By Just to let you know, my friends, yesterday’s Flyover People piece was my second-to-last column. Next week’s column will be my Farewell piece. I’ve written it for 11+ years, and it’s time for me to move on to other writing possibilities, without the pull of a weekly deadline. Deadlines are a mixed blessing, sometimes they …
CH-CH-CHANGES
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: CH-CH-CHANGES By the time you read this, I will have mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Redbuds, crabapples and Bradford pears turn Emporia into an April wonderland, trees flowering all at once. Spring, the most elusive season of all, has finally …
April 16
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 …
Our Midwestern Home
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Sunset, rural Dodge City OUR MIDWESTERN HOME When a national weather map shows up on TV, where do we look? At the center of the screen, of course. Map-wise, Kansas is the star of the show, sitting in the heart of the country. There are …
A Flint Hills Meander
A FLINT HILLS MEANDER A March day without wind? Yes. It actually happened. The last Saturday of March was sunny and the breezes were shallow. One shouldn’t stay indoors on a nice day like that, so Dave and I ventured into the Flint Hills. The lack of wind made it an active day for …
The Viewfinder
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: One of many blurry photos I took in junior high. After track practice in 8th grade, Donna Smith Boese and other friends came over to my house. THE VIEWFINDER Do you know what I miss? I miss having a viewfinder. I have to …
Good Stewards
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Pawnee Rock Bergthal Mennonite Church, May 2013. GOOD STEWARDS Last week, while sorting though a box of my late father’s photographs, I found several pictures of our family church. Had my dad been alive this past year, he would have been deeply saddened by the …
Late Winter Road Trip
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: LATE WINTER ROAD TRIP Just after Dave and I got on I-35 at Merchant Street, I glanced to my right to the ESU parking lot near the highway. What had once been huge mountains of snow were now molehills of black encrusted ice. Snow may …
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 …
Anticipation
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: ANTICIPATION For several days this winter when I walked through the door of the post office, I thought, “Maybe it’s here today.” I had ordered a bracelet online from a Hesston business called The Rusted Chain, and was awaiting the bracelet’s arrival. The anticipation …
A Sense of Place
Today’s Flyover People column as seen in The Emporia Gazette: Hiking Trail, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas A SENSE OF PLACE I love it when a writer, in her poem or short story, gives me the native’s tour of a small town. Maybe she takes me to her town’s only tavern …