Heartland Memories from David Lewis

Telling and Dwelling http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Memories.mp3

I watched a movie the other night called “Doc Hollywood” and enjoyed it a great deal for the fifth or sixth time. No guns, no standoffs, no raging mutant android cross-dressing Cyclops stalking the countryside – just a young, hotshot surgeon trapped for a time in small-town America.

Musing after the […]

Don’t Look Before You Leap http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/HellOfARide.mp3

When I was a kid, parents worried about their children, but safety was not the multi-billion dollar concern that looms over us today. Car seats were unheard of, we skated and rode bicycles without the smallest bit of padding, and were actually allowed to leave the house without dressing […]

Can You Canoe? http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/FloatYourBoat.mp3

Mammoth Spring, Arkansas is a small community near the Missouri state line. Ozark-outbackian in nature, it has two claims to fame. Number one, it is rumored to have been approached, many years ago, by entrepreneurs looking for a country site on which to launch a new venture in the music industry […]

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

The four of us – Ron, Eddie, Roy, and yours truly – stood a few yards downstream from Dam Four and looked at the river. In normal times, we would have been on a rock outcrop about 15 feet above its sleepy green translucent flow. In normal times, we would have looked down into […]

Love’s Illusions I recall http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Unrequited.mp3

She was a vision. Petite, with dark brown hair in a pageboy cut, her gentle rippling laugh flitted on the wind like a butterfly, its fragile wings caressing all who heard it with tender purpose. Arching brows highlighted dark eyes that could delight or accuse in the same glance; eyes […]

Double Indemnity http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/MyTwoWives.mp3

As it happens sometimes in my narrow life, a friend started me to think. It was when she spoke of her wedding, her husband in his rented tux and she in her linen suit with dyed-to-match heels setting off on their road of life together many years ago – and some of […]

Kill the Bass Drummer http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/CmonBoys.mp3

I want to start this piece by saying that I have a great deal of respect for those men and women who have served or are serving our country in the military. My grandfather fought in France and Germany during World War I, my father on Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal […]

Clipping and Flipping http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/YardWork.mp3

There are those to whom mowing grass is a gas, but I find a lawn a yawn. Some feel that heaven is clipping a hedge, but I’d rather camp on a skyscraper’s ledge. Many find flowers their cup of tea, but a dandelion can get the best of me.

It shouldn’t […]

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

His name was Tim Koss, a Lieutenant of detectives when I was a rookie police officer. Koss was a tall, distinguished-looking man in the mode of Cary Grant or Stewart Granger, prone to monogrammed cardigan sweaters, subtle jewelry, and expensive footwear. There was a reserved elegance about him that women were drawn to and […]

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

When I was a young man, I attended official cop school. Week after week, after week, after week, a select number of young valiants such as I were sequestered from the world, the victims of excessive indoctrination and instruction into the art and function of being police officers. An amazing amount of subjects were […]

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

I’m sure many if not even most of you out there lay awake nights wondering why I choose to spend the vast majority of my time sequestered away from civilization in the company only of Digger the outstanding dog, Clancy the incredible dog, Grizz the irritating cat, and Laura the coveted wife. What could […]

Attitude In Red http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/ElRojo.mp3

His name was “El Rojo”. He was a rooster. I got him from Jeremiah Mavis when I lived in “Almost Arkansas”, Missouri. Jeremiah Mavis was an Arkansas Ridge Runner. Big, raw-boned, and redheaded, he was of hearty Ozark stock. His biggest claim to fame were his wife’s newly-installed breasts and a […]

Too Tall, Big Fall http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/JackpineJolly.mp3

His name was Roger Brooks, but we just called him Jolly. We called him Jolly partially because of “Jolly Roger” and partially because the Jolly Green Giant was popular in those days and Jolly was a little over 6 feet 7 inches tall, and partially because everybody had nicknames in […]