Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025
Vol. 6, No. 12
PCMExplorer Local People. Local Stories.
Beloved comic strip characters coming to life for PCM High School musical Drama department to perform a four-show run of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” Nov. 14 to 16 By Jamee A. Pierson PCM Explorer
Jamee A. Pierson/PCM Explorer The PCM High School’s production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” runs from Nov. 14 to 16 at the auditorium at the PCM Middle School in Prairie City.
In her first year at PCM, high school musical director Michelle Grob wanted to do something she was familiar with when working with a new group of students. Because of that, crowds will get to be wowed by “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” during its four-show run Nov. 14 to 16 in the auditorium at the PCM Middle School. “It has been wonderful working with kids again,” Grob said. “My co-directors Leah Sangl and Thomas Riordan have been great to work with.
It is definitely a team effort.” The character-driven musical based on Charles M. Schulz’s well-known “Peanuts” comic strip, it follows the everyday life of the ever-hopeful but often discouraged Charlie Brown as he navigates school, baseball and friendships. The show features six main parts: Charlie Brown, bossy Lucy, piano-playing Schroeder, blanket-toting Linus, dramatic Sally and the imaginative beagle Snoopy. Because of the limited roles, the directors decided to incorporate two casts to involve more students. MUSICAL | 3
Capturing a moment in time Pendroys create a time capsule during annual Halloween haunted house By Jamee A. Pierson PCM Explorer For more than a decade, Jim and Natalie Pendroy, of Monroe, have invited the community into their almost 150-year-old house for a spooky Halloween adventure. This year, they added an special touch while the exterior of the house is getting an upgrade. “We are getting new windows, siding, decking and more on the house and it wasn’t going to be finished before Beggar’s Night this
year,” Natalie Pendroy said. “With the siding still missing on the east side of the house where kids enter, I thought it would be fun to create a time capsule of everyone who stopped by this year.” Equipped with a tote of Sharpies, Pendroy had both kids and adults sign the white house wrap before they walked in during Beggar’s Night in Monroe Oct. 30. Some signed as a family, others noted their costumes along with their names and a few pictures also created throughout the evening.
The project resulted in almost 500 signatures on the house. “My husband Jim kept track of how many people came through that night and we had about 497 visitors,” Pendroy said. “We went through a lot of candy and heard a lot of screams.” A staple for trick-or-treaters for years, the Pendroy house is decked out every year for the holiday. With inflatable Halloween characters throughout the yard, themed rooms including an alien encounter and haunted dinner with creatures likely to pop out for a surprise and a fully decorated garage, the haunted house at the end of Washington Street is a favorite.
“I had a little less time to prepare this year because of the construction,” Pendroy said. “I’m always looking for new and fun things to add to the displays.” With the final pieces of the project ready to be put into place, the signatures will be sided over and hidden away for decades to come. It won’t be until the next time the owner looks to replace the siding that the time capsule will be revealed to the world. “We have another time capsule with our family and signatures all around the house from the crews that have been working on it, too,” Jamee A. Pierson/PCM Explorer Pendroy said. “It is just a fun Almost 500 signature make a time capsule way to record history for the on the Pendroy’s house in Monroe, showfuture generations to find.” ing who stopped by during Halloween 2025.
OORAH! 250 YEARS OF MARINES Jasper County veterans are celebrating the semiquincentennial of the U.S. Marine Corps on Nov. 10 at American Legion Post 111 in Newton By Christopher Braunschweig Jasper County Tribune How do you spot a Marine? Well, if you’re a civilian in Jasper County, you may have to rely on them wearing their signature red T-shirts sporting the corps insignia, or work up the courage to shout “oorah!” in a crowded room, hoping the battle cry is returned. And it almost always is. For the retired Marines in Jasper County, they can take one look at someone and usually tell if they had served in the U.S. Marine Corps. They tell me there is just something about them that makes them stand out from other people. That sense of familiarity was developed from their rigorous training and it hasn’t gone away. Marines can pick each other out from crowds by the way they sit or act or how they carry them-
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Ashley Hinson does not support ‘nuclear option’ to end government shutdown Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate suggests bypassing filibuster would backfire By Christopher Braunschweig PCM Explorer
Christopher Braunschweig/PCM Explorer From left: Duane Wacha, Art Heikkila, Wesley Justus, Charlotte Ross, Mady McKim and Leo Yokiel showcase a table featuring the U.S. Marine Corps insignia at the American Legion Post 111 in Newton.
selves. It is like an aura only they can detect, and it derives from a shared experience of combat, ba-
sic training or the memorization MARINES | 3
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson t o l d reporters last w e e k s h e d o e s n o t support the “nuclear option” of reHinson moving the filibuster in order to
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reopen the federal government, saying that doing so could allow Democrats to “pack the courts” and take more seats when the pendulum swings the other way. Des Moines Register’s Stephen Gruber-Miller recently reported that Hinson’s primary opponent for U.S. Senator of Iowa, Jim Carlin, said he would support the nuclear option to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass a government funding bill HINSON | 3
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