EVERGREEN HEIGHTS LAYOUT: The Hilltop & Bottom Lands…and the Field Roads HILLTOP A lesson in the topography of our property would be helpful in understanding how these changes in river levels affected us and the community. The Riehl farm at that time consisted of a hundred and fifty four acres. The original farm house (the…
Riehlife’s FLOODSTAGE SERIES continues with Erwin A. Thompson’s explanation of sandbagging, pumps and dumps, and fixing up houses after the water goes down. –JGR ________________________________________ In 1993 we had what they called the “five hundred year flood.” SANDBAGGING We tried sand bagging, there in the East Bottom, and it worked for awhile. But there are…
DOG MIKE by Erwin and Ruth Thompson
The folks around here have been nervous, not knowing. It is hard to realize, but we do not have a tenant that was here during the 1993 flood. Of course the predicted crests are never guaranteed. The predicted crest has been changed upward several times this year, and no doubt would have been higher except…
River Bluffs I have lived on the bluffs that overlook the Mississippi River for all but the first nine months of my life. The family owned a good pair of field glasses, and they were one of my great experiences, to look through them and watch things like the building of the rafts when they…
Floods — 1903, 1943, 1973, 1993, and then add fifteen years Of course, this is an attempt to put “A little humor” into a series of tragedies. Obviously there have been other floods in years that did not end with a three. It seemed appropriate that I preface my review of the floods with a…
At dinnertime recently, my father recalled this story, and I asked him to share it with us. What follows is his author’s note from his novel “The Upper Crust.” —JGR _______________________________ Pie! THE UPPER CRUST An explanation of the title might be helpful. I was raised by three maiden aunts and my maternal grandfather. They…
Photo by Susan J. Tweit I’ve gone to several visitations and memorial services with my father this past year since I’ve moved back to the Midwest. Recently, we lost one of my cousins in a rather haunting death. In thinking ahead to her memorial day at the cemetery, we began discussing the purpose of these…
Photo by Susan Tweit. Susan calls this “Old Home Place” peony because it came from her mother-in-law’s childhood home in Possum Valley, Arkansas. “It’s doing fine here at 7,000 feet in the southern Rocky Mountains, but sometimes I wonder if it doesn’t wonder how it got here!” Susan says. PEONY HARVEST by Erwin A. Thompson…
My father woke up in the night last week with part of this poem in his mind and walked into his dining room office to write it down on a construction clipboard on blue-lined paper….which is where I found it when I came to visit. As we chatted about it, I suggested it might be…