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 [...]

Pop’s Come Back at Home

It’s been no time at all since Pop’s return from the hospital. We can say two things for certain:
First, he’s still his indomitable self, blessing the world a little longer with his presence: playing music, finding the true game in hide-and-seek with his 8 year-old great grand daughter (namely…pretend not to find, while clearly finding!), [...]

Pop Home from Hospital! Halleluyah!

In the hospital Pop received callers–visitors and staff–as if he were a host in an elegant drawing room clad in a dressing gown instead of hospital regulation. But, the last night before he left after a 5 1/2 day stay, he didn’t sleep until 4 p.m. “It’s the strain of it all,” he told me. [...]

Inspiring Day at the Hospital with Pop and His Court

I spent yesterday at the hospital with my father (who experienced a small heart attack early Sunday morning) and my niece, Diane, who holds his medical records with meticulous care and kindness.
We have a division of family labor in creating a team to support my father’s ability to live alone. The medical portfolio belongs to [...]

Blog Action Day: Poverty in the Great Depression. “The Kind of People that We Are”—a poem by Erwin A. Thompson

Blog Action Day is today, with a focus on Poverty. Currently 9,394 Sites with an audience with more than 10,612,112 readers are registered in Blog Action Day 2008. Last year, I participated when bloggers focused on the Environment.
Read my post on how it’s “Easy to be green at the Carelton Hotel in San [...]

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 [...]

Riehl’s Writer Story on “How We Became Writers”

Joel Heffner is a man of many projects. One of his really fun ones is a site called “How We Became Writers: This is how we did it.”
He’s just posted my story of how I became a writer which includes my poem “Scribbler,” from “Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary.”

You can read the entire post by [...]

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 [...]