Category Archives: Family

Another roller skating experience

March 14, 2021Columns, Family, funsusanmanzke

A year later and it’s time to chaperone the school’s outing to the skating rink agaom.

I’m glad I was able to chaperone many school trips. They were adventures I can’t repeat.

A call interrupted

March 13, 2021Columns, Family, speakingsusanmanzke

When we were raising our young family, I figured it was a good thing we didn’t live in an apartment. Our pack of loud-mouths would have gotten us kicked out for disturbing the peace. On the farm they could make all the noise they wanted and they sure did.

This remembrance is a time when noisy kids almost cost me a speaking job.

Now, my home is too quiet, but I have memories that make me smile. I doubt if I was smiling when chaos was breaking out as I was trying to have an important phone conversation. Still, yelling at those noisy kids wouldn’t have made a good impression either.

As the world returns to near normal, I hope to have speaking opportunities again. Fingers crossed.

Rolling right along

March 10, 2021Columns, Family, funsusanmanzke

I was lucky to have time to chaperone elementary school class trips when my children were young.

This account almost took me beyond my abilities when I strapped on roller skates.

FYI: my great uncle, Frank Pochrin (Grandma Jo’s brother), and his wife Aunt Mary roller-skated in competitions and showed their roller skating skills by giving demonstrations. I never saw them skate, but I heard stories about their skills. I just knew them as two lovely people. Uncle Frank was always joking.

Sheer torture — the spelling bee

March 8, 2021Columns, Familysusanmanzke

This archived column says a lot about my feelings toward spelling bees. I hate them! But the bee talked about here was Robby’s. No matter, it made me cringe and remember my childhood.

My poor spelling might be connected to my dyslexia, I don’t know. I often slip up — as you might have seen in a past blog. But that doesn’t stop me from writing.

I wonder if any of my elementary school teachers noticed that I always went down in the third round of the class spelling bee. Even if I knew the word and how to spell it I would make a mistake. Then I could sit down and all tension was lifted. (Yes, I did that.)

It would be nice to be able to spell, but I’ve learned to live with my problem.

After all, misspelling a word isn’t the end of the warld.

A Cousin Idol

March 7, 2021Columns, Familysusanmanzke

Do you have an idol? When my children were young, they had one, their cousin.

This column written in 1986 shows how much they wanted to be like their cousin.

They learned a lot from Sherri.

Years later they taught her how to help with haying. Eventually, I’ll record what I wrote how my kids taught their sophisticated cousin about farm work.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person