Family reunions were especially big for my father’s father, J. Arthur Thompson. My brother Gary has taken up the family reunion mantle. He and his wife Patty host an annual family get-together at their lakeside home outside Jacksonville. Besides the ample good food from the garden, joking around, hearing about the crops, the haying, the…
Click here to read Erwin A. Thompson Western Series book review. Cattle Country and Back Trail: Two Tales from the Thompson Western Series Erwin A. Thompson ISBN: 0-595-40228-3 Publisher: iUniverse $17.95 US Reviewer: Gordon Randall Buy on “Cattle Country and Back Trail” on Amazon by clicking here. Randall begins his review by saying….”Turns out that…
My father, Erwin A. Thompson, in his paper sorting, found this gem among my mother’s papers. He says, “It could come out of any textbook, and still has some personal touches not found in them.” He goes on to make these comments: “These were not idle words. I listened to her stories of the children…
Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth. Now with all of us Boomers coming into our Geezer-hood at the same time we’re looking for models on how to age gracefully. We want to not just rack up a few more years, but contribute to family and culture…to make sure our years counted…
Over the Labor Day weekend I offered a service at the First Unitarian Church in Alton, Illinois, on the corner of 3rd and Alby. This was my sister Julia Ann Thompson’s church and my cousin Irene Riehl’s church before her. Now it is the church of my niece and her husband and their daughters. My…
Last year we gathered together and I presented a special event for Hayner Public Library in Alton, Illinois. I gave a talk combined with music (Daddy and I played) and poetry followed by a workshop on memory. You can read this talk “Memories: Each Day Radiant with New Meaning” by clicking here which will take…
There are very few birthdays I know by heart, but my sister Julia’s birthday is one of them. March 13th will always be her day. I wrote “Reaper” in 2005 when she would have turned 62, 7 months after her death. This year, 2007, 2 years and 7 months afterwards, I pause to think, still,…
My father wrote this poem for my mother, Ruth Evelyn Johnston Thompson after her death May 1, 2006. You can read more about my mother in “Sweet Little Dove” under “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary” on this website. by Erwin A. Thompson For Ruth, my faithful partner of the trail for almost sixty-four years. From youth’s…