Heartland Memories from David Lewis

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

Bud Miller was born to lead. With 20 years service in the military, including the Korean War, when ex-Sergeant Miller retired and came home to our small town, he just couldn’t wait to get back in charge of something – and the Fire Department caught his eye. Our little volunteer fire department was […]

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

When I was young, every 4th of July, my grandfather would load us up and drive to the big fireworks display at the football stadium in a nearby city. He said the airborn bombs “put him in the mind of” World War One.

When the United States entered the First World War, my granddad […]

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

The young couple had two small children with them at the restaurant, and as I labored through my chicken fingers I watched the relationship of the family. It was different than most I see these days. There was no travel bag full of toys, no blizzard of techno-bliss, nor were the kids fussing or […]

Selling Dawn http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/YouGetWhatYouPayFor.mp3

Snobbery seeps into every facet of human endeavor, I think, even riding horses. Keeping equines at stables where they are cared for and have their stalls mucked by people hired for that very purpose, is an expensive proposition. Nevertheless, when I was in my early twenties, I made the financial commitment necessary […]

An Arresting Development http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/MeBillyandtheBulloftheWoods.mp3

When I first met Billy O’Neal I was just 21 years old, a rookie cop with less than one month on the street, full of high hopes and lofty aspirations as yet untarnished by the darker realities of my job. One fine June afternoon, I rode with another officer to the […]

Those Less Fortunate http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Kid.mp3

I never saw him wearing anything except a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and the ubiquitous boy’s footwear of the time – black and white Keds tennis shoes. He was a year or so older than I, but pale and smaller, with a shock of floppy blond hair. He lived with parents […]

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

Some time ago, my wife and I watched a rerun of a movie starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. “What Women Want” is a very enjoyable romantic comedy about a male chauvinist pig who can, all of a sudden, hear what women are thinking. It also caused Laura and me to do some thinking […]

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

As of this writing, it is May of 2010. There was a celebration at my house this morning. Last night was very stormy – heavy rain, excessive lightning, brutal winds – the temporary finale of several days of harsh weather that produced tornados in Oklahoma and Kansas, hail up to baseball size here and […]

The Taurus and the Bull http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Baby.mp3

Leslie Hallcraft smiled at me as he reached over the top rail of a board fence and scratched the back of an immense Charolais bull.

“This is Baby,” he beamed. “He’s just as sweet as he can be…yes, he is!”

Les was my landlord. In the outback of the […]

Passing the Torch http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/LevisLegacy.mp3

[Editor’s note: This piece was not originally produced for this web site. As such, the format (music, style, etc.) differs from the other posts here.]

Roger and Sharon Sigler have lived in a rural portion of the Kansas City area for nearly three decades, and, for many of those years, their […]

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

In the mid through late 70s, I lived in almost Arkansas, Missouri – an area that is steeped in tradition, clannishness, and ticks. Outsiders are viewed there with a significant amount of suspicion, and not a small amount of predation. Unless you were born in almost Arkansas, of parents from almost Arkansas, you would […]

Planting the Seed http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/OnceUponATime.mp3

“Got a minute?” he asked.

I’d seen him around the area for the past few days. He was busy, landscaping mostly – installing water features, planting trees. He was a hard worker, and so old I couldn’t even guess at his age. It didn’t seem to affect him. He labored like […]

When Will It End? http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/Age.mp3

I’m getting old. I know that I’m getting old – that’s no big secret – but I was reminded of that ugly fact recently when I realized that I need a computer monitor slightly larger than a picture window. The one I have just isn’t big enough anymore – or […]