Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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Growing up in the Washington D.C. suburbs, in a planned community of ‘Leave it to Beaver’ style homes, one facet I took for granted,was having neighbors watch out for you. As a teenager, I sometimes found the neighbors a tad annoying because they seemed to report my comings and goings to my folks when it didn’t serve what I thought was my best interest. Remember, I was just a kid. I am lucky they were concerned. I won’t ever forget when my folks went to Germany for a vacation and I was busted...
People feel sad sometimes, that’s normal. Emotions are what make us human and capable of the amazing acts of kindness and love toward our fellow man, however winter can bring on more frequent bouts of sadness and lack of motivation, as well as insomnia. During the winter people usually go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. This can definitely affect a person’s disposition. Being indoors so much usually means increasing screen time. It is recommended, to help minimize stress, sadness and despair–turn off the news. It’s recommended to...
Guns, guns, guns. Wyoming is Gun Central in the United States. Two-thirds of the residents own guns and there may be more guns than citizens of this fine state. There are at least three gun-related bills grinding through the Legislature as I write this – gun ownership is a big, big deal here in the Cowboy State. Wyoming is full of funny and weird gun stories. • Back on Dec. 3, 2012, a burly guy walked into the Modern Nails Salon in Casper and offered to sell diamonds to an employee working the front desk. He got upset when the employee tol...
I have a memory that is quite stellar when it comes to remembering the past, or at least I have been told by friends and family. I can actually recall events which happened as young as two. I never gave it much thought, but my sister Michelle has pointed out, not everyone is like this. She doesn’t remember a lot of our childhood and teenage years. Michelle isn’t amnesiac or anything, but I often remember things and times she really doesn’t–even the details, as often as not. Many of my close f...
Most people know I have a few chickens in my backyard, and sell a few eggs to my neighbors. It never seemed like much of a big deal to me until recently egg prices shot up. We've all heard the nursery rhyme of the goose that laid the golden egg, but I never thought I would see the day when a dozen eggs cost more than a gallon of milk. My little backyard flock has become very popular and that makes me happy. I usually consume six eggs a week unless I'm baking a lot, which I do once a month or...
Between hurricanes and blizzards, this has been a winter to remember for retirees Jerry and Cassy Venters of Lander. Normally, they head to their condo on Sanibel Island off the Florida coast and never worry about cold weather or even winter-style clothes. But Hurricane Ian pretty much destroyed Sanibel and the Venters found themselves spending winter in Lander for the first time in years. No problem. Winters over the past three years have been warm and open. No snow. No harsh freezes. But this year? Yikes. “Thank God for Walmart and thrift sto...
There are several instances over the course of my life where I feel I was so very lucky when something bad happened to me. I am sure I am not the only person who ever experienced a terrible moment or time in life that actually turned out to be a great thing in the end. It has definitely happened to me, on a few occasions. A situation that comes to mind first and stands out is when I left my restaurant/bar business in Taiwan back in the late 2000s.. The name of the venue was my...
I eavesdrop when I'm in a restaurant or a bar. It's hard not to hear what others say when they're only a few feet away. The other day I was in a local restaurant and overheard a conversation between four men and two women about their visit to our Valley. From how they were dressed, it was obvious they had come to enjoy our backcountry and some of the finest snowmobile and cross-country trail, and see some wildlife. Surprisingly or maybe not, they were complaining. They had arrived just in time...
With the start of 2023, I am hoping to commit myself to some better eating and exercise habits. I am pretty sure I won’t be the only person in the country doing this. This holiday season, well actually it started Halloween, more candy, cookies and baked treats have gone into my tummy than anytime in recent memory. Halloween can be like kryptonite for me. I steer clear of candy for most of the time which isn’t easy. For instance, I love strawberry Twizzlers. I love them too much. With no eff...
When looking back on 2022, two explosions of totally different types dominated the news. One was political and happened in the hottest days of August. The second was by Mother Nature, which happened in coldest days of December. Those were the top two of my 10 top stories of 2022. In August, Wyoming became the political epicenter of the world as everybody wanted to see how our lone U. S Representative Liz Cheney would fare in her reelection bid when former president Donald Trump had put her in his cross-hairs. It was an amazing time to be a...
The last minute rush for Christmas presents and dinner preparations is over and we float in the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day. With another three day weekend coming up and most businesses either closed or closing early, it’s like being in limbo for another week. So, what happened to all of the 569 unfinished items that were on your to-do list Christmas Eve? Hopefully half of them are checked off or disregarded as irrelevant. Now comes the new to-do list. Cleaning up after the hol...
Heroes and victims. Sometimes an off-hand remark can become amazingly prescient. During a news meeting of Cowboy State Daily staff on Dec. 21, we were talking about how to cover the big storm headed toward the state. I casually mentioned we need to watch out for “heroes and victims.” Little did I know that within 36 hours, three wonderful Wyoming men would became both heroes and victims. The people of Wyoming need to give thanks to first responder Tyeler Harris, 29, of Saratoga and to Safety Officer Bruce Lang, 68, of Pine Haven, who lost the...
Dear Editor, For those who are not aware, Carbon County lost an Emergency Medical Technician this past week; a tragic waste and, worse, an accident easily avoided. I have plied the highways and byways of these Untied States for 15 years as a truck driver and it is a heart wrenching thing to hear about every time. Emergency service personnel have difficult job to stand up to. Sometimes, they have to work through things that would make most of us sick–injuries involving motor vehicles can take many forms, from bumps and bruises to comas and d...
I am not a winter guy. Columns over the years have made this pretty clear. Back in my younger years when I was fairly fearless about taking jumps on a mogul field, I saw the merit of cold and snow; but as I have traded my skis for a snow shovel, winter has pretty much lost any allure to me. This winter seems to have started off strong. There has been snow every week since Halloween. I have found myself outside shoveling snow quite a lot these past weeks and try as I might not to, I find myself...
The snow is coming to the valley in greater amounts now; falling across the valley in blankets of white, turning trees and bushes into works of art. It also brings out the adventurer in some of us. It’s one of the most treacherous activities in winter. I’m not talking about skiing down black diamonds or driving on icy roads-I’m talking about that most mundane of activity-snow shoveling. Over my past 63 years on this earth, I don’t think I’ve lived anywhere where it didn’t snow. Being born...
“Dear God, please help us get through this awful mess of a highway. If you get us through safely, so help me, we will never do anything bad again.” Prayers like the above and many more variants emanate from folks in a long line of cars stranded in blizzards on a horrible stretch of winter highway called the Snow Chi Minh Trail along Interstate 80. Like so many Wyomingites, our family has been there so many times. This area is commonly referred to in the last four decades as the “Snow Chi Minh Trail.” Where did that name come from? My generat...
I recently purchased a DVD copy of Lonesome Dove at Bridge Street Bargains in Saratoga. I am always coming across unusual and older movies in this shop, which were highly acclaimed back in their day. I bought the movie partly because the back cover said it was the most realistic Western movie ever made. Those are some pretty big words to me–as a fan of Shane and The Searchers. It was made in 1988 and probably, because I was newly married, didn’t watch a lot of TV which is where the movie was fir...
