River Bluffs I have lived on the bluffs that overlook the Mississippi River for all but the first nine months of my life. The family owned a good pair of field glasses, and they were one of my great experiences, to look through them and watch things like the building of the rafts when they…
Click here to read about how “Gems of Yesterday: The Poetry and Philosophy of Bee Lewis,” our latest book release, is being used as a community project. Yvonne Perry’s Writers in the Sky explains it pretty well. POD = Print on Demand
Floods — 1903, 1943, 1973, 1993, and then add fifteen years Of course, this is an attempt to put “A little humor” into a series of tragedies. Obviously there have been other floods in years that did not end with a three. It seemed appropriate that I preface my review of the floods with a…
At dinnertime recently, my father recalled this story, and I asked him to share it with us. What follows is his author’s note from his novel “The Upper Crust.” —JGR _______________________________ Pie! THE UPPER CRUST An explanation of the title might be helpful. I was raised by three maiden aunts and my maternal grandfather. They…
Photo by Susan Tweit From witnessing my father at ceremonies surrounding death, I’ve learned a new approach to being at these events. He is completely natural. He visits. He chats. He may even make a joke. He tells stories. These are transmissions of comfort through the transmission of culture. I have never heard him utter…
Photo by Susan J. Tweit I’ve gone to several visitations and memorial services with my father this past year since I’ve moved back to the Midwest. Recently, we lost one of my cousins in a rather haunting death. In thinking ahead to her memorial day at the cemetery, we began discussing the purpose of these…
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…
Photo by Susan Tweit. Susan calls this “Old Home Place” peony because it came from her mother-in-law’s childhood home in Possum Valley, Arkansas. “It’s doing fine here at 7,000 feet in the southern Rocky Mountains, but sometimes I wonder if it doesn’t wonder how it got here!” Susan says. PEONY HARVEST by Erwin A. Thompson…
My father woke up in the night last week with part of this poem in his mind and walked into his dining room office to write it down on a construction clipboard on blue-lined paper….which is where I found it when I came to visit. As we chatted about it, I suggested it might be…
Erwin A. Thompson, answer man QUESTION When did automobiles first get a keyed start? Were they keyed in 1919, the year of my current novel? Was it a crank, a push button? I have scoured the internet and while there is info abounding on the classic cars, the keyed start seems of no interest to…