Jack Mccall

OPINION — Bob Hanson knew all about Yankton’s history. Fortunately, he was also a mason, so whenever he came to inspect the nearly 150-year-old bricks of the Pennington House — the home of Dakota Territory Gov. John Pennington and today the publishing headquarters for South Dakota Magazine — he always had a story.

I suppose if there is any season most conducive to one’s getting back into the “groove,” spring would be it. Ah, there is just something about the spring of the year. It is the time to shake off winter’s doldrums and put some “spring” back in your step. When I...

Business speaker Jim Rohn has said “of the two great eternities that exert a pull on your life — one is called the past, the other is called the future — make sure the greatest pull on your life is the pull of the future. Because you can’t go back.”

My mother was an extraordinary person. I suppose any son who was fortunate enough to have a loving, nurturing mother would consider his mother to be exceptional. Mine was blessed with a sharp mind along with loads of common sense — a rare combination. Mother gave deep study to three...

January 9, 1922 is the birthday of my late father, Frank Thomas McCall, Sr. A veteran of World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps in the European theater. As an airplane mechanic he never saw combat, but he lost his pilot and best friend, who stepped on a land mine while taking a walk in the French countryside. My father never spoke of the incident to his children but the war and the death of this pilot affected him deeply, as we would learn in later years.

Well, it seems like yesterday I was writing about the beginning of 2020. I’m being serious. When I began to play my treasured Christmas music back in late November, I had a feeling I had just been listening to it a few months before. There just doesn’t seem to be as much time between annual holidays as there used to be.

One of the highest compliments I ever received came at the end of a speaking engagement when an old gentleman walked up to me and said, “Son, listening to you is like a dose of good medicine.”. I suppose we all can use a dose of good medicine every once...