Independently Speaking
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FireMy hometown is kind of a mess. Over the weekend, our grain elevator, by far the biggest structure in town, suffered a major fire. The part that …
12 hr agoComment 8Share
CriticalMy Great Uncle Carl, the guy who lived in our house before we did, twice spent time in a state institution being treated with electroshock thera…
Jul 23Comment 8Share
PricklesSunday afternoon the giant dog wandered around the yard, trying to make friends. She’s usually pretty charming, if you can overlook the drool, b…
Jul 16CommentShare
A better world...On Friday, July 16th, 7:00 p.m., I’ll be at Lingonberries in Ortonville. We’ll have a discussion about my new book, in which, believe it or not,…
Jul 14Comment 1Share
MemoryThis Fourth of July most of the clan was gathered, and we were playing that unnamed family game, the one that gets more interesting the older we…
Jul 9Comment 3Share
Two July 4 columns...oldies but still goodies.Here’s a story I think about often around the Fourth of July. In 1957, the Supreme Court had ruled that schools in Little Rock, Arkansas needed …
Jul 4Comment 2Share
CoachingA baseball game. Eleven and twelve-year-olds. Roughly one third of the team bursts into tears at some point, many of them after talking to their…
Jul 2Comment 6Share
IvanI was driving between farms the other day and noticed that the wild roses were bloo…
Jun 25Comment 11Share
"What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked. My wife replied, “I don’t know, nothing special. What do you have in mind?” “I thought we could spend the day m…
Jun 18Comment 2Share
A lot of the people signing up for this are folks who’ve been reading me for years, if not decades. Yes, I am that old. But for the new people, here’s …
Jun 14CommentShare
What I’ve Done Back page columnist, “Living the Country Life” 2002 - 2016 Syndicated column, “Independently Speaking” 1996 - 2021 Author of four collec…
Jun 13CommentShare
Welcome to Independently Speaking by me, Brent Olson. Just an old guy living in a small place, trying to figure out what matters. Sign up now so you…
Jun 13CommentShare
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