My father, in winter hybernating mode, is going through boxes of papers under his desk. Pop writes: “Finding this long-lost piece of literature is the pay for digging into the past. I do not know how old Alice was when she wrote this, but she was married in 1943, at age 27. She signed it…
Pop’s a cover boy! He’s made the front page of the ACTIVE LIVING section of THE TELEGRAPH. (When I was growing up, known as “The Alton Evening Telegraph”–but it now comes out in the morning.) To read the cover story “Clearing the Years: Brush-clearing helps 92-year-old reclaim youthful outlook” it says on the cover. Inside…
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…
My father, with typical generosity, is setting up a revolving loan fund at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. When I was growing up this was a girl’s school called “Monticello” and underneath its current layer there will always be this other layer for me…what I term the archeology of memory and emotion….
I asked my father, who in the Second World War was Sergeant Erwin A. Thompson, “I” Company, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, First Army to write a post honoring Pearl Harbor Day. My father is a man who served in that war and still has scars around his scrapnel wounds to prove it. I know, because…
My father and our long-time neighbor Jim Weeks (one of the three guitar players who, my father jokes “makes me sound good” when he plays fiddle) sang this quite movingly on the TV profile of my father. I always love watching and listening to this on tape. My father is a combat veteran of World…
Pop says, “And here is a song from the First World War that still lives in my memory as one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I know.” Folks ask what kind of music we play during our Sunday musical open houses. This is one of the pieces…and I agree with my Pop…
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…
My father Erwin Thompson continues his story of how dancing and music continue to shape and enrich his life and the lives around him. —JGR Waltzing and The Broom Waltz Square dances were my love, along with the simple waltzes, the Rye Waltz, and most of all the “broom waltz” where at several points in…
On his 92nd birthday, in his own words, my father Erwin A. Thompson, tells the power of dancing and music in his life…There’ll be one coming up tomorrow night for his birthday party if you want to come by.–JGR Great-aunt Mim’s Amati violin My life before I discovered square dancing I was born in Schuyler…