Selected Stories

EHave you ever played with the big leaves of rhubarb? It’s a kid thing. You can make an umbrella, which is the easiest thing to do. Rhubarb leaf umbrellas are useful on a hot summer day. Or you can make a fort out of several leaves or simply crawl into the stand of...

I don’t remember everything about the summers of my childhood, but I do remember some wonderful highlights. Like the pollywog pond… “Hey Carol! Let’s go ride our bikes to the pollywog pond!” Carol was my sister, older by more than two years – a big kid, but my best...

We were up before dawn and, still sleepy, went down to the mess hall for breakfast with the Forest Service logging crew.  Everything you’ve heard about loggers’ breakfasts is true.  We had platters of eggs with pools of butter, bacon, sausages, and pancakes in stacks...

How could sitting in the weeds be so much fun? We kids – my sister and three cousins – loved it. The weeds were in the vacant lot between my Uncle Mark’s Texaco station and their house.  I sometimes sneaked out to go to the vacant lot alone, just to enjoy the smells...

The horizon was a mystery of grays, as I squinted into the south.  The wind pulled at my jacket and the deck pitched and rolled beneath my spread stance, but I continued to look intently toward the south over the bow.  Sea spray flashed as the ship hit a wave, and...

My Grandmother, my father’s mother, was from Tennessee, and had all the earthiness of a hillbilly with a kindness and twinkle built in.  I didn’t see her often, since we lived in Montana and the trip to Tennessee took four days of hard driving, but we made the most of...