Beyond Shingle Diggins

“I am the new Messiah!" he said, and the people flocked to his side for salvation. “Give up your worldly goods!” he thundered, as they poured lifetime savings into his secret coffers. “Suffering is good for the soul!” he told them, and they turned over their paychecks and ate sparingly while the King feasted. “I proclaim the Virgin Law!" he announced, and husbands and wives lived like brothers and sisters.

Published June 5, 1996

Published May 8, 1996

Published May 1, 1996

Published April 17, 1996

Published April 10, 1996

Published April 3, 1996 “Letter to Ginny ... gifts of age” (continued from 12-11-2025) Dearest Ginny, Your birthday letter this year comes in two installments, one before and one after the actual date - April 7. So I hope your celebration was a happy one; am sure it included western and line dancing in your favorite spot and hope they all sang ‘‘Happy Birthday” to you. Knowing you, I’m sure you don’t mind sharing this epistle on aging with the “millions” of readers served b

Published March 20, 1996

Published March 13, 1996

Published February 28, 1996 Earliest farmers after Shingle Diggin’s If your husband, or fiancé’, were starting out from your home in New...

Published February 14, 1996

Published February 7, 1996

Published January 10, 1996

Published December 13, 1995 It would be pretty hard, after growing up in a “Sir Galahad” culture in which you were expected to protect,...

Published December 6, 1995 1918 ... You are marching single file en route to a temporary billet in the next village. The U.S. has...

Published November 29, 1995

Published November 22, 1995

Published November 8, 1995 Are women competent to vote? That was a much-discussed question in the days before the 19th Amendment was finally passed by both houses of Congress 75 years ago. And, if you were a woman, you still couldn’t have voted in Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia and some others, since it wasn’t ratified by all states before the elections of 1920.

Published November 1, 1995 Back to the simple life in Florida … from the simple life in Michigan. There, my two-bath cottage of 40-year-ago vintage, with its antique smell of old furniture and its screened-in porch where I ate most meals, was comfortable during our hot summer with two borrowed fans and the huge shade trees. It boasted no swimming pool but Paw Paw Lake was right across the road. My condo here at Golfview is not all that different … a slightly more spacious,

Published October 25, 1995 “Old times enjoyed all over Michigan” This column I began on my son’s computer while I was visiting him and his wife, Ginny, in Lansing in August; but I became frustrated trying to learn the computer and I didn’t want to interrupt the series on Paw Paw Lake so am just getting around to thinking about it again now that these times are “all over,” in a different sense, for this year. But I’m going to finish it because there’ll be more of the same nex