By April 16 Oh wind, you’re such a narcissist – on and on and on you blast, a tiresome soliloquy of run-on sentences, reckless words that set the prairie afire. Leave this scarred and wind-scraped land, take your empty chatter on up to Nebraska, you’re headed that way anyway. Slam the door if you must, just …
Color Confusion
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: COLOR CONFUSION On a recent weekend, snow fell overnight. Usually my first look at the world on any given morning is through our bathroom window. Through that window all I can see is the neighbor’s roof, the sky, and the tops of trees – and …
Winter’s Good Side
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: cat tracks into the neighbor’s yard WINTER’S GOOD SIDE I should at least get partial credit for making it through half of winter without whining or complaining. But I lost my cool, my patience, when February opened with a sleet storm, followed by 7 …
Where the Highway Ends
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: WHERE THE HIGHWAY ENDS In the summer of 1965, my parents took my brother and me to the Arkansas River, a mile south of Pawnee Rock, to see the flood. Heavy rains in Colorado had sent a crash of water downstream. This was a mighty …
Loving the Wind
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: LOVING THE WIND “How can you call yourself a Kansan if you don’t love the wind?” Dan Markowitz accused me when I ran into him at the Java Cat. “Um,” I stammered. “Too much of a good thing?” In a recent column, I …
Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS Just as many of us like to roam across Kansas, Russian thistles, too, are full of wanderlust. I don’t think about tumbleweeds often, but was reminded of them on a recent trip to Dodge City with my friend Tracy Simmons. While the …
Autumn Days
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: AUTUMN DAYS The sun moves across the sky more quickly these days, and the once-bright evenings have become cobwebs of darkness. October drives us into that blind curve of autumn with its increasingly uncertain forecasts. It begins the time of year when out-of-town trips …
Visiting Hurricanes
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: VISITING HURRICANES Here in the Midwest, hurricanes don’t enter into our forecasts very often, but occasionally the remnants of one will pass over Kansas and drop some rain. Not Isaac. At a time when our land is so thirsty for precipitation, Isaac slighted us. The …
Lunch at Ad Astra
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: LUNCH AT AD ASTRA At Ad Astra, beneath the sounds of restaurant conversation and the clatter of silverware, came the voice of Bob Dylan. He sang “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall,” and although the song isn’t really about rain, that Saturday was indeed a …
Endless Summer
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Arkansas River, Wichita ENDLESS SUMMER When I woke up to the sound of rain last Tuesday, I felt as if I had awakened in another country. It was a great day – the air was chilly, and rain fell slowly and steadily all morning long. …
Night of a Hundred Tornadoes
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: The Langley Tornado, 4.14.12. Photo by Stephen Locke, used with permission. NIGHT OF A HUNDRED TORNADOES “I can easily recall the pungent scent of this tornado path,” Stephen Locke wrote. “Violent winds strip bark, blend grass, open the earth and liberate a cacophony of volatile …