“You Gave Me Dignity”

Jimmy Freeman and Tommy White at the scouting jamboree. Slept in the same sleeping bag. “Color didn’t rub off either one of them.”
When Jimmy returned to visit Pop he told him, “You gave me dignity. I can stand up with anyone and be proud.”

Village Wisdom: Anchors Series on Riehlife

“Anchors” refers to the people in the Melville community that were the heart of it as my father Erwin A. Thompson grew up and as he listened to the stories of older generations of the legends that were our heritage.
Here is a showcase of what Pop likes to call the “anchors” of the community [...]

Village Wisdom: Anchors (intro) by Erwin A. Thompson

Rebecca Pincas and her family hosted a gathering at the Edwardsville Library to share the labors of several yeras of hard and dedicated work. The subject: “The early history of Melville andi ts people.” Several of the old families were represented in the audience, who later became participants in the discussion [...]

Village Wisdom: Anchors: “Melville Neighbors,”by Erwin A. Thompson

In our family collection of books I found an old Bible, with the inscription: “Frank Riehl, Superintendent of the Melville Sunday School.”
One time my Uncle Ed Riehl and Aunt Amelia (Mim) Riehl were to play a violin duet for the church program. Aunt Mim was very shy, and not used to playing in public. [...]

Village Wisdom: Anchors, E. A. Riehl…by Erwin A. Thompson

Evergreen Heights, the place founded by E. A. Riehl and our homeplace still…where he communed with nature and forged paths to become one of the 8 premiere horticulturalist in the world at that time. E. A. Riehl was a pillar of the community, though known not to suffer fools gladly. The lane which ends in [...]

Birthday Brother, 62 years of happiness and helpingness: Gary Arthur Thompson

Gary and Patty Thompson
Happy birthday, Gary, as you celebrate 62 years of your happiness genius dedicated to being a good solid citizen, a good father and now grandfather and uncle and great-uncle and brother and son and husband, a good teacher, a good fix-it man (is hard to find)…a good human being.
Today my father [...]

Pig Farmer Kin Sayings

My mother’s father farmed pigs. Courtney Johnston loved his grandkids. As we ran to him, he’d welcome us in his arms with the endearment: “My little runts!”

You have to know that “the runt” is the littlest pig of the litter. And the youngest grandchild was ever his “runt.”
What we do shapes our language.
As descendents of [...]

Family Reunion: Kids Fishing

Family reunions were especially big for my father’s father, J. Arthur Thompson.
My brother Gary has taken up the family reunion mantle. He and his wife Patty host an annual family get-together at their lakeside home outside Jacksonville.
Besides the ample good food from the garden, joking around, hearing about the crops, the haying, the bullriding, the [...]

Thompson’s Western Tales Reviewed on Writers In the Sky

Click here to read Erwin A. Thompson Western Series book review.

Cattle Country and Back Trail: Two Tales from the Thompson Western Series
Erwin A. Thompson
ISBN: 0-595-40228-3
Publisher: iUniverse
$17.95 US
Reviewer: Gordon Randall

Buy on “Cattle Country and Back Trail” on Amazon by clicking here.
Randall begins his review by saying….”Turns out that Cattle Country and Back Trail by Erwin Thompson [...]

Riehlife Mississippi Floodstage Series Concludes with 12th post: nonegenarian looks back on lifetime of flooding

From July 4th to July 12th I’ve posted 12 entries written by Erwin A. Thompson giving a historical perspective on the Mississippi River floodstages through the years.
I sure hope you’ll have a chance to look through these as a series. It’s been a pleasure posting them. Hats off to my father, Erwin A. Thompson for [...]