Ok, some success. I changed the name of the single.php file, so the side bar shows up on all the pages. phew.
But – I can’t seem to fix the widget/links issue. I HAD activated several widgets so that would have changed the default sidebar. I’m thinking I should deactivate/remove them. But there doesn’t seem to be a way to do it. All I see is “add” next to unused widgets. The ones I’ve already added have nothing next to them, so no way to remove them that I can see. You know, in hindsight, I don’t think the Links section EVER showed up, that’s probably why I was adding the widgets in the first place.