Dinner in the Field and other stories
I find you can discover your strengths at any age. For example, I find I’m a better writer than I am an editor. I have a full-length draft of a memoir that I’ve devoted countless hours to, and it’s finally finished. I’m anxious to move on to new material. But finishing the book is not the same as completing the project. Doing it right, I’m told, entails a less than...
Urn or Coffin?
I went to a visitation, the only public service for a 66 year old woman who died earlier in the week. It was sobering, how small the jar that held the ashes of the woman I remember standing in front of me, energetic, smiling. The man in line just before me crossed himself and bowed his head to the urn. It’s not the same thing somehow. There was a kneeling...
State Fair Revisited
I visited the State Fair this week, and it isn’t what it used to be. Like everything else, it’s changed, though not entirely for the worse. I get tired of old people complaining. So consider this not as a complaint, but as an observation of change regarding a summertime classic: the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. There is no longer a Double Ferris Wheel in Happy Hollow. That grieves me....
Old Friends
Last week I talked about our country’s military draft during the Vietnam War and how it affected men my age. This week I’d like to talk about a handful of those men. Outside of school, segregation by age goes away. In the real world we live and work among people of all ages. In the Fall of 1969 a group of ISU college freshman found themselves all together in the...
Luck of the Draw-Part 1
On August 13th in 1969, my eighteenth birthday, I registered for the draft in a hot little office somewhere in downtown Bloomington. For an occasion that was so momentous to me it turned out to be dull and mundane. While I put my life under the thumb of the U.S. military the woman behind the desk chewed gum. Immediately after leaving the draft board office I bought two albums, Dylan’s...
Just Say No
Either I didn’t work as many hours as I thought or I was doing more personal business during work than I realized but I don’t have as much time on my hands in retirement as I imagined I would. I did get my first (make that my second) call today from someone who assumed (correctly apparently) that I wasn’t doing anything and could surely drop whatever I was otherwise engaged...
What Can I Say?
Last Friday I saw Bob Dylan perform in Bridgeview’s Toyota Park. He was the headliner of the Americanarama tour, which is playing this summer in medium size venues like the soccer stadium in Chicago’s near southwest suburbs. The night before they had played Peoria. Appearing with Dylan were two great bands My Morning Jacket and Wilco. Unlike the weather we’re experiencing at this week’s end, last Friday was a beautiful...
Farm Kids
I had my first schedule conflict as a retired person today. While working I had schedule conflicts all the time, so many that I’d make one appointment, miss another, and not realize till later I’d blown something else off. I expected few if any conflicts after I stopped working. In Saturday’s mail I received a thank you for agreeing to be a judge at the LaSalle County 4-H fair, and...
It's Friday Already?
I think it is good to surprise yourself, if even in a negative way. This is my fifth day of retirement. I’m still not used to the fact that I get so few e mails, and I find myself thinking about what may be happening in my office. So I certainly haven’t settled into retirement. I figure after five days I’m just flirting with the concept at this point. But...
Spring Plowing
In the sloping field east of the house I was driving the Minneapolis tractor pulling a three bottom moldboard plow mounted on a three point hitch, going deep, turning over long ribbons of black dirt and making a furrow. The right tires of the tractor were in the furrow, tilting the tractor to one side. My Dad had gotten me started, “laying out the land” as he called it, by...
Giving Thanks
On this Thanksgiving I’m thankful for much, but I’m especially thankful for my shack. It’s finished, as much as any place you live in is totally finished, and I use it nearly every day. I’m thankful for its warmth and comfort, its quiet, its utility. I’m thankful for what it gives me-solace, peace, and a sense of retreat from stress. While I am the one who conceived the idea of...