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The patches we used to hide
When we were kids, my twin sister tore her ski bibs getting off a ski lift. We grew up in the South and didn’t have a lot of extra money, so skiing wasn’t something we did very often – or knew how to do particularly…
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NuthinButNets: the 56-year-old making NYC basketball hoops go “swoosh” again
New Yorker Craig Campanella is on a mission. When he lived across from Harlem’s Morningside Park, missing nets on the basketball courts sometimes wouldn’t be replaced for weeks or even months. On walks around town closer to where he now lives in Queens, he noticed…
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The 18-year-old who saved a bowling alley – and built a community
Autumn Mowery first came to Ellsworth Candlepin Bowling Alley when she was six years old. By 17, she was working there. And from the moment she stepped into the back and saw the old 1949 pin-setting machines, she was hooked. She just loved the place.…
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Being 9/12 people: what we did the next day defines us
The morning of September 11, 2001, I was cleaning up breakfast dishes while my 15-month-old son cruised around the family room getting into who knows what. The familiar voices of the Today Show’s Katie Couric and Matt Lauer played in the background as I packed…
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Poker slots, legal pads, and the case for writing letters again
Months went by before I realized that last year’s sleeper bestselling novel The Correspondent had nothing to do with a news reporter. In our 24-hour news cycle world, it never once crossed my mind that the book would be about a divorced, 70-something retired lawyer,…
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The girl from the holler who showed us how to live
Sadly, Dolly Parton – country music legend, movie star, philanthropist, businesswoman, daughter, wife, friend, and all-around amazing human – has sung her last song. Headlines flood our feeds all day, every day, but the unexpected news that 80-year-old Dolly had passed stopped us all in…
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Before you sign up for everything
Back-to-school season has a way of making us all feel like a fresh start is possible. Remember the classic 1996 Staples back-to-school commercial with the dad skipping down the aisles, tossing Post-its, pencils and school supplies into the cart while his kids sulk behind him…
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The four-year-old boy who built a neighborhood
He wasn’t running a social experiment. He didn’t read about it online. His mom didn’t tell him to do it. Four-year-old Roman simply craved connection, so he started waving and saying “hey” to anyone he saw outside his Concord, North Carolina home. “He wakes up…
