In between the sweats and chills I am dealing with from COVID, I decided to stream “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” I was pleasantly surprised and impacted by this film.

In going through old photo albums, I came across a picture of my sister, Sheila, at about age six, pretending to hoe Don Smith’s garden. I say pretending because I don’t think she had the foggiest idea how to actually hoe. She was, after all, only six. 

Needing a break after touring the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, we bought a pizza on our way to the VW, had a quick lunch, and walked to a nearby post office to mail cards. Waiting in line to buy stamps, we discovered that Italians waited in line like they drove - impatient and pushy. 

Pants on fire

Disingenuousness is a nice word people use instead of asserting that someone is lying.

There’s a lot of disingenuousness in our country regarding the Dobbs decision regarding abortion handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court last week. 

Out of the Past

150 Years Ago

The Masons of prudence Lodge No. 205, Algona Iowa will lay the corner stone to the new Court House on July 4, 1872 at nine o’clock A. M. All Masons in good standing are invited to attend and take part in the ceremonies. By order of said Lodge. F. M. Taylor, Sec.

125 Years Ago

Godly Men

Rev. Kent Madison

Pastor, First Presbyterian Lakota, Lakota

How many people will remember going to the Pizza Hut after school or after a game? It was the hotspot teenage hang out for many years. This photo was from the Algona Upper Des Moines archives dated May 4, 1972. It states their hours as open until midnight Monday through Thursday and open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. You won’t find many places open that late today.

To the Editor

Changes needed at the swimming pool

Changes need to be taken in the management of the pool (Aquatic Center) are several.

1. Building a bleacher inside the pool fence for the higher income mothers and lower income mothers to be nearer their children in the shallow water part. Both lower and higher income to sit together. No charge. Free.

2. Open the pool at 11AM for everyone FREE of charge. ONE hour.

Be like Bob and Betty

As a young boy, I had a couple of unfortunately unique things about me. First, I did not have any living grandparents. And second, my parents were divorced. Neither of those may seem unique today, but in the 1970s in a Catholic school in small-town Iowa, they were. I was fortunate to have another unique situation, as I experienced wonderful pseudo-grandparents in Bob and Betty Moritz.

7 area towns battle fire at West Bend

150 Years Ago

Gen. John O’Neill, the celebrated Irish orator, is lecturing in the State on Ireland’s condition, for the purpose of selecting a desirable locality for the immigrants from his country.

125 Years Ago

Does your lawn make the cut?

By Rick Murphy

Mayor of Algona

Creating a beautiful community takes a community effort

Mowing the lawn is a challenge in this heat, but it would have been even more difficult without the contributions of a man named Cecil Pond. After serving in the military during World War II, Pond came home to Indiana to start building tractors with his father. 

Words can’t do the beauty of Vatican museum justice

By Gene Miller

Couches should conform to the human figure

150 Years Ago

By Molly MacDonald

Graduation parties and two confessions

Now that the season of high school graduations and graduation parties has passed, I suppose it’s time for me to make a confession. Bing and I had five children, all of whom graduated from high school. Bing and I attended all five of their graduation ceremonies. Bing and I hosted exactly . . . umm . . . zero graduation parties.

Don’t judge. We had a reason, however feeble.