September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month – reminding us that suicide is an unthinkable reality in our world. And one we must not ignore.

There are certain words and phrases that are used as labels to discredit a person or a viewpoint without regard to the accuracy of the word.

You are standing on Fourth Street, SW (then known as East Park Street), looking north across Central Avenue.

Reader T. wrote me the following note about what it is like to own a small business right now:

Few proposals coming from the nation’s capital have the potential to wreak as much havoc on the American economy as one to allow employers to defer withholding Social Security taxes from salaries of employees making up to $104,000 a year.

From time to time, different scams will pop-up on our radar. It’s really disappointing that some folks are always looking for ways to take advantage of others.

You are looking north on Fifth Street, NW in downtown Winter Haven. Central Park is out of view on your right. The building at the far end of the street is thought to be Mrs. Crook’s Boarding House.

“And that’s when she bit my arm.”

Few things make me as proud as seeing television footage of National Guardsmen responding to a crisis, whether to relieve suffering, rescue those in danger or restore order.

The building pictured was Winter Haven’s original First Presbyterian Church.

In Polk County, we have over 550 lakes, which means we have lots of fishing opportunities. That kind of fishing is fun.

Driving for just 15 minutes on U.S. 27, I passed about 30 cars committing the same crime.

Pictured is Frances Layton, named Miss Florida Citrus in 1957, who is joined for her coronation dance by television host Garry Moore at Nora Mayo Hall.

The three most stressful days in a parent’s life, in my opinion (and this is a subject with which I have a fair amount of experience), are:

Some people may not realize this, but law enforcement officers respond to a fair amount of medical calls — especially here in Polk County where we answer 9-1-1 and dispatch not just for law enforcement, but also for Polk County Fire Rescue.

Most of us are embarrassed by the fiasco that is Florida’s unemployment system. During this crisis, people without an income to feed their family waited weeks and months to get their first unemployment check.

Pictured are candidates for Miss Florida Citrus gracing the diving board at what was then the Haven Hotel, which is now Haven Condominiums.

It seems hard to believe that, only 100 years ago, women in America did not have the right to vote.

Over the past several weeks, we have worked three different drug-related investigations with an alarming trend – each one had something to do with the illegal sale of marijuana via the social media application “Snapchat.”

This newspaper asked our elected representatives in Washington, D.C., where they stood on additional support for our Main Street merchants. Our area’s economy went backward in July. Our locally owned small businesses still need help.

Your elected officials let small business support and unemployment support run out during the worst public health crisis in 100 years and the worst economic downturn in 90 years.

Over the years, many popular radio and television programs became a part of Citrus Exposition week. The 1957 event welcomed “I’ve Got a Secret,” one America’s most popular television shows, starring Garry Moore. Moore (right) is shown here with Cypress Gardens founder Dick Pope at the park.

Last March, a couple of days after St. Patrick’s Day, when the reality set in that the nation was about to enter a quarantine on a scale unknown for 100 years, my first reaction was, “Wow, I have to be sure to tell my grandchildren about this!”

Widely reported and widely repeated is the idea that this coronavirus preys on the weak and elderly. The reports are true. COVID-19 is much more deadly to the elderly than the young.

This photo depicts crowds gathering to enter the 1957 Citrus Exposition.

Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains in Southwest Virginia meant Mother Nature was your playground. I have fond childhood summer memories of growing up there.

A friend called a few days ago to ask if I had seen a two-line letter to the editor in a nearby newspaper.

On July 11, in a COVID-19 briefing held at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Gov. Ron DeSantis bragged about the amount of coronavirus testing Florida has done compared to Taiwan.

This photo takes a look at the 1957 Florida Citrus Exposition.

I love campfires.

This past week on the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, I reminisced about an event that has stuck with me since it occurred back when I was about 16 years old.

Times change, traditions change, protocols change, perhaps even values change.

I have this “friend” with a wacky idea. I am interested in what you all think of his proposal.

Pictured is the Lady Baltimore, which plied the waters of the Chain of Lakes in the 1930s and 1940s. The boat was said to have had a railroad rail as its keel.

The death of Congressman John Lewis earlier this month, and his role in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, has brought back vivid memories of that historic demonstration.

I remember a time when I could drive my car to a service station — a gas station for those who are too young to remember — and request “full service.”

One of our team members was visiting a client.

Cypress Gardens added “Southern Belles” to the park in the early 1940s. Julie Pope is credited with costuming two employees in the wide flowing dresses to hide freeze-damaged plants at the park entrance. The Belles became an iconic part of the gardens. This photo was taken during the 1940s.

You might be wondering, “Just what is a ‘spoofed’ number?”

When you reach the milestone of being exactly six months short of your 80th birthday — as I did today — you realize how limited your sources of excitement have become.

This is a photograph of Winter Haven High School as it looked upon completion in 1922.

Being a substitute school crossing guard is such a rewarding role.

Whenever our great country seems in a moment of crisis, I like to reread a short speech by Abraham Lincoln.

When you’re 19, you don’t spend much time worrying about surviving to 20.

Thank you, Polk County, for allowing me to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming your Sheriff.

This photograph by Robert Dahlgren captures an early view of a path at Cypress Gardens, probably circa 1936. The photograph has been “tinted” with color by Dahlgren’s wife, Queena, who learned the art used to alter black and white photos.

Governor DeSantis just signed into law SB 712 — the self-proclaimed “Clean Waterways Act” — an ambitious misnomer for a bill that claims to be the solution to our mounting water quality issues, but falls far short of that mark.

How would you grade our governor?

In 1955, Ford became the first of the “Big Three” American automakers to offer seat belts as an option.

We have a very special holiday coming up — the Fourth of July.