BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS. The wind was a ragged squall line in the dark, blowing hard over the Missouri Ozarks, dropping temperatures some 30 degrees not long after the sun — a distant orange ball — had passed beyond misty western clouds. The longest night of the year is upon us. The…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE SHIPS & THE STARS. “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by…” And I remember a long ago and cold December evening, standing, ready for bed, barefoot, wearing one…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… SCARY GHOST STORIES. I climbed into my truck at nightfall, trusty Basset joining on the console. Key in ignition, watchful reverse into the alley. Bright crescent moon in the Southwest peeked through poplar branches. Truck tires on gravel, then edge-of-town asphalt. Yellow street lamps light the way, one block, two blocks… At…
Scottie’s Christmas, circa 2022 by Joshua Heston [SPARTA, MO] — Scottie Snider, longtime antique collector, artist and decorator, stands in his 1880s’ farmhouse, welcoming the civic-minded and the curious of Christian County into his holiday-ensconced residence. “I have collected antiques since I have been married and my wife Pam and I loved the old primitives.…