Poetry

It is inanimate, a piece of wood Fashioned, glued, with strings Tightly strung from scroll To tail-gut. It is taut, stable In tension, vibrant, nervous But still, until I take it in my hands And give it life. It takes My soul and is more truly me Than voice, or laugh, or kiss, Or even […]

My father-in-law feeds the birds 1953 After we kids left, my father-in-law wrote: “Dear Kids, Do you know that it seems terribly lonely around here already? before Sun-Down last night every scrap of waffle and leftovers had disappeared. So, I put out some more scraps and this morning was a host to the usual sparrows, […]

I saved this from an old newspaper so I can’t tell the date but here is what the editor of a Chicago newspaper wrote: J. Louis Guyon, proprietor of the largest public dance hall in the Midwest, said today “he would urge dance hall operators in the country to place a ban on the Shimmy, […]

They drained and cleaned the Y pool because a little kid pooped in it. Well, OK. But I think of our sweet little Vermont lake filled with fish that poop, turtles, ducks, geese, loons, frogs, clams, snails, beavers, and all manner of other critters including little kids at the public beach. Should we drain our […]

The Farmer in the Dell How many below are familiar to you? Pom-Pom Pullaway; Capture the Flag; Kick the Can; Duck, Duck, Goose; London Bridge, Drop the Handkerchief, Hopscotch, Mumblety-Peg, Red Light Green Light, Fox and Geese, Tug-of-War, Marbles and Jacks If a number on this list are, you are an oldster! 2024 Jacqueline Jackson

My mother was very bright my mother’s older sister was very bright my mother’s brother died as a drunk, a mutual cousin asked “With both our mothers so brilliant, how come  our Uncle Horace wasn’t?” I wrote back to her, “Uncle Horace was almost certainly as bright as his sisters but he was gassed in the […]

Analysis Lake Lawn, at Delavan Lake, once had a long amusement pier with an odd assortment of booths. I went there with a group once and paid to have my handwriting analyzed by a wizened little guy. I wrote a sentence for him he studied it up and down, backwards and forwards, then he pronounced […]

Family Story Never Forgot   My little brother spoke with a pre-school lisp. Our Mother said to him once, after he’d committed some small misdemeanor, “Craig, why can’t you be a good little boy?”  He replied solemnly, “Mommy, little boys have to be good some of the time and little  boys have to be bad some […]

I Wisht I Was a Little Rock  An American Mother Goose Jingle  We little Dougan kids laughed as many times as we would hear Grampa Dougan shout this verse: It was on a little plaque  by the front door of the Big House before  1930. “I wisht I was a little rock  A-settn’ on a […]

Nellie Kedzie Jones My dad occasionally used to sing  five notes with the words “Nellie Kedzie  Jones” I never asked about it but in recent  years I’ve remembered those notes and  wondered what was the name, and why.  Just now I’ve found a condolence letter to  Grandma on the death of Grandpa from – guess […]

I spent a college summer as a counselor at a nearby camp – the director said I could bring my goat who proved very popular with the campers. We couldn’t supervise her though when we were all in the mess hall; she bleated plaintively outside awaiting us.  One visitors’ day I hurried out to find an […]