TBY: The Best Years

In the early 20th Century, Sikeston is said to have had more millionaires per capita than any other city in America its size. Many of the homes still standing in Sikeston were built by these millionaire families in the 20th Century or by wealthy farmers in the 19th Century, and some are still occupied by the same families. Behind the ornate walls of three historical homes, residents reveal the century of history associated with their space and their special connection to it...

My parents raised me to not be a quitter. When I was 8 years old, I told them I wanted to stop taking piano lessons just a few months after starting. They explained it was wrong to walk away from something just because it was no longer fun. Throughout my childhood, I watched my parents follow through on commitments and finish projects I was sure they’d love to walk away from. ...

Over the past 15 or so years, I’ve mentioned several of my dogs in this column, including my late labs Belle (yellow) and Abbie (chocolate), and more recently, littermates Dawn and Violet. But I don’t recall ever writing a story about my first lab, Otter...

Between the endless array of agriculture exhibits and the dazzling lights of the ferris wheel, what’s not to love about The SEMO District Fair? The fair, 166 years in the making, has fun for the whole family — the young and the young-at-heart. Here, Pete Poe, SEMO District Fair director since the 1980s, shares his tips for you to get the most out of the annual festival...

“The Hummingbirds’ Gift” is a nonfiction story that follows Sy Montgomery as she volunteers at a hummingbird sanctuary to nurse and rehabilitate two orphaned hummingbird chicks. In her introduction, Montgomery talks about hummingbirds and how fragile they are, as well as how she and Brenda met and became friends. ...

After staring at their living room walls for a year and a half, Americans are taking to the nation’s roadways and skies to enjoy beach and mountain views and even ocean vistas from cruise ship decks. With the widespread distribution of vaccines, a growing number of travelers have been carefully venturing out. ...

The Shipyard is back after a brief pandemic hiatus for its third year of food, fun and your favorite people in one place, raging to your old favorite bands and discovering new music to put on repeat. This year, we’re on The Grounds at Century Casino Friday and Saturday, Sept. 17 and 18, with two stages, where we’ll have 10 nationally-touring bands and seven local musicians from our Scout Sessions playing...

In some ways, this past summer has felt like my last real one. It’s been my last summer to officially be a kid, to be eligible for library summer reading programs and to end with me waking up at 6:30 in the morning on some mid-August day with an excitement to go to school that I know won’t last the entire school year. ...

With long, sunny days and an abundance of free time, summer is the perfect season to slow down, breathe and enjoy the simplicity of existence. Summer is also the season to appreciate the company of those around us, and for many churches in Southeast Missouri, summer is the time for hosting community picnics. Here, three churches show what it takes to host their summer picnics...

In a world dominated by COVID-19 headlines, it can be difficult to remember there are other illnesses that can make us sick. Everything we had before is still around, it just does not make the news. So, how does Medicare cover vaccines and immunizations?...

This column is dedicated to all the sounds that give us pleasure. My appreciation of pleasant sounds is restricted a bit by my hearing loss. Even with my hearing aids, some sounds don’t sound exactly like they did when I was younger. When I was in my teens and 20s, I would go to see (and hear) such loud rockers as The Who, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. ...

Most people eventually pair up with someone of the opposite sex, enter into a serious relationship and reproduce themselves. However, certain individuals have chosen, for whatever reason, to refrain from reproduction and exist entirely heirless (although ideally not hairless). As one of those people, I have an interesting slant on the adult/child relationship. Which is to say, I’ve always enjoyed being an uncle...

This is pretty new to me. Not the writing part — I’ve been doing that for the better part of my life, but the whole having an audience thing. It’s a little strange, writing something that belongs to just me while knowing that in not too long, others will read it, and it will belong to them, too...

Rotarians from Cape Girardeau, Chaffee and Jackson enjoyed a cool evening excursion aboard the steamer Avalon on Aug. 6, 1953. In this picture, the Avalon is tied up at the Cape Girardeau wharf. The old traffic bridge can be seen in the background. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)...

Tips for living fully

Bob Keathley’s life as a handle mill owner and woodworker

Suja, an intern with the Rodong Workers Newspaper, and Jin, a scholarship student from the countryside, are born into vastly different North Korean social circles but meet during their years at university and fall in love, anyway. Suja’s family has social status. ...

When John Barber attended Brazeau School from 1950 to 1958, the school at Seventy-Six, Mo., an unincorporated community in the Brazeau Township of Perry County that depopulated in the 1950s, had just closed. Although there were eight grades represented at Brazeau School, the teacher only taught six grades each year, and John started school during a year that got skipped, going from fourth grade to sixth grade to fifth grade to eighth grade to seventh grade throughout his time there. ...

Recently, some of the “Hospice Ladies” came by our office to check in with us and see how we were doing; these women are some of the kindest, most compassionate people I know. One of the things we discussed were the misconceptions and under-utilization of hospice care...

This past spring, I took the first steps in following my dream of traveling around the U.S. in a motorhome or travel trailer. I purchased a minivan, removed the rear seats and had a Murphy bed installed, and on April 8, began my “advanture.” Over the next six weeks and over the course of three legs of travel, I visited all but two of the states east of the North-South line extending from North Dakota down to Texas. ...

Having a labrador retriever to take duck hunting is an asset when needing to pick up downed birds. But duck season lasts only so long, with many months to go before the next season. By keeping duck dogs busy in the off months, it can help them progress when the fall flight returns. One way to keep retrievers tuned up is attending hunt tests offered through the Hunting Retriever Club (HRC)...

Guess what! The ol’ girl’s not quite finished yet. Close, but no cigar. Life can sure throw you for a lulu when you least expect it. I was just breezing along through the month of March doing all the things we old gals do: puzzling, playing Rummikub and card games like Bridge and Three 13. I was just waiting for spring and hoping for a better year than last. Weren’t we all??...

Banjos, harmonicas, violins and a wide assortment of guitars spill their sound across the Cape Girardeau County History Center on a Saturday evening in June as audience members sway to the beat. Smiles abound, but Carla Jordan, executive director of the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society, wears the widest one. She welcomes everyone into the room like she is hosting a family reunion, because this is a reunion. A reunion of Cape Girardeau Historical Society’s Traditional Music Night.

This is the first bucket of cement poured in July 1962 on the Cape Girardeau section of Interstate Highway 55. The site is two miles north of Wedekind Park at a point just north of Old McKendree Chapel. The construction train shown here was a concrete pavement assembly line. Rolling on tracks, the assembly poured the concrete, leveled it, removed any air pockets, finished it and left behind a complete project. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)...

After witnessing the bus accident that killed her old acquaintance Barbara, Astrid Strick realizes she was right there — it could have been her. And now that she has gotten a new lease on life, Astrid is determined to share the truth about her life. ...

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when many nursing homes did not allow visitors into residential facilities in order to protect residents from the virus, admissions director Charlene Foeste says the family-like atmosphere of Jackson Manor in Jackson helped guide residents through the difficult time...

“Minnie the Moocher” by Cab Calloway blared through the signature speaker installed on the roof of a 1974 Plymouth Blues Mobile replica made famous by the film “The Blues Brothers” as Louisiana resident Stephen Haybert drove into Cape Girardeau with his brother-in-law for the 37th-Annual Hemmings Motor News Great Race June 22. Each wore the respective black fedora and sunglasses to complete their transformation into Jake and Elwood from the movie...

Life is returning to normal: Restaurants and stores are open, people can gather again, and meetings have returned to in-person events. In addition, we at Aging Matters are starting our Medicare Matters Workshops and other events. Medicare Matters Workshops are in-person meetings where we go over all of the parts of Medicare from A to D. ...

Farming is in Jerry Davis’ blood. As vice-president of the River Hills Antique Tractor Club, he helped organize the 43rd-Annual Old Timer’s Day that took place at the Seminary Picnic Grounds in Perryville, Mo., May 29-30, 2021. Although it was a two-day event for the community, the knowledge passed on at it is something that’s part of Davis’ everyday — every day...

Sometimes, food tastes better than it really does. (Say what?) I later realized the popcorn I popped into my mouth down in the Cape Central High School Tiger Den below the gym at halftime was not necessarily the best popcorn I’ve ever eaten. Yet, nearly 60 years later, it still seems that way. ...

Many people endure a great many meetings as part of their jobs. Meetings seem ubiquitous no matter what profession one pursues. I certainly had to participate in plenty of them during my academic career. Humor writer Dave Barry described meetings better than I could when he said, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’”...

Robert Harris, Jr. is a Master Gardener. He knows that to reap a bountiful harvest, you first have to plant a small seed. That’s just what he’s doing through the Urban Kid’s Project, a collection of projects he’s founded in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties that seek to improve the lives of people who “can’t do for themselves.” Through the projects, he and the people he partners with bring food and care to the elderly who aren’t able to leave their homes, school supplies to children, community gardens to areas of Cape Girardeau that don’t have easy access to fresh produce, and more.. ...

Gone are my dancing queen days, and now I’m shakily standing on the shores of adulthood. The boat ride here was long, and for the last few miles, I just wanted to arrive, but now that I’m here, I think I want to turn around and go back. This world is vast and open-ended, and it awakens a quiet fear alongside the excitement in my heart...

Whether you’ve lived in Cape Girardeau your whole life or even just a few years, chances are, you have fallen in love with the beauty, culture and history of Southeast Missouri. To some, it’s a small town. To others, it’s big. Regardless of size, the community continues to thrive, expand and develop. But even as it does, there seems to be a mutual respect for the past, the people and the places that were established before us and a desire to preserve history for future generations...

In “The Lost Apothecary” by Sarah Penner, Caroline never imagined she’d be alone on her anniversary trip to England. But after she learns about her husband’s illicit affair, she is happy to use this trip as an excuse to get away. While she runs around England, she takes the chance to drop the safe itinerary and goes mudlarking in the River Thames. While digging for remnants of history in the mud, Caroline discovers a small glass vial and stumbles onto an unsolved mystery that is centuries old...

When Ben Hunter began growing crawfish as a hobby on he and his wife Amy Jo’s farm outside of Sikeston, Mo., 20 years ago, he didn’t know his passion would someday grow into a full-time operation that included owning a restaurant in Jackson. He didn’t know it would entail a move to Cape Girardeau. ...

Pilot Steven Wood of St. Louis has a passion for airplanes. In pursuit of this passion, he constructed the Wag-A-Bond aircraft, which he flew to the Perryville Regional Airport’s Fly-In event held at the airport’s landing strip May 15. The “experimental” plane, which was built over a period of some 10 years using blueprints he purchased from Wag-Aero, is modeled after the Piper Vagabond aircraft...

Two weeks ago, my heart was aflutter. Not because I was excited about something; it just felt weird, and I was convinced I was having a heart attack. I spoke with my doctor, and she recommended I go to the emergency room as a precaution. It was not a heart attack, thankfully, but I am wearing a heart monitor for a few weeks to see if something is going on in there. ...

Loving and raising a labrador retriever — America’s favorite breed for 30 straight years — can be a fun and fulfilling experience, and having two to bring up can be equally entertaining. Most days. Two years ago this April, two littermate chocolate lab pups came home shortly after my then-8-year-old chocolate lab, Abbie, was put to sleep because of a mast cell tumor. ...

I dearly love a challenge. Over the years, I’ve embraced and enjoyed the challenge of meeting several fairly big ones. I think, though, I may finally have bitten off more than I can chew. This past December 21, I sat at the kitchen table, relaxing and chatting with my son. I’d spent the day making Christmas cookies with my grandchildren, daughter and daughter-in-law, and I’d been eating cookies and other sweets all afternoon...

Narratives of enslaved peoples and divorce documents at the Cape Girardeau County Archives

Keeping your furry friends healthy during warm months

Autumn Abernathy of Jackson was experiencing abnormal headaches, numbness and tingling, and none of the doctors she saw about it could tell her why. Her counselor suggested she take up an activity she loved to do as a child.

As the cryptologic equipment screamed a warning tone and messages poured into the communication station, Christine Dickman says she didn’t have time to feel stressed. “It was overwhelming, but you couldn’t be overwhelmed,” she says. ...

Like most baseball fans in this region, I root for the St. Louis Cardinals. That interest began at age four, amid baseball cards, info-packed Cardinals yearbooks, barber shop talk and radio broadcasts by the unmatched team of Harry Caray, Jack Buck and Joe Garagiola. ...

Humans spend approximately 30 to 40% of their lives sleeping. This is looked upon by some as a waste of time, a significant portion of their life lost. Thomas Edison even described sleep as a criminal waste of time. Not me. I’m a dreamer! Sigmund Freud did some of the most important modern research on dreams and their meaning during the turn of the 20th Century (1900). ...

In "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig, Nora loses her job, her cat and her only piano student in a single afternoon. She falls into despair as the last meaningful parts of her life disappear. And as the day ends, Nora realizes she doesn’t want to live anymore. Now Nora waits for the handful of pills she swallowed to end her life. But just as midnight arrives, Nora finds herself in front of an enormous library...

I love poetry. I love the way it says so much by hardly saying anything. I love the way language becomes playful through the pen of a skilled artist. I love the way images juxtapose and compile to make new meaning. I think too few people enjoy poetry because there is an assumption that every poem has a right answer that needs to be wrung from it through some mystifying process of decoding symbolism and rhyme and form...