By Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: (I stole this photo of Patches from my brother’s blog: Too Long in the Wind) ME AND MY SHADOW On one of my recent walks, a man and his dog were out in their yard. The dog was tethered, but it ran toward the …
Around Town on Foot
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: AROUND TOWN ON FOOT “Walking is also an ambulation of the mind,” essayist Gretel Ehrlich wrote. This is my new addiction. Last fall I began a somewhat regular outdoor walking program. Winter kept me inside for months, but spring put me back out on the …
Art in the City
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ART IN THE CITY “Mom! Mom!” I heard a boy’s voice yelling from the sidewalk in front of my house. I looked out the door and saw a boy who was 8 or 9 scramble to get on his bicycle. He continued to shout …
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 …
Mothers and Dresses
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: MOTHERS AND DRESSES The other day when I was shopping online, I accidentally ended up on a page full of dresses. Alongside the dresses were ads showing mothers and daughters celebrating Mother’s Day together. Now I wouldn’t buy my mom a dress; she prefers …
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 …
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 …
An Underlying Order
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: AN UNDERLYING ORDER “Lefty-loosey,” I thought to myself as I twisted a screw. Standing on a step-stool, I was removing the glass shades on a ceiling fan in order to clean them. Each tulip shade was held in place by three tiny screws. Because of …
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 …
YUKON – 2
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: YUKON-2 Pawnee Rock wasn’t anywhere near the Yukon. Nevertheless, YUkon-2 was our telephone prefix when I was a kid. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, each telephone exchange began with two letters to make phone numbers easier to remember. We had the super-cool YUkon exchange …