a young girl in 1968. As the oldest girl in a family with 11 kids, she grew up feeding and rocking her younger siblings. Mothering and nurturing were second nature to her. Her dad was a Navy veteran who served in World War II, and her family’s culture was well-suited to military culture. The children were expected to use manners and respect authority...

Near the village of Old Appleton, Mo., an area boasting a population of 72, there is a creek: Apple Creek. In the bend of that bluff-lined waterway, there are 100 acres of hilly land. It is private land; some of it is used to farm, some of it is used to build homes. ...

Days of Novembers past saw a scandalous president, a thrilling “King of Pop” and an ill-fated “King of the World.” On Nov. 7, incumbent President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide by winning 49 states. Nixon resigned two years later due to the Watergate Scandal. ...

I’ve known Big Awe a few times. I play my memories of it like social media videos, though there’s nothing small-screen about them. It’s a summer night when I’m 10 years old. I’ve cast myself down on a carpet of grass in the deepest shadow I can find so I can study the constellations. ...

As a former English teacher, I know more than a few people would agree with Queen Elizabeth’s character’s comment early in “The Uncommon Reader” by Alan Bennett that reading is a “duty.” Countless others — myself included — would concur instead with the queen’s later realization that reading is actually many different things. ...

Three hours ago, I was playing the last home volleyball game of my career. It was Senior Night. There were posters with pictures of me plastered all over the walls and multiple selfies of my face taped to popsicle sticks for the crowd to flail around. ...

Across the state of Missouri, The Katy Trail guides adventurers, offering a leisurely way to explore the history of Missouri’s German heritage, wine country, microbreweries, westward expansion and rural towns. The trail, which runs across the center of the state between Clinton, Mo., and Machens, Mo., is 240 miles long, with 26 trailheads and four fully-restored railroad depots along the way, according to the Missouri State Parks website. ...

Teresa and Stephen Meier, owners of Meier Horseshoe Pines, began growing Christmas trees in 1983. Approximately five years later, they opened for business and have been taking people via wagon ride to their 20 acres of Christmas trees to select live trees since...

Alex Mehner is the feature for this month’s installment of “Music Memories.” At age 27, he doesn’t qualify to be a typical feature for “The Best Years.” However, for the past three years, he has been an integral part of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as they tour the U.S. ...

Dolly Jewel is a long-standing citizen of Cape Girardeau who has taught in all levels of education, as well as served as an election judge for the past 25 years. Jewel says she thoroughly enjoys working as an election judge and will continue to participate on election days for as long as her health allows it. The friendships Jewel has made are something she is proud of throughout her time working as an election judge...

When Rob and Denise Bullock first visited River Ridge Winery in 1995, they knew very little about wine. They had never participated in a wine tasting, they had never bought a bottle of wine and they didn’t know anything about winemaking. At the winery, though, Rob says they had a “good experience” that opened up “a much bigger world of wine and food and daily enjoyment that is out there.” They began to learn more, and more than 20 years later, bought the winery in 2016. ...

Headlines today reflect those from 40 and 50 years ago about women’s tennis and Broadway musicals. We explore those here, as well as ancient internet history. 50 years ago: 1972 Tennis great Serena Williams is just beginning her retirement, but back on Oct. ...

I met a man recently who was sitting alone outside of a food bank. I waved as I walked by. His teeth were decayed, and his skin hung off his fragile limbs. I didn’t expect him to speak to me. To my surprise, he asked me how old I was. I said 17. As I walked away, he said, “When you turn 18, happy birthday.”...

How often do we take time to notice shadows? Within the painting “The Melancholy and Mystery of a Street” by Giorgio de Chirico, there is a very ominous shadow. As it appears from behind a building, a little girl plays in the street. This offers a narrative that makes us wonder what that mysterious shadow is. ...

Like most people, I have a few pet peeves. It drives me crazy when, for example, people poke along in the left of two lanes, not even going the speed limit and definitely not passing anyone. Another irritant is when a person mentions they have a goal — to be debt-free or to travel more or, now that the kids are out of the house, to downsize to a smaller place and buy a little cabin on the lake — but then quickly switches gears and shares a litany of “buts.”...

Recipes tell the stories of communities and the people who shape them. Each recipe is more than a list of ingredients and steps; it is a written legacy of the individual who created the dish, their family and history. This monthly series highlights one of these legacies and gives readers the chance to create the recipe themselves...

For the past 75 years, on the second Tuesday in August, the Puxico, Mo., VFW Homecoming kicks off a week-long event, bringing more than 10,000 people to the town with a population of 871. As is typical of small-town festivals, the week-long slate of events includes beauty pageants, baby contests, carnival rides and games, a church service, 5K run, car show, live music and parade. However, what sets Puxico Homecoming apart from other festivals is the nightly square dancing...

Get ready to celebrate good food, song and cheer: It’s the fourth-annual Shipyard Music Festival Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24, at the Century Casino Cape Girardeau. Come hang out with your community while listening to nationally-touring and local bands, participating in sponsor experiences and giving back to causes that matter throughout the Southeast Missouri region. Get your tickets and more information at shipyardfest.com...

Public radio helps people learn about things they didn’t know they didn’t know about, KRCU general manager Dan Woods says. That leads to great conversation, creating a bond with other listeners who have heard the same stories. That ability to create connection, Woods says, is what he loves about radio...

Colorful rides light up the skyline of Arena Park. Sounds of live music and revving engines fill the Grandstand with excitement. Funnel cakes, corn dogs and cotton candy abound. The theme of the 167th-annual SEMO District Fair, “No Time Like Fair Time,” couldn’t be more true...

One of the very surprising things I discovered early in my studies is that “good nutrition” is so much more than the foods we choose! Yes, as the saying goes, “We are what we eat” when it comes to building the foundation for health and longevity, but there are so many other factors that set the stage within us to make it possible for us to process and assimilate nutrients in the best possible ways. ...

Mistakes. Destruction. Selflessness. Forgiveness. Four concepts I’ve pondered more frequently since, a couple of years ago, entering into what experts say is probably the final quarter of my life. From discussions with friends, I know I’m not alone in that regard...

You may have heard someone say there’s a first time for everything. My first time walking through the doors of Oak Ridge School took place when I was five. I wish I remembered it. Knowing myself, I probably spent all morning getting breakfast stains on my shirts and chasing my cats. I was most likely upset not because I was starting school, but instead, because I couldn’t spend all day at my nana’s house. I didn’t know then I was beginning the next 13 years of my life...

I am standing in front of a contraption that looks like a vise got mixed up with a bunch of threaded shafts and knobs, then grew arms. In my hand is a triangle-shaped little block of nickel-plated steel marked “Park Tool SW-7,” short for “spoke wrench seven.” A nipple and spoke at a time, I’m releasing the tension from a bicycle wheel...

September history saw the U.S. play a queen’s gambit to beat the communists. Later, we finally had a place where everyone knows your name, and then, some candles burned out long before their legend ever did. 1972 A chess prodigy by age 14 and named a grandmaster at 15, Bobby Fischer went on to become chess world champion at age 29 on Sept. ...

Recipes tell the stories of communities and the people who shape them. Each recipe is more than a list of ingredients and steps: It is a written legacy of the individual who created the dish, their family and history. This monthly series highlights one of these legacies and gives readers the chance to create the recipe themselves...

Mel Gilhaus was an instrumental music teacher in Cape Girardeau Public Schools from 1964 to 1991. At age 83, he remains an active performer and string instrument repairman in the Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee regions. In 1970, I became one of his students in the boiler room at Alma Schrader Elementary School...

This summer, I went on a mission trip called Operation Overhaul to Memphis, Tenn., with Vincentian Marian Youth. There, we served the poor, fed the homeless and learned about God’s love. I went with 60 highschoolers I didn’t know beyond a first-name basis, and playing an icebreaker game was one of my favorite experiences...

We were strolling around, several artist friends and I, in quiet Scivally Park in Cape Girardeau feeling the atmosphere and looking in all directions for an inspirational scene to paint. We were painting en plein air, an innovative technique that began with the Impressionists who painted outdoors in sunlight to capture the true colors of light in nature. ...

Pierogies Christina Lane from Tunkhannock, Pa.

Connect the world through pickleball. That’s the motto of Charlie Cai’s organization Pickleball Lovers, which he founded in 2021.

Leon and Linda Wiggs glance at the cabinet in their living room and see England, China, Alaska, Spain and Scotland; each destination lives in objects purchased on the couple’s travels around the world. Linda says when she looks at the vases, figurines and paintings around her home..

“The Boys in the Boat”

There’s something to be said about the significance of pursuing a hobby for decades, going from a novice to season championship winner, as well as making lifetime friends and an abundance of memories. Throughout the past 66 years, this is exactly what Quentin Campbell, a sprint car racer from Perryville, M

Published July 15, 1990

This year has been a lot of things. It’s been a year full of laughter. I’ve laughed so hard it felt like my lungs would never draw air again. I’ve also cried a little. It’s been a year of waiting. I’ve counted off each last and started to think about a lot of firsts that are racing closer and closer. ...

Rania Roumany from the Islamic Center of Cape Girardeau

The first time Edward “Bud” Fellows saw the flashing light, he “was no bigger than a jackrabbit.” He had come down from St. Louis to stay with family in the Lixville, Mo., area in Bollinger County for the summer, and he remembers seeing the light flashing in the windows at night...

Nora Speight’s love of flowers comes from her grandfather she calls “Paw Paw.” He lived on a farm in Marston, Mo., where Speight got paid $3 to pick 100 pounds of cotton as a child. As the only granddaughter amidst her boy cousins, she says she was her paw paw’s favorite, and they ate lunch from the garden together every day, including the strawberries and pecans she helped pick. ...

In the character of Ove, author Fredrik Backman (“A Man Called Ove”) has created a figure more than a few online reviewers have termed a mean old man only his beloved, very-patient Sonja could love. I disagree. I’ll readily admit Ove is a textbook curmudgeon. But to dismiss Ove as a narrow-minded, rigid and cantankerous man ignores several key facts...

One of my favorite books is “The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People,” by Dan Buettner. The book describes the characteristics of the Blue Zones, five geographic areas in the world where populations not only live long, but live well, including Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, Calif. In these regions, people have not only better longevity, but better lives, too...

A white shield against a black background on a two-foot square. In the center, in a sans-serif font, two numerals: one curved, the other straight and thin. This must be among my early visual memories, though I know I’ve constructed it from hundreds of instances. It’s a U.S. Highway 31 route sign...

Eat a Frito-Lay potato chip around the Fourth of July, and the odds are high the potato was grown in Southeast Missouri. It’s part of the Fourth of July Push, the two to three weeks before Independence Day, and the Southeast Missouri region...

We’ve all heard the phrase “age is just a number,” right? Well, when it comes to fashion, we believe that phrase fits; as long as you are comfortable and confident in what you are wearing, the outfit fits well and is appropriate for the occasion, there are no hard and fast fashion rules about what age group can wear a certain style or fashion. Let’s be honest — so many old fashion rules are no longer accurate. For example, want to wear white after Labor Day? Fine...

It’s officially summer on June 21, and we’re in a summer state of mind. With the free time and warmer weather of summer comes the opportunity to experience new ways to exercise, and our region offers a plethora of fun ways to move. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends individuals get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week, with two days of muscle-strengthening activity. ...

When Gail Lowrance retired from teaching special education in 2014, she spent a summer in a tiny town in California where everyone knew each other by name. On her third day there, a bookstore owner recognized her by her bright white hair and greeted her...

Church and civic group cookbooks tell the stories of their community and the people who shape them. Each recipe in these cookbooks is more than a list of ingredients and steps: It is a written legacy of the individual who submitted the dish, their family and history. This monthly series will highlight one of these legacies and give readers the chance to create the recipe themselves...