Dr. Ronaldean Pawlisch, a retired Brodhead veterinarian, knows firsthand about the notorious Type A influenza virus, H1N1, because he partnered with the nation’s top researchers on the subject at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. B.C. (Barney) Easterday of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine was the first on…
Stefan and Doina Varo, rural Brodhead, fled Romania in 1982 and came to the United States with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and an extra change of clothes. Today, they are reaching out to the people of Romania and all of Europe through a nonprofit Christian broadcasting ministry. Through hard work and…
Imagine talking to others all over the world at any time of the day. Imagine being able to assist others through Homeland Security or during weather-related emergencies. Imagine rescuing four adults and two children on a sinking vessel 90 miles off Miami in shark-infested waters while never leaving the comfort of your Brodhead home. Imagine…
Some people come into our lives and leave imprints on our hearts, and we are never the same. To many in Brodhead, Charlie Scriven was such a man. When asked about Charlie, many volunteered the following praises: he was generous, kind-hearted, intelligent, hard working, proud, reliable, faithful, honest, self-sufficient, appreciative, and humorous. He also adored…
Southern Romania is one of the poorer parts of one of the poorer nations in Europe. For Pastor Dan Krahenbuhl and his wife, Jennifer, visiting Bircii, Romania, was like stepping back into history 100 years, except for a sprinkling of modern conveniences. The Krahenbuhls, who have been leading the Monroe Bible Church for 14 years,…
A Madison-based architect, Lou Host-Jablonski, is promoting a building technique that goes back millennia—straw and clay walls. Host-Jablonski once held a 700-year-old straw-clay mixture from a home in Germany that looked just as fresh as the straw-clay mixture used recently in a rural Brodhead home. Dr. Jonas Lee, a family practice physician at the Beloit…
Beauty is everywhere. We can find it in a muffled snow covered woods or in the face of a newborn babe. We can find beauty in a poem or in a painting. There is even beauty in common things such as a table, a vase, or a pen. Lynn Sorgatz, of Orfordville, is an avid…
Perhaps you haven’t given pickles much thought except as a tasty addition to your sandwich, but pickles were quite important to our nation and, in particular, to Brodhead during World War II. In fact, pickles were claimed as a vital part of the war effort on the home front! Many in Brodhead were once a…
Did your Mama ever tell you that when you grew up you had to give up your dolls? Well, Mama meant well. She didn’t want you hauling your doll with you forever; but of course, she may not have considered that you could take that precious doll from childhood and begin a collection. Yes, that…
Brenda Anderson’s books in the Coming Home Women’s Fiction series are entertaining, but they make one think about life—how we live it and how we react to it—long after the last page has been read. I enjoyed Pieces of Granite because the characters were so real, and they were wrestling with issues that can affect…