‘Cover Stories’ Archives
Memories of Neil
By MATTIE WONG Spread from the Pine Bluff News. PHOTO: Courtesy Kathi Wong My grandfather, Neil Clark, was born in the 1920s in southern Arkansas into a poor farming family. He joined the Army as a young man, scarcely twenty, and fought in WWII. For the longest time, the only thing we knew about Neil in the war was that he had earned a Silver Star, but none of us knew how or why. The thing is, my grandfather never talked about the war. Not to anyone. Our family pieced together stories over the years, even going to a reunion of his infantry division in Memphis, Tennessee. There we learned Neil had been instrumental in keeping himself and three other soldiers safe after they had gotten separated from their battalion in France. In trying to return to their battalion, they had stumbled across a camp of German soldiers set up in small depression. Neil spearheaded a plan to shoot over the heads of the Germans from multiple angles, making it seem as if there were far more [...]
Alley Readers Keep the Paper Going!
As a community-driven newspaper, we try diligently to stay on mission in serving the Phillips Community and to do so within our financial means. A relatively small group of dedicated volunteers and 3 very part-time contracted staff members-----a business manager, design/layout coordinator and community connector----work to get the paper out each month. Other contracted support is provided by the printing company, an accountant, and bulk drop delivery person. Of course, our regular advertisers and writing contributors are to be commended because without them, we would not have the basics needed to produce the paper each month. How do we know if this 50 year old community paper is fulfilling its purpose? Well, we don’t! We don’t have the funds for marketing or reader surveys so we rely on several more “low tech” ways. One way we know the paper is still of interest to folks is that papers are picked-up from the 114 drop sites.Another indication of interest in preserving the [...]
Remembering for My Father
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA Left: Dad is in the middle. Two of his brothers, on either side.Right: Dad on the front porch of the Chisholm home before being deployed. PHOTOS COURTESY: Kaluza family My father’s family lived on the Iron Range - my grandfather worked in the mines. The family lived in a “location”, a small community of mining families that were frequently uprooted and moved when the mining company wanted to mine the land under them. Eventually they were moved to Chisholm, which had become a permanent settlement. Dad would be 104 years old now. He was born in 1922 and died in 1978 at 56 years old. At 13 yrs old, his mother died and he was shipped down to the Twin Cities to stay with his mother’s sister. His 3 older brothers stayed on the Range, two of whom had physical or developmental disabilities from childhood diseases that are now easily avoidable with vaccines. My dad’s aunt lived in South Minneapolis off of Franklin on Pleasant or Pillsbury Avenue, or [...]
