When I lived in Chicago long years ago, I used to love walking through the alleyways between the blocks of apartment buildings that faced the street. Their stern brick fronts allowed no glimpse of the life behind their curtained windows, but the view from the alley was that of a village, as each back stoop revealed a little something about the people who lived there. Someone had a small garden. Someone else had a grill. Someone might have a collection of wind chimes or colorful banners. Some just a comfortable lawn chair with a side table for a beer good for winding down after work. Read more about My Brothers Garden

It was the summer of 1961, the year Lydia Hinden and I both turned 18. We had just graduated from Douglas MacArthur High School in Decatur, IL, and were just about as sophisticated a pair of young women heading off into the future as the 50’s could boast.

Read more about BFFs

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of a biography of John Keats, so it only seemed right that I follow that up with a Keats poem. I stood tip-toe is one that enchanted me, at least in its initial stanza. It is very long, as if once started Keats could not stop thinking of all the delights that could be found in his own surroundings. Read more about I Stood Tiptoe

Once upon a time there lived four little children named Martha, Little Joanie, Johnny, and Barbara. They lived in Badger, Iowa, a little town of 300 Norwegian farmers. Here they are sitting on the curb in front of Little Joanie and Barbara’s daddy’s second hand truck that he used to haul stuff to put in his corner grocery store. Read more about A Long Time Ago

Jerry Converse

A couple of weeks ago, I got word that Jerry Converse had died. No word on where or how. I like to think it was with a bong by his side and a smile on his lips. Much like our Jerry of legend is said to have gone. With the smile, at any rate. Read more about Jerry Converse

This is me on my boyfriend Steve’s Harley, a Sportster, just before taking off on our grand adventure from the Midwest to Seattle, Washington in 1979, the year we had both graduated from college. I graduated at 36, while he was about 13 years younger, but nevermind. Off we went. Which we had no business doing on a Sportster. Read more about Biker Girl I

Read more about The House on West Forest

Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through

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Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

It's 1993 and I'm turning 50. Pat and Kerin Lewis threw me a stellar birthday party, too. But wait. That's wrong. They did throw me a stellar birthday party, but it was also a New Year's Eve party AND a wedding anniversary party. Read more about Doing the Holiday Rag