Lifestyle

November is the time of the Movember movement, which encourages growing a mustache during the month to raise awareness of men’s health issues, like those involving the prostate.

Thanks to all of our military veterans who have served and preserved our freedoms for this country for over 246 years.

There he marched proudly, step after step, rifle at shoulder along the parade route, a man who showed his age but marched with the confidence and heart of youth.

Growing up in the small city of Lima in the 1950s and ‘60s, the May boys — Rusty, Bobby and David — were inspired by the explosive and sometimes gruesome war movies they watched on TV.

My husband, Steve Montgomery, was a proud Marine! He enlisted in the service in December 1965 and completed aviation electronics school in Jacksonville, Florida, followed by more electrical training on aircraft while at New River Air Facility at Camp Lejune, N.C. This training on maintenance on helicopters would soon be put to use, as he received orders to be sent overseas and arrived in Vietnam on July 5, 1967.

I was born on tax day in 1950. We lived on a small farm in Columbus Grove, I had a great childhood. At age 18, all men had to register for the draft, I missed the draft lottery by about six months. I always heard the stories about boys going to their mailboxes and finding their draft notices. My heart just fell the day I received mine. I was also learning that there were many ways to avoid the draft, including wealth, politics, family, etc.

During World War II, I was living with my grandparents in southern Ohio. Hanging in the front window of the house, much like many others at the time, was a small rectangular flag with a red border and a white field. This one had four blue stars in the white field, each star representing a son serving in the military. All four of my grandmother’s sons served overseas.

Mexican: Jonathan Fisher, T.A. Hollaway, Charles Long

‘Armistice Day’

When Claudia Siegel got a stomach bug earlier this year, she reached out to her primary care doctor to prescribe something to relieve her diarrhea. The Philadelphia resident was surprised when she received an online message informing her that because she hadn’t visited her doctor in more than three years, she was no longer a patient.