Riverbend Journal

Doug eyed the grizzly sow and her cub through the telescopic sight on his rifle. He wasn't interested in the meat nor was his life endangered, he wanted the thrill of killing such a large beast. Never mind that the grizzly sow couldn't see him on top of his perch of a small granite cliff some three hundred yards away. Nor could she smell him because the gentle wind was blowing into Doug's face. Giving her a sporting chance never crossed his mind as Doug aimed the crosshairs just behind the front shoulder blade and waited for her to stop moving. He just wanted to take a few pictures for his personal hunting collection and call it a day. The grizzly sow arrived at another clump of berries with her cub in tow and came to a stop to graze. As Doug steadied his rifle for the shot, she appeared to look up in his direction as if sensing him somehow or at least sensing her fate. Doug pulled the trigger and a small tuft of fur erupted from her side just where he had been aiming. Star...

  The Story Behind The National Anthem By an unknown speaker There was a lawyer once. His name was Francis Scott Key. He penned a song that I'm sure you're aware of. You've seen it; it's in most hymnals throughout our churches. It's called the National Anthem. It is our song as an American.   We go, however, to a ballgame; we stand in our church services and we sing the words to that song and they float over our minds and our lips and we don't even realize what we're singing. Most of us have memorized it as a child. But we've never really thought about what it means. Let me tell you a story.   Francis Scott Key was a lawyer in Baltimore. The colonies were engaged in vicious conflict with the mother country, Britain. Because of this conflict (and the protractiveness of it), they had accumulated prisoners on both sides. The American colonies had prisoners and the British had prisoners. And the American Government initiated a move. They went to t...

Bill studied the Radio Flyer and the hill sloping in front him leading down to the infamous T-Run. T-Run a.k.a. Toilet Run was rumored by all the kids at Fox Valley High School to contain the overflow from a lot of septic tanks in town. Yes it was a ditch and most of the time it did contain some stagnate, foul smelling liquid but no Bill didn't think it was actually liquefied shit. He actually drove by the city sewer lagoon on the school bus ride home every day after school but he didn't want the townies to know this. So when the bet had come up, he had accepted it but now he wasn't so sure. One of the townies had brought in their kid sister's Radio Flyer which was covered in rust making the words barely even visible. One of the rear wheels wobbled when pulled and the handle had been bent many times and straightened over the years. A crude ramp of some blocks and a thick piece of scrap plywood had been set up at the bottom of the hill right at the lip of T-Run and of c...