A Christmas like no other

The true story of a Depression-era Christmas trip to a better life in Illinois

“It takes a worried man to sing a worried song,It takes a worried man to sing a worried song,It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

Window panes and the state’s fiscal pain

A Christmas memoir

Found in an old desk, a bracelet of baubles and spheres

It was in Grandmother’s desk, the same desk she used to write to her sister in the 1880s. It is the same desk my mother used to write letters to me while I was in the army, and I have some of th

The church is a blessing

A Christmas memoir

Mr. Houck came early to the Sangamon Valley while it was still a wilderness without many inhabitants. He came before the land was surveyed so his fields stretched from the big sycamore tree to the eas

The War Years

Untitled Document We were fishing down at Rawlins’ off a sandbar that extended into a bar pit near the Illinois River. It was an autumn day with puffy clouds in the sky placed just right

March of March

Marking the days from winter to spring

Untitled Document March 2 — A celebration of the sun. I have been walking on frozen snow for two months, the frailty of snowflakes built into awesome cliffs and drifts

The legend of the ungiven gift

Nearly 70 Christmases have passed, but the boy still has hope

Untitled Document The Frenches walked everywhere from their home in the hollow. They had walked the two miles up the west hollow to Uncle George’s and Aunt Daisy’s fo

For as long as we can