Heartland Memories from David Lewis

Playing God http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/CatholicFish.mp3

A young woman and I were visiting the other day and she confessed to me that she was a Catholic. While I subscribe to no particular religion myself, I certainly begrudge no one else his or her faith, but she seemed apologetic at her confession, saying that she wasn’t even sure if […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/ToLikeOrNotToLike.mp3

A few months ago, I was approached by a young woman I have known for some time. She is only about half my age – a city girl, a secretary at a small business about 30 miles from where I lurk in the Missouri Outback.

“How long have you and Laura been married?” she […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/IslandGirl.mp3

Don Young was a ladies man. He had been a ladies man for as long as I’d known him – since about third grade. He was not a cad, not a heartbreaker, he did not kiss and tell. He simply loved women and they loved him back. Don was a year older than I, […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Chirp.mp3

I want a bird.

Before this goes any farther, I would like to thank all of you who have so unselfishly given me “the bird” over the years, especially the very nice lady in the grocery store parking lot last week, but this type of bird is the feathered variety.

I had a bird […]

Okay To Be a Kid http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Myrna.mp3

Her name was Myrna, and she was my favorite aunt. Myrna was a very accepting individual, as full of unconditional love as a cocker spaniel. From my earliest memories, she, her farm, and her family were the center of some of my happiest times. Myrna was a country woman, […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/StrangerInAStrangeLand.mp3

When I was a child, racial tension in my small hometown did not exist. There was no them, only us. Everybody was white. The caste system was in effect, to be sure, from the apex of the Caucasian ladder to the depths of the pale trash heap; but all of us were white. The […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/SnowDays.mp3

Many of us that live in rural areas of the Heartland suffer somewhat during heavy winter snowfalls. Unlike city dwellers, three inches of the white stuff usually doesn’t make us gnash our teeth and rend our flesh – we’re not civilized enough. Eight to 10 inches of it, however, can be inconvenient. When that […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/StopOrIllIll.mp3

Back in the days when I was a cop, my least favorite thing to do was writing traffic tickets, but, as a rookie waiting assignment to a real shift while languishing on the day trick, I was often forced into generating a little revenue for the city. Not that we had quotas – we […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/HomeforChristmas.mp3

About 10 years ago, for the first time in quite a while, I went home for Christmas. Well, that’s not exactly true. Home is where my wife and I live. I returned to where I spent my childhood, where I walked the river, hunted pheasants, stalked the elusive catfish, sledded on snow, skated on […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/TheTieTac.mp3

Christmas Eve. From the time I was a young child until my late 20s, I spent it at my favorite Aunt and Uncle’s farm. My Aunt Myrna and Uncle Wayne, their son Gayle and his family, my grandparents, my mother and stepfather, me, and in later times, my wife, all gathered every year. Entering […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Bethany.mp3

Her name is Bethany and she is a niece of a friend. I first met the young woman when she was about 8 years old – a loud, angular, elbowy girl. She was below average in looks, not superior in intellect, and seemed to have trouble relating to adults. She and I were not […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/ThereAreDreams.mp3

Because of some of my extracurricular activities, occasionally someone asks that I interpret a dream for them. I try not to. There are certain generalities that apply to dreams and what they mean, and different cultures interpret dreams differently. To the Plains Indians, for instance, animals in dreams have great meaning. A horse often […]

http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/FourLodges.mp3

His full name was “He-Who-is-Called-Four-Lodges-Are-His”. Over two decades ago, my wife and I spent many hours in his company during a four or five year period. We called him Four-Lodges or Grandfather, a term of respect – not relativity. He was an American Indian of the Sioux Nation and why he chose to spend […]