Bob's Blog

He brings his wife of 56 years a daisy and a penny every day. Read the story here.

This post will be the final proof to my kids that I am ancient.

This is the washing machine my mom used to wash our clothes downstairs in our unfinished basement, which is also where I played basketball when the ground outside was covered in fresh Iowa snow. Then, she took the clothes outside to hang them on the clothesline. Funny thing is that they looked better than my clothes look today!


One of my favorite things we did every summer was go to Goldfield, Iowa for a family reunion at my grandma's house. The "bathroom" was outside behind the house.


The most important piece of furniture in the living room was the radio, where we ate popcorn and listened to Jack Benny every Sunday night. It came on after "The Shadow Knows," "The Lone Ranger," "Tom Mix," "Roy Rogers," "Gene Autry," and "Hopalong Cassidy."


After listening to all the "Westerns," I would load up my cap gun and go looking for bad guys to shoot. In those days there actually were bad guys, and we could name them, then shoot them.


At school we had just enough room under our desks to hide when our country was testing atomic bombs in the Nevada desert.


It was always fun to go to the theater every Saturday, even though we did have to shell out ten cents for a double feature, usually featuring the same western stars mentioned above.


I made sure to call my girlfriend every night so we could plan our future.


That future might include milkshakes at Tollers Drug Store, if I was lucky.


We might decide to play an Elvis Presley song on the juke box, while we enjoyed our milkshakes.


After the milkshake I might have to fill up my Buick at the local gas station. Actually, this man poured the gas into the tank for me.


It was always fun to make ice cream.


In the summer I could take my girlfriend to the Drive In, if her dad would let her come with me.


Thanks to Lt. Col. Curt Dale

Scientists studying mice have found that they can switch the mouse’s memory from positive to negative and negative to positive.”

“We found that we can dictate the overall emotion and the direction of the memory.”

Sarah Knapton writes that

this is the first time that scientists have shown which brain circuits are responsible for positive and negative emotions, and reversed them.

Neuroscientists believe they can erase feelings of fear or anxiety attached to stressful events, in a breakthrough which could help treat depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Researchers at MIT, US, have discovered which brain circuits attach emotions to memories, and crucially, how to reverse the link.

The research was published in the journal Nature, and you can read more about it here.