BBQ Princess

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Friday, September 5 2008

BBQ Princess

Leslie Scott

To most of us, barbecue means summer and backyard gatherings over plates of grilled chicken, pork, or burgers. For Leslie Scott, barbecue is much more. It's a way of life. As she tells Dick Gordon, making great ribs can make someone fall in love with you.

Leslie comes from a family with a barbecue sauce that goes back five generations. She and her father have worked side-by-side for years at barbecue competitions. But it was not until this summer, when she received a surprise gift from her father, that Leslie realized she had come into her own in the world of barbecue.

• Visit Leslie's blog
• See a photo of Leslie and her father

Music in this story: Barbecue Any Old Time by Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry for the album Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Vol. 3 (1941-1946) [Disc 3]

Voting AT HOME

For Sue Leroux, voting brings back fond childhood memories. She grew up in Lancaster, Ohio, in a neighborhood where there were no public buildings. So Sue's parents agreed to have the neighborhood polling place in their cinderblock basement. Before each election day, her parents transformed the normally unkempt basement into a festive space, where blue-haired ladies snacked on coffee cake. Sue grew up thinking of voting as a sacred rite - a feeling that has stayed with her all her life.

• See a photo of Sue and her three brothers from 1955 standing in front of their house
  

Bedside Comfort

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Thursday, September 4 2008

Bedside Comfort

Sandra Clarke, Del Archer, and Jim Clark

Every day, patients die alone in hospitals without family or medical staff to comfort them. Nurse Sandra Clarke decided to do something about this. She once had a dying patient who asked her to stay with him but she couldn't. When she returned to the room, he was dead.

Sandra talks to Dick Gordon about how she turned her guilt into a hospital vigil program - and how she convinced her co-workers to volunteer between shifts so patients wouldn't die alone.

Del Archer and Jim Clark also join the conversation. They are hospital maintenance workers who will sit at the bedsides of dying patients. They tell Dick why they joined the program and what keeps them volunteering.

• Learn more about Sandra's vigil program, No One Dies Alone

• Start a No One Dies Alone program
  

• See photos of Sandra and her volunteers

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

Jen Schuemelfeder and her dad - larger >>

In the summer of 2000, Jen Schuemelfeder had just come home from work and was eating lunch when she heard the doorbell ring. It was a little girl from down the street who said that a tree had fallen in their yard - and that there was a man under the tree who looked like Jen's dad. Jen talks to Dick about what it was like to see her father go through the ordeal, and how watching his determination and her mother's devotion to him changed her life.

Hail Mary Football

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Wednesday, September 3 2008

Hail Mary Football

Don Stancavish and John Fenimore

Football season has kicked off and is well underway across the country. The new season brings back a lot of memories for former wide receiver, Don Stancavish.

In the 80s, Don played for Hackettstown High School in rural New Jersey. Don caught the game-winning touchdown pass against his school's arch rival with just seconds on the clock.

Twenty-four years later, the same ball he caught showed up in a package on his front porch. Don talks to Dick Gordon about what it felt like to have a piece of his youth handed back to him.

Don's former coach, John Fenimore, also joins in the conversation. He talks about highlights from the game and why he returned the football.

• Check out Don's book, The Pass
• See a photo of the football

Book Thief

Denise Herrera

On the last day of 5^th grade, Denise Herrera was allowed to stay in her classroom alone during lunch time. She stole a dictionary and a social studies book. These books became valuable guides to her immigrant family as they adapted to life in their new country. Her parents still don’t know her secret.

• Denise wrote about her story in The Sun
  

Peace or Freedom

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Tuesday, September 2 2008

Peace or Freedom

James Loney - see him just after he was freed

Five British men are currently being held hostage in Iraq. Thousands of others have been kidnapped and held since the beginning of the war. James Loney was one of them.

James was captured in 2005. Yet he went to Iraq to carry out his belief in peace - he went to Baghdad as a member of the Christian Peacekeepers Team, intending to document human rights abuses. He'd been there just a short while when he was kidnapped by a group of men calling themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. James talks to host Dick Gordon about what it was like to be held hostage and the moral conflicts he had over the use of violence to gain his freedom.

• Learn more about the Christian Peacemaker Teams

An Olympic Greeting

Victor Lawe

Members of the U.S. Olympic Team have been returning from Beijing over the past two weeks, many to big celebrations.

Back in 1980, Victor Lawe and other varsity club members at his high school got to meet members of the Winter Olympics team as they returned to Andrews Air Force Base. Victor remembers wondering what it must have felt like for those Olympians to be treated as returning heroes. Coming home from Iraq after his service in the Gulf War, he found out. It left Victor trying to figure out the meaning of heroism.

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