When your birthplace is designated a superfund site, you truly can’t go home again. If you ask my father where he comes from, he would say Joplin, Missouri. He lived there from a relatively young age, graduating from Joplin High School. Sometime after he graduated, my grandparents moved to Lawrence, Kansas. I remember visiting them… Continue reading Picher: “America’s Most Toxic Town”
My granduncle's car saw the country, well after his death. Tasked with writing about something "long-lasting" with regard to my ancestors, I thought that I had a compelling subject. In researching the essay, however, I discovered that the story I remembered was not the real story. My granduncle James Williamson (1912-1981) died when I was… Continue reading A Three-Generation “Hand Me Down”
In the 1960s, 1970s, and before, family members’ previous marriage(s) were rarely discussed. When I was in elementary school, there was a locally-produced children's television show called Uncle Zeb's Cartoon Camp. It aired from 1969 to 1979 and was broadcast live from KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, every weekday afternoon. Uncle Zeb, portrayed by Carl Bartholomew;Child… Continue reading Do Not Utter a Word
