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 This site is a retirement hobby for Phil Pash, who wrote for newspapers, big and small, for 50 years. The site--which became fully operational on Oct. 1, 2005--will be ever evolving, but the focus will be on the four columns on this page. Your feedback is welcome, please visit our contact page. The caricature of Phil on this page was drawn by Bruce Lewis of Rockford. You may remember him as Mr. Mustache, and thousands of Rockford-area kids grew up watching him on local TV.
 (The World of Wheels column by Phil Pash first appeared in now-defunct Chicago TODAY in the early 1970s. It was the first year-round motor sports column in a Chicago paper). Sunday, June 15, 2008 (Vol. 4, No. 23) * Earnhardt Ends Two-Year, 76-Race Winless Streak: The Junior Nation can party again. NASCAR's most popular driver finally won one. Much to the delight of a screaming partisan crowd, Dale Earnhardt Jr. coasted across the finish line after a nerve-wracking restart to win the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway June 15. It was Earnhardt's first NASCAR Sprint Cup points victory in 76 races. When other frontrunners stopped for gas with less than 10 laps top go, Earnhardt's crew chief Tony Eury Jr. decided to gamble his driver could go the distance without stopping. He told Dale Jr. to preserve as much gas as he could, and Junior slowed his pace and dropped back in the field. Thinking they were going to fall a lap or two short, Eury and his crew nervously watched the race wind down. A late-race caution when Sam More...
 (Phil has been writing about outdoors since the late 1970s). Thursday, June 19, 2008 (Vol. 4, No. 12).
Am I Really Living in Winnebago County? I never would have believed it. First, two Winnebago County Board members--Randy Olson, R-1, and Doug Aurand, D-3--bring up the notion of concealed carry. Then Olson says 13 of 28 board members are signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution. Then, stunner of stunners, Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers lent his considerable support to the county's concealed carry debate. "I do not have a problem with concealed carry," the Rockford daily quoted him as saying. More...
 Wednesday, November 7, 2007 (Vol. 3, No. 28). Remembering a World War II Veteran: Guilford J. Ruman was as close as I ever got to having a big brother. Actually, we were first cousins. His father and my mother were brother and sister. He came to live with us after he got out of the Navy following World War II. I was between 6 and 9 years old, and the idea of having a big brother seemed fine to me. No, I wasn't a neglected kid. Maybe it was because I was a big brother, and in the logic of kiddom, if I was one, I should have one. If I had to keep an eye on a younger sister, I should have somebody in More...
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