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My meeting and discussion with historian David McCullough in 1992 when “Truman” reached No. 1
RIP David McCullough, 1933-2022 … created a form of “narrative non-fiction” At the age of 27, Pittsburgh native David McCullough was a...
hughconrad52
Aug 8, 20226 min read
“Their children were killed by drugs found on Snapchat.” Time to regulate social media “free speech”
Sammy Chapman with his mother, Dr. Laura Berman …corporations have no free-speech rights I am a serious free speech, first amendment...
hughconrad52
Aug 6, 20224 min read
Despite moral qualms, President Harry Truman made the correct decision about Hiroshima
... how I changed my mind about this decision because of history Reprint from 2019: President Harry Truman made the correct decision to...
hughconrad52
Aug 6, 20228 min read
My chance meeting with Clifford Irving, the fake “autobiographer” of Howard Hughes
Irving entering courthouse during his trial: The most “fabulous hoax of the 20th Century” Allenwood was a “country-club prison, where all...
hughconrad52
Aug 1, 20227 min read
Coach Tom McConnell: “So few coaches today have the character of a Tom McConnell”
Personal recollections from 1984 to 2022 … not just a coach, but a true role model Everyone who knows basketball Coach Tom McConnell has...
hughconrad52
Aug 1, 20226 min read
RIP Tony Dow: “Wally Cleaver,” battled depression for much of his adult life, came out of the closet
The show was iconic, but Tony Dow suffered immensely after it ended For some of us who came of age in the 1950s and 60s, “Leave it to...
hughconrad52
Jul 29, 20224 min read
Jesse Owens, from U.S. Olympic hero in front of Hitler to freight elevator in NY City
Reprint from 2013 Yet he could not meet with the president in the White House after winning the gold. Jesse Owens received a ticker tape...
hughconrad52
Jul 29, 20222 min read
Summer Reading List / 2022
Much of my reading now is dictated by the students whom I am tutoring. Most of them are reading from their school’s summer reading list....
hughconrad52
Jul 19, 20222 min read
Local journalism used to be such a positive force in communities — and now it is lost
"Seventy million people live in areas without local journalism" As a youngster in the 1950s and 60s, I was spoiled in a way that you...
hughconrad52
Jul 16, 20226 min read
Jimmy Stewart's “It’s a Wonderful Life" was a box office flop because it was “communist propaganda”?
… My “almost” interview with legendary Jimmy Stewart As a young boy, one of the joys of my life occurred during football season when I...
hughconrad52
Jul 14, 20227 min read
Tribute to dedicated teachers: Miss Iap and Paul Link honored by former student Bob Eyer
Miss Catherine Iapalucci, Bob Eyer, and Paul Link Bob Eyer has become a very successful business leader in Johnstown and Cambria County...
hughconrad52
Jul 12, 20223 min read
Why do bright women struggle with confidence while many men have no such problem?
Girls are brighter in fifth grade -- and then what happens? … the toughest hurdle for young women “lies within” For too many years in the...
hughconrad52
Jul 10, 20224 min read
Boris Johnson’s yearning for another "British Empire": Brexit has destroyed UK economy
"The conservative experiment since 1979 has failed" … another conservative goes down Some political commentators have blamed the failure...
hughconrad52
Jul 8, 20225 min read
What did Thomas Jefferson mean by the “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence?
Photo declaration … “ the role of government in the pursuit of happiness is to improve the lives of people” The words of Thomas Jefferson...
hughconrad52
Jul 4, 20226 min read
Pope Francis has no plans to retire: "No cancer": Just a “bad knee”
Eighty five with no plans for retirement ... the whaling and gnashing of teeth from America The far-right zealots at EWTN and the...
hughconrad52
Jul 4, 20224 min read
Abysmal failure: Only 33 percent of Americans can “pass the U.S. citizenship test”
Should politicians pass the citizenship test before entering Congress? … and it is only going to get worse Politicians are now trying to...
hughconrad52
Jul 4, 20223 min read
Sister Gabriel, a Catholic nun serving in Lilly, was killed crossing the PRR tracks in 1898
The nuns were walking across the tracks to visit my great-grandmother, Annie (McDermitt) Conrad, in our family homestead … never heard...
hughconrad52
Jul 3, 20227 min read
RIP Mary (Strank) Pero, sister of Sgt. Michael Strank, who taught me about a mother’s grief in WWII
Sgt. Michael Strank, in the rear, was killed in action just weeks after this photo was taken. Approximately 11 years ago, I wrote a...
hughconrad52
Jul 2, 20225 min read
Fifty years before Title IX: Lilly High School had a girls basketball team
IDs: First row, Adele Conrad, Sal Decker, Blandina Krumenaker. Second row, Marg Leap, faculty; Helen Brown, faculty. Third row: Mary...
hughconrad52
Jun 28, 20223 min read
The “Mighty Macs” and Title IX: They never foresaw their impact on women’s athletics
The first of the three national championships, before the NCAA recognized them … a simple sentence and some tireless young women These...
hughconrad52
Jun 28, 20227 min read
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