While attending the University of Denver, she reportedly dated a Denver Bronco football player by the name of Rick Upchurch, who later lived here and worked with the Tabor College football program.

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This summer marks 50 years since my brother and sisters and I moved with my parents to Hillsboro from Minnesota.

I don't know if it is because of the milestone, but I am having this pull to make a pilgrimage back to the town of my early years. The last time I was there was 1989. My idea is to find all of the familiar places I can remember and take pictures to preserve the memories for myself and to show my children and grandchildren the part of their heritage they have not yet seen.

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I have heard many commencement addresses in my day, but the one given by Jim Robb at Hillsboro's graduation exercises was the most thoughtful, heartfelt and eloquent speech I have ever heard. The Class of 2005 is rich indeed for having had him as their teacher and mentor.

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The average length of time it takes workers to commute to work in major cities has been in the news. I believe the highest drive time is New York City, where it is 93 hours per year.

I once worked at the KU Printing Service in Lawrence with a guy who drove 78 miles one way each day. I calculated he would spend two full years of his life in his car if he kept working there until he retired.

He wore three cars out during the time I knew him and they kept getting smaller and cheaper.

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Every year the number of men wearing neckties at graduation ceremonies and events like it keeps getting less and less. I could only count about three at Tabor College's commencement and just a few more at the high school program.

Times have changed. Forty years ago there might have been three who weren't wearing a tie.

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I'm not complaining-just making an observation. I wasn't one of the three wearing one.

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One of my favorite mental exercises lately is to find the differences in the two photos that appear regularly in the back of the little skinny Life Magazine that is inserted in the Friday edition of the Wichita Eagle.

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While sitting in the audience at Tabor's commencement, I was thinking of how great it has been for the Free Press to have the college located in Hillsboro.

In the eight years we have been in existence, we have continually had Tabor students and/or graduates who have been part of our team either part time or full time. They have all been excellent contributors to the operation and we couldn't do what we do without them.

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With summer just around the corner take extra caution and be on the lookout for more kids out and about-on bikes, on foot, etc. They don't always look out for you.