This past week I participated in a writing workshop titled “Nonfiction and the Archeology of Memory,” taught by Joni Tevis. Joni’s website, http://www.jonitevis.com/ Joni’s class was a perfect fit for the project I am working on, reconstructing our family’s past from the wealth of primary documents I have. The biggest takeaway was when Joni told …
Memorial Day Speech, American Legion, Bagley, Minnesota PTSD and Writing our Stories
I was honored to be guest speaker. I was surprised at the large crowd on such an overcast windy morning. It was refreshing to see youth groups participating in the memorial service. Bagley residents should be proud of the tribute they pay their veterans. Click on the title and listen to the 11 minute talk. …
Memorial Day
On May 27, 2013 at 10:30AM, I am honored to be guest speaker for the American Legion, Bagley, Minnesota. Each year on the last Monday of May we honor the memory of those who have served our country and gone before us. In the 1990s World War II veterans often stopped by to visit with …
My Maternal Grandparent’s Wedding at the Fratt Mansion, Everett, Washington, December 10, 1917
The wedding photo is interesting because the painting in the background, titled, “Portrait of a Young Girl,” by Simon Harmon Vedder, 1890, was passed down to my mother. Sadly, it had to be sold to settle her estate debt in 2010. This weekend as I thumbed through a 1918 address book I realized that it …
Chickenhouse Chronicles: Early Warning Signs of Schizophrenia
My Aunt Polly and Grandmother Elsie Philips, circa 1939, in Darien, Conn. This past week we’ve been studying schizophrenia in the psychology class I’m taking at BSU. Schizophrenia often manifests itself in late teens and early twenties. This evening I was reading some of my grandfather’s letters and discovered this one, where he discusses Polly’s …
Chickenhouse Chronicles: 1950 Holy Land Visit
My great grandmother, Katherine Thomas Philips, had a younger sister named Alice, who married Edmund Garstin. They had two daughters: The eldest, Martha “Pattie” Thomas Garstin, born 1888, died in a mental institution, Normansfield Hospital, Teddington, in 1935. The second daughter, Eloise “Emily” Thomas Garstin, was born in 1889 and died in 1970. Eloise, a name …
Chickenhouse Chronicles: WWII Letter about my Grandfather’s Ship sinking
I discovered this terribly water-stained letter in a packet I am currently reading. The tone of the letter seems fatalistic. Frederick Pierce, the author, has a son on a coastal patrol craft in the Mediterranean—perhaps one of WWII’s famed PT Boats. Fred Pierce is my great uncle, an elusive link to our past. The Pierce family …
Chickenhouse Chronicles: Whidbey Island, Washington
My great grandfather, Calvin Philips, owned several thousand acres on Whidbey Island, Washington in the early 1900s. Over the course of several decades it was sold. Today his original Greenbank Dairy Farm is a community center. http://greenbankfarm.biz/history/ Ironically, I craweled across the the Naval Base land he once owned during my SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape) training …
Operation Comfort Warriors Donation
American Legion National Commander Jim Koutz, I had the honor of meeting you while you were visiting Bemidji, Minnesota. I donate this case (24 books) of Muddy Jungle Rivers for your Operation Comfort Warriors program. Feel free to use the books in whichever way you think most fitting. (Mailed to National Headquarters …