So, it seems the U.S. Treasury has finally done it. They have decided to stop making the penny. I am curious to know what this transition will do for those of us who like to pay cash for things. Will we get the correct change back? Will they round up or will they round down? Who will get the benefit of the rounding, the customer or the store? These are all important questions.  The news about the penny made me think about how valuable a penny can be. I remember a time, early

The poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, which first published in 1823, has contributed to the feelings and excitement over the Christmas season. The poem described a household who had prepared for Christmas Day, and had retired for the evening in anticipation of a visit from Saint Nicholas, better known to us now as Santa Claus. In the story, the time came when Santa arrived at the house. He landed on the roof with his sleigh and all his reindeer, then went down the chimne

Courtesy of the Coate family archives Guest columnist Frank Coate is pictured here, right with his father, John Coate. [Note: Today’s column was written by Frank Coate, Bill Coate’s nephew and author of “The Coate Closet.”] • • • He crouched in the brush and remained as still as humanly possible on that hot summer day. Although his heart was racing, somehow he managed to control his breathing. He had never fired a gun or pulled the trigger on a crossbow, let alone throw a spe

As we at The Madera Tribune prepare for our final Special Section of the year, a magazine called “2025 Year in Review,” it made me review my own personal year and what happened during this year that I want to remember. It’s been a quick year. It seems like it was only about four months long, but here we are at almost the end of 2025.  This year I lost a very dear member of my family, the wife of one of my cousins. Glenda died suddenly just a couple of weeks before our family

For The Madera Tribune Madera’s Christian Johnson stands with his grandfather, Dave Brown, after setting a World Record for running an ultra marathon in seven continents in seven days. Christian Johnson thought of an idea a year ago, and two weeks ago, he finally accomplished it — run a 50 K (ultra marathon) in seven continents in seven days.  In the process, Johnson set a pair of World Records. He is the fastest male to run an ultra marathon on all seven continents and the f

For The Madera Tribune George Washington Mordecai. Every year in November my mind is filled with memories of the Mordecai family. This is when the descendants of George Washington Mordecai gather at Refuge, the ranch he founded in 1868. It is impossible to think about them without remembering that day almost 40 years ago when I led my sixth grade class down the winding dirt road leading from the highway to the Mordecai Ranch to visit the grave of Mr. Mordecai. There were abou