There are several seasonal subjects about which I have written. Wood ticks. Fishing opener. Deer hunting. Those are just a few. Perhaps it is ego; perhaps it is lack of faith; whatever it is, first columns about those subjects are columns which I don’t think I can improve. Here is another: The first snowfall. With each… Read More

To the Editor, January 6 happened.  The attempted coup incited by Trump is despicable, grievous, hateful, and abhorrent. I watched the horror with sickening fear and disgust. I was further enraged by insurrectionists carrying the American and Confederate  flags, while they attempted to overthrow a legal election and assault Democracy. Now we hear of the death… Read More

The first time I realized appliances could talk to me was right after I got back from Vietnam. At that point, I was hyper “tuned in”  to my surroundings, so when my clock informed me that the refrigerator was poisoning me, and that I should move my bed over to Mr. Lennox the Furnace’s area,… Read More

If you have visited our website over the past few days you may have noticed a few exciting changes. This is the first time we have updated our website since it was launched nearly eight years ago and was long overdue, at least in my mind. First and foremost, you will notice a new and sleek… Read More

When I had the hardware store in Boatville, and Mom and Dad came up from Iowa to visit, Dad would come into the store with me Saturday morning. I had received a patio table and chairs from a customer in lieu of payment, and that sat up front in the store, and quickly became a gathering… Read More

General Electric the Washing Machine requested my presence down in the basement yesterday. Of course I went. You don’t mess with him; he’ll socknap your stockings and tear your shirts if you do. He can get pretty childish when the mood strikes him. What’s up, I asked him. He said: I wanted to keep you up to… Read More

Dear Folks: It’s been quite a while, I just realized the other day, since I wrote my weekly letter home from the war to my “folks,” which at that point was my parents, and the war was in Vietnam. My main goal then was to let them know how much fun it was to be… Read More

For much of the past two months you could have knocked, but chances are no one was available to answer the door at the New York Mills Dispatch. Due to a staffing shortage as a result of distance learning at the school we have not had regular office hours at the Dispatch. With students heading back… Read More

Most people have forgotten, but the Yurho brothers (Stinky, Pinball, and Coffee) used to go on some long drinking sprees. On this one in particular, they picked up Yank, their cousin, and the four of them  headed for Smut’s Bar in Boatville, where they started this particular binge. It was February, below zero out, so of… Read More

By Rod Bernu Special to the Dispatch In the 1930’s, before the invention of television and other distractions, it was common for farm families to spend their free time enjoying the simple things in life like family picnics, visiting friends and neighbors, and of course fishing. From the time I was a young boy, my parents let me… Read More