The Simmonses are an unusual family. Each in their own way exhibits servants hearts, love of family, home, country, and a strong Christian faith. They make a full circle in this writing, with each in their own way contributing. The period covered by this story was a period of upheaval in America. Integration was in full bloom, the peace movement and the Vietnam War, The Kennedy and King assignation took place during this period. George Simmons has his hands full as he guides Clearwater through safe passage during this era. Ike Simmons comes of age and aids George as he charts the course through integration of Clearwater schools. Chassity, Mamie, and Woodrow are in the middle of everything; each contributing.

Movin' On Up takes a fun ride through the then-and-now of a great city and its ball club. The city and its team have cooked up a partnership as strong and as strange as scrapple and toast over the past 121 years. Since 1883, the Phillies have been on the move-at times slowly, many times glacially, and sometimes quickly. Movin' On Up layers the present on the past by revisiting the places the Fightin' Phils once called their new home. But Movin' On Up is really about people, past, and present-not only players, but others who help and helped Philly move on up to the fabulous sports town we know today. The journey rolls along humorous and poignant episodes, old and new, that have splashed Philly and its fan with the signature color that both fascinates and infuriates outsiders. As this new millennium dashes toward the midpoint of its first decade, Philly's Phillies have a new park, a new team, and a new attitude. Well, maybe the attitude isn't all that new, as you'll read-and ne

McMillan blends real life experiences with imagination to weave a story of an independent backwoods “country boy” who meets a sophisticated “city girl”. Follow their lives, sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, as two families try to mesh. The book is typical of East Texas Piney Woods during the early 1940s through the war years. Rex Horn meets Mary Ann Anderson on a trying journey with his science and math teacher to Detroit Michigan. Their mission is to pick up a new school bus chassis to replace that of a worn out school bus. Mary Ann and her mother are on the train, and she and Rex meet. The two young people are immediately smitten and intrigued by the other’s lifestyle. Mary Ann visits Rex at his rustic, pioneer type home, nestled in a remote section of an area known as The Big Thicket in the southern part of East Texas. Mary Ann is intrigued by Rex’s parents who, unlike her parents, are uneducated but respected and leaders in the Foggy Bottom Community. Martha Horn, Rex’s mother and Beth Horn, his sister, are both dynamic women who teach Mary Ann life skills necessary to live off the land. Rex’s encounter with a panther, while trapping in the Neches river bottom, add spice to the story and peak Mary Ann’s interest. Many of the tales related in this story are true, and are written as they happened; others are embellished. The reader will have fun trying to separate facts from fiction.

Clearwater, situated on Florida's Gulf Coast, is a progressive city that is rife with history and known for its breathtaking landscape. The city that has become one of the state's prime destinations was once inhabited by Timucuan, Calusa, and Apalachee tribes. Early settlers called the area that had plentiful fresh springs along its shore Clear Water Harbor from the Native American word "Pocotopaug," and early developers and speculators drew tourists and residents touting Clearwater as a resort community with a comfortable climate. Opportunity and adventure brought many pioneering families, citrus farmers, railroad barons, and land developers to the area. Today, Clearwater is a locality that continues to move forward while preserving its distinct past. Images of America: Clearwater is a unique collection of vintage photographs and facts that brings to life the history of this thriving city. Photographs culled from a variety of sources, including the Clearwater Historical Society and Hillsborough County Public Library's archives, showcase the people, places, and events that have contributed to the history of this special Florida community. Readers can take a visual journey to the unincorporated town of yesteryear to see how James Stevens, "the father of Clearwater;" Rev. C.S. Reynolds; and Henry Plant's grand hotel, the Belleview Biltmore, turned Clearwater into a prosperous city.

James Allen is a high school chemistry teacher in the small East Texas town of Richie, Texas. With a master’s degree in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, he could have tripled his salary in industry but Jim's mother, an English teacher before leukemia took her life, had instilled a love of teaching in her son. He has chosen the family farm and a tranquil life fishing with his mentor and friend Jess Winters, a retired math teacher. On the surface, Jim appears to be a clumsy, nerd, stumbling through life with his head in the sand, but content with the quiet life of a teacher. He does not date, even skipped his senior prom, but at the beginning of his fifth year as Richie High School’s Chemistry teacher, Jim happens to sit down beside new hire English teacher, Kay Adams. Kay is an ex-Marine and a widow with a five-year-old daughter, whose husband, another Marine, was killed by a landmine in Iraq. After leaving the Marines because of the difficulty finding a safe place for her daughter when deployed on assignment, Kay has started a new life with a degree in English and a teaching certification. She lands in Richie, Texas, seeking a small-town environment for her daughter. On that day, when he sits down beside Kay, sparks fly and Jim is smitten. Up ahead in their journey as a couple, there are many hills to climb in a gossipy, corrupt, little town but hopefully love is on their side.

This is the third and last book in the John Holtz Trilogy. John finally grows up in more than wealth, wit and wisdom. He tries two social experiments pretending to be broken down on his motorcycle in ice and snow storms pretending to be without funds to fix his bike to see who will take him in. His ultimate goal is to attain some idea of what it is like to be homeless. He is taken in first by and Amish family that he lives with for six weeks. His second adventure is with a struggling Black family in Northern Arkansas. There he discovers a corrupt town he must tame before he moves on. Follow John as he lives out his Christian faith as a young Catholic with a Pentecostal mentor and influenced by two giants of the faith, Billy Graham and Mother Teresa.

In 1847 two barrels of “Indian curiosities” shipped by missionary Henry Spalding to Dr. Dudley Allen arrived in Kinsman, Ohio. The items inside included exquisite Nez Perce shirts, dresses, baskets, and horse regalia--some decorated with porcupine quills and others with precious dentalium shells and rare elk teeth. Donated to Oberlin College in 1893 and transferred to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in 1942, the Spalding-Allen Collection languished in storage until Nez Perce National Historic Park curators rediscovered it in 1976. The OHS loaned most of the artifacts to the National Park Service, where they received conservation treatment and were displayed in climate-controlled cases. Josiah Pinkham, Nez Perce Cultural Specialist, notes that they embody “the earliest and greatest centralization of ethnographic objects for the Nez Perce people. You don’t have a collection of this size, this age, anywhere else in the world.” Twelve years later, the OHS abruptly recalled the collection. Eventually, under public pressure, they agreed to sell the articles to the Nez Perce at their full appraised value of $608,100, allowing just six months for payment. The tribe mounted a brilliant grassroots fundraising campaign, as well as a sponsorship drive for specific pieces. Schoolchildren, National Public Radio, artists, and musicians contributed. Major donors came forward, and one day before the deadline, the Nez Perce Tribe met their goal. The author draws on interviews with Nez Perce experts and extensive archival research to tell the Spalding-Allen Collection story. He also examines the ethics of acquiring, bartering, owning, and selling Native cultural history, as Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous communities continue their efforts to restore their exploited cultural heritage from collectors and museums--pieces that are living, breathing, intimately connected to their home region, and inspirational for sustaining cultural traditions.