Birthday Brother, 62 years of happiness and helpingness: Gary Arthur Thompson

Byriehlifegrace September 8, 2008November 9, 2008

Gary and Patty Thompson

Happy birthday, Gary, as you celebrate 62 years of your happiness genius dedicated to being a good solid citizen, a good father and now grandfather and uncle and great-uncle and brother and son and husband, a good teacher, a good fix-it man (is hard to find)…a good human being.

Today my father and I travel by train from Alton, Illinois to Bloomington, Illinois to celebrate my brother’s birthday with him along with his wife, children, and grandchildren.

Family Matters

Village Wisdom: Anchors, E. A. Riehl…by Erwin A. Thompson

Byriehlifegrace February 23, 2009February 25, 2009

Evergreen Heights, the place founded by E. A. Riehl and our homeplace still…where he communed with nature and forged paths to become one of the 8 premiere horticulturalist in the world at that time. E. A. Riehl was a pillar of the community, though known not to suffer fools gladly. The lane which ends in…

Family Matters

Pop, at 95, Makes the Scene: Our biggest night of the social season.

Byriehlifegrace May 23, 2011May 23, 2011

Last night Pop and I made the scene at two premiere Alton social events of the Spring Season. We field-tested the new rig inherited from my sister-in-law Patty’s mother, who passed away last winter. It’s a sort of combo walker/seat, and has a little pouch to easily take along his portable oxygen. We found it…

Review of Thompson’s “Cattle Country and Back Trail” on Book Pleasures

Byriehlifegrace July 23, 2007July 25, 2007

There’s a new review of my father Erwin A. Thompson’s “Cattle Country and Back Trail: Two Tales from the Thompson Western Series” on Book Pleasures Among other comments, the reviewer Ernest Dempsey says: “Cattle Country and Back Trail is an exciting reading of the values that characterized the heroes of the not-so-remote past. Foremost, these…

Summer in Full Bloom: Peony Memories

Byriehlifegrace June 22, 2008June 22, 2008

We’re in the time of Summer Solstice now when summer is in fullest bloom with the longest day and shortest night. To celebrate this time on Riehlife, I’m sharing a peony bouquet plucked from an email correspondence between Susan J. Tweit and my father…about the horticultural history of our homeplace, Evergreen Heights. Photo by Susan…

“Waiting (Wind of Change),” a poem by Janet Grace Riehl

Byriehlifegrace June 20, 2007May 16, 2008

In just a few days I’m making a huge move in my life and where I live. I’ll be moving from Lake County in Northern California to St. Louis, Missouri where I’ll just be an hour away from my father. Pop, 91, lives just across the river in SW Illinois, about 6 miles upriver from…

Family Matters

“Flooding and Farming” by Erwin A. Thompson

Byriehlifegrace February 27, 2011February 27, 2011

It’s that time of year. Will it flood? If so, how high? My father’s history of what it was like to farm around th floods gives us some good historical context. –Janet As I grew up I was aware of the river’s “flood stage,” but only as a matter of interest, not survival. The Riehl…

2 Comments

Roger says:

September 8, 2008 at 7:23 am

Janet, You forgot…………GREAT FISHING GUIDE.
Sarah Wilson ( Thompson) says:

October 3, 2008 at 5:54 pm

YES. An excellent father and grandfather he is! He is loved by many.

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