Hey everyone – This week I learned about new books by three author friends. A book I just started reading and am enjoying is Mystery at Snake River Bridge by Richard Uhlig. Originally from Herington, Rick Uhlig now lives and writes in New York. He hasn’t really left Kansas – his young adult fiction books, this …
Remembering the Dead
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: REMEMBERING THE DEAD The cemetery was my playground. While Dad mowed, my 6-year-old self blew fluff off of dandelions. I traced the engraving on stones, and I climbed into the arms of a cedar tree and watched ants scatter as I peeled its …
‘Dragging Wyatt Earp’
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ‘DRAGGING WYATT EARP’ “Returning home is like that. The future gets left behind, a piano dumped on a stark prairie. Suddenly you’re left with nothing but your life and the past. You have returned. Full circle. Everything else is just a blur.” Those are the …
Little House on the Prairie
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE Every afternoon, Mary Louise Wilhite read to her second grade students at Pawnee Rock Grade School. Following our after-lunch recess, my classmates and I came in from the playground, windblown and energetic. But we settled down quickly when we sat …
Shadow on the Hill
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ‘SHADOW ON THE HILL’ On a sunny Saturday in May, 1925, Decoration Day, Florence Knoblock was found brutally murdered on the kitchen floor of her farmhouse near Burlington. Florence was married to John Knoblock and was the mother of a 4 year-old boy named Roger. …
Tiger Hunting
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: TIGER HUNTING It’s not often that one reads about tiger hunting in Kansas, but there’s a new book out on the subject. The book is fiction, of course; tigers don’t roam the creek beds and pastures of Kansas – as far as we …
Keim Bakery
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: KEIM BAKERY When I hear of a Kansas place that I want to visit, sometimes that place sticks in my brain like a bookmark. And I can’t get rid of the bookmark until I make the trip. Keim Bakery in Ottawa had been on my …
Remembering Adam
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: REMEMBERING ADAM “When we got here, we went out to the farm to look at the dirt,” Amy told me. “That’s what Dad would’ve done,” she smiled. Amy and her husband Rod live in Lenexa and had just arrived at the motel in Great Bend …
The Way We Worked
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Tom Parker (photo by Dave Leiker) THE WAY WE WORKED “I saw unspeakable things done to cattle, and I lived through things I didn’t know I would,” Tom Parker said with a smile as he told me about his year-long photography project. Over the past …
Moon Marble
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: MOON MARBLE “Do you guys mind if I turn on the big rocket flame for a minute?” Bruce Breslow asked the group of about 20 gathered in his marble-making studio. “Yes,” shouted the dozen or so Cub Scouts in the bleachers. With encouragement from …
A Creative Life
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: A CREATIVE LIFE While cutting up a chicken last week, the knife got away from me and nicked my hand. As I searched for a bandage, I thought of a moment about 10 years ago with my late father. In that scene with my dad, …