Grandma's Gleanings
Words and Thoughts from Grandma
“His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree.” Rather common in the Holy Land, the olive tree is a multi-branched evergreen with a smooth, ash-colored bark and green, leathery leaves. The olive tree is an extremely slow-growing plant, requiring many years of patient labor to reach its fullest fruitfulness. Mature …
We have been marooned in our house for two weeks now, fourteen long days of confinement within the walls of our home. Life has changed with the arrival of the coronavirus; we are experiencing a crisis, a time of national darkness and pain. But through the experience, we have learned to appreciate those insignificant …
Run for Your Lives! On June 1, 1889, newspapers across the United States bore the news that Johnstown, Pennsylvania, had been ravaged by the most devastating flood in our young nation’s history. Johnstown, comprised of German and Welsh immigrants, was a growing and industrious community, well-known for the high quality of steel produced there. …
No two people have ever been found to have the same fingerprint; ponder that thought for a moment. Identical twins, who can share the same DNA, cannot duplicate each other’s fingerprints. Fingerprints develop from the ridge patterns on the tip on each finger. Those papillary ridges form pressure on a baby’s tiny fingers while …
He was perhaps the greatest American ultra-runner of the 1920’s, yet his rags-to-riches story is relatively unknown. Born in Finland in 1893, this top-rated cross-country runner immigrated to the United States at the age of 18, serving in the merchant marines during World War I. During his three-year tour of duty, he would complete …
It is a type of right-of-passage at our Christian school, a ritual signifying a transition, a transition from those carefree high school years, through the threshold of graduation, and into the world of adulthood. And as is the tradition every year, one section of our school’s yearbook is dedicated to our outstanding senior class, …