Hi everyone! I am so very glad to be back for another exciting rambling! At this time I want to share a little of my past when I was still running Frontier Theater. We started school field trips in 1994 doing: Ozarks Missouri history featuring: native american skills, early settler adventures, and civil war reenactments, plus: much more! It was common to have 700 to 900 kids per week coming to the park for a field trip that was fun and educational. My job was the hayride in which I would load up about 50 kids and parents five or six times each day. After being loaded, I would announce to everyone: this is the famous Frontier Theater hayride, and we are going into the Land of Yesterday for an adventure experience that you will never forget! I would have different storylines for different age groups. I would take them to a special old-fashioned barn and line them up and begin our 1800s historical adventure. To all of my friends and readers of the rambling, how about our own adventure experience into the Land of Yesterday? OK, here we go. Let’s pause for a moment, close your eyes for a couple of seconds, and let’s all together learn about Felix Von Maxengruber, born hundreds of years ago in Germany. Felix and his family were farmers who lived a very isolated life working the land and, once every six months, took a four-day journey to the nearest village to trade their farm produce for items they needed. Now Felix was not the normal farmer. He was a devout believer in Jesus and studied the Bible closely every day! By the way, my rambling friends, our Felix, according to urban legend, was alive 400 hundred years ago during the 1600s. On his own, he asked the question: why did creation by God happen? Felix had a legendary I. Q. estimate of 390 by today’s standards. {perhaps the smartest person to live in modern history} His ability to comprehend and figure things out was off the charts for his time and even today! From Genesis 1:1- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” From this statement alone, he concluded that from the original Hebrew that the word beginning meant reveal, and God almighty simply wanted to reveal himself to create man, heaven, and the universe. The next big question our Felix wrestled with for years was 2 Peter 3:10. Elements? What were the elements? What were these elements? How did more

Fundamentalism can creep its way into any space. I’m using the word fundamentalism here to say: non-negotiably following any subject’s basic rules. At first, these rules seem a nice set of concepts to cling onto. They set boundaries. “I stand for THIS! Not THAT,” fundamentalism proudly and boldly proclaims. It is illuminating to learn something’s rules, at first. They help guide us in the right direction. But, at some point, the “rules” might just start holding us back. At some point, the world may ask us, need us, to use our own brains, our own discretion. As Thomas Moore teaches in his book “Care of the Soul,” the intellect may crave strict and steadfast rules to hold onto, but the soul wants the nuance, the insight, the multi-layered levels of meaning and possibilities. Concrete ideas do work sometimes, but other times, the reflection and thoughtfulness of the abstract world needs to stake its place in our lives, too. more

I was on Facebook one day when it reminded me of a post I had made last year. For context, some of my friends and former co-workers were getting laid off from their jobs or were feeling the toxicity of their careers. Some expressed joy or a level of sarcasm. In contrast, others voiced grief as they put so much time, effort, tolerance, and even their life into a company and felt hurt or betrayed. If you are going through something like this, that feeling of loss and not sure what the next step you should take is, well, consider my thoughts for this week. more

Once upon a time many of our public meetings opened with prayer. more

Hi friends and neighbors of the mail. Last week the rambling left you all hanging with the question about the days when ‘pigs could fly’. I also promised this week to share about those days. So, this is it! more

On June 30th of this year, I had a life altering experience in Seymour. more

Hi everyone, back again. Last week we finished an 1800s story that lasted since the first of January. I want to thank everyone for joining Roger’s Ramblings each week as we galloped back together into the past and relived the life of a couple before, during, and after the civil war. more

I took a break recently and caught up on some games I had picked up. One of those games got me excited about fighting. more

For better or worse, I’m back. more

I dreamt about basements twice last night, back to back. They were positive, protective spaces. My dreams are directly affected by whatever I’m ingesting intellectually, and I happen to be right smack in the middle of a book all about archetypes, the symbolism that constitutes our subconscious and souls’ language. So what were these basements trying to tell me? more

Another week of blistering, 100-plus heat and no rain to slake the thirst of our Ozarks’ parched earth — it’s miserable weather for most of us, but worse for that tiny but critical percentage who feed us. more

Hi everyone! I can hardly wait to continue with our story from last week. Our adventure has been going on since January, so we have covered a lot of ground together. Our couple is Johnny and Mary Lou, who grew up during the pre-civil war years and were eventually married when the war began. Each week we have been reliving their lives of heartache and problems. Our Johnny more

Ever since humans began tending to small patches of cultivated ground near their homes, the terms “rain” and “garden” have gone together. more

July 13, 2022 more

A little rain fell one Saturday night in the dog days of 2012. I don’t recall how much — less than a half-inch, I’m sure. Scant as it was, though, it gave our yard and over-grazed pastures a pale green blush. I overheard someone say it wasn’t enough to do any good, but it certainly was. No such thing as unwelcome rain in a drought. more

Last week my opinion piece was thanking those who serve or have served in the military, medical field, or law enforcement. This week I want to thank another group of individuals that answer the other call to help; the group I'm talking about is customer service. more

Hi everyone, welcome back again for a new week of adventures. This week we continue on with our civil war love story. Our young couple grew up together and were married when the war started. Our Johnny joins the union army and gets shot in Tennessee and left for dead and our Mary Lou is forced to stay at her parents home during the war years in which her father is a strong confederate supporter. (fast forward) Years have passed and still no Johnny coming home. By now she has become the general manager of the general mercantile store owned by Mr. Kissee and also the owner of most of Sand Springs. Mr. Kissee has received through his connections that the railroad is being built through Webster County and to finish at Springfield, Mo. We left last week with a celebration and hoedown being hosted for the railroad executive, that is scheduled to speak at six o'clock in the evening and then afterwards the music begins with a hoedown barn dance. The day goes well with the contest, music, games, and food. Mary Lou is constantly checking everyone and all is well until she talks to Mr. Kissee about the arrival of the St Louis-San Francisco executive. Mary Lou, "Mr. Kissee- it's 5:30, and still no arrival are you sure he is coming?" Mr. Kissee, "Don't you worry. I have this under control. You take care of everything else." Mary Lou, "O K Mr. Kissee, I am just worried. Look! Everyone is coming into the barn and sitting down, waiting for our railroad speaker." more

Hi everyone! So glad to have all of you back again this fourth of July week. We are truly blessed today to be living in a nation where our forefathers were willing to lose their wealth and lives to establish a new nation under God Almighty. Since January we have been reliving the lives of Johnny and Mary Lou who grew up near Sand Springs in northwestern Webster county. For many of us they have become our newspaper family. Our couple grew up during the 1850’s and eventually were married when our American civil war began. Our Johnny joined the Union army and Mary Lou stayed home living a life of mental anguish separated from her husband. Years pass and our Mary Lou has become the clerk and manager of the town's only Mercantile store with Mr Kissee as her boss and owner of most of the town. more

With it being the Fourth of July, I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful and safe holiday. more

Of the few truly important things in life, kids and livestock have to rank near the top. more

Howdy to all my friends and neighbors and beyond. O.K.- Let's briefly review and jump into this week's new adventures. Our young couple grew up together and eventually got married. On their wedding day, it was officially announced our country's civil war had officially started. Our Johnny and Mary Lou had a few happy months together before our young man joined the Union Army. Mary Lou had to live with her parents; in which her dad was a hard-core rebel supporter. more

I grew up in a house with cold running water in the kitchen sometimes and an outdoor toilet always. Anywhere I’ve lived since has been a mansion in comparison. So, it was kind of hard for me to have much empathy for a couple featured in the Sunday paper who lamented they had spent years of looking before finally finding the lake home of their dreams. more

With summer in full swing, many will start planning their BBQs, vacations, and Fourth of July events. Another popular pastime is watching movies. Movies, after all, are a great way to spend time with family and friends, escape the summer heat, or unplug from the world. Consider my picks of ten summer movies if you want to watch something but don't know what to go for. This list will have a mix of classic summer movies and some released during the season. more

Our truck and car both have cruise control. Our grandkids don’t, and oh, how they run. Sometimes I wish I could push “set” and hold them down to 55. But, I really wouldn’t want to. I don’t really get upset, just jealous. They race everywhere — from the car to the front door, from the front door to the play room, from the kitchen to the dining room, in circles through the house and hitting every room. more

Hi again to all my rambling reading friends and neighbors. This week we are getting close to the end of our civil war love story that has been ongoing since January first. Quick review: our story is about two young people that grew up in our county during the turbulent times of pre civil war years. Our couple of Johnny and Mary Lou eventually got married and the civil war began. more