2017 National Newspaper Association First Place in Best Serious Column Class winner is ... Me.

Look, there is no way to even make this a humble brag. It's just a brag. Plain and simple. I own it.

Today my Editor informed me that I had won the 2017 National Newspaper Association BNEC/BNAC contest First Place in the Best Serious Column Class Daily & Non-Daily Division Circulation of 12,000 or more for the column titled Memories of Gram. I still can't read that column without tears. I probably never will. 

There are no words for how stunned, pleased, and also, quite frankly, how emotional I am.  The one person who would take the most pride in this award, the very reason that I won it, is the one person who isn't here to read it. 

It is both an honor, and a privilege, to be the grandchild and chronicler of Ruth May Lewis Studer. I'm going to go cry. Let's just call them happy tears.

You can read the column here: Memories of Gram

Buddy Beware

GirlWonder breaks a (non soccer) leg on stage as "Erma" in "Anything Goes."

Hot Heirlooms

I'm assuming the statute of limitations has long run out. 

This outtake from senior photos features a large steel "S" that my Gram (Studer) passed on to me when I married (Seabolt). 

A few years ago my mother tells me that it was "liberated" by my then teenage father from the "Four Seasons" sign in Aurora and given to her when they were dating. I know it's wrong but 50 years later it makes me laugh.

Don't you wish your big S was hot like mine? 

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