Category: Let’s talk about

Friends and family

August 18, 2025

I’d like to discuss several things with you today. The first is family and friends. I am fortunate that I have had a lot of family all my life. I have two older brothers and a younger sister, thanks to my mom and dad. In addition, there was an abundance of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Many are now gone, but each generation is larger than the last.

The truth is that we are not as close as we once were. We attend family reunions, funerals, and sometimes even weddings. Not like we used to. The youngest generation doesn’t seem to marry as often as we did. Some of my cousins got married two or three times each. We all just tend to die once, and recently we are living longer. I know it isn’t due to healthy living.

What brought on this wave of nostalgia? A commercial about one of these delivery services. A lady is lying in her bed, and there is some unidentifiable noise and movement around her. The camera pans back, and her bed is caught between two automatic doors. The voice over says, “If you can’t take your bed to the store,” then they will bring whatever you need to you.

Guess what, isn’t that what friends and family are for? In the bad old days before smartphone apps, you just picked up the phone, plugged into the wall, and called family or a friend to bring you what you needed.

We are suffering from violence, attacks, and other crimes against more people than ever. There seems to be no way to avoid this. My wife and I seldom leave our home at night. We have a security system at our place, and we know our neighbors. We feel secure in our home.

Do we need to have random strangers coming to our home bringing groceries, medications, and prepared food? There are cases where these random strangers return later, and you are no longer safe. If I do not know you, I don’t invite you into my home.

We go out to pick up carry-out. We do not choose Door Ditch, Pan Handle Pete, or Consta Cart to bring things to us. We occasionally ask our pharmacy to deliver prescriptions. We used to call the pizza place for delivery until the drivers looked like the perps on Blue Bloods or the undercover cops from Chicago PD. We have taken medicines to our kids for their kids or themselves. Especially when they were quarantined during the COVID-19 crisis.

Have you seen the original Crocodile Dundee movie? You know, the one named “Crocodile Dundee.” There is a scene in it where Dundee is told that the reporter he is visiting in New York needs to go to a therapist. Mick doesn’t understand. He asks, “Don’t you have any mates?”

Friends and family or mates used to help each other out. They still do in some communities. Our neighbors, church community, and close family still do. I’ve been called by cousins and friends to officiate at weddings and funerals, as well as get someone to a doctor or take food for them when they are ill. It costs us money not to have people we trust and on whom we can depend.

The next time you need something and can’t go get it for yourself, stop and think of whom you can call to bring it to you. You can’t think of anyone? How about one of those for whom you did the same thing last week? Has it been a while since you helped someone? Maybe that is the problem?

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

It’s August and hot

August 16, 2025

Let’s face it, this is true. I have known this all my life. The year I was born is the ninth hottest here in Springfield, Missouri. I have watched the high temperatures this month for years. Forty years ago, I told our daughters each time the high for that day was in my birth year.

Checking the statistics, I find that from my birth to last year there are only four Augusts with higher average temperatures. 2007, 1995, 1983, and 1980 are the only years in the last seventy years with temperatures that exceed my year.

Mom reminded me almost every year on my birthday how hot it was when she was pregnant with me. Ladies, I must honor her and apologize to you who are currently new mothers or still expecting the heat. While I have nothing to do with your discomfort, I was instrumental in my own mother’s.

I remember growing up and hearing that we were on the verge of a new ice age in the 1960s. Now there are people that want us to believe that we are all going to burn to death if we do not accept the doomsday prophets that tell us there are holes in the ozone layer.

While researching this column, I find that this does not seem to be true. There are as many scientists who do not share this view as the ones that swear, they are correct. Most scientists know that their estimates are only guesses and may be in error.

Stop and think about it. What other job than meteorologist can you be wrong that often and keep the job? I respect these trained professionals for doing their best and being willing to take the ribbing that sometimes comes when they predict flurries and we have several inches of snow fall, right Dale Noah?

Every woman who is becoming a mother needs respect and patience even when it is not this hot. This is the most difficult job there is. Some are life threatening, but none have the rewards or stress than motherhood does.

Yes, fatherhood has its share of difficulties as well. I know that. But, guys, we must admit that our wives and children’s mothers have it rougher than we do. Even the President of the United States is calling for women to have more babies to keep our economy active.

Remember that this is not an original idea. God told us to be fruitful and multiply to populate the earth. He has also encouraged us through the prophet Malachi that the Jews and we as Christians should produce new generations that will follow Jehovah.

Parenthood is an honored and useful profession that is not a political concept. God created families to raise children in a loving home. Mothers and fathers are instructed to teach them to be good people. This is nothing new.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

The unknown holiday

August 11, 2025

That is correct. Most Christians and non-Christians alike in Springfield, Missouri, and all over this country and the world miss the significance of this day every year. It is not a national or religious holiday, but an event that took place on this date years ago that transformed the universe as we know it. Explore some of the lesser events that took place on August 11th.

Calvin Coolidge, John W. Davis, and Robert La Follette, held a presidential debate in 1924 that was filmed for a Newsreel for the first time. In 1929, Babe Ruth was the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs. Not the best he would do, but it was a start. The first prisoner to Alcatraz Island arrived there in 1934.

1942 saw the patent issued to Hedy Lamar and George Antheil for a frequency hopping spread spectrum communication device. What is that, do you ask? That was the first use of technology currently used in wireless devices and the Wi-Fi everyone uses.

Frederick W. Smith founded FedEx in 1944. In 1969, the Apollo 11 crew members were released from quarantine. Hip Hop was born at a teen party, and American Graffiti opened in 1973. The Mall of America opened in 1992.

It is also Flag Day in Pakistan and Independence Day in Chad. Today was the day in 1984 that President Reagan said on national radio, “We begin bombing in five minutes.” 

Today is the birthday of Alex Hailey, author of “Roots”, Hulk Hogan, wrestler, Lloyd Nolan, Actor, Jerry Falwell, Evangelist, Frederick W. Smith, the founder of FedEx, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers, me, Colby Rasmus, Michael Cavin, and Mike Douglas.

Mr. Douglas also died on this date. Also dying on this date were: Andrew Carnegie in 1919, Jackson Pollock, Painter in 1956, Phil Harris in 1995, Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 2009, Mell Taylor of the Ventures in 1996, and Robin Williams in 2020.

I am sure that your question is which of these things would be considered a holiday. None is by most people. For me, the one that I consider a holiday is my birthday. Most of us think that we should be celebrated every year. My sixteenth birthday was special, not just for getting to start driving. Recall another birthday I listed for Michael Cavin?

He is the nephew of a friend of mine who was born that day. I call him my twin brother. On his sixteenth birthday, I wished him a happy birthday at a youth event at church. He knew I was friends with his parents, but did not know about us having the same birthday. Now we wish each other happy birthday almost every year.

You should think of the day of your birthday as an unknown holiday. Those who care about you should celebrate with you on that day. And while we are talking about it, don’t forget those you love on their special days. Everyone should have their own holiday.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Insurance

August 6, 2025

I listen to a lot of commercials as I watch television. Life insurance, health insurance, pet insurance, automobile insurance, insurance to cover repairs on vehicles and houses, and anything else that you can think of. Lloyds of London will insure almost anything for their price. It is like gambling. If you want to give them your money on their terms, they will take it.

There are good kinds of insurance and ones that are not worth the payments. These companies use statistical probabilities to determine if they will make a profit. They also advertise that they cover certain problems, but they do not tell you what they do not cover. Did you know your homeowner’s insurance does not cover floods or earthquakes as a standard part of your policy?

Some car insurers tell you that they have a pricing gun to give you the price you want. What they don’t tell you is that to get the price you want, your coverage may decrease, or your deductible may increase. Want new car replacement coverage? There goes your budget.

For people my age, there are life policies with no health questions. The only question they have is how much money do you have? One company says you can get coverage for under ten dollars a month. Another is less than seven. Neither tells what amount of insurance you will have, nor whether you can expect full payment if you die tomorrow.

Then there are the auto service plans. Car dealers offer extended warranties when you buy a new car. Then lenders have their plans if the vehicle is new enough with lower mileage. Now you can buy one from people who advertise on TV. Read the fine print. Your plan may not cover what you want.

In high school, I learned the Latin phrase, “Caveat Emptor,” which means “let the buyer beware.” I’ve worked as a salesman on more than one occasion. I gave out $100 cameras that cost me less than one dollar each. Another company had pricing structures that ranged from 300 percent profit to twenty-five percent.

I’ve mentioned before in columns that if you want to know what profit a retailer makes on their products, wait until they mark them down for clearance. Some stores sell seasonal merchandise as low as 90 % off a few days after the holiday. That tells me that their cost is about ten percent of the suggested retail price.

My Uncle Clyde did not believe in insurance. He seldom bought it. Fortunately, he never lost his house to a fire or other tragedy. He knew God would take care of him. As far as I know, He always did. Don’t take chances, though.

And if there are questions you have about something you see advertised, ask questions. My wife buys and sells items on Facebook Marketplace. She always tells people that we meet at the Springfield Police Department to exchange goods and money. There are times when the other party is no longer interested. Go figure.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

NAMES

August 4, 2025

Wouldn’t it be awful if your parents named you something weird, like Rainbow, Teflon, or Young White Child? Or even worse, Sue, as the young man in Johnny Cash’s hit song “The Boy Named Sue” was monicured. Fortunately, my parents named me Charles Eugene.

Growing up, I often asked my mother where my name came from. She told me that Charles was from a soap opera that she watched when I was born. I have searched IMDB to find either an actor or a character from the soaps she watched when I was a kid. I could not find any. If you know of someone from the 1950s, let me know in the comments.

When our children were born, my wife and I chose names that we thought would prevent teasing. All three had first names that became some of the most popular when they reached high school. Our youngest was given a name that my wife thought she had created by combining the names of two friends.

Later, a character in a current soap opera had this name, and it became so popular that her name was no longer unique. I have noticed over the years that this is the way things normally happen. Trend setters want to be unique. I guess we should be happy to be the first. The problem is that you are usually just ranked as another follower.

My oldest brother was named after Dad and Mom’s fathers. My other brother was the second Evan in our family. Dad was the first. I am happy to report that his name is now coming back into use. My name, however, seems to be falling out of style.

With all three of our daughters, I suggested an old family name, Beelzebub. She did not find it funny. She also does not laugh anymore when she says that something is driving her crazy, and I reply, “That’s not a drive. It’s a short putt.”

We currently have a dog named Biscuit and a cat called Essa. Biscuit has the coloring of a biscuit, but nothing like the dog in the picture books by that name. We don’t know why the Humane Society personnel called the feline Essa. I guess someone thought that was what she looked like.

Some of you may wonder about my name being Charles, but my friends call me Chuck. I worked with a young man who answered the phone one day and told the person on the other end that we did not have a Charles. It was my Mother. She informed him that we most certainly had a Charles, but they called him Chuck, which was not my name.

I changed it to Chuck because I was tired of being called Charlie. I waited until I hoped I was old enough not to be called Chuckie, and then a doll by that name starred in a horror movie, and suddenly people were calling me that. My roommate in college called me by a nickname that no one else has ever used. Ron, if you are reading this, keep your mouth shut.

I haven’t published a lot of fiction at this point. What I do write is under the name of Chuck Kensinger. I decided in deference to my Mother that all my non-fiction would be under what she calls my real name, and any fiction under Chuck is just a made-up nickname.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

President of spin

July 31, 2025

Am I talking about Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden? I’m not talking about any of the democrats that the seventh district Republicans like to denigrate. We all want to condemn those with whom we do not agree. We can’t agree with those who want abortion to be legal. We cannot approve anything that the LGBTQ+ community supports.

The fastest way for a candidate to gain support from the “Christian” community is to attack abortionists and gay organizations. One can divorce and remarry, and that is tolerated. You may abuse your wife or children. You may call the people you disagree with names. You can lie about them. Accuse them of destroying our economy when their policies have caused it to recover from the bad decisions that you made.

Be sure that you spin them as being bad. Criticize what they have done. Take credit for the positive things that you had nothing to do with. Find groups of terrible people that we all want to force from our society. Criminals are perfect for this. There is no one worse than those who are not in our country legally.

Promise to deport these lawbreakers. When you start this process, do not worry about what it means to be a criminal. You are from the wrong side of the border, so you must go even if you follow our laws and have done nothing wrong. How can we make this sound like it is appropriate? That person is a gang member, even if there is no proof of this.

How many times does it take for you to tell a lie before people believe it? Do not look at those you don’t like as being innocent until proven guilty. Yes, that is in our Constitution. Who cares about that old document? If it disagrees with me, I will not let it stop me from doing what I want to do.

If I am the governor of a state, then what happens on the national front is of no consequence to me. If it looks like the Attorney General of the U.S. or any state has lied, misplaced, or destroyed documents, this is of no interest to any other politician, especially from the same party. Whatever you do, you cannot allow any facts that might make one of your own parties look bad to reach the voting public.

You do know that we are right and anyone who disagrees with us must be pure evil. We want to help those who need the help the most. Billionaires are having such a difficult time paying for their seventh house and supporting their twentieth mistress and her family. After all, I helped her get off welfare, at least if she has sex with me.

It does not matter what party you vote for; if these are your beliefs, you will get what you voted for. A despotic government that will turn on you when they’ve murdered all the intelligent people. Pull your head out of your rear and look at the candidates in 2026. How have they treated their enemies for the last year? You could be one of those evil people they will hate.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Land of the Yankees

July 26, 2025

Yes, I am referring to Pennsylvania as the home of the Yankees, not the Phillies. I am from southwest Missouri. Sometimes referred to as the Ozarks. We are hillbillies and definite southerners. Travel another hour or two north in our state, and that statement is not true.

When Marianne asked me for my favorite foods, I shared that they were brown beans and cornbread. The ladies of the churches had no problem with the beans. Cornbread threw them, though. This was before Paula Dean and other southern chefs were all over the cable networks.

There was a white bread that had whole kernel corn floating in the loaf at most dinners I was invited to attend. Apparently, only one woman in the church had a recipe called Corn Bread, and that was it. When I enquired about this dish, I was told this. I explained the recipe for our cornbread, and it was told to me that it was called Johnny Cake. That is a Yankee name for sure.

During the summer, a church from North Carolina came to help us with backyard Bible clubs and a revival. When they arrived on their bus, I found out that I would have to translate for the students. The girls had the same challenge. Fortunately, we were all schooled in both southern and northern dialects.

Bradford is five miles from the New York State line, and Buffalo, New York, is one hundred miles north. I was able to travel to Buffalo and Niagara Falls twice during the summer. In one of the museums, I read about the last person to survive going over the falls. He was a young boy at that time, and I realized that we were the same age.

When it was time to return home, I was taken to Bradford airport and boarded a plane for Pittsburgh. I chose to fly home because I wanted to return as soon as possible. From Pittsburgh, we went to St. Louis, and I was supposed to have a one-hour layover. Once inside the terminal, I looked at my watch and I had five minutes to go halfway across the facility.

When I arrived at the gate five minutes late, I saw a clock on the wall. My watch was set to Eastern Time, and I was now in the Central Time zone. I still had my hour. This was my first time flying, and I loved all three legs of the trip to Springfield.

We celebrated my birthday that first night back. I was twenty when I boarded the bus and twenty-one when I boarded the plane in Bradford. I opened my presents, and Cindy and I went out to a movie. Don’t ask me what we saw. All I saw was her.

I’ve spent the last fifty years enjoying looking at her every day. Those ten weeks apart from her made me push to plan our wedding after I had graduated the next spring. Two weeks after the wedding, my job moved us. I knew that it could happen, and that was why we had to get married. I never wanted to be away from her again.

This was my first and only opportunity to be a church pastor. My ministry has been working as a workplace minister. My congregation was the people I encountered at my job. This wasn’t always just fellow employees. It was customers, vendors, and management at all the companies I worked for and visited.

Today, you are the ones that I want to benefit from everything I have learned during my lifetime. Fifty years of business experience, church membership, and Bible study are at your disposal. Thanks for logging in.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Gifford

July 24, 2025

I began in ‘Fifty Years Ago’ by telling you about where I was in 1975. I found myself in the city of Gifford, Pennsylvania. I was serving as a summer missionary and had a family for the summer that was not my birth family. I told you about Phil, Marriane, and Mary Anne. Let me tell you about the rest of the family.

Down the road lived Skip, also known as Phil, Jr., and his wife and children. Somewhat further away was David, his wife, and their child. I could walk to these two homes from the old house where I was staying. Phil and Marianne had moved into a house that was scheduled for demolition, rather than building a new house on the family property, as their two sons had done.

Also on the property was a mobile sanctuary for Hilltop Baptist Chapel. It was a modified trailer house provided by the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board. That summer, I learned a great deal about what HMB did for the ministries that were under their auspices.

The pastor at Bolivar Road Baptist in Bradford served at Hilltop as well as the home church. For that summer, he did not have to skip Sunday School to drive up the mountain to preach first, then back down for their services. I preached Sunday Mornings, led a Bible Study Sunday Night, and a prayer meeting on Wednesday night.

https://www.facebook.com/PastorMaxSimms/

Included in our ministries, mine and my fellow summer missionaries, were Vacation Bible School and revivals at these two churches, as well as two other churches that our youth groups went to for the summer months.

On Sunday Nights, I went to help the youth choir at Bolivar Road. The ladies were leading and joining the youth. I joined them as well. For the first week. The second week, I was asked to talk with the ladies before practice. They asked me not to sing with the choir. So, I helped off stage and behind the scenes. I have told people for fifty years that I am the only person I know who was asked to leave a youth choir.

https://www.facebook.com/BradfordBaptistChurchInc

Fortunately, I already knew that I could not carry a tune in a bucket. I learned that in the sixth grade, our new music teacher took four of us aside for special training to help us sing on key. After six months, she gave up on two of us. She decided nothing she did would help us,

Back on the mountain, I would walk a trail into the trees whenever I had spare time. During the day, I took my Bible with me and would study where God was the only one to teach me. I’ve been letting Him do that for me for fifty years now.

At night, when I walked into the trees, I was careful to stay on the trail, only to go a few feet in. Having spent a lot of time on farms in Missouri, I was not your ordinary city boy. I have milked cows, plucked chickens, and picked many different fruits, vegetables, and berries. After the woods were engulfed in darkness, the stars shining through the trees were beautiful.

It is difficult to condense ten weeks into a couple of columns. Look for the true story of an Ozarks boy in the land of Yankees in the next report. See you then.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Judges versus voters

July 16, 2025

As I sit and listen to the words being delivered at a high school speech and debate tournament, my mind wanders momentarily. I am a judge. My mind should not wander. I am here to listen to what these students have trained long and hard to express. 

Being a high school speech judge is much like being a voter. You must prove your qualifications to have the right to vote, which are similar to the qualifications for determining who is the best speaker.

You must be breathing. Non-breathers will scare both the politicians and the debaters. While many politicians may have been elected by people who are no longer alive, the actual ballot had to be marked by someone alive at that moment. If you don’t breathe, you cannot write, and to mark an election or a speech ballot, legible symbols are needed. The scratches may not resemble words, but they must be discernible by those people or machines whose job it is to determine and announce the decision.

You must be present. At least in body. Your mind and spirit may be elsewhere, but spirits and minds are not recognized by the officials who give you your ballot(s). They identify and count bodies as historians after a battle or skirmish.

You must prove you exist. The accepted method at a speech tournament is to be present. At an election, identification is needed. In Missouri, a photo ID is now required. This does not prove who you are, but allows the election judges to record that a certain person has already voted and will not be allowed to vote again.

You cannot discuss how you vote with others in the polling place. Judges cannot discuss between themselves after speakers and rounds, how they marked their ballots either. Secrecy in both cases can be broken after the event, if they desire to. I have written about speakers and other things I experienced at these tournaments over the years.

 One of my favorite events was extemporaneous speaking. For the non-speakers that are reading this, in this event, you choose a topic fifteen minutes before your time to speak. You have magazines and other resources with you on possible topics. I also kept quotations or poems that could serve as introductions or conclusions.

Today, when I speak in churches or before other groups, I use these techniques. Thinking on my feet and expressing alternative opinions gives me an open mind and helps me make quick decisions. This has served me well in business as a manager, salesman, purchasing agent, and employee.

When you must make decisions, I hope you have these types of abilities, no matter how you learned it. Sports and other types of extracurricular activities can teach many things that are needed for a successful life. Often, we gain these skills by experiencing only when we need them. I’m glad I did not do that.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Friends and family

July 5, 2025

I want to talk to you about several things today. The first is family and friends. I am fortunate that I have had a lot of family all my life. I have two older brothers and a younger sister, thanks to my mom and dad. In addition, there was an abundance of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Many are now gone, but each generation is larger than the last.

The truth is that we are not as close as we once were. We have family reunions and attend funerals and sometimes even weddings. Not like we used to. The youngest generation doesn’t seem to marry as often as we did. Some of my cousins got married two or three times each. We all just tend to die once, and recently we are living longer. I know it isn’t due to healthy living.

What brought on this wave of nostalgia? A commercial about one of these delivery services. A lady is lying in her bed, and there is some unidentified noise and movement around her. The camera pans back, and her bed is caught between two automatic doors. The voice over says, “If you can’t take your bed to the store,” then they will bring whatever you need to you.

Guess what, isn’t that what friends and family are for? In the bad old days before smartphone apps, you just picked up the phone, plugged it into the wall, and called family or a friend to bring you what you needed.

We are suffering from violence, attacks, and other crimes against more people than ever. There seems to be no way to avoid this. My wife and I seldom leave our home at night. We have a security system at our place, and we know our neighbors. We feel secure in our home.

Do we need to have random strangers coming to our home bringing groceries, medications, and prepared food? There are cases where these random strangers return later, and you are no longer safe. If I do not know you, I don’t invite you into my home.

We go out to pick up carry-out. We do not choose Door Ditch, Pan Handle Pete, or Consta Cart to bring things to us. We occasionally ask our pharmacy to deliver prescriptions. We used to call the pizza place for delivery until the drivers looked like the perps on Blue Bloods or the undercover cops from Chicago PD. We have taken medicines for our kids, for their kids, or for ourselves. Especially when they were quarantined during the COVID-19 crisis.

Have you seen the original Crocodile Dundee movie? You know, the one named “Crocodile Dundee.” There is a scene in it where Dundee is told that the reporter he is visiting in New York needs to go to a therapist. Mick doesn’t understand. He asks, “Don’t you have any mates?”

Friends, family, or mates used to help each other out. They still do in some communities. Our neighbors, church community, and close family still do. I’ve been called by cousins and friends to officiate at weddings and funerals, as well as get someone to a doctor or take food for them when they are ill. It costs us money not to have people we trust and on whom we can depend.

The next time you need something and can’t go get it for yourself, stop and think of whom you can call to bring it to you. Can’t think of anyone? How about one of those that you did the same thing for last week? It’s been a while since you helped someone else? Maybe that is the problem?

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger