Blanche in the Rearview Mirror
My weathered Minnetonka moccasin hammers my car's throttle, leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma, rolling north in August 2008. I am precisely fifty-nine-years-old. The summer heat shimmers off the Highway 75 asphalt as I steer towards the colder Scandinavian region of my youth and my parent’s cabin on Lake Blanche in West Central Minnesota. I relish this annual vacation that takes me eight hundred miles over two-lane ribbons of familiar roads. As the stress of Tulsa fades, lake memories flood my consciousness. When Dad drove us to the cabin from northwest Iowa, we always stopped at the Dairy Queen in Pipestone, Minnesota; we[...]
Farmhouse in South Dakota
(A braided essay) At dawn on a Saturday morning in July of 1958, our nuclear family loaded up for a trip to spend the day with Mom's uncle, Albin Matson. We lived on the Missouri River in Sioux City in northwest Iowa. Uncle Albin lived on the other side of the Missouri in southeast South Dakota, fifty miles away, down two-lane roads through rich, black dirt fields. Uncle Albin's dwelling was the same farmhouse his family built when they immigrated from Sweden in the early 1900s. With sleepy eyes, we piled into the Chevy. Dad always bought Chevy station wagons.[...]
Just David
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing Well, they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round I just had to let it go Watching the Wheels, John Lennon, 1981 (posthumous) Homelessness in America is a simmering cauldron of thousands fending for themselves. Some are not old enough to receive social security checks. Some don’t know how to apply or are mentally ill or addicted to chemicals that rob them[...]
Playpen Delight
Sometimes, friends talk about their earliest memories, perhaps the first memory. Over the years, I have always responded with the same answer. How could I know this happened, they'd ask. "Really? Oh, come on now!" they'd remark. "No, honest, I can still see it." I stand my ground. My parents brought me home from the hospital to a two-bedroom house on Garretson Avenue in the enclave known as Morningside within the city limits of Sioux City, Iowa. When I return for class reunions, I often take a tour of the three homes of my upbringing. On[...]
Wunnerful a Wunnerful
Lawrence Welk was quite popular with the viewing public during his show's original run and continues to have a nostalgic fan base even today. The Lawrence Welk show was a smash hit for the older demographic of Americans who tuned in each week to hear Welk’s big band in the 50s and 60s on the new home appliance called a television. It was a splashy LA production featuring easy-listening music of polkas and tunes suited for his dancers to glide around in front of the band, wearing sailor suits or the like, smiling and whipping their heads around to face[...]
Here, Kitty
She sits alone in the loft of a coffee house called The Rookery. Concentrating on her job at hand, she is oblivious to the group of like-aged twenty-somethings opposite her, gazing at their laptops. Comfortably situated on a worn, green fabric sofa beneath two four-paned windows that provide light for her writing, the focused woman pays no attention to the gable ceiling with cedar rafters, the repurposed barn siding, or the reclaimed wood beams. An orange thermos, a coffee cup, a plate with a half-finished donut, and a balled-up napkin rest within arm's reach on the[...]
Make it a Double
1 Skylark A stoop-shouldered man with sparse hair stumbled into the Skylark bar from the bright, blue skies of October in Chicago. He perched on a bar stool and grinned at Mike White, the barkeep, “Make it a double.” “Heck, yes,” Mike said, slapping the bar, “I thought you’d never ask. Hey, how are you doing this morning? Hope you had a good night, Bill," Mike said. The gentleman, Bill Porter, waited for the drink to arrive. He surveyed the room of his daily social club, where he distracted himself from his disappointments. He looked over[...]
Conflicted Protester
There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there, telling me, I got to beware, I think it's time we stop, children, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down Stephen Stills, For What It’s Worth Watching above the Bridge Attending Iowa University for dental school in the early 70s, I was safe from the draft and the possibility of placing my life in jeopardy amidst the steamy jungles of Vietnam. My sentiments were with those protesting the war, and I considered jumping into the fray. The consequences of such[...]
Sailboats and Sailors
Shadows follow us everywhere. Some may say these light obstructions bring a third dimension to the two-dimensional world. Some may say shadows constantly change shape, angle, and intensity, like emotions and thoughts. Some may say life is a walking shadow or question if we really have to walk in the shadow of death. Most say the brighter the light, the darker the shadow’s hue. Sailboats rest in partial morning light, the winds calm, and ocean water glassy. Reflections of hulls and masts lie still. Reflections that double their size, like dreams, dreams of their sailors. Sailboats rest in partial[...]
Yosemite
Echoes of Light Splashes Light echoes as it reflects off a surface. The bounce back produces a delayed, fainter “echo” of the original source. For instance, this curiosity of light echo occurs in space when light from a distant source reflects off interstellar dust or gas. Waterfalls show the splendor of sunlight and water colliding as they travel together, splashing against rocks, pulled by earthly forces over irregular avenues of twists and turns, pathways generated and modified over years of global evolution, years of disasters and surprises. Light gives life to the sprays that ricochet in arrays of[...]
My weathered Minnetonka moccasin hammers my car's throttle, leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma, rolling north in August 2008. I am precisely fifty-nine-years-old. The summer heat shimmers off the Highway 75 asphalt as[...]
(A braided essay) At dawn on a Saturday morning in July of 1958, our nuclear family loaded up for a trip to spend the day with Mom's uncle, Albin Matson.[...]
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing Well, they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round[...]
Sometimes, friends talk about their earliest memories, perhaps the first memory. Over the years, I have always responded with the same answer. How could I know this happened,[...]
Lawrence Welk was quite popular with the viewing public during his show's original run and continues to have a nostalgic fan base even today. The Lawrence Welk show was a[...]
She sits alone in the loft of a coffee house called The Rookery. Concentrating on her job at hand, she is oblivious to the group of like-aged twenty-somethings[...]
1 Skylark A stoop-shouldered man with sparse hair stumbled into the Skylark bar from the bright, blue skies of October in Chicago. He perched on a bar stool and grinned[...]
There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there, telling me, I got to beware, I think it's time we stop,[...]
Shadows follow us everywhere. Some may say these light obstructions bring a third dimension to the two-dimensional world. Some may say shadows constantly change shape, angle, and intensity, like emotions[...]
Echoes of Light Splashes Light echoes as it reflects off a surface. The bounce back produces a delayed, fainter “echo” of the original source. For instance, this curiosity of[...]
