Columns

Claire:

Recently, the food company Nestle and grocery stores in the U.K. were forced to recall much of their meat and meat-containing meals. The reason? The meat was labeled "beef," but actually contained large percentages of horsemeat. Some as much as 100 percent. Sure, some people eat horsemeat on purpose, but other people are less enthused about the surprise in their mystery meat.

I wasn't engaged in the newspaper business back in 1955. I came along several years later.

But, had I been working then, here's a Thoughts column I might have written.

Here's how many of us were thinking back then.

Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging seven cents just to mail a letter?

If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 25 cents a gallon?

Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.

The president gave his State of the Union Address this week. After listening to it, I realized that our presidents, past and present, live in a different world than the rest of us. They have the problems of the world on their shoulders: wars, national security, the economy, law enforcement, the health and welfare of our citizens and the education of our children.

For some of you who may not know, Bob and I are expecting our first child this April.

As we prepare the house, I sit down and think about all the things I want to make sure we teach our son as he begins his journey.

A letter to our son:

I love you dearly even though we have not met yet,

But your dad and I look forward to getting to finally meet you.

We will love you as best we can

and to the best of our ability.

We will make sure you are cared for,

But we cannot promise there won't be bumps along the way.