If retirement has taught me anything, it's that patience has certainly become a virtue … of sorts. I can recall as a lad, peering out the windows of Jefferson-Morgan High School, the rain falling in the afternoon during baseball season. “How could God possibly allow it to rain on game ...
When kayaking was new on my radar, I spent a fair amount of time on the Monongahela River. Big open water, paddling in and around the old coal mine loading sites, in and out of the iron structures and tanks, tossing a line here and there. The occasional barge would bounce a kayak pretty good. ...
At the rear of my classroom, for the better part of 30 years, hung a poster which read, “Life is Weird - Write About It.” And my students did. Some complained, at first. Others begrudgingly jumped through the hoops. A few embraced the exercise of pen to page with every fiber in their being. ...
By Dave Bates Contributing writer As a young heathen roaming the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, I spent a fair amount of time with a bow and arrow in hand. Most of what I learned was either self-taught (and not very successfully I might add) or was gleaned from limited experiences with ...
By Dave Bates For the Observer-Reporter Over the years, I have heard stories from farmers and landowners that were scarcely fathomable; stories that sounded so ridiculous that I thought there’s no way that could be true. But then I thought of some of my own accounts and felt that ...
When was the last time you took a kid fishing? How about a deer hunt? Stomping for pheasants at the Game Lands? Even a nature walk or shed hunting? I am neglecting my duties as a mentor more than ever. I’m retired. I’ve never had more time (supposedly) than I have right now. But I have ...
