As a child of the 1950s and an avid cowboy fan, I watched my share of TV westerns. Starting with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and running through Bonanza, Wagon Train, The Virginian, High Chaparral, and The Big Valley, I watched them all and had my favorite hero on each show, but probably my most favorite hero of all was Marshal Dillon. It was a tradition on Saturday night to watch Gunsmoke, to every week watch the tall lawman keep the peace in Dodge City. Matt Dillon just seemed to embody the spirit of the West, and for a child infatuated with the cowboy myth, he was a superhero for his time.
The other characters were pretty well drawn, too, and even a little ahead of their time. Doc and Chester, and later Festus, were quibbling sidekicks who loved to rub each other the wrong way. They added comic relief to what was often a somber story of outlaws attacking the town; hardships faced by settlers of the 1870s West, and Marshal Dillon’s quest to round up those who broke the law. He seemed a man who possessed a calm demeanor in the face of gunfire but who never failed to bring justice wherever he could to a lawless land. Then there was Miss Kitty. Today she would be known as Ms. Kitty, no doubt, but even as a Miss she led the way in independence and self-reliance for a woman of her time. Owner of the Longbranch Saloon, Miss Kitty put up with no nonsense from anyone, nor did she need to be taken care of; yet she harbored a real soft spot for the Marshal, and most of us viewers knew they were truly in love. They just couldn’t give up their individual lifestyles to live an ordinary life. I think we all were pretty sure we knew where the Marshal hung his hat when the show was over.
Gunsmoke ran from 1955-1975 and was the longest running drama on TV until Law and Order surpassed it. You can still catch reruns on many cable and satellite channels, and even today those episodes of life in the 1870s Old West stand up well. I’ve found they are great to study for characterization and tight writing and action. But I guess I watch them because I still love Marshal Dillon, and I still hope that maybe I missed the episode where he finally kissed Miss Kitty. (I’m pretty sure he never did.)
James Arness, aka Marshal Matt Dillon, passed away last week at 88, still a hero in my eyes. I’m willing to say that he was one of the reasons the hero in my first published novel had to be a cowboy. Rest in peace, Marshal, and thank goodness those reruns still live on.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Zeke and Foo Foo's New Year's Resolutions
1-1-11
I'm wondering how many people across the country played those numbers in a lottery today? How many got married? How many babies were born on this day with its unusual set of numbers. Let's hope it's the first day of a number one year for us all.
While I'm not big on making resolutions for myself, I did decide on a few that I hope I'll be able to keep.
1) Write a lot.
2) Read a lot.
3) Eat less.
4) Stress less.
5)Complain less.
6) Let everything else take care of itself.
My dogs, on the other hand, came up with quite a few that I know they will have no problem keeping. So here they are, Zeke and Foo Foo's New Year's Resolutions for 2011.
1) Walk every day.
2) Eat as many liver treats as we can every day.
3) Bark enough to drive mom and dad crazy every day.
4) Keep marauding squirrels away from the bird feeders and if we chase away the birds, too, oh well.
5) Unstuff a few more of our toys and find the squeakers.
6) Did we mention walk every day?
7) Bark at every neighbor dog that walks by our house.
8) Steal each other’s rawhide chewies at every opportunity.
9) Beg for treats at every meal.
10) Be sure to get up in the middle of the night to go out, every night.
11) Stare out the window waiting for something to bark at or until we can walk, every day.
12) Wait for summer so we can hang out in the backyard and lie in wait for hapless gophers to wander in.
On this day of 1-1-11, summer seems a very long ways away, but then so did Christmas and New Year's Day, just a few short months ago.
Happy 2011 to all, wherever you may be! Let's hope it's a good one.
I'm wondering how many people across the country played those numbers in a lottery today? How many got married? How many babies were born on this day with its unusual set of numbers. Let's hope it's the first day of a number one year for us all.
While I'm not big on making resolutions for myself, I did decide on a few that I hope I'll be able to keep.
1) Write a lot.
2) Read a lot.
3) Eat less.
4) Stress less.
5)Complain less.
6) Let everything else take care of itself.
My dogs, on the other hand, came up with quite a few that I know they will have no problem keeping. So here they are, Zeke and Foo Foo's New Year's Resolutions for 2011.
1) Walk every day.
2) Eat as many liver treats as we can every day.
3) Bark enough to drive mom and dad crazy every day.
4) Keep marauding squirrels away from the bird feeders and if we chase away the birds, too, oh well.
5) Unstuff a few more of our toys and find the squeakers.
6) Did we mention walk every day?
7) Bark at every neighbor dog that walks by our house.
8) Steal each other’s rawhide chewies at every opportunity.
9) Beg for treats at every meal.
10) Be sure to get up in the middle of the night to go out, every night.
11) Stare out the window waiting for something to bark at or until we can walk, every day.
12) Wait for summer so we can hang out in the backyard and lie in wait for hapless gophers to wander in.
On this day of 1-1-11, summer seems a very long ways away, but then so did Christmas and New Year's Day, just a few short months ago.
Happy 2011 to all, wherever you may be! Let's hope it's a good one.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Forty-seven years on Thunder Lake
Forty-seven years ago, my mother bought a piece of property on a small lake in western Michigan. At the time, I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking, nor was I thrilled about spending time in what seemed like the wilderness to me. I wasn’t too far wrong about that. The property bordered the Manistee National Forest and the only access to the place was a dirt two-track road. At the age of 12, I couldn’t share her vision, but forty-seven years later, I have finally started to realize what she must have felt when she first stood here and looked out over this beautiful little lake.
Thunder Lake is a small jewel that even today is fairly remote from the rest of the bustling resort areas of Michigan. Wildlife is plentiful. Deer often come down to the water to drink. Blue herons stand on long elegant legs waiting to pluck breakfast from the shallows. An occasional porcupine may waddle down the road. This summer we heard there was an eagle at a neighboring lake, but we haven’t seen him yet.
The cabin that my mother helped build on her property is still standing, and in the summer you can sit out on the deck and look out at the water that shimmers and sparkles like diamonds in the sunlight. Summer can be hot and sticky with humidity from the lake, but most times a breeze drifts across the water bringing a lovely cool-down to the evening.
In spite of summers that are as sweet as tree-ripened fruit, my favorite time at the lake is in the fall when the trees change to towers of gold and flame. They reflect in the water, sometimes so perfectly that it’s hard to tell which way is up. This time of year the quiet is almost palpable and often the only sounds you hear are the leaves and acorns falling or a fish jumping in the lake.
I have to thank our place on Thunder Lake for getting me started writing. There was little else to do when we first came here; few other kids around my age. So I started writing in steno notebooks, stories that I made up about people who lived a long time ago. I still have those notebooks stashed somewhere, never having the heart to throw them away. I can still remember sitting in our camper and scribbling in them.
My mother passed away last year, and I don’t know what will ultimately become of her little cabin in the woods. It makes me sad to think that someday I may not be able to go there, but even if that day comes, I’ll still carry the memories with me, of the early morning fog lifting from the lake and the stillness of a loon gliding through the smooth-as-silver water.
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Thunder Lake is a small jewel that even today is fairly remote from the rest of the bustling resort areas of Michigan. Wildlife is plentiful. Deer often come down to the water to drink. Blue herons stand on long elegant legs waiting to pluck breakfast from the shallows. An occasional porcupine may waddle down the road. This summer we heard there was an eagle at a neighboring lake, but we haven’t seen him yet.
The cabin that my mother helped build on her property is still standing, and in the summer you can sit out on the deck and look out at the water that shimmers and sparkles like diamonds in the sunlight. Summer can be hot and sticky with humidity from the lake, but most times a breeze drifts across the water bringing a lovely cool-down to the evening.
In spite of summers that are as sweet as tree-ripened fruit, my favorite time at the lake is in the fall when the trees change to towers of gold and flame. They reflect in the water, sometimes so perfectly that it’s hard to tell which way is up. This time of year the quiet is almost palpable and often the only sounds you hear are the leaves and acorns falling or a fish jumping in the lake.
I have to thank our place on Thunder Lake for getting me started writing. There was little else to do when we first came here; few other kids around my age. So I started writing in steno notebooks, stories that I made up about people who lived a long time ago. I still have those notebooks stashed somewhere, never having the heart to throw them away. I can still remember sitting in our camper and scribbling in them.
My mother passed away last year, and I don’t know what will ultimately become of her little cabin in the woods. It makes me sad to think that someday I may not be able to go there, but even if that day comes, I’ll still carry the memories with me, of the early morning fog lifting from the lake and the stillness of a loon gliding through the smooth-as-silver water.
http://www.facebook.com/
Friday, November 26, 2010
Christmas Booksigning Bash!
75 Christian Authors * One Amazing Online Event
The Christian Review of Books in conjunction with CrossPurposes Bookstore
is excited to announce the first annual Christmas Book Signing Bash.
Beginning on the day after Thanksgiving and lasting ten days (26 November
- 7 December), this book signing will be an unprecedented online event. 75
of today’s favorite Christian Authors have come together to answer
questions, chat with their readers, and offer signed copies of their
books—all without leaving the comforts of home and hearth!
Readers can search by author, title, or genre at the Christian Review of
Books (www.ChristianReviewofBooks.com) and then follow the purchase links
to CrossPurposes Bookstore (www.CrossPurposesBooks.com) and buy autographed
copies of each book featured. The authors will sign the books and ship them
to the customers.
For a full list of participating authors, visit the CRoB.
xssss
The Christian Review of Books in conjunction with CrossPurposes Bookstore
is excited to announce the first annual Christmas Book Signing Bash.
Beginning on the day after Thanksgiving and lasting ten days (26 November
- 7 December), this book signing will be an unprecedented online event. 75
of today’s favorite Christian Authors have come together to answer
questions, chat with their readers, and offer signed copies of their
books—all without leaving the comforts of home and hearth!
Readers can search by author, title, or genre at the Christian Review of
Books (www.ChristianReviewofBooks.com) and then follow the purchase links
to CrossPurposes Bookstore (www.CrossPurposesBooks.com) and buy autographed
copies of each book featured. The authors will sign the books and ship them
to the customers.
For a full list of participating authors, visit the CRoB.
xssss
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Christmas Booksigning Bash!
Starting at midnight November 25, visit the online Christmas Booksigning Bash to shop for tons of autographed books by 75 different authors. What a great opportunity to find gifts without leaving the comfort of your favorite easy chair. No standing in line, no fighting the crowds, no chance that something will be sold out when you get there. Dozens of wonderful books will be available for your choosing, autographed by the authors and sent to you.
Please stop by and browse from now through December 7. You're sure to find a book for just about everyone on your shopping list. Just follow the link www.christianreviewofbooks.com
to begin your shopping experience.
Please stop by and browse from now through December 7. You're sure to find a book for just about everyone on your shopping list. Just follow the link www.christianreviewofbooks.com
to begin your shopping experience.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
November 10--a date I'll always remember
I've intended to start writing here again and can't believe it's been over a year. We all know what sometimes happens to good intentions, but I hope to be a good little blogger and update much more frequently. I'll call it my nearing-the-end-of-the-year resolution.
I was inspired to write today because November 10 will always be a date I remember. First, it was my dear mom's birthday, and who among us wants to forget that very special day? She left us last year, and I still miss her so much and wish every day I could hear some of those adages of hers...one of my favorites being, "Don't go outside after you wash your hair. That's why you get sick." But even if I can't hear her say it, in my heart it's always there, especially since I've probably repeated some of those momisms to my own kids over the years. I know heaven's a better place because she's there today.
But another reason this date always resonates with me is because of something that happened hundreds of miles away 35 years ago today. Today is the 35th anniversary of the loss of the freighter the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior "when the gales of November came early." (Gorden Lightfoot) I can still recall how those gales battered us here in southwest Michigan, which is about as far away as you can get from Lake Superior and still be in the state.
On November 10, 1975, I was a new mother and feeling as nervous and exhausted as any first-time mother may feel. My daughter was only a few weeks old and was having some new baby allergy issues that kept her fussy and unable to sleep. I'd hadn't been able to put her down for very long all day....and then the winds started.
Roaring in from the west and across Lake Michigan, they whipped around our small house, threatening it seemed to carry us all away. I remember just sat holding my baby and wishing the winds would stop.
Then, later that night, we heard it was feared a ship had been lost on Lake Superior far to our north. Eventually we learned it was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald that sank, taking with it 29 men, including a young man from our own area. What a sad and tragic event to happen on a scary November day. A year later, Gordon Lightfoot (one of my favorite singers) recorded his song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and when I first heard it on the radio, it brought back all the terror of that night and those terrible winds.
Over the years, I've become a collector of sorts of articles and information about that shipwreck and others on the Great Lakes. I have a folder stuffed with newspaper articles I've cut out and saved. Sometime ago we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula and saw the bell that had been brought up from the ship. I remember as I sat watching a video about a diver's investigation of the wreck, I spoke with a woman who had been there the night the freighter sank. She said it was a horrible thing and everyone who had a boat wanted to venture out into the storm to look for any survivors,but knew they were no match for the lake's fury. I heard the sadness in her voice and could only imagine the horror they must have felt, knowing they were helpless to do anything.
Maybe you have to live near the Great Lakes to fully appreciate how much they affect the people here, as those who live near the ocean are affected, and how anyone who ventures out onto the big lakes always takes a chance at being at their mercy.
So the bell at Whitefish Point will ring 29 times today in memory of those 29 men lost on November 10, 1975 and a 30th times for all the mariners lost on the Great Lakes. I will have a little moment of silence, maybe light a candle and say a prayer that all the mariners traveling the Great Lakes this November 10 may travel safely.
I was inspired to write today because November 10 will always be a date I remember. First, it was my dear mom's birthday, and who among us wants to forget that very special day? She left us last year, and I still miss her so much and wish every day I could hear some of those adages of hers...one of my favorites being, "Don't go outside after you wash your hair. That's why you get sick." But even if I can't hear her say it, in my heart it's always there, especially since I've probably repeated some of those momisms to my own kids over the years. I know heaven's a better place because she's there today.
But another reason this date always resonates with me is because of something that happened hundreds of miles away 35 years ago today. Today is the 35th anniversary of the loss of the freighter the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior "when the gales of November came early." (Gorden Lightfoot) I can still recall how those gales battered us here in southwest Michigan, which is about as far away as you can get from Lake Superior and still be in the state.
On November 10, 1975, I was a new mother and feeling as nervous and exhausted as any first-time mother may feel. My daughter was only a few weeks old and was having some new baby allergy issues that kept her fussy and unable to sleep. I'd hadn't been able to put her down for very long all day....and then the winds started.
Roaring in from the west and across Lake Michigan, they whipped around our small house, threatening it seemed to carry us all away. I remember just sat holding my baby and wishing the winds would stop.
Then, later that night, we heard it was feared a ship had been lost on Lake Superior far to our north. Eventually we learned it was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald that sank, taking with it 29 men, including a young man from our own area. What a sad and tragic event to happen on a scary November day. A year later, Gordon Lightfoot (one of my favorite singers) recorded his song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and when I first heard it on the radio, it brought back all the terror of that night and those terrible winds.
Over the years, I've become a collector of sorts of articles and information about that shipwreck and others on the Great Lakes. I have a folder stuffed with newspaper articles I've cut out and saved. Sometime ago we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula and saw the bell that had been brought up from the ship. I remember as I sat watching a video about a diver's investigation of the wreck, I spoke with a woman who had been there the night the freighter sank. She said it was a horrible thing and everyone who had a boat wanted to venture out into the storm to look for any survivors,but knew they were no match for the lake's fury. I heard the sadness in her voice and could only imagine the horror they must have felt, knowing they were helpless to do anything.
Maybe you have to live near the Great Lakes to fully appreciate how much they affect the people here, as those who live near the ocean are affected, and how anyone who ventures out onto the big lakes always takes a chance at being at their mercy.
So the bell at Whitefish Point will ring 29 times today in memory of those 29 men lost on November 10, 1975 and a 30th times for all the mariners lost on the Great Lakes. I will have a little moment of silence, maybe light a candle and say a prayer that all the mariners traveling the Great Lakes this November 10 may travel safely.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
This is Banned Books Week!
Every year the last week in September is designated Banned Books Week by the American Library Association. To help us celebrate our freedom to read, the ALA event this year is September 26-October 3.
Begun in 1982, Banned Books Week serves to remind us all of our intellectual freedom and the right to seek information and read what we choose. A challenged book means there has been an attempt to remove it somewhere. Banned means material was removed. Here is just a short list of some well-known challenged and/or banned books:
The Call of the Wild
The Lord of the Rings
The Great Gatsby
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Color Purple
1984
Gone With the Wind
Authors and readers alike need to guard this freedom and treasure it. That doesn't mean we all need to read or even like the same thing, but we must protect our right to write and read the books of our choosing. Remember to thank your friendly librarian and bookseller for helping promote and protect this right, and celebrate your freedom to read!
Every year the last week in September is designated Banned Books Week by the American Library Association. To help us celebrate our freedom to read, the ALA event this year is September 26-October 3.
Begun in 1982, Banned Books Week serves to remind us all of our intellectual freedom and the right to seek information and read what we choose. A challenged book means there has been an attempt to remove it somewhere. Banned means material was removed. Here is just a short list of some well-known challenged and/or banned books:
The Call of the Wild
The Lord of the Rings
The Great Gatsby
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Color Purple
1984
Gone With the Wind
Authors and readers alike need to guard this freedom and treasure it. That doesn't mean we all need to read or even like the same thing, but we must protect our right to write and read the books of our choosing. Remember to thank your friendly librarian and bookseller for helping promote and protect this right, and celebrate your freedom to read!
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