I remember teaching a health class to sixth-graders years ago, and I mentioned Franklin D. Roosevelt as having polio. They had never heard of polio!

It was such a stigma back then to be crippled and in a wheelchair, that they hid that from the public. Many people never knew he was in a wheelchair because of his aides helping him walk to the podium and everywhere the public would see him. He was never filmed by the cameras.

Most polio has been eradicated, except for the wild polio and in some countries overseas, but unfortunately, it is back in the U.S. They have found it in New York, and since it spreads without the person knowing he is sick, there are probably hundreds who have it, and don’t know it. If you had the polio vaccine in a sugar cube when a child as I did, it will not be very effective today. We will have to have a booster.

Forecast is unseasonably cold and snowy for this winter! This is from the Farmer’s Almanac, which is pretty accurate.

“Live your life so folks won’t have to lie at your funeral.” This was seen on a church sign in New Mexico.

Someone asked me to wish Blanche McLaughlin a “Happy Birthday” for the Aug. 17. Happy birthday, Blanche! She passed away in 2006 and she will always be missed.

I remember years ago when she stopped by my house to give me some news for the news column. She stepped out of her car, and I looked up to see who it was. She started laughing and said, “What are you doing?” I laughed and stood up. I had been lying on my stomach, legs stretched out and with my elbows on a pillow cushion, on the edge of a pile of a truck load of gravel! No wonder she was laughing so hard! I told her that the seeds from my flowers, “Snow-on-the-Mountain,” had popped and gone all over the gravel. I was picking up the smaller than a pea size seeds and putting them in a zip lock bag, so it wouldn’t be covered with the flowers next year.

I had worked bent over for a couple of hours and then on my knees. Then I had grabbed an old cushion to protect my elbows and had finally got on my stomach. So there she found me!

“Today is a gift from God. That is why it is called the Present.” This was seen at the Bread of Life Ministries in Arkansas.

I was working on genealogy a few years ago, and I found the birth record of a little cousin, Goldie, who was unknown to me. I found it when I was looking for her mother on Ancestry.com and the certificate popped up.

Goldie was born June 15, 1911, so I then proceeded to search for more information on her. But I could not find her death record. The official death and birth records begin in 1911, so she should have been there, even if she died a few days old.

Did Goldie marry and change her name? But there was no marriage for her in McLean, Daviess, Webster, Ohio, Henderson, or any surrounding counties. I even checked over in Indiana, in case she hopped a train and crossed the river to Spencer or Vanderburgh counties. No record of her. Where was that little girl?

I saw another older cousin on another branch of the family, at the funeral of a relative. She said she remembered the old folks talking about the little girl. She died during the Spanish flu epidemic that swept through the United States in 1918-1919. She would have been about 7 years old. There were so many dying, the doctor could not get around to all the deaths to fill out a certificate, which was why she had no death certificate. She was buried at Poplar Grove Cemetery, but they never got her a stone.

The horror of those years was unbelievable as the influenza hit almost every family in the U.S. I had many cousins who died. I hope to try to locate her grave, using the same metal wands that the water company uses to find water pipes, because she would have been buried close to her family, and maybe buy a little stone for her.

“If we ever forget we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” This is from the Trinity Baptist Church outside of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

I have a large patch of clover, well, really it’s three or four unmowed patches. It’s been blooming like crazy, but I’ve only seen two or three honey bees on it and several butterflies and wasps.

We enjoyed a few days of cooler weather, but it seems it will be getting hot again much too soon! It seems summer is still not finished with us.

I haven’t put out any birdseed for several days. I was too tired of Rocky Raccoon and the twins taking the feeders apart and mashing the fence down! A friend said that she takes her birdseed in at night. That sounds good, but Rocky has been out climbing the fence and pigging out on my sunflowers seeds at noon. He apparently doesn’t have a watch!

“When we are down to nothing, God is up to something!” This is the sign on the College Park United Methodist Church.

A lady sent me a picture of “The Flag That Doesn’t Fly.” It’s a beautiful American flag, 740 feet long and 390 feet wide, made of red, white and blue flowers. It maintains the proper flag dimensions, as described in executive order #10834.

Between the fields where the flag is planted, there are more than 9 miles of flower beds that go all the way to the ocean. The flowers are grown by seed companies. It’s a beautiful place, close to Vandenberg AFB in California. The entire flag is 6.65 acres and is the first Floral Flag to be planted with five pointed stars, comprised of White Larkspur. Each star is 24 feet in diameter, and each stripe is 30 feet wide. The flag is estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants with four-five flower stems each, for a total of 2 million flowers.

Everyone is invited to join us for services this Sunday at 9:45 a.m. Put on your tennis shoes and blue jeans and T-shirt and come on and join us in our worship of the Lord. If you haven’t been to church for a while, just know that God loves you and you are welcome in God’s House.

You can reach me at gwillistree@yahoo.com or leave a message or text at 270-875-5317.

You can reach me at gwillistree@yahoo.com or leave a message or text at 270-875-5317.

Your comment has been submitted.

There was a problem reporting this.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.