Named after Chief Oshkosh in 1839, Oshkosh became an established city in 1853. In its early days, Oshkosh was Wisconsin's second-largest city and the lumber capital of the world. Along with familiar Main Street views, the postcard images in this book reveal Oshkosh's forgotten sites of the past such as Electric Park, Alexian Brothers Hospital, and Northern Hospital Zoo. Many of the city's iconic sites that still stand today are also featured, including the Oshkosh Public Library, the Grand Opera House, and the Oshkosh Public Museum. This postcard collection presents a unique historical record of Oshkosh.
Once Upon The Water is a series of adventures that take you fishing along with the author from Canada to Mexico with numerous stops closer to Mike Yurks home in the upper Mid West. But the adventures are more than travels to faraway places and catching fish. They are memories shared with friends and family that make them. There are recollections of fishing over the years with a cousin, taking Mikes 82 year old mother fishing, a tribute to the grandfather who taught Mike how to fish, and reminiscences of his father while fishing his fathers favorite trout stream. Adventures with his son and sons-in-law illustrate the special relationships formed and crazy antics occurring while fishing together. A lazy day of fishing on a hot summer day with Mikes wife evoke the joys of when the living is easy. There are fishing tales from Alabama in an email from England and a testimonial to a buddy who travels from Germany to fish in America. Join Mike and long time friends as they fish when it is twenty below zero on a winter day in northern Minnesota, a trip when they catch walleyes from a remote lake in Canada and on another adventure where they fish for smallmouth bass that are as big as footballs. Old bonds are rekindled with family and friends during an annual gathering where the champagne and memories flow. An old and new friend fish together in Key West and a new fishing buddy is found due to a chance encounter on the way to Mexico. Fishing is an adventure not because of where you are or what you catch but because of the people who share it with you. It all starts once upon the water.
More Notes From The Dockside is the second volume of columns Mike Yurk writes about fishing. These short gems from the world of the outdoors capture the fun, memories, adventures and occasional misadventures that come from days on the water. The stories are of people and in More Notes From the Dockside you will again meet The Commissioner, The Boat Doctor, and Mikes beloved wife, The Bass Queen, as well as the entire cast of Mikes fishing buddies. There are memories of fishing with his grandfather and father and now years later of fishing with his grandchildren. More Notes From The Dockside revels in the joys of time on the water and the simple pleasures of being in the outdoors with family and friends. In his previous collection of anecdotes, Notes From The Dockside, Mike Yurk puts the reader by the fire place at fishing camp or pot-bellied stove in a bait shop and spins the yarns that have fueled hours of conversation during and after many a fishing season. Anglers generally collect more stories than fish and Yurk provides a wealth of observations with More Notes From The Dockside, with journeys through the wonderful world of Piscatorial pursuit.-Jon Echternacht, reporter Hudson (Wis.) Star Observer Mike Yurk is a seasoned angler and author who has filled his stringer with stories on waters near and far. Pull up a seat and let him share his tales in Notes From The Dockside one pleasing nugget at a time.-Paul Smith, Outdoor Editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Heart, determination, and triumph This is the story of a boy who fell in love with wrestling before he was able to walk. Born with achondroplasia, a condition that causes disproportionate dwarfism, Dylan Postl had endured multiple surgeries by the age of 12. And yet, he held on to the dream that he would one day become a professional wrestler. Ignoring the naysayers and against doctors’ recommendations, Postl began training in his teens, and he soon began appearing on local independent shows. Before he turned 20, he was signed by WWE to play the role of Irish grappler Finlay’s feisty sidekick, Hornswoggle, and remained a fixture in the company for a full decade. While most of Postl’s adult life has been spent in the wild world of the wrestling industry, his is more than a story of a little person’s journey through a world of giants; it’s a memoir of elation and anguish, triumph and disappointment, and of how an endlessly positive outlook combined with the unwavering support of family and friends helped a long shot become a success in his industry and a loving, responsible father.
Recounts the author's experiences to keep the memory of her best friend alive by living life to the fullest, being spontaneous, and wild the way Shelly did.
Meet the out crowd that’s really “in”—the gay and lesbian stand-up comics who’ve come out of the closet and stormed the mainstream with the hippest and wittiest comedy acts of the last three decades. In A Funny Time to Be Gay, Ed Karvoski Jr. traces the evolution of gay and lesbian comedy from the few pioneers in New York's Greenwich Village in the seventies, to the mavericks who played San Francisco's famed Valencia Rose in the eighties, to the comics who starred in their own TV specials in the nineties and continue to headline comedy clubs. With short introductions that reveal the performers’ approaches to both their sexual and professional identities, over thirty hilarious monologues capture the diversity of the gay and lesbian comic community.
This is a book of collected works compiled and written by community members who chose to share their remembrances of the past. The stories take place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the 1940s and '50s, although a few stories go before and a few beyond. They are stories of corner taverns, grocery stores, churches and self-contained neighborhoods; of sports and sport heroes, and icons of the past; of movie theatres, a dank basement, and a chance encounter with Gene Autry; of polio epidemics, iron lungs, and stories from two who were afflicted; of hoboes, fearful mothers, and orphan train drops; of the beginning of aviation, steam-driven trains, and motorcycle clubs; of walleye and white bass runs, ice shanties, and spearing sturgeons; of breweries no longer there and barbershop songfests that are; of boating, yacht clubs, and Friday night fish frys; of "regular folks" and community leaders, and others of note; of pin setting and caddying, and other teenage staples; of war rationing, blackouts, and savings bonds; of old-fashion ice houses, traveling circuses, and freshwater quarries; of YMCA's, library expansions, and civic events; of an American war hero, a diary kept, and a fallen president; and of an Oshkosh that in its "heyday" was known throughout the country as "Sawdust City." The stories you are about to read are first-hand accounts; images of another time. Ron La Point, a retired high school history teacher, has authored two previous books: A Family History, and Oshkosh: A South Sider Remembers. He and his wife, Carol, winter in Sun City West, Arizona and summer in his hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
There is more to fishing then catching fish and the Notes From The Dockside takes you there. It is a collection of short stories that are all about what fishing is. There is humor, memories, and tales plus observations of life and the ironies found outdoors. Anything related to fishing is fair game for Mike Yurk as he writes about the world of fishing. There are stories about good food, the peculiarities of nature, sentimental gear like stoves and lanterns along with favorite baits and old fishing rods. Although most of the stories are from Wisconsin and Minnesota, we travel with Mike on other adventures from Turkey and Europe to Canada and Mexico and places in between. The stories are of people such as his wife who is lovingly referred to as The Bass Queen, a grandfather and father from his earliest fishing days and friends and fishing buddies who have shared a boat or sat around a campfire with Mike. The Notes From The Dockside are rich in life and the appreciation of being outdoors and the simple pleasures of going fishing.
Do you ever feel like the world has gone crazy? Do you ever struggle with how God is working in your life? Do you ever wonder if he is even working in your life? Looking to chart a course in this uncertain world? In this book, missionary, minister, adjunct professor, and small business owner Mark Edge will help you accomplish three results: 1. Discover practical ways you can identify what God is up to. 2. Learn to love the God of the journey more than the journey itself. 3. Grow to the point where God is enough. You can pick up your copy of Holy Chaos by scrolling up and clicking on the “buy” button.
