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History in the Hills: Snow day at home

Local Columns

This past Tuesday was a snow day for my kids. It was fun for them to be home on a regular day when we didn’t have to run out for a game, doctor appointment or meeting. In a day and age where one is constantly running from thing to thing, a quiet day is a wonderful thing. And what better way to make a kid happy than a snow day. Today, kids find out about a snow day because we get a recorded call from the school. Ours came at 6 a.m. Tuesday. When I was in school, I would wait in front of the TV with the WTOV-TV morning news hoping that Hancock County schools would flash canceled on the ...

Are you nice?

Letters to the Editor

To the Editor, How pleasant it is to be with nice people. A bevy of matronly women gushing over decorations on a well-lit Christmas tree is certainly nice. What’s even nicer are the same women making a fuss over a baby smiling his gummy, toothless smile while gurgling with delight, waving his little arms and kicking his chubby legs. Some things are not nice at all. In attendance at a church service were two young men listening to a solo sung by a portly gentleman who’d most willingly volunteered to sing when the pastor asked if anyone should like to sing a solo. There he ...

I remember a time, not so long ago ...

Local Columns

I remember a time, not so long ago , when the church pews didn’t just hold people — they overflowed with them. It was a specific kind of closeness unique to Christmas Eve. Families were pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with coats piled high. Voices rose in unison to the holiday favorites we all knew by heart. I remember a time, not so long ago … The way the candlelight flickered across the faces throughout the congregation. The profound hush that fell across the church just before the first notes of “Silent Night” were sung without hymnals. Those lyrics carried a ...

A day we will always remember

Editorials

The words President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, remain as powerful and meaningful today as they were when they were first spoken some 84 years ago. Americans were stunned and still reeling from the news that Japanese forces had attacked our Pearl Harbor naval base at Oahu, in the then-Territory of Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, when Roosevelt spoke for a little more than seven minutes, including breaks for applause, the following day: “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was ...

Journalism can also be like a box of chocolates

Local Columns

I had an entirely different thought for this column leading in the end of the week, and then Friday happened. That’s not to say that Friday was a disaster of a day necessarily, but it was a reminder of just how a typical day in this business can be anything but typical by most standards. Sure, there are some routine meetings. I know when school board and council meetings are, and can put them on my schedule, but, most of the time, we never really know what’s going to happen at any given point. I got into the office at around my usual time, having taken a few extra minutes to ...

The local holiday festivities continue

Editorials

Our region will continue to celebrate the magic of the Christmas season during the next couple of weekends. Thousands of residents from across the Tri-State Area are expected to pack the streets of downtown Steubenville at noon Saturday for the annual Sights and Sounds of Christmas Parade. The parade will feature marching bands and cheerleaders, dancing groups, homecoming queens, colorful floats sponsored by community organizations and local businesses and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus. The parade is just one of many things happening downtown. Already, thousands of visitors have ...