It took years to get the ball rolling but the Texas County landscape would soon have a good sized body of water provided by the Corps of Engineers. It was to provide all the usual things a lake would, especially high-paying government jobs and money flowing through local businesses. As the construction wore on, conditions kept getting dryer and dryer. Just as dollars were not flowing into the local economy, water wasn’t flowing into the Lake…
A milestone – a marker on a real or figurative trail that allows you to know how far you’ve come and how far you’ve got to go. Here on our 150th episode, I take a moment to consider this particular milestone.
Episodes featured :
From Kansas to the Keiper Belt
The Music of Clearviews:
For this episode, we will depart from the usual back road or mountain trail, far from where the Great Plains, the Ozark Mountains and the Indian Territory collide for the cobble stone street of London, 1854. This story has all the elements of a good Within The Realm tale: A significant event in an overlooked place, this time just with an English accent! Our story involves a doctor on the cutting edge, a neighborhood facing an overwhelming problem and a pump handle.
The Piggy Bank, that most useful tool in teaching thrift and saving for a rainy day. The idea has been around for centuries, but the concept of a little slotted-back pig in every child’s room is pretty recent and from the unlikely starting point of White Cloud, Kansas. The bank was inspired by Pete the Pig, sold by Wilbur Chapman to lend aid to the world’s lepers. Pete eventually inspired over a million dollars donated toward that cause.
An old fan used by my Grandfather to provide a little respite from the Oklahoma summer heat had a history. It had been purchased three decades before I became fascinated with it, listening to it’s ancient blades whir during his afternoon naps. I later learned it figured prominently in a sad chapter in the family story and represented progress during a tumultuous time in American history.
Within the Realm 