Category Archives: Uncategorized

June 5, 20  First of all, I hate it that I’m hip and I use words like “besties,” but hey, I’m knee deep in the Zeitgeist (look it up, Ted S.) and the kids love me. LOL. Second of all, … Continue reading →

May 31, 2o14   I was goin to the Cardinals game with Connie. We always meet in Alton—she’s from the Fosterburg area, me up on Elsah Hill. And I’ m nervous; I have to leave the house early, because added … Continue reading →

May 29, 2014  Prairie plants are starting to bloom. Cornflowers and purple cone flowers and lobelia and brown-eyed Susan and wild daisy and wild grasses and milkweed and rattlesnake master and dandelions and hemp, and more, are pushing up and … Continue reading →

May 27, 2014 Yesterday’s Genehouse walk gave me a chance to see old pals. Hummingbird Man was mowing his lawn, his long blond ponytail looped over a bare right shoulder. Bob was outside his house, sweeping catkins off his driveway … Continue reading →

May 26, 2014 The two brothers, ten and eleven, were playing on the enclosed porch of the farmhouse during a rainstorm. The shelves of the porch were lined with empty Mason jars. Their father kept the jars there for emergencies, … Continue reading →

May 25, 2014  Monticello College, now Lewis and Clark Community College, was a private women’s institution since the 1800s, and, in the late 1970s, the subject of much Alton gossip, all of it revolving around sex and wild girls. Boys … Continue reading →

May 22, 2014  In the middle of Tuesday night, I get up from bed and walk in the dark to the bathroom and pee . . . and fall backward in the dark, one second of time but I’m thinking … Continue reading →

May 20, 2014 The perfume of the river valley is overwhelming, and so are the buffalo gnats.  The harsh winter seems to have made the noseeums more aggressive, or perhaps it is my imagination. Just walking from the front door … Continue reading →

May 19, 2014 For me it began with Laurie Frazer, a raw-boned, loud high school kid who was involved with a group of teens trying to put on a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” only they didn’t have a clue … Continue reading →

December  3, 2013  The weather continues to be mild, but the leaves are down and the color is brown earth, brown leaves, brown river. I hiked a river-to-bluff trail this afternoon, descending the steep north back of the bluff. The … Continue reading →