I forgot to mention...forgot to mention Memphis.

Another brief blog post because I'm still on vacation. I'll post a more complete rundown of my thoughts on St. Louis, Memphis, and Nashville when I get home.

Until then, here's five things that have impacted me during these past 4 days.

1. I've been told there are beautiful stretches of Missouri and Arkansas. These, I did not see. Saw a whole lot of this>>>

2. Visiting the Lorraine Motel was like stepping back in time. Seeing the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot brought back a flood of memories. As a 6 year old, I still remember it from the news.



3. The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis was an unpleasant reminder of some of our country's past injustices including slavery, Jim Crow laws and segregation.

4. They sure know how to do food in the south.

5. Met up with some Facebook friends for dinner a couple of nights ago. Nathan is the youngest of 9 children and his sister went to school with Donna. The two hooked up through Facebook and eventually his wife, who is a writer, friended me. Since following each other we've come to know them and vice verse. When we met, it was like getting together with old friends.

That's it for now, because, well I'm on vacation.

Blogging off...

http://www.metrolyrics.com/cities-lyrics-talking-heads.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Portal To The Past

Image
It is a warm August evening in 1989 and my girlfriend and I are sitting at the bar of Wolski's Tavern on the lower East side of Milwaukee. We are awaiting our friend, Bill, for a couple of drinks and maybe a game of darts, the real steel-tipped kind with chalkboard scoring. The music system, complete with octagonal shaped speakers that hang from the ceiling, belts out hits of the day by REM, New Order and The Cure. Flags of foreign countries and other places cover the ceiling in parachute fashion and the cash register is the old fashioned kind whose keys requires a two handed forceful push, followed by the drawer opening and a ca-ching. Everything about the place has an old Milwaukee feel to it and it is a recent favorite haunt of mine since I moved to the East Side. I am drinking a Point Beer because it's cheap and a nice change from Miller products. Donna is on her second or third Gin and Tonic and is getting that dreamy look in her eyes. She has a bit of a grin on her face
Read more

Genetically Blogging

Image
It seems I have another book in the books, so to speak. I finally got my cover for my newest chapbook, Genetically Speaking: Poems on Fatherhood , from my publisher, Local Gems Press. After the last of my textual edits, they've sent it off to press and I should be receiving my copies in three weeks. Huzzah! For those who don't know, my other collection, Thoughts from a Line at the DMV , came out a couple of weeks ago. (It's been a very good year). I was waiting for this one to come to completion so I could schedule a dual-book release in November. Watch for details on that, tentatively pending for Nov. 16th or 23rd. The book came about through a NaPoWriMo contest by Local Gems Press back in April. Poets are encouraged/obligated to write a poem a day for the whole month. Then, at the end of the month, we were supposed to submit our manuscripts for consideration. I was a "honorable mention" that also got an offer of publication. Thus, Genetically Speaking was
Read more

A Day Unlike Other Days

I celebrated my 58th birthday a few days ago. As one gets older, birthdays are more and more just another day at work, albeit with a little special edge to it. This one was no different. It was one of those days where work was one meeting after another with a holiday party thrown in at the noon hour to make it just a little more upside down. The nice thing about the busyness was it made the day go by quickly. But as I said, there were some things that made it special, like: Cupcakes from my wife for both the GIS staff and the County Christmas party. Everyone deserves cake (or pie) on their birthday.  A text from my daughter wishing me a happy birthday. A call from Ben in Madison, wishing me the same. When I got home a gift from Sarah awaited; a much-needed pair of slippers! Over 100 Facebook birthday wishes. There is much to hate about social media and Facebook in particular, but it does serve this purpose very well. I very much appreciate my Facebook friends and love scrolli
Read more