“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” – Edgar Allan Poe. Poe published this unforgettable poem in 1845. Using words […]

Sunset Thoughts
Ambling through my yard just after sunset, I heard a tree frog, a spring peeper, but I never did see him. These interesting little creatures have big voices. They also employ the subtle art of camouflage, so it’s hard to ever see one. Their feet acting as suction cups, they stick onto tree bark, […]

It’s a Wild Life
Yesterday, we were blessed with missing the baseball-size hailstones that fell in parts of Arkansas. We had a thunderstorm, it blew over, then last night, a re-run. This time, I don’t think there was hail anywhere. So, my trusty camera and I (and Nemo, of course) in between storms, strolled through the back yard. We […]

Shadowy, Significant Clues
We all like to find them, don’t we? It’s sort of an aha! moment to run across something significant when reading a mystery. But, beware. Sometimes what looks like a clue isn’t a clue. It’s merely a red herring that a sly and devious author has dragged across the path, to turn you in another […]

The Merciless Wind, Part II
This is the second and final installment of my May 5, 1985 Daily Press article about the tornado which destroyed Peggs, Oklahoma on May 2, 1920. In 1920, Walter Neel lived with his parents, brothers and sisters on the Gid Morgan farm, two and a fourth miles southeast of Peggs. The storm went a […]

The Merciless Wind, Part I
Since this is the 100 year anniversary of the Peggs tornado, and although I re-published it last year at this time, I do so again today. For a time, I wrote feature stories for The Tahlequah Daily Press. On May 5, 1985, The Press published an article I wrote about the tornado that destroyed Peggs, […]

