In a corner of my living room stands my Uncle Steve’s grandfather clock. I was dusting it the other day and remembered a song about a clock that was purchased “on the morn of the day he was born.” The song goes on to tell us that it was “too…
Tues Aug 18, Petoskey News-Review Photo from BMIC FB Page The Power of a Name He won by a hair. As readers know, two weeks ago Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan primary by only a hair, but that one hair was enough for the win. Pollsters were wrong. They predicted…
Tony wasn’t sure what he should do with Maggie’s body now that he had cut it into bite size pieces. He thought about frying it in hot Crisco oil or maybe setting a match to some charcoal and grilling it. Hers was the third body he had sliced today, not…
I met Janet quite by chance when I was at the Riverside Cemetery in Sault Ste. Marie. It was one of those overcast days when rain could come at any minute and force me to take cover underneath the branches of some old oak or maple and hope lightning skipped…
I remember as if yesterday the crowd that was gathered outside Wisp Smithers’ shack one July 4th when I was young. Wisp was an old fellow who lived a few miles from our place. We were coming home from the fireworks in town when Dad slowed the car, attempting to…
“Them dang old nuns lied to us again. There ain’t no magic in this scapular, and I ain’t never gonna wear the dang thing again.” Blew flips the scapular from around his neck and twirls it around his finger. I’m horrified. “You can’t do that,” I say. “You’ll go to…
Stud Strong of Barbeau was tracking a wounded deer on a brisk November morning when he saw smoke coming from a shack that stood north of the creek on his property. He wanted to check who was there, but first he had to follow the buck’s bloody trail into the…
Today our teacher told us October 4, 1957, is a very special day because the Russians launched their Sputnik and beat the Americans into space. “You’ll never forget this day,” she yelled as she hit the blackboard with her ruler. “It’s a day of shame in America. Imagine, to be…
It’s early morning and Grandma just yelled from the bottom of the stairs for Daddy to get up. Through the thin wall I hear him jump out of bed. He does it fast, like he can’t wait to meet the new day or like someone who’s been awake for a…
The Sachels moved into an abandoned Airstream trailer when Tommy was four years old, one year before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Pa had driven to Michigan from Kentucky and for the first time in his life Tommy thought he was going to live in a house on land. No…
” The fading sun shines through lacy beige curtains and brings a quiet glow to Quale’s living room turning her surroundings into a welcoming cocoon. She wraps herself deeper into her yellow cardigan, stirs a little Irish cream into her coffee, and turns to Spike who is reading yesterday’s newspaper,…
The cold wasn’t yet cold enough to freeze Jane so she kept walking. She figured if she walked far enough and long enough she would eventually tire and find a quiet place to lie down and wait for night to come and for the cold to freeze her. For years…
The summer hours of daylight last long into the evening and remind me of the days when we played softball until the mosquitoes got so thick we couldn’t see the bases. We were a motley group with no more batting, catching or outfielding ability than our dogs. What we did…
Once Alice learned to load the shotgun, there was no stopping her. Never before had she contemplated killing Jerk. Although she had long thought about his death, she hoped it would be a quick one while he still had a job and she was the sole beneficiary on his life…
All summer Dad sat in the blue metal chair by the front door. “Can’t reach my cane,” he would call to my daughter as she played in the yard. Honey would race to him, place the cane into his knotted hands and pat his knees, then run back to her…
And the pain keeps coming. No matter how I move I can’t escape it. It burrows into my bones. It’s part of me. It’s a second animal within the first. I want to shake it off, to be free of it, but I must endure. This cannot last much longer….
“We Are Seven”: An Imposition of Wills Wordsworth shares a conversation between an older gentleman and an eight year old child regarding the number of siblings in her family in his poem, “We Are Seven.” The gentleman is a stranger to the child and she patiently explains to him that…
Hard to believe, but I wrote the following for an English class November 2000. If anyone reads it, you’ll quickly realize the foolishness of higher education when it comes to the taking of required courses. I was 53 years old & hadn’t taken a class in 26 years and it…
My name is Rain. What my last name is does not matter for I have had many surnames during my lifetime. Rain is what Shirley called me. We were friends. I taught her how to not-love anyone. Not to give her heart to anyone because everyone leaves. No matter how…
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession. These are my sins for which I’m very sorry.” I don’t bow my head like Sister Mary John told us. Instead, I stare through the black curtain separating the priest from me and try to see his face,…
If we’re lucky enough to have a mid-term election next year, remember to place your X where it will do the most good. I wrote the following five years ago long before Gannett pulled me from our local paper. I was going to trash all my columns but decided prior…
Folks, during these trying times you might want to bury your head in the sand at least for a little while. I suppose that’s not a bad thing to do as you pull yourself together. I have a suggestion. If you’re tired of all the noise, the uncertainty of where…
Dreaming of lost places I awake yearning for one last walk through beige painted rooms where once I roamed freely. I ache to touch the walls, to run my gnarled fingers over the wallpaper with green roses, to trod the uncarpeted floors and smell coffee as it perks— its pungent…
I sat in the haymow and watched the sky gather black clouds until the rain came, and then I climbed down the ladder and ran barefoot through the fields of my father. The grass clung to my feet as I ran through buttercups and purple clover. I ran faster and…
I can’t imagine having my sister or brother taken from our family when we were young, but it’s happening today. I can’t even begin to imagine what will happen in the next few months if the last few have been more horrific than anyone could have believed possible. Is this…
