April 30th, 2013 at 8:35 am
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 […]
columns, Kansans, life on the ground, nostalgia, other people's stuff, writing
April 16th, 2013 at 9:47 am
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. […]
columns, history, Kansans, other people's stuff, writing
April 9th, 2013 at 11:00 am
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 […]
columns, Kansans, life on the ground, other people's stuff, writing
February 26th, 2013 at 11:10 am
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 […]
Art, columns, Kansans, life on the ground, other people's stuff, small towns
February 5th, 2013 at 7:04 pm
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 […]
columns, commerce, Kansans, life on the ground, other people's stuff
December 4th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Wyatt Earp statue, downtown Dodge City. Mary Spurgeon, sculptor TRACY’S HOMETOWN If Tracy and I had grown up in the same town during the same time period, I’ll bet we would have been childhood friends. A few weeks ago, I traveled with Tracy Simmons to her hometown of Dodge City for an overnight visit. She […]
columns, Kansans, other people's stuff, traveling
October 16th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: IN THE PRESENCE OF TREES An abundance of shade, a concert stage, the state’s largest southern magnolia, and an independent young cat named Twiggy. Those are just a few of the things that you’ll find at the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine. This Sumner […]
columns, history, Kansans, landscape, nature, other people's stuff
September 25th, 2012 at 11:35 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: 2012 Kansas Notable Book Award winners EXPLORER RESEARCH VOYAGE Sometimes the evening news from the Statehouse discourages me. I hope for and expect better things for Kansas than are sometimes decided for us. I had been feeling down, so I was delighted recently to […]
columns, Kansans, Kansas Explorers, life on the ground, other people's stuff, small towns, traveling
August 14th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Bowl Plaza, Lucas DETROIT, DENMARK AND LUCAS Being able to travel from Detroit to Denmark within a couple of hours is just one of the perks of living in Kansas. It was a Sunday morning and the air was cool for a change. The […]
Art, columns, other people's stuff, small towns, traveling
July 31st, 2012 at 10:18 am
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: THE AFTERLIVES OF TREES On a wooden porch deck at Lake Wabaunsee, I sat in the shade of burr oaks and locusts, redbuds and hackberry trees. The canopy of leaves, a lake breeze, and a lack of concrete made this place feel about 20 degrees […]
columns, Kansans, nature, other people's stuff, writing
June 28th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Coming July 7 to a bookstore near you: The Divorce Girl by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. The ‘70s was a decade of station wagons, “All in the Family,” and polyester. And while some of us are glad that leisure suits have disappeared from the scene, readers of a certain age might get a bit nostalgic when returning […]
Kansans, other people's stuff, writing
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