Death and Taxes
As the saying goes, nothing is certain but death and taxes. My father-in-law died this past weekend, and I am with my mother-in-law. Please re-read my June 11 story about my father-in-law and the fireflies to see what a fine man we lost. But I will have to get back home sometime this week, because […]
Two Degrees of Separation from the Oregon Trail, and an Old Murder
I’ve just begun to realize what a gift my father gave me in having our old family movies saved to DVDs. Each time I watch them, I remember something new – or something old – in our family history. You’ve seen a few of my family stories in earlier posts (see here and here). Today’s […]
Memories of Desert and Lakes . . . and Our Rainy Respite
As a desert-born girl, I hate the rain. I don’t like it dripping on me. And I hate the Midwestern humidity – I’ve never adapted to it in 33 years of living in Missouri. This hot, dry summer of Midwestern drought has brought back many memories of the hot, dry summers I knew growing up. […]
Exercise Your Right To Vote
Before my maternal grandfather, a taciturn businessman from Oregon, married my grandmother, he allegedly told her, “I don’t care if you’re Catholic, but you’d better vote Republican.” I don’t know if the story is true, and I don’t know how my grandmother voted. After all, she gave my mother the middle name “Frances” in honor […]
Sally of Monticello: Founding Mother, by N.M. Ledgin
A new novel raising Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress to “Founding Mother” is now a Kindle e-book on Amazon, soon to be available in paperback. I have had the pleasure of reading drafts of this book, and it is an engaging novel based on detailed historical research. Author N.M. Ledgin said publishing Sally of Monticello grew […]
Perspective from the Mountains
Although I prefer the ocean, I enjoy being in the mountains, too. Mountains show us the grandeur and timelessness of the earth. We may know that the mountains rose eons ago from the boiling lava of volcanoes or from the shifting crusts of tectonic plates. We may see the surfaces of mountains sculpted by fires […]
Family Pictures: Capturing History As the Mind Cannot
Both my dad and my mother’s father took lots of pictures over the years. As kids, my siblings and I were always smiling at the camera for my father or grandfather, and often both of them at the same time until my grandfather died. There were four standard poses for the photos – in front […]
Mighty Falls of the Snake River
By mid-August the emigrants traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1840s had passed Fort Hall. They rode for 300 miles along the cliffs on the south side of the Snake River until they reached Three Island Crossing, where they forded the river to the north. Temperatures were often over 90 degrees along this stretch of […]
The Pitfalls of Planning
I am a really good planner and organizer. I don’t say this boastfully, but as a matter of fact. I keep a detailed to-do list, complete with due dates and timeframes. I schedule work time on my calendar, with specific things to finish in each block of time. I relish checking off accomplished tasks, and […]
Clio Is My Muse, by Pamela Boles Eglinski
Here is a guest post from Pamela Boles Eglinski, author of the new novel Return of the French Blue. If you like this post, look for her book on Amazon. Clio is the Greek muse of history. She is often seen with a scroll or a set of tablets. Clio is pictured on the left, reading […]