The Habit

“Now I trust you two with this chore,” he said to we two boys.  “Don’t let me down.”  With that he climbed into the cab of his pick-up and drove off.  He was nothing but a trail of dust before either of us moved. We looked at each other and then around at the camp with its …

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The Coyote and the Cave

It was the President's Day weekend and I had all three days off. So I decided to spend it hiking some of the rugged back country west of U.S. 95 and the Veterans Memorial Highway. My plan was to venture around in a couple of the canyons along the mountainside, taking pictures and doing a …

King of the Mountain

My sister, Deirdre, was in sixth grade and had been released from class for recess late in the afternoon. At that time jus' past the swings and slide on the playground of Margaret Keating School, was a large tire that the kids used for a game called king-of-the-mountain. Deirdre writes, “I suddenly found myself king -- but it …

The Improved Order of the Red Man

Grandma’s house sat vacant for nearly two winters after her death.  It had been a house that her husband and father had built many years ago and everyone in the family felt it was a shame to see that house sitting empty and quiet. Soon it was decided that the house should be repaired and rented …

Amid the Pages — History

Shortly after Mary's father passed away, she and her siblings got together for a week and packed up the old man’s home. The four children decided to split most everything like the furniture, pictures and art. However, a number of books including school texts, compendiums of family history on her mother’s side and a bunch …

Moving Chairs

There are times when something simple can cause me no-end of concern. Take for example this story..." For the last two or maybe three weeks I have been fighting a losing battle with a chair from the dinner table that seems to move on its own. It suddenly started doing this after I removed the …

Thunder Slapped

One of the things I used to dread about going to Margaret Keating School when I was in the eighth grade...our teacher, Mr. Tom Brown. Not only did he scare me, he also tended to scare others in the class. Case in point was the early afternoon a girl in our class fell asleep. Marisol …

Unexpected Justice

Kyle called to tell me he had spoke with 9-1-1 because he believed our neighbors, Mike and Bridget Smith were being robbed. He said he was worried as one of the robbers had looked right at him as he watched the man come and go from the house a couple of times. I was stuck …

Nevada Governor’s Staff Salaries Released

Certain things get caught in my craw and I jus' can't seem to cough them up. One is this Nevada news item: "Nevada lawmakers will be able to workout during the upcoming legislative session thanks to new exercise equipment installed in an empty office on the third floor of the state's legislature building. The two …

Chuck Hartwick, 1959-2011

The Denny's was fairly empty at the time I entered and sat down for a cup of coffee and a burger. That's because it was somewhere between morning breakfast and noon-time lunch. Shortly after I sat down and ordered my meal, in the door came a man I knew only by the name, Red. He …

Disconnect

University of Nevada Las Vegas president Neal Smatresk says the school is on the brink of financial collapse. He claims Governor Brian Sandoval's proposal to cut nearly $48 million from the schools' budget could force it to declare financial exigency, a move compared to declaring bankruptcy. However, Nevada university regents gave Majestic Realty, the developer …

Wedekind City, Nevada: A Brief History

Prior to renaming my weblog the more amiable, "Once Upon a Wednesday," I had called it, "The Wedekind City Manipulator." I did so as a take off the "Wabuska Mangler," a Nevada newspaper that never really existed, but was invented by Sam Post Davis, then editor of the Nevada Appeal to help boost sales of …

To Live on the Edge

Uncle shook his head sideways and asked, “Any idea where the hell they could be?” Then he clucked his tongue and his young gelding moved forward onto the trail. I followed along behind him, saying nothing. I had long come to realize that Uncle was asking himself more than anyone else a question and the …

The Apartment Below

After leaving the Marine Corps, I found myself obsessing over why I had lived and why others died. My obsession took the form of writing a few stories in which I was killed. It was my way of coping, until I finally got up enough courage to ask for help.  I eventually learned this was "survivors guilt." …

My Moon Rock

It was jus’ sitting in the sandy earth as I walked by it. At first, I thought it was a piece of plastic or perhaps colored glass or maybe a bit of ceramic. I picked it up, discovering it was a rock. Its layers of color jus’ didn’t look natural, especially the light blue one. …

Window

After visiting Dad's grave in the national cemetery, I decided to drive up the road to the row of old barracks. I had been there once before and was looking forward to visiting the grounds again. Barracks Row as it is locally known was home to the 10th Regiment of Cavalry. They were composed of Black …

Humanities U.S. 101

I blew into my cupped hands, and then rubbed them together to help shake off the early morning chill. The fog was hanging low to the ground and it added to my sense of cold as I waited for my VW Bug to warm up. I had a ninety-seven mile trip to make on U.S. …

Machete’ Verses Entrenching Tool

I heard the call, “Corpsman,” and I came rushing to the aid of the stricken Lance Corporal. He was shot through the calf of his right leg as he worked to deepen the fighting hole we now found ourselves huddled in. Also in the hole, which was more of a trench, was a Corporal. The …

Susie Robison-Morris, 1962-2011

Every school day, I rode the bus to Del Norte High School. And nearly everyday for two-years, I watched as Susie Robison got on the bus at the entrance of Mill Creek State Park. That was the extent of my interaction with Susie. From where I sat, she was painfully shy, with her head slightly …

Disappearing Baby

It was a fairly warm springtime afternoon day. That’s why I propped the front door open as I relaxed on the futon couch while watching my infant son, Kyle sleeping on the blanket in the middle of the apartment floor. I smiled realizing how lucky I was to have such a precious baby boy. Before long …

Tura Jurman, 1938-2011

Here was this voluptuous woman with both a commanding and yet feminine mystic to her and I wasn’t sure what to make of her. I was working a loss-prevention for an antiques store at the Reno Hilton and her, a Security Officer for the hotel/casino. Bold as day, she marched up to me and introduced …

The Unclutter Plan

For the last month or so I've been trying to remove much of the clutter in my life. One of my uncluttering tactics involves moving much of what I've written over the last 41-years from paper to digital material. This involves not only a lot of typing of stories word-for-word, it also involves much editing. Over the …

Carbonated Capture

It had seemed unbearably hot in the truck as I drove Highway 299 from the coast to the center of northern California. It was made worse by the fact that the old Chevy had no air conditioning and every few miles there was a halt in traffic for road construction. What was normally a four …

Cabin on Lake Earl

It took me nearly three hours to get the old claw tub up on the front porch of the cabin by myself. I decided to take a break. I sat down, dangling my legs off the front edge of the porch, thinking back on the last year. It was rainy the day I found the …

Pritchard Johnson’s Boots

Pritchard Johnson died at the age of ninety-three. He was born before the turn of the century and made a living working as a cowboy and farmer. He used to say, “I can still make out good horse-flesh even with my old worn out eyes.” Some folks thought it was just an old man bragging …

The Cop and the Cupcake

Mom had been busy in the kitchen all morning long. She was like that when it came to Thanksgiving dinner. Dad lounged in front of the new color television set with Deputy Walt Woodstock as Marcy, Deirdre and Adam ran around outside playing. I sat on the swing set, watched Dad and Walt through the …

Born in a Barn

The 12-man squad spread out along the eastern edge of their pick-up point. They remained low in the foliage, in order to stay out of sight of enemy patrols operating in the area. The squad knew they were more than a day early for their rendezvous with the C-130 Hercules that was scheduled to take …

A Box Turtle in a Bag

The sun was setting in the Oklahoma sky as we drove towards Tulsa from the smaller town of Muskogee. It had been the first time Kyle had ever been to the town in which his Grandpa Tom had grown up and later died. Now he and I were returning to our hotel room after a full days …

Charlie Wind

A warm, rose-pink filed the western sky as the sun set itself deep into the Pacific Ocean.  The color reflected itself in the rippling of the river which Doc found himself greatly guiding the large gray mare alongside.  The sound of the horse’s hooves echoed with the natural sounds of the inland gulls and flow …

The Cat in the Crawl Space

It was nearing the end of summer when one evening I saw what I thought was a cat jump over our backyard fence and dash towards the corner of our home. I quickly ran after it only to see it disappear in the crawl space under the house. So I rushed to our rumpus room where …