Category Archives: Family

Broken cookies – a true story

March 16, 2021Family, Memoriessusanmanzke

“Dad tell it again.” As a child, I pestered my dad to tell about getting broken cookies.

This rendition was written by my dad in the 1980s. The remembrance centers on a time in the 1930s when he was a kid.

Patsy Ann’s Cookies was a special place for many people during the Great Depression. Getting broken cookies wasn’t something that happened often, but when it did the whole family celebrated.

I adapted this story for my novel, Chicken Charlie’s Year.

I’ll share my broken cookie chapter tomorrow, so remember to come back.

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.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person