Last week, on July 27, our nation celebrated the 60th anniversary of the cease-fire in Korea, the signing of the armistice. Begun in 1950, the war in Korea was over
Veterans across the nation were hosted with celebrations, ways of saying thanks once more for their service. The Korean War, sandwiched between World War II and the Vietnam War, is sometimes tagged "the forgotten war". "Here
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Gustaf and Maria Hoglund left their beautiful home and all members of their families in 1869, immigrated from Sweden to America, and settled in Kansas's Smoky Valley. Gustaf was 27 years old. Nothing, I mean nothing, but six-foot high prairie grassland, critters of all kinds, and hot July winds greeted them, but they stayed anyway.
The Homestead Act of 1862 attracted brave people like the Hoglunds to take lands out of the public domain or buy it cheap, provided they cultivated the land. The Hoglunds homesteaded.
Their first home, a six-foot by twelve-foot dugout, still remains about one mile west of
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I have shared with you on this site that I do not like first drafts and that I prefer to write nonficiton. Truth is, I've not written much fiction at all. I admire those who do and have noted, rising to the surface, my curiosity about making up stories, like cream in raw milk. I have so many wonderful writer friends who would help me, seemed a waste not to give fiction a try. Prefer to write nonfiction? Time will tell. It isn't an either/or propostion. I could end up liking both.
Toward the end of June, I was notififed that a writing exercise (huge, I might add) usually offered in November, would be featured in July also. It's called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. Online, writers create a 50,000-word novel in one month's time. This event, in July, would be like going to summer camp, they said, one grueling 1700-words-per-day at a time. I read about it, thought I'd forgotten about it, and went on with my nonfiction writing. But, the idea stayed in my head, sort of like a phonograph needle stuck on an old 78-rpm vinyl record. Try fiction, try fiction, try fiction, I heard over and over. The thought of doing 1700 words per day, let alone 50,000 words in all seemed like taking a bath in the ocean instead of a tub. But, why not give it a try? I would know after a few days what this endeavor would be like. I enrolled.
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Those rich, white guys who wrote the Declaration of Independence took a huge risk on our behalf. They were done hoping King George III in England would work with them to reconcile their differences. They believed they had rights that were not being honored, among them the right to live freely in their own pursuit of happiness.
As early as November 1774, King George had said, "Blows must decide whether they are subject to this country or independent." He called it correctly. By April 1775, the Revolutionary War had begun at Lexington and Concord, even though most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with King George and Great Britain.
Read MoreGive me two children, not younger than ten years old."
"I'd like that one."
"Get us one that looks healthier."
These words might have been spoken in every state between 1854 and 1929 when more than 250,000 orphaned children arrived on trains from New York to points throughout the United States. Most were taken to the Midwest rural areas and put on display at the train stations. They were dressed in new clothes, told to be on their best behavior, and speak only when spoken to. Someone might adopt them, they were told, or they might not.
Read MoreLee Lamar, a World War II pilot who was stationed in Italy, received a mysterious email message in 2004. "If you left a bomber in Croatia in World War II, I have the pieces if you want to come and get them." In his home in Overland Parks, Kansas, Lamar blinked his eyes several times, raised his eyebrows to his hairline, and read the email again.
An archeologist, Luka Bekic, doing a dig in Croatia, had uncovered the remains of Bottoms Up, Lamar's B-24 bomber that was shot down on its last mission November 18, 1944.
Read MoreOne decision kept President Ronald Reagan from dying March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley took shots toward the president. I've written a story about the man whose quick thinking changed the fate of the world that day.
Read MoreEverybody can use a helper. Beccy Tanner has been my helper. A writer all her life, she either made stories about horses she rode as a young girl or completed class assignments in high school and college. For the past many years, she worked as a reporter for Kansas's largest newspaper. She loves to write about Kansas history, and that's how she helped me.
Beccy learned about an old cabin in northwest Kansas. In her research, she discovered that the poet who wrote the words to "Home on the Range"
Read MoreJoel Chandler Harris, creator of the Uncle Remus stories, had a mailbox on the front porch of his house in Atlanta, Georgia. When a wren built a nest in it, he told the mailman not to use it. In fact, Harris drilled a hole in the front and nailed the box shut so nothing but the wren could go in and out. He made another box for the mailman to use.
I went to Atlanta and saw the box with the wren's nest. I also saw the rocker where Harris sat while he wrote about Uncle Remus. And the dining room table and chairs that were ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalog and the bed where he died.
Read MoreBaby robins. Mouths wide open. I watched them a long time, but they did not move a muscle until Momma returned with worms.
Is this like waiting for school to be out or for the swimming pool to open or for vacation time to start? Some things take a long time, a very long time. Like Gordon Parks waiting for white people to honor black people like him.Read More
