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Riehl’s story “Driving Lessons” is Editor’s Choice this week at Traveler’s Tales
This spring my story “Driving Lessons” won Bronze Award for Family Travel in the First Annual Solas Awards sponsored by Travelers Tales. If you missed “Driving Lessons” the first time, read it on the Travelers Tale site by clicking here for “Janet Riehl’s Flying Carpet Tales”. Their tagline for the story is “The lessons of…
“Our Heritage,” a landmark poem by Erwin A. Thompson
Persimmon, sasafrass, and ash Reclaim the land that once was theirs. “Submarginal”, the experts say. Once, hillside plows were used to turn The fertile ground. It nurtured, and produced the crops, Sustained, with money crops, and food The pioneers. They didn’t have a guarantee of annual wage. Their maps, drawn out with pointed sticks In…
Revolving Loan Fund as Model…and Dedication for the Riehl Family who saved my father’s life and raised him up…from Erwin A. Thompson
My father, with typical generosity, is setting up a revolving loan fund at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. When I was growing up this was a girl’s school called “Monticello” and underneath its current layer there will always be this other layer for me…what I term the archeology of memory and emotion….
(Pop on Monday) Part 1: “Sometimes It Pays to Be Generous,” by Erwin A. Thompson
This is the first of a two-part article by my father Erwin A. Thompson on the theme of generosity. Read Part 2 of “Sometimes It Pays to Be Generous” on Riehlife. –Janet *** *** *** Sometimes it pays to be generous. (And as a personal reward, it is a pleasant way to live) I have…
“Flooding and Farming” by Erwin A. Thompson
It’s that time of year. Will it flood? If so, how high? My father’s history of what it was like to farm around th floods gives us some good historical context. –Janet As I grew up I was aware of the river’s “flood stage,” but only as a matter of interest, not survival. The Riehl…
“Jimmie Freeman Came Today,” a new poem by Erwin A. Thompson tells the journey from slavery to property owner for one neighborhood family
Erwin A. Thompson, my father, is the grandson of E. A. Riehl, who helped Sandy Freeman and his wife with the transition of moving from the bonds of slavery to the dignity of free people working for wages, bargaining for specified compensation for certain accomplishments, and becoming property owners. Pop wrote this poem after Jimmie…