Always Go to the Funeral
I was reminded recently of something my daughter taught me. It’s nice to have children who are mature enough to teach their parents life lessons. Both my children came home for their uncle’s funeral in May. Actually, my daughter had been visiting, and merely had to extend her visit by a day to attend the […]
Random Photo of My Dad Fishing
I’ve mentioned before that my father was usually the photographer in our family. That means there aren’t too many pictures of him taken on his camera. Occasionally, someone would snap a photo of him, but many of the pictures we have of him were taken by rank amateurs and are blurry or poorly framed or […]
Another Treasure: Photo of My Husband’s Relatives, 1950
Last summer when I cleaned out a cupboard, I found some treasures. One treasure was a picture of my husband’s parents, paternal grandparents, aunt and uncle from the Marshall Democrat-News. The picture was republished in the January 24, 1989, edition of that local newspaper. I found it in an envelope from my husband’s great-aunt, so […]
My Thanks to Joan Stewart (The Publicity Hound)
In May 2017, I attended the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. conference in Oklahoma City. I’ve attended the conference several times, and always get something good out of it. My needs as a writer have changed over the last ten years since I first attended, but there’s enough at the OWFI conference for raw beginners, developing […]
The Best Book Club Ever
I am one of the moderators for a Facebook page called Read Local Kansas City, which aims to build a relationship between authors and readers in the Kansas City area. Recently, the page posted a spotlight on book clubs, linking to an article that offered tips for facilitating book club discussions. As I read that […]
A Poll: What Do Readers Want to Read in My Newsletter?
I started a monthly newsletter a year ago, sending out my first email on June 1, 2017. I’ve published a newsletter issue on the first of each month since then. Many readers of this blog also subscribe to my newsletter. I’m currently taking a brief survey of readers to see how I can improve my […]
The Santa Fe Trail at Stanhope, Missouri: Historical and Family Significance
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving through Saline County in the farmland around Marshall, Missouri. His family owns land in the county, and although they have lived in town for a couple of generations now, they still speak of “going to the country” when they drive out to inspect how their […]
Memorial Day Means More as I Age
As I reviewed old posts, I realized I haven’t written much about Memorial Day. That’s because it was never a big occasion in my family growing up. We were new transplants to Richland, Washington, and didn’t have old relatives buried in the local cemetery. My grandparents were also the first generation in the family to […]
Oregon History: On Cattle Men and Government
I’ve written before (see here and here) about Jesse Applegate, who was part of the Great Migration of 1843. Jesse Applegate had the distinction of leading the “Cow Column” on the first large wagon train to Oregon. Several thousand head of cattle accompanied the wagons and emigrants of the Cow Column. The pioneers had separated […]
The Lemon Juice Incident
I wrote a previous post about an unfortunate situation involving orange juice. There is an earlier incident in my marriage involving lemon juice. Forty years ago, in the summer of 1978, my husband and I both had clerkships (what law students call internships) in Los Angeles. We had been married just a few months, and […]