Cult [kǝlt] noun: A system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object, i.e., cast iron skillets; a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange, sinister or silly. I called it an error in judgment. My friends, or most of them, … More Cast iron cult
Sometimes the past comes back when you least expect it. It’s sneaky that way, always hooking in from the side like a punch you never see coming. One minute you’re standing there without a care in the world and the next you’re lying on the ground wondering how you got there. Lately I’ve been having … More The inescapable
According to a 1917 plat map of Shirley Township, Cloud County, the Kansas White Way followed its current route eastward from Concordia to cross the Republican River at Clyde with only one minor exception, a little dogleg north at the unincorporated town of Rice. Nothing on the map indicated a town there at … More Rust bonanza on Rust Road
Later, as the house fell silent except for the hum of the furnace, Lori turned to me and said, “Too bad about the chickens, I was hoping your family would be talking about them for years to come,” and I said, “Oh, they will. Those chickens will never be forgotten.” After … More Thankless birds
So little remains, so little is known. Or has irrevocably changed, so that what we now see is either a reflection, an alteration, an overlay or something entirely different. Determining which is which depends on historical research, guesswork, luck and lots of miles along the road. We were lucky, sometimes. And sometimes we weren’t. And, … More Relics of the road
105.5 (leaving Blue Rapids): Turn right (west), water tower on left. 105.8: Cross railroad tracks; turn left and then right two blocks; turn west windmill on right. – Official Log of the Kansas White Way If you want to get a feel for what early travelers faced on Kansas roads, one … More Windmill on right
I wish I’d known when we arrived in early evening at the Pawnee Indian Museum near Republic that my uncle Troy Parker used to impress upon girls that he was a direct descendant of Cynthia Ann Parker and the famous Parker clan of central Texas. He was well aware of the lie, my father told … More The once and future Kansas
Like other frontier folk, they were always on the move, relocating ever westward as settlements became too populous or their distinct brand of religion clashed with others, or for reasons known only to themselves. Sometimes the still, small voice of God called them forth and at others the land itself through earthquakes and … More Fateful journey into the wilderness for the Parker clan
I didn’t know what to expect, only that I’d dreaded the day for a decade or more, dreaded it with a passion that deepened with each heartbeat so that even as the minutes ran the clock and the dawn crept in no different than any other dawn in the last few millennia I … More Just another day on the outer rim of the galaxy
The sun teetered on the rim of the world before slipping beyond the curvature of the planet and still the big cow stood unmoving by the truck. Crouched several hundred yards away behind a clump of sumac I watched it and waited in the hopes that it would lose interest and move off, … More Home on the range
