My father Erwin A. Thompson, grandson of E. A. Riehl, writes fondly of Lee Maupin, his boyhood neighbor…and how Pop changed the course of Lee’s life…with a big boost from my Great Aunt Mim. Lee is gone now. And the farm is completely changed. Pop and I still visit Kay Maupin up in Otterville. Kay…
I knew him personally. In my growing up years he was a legend. He lived on Clifton Hill, so designated because it was a pretty formidable hill on the road from the main highway to the little settlement of Clifton Terrace. He was a veteran of the 1898 Spanish-American war. In his younger years he…
Evergreen Heights, the place pioneered by E.A. Riehl, my father’s grandfather As a family, over generations, we developed some of our own Christmas traditions. PROVIDING CHRISTMAS TREES FOR THE COMMUNITY My Grandfather Riehl was a pioneer in this part of the country in raising evergreen trees for Christmas trees. We took orders, in those days,…
Eight inches of snow fell in St. Louis over the weekend, chasing this Northern California girl inside to catch up on her stack of reading. Hey, my snow boots are in the closet of my upstairs room at my father’s house and I don’t even own an ice-scraper for the car yet…but, I can turn…
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…
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…
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…