Heartland Memories from David Lewis

Here Kitty, Kitty http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/TheSmellWillTell.mp3

I never did understand why Steve Seymour wanted a skunk. When I was small, my Uncle Floyd had a skunk, de-scented, that lived in the house with him and his wife, Flo. It was a low-slung, black waddle with white stripes that would occasionally scuttle out from under the […]

Down and Dirty http://heartlandmemories.com/bits/AugustAfternoon.mp3

It was hot, heavy, and humid at about three o’clock on that August afternoon. The air was totally calm, the sky slightly hazy, and I crouched in the dust, sweat rolling in muddy trickles down the back of my neck, a mask held tightly to my face by straps over and […]

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 […]

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/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 […]

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

Don Brook wore his time in the Marine Corps like a gold medallion around his neck. Ten years after he left the armed services, Paris Island’s scent was still fresh in his nostrils. While Brook had never actually seen combat and had been in “The Corps” only a few months, discharged because of the […]

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

Please excuse the arrangement of verbiage in this piece. I have an idea how I’d like it to end, but no real concept of how to get there and will ramble, I’m afraid. I ask your patience as I free-associate a bit. Relax. It shouldn’t take too long.

Mark Twain once commented that some […]

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

Once upon a time I lived in Almost Arkansas, Missouri. In spite of how bizarre some southern Missouri towns are named, you will not find Almost Arkansas on any map, but it is there. I’ve seen it. Unlike the mythical “Lake Woebegon”, Almost Arkansas exists. Sid, a German shepherd who brought home his own […]

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

He was about 6½ feet tall, weighed maybe 280 pounds, and had straight blue-black hair to below his waist. He looked down at me through hard dark brown eyes from a walnut face and said, “You’re white. Where’d you get that necklace?”

He was referring to a Native American, deer-bone hair pipe, four-strand choker […]